Search results for: Software Product Quality Evaluation

Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Abdus Salam, Muhammad Ashraf, Muhammad Imran, Mehtab Ahmad, Muhammad Jamshed Khan, Muhammad Mazhar Ayaz, Muzaffar Ali, Arshad Ali, Memoona Qayyum Abir Ishtiaq

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The present study was designed to demonstrate the seasonal variations in physico-chemical parameters of fish farm at Govt. Nursery Unit, Muzaffargarh, Department of Fisheries Govt. of Punjab, Pakistan for a period of eight months from January to August 2008. Water samples were collected on fifteen days basis and have been analyzed for estimation of Air temperature, Water temperature, Light penetration, pH, Total dissolved oxygen, Clouds, Carbonates, Bicarbonates, Total carbonates, Total dissolved solids, Chlorides, Calcium and Hardness. Seasonal fluctuations were observed in all the physico-chemical parameters of fish farm. The overall physicochemical parameters of fish pond water remained within the tolerable range throughout the study period.

Keywords: Freshwater, Fish farm, Water quality, Seasonal variation, Chemical factor

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Authors: Ali Youniss Aidbaiss, G. Unnikrishnan, Anoob Hakim

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Scope changes, scope creeps, cost and time overruns have become common in projects in the oil and gas sector. Even in repetitive projects, failure to implement lessons learnt and correct past mistakes have resulted in various setbacks. This paper describes the concept of reusing successfully implemented design packages as templates for repetitive projects, and thereby lowering the instances of project failures. Units or systems successfully installed in projects can be identified and taken up for preparing template design packages. Standardization of units and systems helps to develop templates from successful designs which can be repeatedly used with confidence. These packages can be used with minimum modifications for developing FEED packages faster, saving cost and other valuable resources. Lessons learnt from the completed project incorporated in the templates avoid repeating past mistakes during detailed design, procurement and execution. With template packages, consistent quality can be maintained for similar projects, avoiding scope creep and scope changes which will ultimately result in cost and time savings.

Keywords: Engineering work package, repetitive construction, template design package, time saving in projects.

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Authors: Ioannis Binas, Marios Moschakis

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Electrical faults in transmission and distribution networks can have great impact on the electrical equipment used. Fault effects depend on the characteristics of the fault as well as the network itself. It is important to anticipate the network’s behavior during faults when planning a new equipment installation, as well as troubleshooting. Moreover, working backwards, we could be able to estimate the characteristics of the fault when checking the perceived effects. Different transformer winding connections dominantly used in the Greek power transfer and distribution networks and the effects of 1-phase to neutral, phase-to-phase, 2-phases to neutral and 3-phase faults on different locations of the network were simulated in order to present voltage sag characteristics. The study was performed on a generic network with three steps down transformers on two voltage level buses (one 150 kV/20 kV transformer and two 20 kV/0.4 kV). We found that during faults, there are significant changes both on voltage magnitudes and on phase angles. The simulations and short-circuit analysis were performed using the PSCAD simulation package. This paper presents voltage characteristics calculated for the simulated network, with different approaches on the transformer winding connections during symmetrical and asymmetrical faults on various locations.

Keywords: Phase angle shift, power quality, transformer winding connections, voltage sag propagation.

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Authors: Hesham A. Ali, Mofreh M. Salem, Ahmed A. Hamza

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Recently, there have been considerable efforts towards the convergence between P2P and Grid computing in order to reach a solution that takes the best of both worlds by exploiting the advantages that each offers. Augmenting the peer-to-peer model to the services of the Grid promises to eliminate bottlenecks and ensure greater scalability, availability, and fault-tolerance. The Grid Information Service (GIS) directly influences quality of service for grid platforms. Most of the proposed solutions for decentralizing the GIS are based on completely flat overlays. The main contributions for this paper are: the investigation of a novel resource discovery framework for Grid implementations based on a hierarchy of structured peer-to-peer overlay networks, and introducing a discovery algorithm utilizing the proposed framework. Validation of the framework-s performance is done via simulation. Experimental results show that the proposed organization has the advantage of being scalable while providing fault-isolation, effective bandwidth utilization, and hierarchical access control. In addition, it will lead to a reliable, guaranteed sub-linear search which returns results within a bounded interval of time and with a smaller amount of generated traffic within each domain.

Keywords: Grid computing, grid information service, P2P, resource discovery.

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Authors: H. Rasouli Pirouzian, J. Hesari, S. Farajnia, M. Moghaddam, S. Ghiassifar, M. Manafi

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Lighvan cheese is basically made from sheep milk in the area of Sahand mountainside which is located in the North West of Iran. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of enterococci isolated from traditional Lighvan cheese on the quality of Iranian UF white during ripening. The experimental design was split plot based on randomized complete blocks, main plots were four types of starters and subplots were different ripening durations. Addition of Enterococcus spp. did not significantly (P<0.01) affect the pH and gross composition of cheeses. In the cheeses produced with Ent. faecalis and Ent. faecium strains, lipolysis rates were higher and flavor were improved. Moreover, proteolysis assay by measuring percentage of soluble nitrogen at pH 4.6 and urea polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicated the increase in proteolysis rate in the cheese containing Ent. faecalis and Ent. faecium strains compared to the control cheeses. Furthermore, the highest percentage of non- protein nitrogen was observed in the cheese containing Ent. faecium. In conclusion, the results showed the positive effect of the Ent. faecalis and Ent. faecium on secondary proteolysis, lipolysis and sensorial characteristics development of UF white cheeses.

Keywords: Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Lighvan cheese, Lipolysis, Proteolysis, UF cheese

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Authors: Leila Mohammadi

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This paper presents the impact of persuasive communication implemented by fertility clinics websites, and how this information influences women at their decision-making for undertaking this procedure. The influential factors for women decisions to do social egg freezing (SEF) are analyzed from a framing theory perspective, with a specific focus on the impact of persuasive information on women’s decision making. This study follows a quantitative approach. A two-phase survey has been conducted to examine the interest rate to undertake SEF. In the first phase, a questionnaire was available during a month (May 2015) to women to answer whether or not they knew enough information of this process, with a total of 230 answers. The second phase took place in the two last weeks of July 2015. All the respondents were invited to a seminars called ‘All about egg freezing’ and afretwards they were requested to answer the second questionnaire. After the seminar, in which they were given an extensive amount of information about egg freezing, a total of 115 women replied the questionnaire. The collected data during this process were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Most of the respondents changed their opinion in the second questionaire which was after receiving information. Although in the first questionnaire their self-evaluation of having knowledge about this process and the implemented technologies was very high, they realized that they still need to access more information from different sources in order to be able to make a decision. The study reached the conclusion that persuasive and framed information by clinics would affect the decisions of these women. Despite the reasons women have to do egg freezing and their motivations behind it, providing people necessary information and unprejudiced data about this process (such as its positive and negative aspects, requirements, suppositions, possibilities and consequences) would help them to make a more precise and reasonable decision about what they are buying.

Keywords: Decision making, fertility clinics, framing theory, persuasive information, social egg freezing.

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Authors: Jie Jin

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In this paper, a new CMOS current-mode single input and multi-outputs (SIMO) universal filter and quadrature oscillator with a similar circuit are proposed. The circuits only consist of three Current differencing transconductance amplifiers (CDTA) and two grounded capacitors, which are resistorless, and they are suitable for monolithic integration. The universal filter uses minimum CDTAs and passive elements to realize SIMO type low-pass (LP), high-pass (HP), band-pass (BP) band-stop (BS) and all-pass (AP) filter functions simultaneously without any component matching conditions. The angular frequency (ω0) and the quality factor (Q) of the proposed filter can be electronically controlled and tuned orthogonal. By some modifications of the filter, a new current-mode four-phase quadrature oscillator (QO) can be obtained easily. The condition of oscillation (CO) and frequency of oscillation (FO) of the QO can be controlled electronically and independently through the bias current of the CDTAs, and it is suitable for variable frequency oscillator. Moreover, all the passive and active sensitivities of the circuits are low. SPICE simulation results are included to confirm the theory.

Keywords: Universal Filter, Quadrature Oscillator, Current mode, Current differencing transconductance amplifiers.

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Authors: Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Shihas A. Khader

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Motion response of floating structures is of great concern in marine engineering. Nonlinearity is an inherent property of any floating bodies subjected to irregular waves. These floating structures are continuously subjected to environmental loadings from wave, current, wind etc. This can result in undesirable motions of the vessel which may challenge the operability. For a floating body to remain in its position, it should be able to induce a restoring force when displaced. Mooring is provided to enable this restoring force. This paper discusses the hydrodynamic performance and motion characteristics of an 8 point spread mooring system applied to a pipe laying barge operating in the West African sea. The modelling of the barge is done using a computer aided-design (CAD) software RHINOCEROS. Irregular waves are generated using a suitable wave spectrum. Both frequency domain and time domain analysis is done. Numerical simulations based on potential theory are carried out to find the responses and hydrodynamic performance of the barge in both free floating as well as moored conditions. Initially, potential flow frequency domain analysis is done to obtain the Response Amplitude Operator (RAO) which gives an idea about the structural motion in free floating state. RAOs for different wave headings are analyzed. In the following step, a time domain analysis is carried out to obtain the responses of the structure in the moored condition. In this study, wave induced motions are only taken into consideration. Wind and current loads are ruled out and shall be included in further studies. For the current study, 2000 seconds simulation is taken. The results represent wave induced motion responses, mooring line tensions and identify critical mooring lines.

Keywords: Irregular wave, moored barge, time domain analysis, numerical simulation.

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Authors: F. Stazi, C. Di Perna, C. Filiaci, A. Stazi

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Passive systems were born with the purpose of the greatest exploitation of solar energy in cold climates and high altitudes. They spread themselves until the 80-s all over the world without any attention to the specific climate and the summer behavior; this caused the deactivation of the systems due to a series of problems connected to the summer overheating, the complex management and the rising of the dust. Until today the European regulation limits only the winter consumptions without any attention to the summer behavior but, the recent European EN 15251 underlines the relevance of the indoor comfort, and the necessity of the analytic studies validation by monitoring case studies. In the porpose paper we demonstrate that the solar wall is an efficient system both from thermal comfort and energy saving point of view and it is the most suitable for our temperate climates because it can be used as a passive cooling sistem too. In particular the paper present an experimental and numerical analisys carried out on a case study with nine different solar passive systems in Ancona, Italy. We carried out a detailed study of the lodging provided by the solar wall by the monitoring and the evaluation of the indoor conditions. Analyzing the monitored data, on the base of recognized models of comfort (ISO, ASHRAE, Givoni-s BBCC), is emerged that the solar wall has an optimal behavior in the middle seasons. In winter phase this passive system gives more advantages in terms of energy consumptions than the other systems, because it gives greater heat gain and therefore smaller consumptions. In summer, when outside air temperature return in the mean seasonal value, the indoor comfort is optimal thanks to an efficient transversal ventilation activated from the same wall.

Keywords: Building envelope, energy saving, passive solarwall, thermal comfort.

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Authors: A. Udayakumar, M. Rizvan Basha, M. Stalin, V.V Bhanu Prasad

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Three dimensional non-Interlaced carbon fibre reinforced silicon carbide (3-D-Cf/SiC) composites with pyrocarbon interphase were fabricated using isothermal chemical vapor infiltration (ICVI) combined with polymer impregnation pyrolysis (PIP) process. Polysilazane (PSZ) is used as a preceramic polymer to obtain silicon carbide matrix. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Infrared spectroscopic analysis (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were carried out on PSZ pyrolysed at different temperatures to understand the pyrolysis and obtaining the optimum pyrolysing condition to yield β-SiC phase. The density of the composites was 1.94 g cm-3 after the 3-D carbon preform was SiC infiltrated for 280 h with one intermediate polysilazane pre-ceramic PIP process. Mechanical properties of the composite materials were investigated under tensile, flexural, shear and impact loading. The values of tensile strength were 200 MPa at room temperature (RT) and 195 MPa at 500°C in air. The average RT flexural strength was 243 MPa. The lower flexural strength of these composites is because of the porosity. The fracture toughness obtained from single edge notched beam (SENB) technique was 39 MPa.m1/2. The work of fracture obtained from the load-displacement curve of SENB test was 22.8 kJ.m-2. The composites exhibited excellent impact resistance and the dynamic fracture toughness of 44.8 kJ.m-2 is achieved as determined from instrumented Charpy impact test. The shear strength of the composite was 93 MPa, which is significantly higher compared 2-D Cf/SiC composites. Microstructure evaluation of fracture surfaces revealed the signatures of fracture processes and showed good support for the higher toughness obtained.

Keywords: 3-D-Cf/SiC, charpy impact test, composites, dynamic fracture toughness, polysilazane, pyrocarbon, Interphase.

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Authors: Krishna Kumar Singh, Praveen Jain

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Collection of storm water runoff and forcing it into the groundwater is the need of the hour to sustain the ground water table. However, the runoff entraps various types of sediments and other floating objects whose removal are essential to avoid pollution of ground water and blocking of pores of aquifer. However, it requires regular cleaning and maintenance due to problem of clogging. To evaluate the performance of filter system consisting of coarse sand (CS), gravel (G) and pebble (P) layers, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a rectangular column. The effect of variable thickness of CS, G and P layers of the filtration unit of the recharge shaft on the recharge rate and the sediment concentration of effluent water were evaluated. Medium sand (MS) of three particle sizes, viz. 0.150–0.300 mm (T1), 0.300–0.425 mm (T2) and 0.425–0.600 mm of thickness 25 cm, 30 cm and 35 cm respectively in the top layer of the filter system and having seven influent sediment concentrations of 250–3,000 mg/l were used for experimental study. The performance was evaluated in terms of recharge rates and clogging time. The results indicated that 100 % suspended solids were entrapped in the upper 10 cm layer of MS, the recharge rates declined sharply for influent concentrations of more than 1,000 mg/l. All treatments with higher thickness of MS media indicated recharge rate slightly more than that of all treatment with lower thickness of MS media respectively. The performance of storm water infiltration systems was highly dependent on the formation of a clogging layer at the filter. An empirical relationship has been derived between recharge rates, inflow sediment load, size of MS and thickness of MS with using MLR.

Keywords: Groundwater, medium sand-mixed storm water filter, inflow sediment load.

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Authors: Jean François Chatelain, Imed Zaghbani, Joseph Monier

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The machining of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics has come to constitute a significant challenge for many fields of industry. The resulting surface finish of machined parts is of primary concern for several reasons, including contact quality and impact on the assembly. Therefore, the characterization and prediction of roughness based on machining parameters are crucial for costeffective operations. In this study, a PCD tool comprised of two straight flutes was used to trim 32-ply carbon fiber laminates in a bid to analyze the effects of the feed rate and the cutting speed on the surface roughness. The results show that while the speed has but a slight impact on the surface finish, the feed rate for its part affects it strongly. A detailed study was also conducted on the effect of fiber orientation on surface roughness, for quasi-isotropic laminates used in aerospace. The resulting roughness profiles for the four-ply orientation lay-up were compared, and it was found that fiber angle is a critical parameter relating to surface roughness. One of the four orientations studied led to very poor surface finishes, and characteristic roughness profiles were identified and found to only relate to the ply orientations of multilayer carbon fiber laminates.

Keywords: Roughness, Detouring, Composites, Aerospace

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Authors: Hasan Şahan, Murat Tekin, Mustafa Yıldız, Meriç Eraslan, Mevlüt Yıldız, Hatice Sim, Demet Neriman Yarar

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The purpose of this study is to examine the selfefficacy and life satisfaction levels of students receiving education in schools of physical education and sports. The population of the study consisted 263 students, among which 154 were male and 109 were female ( X age=19,4905 + 2,5605), that received education in the schools of physical education and sports of Selcuk University, Inonu University, Gazi University and Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the selfefficacy scale, which was developed by Jarrusselam and Shwarzer (1981) [1] and adapted to Turkish by Yesillay (1993) [2], and the life satisfaction scale, developed by Diener, Emmos, Larsen and Griffin (1985) [3] and adapted to Turkish by Kokler (1991) [4], were utilized.For analyzing and interpreting data Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test and one way anova test were used, while for determining the difference between the groups Tukey test and Multiple Linear Regression test were employed and significance was accepted at P<0,05. SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) package software was used for evaluating the data and finding out the calculated values.In conclusion of this study, it was determined that female students have higher life satisfaction levels than male students, while students attending to the second grade had higher life satisfaction levels than fourth grade students. On the other hand, general self-efficacy levels of male students were found out to be higher than that of female students. It was also determined that students attending to the fourth grade had higher general self-efficacy levels than those receiving education in the first grade. Availability of a significant relation was determined between life satisfaction levels and self-efficacy levels.

Keywords: Physical Education And Sports, Student, Life Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy

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Authors: D. Mehdizadeh, M. Rahimian, M. Eskandari-Ghadi

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This article is concerned with the determination of the static interaction of a vertically loaded rigid circular disc embedded at the interface of a horizontal layer sandwiched in between two different transversely isotropic half-spaces called as tri-material full-space. The axes of symmetry of different regions are assumed to be normal to the horizontal interfaces and parallel to the movement direction. With the use of a potential function method, and by implementing Hankel integral transforms in the radial direction, the government partial differential equation for the solely scalar potential function is transformed to an ordinary 4th order differential equation, and the mixed boundary conditions are transformed into a pair of integral equations called dual integral equations, which can be reduced to a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind, which is solved analytically. Then, the displacements and stresses are given in the form of improper line integrals, which is due to inverse Hankel integral transforms. It is shown that the present solutions are in exact agreement with the existing solutions for a homogeneous full-space with transversely isotropic material. To confirm the accuracy of the numerical evaluation of the integrals involved, the numerical results are compared with the solutions exists for the homogeneous full-space. Then, some different cases with different degrees of material anisotropy are compared to portray the effect of degree of anisotropy.

 

Keywords: Transversely isotropic, rigid disc, elasticity, dual integral equations, tri-material full-space.

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Authors: Ali Gholami, Shahram Ahmadi

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In the area where the high quality water is not available, unconventional water sources are used to irrigate. Household leachate is one of the sources which are used in dry and semi dry areas in order to water the barer trees and plants. It meets the plants needs and also has some effects on the soil, but at the same time it might cause some problems as well. This study in order to evaluate the effect of using Compost leachate on the density of soil iron in form of a statistical pattern called ''Split Plot'' by using two main treatments, one subsidiary treatment and three repetitions of the pattern in a three month period. The main N treatments include: irrigation using well water as a blank treatments and the main I treatments include: irrigation using leachate and well water concurrently. Some subsidiary treatments were DI (Drop Irrigation) and SDI (Sub Drop Irrigation). Then in the established plots, 36 biannual pine and cypress shrubs were randomly grown. Two months later the treatment begins. The results revealed that there was a significant variation between the main treatment and the instance regarding pH decline in the soil which was related to the amount of leachate injected into the soil. After some time and using leachate the pH level fell, as much as 0.46 and also increased due to the great amounts of leachate. The underneath drop irrigation ends in better results than sub drop irrigation since it keeps the soil texture fixed.

Keywords: Compost Leachate, Drop irrigation, Soil Reaction

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Authors: Chris K. Y. Lo, Andy C. L. Yeung, T. C. Edwin Cheng

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ISO 9000 is the most popular and widely adopted meta-standard for quality and operational improvements. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted to examine the impact of ISO 9000 on operational performance based on objective and longitudinal data. To reveal any causal relationship between the adoption of ISO 9000 and operational performance, we examined the timing and magnitude of change in time-based performance as a result of ISO 9000 adoption. We analyzed the changes in operating cycle, inventory days, and account receivable days prior and after the implementation of ISO 9000 in 695 publicly listed manufacturing firms. We found that ISO 9000 certified firms shortened their operating cycle time by 5.28 days one year after the implementation of ISO 9000. In the long-run (3 years after certification), certified firms showed continuous improvement in time-based efficiency, and experienced a shorter operating cycle time of 11 days than that of non-certified firms. There was an average of 6.5% improvement in operating cycle time for ISO 9000 certified firms. Both inventory days and account receivable days showed similar significant improvements after the implementation of ISO 9000, too.

Keywords: ISO 9000, Operating Cycle, Time-based efficiency.

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Authors: M.E.Karbaschi, R.Goudarzizadeh, N.Hedayat

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Cylindrical concrete reservoirs are appropriate choice for storing liquids as water, oil and etc. By using of the pre-cast concrete reservoirs instead of the in-situ constructed reservoirs, the speed and precision of the construction would considerably increase. In this construction method, wall and roof panels would make in factory with high quality materials and precise controlling. Then, pre-cast wall and roof panels would carry out to the construction site for assembling. This method has a few faults such as: the existing weeks in connection of wall panels together and wall panels to foundation. Therefore, these have to be resisted under applied loads such as seismic load. One of the innovative methods which was successfully applied for seismic retrofitting of numerous pre-cast cylindrical water reservoirs in New Zealand, using of the high tensile cables around the reservoirs and post-tensioning them. In this paper, analytical modeling of wall and roof panels and post-tensioned cables are carried out with finite element method and the effect of height to diameter ratio, post-tensioning force value, liquid level in reservoir, installing position of tendons on seismic response of reservoirs are investigated.

Keywords: Seismic Retrofit, Pre-Cast, Concrete Reservoir, Post-Tensioning.

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Authors: Zhalmagambetov Yerlanbek, Assymova Dariya, Tashieva Saltanat, and Aliya Bolatkhan

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The relevance of the study of everyday life in Almaty and Kyzylorda are associated with the emergence of the modern trends in historiography and socializing areas of government reform. The relevance is due to the fact that in the early twentieth century Kyzylorda and Almaty began to develop as a city and this period has a special place in the life of the state. An interesting aspect of the everyday life of the inhabitants of the new city, which was built in the era of Stalin's Five-Year Plans, can be examined through the eyes of the Soviet people living in a specific environment, reflecting the life of the citizens. The study of industrialization of the Soviet Union and the attention paid to new developments in the first five years of everyday aspects as the impact of the modernization of the 1930s was one of the decisive factors in the lives of residents. Among these factors, we would like to highlight the medical field, which is the basis of all human life, specifically focusing on the state of medicine in Alma-Ata in the first 20-30-years of the twentieth century, and analyze the different aspects of human life, determining the quality of medical care to the population during this period.

Keywords: Alma Ata, capital, epidemic diseases, health care, Kyzylorda, the USSR, Vernyj.

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Authors: Tatjana Rakcejeva, Valentina Skorina, Daina Karklina, Liga Skudra

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The aim of current research was to investigate ASLT method suitability for accelerated beer shelf-life determination. The research was accomplished on popular Latvian beer: light filtrated and unfiltered pasteurized beer with alcohol content 5.2%; dark filtrated pasteurized beer with alcohol content 4.2% with shelf-life five months. Bottled in dark glass bottles beer samples were storage during 20 weeks at several temperature regimes: +10±1 °C, +20±1 °C, +30±1 °C, +40±1 °C. Samples quality parameters as physically-chemical and microbiological was tested every two weeks using standard methods. It is possible to determine beer shelf-life rapidly during storage at +30±1 °C for filtered pasteurized light beer by 2.5 times, unfiltered pasteurized light beer by 1.4 times and for filtered pasteurized dark beer by 1.7 times. During preset experiments it was proved, that it is possible to determine beer shelf-life rapidly using ASLT method if beer storage temperature could be increased by +10±1 °C.

Keywords: Beer, shelf-life, ASLT method.

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Authors: R. Srinivasa Rao

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This paper presents a new and efficient approach for capacitor placement in radial distribution systems that determine the optimal locations and size of capacitor with an objective of improving the voltage profile and reduction of power loss. The solution methodology has two parts: in part one the loss sensitivity factors are used to select the candidate locations for the capacitor placement and in part two a new algorithm that employs Plant growth Simulation Algorithm (PGSA) is used to estimate the optimal size of capacitors at the optimal buses determined in part one. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require any external control parameters. The other advantage is that it handles the objective function and the constraints separately, avoiding the trouble to determine the barrier factors. The proposed method is applied to 9 and 34 bus radial distribution systems. The solutions obtained by the proposed method are compared with other methods. The proposed method has outperformed the other methods in terms of the quality of solution.

Keywords: Distribution systems, Capacitor allocation, Loss reduction, Fuzzy, PGSA.

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Authors: Emir H. Pernet, Jeimy J. Cano

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Maturity models, used descriptively to explain changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are based on the principles of statistical quality control and PDCA continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Some frameworks developed over the concept of maturity models include COBIT, CMM, and ITIL. This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity models, most of them related to the mechanistic and reductionist principles over which those models are built. As systems theory helps the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model can help to overcome some of those limitations. This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the organization, which arises as a result of the degree of alignment and integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through a systemic function that measures the maturity of organizations, and finally validated by the measuring of maturity in some organizations. For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) processes.

Keywords: GRC, Maturity Model, Systems Theory, Viable System Model.

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Authors: Negar Banan, Mohd Talib Latif, Liew Juneng

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Air quality studies were carried out in the towns of Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya and Nilai in the Malaysian Peninsular. In this study, the variations of Ozone (O3) concentrations over a four year period (2008-2011) were investigated using data obtained from the Malaysian Department of the Environment (DOE). This study aims to identify and describe the daily and monthly variations of O3 concentrations at the monitoring sites mentioned. The SPPS program (Statistical Package for the Social Science) was used to analyze this data in order to obtain the variations of O3 and also to clarify the relationship between the stations. The findings of the study revealed that the highest concentration of O3 occurred during the midday and afternoon (between 13:00-15:00 hrs). The comparison between stations also showed that highest O3 concentrations were recorded in Putrajaya. The comparisons of average and maximum concentrations of O3 for the three stations showed that the strongest significant correlation was recorded in the Petaling Jaya station with the value R2= 0.667. Results from this study indicate that in the urban areas of Peninsular Malaysia, the concentration of O3 depends on the concentration of NOx. Furthermore, HYSPLIT back trajectories (-72h) indicated that air-mass transport patterns can also influence the O3 concentration in the areas studied.

Keywords: Ozone, Precursors, Urban, HYSPLIT trajectory analysis.

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Authors: Mark Joseph Quinto, Roan Beronilla, Guiller Damian, Eliza Camaso, Ronaldo Alberto

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Forest inventories are essential to assess the composition, structure and distribution of forest vegetation that can be used as baseline information for management decisions. Classical forest inventory is labor intensive and time-consuming and sometimes even dangerous. The use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) in forest inventory would improve and overcome these restrictions. This study was conducted to determine the possibility of using LiDAR derived data in extracting high accuracy forest biophysical parameters and as a non-destructive method for forest status analysis of San Manual, Pangasinan. Forest resources extraction was carried out using LAS tools, GIS, Envi and .bat scripts with the available LiDAR data. The process includes the generation of derivatives such as Digital Terrain Model (DTM), Canopy Height Model (CHM) and Canopy Cover Model (CCM) in .bat scripts followed by the generation of 17 composite bands to be used in the extraction of forest classification covers using ENVI 4.8 and GIS software. The Diameter in Breast Height (DBH), Above Ground Biomass (AGB) and Carbon Stock (CS) were estimated for each classified forest cover and Tree Count Extraction was carried out using GIS. Subsequently, field validation was conducted for accuracy assessment. Results showed that the forest of San Manuel has 73% Forest Cover, which is relatively much higher as compared to the 10% canopy cover requirement. On the extracted canopy height, 80% of the tree’s height ranges from 12 m to 17 m. CS of the three forest covers based on the AGB were: 20819.59 kg/20x20 m for closed broadleaf, 8609.82 kg/20x20 m for broadleaf plantation and 15545.57 kg/20x20m for open broadleaf. Average tree counts for the tree forest plantation was 413 trees/ha. As such, the forest of San Manuel has high percent forest cover and high CS.

Keywords: Carbon stock, forest inventory, LiDAR, tree count.

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Authors: Omowunmi E. Isafiade, Isaac O. Osunmakinde, Antoine B. Bagula

Abstract:

Robots- visual perception is a field that is gaining increasing attention from researchers. This is partly due to emerging trends in the commercial availability of 3D scanning systems or devices that produce a high information accuracy level for a variety of applications. In the history of mining, the mortality rate of mine workers has been alarming and robots exhibit a great deal of potentials to tackle safety issues in mines. However, an effective vision system is crucial to safe autonomous navigation in underground terrains. This work investigates robots- perception in underground terrains (mines and tunnels) using statistical region merging (SRM) model. SRM reconstructs the main structural components of an imagery by a simple but effective statistical analysis. An investigation is conducted on different regions of the mine, such as the shaft, stope and gallery, using publicly available mine frames, with a stream of locally captured mine images. An investigation is also conducted on a stream of underground tunnel image frames, using the XBOX Kinect 3D sensors. The Kinect sensors produce streams of red, green and blue (RGB) and depth images of 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second. Integrating the depth information to drivability gives a strong cue to the analysis, which detects 3D results augmenting drivable and non-drivable regions in 2D. The results of the 2D and 3D experiment with different terrains, mines and tunnels, together with the qualitative and quantitative evaluation, reveal that a good drivable region can be detected in dynamic underground terrains.

Keywords: Drivable Region Detection, Kinect Sensor, Robots' Perception, SRM, Underground Terrains.

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Authors: Faizan Ahmad, Lau Kok Keong, Azmi Mohd. Shariff

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The upgrading of low quality crude natural gas (NG) is attracting interest due to high demand of pipeline-grade gas in recent years. Membrane processes are commercially proven technology for the removal of impurities like carbon dioxide from NG. In this work, cross flow mathematical model has been suggested to be incorporated with ASPEN HYSYS as a user defined unit operation in order to design the membrane system for CO2/CH4 separation. The effect of operating conditions (such as feed composition and pressure) and membrane selectivity on the design parameters (methane recovery and total membrane area required for the separation) has been studied for different design configurations. These configurations include single stage (with and without recycle) and double stage membrane systems (with and without permeate or retentate recycle). It is shown that methane recovery can be improved by recycling permeate or retentate stream as well as by using double stage membrane systems. The ASPEN HYSYS user defined unit operation proposed in the study has potential to be applied for complex membrane system design and optimization.

Keywords: CO2/CH4 Separation, Membrane Process, Membrane modeling, Natural Gas Processing

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Authors: Martin Lisý, Marek Baláš, Michal Špiláček, Zdeněk Skála

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This paper shortly describes various types of biomass and a growing number of facilities utilizing the biomass in the Czech Republic. The considerable part of this paper deals with energy parameters of the most frequently used types of biomass and results of their gasification testing. Sixteen most used "Czech" woody plants and grasses were selected; raw, element and biochemical analyses were performed and basic calorimetric values, ash composition, and ash characteristic temperatures were identified. Later, each biofuel was tested in a fluidized bed gasifier. The essential part of this paper provides results of the gasification of selected biomass types. Operating conditions are described in detail with a focus on individual fuels properties. Gas composition and impurities content are also identified. In terms of operating conditions and gas quality, the essential difference occurred mainly between woody plants and grasses. The woody plants were evaluated as more suitable fuels for fluidized bed gasifiers. Testing results significantly help with a decision-making process regarding suitability of energy plants for growing and with a selection of optimal biomass-treatment technology.

Keywords: Biomass Growing, Biomass Types, Gasification.

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Authors: Mohanchur Sakar, K.K.Shukla, K.S.Dasgupta

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This paper attempts to establish the fact that Multi State Network Classification is essential for performance enhancement of Transport protocols over Satellite based Networks. A model to classify Multi State network condition taking into consideration both congestion and channel error is evolved. In order to arrive at such a model an analysis of the impact of congestion and channel error on RTT values has been carried out using ns2. The analysis results are also reported in the paper. The inference drawn from this analysis is used to develop a novel statistical RTT based model for multi state network classification. An Adaptive Multi State Proactive Transport Protocol consisting of Proactive Slow Start, State based Error Recovery, Timeout Action and Proactive Reduction is proposed which uses the multi state network state classification model. This paper also confirms through detail simulation and analysis that a prior knowledge about the overall characteristics of the network helps in enhancing the performance of the protocol over satellite channel which is significantly affected due to channel noise and congestion. The necessary augmentation of ns2 simulator is done for simulating the multi state network classification logic. This simulation has been used in detail evaluation of the protocol under varied levels of congestion and channel noise. The performance enhancement of this protocol with reference to established protocols namely TCP SACK and Vegas has been discussed. The results as discussed in this paper clearly reveal that the proposed protocol always outperforms its peers and show a significant improvement in very high error conditions as envisaged in the design of the protocol.

Keywords: GEO, ns2, Proactive TCP, SACK, Vegas

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Authors: Rafiullah Chamlawi, Asifullah Khan, Adnan Idris, Zahid Munir

Abstract:

Authentication of multimedia contents has gained much attention in recent times. In this paper, we propose a secure semi-fragile watermarking, with a choice of two watermarks to be embedded. This technique operates in integer wavelet domain and makes use of semi fragile watermarks for achieving better robustness. A self-recovering algorithm is employed, that hides the image digest into some Wavelet subbands to detect possible malevolent object manipulation undergone by the image (object replacing and/or deletion). The Semi-fragility makes the scheme tolerant for JPEG lossy compression as low as quality of 70%, and locate the tempered area accurately. In addition, the system ensures more security because the embedded watermarks are protected with private keys. The computational complexity is reduced using parameterized integer wavelet transform. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme guarantees the safety of watermark, image recovery and location of the tempered area accurately.

Keywords: Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), JPEG Compression, Authentication and Self- Recovery.

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Authors: G. H. B. Dilhari, A. A. D. T. Saparamadu

Abstract:

Sri Lanka is one of the prominent countries for the coir production. The coir is one of the by-products of the coconut and the coir industry is considered to be one of the traditional industries in Sri Lanka. Because of the inherent nature of the coir industry, labourers play a significant role in the coir production process. The study has analyzed the determinants of the income of the household level coir yarn labourers. The study was conducted in the Kumarakanda Grama Niladhari division. Simple random sampling was used to generate a sample of 100 household level coir yarn labourers and structured questionnaire, personal interviews, and discussion were performed to gather the required data. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test were performed for mean comparison. The findings revealed that the household level coir yarn industry is dominated by the female workers and it was identified that fewer numbers of workers have engaged in this industry as the main occupation. In addition to that, elderly participation in the industry is higher than the younger participation and most of them have engaged in the industry as a source of extra income. Level of education, the methods of engagement, satisfaction, engagement in the industry by the next generation, support from the government, method of government support, working hours per day, employed as a main job, number of completed units per day, suffering from job related diseases and type of the diseases were related with income level of household level coir yarn laboures. The recommendations as to flourish in future includes, technological transformation for coir yarn production, strengthening the raw material base and regulating the raw material supply, introduction of new technologies, markets and training programmes, the establishment of the labourers’ association, the initiation of micro credit schemes and better consideration about the job oriented diseases.

Keywords: Coir, Income, Sri Lanka.

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Authors: N. R. Putra, A. H. Abdul Aziz, A. S. Zaini, Z. Idham, F. Idrus, M. Z. Bin Zullyadini, M. A. Che Yunus

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The content of omega-3 in soybean oil is important in the development of infants and is an alternative for the omega-3 in fish oils. The investigation of extraction of soybean oil is needed to obtain the bioactive compound in the extract. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is modern and green technology to extract herbs and plants to obtain high quality extract due to high diffusivity and solubility of the solvent. The aim of this study was to obtain the optimum condition of soybean oil extraction by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. The soybean oil was extracted by using modified supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) under the temperatures of 40, 60, 80 °C, pressures of 150, 250, 350 Bar, and constant flow-rate of 10 g/min as the parameters of extraction processes. An experimental design was performed in order to optimize three important parameters of SC-CO₂ extraction which are pressure (X₁), temperature (X₂) to achieve optimum yields of soybean oil. Box Behnken Design was applied for experimental design. From the optimization process, the optimum condition of extraction of soybean oil was obtained at pressure 338 Bar and temperature 80 °C with oil yield of 2.713 g. Effect of pressure is significant on the extraction of soybean oil by modified supercritical carbon dioxide. Increasing of pressure will increase the oil yield of soybean oil.

Keywords: Soybean oil, SC-CO2 extraction, yield, optimization.

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