Search results for: Direct Search Method
2202 Numerical Simulation of CNT Incorporated Cement
Authors: B. S. Sindu, Saptarshi Sasmal, Smitha Gopinath
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Cement, the most widely used construction material is very brittle and characterized by low tensile strength and strain capacity. Macro to nano fibers are added to cement to provide tensile strength and ductility to it. Carbon Nanotube (CNT), one of the nanofibers, has proven to be a promising reinforcing material in the cement composites because of its outstanding mechanical properties and its ability to close cracks at the nano level. The experimental investigations for CNT reinforced cement is costly, time consuming and involves huge number of trials. Mathematical modeling of CNT reinforced cement can be done effectively and efficiently to arrive at the mechanical properties and to reduce the number of trials in the experiments. Hence, an attempt is made to numerically study the effective mechanical properties of CNT reinforced cement numerically using Representative Volume Element (RVE) method. The enhancement in its mechanical properties for different percentage of CNTs is studied in detail.Keywords: Carbon Nanotubes, Cement composites, Representative Volume Element, Numerical simulation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23122201 Effects of Market Share and Diversification on Nonlife Insurers- Performance
Authors: M. Pervan, T. Pavic Kramaric
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The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of market share and diversification on the nonlife insurers- performance. The underlying relationships have been investigated in different industries and different disciplines (economics, management...), still, no consistency exists either in the magnitude or statistical significance of the relationship between market share (and diversification as well) on one side and companies- performance on the other side. Moreover, the direction of the relationship is also somewhat questionable. While some authors find this relationship to be positive, the others reveal its negative association. In order to test the influence of market share and diversification on companies- performance in Croatian nonlife insurance industry for the period from 1999 to 2009, we designed an empirical model in which we included the following independent variables: firms- profitability from previous years, market share, diversification and control variables (i.e. ownership, industrial concentration, GDP per capita, inflation). Using the two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator we found evidence of a positive and statistically significant influence of both, market share and diversification, on insurers- profitability.Keywords: Diversification, market share, nonlife insurance
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16882200 Feature Extraction for Surface Classification – An Approach with Wavelets
Authors: Smriti H. Bhandari, S. M. Deshpande
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Surface metrology with image processing is a challenging task having wide applications in industry. Surface roughness can be evaluated using texture classification approach. Important aspect here is appropriate selection of features that characterize the surface. We propose an effective combination of features for multi-scale and multi-directional analysis of engineering surfaces. The features include standard deviation, kurtosis and the Canny edge detector. We apply the method by analyzing the surfaces with Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DT-CWT). We used Canberra distance metric for similarity comparison between the surface classes. Our database includes the surface textures manufactured by three machining processes namely Milling, Casting and Shaping. The comparative study shows that DT-CWT outperforms DWT giving correct classification performance of 91.27% with Canberra distance metric.
Keywords: Dual-tree complex wavelet transform, surface metrology, surface roughness, texture classification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22442199 Functional Zoning Analysis of Suburban Area of Krasnoyarsk City
Authors: L. Shaporova, Xu Suning, Leng Hong
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Suburban area is an important area to the development of a city and a country. Russias economy is going through major transitions. These transitions are rapidly changing the relationship between cities (urban areas), countryside (rural areas) and the development, growth, and popularity of suburbia. The process of suburbanization takes place in biggest cities of Russia, including Krasnoyarsk City. The modern Krasnoyarsk with a population of about 1mln people occupies the territory of 34115 ha. This article examines the analysis of functions of suburban area and connects these functions with zoning of the suburban territory. The author uses the method of hierarchy to select the best conditions to each function in connection with nature component, transportation and distance from the city. The result of this research is the map of the functional zoning of suburban area of Krasnoyarsk City. The author uses a variety of factors, which have an influence on suburban area, to compare and choose the best conditions. KeywordsSuburban area, zoning of territory, Krasnoyarsk City.
Keywords: Suburban area, zoning of territory, Krasnoyarsk City.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18502198 Education in the Constitutions: The Comparison of Turkey with Indonesia, France, Japan, South Africa, and the United States of America
Authors: Mehmet Durnali
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The main purpose of this study is to find out, analyze and discuss basic principles of education and training in the constitutions, including the latest amendment, of France, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, the United States of America, and Turkey. This research specifically aims at establishing a framework in order to compare educational values such as right of education, responsibilities of states and those of people, and other issues pertaining to education in the Constitution of Turkey to others. Additionally, it emphasizes the meaning of education in constitution, the reasons for references to education in constitutions and why it is important for people, states or nations and state organs. Qualitative analysis technique is performed to accomplish the aim of this study. Maximum variation sampling is used. The main data source of the analysis is official organic laws of those countries. The data is examined by using descriptive and content analysis method.
Keywords: Education in the constitution, education law, legal principles of education, right to education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16002197 Registration Management System for the First Access to a Public Moroccan Institution: Case Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Beni Mellal
Authors: Khalid Ghoulam, Belaid Bouikhalene, Zakaria Harmouch, Hicham Mouncif
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One of the essential topics in the information systems is the registration management. The objective of this project is to create a web portal designed to help new students on the first access to the Sultan Moulay Slimane University SMSU (Practical Information, Pre-Registration, Placement Test, Terms of use ... etc.) while creating a secure space protecting both data from the institutions of the University and student information. This portal is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet inside and outside the campus. In this work, we present a platform on the first access to the SMSU which is essential for authentication in the digital work space of the university. This platform allows university to make better decisions for students clustering, to avoid traditional manual method, and to reduce the cost in human and material resources.
Keywords: Registration, SMSU, Security, FAUSMS, digital work space, Placement test.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11302196 Sustainability Model for Rural Telecenter Using Business Intelligence Technique
Authors: Razak Rahmat, Azizah Ahmad, Rafidah Razak, Roshidi Din, Azizi Abas
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Telecenter is a place where communities can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies to enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others. However, previous studies found that sustainability issues related to economic, political and institutional, social and technology is one of the major problem faced by the telecenter. Based on that problem this research is planning to design a possible solution on rural telecenters sustainability with the support of business intelligence (BI). The empirical study will be conducted through qualitative and quantitative method including interviews and observations with a range of stakeholders including ministry officers, telecenters managers and operators. Result from the data collection will be analyzed using causal modeling approach of SEM SmartPLS for the validity. The expected finding from this research is the Business Intelligent Requirement Model as a guild for sustainability of the rural telecenters.
Keywords: Rural ICT Telecenter (RICTT), Business Intelligence, Sustainability, Requirement Analysis Modal.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29012195 Development of a Weed Suppression Robot for Rice Cultivation: Weed Suppression and Posture Control
Authors: Shohei Nakai, Yasuhiro Yamada
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Weed suppression and weeding are necessary measures for rice cultivation. Weed suppression precedes the process of weeding. It means suppressing the growth of young weeds and creating a weed-less environment. If we suppress the growth of weeds, we can reduce the number of weeds in a paddy field. This would result in a reduction of the weeding work load. In this paper, we will show how we developed a weed suppression robot for the purpose of reducing the weeding work load. The robot has a laser range finder for autonomous mobility and a robot arm for weed suppression. It travels along the rice rows without stepping on and injuring the rice plants in a paddy field. The robot arm applies force to the weed seedlings and thereby suppresses the growth of weeds. This paper will explain the methodology of the autonomous mobile, the experiment in weed suppression, and the method of controlling the robot’s posture on uneven ground.
Keywords: Mobile robot, Paddy field, Robot arm, Weed.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28322194 Experimental Study on Smart Anchor Head
Authors: Young-Jun You, Ki-Tae Park, Kyu-Wan Lee
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Since prestressed concrete members rely on the tensile strength of the prestressing strands to resist loads, loss of even few them could result catastrophic. Therefore, it is important to measure present residual prestress force. Although there are some techniques for obtaining present prestress force, some problems still remain. One method is to install load cell in front of anchor head but this may increase cost. Load cell is a transducer using the elastic material property. Anchor head is also an elastic material and this might result in monitoring monitor present prestress force. Features of fiber optic sensor such as small size, great sensitivity, high durability can assign sensing function to anchor head. This paper presents the concept of smart anchor head which acts as load cell and experiment for the applicability of it. Test results showed the smart anchor head worked good and strong linear relationship between load and response.Keywords: SHM, prestress force, anchor head, fiber optic sensor
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16062193 Time Series Forecasting Using a Hybrid RBF Neural Network and AR Model Based On Binomial Smoothing
Authors: Fengxia Zheng, Shouming Zhong
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ANNARIMA that combines both autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and artificial neural network (ANN) model is a valuable tool for modeling and forecasting nonlinear time series, yet the over-fitting problem is more likely to occur in neural network models. This paper provides a hybrid methodology that combines both radial basis function (RBF) neural network and auto regression (AR) model based on binomial smoothing (BS) technique which is efficient in data processing, which is called BSRBFAR. This method is examined by using the data of Canadian Lynx data. Empirical results indicate that the over-fitting problem can be eased using RBF neural network based on binomial smoothing which is called BS-RBF, and the hybrid model–BS-RBFAR can be an effective way to improve forecasting accuracy achieved by BSRBF used separately.
Keywords: Binomial smoothing (BS), hybrid, Canadian Lynx data, forecasting accuracy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36862192 Techno-Economics Study to Select Optimum Desalination Plant for Asalouyeh Combined Cycle Power Plant in Iran
Authors: Z. Gomar, H. Heidary, M. Davoudi
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This research deals with techno economic analysis to select the most economic desalination method for Asalouyeh combined cycle power plant . Due to lack of fresh water, desalination of sea water is necessary to provide required DM water of Power Plant. The most common desalination methods are RO, MSF, MED, and MED–TVC. In this research, methods of RO, MED, and MED– TVC have been compared. Simulation results show that recovery of heat of exhaust gas of main stack is optimum case for providing DM water required for injected steam of MED desalination. This subject is very important because of improving thermal efficiency of power plant using extra heat recovery. Also, it has been shown that by adding 3 rows of finned tube to de-aerator evaporator, which is very simple and low cost, required steam for generating 5200 m3/day of desalinated water is obtainable.
Keywords: Desalination, MED, thermodynamic simulation, combined cycle power plant.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31352191 The Effect of Processing Parameters of the Vinyl Ester Matrix Nanocomposites Based On Layered Silicate on the Level of Exfoliation
Authors: A. I. Alateyah, H. N. Dhakal, Z. Y. Zhang
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The study of the effect of the processing parameters on the level of intercalation between the layered silicate and polymer of two different methodology took place. X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry, and Transmission Electron Microscopy were utilized in order to examine the intercalation level of nanocomposites of both methodologies. It was found that drying the clay prior to mixing with the polymer, mixing time and speed, degassing time, and the curing method had major changes to the level of distribution of the nanocomposites structure. In methodology 1, the presence of aggregation layers was observed at only 2.5 wt.% clay loading whereas in methodology 2 the presence of aggregation layers was found at higher clay loading (i.e. 5 wt.%).
Keywords: Vinyl ester, nanocomposites, layered silicate, characterisations, aggregation layers, intercalation, exfoliation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17182190 Separation of Hazardous Brominated Plastics from Waste Plastics by Froth Flotation after Surface Modification with Mild Heat-Treatment
Authors: Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, Chi-Hyeon Lee, Byeong-Kyu Lee, Srinivasa Reddy Mallampati
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This study evaluated to facilitate separation of ABS plastics from other waste plastics by froth flotation after surface hydrophilization of ABS with heat treatment. The mild heat treatment at 100oC for 60s could selectively increase the hydrophilicity of the ABS plastics surface (i.e., ABS contact angle decreased from 79o to 65.8o) among other plastics mixture. The SEM and XPS results of plastic samples sufficiently supported the increase in hydrophilic functional groups and decrease contact angle on ABS surface, after heat treatment. As a result of the froth flotation (at mixing speed 150 rpm and airflow rate 0.3 L/min) after heat treatment, about 85% of ABS was selectively separated from other heavy plastics with 100% of purity. The effect of optimum treatment condition and detailed mechanism onto separation efficiency in the froth floatation was also investigated. This research is successful in giving a simple, effective, and inexpensive method for ABS separation from waste plastics.Keywords: ABS, hydrophilic, heat treatment, froth flotation, contact angle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23062189 Primary School Principles- Views about In-service Training Activities
Authors: Sadık Kartal
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This study was carried out to determine the feedback from the primary school headmasters on in-service training activities. 384 primary school headmasters were asked to give feedback on the in-service training facilities organized by the Ministry of Education through an open –ended question. The study group was formed by 359 primary school headmasters who attended “Management Skills" seminars which were organized in March, April and May in the extent of 2006 In-service Training Facilities Plan by the Ministry of Education and were also volunteers to give feedback on the inservice training activities. The qualitative research method was used in the analysis of the data since the primary school headmasters gave written feedback on the in-service training activities. Having analyzed the feedback, certain categories were formed by coding it. Certain frequencies and percentages were determined according to the codes. It was made obvious that the primary school headmasters benefitted from those facilities by sharing their experiences, problems and their possible solutions mutually
Keywords: In-service training, primary school principles, educates.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12492188 Biaxial Buckling of Single Layer Graphene Sheet Based on Nonlocal Plate Model and Molecular Dynamics Simulation
Authors: R. Pilafkan, M. Kaffash Irzarahimi, S. F. Asbaghian Namin
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The biaxial buckling behavior of single-layered graphene sheets (SLGSs) is studied in the present work. To consider the size-effects in the analysis, Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity equations are incorporated into classical plate theory (CLPT). A Generalized Differential Quadrature Method (GDQM) approach is utilized and numerical solutions for the critical buckling loads are obtained. Then, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed for a series of zigzag SLGSs with different side-lengths and with various boundary conditions, the results of which are matched with those obtained by the nonlocal plate model to numerical the appropriate values of nonlocal parameter relevant to each type of boundary conditions.
Keywords: Biaxial buckling, single-layered graphene sheets, nonlocal elasticity, molecular dynamics simulation, classical plate theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11052187 Interaction of Low-Energy Positrons with Mg Atoms: Elastic Scattering, Bound States, and Annihilation
Authors: Mahasen M. Abdel-Mageed, H. S. Zaghloul
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Annihilations, phase shifts, scattering lengths and elastic cross sections of low energy positrons scattering from magnesium atoms were studied using the least-squares variational method (LSVM). The possibility of positron binding to the magnesium atoms is investigated. A trial wave function is suggested to represent e+-Mg elastic scattering and scattering parameters were derived to estimate the binding energy and annihilation rates. The trial function is taken to depend on several adjustable parameters, and is improved iteratively by increasing the number of terms. The present results have the same behavior as reported semi-empirical, theoretical and experimental results. Especially, the estimated positive scattering length supports the possibility of positronmagnesium bound state system that was confirmed in previous experimental and theoretical work.Keywords: Bound wave function, Positron Annihilation, scattering phase shift, scattering length.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11842186 Why I Trust My Father? : In the Eyes of Malaysian Adolescents
Authors: Jasmine Adela Mutang, Alfred Chan Huan Zhi, Norzihan Ayub, Chua Bee Seok, Rosnah Ismail, Ooh Siew Ling, Uichol Kim
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This study aims to investigate how much both son and daughter trust their father and what are the underlying reasons they trust their father. The results revealed five main reasons why Malaysian adolescents trust their father. Those reasons are related to the role of father, father-child relationship, father-s characteristics, father-s nurturing nature and father-s attitude and behavior. A total of 1022 students (males = 241, females = 781) from one of public university in Sabah, Malaysia participated in the study. The participants completed open-ended questionnaires developed by Kim (2008), asking how much the adolescents trust their father, and the reasons why they trust their father. The data was analysed by using the indigenous psychology method proposed by [1] Findings of this study revealed the pattern of trust towards father for both Malaysian male and female adolescents. The results contributed new information about Malaysian adolescents- trust towards their father form the indigenous context. The implications of finding will be discussed.Keywords: Adolescent, Father-child relationship, Indigenous Psychology, Trust.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22082185 Communication and Devices: Face to Face Communication versus Communication with Mobile Technologies
Authors: Nuran Öze
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With the rapid changes occurring in the last twenty five years, mobile phone technology has influenced every aspect of life. Technological developments within the Internet and mobile phone areas have not only changed communication practices; it has also changed the everyday life practices of individuals. This article has focused on understanding how people’s communication practices and everyday life practices have changed with the smartphone usage. The study was conducted by using in-depth interview method and the research was conducted on twenty Turkish Cypriots who live in Northern Cyprus. According to the research results, communicating via Internet has rapidly replaced face to face communication in recent years. However, results have changed according to generations. Younger generations can easily adapt themselves to technological changes because they are already gaining everyday life practices right now. However, the older generations practices are already present in their everyday life.
Keywords: Face to face communication, internet, mobile technologies, North Cyprus.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14332184 Selection of Extracurricular Education Facilities and Organizational Performance Analysis of Meg-city Spatial System
Authors: Chen Zhang, Wei Yaping
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With the rapid expansion of city scale and the excessive concentration of population, achieving relative equality of extracurricular education resources and improving spatial service performance of relevant facilities become necessary arduous tasks. In urban space, extracurricular education facilities should offer better service to its targeted area and promote the equality and efficiency of education, which is accomplished by the allocation of facilities. Based on questionnaire and survey for local students in Hangzhou City in 2009, this study classifies extracurricular education facilities in meg-city and defines the equalization of these facilities. Then it is suggested to establish extracurricular education facilities system according to the development level of city and demands of local students, and to introduce a spatial analysis method into urban planning through the aspects of spatial distribution, travel cost and spatial service scope. Finally, the practice of nine sub-districts of Hangzhou is studied.Keywords: extracurricular education facilities, equalization, spatial service performance, meg-city
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14272183 A Heuristics Approach for Fast Detecting Suspicious Money Laundering Cases in an Investment Bank
Authors: Nhien-An Le-Khac, Sammer Markos, M-Tahar Kechadi
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Today, money laundering (ML) poses a serious threat not only to financial institutions but also to the nation. This criminal activity is becoming more and more sophisticated and seems to have moved from the cliché of drug trafficking to financing terrorism and surely not forgetting personal gain. Most international financial institutions have been implementing anti-money laundering solutions (AML) to fight investment fraud. However, traditional investigative techniques consume numerous man-hours. Recently, data mining approaches have been developed and are considered as well-suited techniques for detecting ML activities. Within the scope of a collaboration project for the purpose of developing a new solution for the AML Units in an international investment bank, we proposed a data mining-based solution for AML. In this paper, we present a heuristics approach to improve the performance for this solution. We also show some preliminary results associated with this method on analysing transaction datasets.Keywords: data mining, anti money laundering, clustering, heuristics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35852182 Data Transmission Reliability in Short Message Integrated Distributed Monitoring Systems
Authors: Sui Xin, Li Chunsheng, Tian Di
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Short message integrated distributed monitoring systems (SM-DMS) are growing rapidly in wireless communication applications in various areas, such as electromagnetic field (EMF) management, wastewater monitoring, and air pollution supervision, etc. However, delay in short messages often makes the data embedded in SM-DMS transmit unreliably. Moreover, there are few regulations dealing with this problem in SMS transmission protocols. In this study, based on the analysis of the command and data requirements in the SM-DMS, we developed a processing model for the control center to solve the delay problem in data transmission. Three components of the model: the data transmission protocol, the receiving buffer pool method, and the timer mechanism were described in detail. Discussions on adjusting the threshold parameter in the timer mechanism were presented for the adaptive performance during the runtime of the SM-DMS. This model optimized the data transmission reliability in SM-DMS, and provided a supplement to the data transmission reliability protocols at the application level.
Keywords: Delay, SMS, reliability, distributed monitoringsystem (DMS), wireless communication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17042181 Age and Sex Pattern of Children-s Disability and Its Severity in Parila Union of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Authors: Md. Emaj Uddin, K. M. Rabiul Karim, Md. Delwar Hossain
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This study examines age and sex patterns of children-s disability in the Parila union of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. For this we assumed that (1) prevalence of disability patterns and its severity in the middle childhood are higher than in the infancy or latter childhood in the Parila union of Rajshahi, (2) prevalence of disability patterns and its severity among the boys compared to girls are higher in the study area of Bangladesh. In order to examine the assumptions 102 samples, including their mothers were selected based on snowball process and the respondents were individually interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire method. The results of the study suggest that disability patterns and its severity among the male children were two-fold higher than the female children. In addition, these patterns of children-s disability and its severity in the middle childhood were also higher than in the infancy or latter childhood. Further study should conduct how socio-structural factors influence age and sex patterns of children-s disability patterns and its severity in Bangladesh.Keywords: Age, Bangladesh, Children's Disability Pattern, Sex, Severity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17472180 Lagrange-s Inversion Theorem and Infiltration
Authors: Pushpa N. Rathie, Prabhata K. Swamee, André L. B. Cavalcante, Luan Carlos de S. M. Ozelim
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Implicit equations play a crucial role in Engineering. Based on this importance, several techniques have been applied to solve this particular class of equations. When it comes to practical applications, in general, iterative procedures are taken into account. On the other hand, with the improvement of computers, other numerical methods have been developed to provide a more straightforward methodology of solution. Analytical exact approaches seem to have been continuously neglected due to the difficulty inherent in their application; notwithstanding, they are indispensable to validate numerical routines. Lagrange-s Inversion Theorem is a simple mathematical tool which has proved to be widely applicable to engineering problems. In short, it provides the solution to implicit equations by means of an infinite series. To show the validity of this method, the tree-parameter infiltration equation is, for the first time, analytically and exactly solved. After manipulating these series, closed-form solutions are presented as H-functions.Keywords: Green-Ampt Equation, Lagrange's Inversion Theorem, Talsma-Parlange Equation, Three-Parameter Infiltration Equation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18882179 The Impact of Bus Rapid Transit on Land Development: A Case Study of Beijing, China
Authors: Taotao Deng, John D. Nelson
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Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has emerged as a cost-effective transport system for urban mobility. However its ability to stimulate land development remains largely unexplored. The study makes use of qualitative (interview method) and quantitative analysis (questionnaire survey and longitudinal analysis of property data) to investigate land development impact resulting from BRT in Beijing, China. The empirical analysis suggests that BRT has a positive impact on the residential and commercial property attractiveness along the busway corridor. The statistical analysis suggests that accessibility advantage conferred by BRT is capitalized into higher property price. The average price of apartments adjacent to a BRT station has gained a relatively faster increase than those not served by the BRT system. The capitalization effect mostly occurs after the full operation of BRT, and is more evident over time and particularly observed in areas which previously lack alternative mobility opportunity.
Keywords: accessibility, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Beijing, property value uplift
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 46052178 Annotations of Gene Pathways Images in Biomedical Publications Using Siamese Network
Authors: Micheal Olaolu Arowolo, Muhammad Azam, Fei He, Mihail Popescu, Dong Xu
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As the quantity of biological articles rises, so does the number of biological route figures. Each route figure shows gene names and relationships. Manually annotating pathway diagrams is time-consuming. Advanced image understanding models could speed up curation, but they must be more precise. There is rich information in biological pathway figures. The first step to performing image understanding of these figures is to recognize gene names automatically. Classical optical character recognition methods have been employed for gene name recognition, but they are not optimized for literature mining data. This study devised a method to recognize an image bounding box of gene name as a photo using deep Siamese neural network models to outperform the existing methods using ResNet, DenseNet and Inception architectures, the results obtained about 84% accuracy.
Keywords: Biological pathway, gene identification, object detection, Siamese network, ResNet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2472177 Wind Fragility for Honeycomb Roof Cladding Panels Using Screw Pull-Out Capacity
Authors: Viriyavudh Sim, Woo Young Jung
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The failure of roof cladding mostly occurs due to the failing of the connection between claddings and purlins, which is the pull-out of the screw connecting the two parts when the pull-out load, i.e. typhoon, is higher than the resistance of the connection screw. As typhoon disasters in Korea are constantly on the rise, probability risk assessment (PRA) has become a vital tool to evaluate the performance of civil structures. In this study, we attempted to determine the fragility of roof cladding with the screw connection. Experimental study was performed to evaluate the pull-out resistance of screw joints between honeycomb panels and back frames. Subsequently, by means of Monte Carlo Simulation method, probability of failure for these types of roof cladding was determined. The results that the failure of roof cladding was depends on their location on the roof, for example, the edge most panel has the highest probability of failure.Keywords: Monte Carlo Simulation, roof cladding, screw pull-out strength, wind fragility
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9552176 Two-Dimensional Modeling of Seasonal Freeze and Thaw in an Idealized River Bank
Authors: Jiajia Pan, Hung Tao Shen
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Freeze and thaw occurs seasonally in river banks in northern countries. Little is known on how the riverbank soil temperature responds to air temperature changes and how freeze and thaw develops in a river bank seasonally. This study presents a two-dimensional heat conduction model for numerical investigations of seasonal freeze and thaw processes in an idealized river bank. The model uses the finite difference method and it is convenient for applications. The model is validated with an analytical solution and a field case with soil temperature distributions. It is then applied to the idealized river bank in terms of partially and fully saturated conditions with or without ice cover influence. Simulated results illustrate the response processes of the river bank to seasonal air temperature variations. It promotes the understanding of freeze and thaw processes in river banks and prepares for further investigation of frost and thaw impacts on riverbank stability.Keywords: Freeze and thaw, river banks, 2D model, heat conduction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4112175 Automatic Facial Skin Segmentation Using Possibilistic C-Means Algorithm for Evaluation of Facial Surgeries
Authors: Elham Alaee, Mousa Shamsi, Hossein Ahmadi, Soroosh Nazem, Mohammadhossein Sedaaghi
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Human face has a fundamental role in the appearance of individuals. So the importance of facial surgeries is undeniable. Thus, there is a need for the appropriate and accurate facial skin segmentation in order to extract different features. Since Fuzzy CMeans (FCM) clustering algorithm doesn’t work appropriately for noisy images and outliers, in this paper we exploit Possibilistic CMeans (PCM) algorithm in order to segment the facial skin. For this purpose, first, we convert facial images from RGB to YCbCr color space. To evaluate performance of the proposed algorithm, the database of Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran was used. In order to have a better understanding from the proposed algorithm; FCM and Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms are also used for facial skin segmentation. The proposed method shows better results than the other segmentation methods. Results include misclassification error (0.032) and the region’s area error (0.045) for the proposed algorithm.
Keywords: Facial image, segmentation, PCM, FCM, skin error, facial surgery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19902174 A Decision Tree Approach to Estimate Permanent Residents Using Remote Sensing Data in Lebanese Municipalities
Authors: K. Allaw, J. Adjizian Gerard, M. Chehayeb, A. Raad, W. Fahs, A. Badran, A. Fakherdin, H. Madi, N. Badaro Saliba
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Population estimation using Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing faces many obstacles such as the determination of permanent residents. A permanent resident is an individual who stays and works during all four seasons in his village. So, all those who move towards other cities or villages are excluded from this category. The aim of this study is to identify the factors affecting the percentage of permanent residents in a village and to determine the attributed weight to each factor. To do so, six factors have been chosen (slope, precipitation, temperature, number of services, time to Central Business District (CBD) and the proximity to conflict zones) and each one of those factors has been evaluated using one of the following data: the contour lines map of 50 m, the precipitation map, four temperature maps and data collected through surveys. The weighting procedure has been done using decision tree method. As a result of this procedure, temperature (50.8%) and percentage of precipitation (46.5%) are the most influencing factors.
Keywords: Remote sensing and GIS, permanent residence, decision tree, Lebanon.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10102173 Optimization of Human Comfort Reaction for Suspended Cabin Tractor Semitrailer Drivers
Authors: L.A.Kumaraswamidhas, P.Velmurugan, K.Sankaranarayanasamy
Abstract:
This work has been conducted to study on comfort level of drivers of suspended cabin tractor semitrailer. Some drivers suffer from low back pain caused by vibration. The practical significance of applying suspended cabin type of tractor semi trailer was tested at different road conditions, different speed as well as different load conditions for comfortable driver seat interface (x, y, z ) and the process parameters have been prioritized using Taguchi-s L27 orthogonal array. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to optimize the human comfort vibration of suspended cabin tractor semitrailer drivers. The practical significance of applying GA to human comfort to reaction of suspended cabin tractor semitrailer has been validated by means of computing the deviation between predicted and experimentally obtained human comfort to vibration. The optimized acceleration data indicate a little uncomfortable ride for suspended cabin tractor semitrailer.
Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Ride Comfort, Taguchi Method, Tractor Semitrailer
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