Search results for: ordinary knee bracing frame

Authors: S. Piramu Kailasam

Abstract:

This study is expected to compress true color image with compression algorithms in color spaces to provide high compression rates. The need of high compression ratio is to improve storage space. Alternative aim is to rank compression algorithms in a suitable color space. The dataset is sequence of true color images with size 128 x 128. HAAR Wavelet is one of the famous wavelet transforms, has great potential and maintains image quality of color images. HAAR wavelet Transform using Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) algorithm with different color spaces framework is applied to compress sequence of images with angles. Embedded Zerotrees of Wavelet (EZW) is a powerful standard method to sequence data. Hence the proposed compression frame work of HAAR wavelet, xyz color space, morphological gradient and applied image with EZW compression, obtained improvement to other methods, in terms of Compression Ratio, Mean Square Error, Peak Signal Noise Ratio and Bits Per Pixel quality measures.

Keywords: Color Spaces, HAAR Wavelet, Morphological Gradient, Embedded Zerotrees Wavelet Compression.

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Authors: Chan-Sik Kim, Jong-Seong Kim, Se Won Lee, Hoo-Gon Choi

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In rapidly changing market environment, firms are investing a lot of time and resources into new product development (NPD) projects to make profit and to obtain competitive advantage. However, failure rate of NPD projects is becoming high due to various internal and external risks which hinder successful NPD projects. To reduce the failure rate, it is critical that risks have to be managed effectively and efficiently through good strategy, and treated by optimal responses to minimize risk cost. Four strategies are adopted to handle the risks in this study. The optimal responses are characterized by high reduction of risk costs with high efficiency. This study suggests a framework to decide the optimal responses considering the core risks, risk costs, response efficiency and response costs for successful NPD projects. Both binary particles warm optimization (BPSO) and multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) methods are mainly used in the framework. Although several limitations exist in use for real industries, the frame work shows good strength for handling the risks with highly scientific ways through an example.

Keywords: NPD projects, risk cost, strategy, optimal responses, Particle Swarm Optimization.

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Authors: N. N. M. Pauzi, M. R. Karim, M. Jamil, R. Hamid, M. F. M. Zain

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The aim of this study is to conduct an experimental investigation on the influence of complete replacement of natural coarse aggregate with spherically-shape and crushed waste cathode ray tube (CRT) glass to the aspect of workability, density, and compressive strength of the concrete. After characterizing the glass, a group of concrete mixes was prepared to contain a 40% spherical CRT glass and 60% crushed CRT glass as a complete (100%) replacement of natural coarse aggregates. From a total of 16 types of concrete mixes, the optimum proportion was selected based on its best performance. The test results showed that the use of spherical and crushed glass that possesses a smooth surface, rounded, irregular and elongated shape, and low water absorption affects the workability of concrete. Due to a higher specific gravity of crushed glass, concrete mixes containing CRT glass had a higher density compared to ordinary concrete. Despite the spherical and crushed CRT glass being stronger than gravel, the results revealed a reduction in compressive strength of the concrete. However, using a lower water to binder (w/b) ratio and a higher superplasticizer (SP) dosage, it is found to enhance the compressive strength of 60.97 MPa at 28 days that is lower by 13% than the control specimen. These findings indicate that waste CRT glass in the form of spherical and crushed could be used as an alternative of coarse aggregate that may pave the way for the disposal of hazardous e-waste.

Keywords: Cathode ray tube, glass, coarse aggregate, compressive strength.

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Authors: Natalia Polkanova, Sergey Kazakov

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In the second decade of the XXI century the role of tourism destination attractiveness is becoming increasingly important for destination management. Competition in tourism market moves from ordinary service quality to provision of unforgettable emotional experience for tourists. The main purpose of the present study is to identify the perception of the tourism destinations based on the number of factors related to its tourist attractiveness. The content analysis method was used to analyze the on-line tourist feedback data immensely available in Social Media and in travel related sites. The collected data made it possible to procure the information which is necessary to understand the perceived attractiveness of the destinations and key destination appeal factors that are important for Russian leisure travelers. Results of the present study demonstrate key attractiveness factors or destination ‘properties’ that were unveiled as the most important for Russian leisure tourists. The study targeted five main Spanish tourism destinations that initially were determined by in-depth interview with a number of Russian nationals who had visited Spain at least once. The research results can be useful for Spanish Tourism Organization Representation office in Russia as well as for the other national tourism organizations in order to promote their respective destinations for Russian travelers focusing on main attractiveness factors identified in this study.

Keywords: Tourism destination, destination attractiveness, destination competitiveness, content analysis, unstructured image.

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Authors: Meei-Hoan Ho, Chee-Ming Chan

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Soft clays are defined as cohesive soil whose water content is higher than its liquid limits. Thus, soil-cement mixing is adopted to improve the ground conditions by enhancing the strength and deformation characteristics of the soft clays. For the above mentioned reasons, a series of laboratory tests were carried out to study some fundamental mechanical properties of cement stabilized soft clay. The test specimens were prepared by varying the portion of ordinary Portland cement to the soft clay sample retrieved from the test site of RECESS (Research Centre for Soft Soil). Comparisons were made for both homogeneous and columnar system specimens by relating the effects of cement stabilized clay of for 0, 5 and 10 % cement and curing for 3, 28 and 56 days. The mechanical properties examined included one-dimensional compressibility and undrained shear strength. For the mechanical properties, both homogeneous and columnar system specimens were prepared to examine the effect of different cement contents and curing periods on the stabilized soil. The one-dimensional compressibility test was conducted using an oedometer, while a direct shear box was used for measuring the undrained shear strength. The higher the value of cement content, the greater is the enhancement of the yield stress and the decrease of compression index. The value of cement content in a specimen is a more active parameter than the curing period.

Keywords: Soft soil, Oedometer, Direct shear box, Cementstabilisedcolumn.

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Authors: John N. Ellinas

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In this paper, a new reversible watermarking method is presented that reduces the size of a stereoscopic image sequence while keeping its content visible. The proposed technique embeds the residuals of the right frames to the corresponding frames of the left sequence, halving the total capacity. The residual frames may result in after a disparity compensated procedure between the two video streams or by a joint motion and disparity compensation. The residuals are usually lossy compressed before embedding because of the limited embedding capacity of the left frames. The watermarked frames are visible at a high quality and at any instant the stereoscopic video may be recovered by an inverse process. In fact, the left frames may be exactly recovered whereas the right ones are slightly distorted as the residuals are not embedded intact. The employed embedding method reorders the left frame into an array of consecutive pixel pairs and embeds a number of bits according to their intensity difference. In this way, it hides a number of bits in intensity smooth areas and most of the data in textured areas where resulting distortions are less visible. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is quite effective.

Keywords: Stereoscopic video, Reversible watermarking, Disparity compensation, Joint compensation

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Authors: Neslihan Genckal, Reha Gursoy, Vedat Z. Dogan

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In this study, dynamic responses of composite plates on elastic foundations subjected to impact and moving loads are investigated. The first order shear deformation (FSDT) theory is used for moderately thick plates. Pasternak-type (two-parameter) elastic foundation is assumed. Elastic foundation effects are integrated into the governing equations. It is assumed that plate is first hit by a mass as an impact type loading then the mass continues to move on the composite plate as a distributed moving loading, which resembles the aircraft landing on airport pavements. Impact and moving loadings are modeled by a mass-spring-damper system with a wheel. The wheel is assumed to be continuously in contact with the plate after impact. The governing partial differential equations of motion for displacements are converted into the ordinary differential equations in the time domain by using Galerkin’s method. Then, these sets of equations are solved by using the Runge-Kutta method. Several parameters such as vertical and horizontal velocities of the aircraft, volume fractions of the steel rebar in the reinforced concrete layer, and the different touchdown locations of the aircraft tire on the runway are considered in the numerical simulation. The results are compared with those of the ABAQUS, which is a commercial finite element code.

Keywords: Elastic foundation, impact, moving load, thick plate.

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Authors: A. Harras, A. Tsuji, K. Terada

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Tracking of moving people has gained a matter of great importance due to rapid technological advancements in the field of computer vision. The objective of this study is to design a motion based detection and tracking multiple walking pedestrians randomly in different directions. In our proposed method, Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used to determine moving persons in image sequences. It reacts to changes that take place in the scene like different illumination; moving objects start and stop often, etc. Background noise in the scene is eliminated through applying morphological operations and the motions of tracked people which is determined by using the Kalman filter. The Kalman filter is applied to predict the tracked location in each frame and to determine the likelihood of each detection. We used a benchmark data set for the evaluation based on a side wall stationary camera. The actual scenes from the data set are taken on a street including up to eight people in front of the camera in different two scenes, the duration is 53 and 35 seconds, respectively. In the case of walking pedestrians in close proximity, the proposed method has achieved the detection ratio of 87%, and the tracking ratio is 77 % successfully. When they are deferred from each other, the detection ratio is increased to 90% and the tracking ratio is also increased to 79%.

Keywords: Automatic detection, tracking, pedestrians.

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Authors: Ibrahim Yakubu Seini, Oluwole Daniel Makinde

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MHD chemically reacting viscous fluid flow towards a vertical surface with slip and convective boundary conditions has been conducted. The temperature and the chemical species concentration of the surface and the velocity of the external flow are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the vertical surface. The governing differential equations are modeled and transformed into systems of ordinary differential equations, which are then solved numerically by a shooting method. The effects of various parameters on the heat and mass transfer characteristics are discussed. Graphical results are presented for the velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles whilst the skin-friction coefficient and the rate of heat and mass transfers near the surface are presented in tables and discussed. The results revealed that increasing the strength of the magnetic field increases the skin-friction coefficient and the rate of heat and mass transfers toward the surface. The velocity profiles are increased towards the surface due to the presence of the Lorenz force, which attracts the fluid particles near the surface. The rate of chemical reaction is seen to decrease the concentration boundary layer near the surface due to the destructive chemical reaction occurring near the surface.

Keywords: Boundary layer, surface slip, MHD flow, chemical reaction, heat transfer, mass transfer.

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Authors: Ayman A. El-Saleh, Mahamod Ismail, Mohd. A. M. Ali, Ahmed N. H. Alnuaimy

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The dynamic spectrum allocation solutions such as cognitive radio networks have been proposed as a key technology to exploit the frequency segments that are spectrally underutilized. Cognitive radio users work as secondary users who need to constantly and rapidly sense the presence of primary users or licensees to utilize their frequency bands if they are inactive. Short sensing cycles should be run by the secondary users to achieve higher throughput rates as well as to provide low level of interference to the primary users by immediately vacating their channels once they have been detected. In this paper, the throughput-sensing time relationship in local and cooperative spectrum sensing has been investigated under two distinct scenarios, namely, constant primary user protection (CPUP) and constant secondary user spectrum usability (CSUSU) scenarios. The simulation results show that the design of sensing slot duration is very critical and depends on the number of cooperating users under CPUP scenario whereas under CSUSU, cooperating more users has no effect if the sensing time used exceeds 5% of the total frame duration.

Keywords: Capacity, cognitive radio, optimization, spectrumsensing.

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Authors: Cheng Li, Jie Shen, Yutian Tang

Abstract:

Embracing the upcoming era of urbanization with the challenges of limitation of resources, disappearing cultural identities and conflicts among different groups of stakeholders, new integrated approaches are offered in our urban practice to help decision-makers and stakeholders frame and develop well-conceived, practical strategies for urban developing trajectories to approach urban-level sustainability in multiple social, cultural, ecological dimensions. Through bottom-up participation, we take advantage of tourism and leisure industries as driving forces for urbanization in China to promote integrated sustainable systems, with the hope of approaching both historical and ecological aspects of urban sustainability; and also thanks to top-down participation, we have codes, standards and rules established by the governments to strengthen the implementation of ecological urban sustainability. The results are monitored and evaluated experimentally and multidimensionally and the sustainable systems we constructed with local stakeholder groups turned out to be effective. The presentation of our selected projects would indicate our different focuses on urban sustainability.

Keywords: Urban sustainability, integrated urban strategy, tourism and leisure industries, history, modern technology.

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Authors: D. R. Delgado Sobrino, P. Košťál, J. Oravcová

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Lately, significant work in the area of Intelligent Manufacturing has become public and mainly applied within the frame of industrial purposes. Special efforts have been made in the implementation of new technologies, management and control systems, among many others which have all evolved the field. Aware of all this and due to the scope of new projects and the need of turning the existing flexible ideas into more autonomous and intelligent ones, i.e.: Intelligent Manufacturing, the present paper emerges with the main aim of contributing to the design and analysis of the material flow in either systems, cells or work stations under this new “intelligent" denomination. For this, besides offering a conceptual basis in some of the key points to be taken into account and some general principles to consider in the design and analysis of the material flow, also some tips on how to define other possible alternative material flow scenarios and a classification of the states a system, cell or workstation are offered as well. All this is done with the intentions of relating it with the use of simulation tools, for which these have been briefly addressed with a special focus on the Witness simulation package. For a better comprehension, the previous elements are supported by a detailed layout, other figures and a few expressions which could help obtaining necessary data. Such data and others will be used in the future, when simulating the scenarios in the search of the best material flow configurations.

Keywords: Flexible/Intelligent Manufacturing System/Cell (F/IMS/C), material flow/design/configuration (MF/D/C), workstation.

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Authors: Abdul Khaliq Amiri, Shigeyuki Date

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This study investigates the effect of using carbon-free fly ash (CfFA) and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) on the compressive strength of mortar. The CfFA used in this investigation is high-quality fly ash and the carbon content is 1.0% or less. In this study, three types of blends with a 30% water-binder ratio (w/b) were prepared: control, binary and ternary blends. The Control blend contained only Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), in binary and ternary blends OPC was partially replaced with CfFA and GGBFS at different substitution rates. Mortar specimens were cured for 1 day, 7 days and 28 days under two curing conditions: steam curing and water curing. The steam cured specimens were exposed to two different pre-curing times (1.5 h and 2.5 h) and one steam curing duration (6 h) at 45 °C. The test results showed that water cured specimens revealed higher compressive strength than steam cured specimens at later ages. An increase in CfFA and GGBFS contents caused a decrease in the compressive strength of mortar. Ternary mixes exhibited better compressive strength than binary mixes containing CfFA with the same replacement ratio of mineral admixtures.

Keywords: Carbon-free fly ash, compressive strength, ground granulated blast-furnace slag, steam curing, water curing.

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Authors: YuriyTasinkevych, Ihor Trots, AndrzejNowicki, Marcin Lewandowski

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The paper presents the optimization problem for the multi-element synthetic transmit aperture method (MSTA) in ultrasound imaging applications. The optimal choice of the transmit aperture size is performed as a trade-off between the lateral resolution, penetration depth and the frame rate. Results of the analysis obtained by a developed optimization algorithm are presented. Maximum penetration depth and the best lateral resolution at given depths are chosen as the optimization criteria. The optimization algorithm was tested using synthetic aperture data of point reflectors simulated by Filed II program for Matlab® for the case of 5MHz 128-element linear transducer array with 0.48 mm pitch are presented. The visualization of experimentally obtained synthetic aperture data of a tissue mimicking phantom and in vitro measurements of the beef liver are also shown. The data were obtained using the SonixTOUCH Research systemequipped with a linear 4MHz 128 element transducerwith 0.3 mm element pitch, 0.28 mm element width and 70% fractional bandwidth was excited by one sine cycle pulse burst of transducer's center frequency.

Keywords: synthetic aperture method, ultrasound imaging, beamforming.

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Authors: S. Esakkirajan, T. Veerakumar, V. Senthil Murugan, R. Sudhakar

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This paper presents a new fingerprint coding technique based on contourlet transform and multistage vector quantization. Wavelets have shown their ability in representing natural images that contain smooth areas separated with edges. However, wavelets cannot efficiently take advantage of the fact that the edges usually found in fingerprints are smooth curves. This issue is addressed by directional transforms, known as contourlets, which have the property of preserving edges. The contourlet transform is a new extension to the wavelet transform in two dimensions using nonseparable and directional filter banks. The computation and storage requirements are the major difficulty in implementing a vector quantizer. In the full-search algorithm, the computation and storage complexity is an exponential function of the number of bits used in quantizing each frame of spectral information. The storage requirement in multistage vector quantization is less when compared to full search vector quantization. The coefficients of contourlet transform are quantized by multistage vector quantization. The quantized coefficients are encoded by Huffman coding. The results obtained are tabulated and compared with the existing wavelet based ones.

Keywords: Contourlet Transform, Directional Filter bank, Laplacian Pyramid, Multistage Vector Quantization

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Authors: Nicolò Vaiana, Giorgio Serino

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In this paper, an advanced Nonlinear Exponential Model (NEM), able to simulate the uniaxial dynamic behavior of seismic isolators having a continuously decreasing tangent stiffness with increasing displacement in the relatively large displacements range and a hardening or softening behavior at large displacements, is presented. The mathematical model is validated by comparing the experimental force-displacement hysteresis loops obtained during cyclic tests, conducted on a helical wire rope isolator and a recycled rubber-fiber reinforced bearing, with those predicted analytically. Good agreement between the experimental and simulated results shows that the proposed model can be an effective numerical tool to predict the force-displacement relationship of seismic isolation devices within the large displacements range. Compared to the widely used Bouc-Wen model, unable to simulate the response of seismic isolators at large displacements, the proposed one allows to avoid the numerical solution of a first order nonlinear ordinary differential equation for each time step of a nonlinear time history analysis, thus reducing the computation effort. Furthermore, the proposed model can simulate the smooth transition of the hysteresis loops from small to large displacements by adopting only one set of five parameters determined from the experimental hysteresis loops having the largest amplitude.

Keywords: Base isolation, hardening behavior, nonlinear exponential model, seismic isolators, softening behavior.

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Authors: Deng Liao, Dongyu Qiu, Ahmed K. Elhakeem

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A new code synchronization algorithm is proposed in this paper for the secondary cell-search stage in wideband CDMA systems. Rather than using the Cyclically Permutable (CP) code in the Secondary Synchronization Channel (S-SCH) to simultaneously determine the frame boundary and scrambling code group, the new synchronization algorithm implements the same function with less system complexity and less Mean Acquisition Time (MAT). The Secondary Synchronization Code (SSC) is redesigned by splitting into two sub-sequences. We treat the information of scrambling code group as data bits and use simple time diversity BCH coding for further reliability. It avoids involved and time-costly Reed-Solomon (RS) code computations and comparisons. Analysis and simulation results show that the Synchronization Error Rate (SER) yielded by the new algorithm in Rayleigh fading channels is close to that of the conventional algorithm in the standard. This new synchronization algorithm reduces system complexities, shortens the average cell-search time and can be implemented in the slot-based cell-search pipeline. By taking antenna diversity and pipelining correlation processes, the new algorithm also shows its flexible application in multiple antenna systems.

Keywords: WCDMA cell-search, synchronization algorithm, secondary synchronization channel, antenna diversity.

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Authors: Okolo Chimaobi Valentine

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Commercial banks in Nigeria adopted many strategies to attract fresh deposits including the use of high deposit rate. However, pricing of banking services moved in favor of the banks at the expense of customers, resulting in their seeking other investment alternatives rather than saving their money in the bank. Both deposit and lending rates were greatly influenced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) decision on interest rate. Therefore, commercial bank effort to attract deposits via manipulation of her rates was greatly limited, otherwise the banks will be giving out more than it earned. The study aimed at examining the relationship between interest rate and fixed fund deposit of commercial banks, how policy-controlled interest rate affected commercial bank’s fixed fund deposit The researcher employed ordinary least square technique, using, multiple linear regression, unrestricted vector auto-regression, correlation matrix test, granger causality and impulse response graph in the analysis. Commercial bank’s interest rates affected commercial bank’s fixed fund deposit significantly while policy-controlled interest rate did not significantly transmit through the commercial bank’s interest rates to affect fixed fund deposit. While commercial banks seek creative ways to expand their fixed fund deposit, policy authorities in Nigeria should better coordinate interest rate fluctuation and induce competition in the entire financial sector.

Keywords: Commercial bank, fixed fund deposit, fluctuation effects, interest rate.

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Authors: Feifei Lee, Qiu Chen, Koji Kotani, Tadahiro Ohmi

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In this paper, we propose an improved fast search algorithm using combined histogram features and temporal division method for short MPEG video clips from large video database. There are two types of histogram features used to generate more robust features. The first one is based on the adjacent pixel intensity difference quantization (APIDQ) algorithm, which had been reliably applied to human face recognition previously. An APIDQ histogram is utilized as the feature vector of the frame image. Another one is ordinal feature which is robust to color distortion. Combined with active search [4], a temporal pruning algorithm, fast and robust video search can be realized. The proposed search algorithm has been evaluated by 6 hours of video to search for given 200 MPEG video clips which each length is 30 seconds. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm can detect the similar video clip in merely 120ms, and Equal Error Rate (ERR) of 1% is achieved, which is more accurately and robust than conventional fast video search algorithm.

Keywords: Fast search, Adjacent pixel intensity differencequantization (APIDQ), DC image, Histogram feature.

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Authors: N. A. Samat, D. F. Percy

Abstract:

The main aim of this study is to describe and introduce a method of numerical analysis in obtaining approximate solutions for the SIR-SI differential equations (susceptible-infectiverecovered for human populations; susceptible-infective for vector populations) that represent a model for dengue disease transmission. Firstly, we describe the ordinary differential equations for the SIR-SI disease transmission models. Then, we introduce the numerical analysis of solutions of this continuous time, discrete space SIR-SI model by simplifying the continuous time scale to a densely populated, discrete time scale. This is followed by the application of this numerical analysis of solutions of the SIR-SI differential equations to the estimation of relative risk using continuous time, discrete space dengue data of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Finally, we present the results of the analysis, comparing and displaying the results in graphs, table and maps. Results of the numerical analysis of solutions that we implemented offers a useful and potentially superior model for estimating relative risks based on continuous time, discrete space data for vector borne infectious diseases specifically for dengue disease. 

Keywords: Dengue disease, disease mapping, numerical analysis, SIR-SI differential equations.

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Authors: G. Aouf, D. Tabbal, A. Sabsabi, R. Aouf

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The aim of this study is to assess the viability of utilizing Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash (MSWIFA) with Ordinary Portland cement as soil reinforcement materials for geotechnical engineering applications. A detailed experimental program is carried out followed by analysis of results. Soil samples were prepared by adding cement to MSWIFA-soil mix at different percentages. Then, a series of laboratory tests were performed namely: Sieve analysis, Atterberg limits tests, Unconfined compression test, and Proctor tests. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of adding the cement at different percentages on the unconfined compression strength, maximum dry density (MDD), and optimum moisture content (OMC) of clayey soil-MSWIFA. The variations of admixtures’ contents were 10%, 20%, and 30% for MSWIFA by dry total weight of soil and 10%, 15%, and 20% for Portland cement by dry total weight of the mix. The test results reveal that adding MSWIFA to the soil up to 20% increased the MDD of the mixture and decreased the OMC, then an opposite trend for results were found when the percentage of MSWIFA exceeds 20%. This is due to the low specific gravity of MSWIFA and to the greater water absorption of MSWIFA. The laboratory tests also indicate that the Unconfined Compression Test values were found to be increased for all the mixtures with curing periods of 7, 14, and 28 days. It is also observed that the cement increased the strength of the finished product of the mix of soil and MSWIFA.

Keywords: Clayey soil, cement, Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash, MSWIFA, unconfined compression strength.

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Authors: Debasis Sarkar

Abstract:

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a holistic documentation process for operational visualization, design coordination, estimation and project scheduling. BIM software defines objects parametrically and it is a tool for virtual reality. Primary advantage of implementing BIM is the visual coordination of the building structure and systems such as Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) and it also identifies the possible conflicts between the building systems. This paper is an attempt to develop a risk based BIM model which would highlight the primary advantages of application of BIM pertaining to urban infrastructure transportation project. It has been observed that about 40% of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) companies use BIM but primarily for their outsourced projects. Also, 65% of the respondents agree that BIM would be used quiet strongly for future construction projects in India. The 3D models developed with Revit 2015 software would reduce co-ordination problems amongst the architects, structural engineers, contractors and building service providers (MEP). Integration of risk management along with BIM would provide enhanced co-ordination, collaboration and high probability of successful completion of the complex infrastructure transportation project within stipulated time and cost frame.

Keywords: Building information modeling (BIM), infrastructure transportation, project risk management, underground metro rail.

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Authors: Masood Karamoozian, Zhang Hong

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The necessity and complexity of the decision-making process and the interference of the various factors to make decisions and consider all the relevant factors in a problem are very obvious nowadays. Hence, researchers show their interest in multi-criteria decision-making methods. In this research, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods of multi-criteria decision-making have been used to solve the problem of optimal construction systems. Systems being evaluated in this problem include; Light Steel Frames (LSF), a case study of designs by Zhang Hong studio in the Southeast University of Nanjing, Insulating Concrete Form (ICF), Ordinary Construction System (OCS), and Precast Concrete System (PRCS) as another case study designs in Zhang Hong studio in the Southeast University of Nanjing. Crowdsourcing was done by using a questionnaire at the sample level (200 people). Questionnaires were distributed among experts in university centers and conferences. According to the results of the research, the use of different methods of decision-making led to relatively the same results. In this way, with the use of all three multi-criteria decision-making methods mentioned above, the PRCS was in the first rank, and the LSF system ranked second. Also, the PRCS, in terms of performance standards and economics, was ranked first, and the LSF system was allocated the first rank in terms of environmental standards.

Keywords: Multi-criteria decision making, AHP, SAW, TOPSIS.

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Authors: Azlina Binti Abu Bakar, Fahmi Zaidi Bin Abdul Razak, Wan Salihin Wong Abdullah

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Psychographic is a psychological study of values, attitudes, interests and it is used mostly in prediction, opinion research and social research. This study predicts the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition on e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens. The survey responses of 543 e-government users have been validated and analyzed by means of covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling. The findings indicate that e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens are mainly influenced by performance expectancy (β = 0.66, t = 11.53, p < 0.01) and social influence (β = 0.20, t = 4.23, p < 0.01). Surprisingly, there is no significant effect of facilitating condition and effort expectancy on e-government continuance intention (β = 0.01, t = 0.27, p > 0.05; β = -0.01, t = -0.40, p > 0.05). This study offers government and vendors a frame of reference to analyze citizen’s situation before initiating new innovations. In case of Malaysian e-government technology, adoption strategies should be built around fostering level of citizens’ technological expectation and social influence on e-government usage.

Keywords: Continuance intention, Malaysian citizens, media psychology, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: N. Shafiq, M. F. Nuruddin, S. C. Chin

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This paper presents the experimental results of the investigation of various properties related to the durability and longterm performance of mortars made of Fly Ash blended cement, FA and Ordinary Portland cement, OPC. The properties that were investigated in an experimental program include; equilibration of specimen in different relative humidity, determination of total porosity, compressive strength, chloride permeability index, and electrical resistivity. Fly Ash blended cement mortar specimens exhibited 10% to 15% lower porosity when measured at equilibrium conditions in different relative humidities as compared to the specimens made of OPC mortar, which resulted in 6% to 8% higher compressive strength of FA blended cement mortar specimens. The effects of ambient relative humidity during sample equilibration on porosity and strength development were also studied. For specimens equilibrated in higher relative humidity conditions, such as 75%, the total porosity of different mortar specimens was between 35% to 50% less than the porosity of samples equilibrated in 12% relative humidity, consequently leading to higher compressive strengths of these specimens.A valid statistical correlation between values of compressive strength, porosity and the degree of saturation was obtained. Measured values of chloride permeability index of fly ash blended cement mortar were obtained as one fourth to one sixth of those measured for OPC mortar specimens, which indicates high resistance against chloride ion penetration in FA blended cement specimens, hence resulting in a highly durable mortar.

Keywords: chloride permeability index, equilibrium condition, electrical resistivity, fly ash

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Authors: Guanqiao Wang, Hongyang Yu

Abstract:

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

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

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Authors: Anton A. Bykov, Irina O. Glot, Igor N. Shardakov, Alexey P. Shestakov

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of experimental and theoretical investigations of the mechanisms of crack formation in reinforced concrete beams subjected to quasi-static bending. The boundary-value problem has been formulated in the framework of brittle fracture mechanics and has been solved by using the finite-element method. Numerical simulation of the vibrations of an uncracked beam and a beam with cracks of different size serves to determine the pattern of changes in the spectrum of eigenfrequencies observed during crack evolution. Experiments were performed on the sequential quasistatic four-point bending of the beam leading to the formation of cracks in concrete. At each loading stage, the beam was subjected to an impulse load to induce vibrations. Two stages of cracking were detected. At the first stage the conservative process of deformation is realized. The second stage is an active cracking, which is marked by a sharp change in eingenfrequencies. The boundary of a transition from one stage to another is well registered. The vibration behavior was examined for the beams strengthened by carbon-fiber sheet before loading and at the intermediate stage of loading after the grouting of initial cracks. The obtained results show that the vibrodiagnostic approach is an effective tool for monitoring of cracking and for assessing the quality of measures aimed at strengthening concrete structures.

Keywords: Crack formation. experiment. mathematical modeling. reinforced concrete. vibrodiagnostics.

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Authors: Yassamina Berkane, Leïla Kloul, Yoann Demoli

Abstract:

Quality of life, environmental impact, congestion of mobility means, and infrastructures remain significant challenges for urban mobility. Solutions like car sharing, spatial redesign, eCommerce, and autonomous vehicles will likely increase the unit veh-km and the density of cars in urban traffic, thus reducing congestion. However, the impact of such solutions is not clear for researchers. Congestion arises from growing populations that must travel greater distances to arrive at similar locations (e.g., workplaces, schools) during the same time frame (e.g., rush hours). This paper first reviews the research and application cases of urban congestion methods through recent years. Rethinking the question of time, it then investigates people’s willingness and flexibility to adapt their arrival and departure times from workplaces. We use neural networks and methods of supervised learning to apply a methodology for predicting peoples’ intentions from their responses in a questionnaire. We created and distributed a questionnaire to more than 50 companies in the Paris suburb. Obtained results illustrate that our methodology can predict peoples’ intentions to reschedule their activities (work, study, commerce, etc.).

Keywords: Urban mobility, decongestion, machine learning, neural network.

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Authors: Ludovic Favre, Thibaut M. Schafer, Jean-Luc Robyr, Elena-Lavinia Niederhäuser

Abstract:

This paper presents an optimization method based on genetic algorithm for the energy management inside buildings developed in the frame of the project Smart Living Lab (SLL) in Fribourg (Switzerland). This algorithm optimizes the interaction between renewable energy production, storage systems and energy consumers. In comparison with standard algorithms, the innovative aspect of this project is the extension of the smart regulation over three simultaneous criteria: the energy self-consumption, the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. The genetic algorithm approach was chosen due to the large quantity of optimization variables and the non-linearity of the optimization function. The optimization process includes also real time data of the building as well as weather forecast and users habits. This information is used by a physical model of the building energy resources to predict the future energy production and needs, to select the best energetic strategy, to combine production or storage of energy in order to guarantee the demand of electrical and thermal energy. The principle of operation of the algorithm as well as typical output example of the algorithm is presented.

Keywords: Building’s energy, control system, energy management, modelling, genetic optimization algorithm, renewable energy, greenhouse gases, energy storage.

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Authors: Benjamin Gorry, Zezhi Chen, Kevin Hammond, Andy Wallace, Greg Michaelson

Abstract:

This paper describes new computer vision algorithms that have been developed to track moving objects as part of a long-term study into the design of (semi-)autonomous vehicles. We present the results of a study to exploit variable kernels for tracking in video sequences. The basis of our work is the mean shift object-tracking algorithm; for a moving target, it is usual to define a rectangular target window in an initial frame, and then process the data within that window to separate the tracked object from the background by the mean shift segmentation algorithm. Rather than use the standard, Epanechnikov kernel, we have used a kernel weighted by the Chamfer distance transform to improve the accuracy of target representation and localization, minimising the distance between the two distributions in RGB color space using the Bhattacharyya coefficient. Experimental results show the improved tracking capability and versatility of the algorithm in comparison with results using the standard kernel. These algorithms are incorporated as part of a robot test-bed architecture which has been used to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Keywords: Hume, functional programming, autonomous vehicle, pioneer robot, vision.

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