Search results for: natural hazards

Authors: A. M. John-Otumu, M. M. Rahman, O. C. Nwokonkwo, M. C. Onuoha

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Online social media networks have long served as a primary arena for group conversations, gossip, text-based information sharing and distribution. The use of natural language processing techniques for text classification and unbiased decision making has not been far-fetched. Proper classification of these textual information in a given context has also been very difficult. As a result, a systematic review was conducted from previous literature on sentiment classification and AI-based techniques. The study was done in order to gain a better understanding of the process of designing and developing a robust and more accurate sentiment classifier that could correctly classify social media textual information of a given context between hate speech and inverted compliments with a high level of accuracy using the knowledge gain from the evaluation of different artificial intelligence techniques reviewed. The study evaluated over 250 articles from digital sources like ACM digital library, Google Scholar, and IEEE Xplore; and whittled down the number of research to 52 articles. Findings revealed that deep learning approaches such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (BERT), and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) outperformed various machine learning techniques in terms of performance accuracy. A large dataset is also required to develop a robust sentiment classifier. Results also revealed that data can be obtained from places like Twitter, movie reviews, Kaggle, Stanford Sentiment Treebank (SST), and SemEval Task4 based on the required domain. The hybrid deep learning techniques like CNN+LSTM, CNN+ Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), CNN+BERT outperformed single deep learning techniques and machine learning techniques. Python programming language outperformed Java programming language in terms of development simplicity and AI-based library functionalities. Finally, the study recommended the findings obtained for building robust sentiment classifier in the future.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Sentiment Analysis, Social Network, Text.

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Authors: Barun Raychaudhuri

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A methodology is proposed for estimating the optical attenuation and proportional depth variation of shallow inland water. The process is demonstrated with EO-1 Hyperion hyperspectral and IRS-P6 LISS-3 multispectral images of Kolkata city nearby area centered around 22º33′ N 88º26′ E. The attenuation coefficient of water was found to change with fine resolution of wavebands and in presence of suspended organic matter in water.

Keywords: Hyperion, hyperspectral, Kolkata, water depth.

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Authors: S. B. Rushayati, R. Meilani, R. Hermawan

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A biosphere reserve is developed to create harmony amongst economic development, community development, and environmental protection, through partnership between human and nature. Giam Siak Kecil Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve (GSKBB BR) in Riau Province, Indonesia, is unique in that it has peat soil dominating the area, many springs essential for human livelihood, high biodiversity. Furthermore, it is the only biosphere reserve covering privately managed production forest areas. In this research, we aimed at analyzing the threat of deforestation and forest fire, and the potential of CO2 emission at GSKBB BR. We used Landsat image, arcView software, and ERDAS IMAGINE 8.5 Software to conduct spatial analysis of land cover and land use changes, calculated CO2 emission based on emission potential from each land cover and land use type, and exercised simple linear regression to demonstrate the relation between CO2 emission potential and deforestation. The result showed that, beside in the buffer zone and transition area, deforestation also occurred in the core area. Spatial analysis of land cover and land use changes from years 2010, 2012, and 2014 revealed that there were changes of land cover and land use from natural forest and industrial plantation forest to other land use types, such as garden, mixed garden, settlement, paddy fields, burnt areas, and dry agricultural land. Deforestation in core area, particularly at the Giam Siak Kecil Wildlife Reserve and Bukit Batu Wildlife Reserve, occurred in the form of changes from natural forest in to garden, mixed garden, shrubs, swamp shrubs, dry agricultural land, open area, and burnt area. In the buffer zone and transition area, changes also happened, what once swamp forest changed into garden, mixed garden, open area, shrubs, swamp shrubs, and dry agricultural land. Spatial analysis on land cover and land use changes indicated that deforestation rate in the biosphere reserve from 2010 to 2014 had reached 16 119 ha/year. Beside deforestation, threat toward the biosphere reserve area also came from forest fire. The occurrence of forest fire in 2014 had burned 101 723 ha of the area, in which 9 355 ha of core area, and 92 368 ha of buffer zone and transition area. Deforestation and forest fire had increased CO2 emission as much as 24 903 855 ton/year.

Keywords: Biosphere reserve, CO2 emission, deforestation, forest fire.

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Authors: Melis Inalpulat, Levent Genc

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Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human activities and natural causes have become a major environmental concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984 and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed, Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM and OLI images were classified using supervised classification method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest (F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W), Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also derived from thermal bands of the same dates. LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as 65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985 ha) within three decades. The population increased 29% between years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes, migration also caused this increase since the study area has an important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to residential areas in 30 years. The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged between 26-32°C in 1984 and 27-33°C in 2014. Minimum temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3°C and reached to 23°C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to 41°C from 44°C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and 1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max temperatures increased by 2°C. As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: Census data, landsat, land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC).

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Authors: Jianwei Wu

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Based on the one-bit-matching principle and by turning the de-mixing matrix into an orthogonal matrix via certain normalization, Ma et al proposed a one-bit-matching learning algorithm on the Stiefel manifold for independent component analysis [8]. But this algorithm is not adaptive. In this paper, an algorithm which can extract kurtosis and its sign of each independent source component directly from observation data is firstly introduced.With the algorithm , the one-bit-matching learning algorithm is revised, so that it can make the blind separation on the Stiefel manifold implemented completely in the adaptive mode in the framework of natural gradient.

Keywords: Independent component analysis, kurtosis, Stiefel manifold, super-gaussians or sub-gaussians.

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Authors: G. Petruzzelli, F. Pedron, M. Grifoni, F. Gorini, I. Rosellini, B. Pezzarossa

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Composting is a controlled technology to enhance the natural aerobic process of organic wastes degradation. The resulting product is a humified material that is principally recyclable for agricultural purpose. The composting process is one of the most important tools for waste management, by the European Community legislation. In recent years composting has been increasingly used as a remediation technology to remove biodegradable contaminants from soil, and to modulate heavy metals bioavailability in phytoremediation strategies. An optimization in the recovery of resources from wastes through composting could enhance soil fertility and promote its use in the remediation biotechnologies of contaminated soils.

Keywords: Agriculture, biopile, compost, soil clean-up, waste recycling.

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Authors: Ali Haroonabadi, Mohammad Teshnehlab

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None of the processing models in the software development has explained the software systems performance evaluation and modeling; likewise, there exist uncertainty in the information systems because of the natural essence of requirements, and this may cause other challenges in the processing of software development. By definition an extended version of UML (Fuzzy- UML), the functional requirements of the software defined uncertainly would be supported. In this study, the behavioral description of uncertain information systems by the aid of fuzzy-state diagram is crucial; moreover, the introduction of behavioral diagrams role in F-UML is investigated in software performance modeling process. To get the aim, a fuzzy sub-profile is used.

Keywords: Fuzzy System, Software Development Model, Software Performance Evaluation, UML

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Authors: A. Bozkurt, C. Kocatepe, R. Yumurtaci, İ. C. Tastan, G. Tulun

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Efficient use of energy, the increase in demand of energy and also with the reduction of natural energy sources, has improved its importance in recent years. Most of the losses in the system from electricity produced until the point of consumption is mostly composed by the energy distribution system. In this study, analysis of the resulting loss in power distribution transformer and distribution power cable is realized which are most of the losses in the distribution system. Transformer losses in the real distribution system are analyzed by CYME Power Engineering Software program. These losses are disclosed for different voltage levels and different loading conditions.

Keywords: Distribution system, distribution transformer, power cable, technical losses.

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Authors: A. D'Alessandro, F. Ubertini, A. L. Materazzi

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In the field of civil engineering, Structural Health Monitoring is a topic of growing interest. Effective monitoring instruments permit the control of the working conditions of structures and infrastructures, through the identification of behavioral anomalies due to incipient damages, especially in areas of high environmental hazards as earthquakes. While traditional sensors can be applied only in a limited number of points, providing a partial information for a structural diagnosis, novel transducers may allow a diffuse sensing. Thanks to the new tools and materials provided by nanotechnology, new types of multifunctional sensors are developing in the scientific panorama. In particular, cement-matrix composite materials capable of diagnosing their own state of strain and tension, could be originated by the addition of specific conductive nanofillers. Because of the nature of the material they are made of, these new cementitious nano-modified transducers can be inserted within the concrete elements, transforming the same structures in sets of widespread sensors. This paper is aimed at presenting the results of a research about a new self-sensing nanocomposite and about the implementation of smart sensors for Structural Health Monitoring. The developed nanocomposite has been obtained by inserting multi walled carbon nanotubes within a cementitious matrix. The insertion of such conductive carbon nanofillers provides the base material with piezoresistive characteristics and peculiar sensitivity to mechanical modifications. The self-sensing ability is achieved by correlating the variation of the external stress or strain with the variation of some electrical properties, such as the electrical resistance or conductivity. Through the measurement of such electrical characteristics, the performance and the working conditions of an element or a structure can be monitored. Among conductive carbon nanofillers, carbon nanotubes seem to be particularly promising for the realization of self-sensing cement-matrix materials. Some issues related to the nanofiller dispersion or to the influence of the nano-inclusions amount in the cement matrix need to be carefully investigated: the strain sensitivity of the resulting sensors is influenced by such factors. This work analyzes the dispersion of the carbon nanofillers, the physical properties of the fresh dough, the electrical properties of the hardened composites and the sensing properties of the realized sensors. The experimental campaign focuses specifically on their dynamic characterization and their applicability to the monitoring of full-scale elements. The results of the electromechanical tests with both slow varying and dynamic loads show that the developed nanocomposite sensors can be effectively used for the health monitoring of structures.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes, self-sensing nanocomposites, smart cement-matrix sensors, structural health monitoring.

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Authors: Indunil Jayatilake, Warna Karunasena, Weena Lokuge

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An Australian manufacturer has fabricated an innovative GFRP sandwich panel made from E-glass fiber skin and a modified phenolic core for structural applications. Debonding, which refers to separation of skin from the core material in composite sandwiches, is one of the most common types of damage in composites. The presence of debonding is of great concern because it not only severely affects the stiffness but also modifies the dynamic behaviour of the structure. Generally it is seen that the majority of research carried out has been concerned about the delamination of laminated structures whereas skin-core debonding has received relatively minor attention. Furthermore it is observed that research done on composite slabs having multiple skin-core debonding is very limited. To address this gap, a comprehensive research investigating dynamic behaviour of composite panels with single and multiple debonding is presented. The study uses finite-element modelling and analyses for investigating the influence of debonding on free vibration behaviour of single and multilayer composite sandwich panels. A broad parametric investigation has been carried out by varying debonding locations, debonding sizes and support conditions of the panels in view of both single and multiple debonding. Numerical models were developed with Strand7 finite element package by innovatively selecting the suitable elements to diligently represent their actual behavior. Three-dimensional finite element models were employed to simulate the physically real situation as close as possible, with the use of an experimentally and numerically validated finite element model. Comparative results and conclusions based on the analyses are presented. For similar extents and locations of debonding, the effect of debonding on natural frequencies appears greatly dependent on the end conditions of the panel, giving greater decrease in natural frequency when the panels are more restrained. Some modes are more sensitive to debonding and this sensitivity seems to be related to their vibration mode shapes. The fundamental mode seems generally the least sensitive mode to debonding with respect to the variation in free vibration characteristics. The results indicate the effectiveness of the developed three dimensional finite element models in assessing debonding damage in composite sandwich panels.

Keywords: Debonding, free vibration behaviour, GFRP sandwich panels, three dimensional finite element modelling.

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Authors: Shaharin A. Sulaiman, Haizatul H. Hussain, Nik Siti H. Nik Leh, Mohd S. I. Razali

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Accumulation of dust from the outdoor environment on the panels of solar photovoltaic (PV) system is natural. There were studies that showed that the accumulated dust can reduce the performance of solar panels, but the results were not clearly quantified. The objective of this research was to study the effects of dust accumulation on the performance of solar PV panels. Experiments were conducted using dust particles on solar panels with a constant-power light source, to determine the resulting electrical power generated and efficiency. It was found from the study that the accumulated dust on the surface of photovoltaic solar panel can reduce the system-s efficiency by up to 50%.

Keywords: Dust, Photovoltaic, Solar Energy.

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

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With the increase of demand and popularity of ecotourism development to address the concern of carbon emission, the acceleration of development of the concept of net zero carbon ecotourism can increase international competitiveness, sustainability and productivity. This paper aims to outline the major key components and considerations in ecotourism development with integration of net zero strategy and provide recommendation and reference to government agents, Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry and stakeholders to contribute to the target of net zero and environmentally friendly ecotourism development project. This paper explores the alternative to the reliance on local regulation and ecotourism certification programs as a base tool to achieve the higher standard of the reduction of the use of energy and natural resources in ecotourism development and to enhance their sustainability.

Keywords: Net zero ecotourism, sustainability, embodied carbon, Paris Agreement.

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Authors: Naiqin Feng, Yuhui Qiu, Yingshan Zhang, Fang Wang

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A logic model for analyzing complex systems- stability is very useful to many areas of sciences. In the real world, we are enlightened from some natural phenomena such as “biosphere", “food chain", “ecological balance" etc. By research and practice, and taking advantage of the orthogonality and symmetry defined by the theory of multilateral matrices, we put forward a logic analysis model of stability of complex systems with three relations, and prove it by means of mathematics. This logic model is usually successful in analyzing stability of a complex system. The structure of the logic model is not only clear and simple, but also can be easily used to research and solve many stability problems of complex systems. As an application, some examples are given.

Keywords: Complex system, logic model, relation, stability.

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Authors: Gholam Hossein Naseri, Manucher Tamizi

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Light is one of the most important qualitative and symbolic factors and has a special position in architecture and urban development in regard to practical function. The main function of light, either natural or artificial, is lighting up the environment and the constructional forms which is called lighting. However, light is used to redefine the urban spaces by architectural genius with regard to three aesthetic, conceptual and symbolic factors. In architecture and urban development, light has a function beyond lighting up the environment, and the designers consider it as one of the basic components. The present research aims at studying the function of light and color in architectural view and their effects in buildings.

Keywords: Architectural View , Color , Light

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Authors: A. Darvizeh, H. Rajabi, S. Fatahtooei Nejad, A. Khaheshi, P. Haghdoust

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In this article, biomechanical aspects of hen-s eggshell as a natural ceramic structure are studied. The images, taken by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), are used to investigate the microscopic aspects of the egg. It is observed that eggshell has a three-layered microstructure with different morphological and structural characteristics. Studies on the eggshell membrane (ESM) as a prosperous tissue suggest that it is placed to prevent the penetration of microorganisms into the egg. Finally, numerical models of the egg are presented to study the stress distribution and its deformation under different loading conditions. The effects of two different types of loading (hydrostatic and point loadings) on two different shell models (with constant and variable thicknesses) are investigated in detail.

Keywords: Eggshell, biomechanical properties, Scanning electron microscope, Numerical Modeling.

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Authors: Riham A. Ragheb

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Tourism can do a great deal of good in destinations, whether it be by bringing economic benefits to local communities, helping with conservation efforts or in placing a value on aspects of cultural heritage. As responsive travelers, we must all try to do more of the good and less of the negative. This is simply description of the sustainable tourism. This paper aims to set some criteria of successful sustainable tourism development and then through these criteria analyzing the development of some resorts in Egypt known as sustainable resorts. Hence, a comprehensive improvement of the touristic areas is certainly needed to ensure a successful sustainable tourism development radiated the sense of uniformity and coherence. Egypt can benefit from these criteria to develop its resorts in order to preserve and revitalize its unique natural character and achieve mixed uses and tourism development.

Keywords: Egypt, resorts, sustainable tourism, tourism development.

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Authors: Amir Anvar, Dong Yang Li

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This paper presents an overview of the Ocean wave kinetic energy harvesting system. Energy harvesting is a concept by which energy is captured, stored, and utilized using various sources by employing interfaces, storage devices, and other units. Ocean wave energy harvesting in which the kinetic and potential energy contained in the natural oscillations of Ocean waves are converted into electric power. The kinetic energy harvesting system could be used for a number of areas. The main applications that we have discussed in this paper are to how generate the energy from Ocean wave energy (kinetic energy) to electric energy that is to eliminate the requirement for continual battery replacement.

Keywords: Energy harvesting, power system, oceanic, sensors, autonomous.

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Authors: Jozef Mindas, Jana Skvareninova

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Wetlands are a main natural source of methane emissions, but they also represent the important biodiversity reservoirs in the landscape. There are about 26 thousands hectares of wetlands in Slovakia identified via the wetlands monitoring program. Created database of wetlands in Slovakia allows to analyze several ecological processes including also the methane emissions estimate. Based on the information from the database, the first estimate of the methane emissions from wetlands in Slovakia has been done. The IPCC methodology (Tier 1 approach) has been used with proposed emission factors for the ice-free period derived from the climatic data. The highest methane emissions of nearly 550 Gg are associated with the category of fens. Almost 11 Gg of methane is emitted from bogs, and emissions from flooded lands represent less than 8 Gg.

Keywords: Methane emissions, wetlands, bogs, fens, Slovakia.

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Authors: Rajeev R. Sahay

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Rivers have transient storage or dead zones where injected pollutants or solutes are entrapped for considerable period of time, known as residence time, before being released into the main flowing zones of rivers. In this study, a new empirical expression for residence time, implementing genetic programming on published dispersion data, has been derived. The proposed expression uses few hydraulic and geometric characteristics of rivers which are normally known to the authorities. When compared with some reported expressions, based on various statistical indices, it can be concluded that the proposed expression predicts the residence time of pollutants in natural rivers more accurately.

Keywords: Parameter estimation, pollutant transport, residence time, rivers, transient storage.

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Authors: S. R. Shamili, J. Karthikeyan

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Fast development of the total populace and far and wide urbanization has surprisingly expanded the advancement of the construction industry. As a result of these activities, old structures are being demolished to make new buildings. Due to these large-scale demolitions, a huge amount of debris is generated all over the world, which results in a landfill. The use of construction and demolition waste as landfill causes groundwater contamination, which is hazardous. Using construction and demolition waste as aggregate can reduce the use of natural aggregates and the problem of mining. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed overview on how the construction and demolition waste material has been used as aggregate in structural concrete. In this study, the preparation, classification, and composition of construction and demolition wastes are also discussed.

Keywords: Aggregate, construction and demolition waste, landfill, large scale demolition.

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Authors: P Bumb, U Desideri, F Quattrocchi, L Arcioni

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This paper presents the feasibility study of CO2 sequestration from the sources to the sinks in the prospective of Italian Industries. CO2 produced at these sources captured, compressed to supercritical pressures, transported via pipelines and stored in underground geologic formations such as depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs, un-minable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. In this work, we present the optimized pipeline infrastructure for the CO2 with appropriate constraints to find lower cost system by the use of nonlinear optimization software LINGO 11.0. This study was conducted on CO2 transportation complex network of Italian Industries, to find minimum cost network for transporting the CO2 from sources to the sinks.

Keywords: CCS, CO2, ECBM, EU, NAP, LINGO, UNMIG.

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Authors: Kumiko Aoki

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Japan is known to be a technological powerhouse, being noted for its automobiles, consumer electronics, laptop computers, portable gaming devices, and more recently healing animal robots. Japan is also noted for its popular culture; manga, anime, novels, films, character goods, game programs, cosplay cafes, karaoke and so on. It may be natural for people outside Japan to assume that e-learning in Japan must be well advanced and innovative. In reality, the application of technologies in education in Japan is far behind of other developed countries. Especially in higher education, apathy of students towards their study prevails and teachers continue ignoring such student attitudes. E-learning, which is supposed to revolutionalize the way people learn as it has potentials to enable more student-centered learning, has not been realized in Japan and mostly used to perpetuate the teachercentered teaching in a different format.

Keywords: e-learning, Higher Education, ICT in Education, Japan

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Authors: Jiaji Zhou, Le Liang, Long Chen

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Geographic Profiling has successfully assisted investigations for serial crimes. Considering the multi-cluster feature of serial criminal spots, we propose a Multi-point Centrography model as a natural extension of Single-point Centrography for geographic profiling. K-means clustering is first performed on the data samples and then Single-point Centrography is adopted to derive a probability distribution on each cluster. Finally, a weighted combinations of each distribution is formed to make next-crime spot prediction. Experimental study on real cases demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed model.

Keywords: Geographic profiling, Centrography model, K-means algorithm

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Authors: R. Malisa, E. Schwella, K. I. Theletsane

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Due to climate change, population growth and rapid urbanization, the demand for water in South Africa is inevitably surpassing supply. To address similar challenges globally, there has been a paradigm shift from conventional urban waste water management “government” to a “governance” paradigm. From the governance paradigm, Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) principle emerged. This principle emphasizes efficient urban waste water treatment and production of high-quality recyclable effluent. In so doing mimicking natural water systems, in their processes of recycling water efficiently, and averting depletion of natural water resources.  The objective of this study was to investigate drivers of shifting the current urban waste water management approach from a “government” paradigm towards “governance”. The study was conducted through Interactive Management soft systems research methodology which follows a qualitative research design. A case study methodology was employed, guided by realism research philosophy. Qualitative data gathered were analyzed through interpretative structural modelling using Concept Star for Professionals Decision-Making tools (CSPDM) version 3.64.  The constructed model deduced that the main drivers in shifting the Stellenbosch municipal urban waste water management towards IUWM “governance” principles are mainly social elements characterized by overambitious expectations of the public on municipal water service delivery, mis-interpretation of the constitution on access to adequate clean water and sanitation as a human right and perceptions on recycling water by different communities. Inadequate public participation also emerged as a strong driver. However, disruptive events such as draught may play a positive role in raising an awareness on the value of water, resulting in a shift on the perceptions on recycled water. Once the social elements are addressed, the alignment of governance and administration elements towards IUWM are achievable. Hence, the point of departure for the desired paradigm shift is the change of water service authorities and serviced communities’ perceptions and behaviors towards shifting urban waste water management approaches from “government” to “governance” paradigm.

Keywords: Integrated urban water management, urban water system, waste water governance, waste water treatment works.

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Authors: Hans H. Diel

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A computer model of Quantum Theory (QT) has been developed by the author. Major goal of the computer model was support and demonstration of an as large as possible scope of QT. This includes simulations for the major QT (Gedanken-) experiments such as, for example, the famous double-slit experiment. Besides the anticipated difficulties with (1) transforming exacting mathematics into a computer program, two further types of problems showed up, namely (2) areas where QT provides a complete mathematical formalism, but when it comes to concrete applications the equations are not solvable at all, or only with extremely high effort; (3) QT rules which are formulated in natural language and which do not seem to be translatable to precise mathematical expressions, nor to a computer program. The paper lists problems in all three categories and describes also the possible solutions or circumventions developed for the computer model.

Keywords: Computability, Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, Measurement Process, Modeling.

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver, Reham Al-Hindawi

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Despite the availability of natural disaster related time series data for last 110 years, there is no forecasting tool available to humanitarian relief organizations to determine forecasts for emergency logistics planning. This study develops a forecasting tool based on identifying probability of disaster for each country in the world by using decision tree modeling. Further, the determination of aggregate forecasts leads to efficient pre-disaster planning. Based on the research findings, the relief agencies can optimize the various resources allocation in emergency logistics planning.

Keywords: Decision tree modeling, Forecasting, Humanitarian relief, emergency supply chain.

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Authors: Inom Sh. Normatov, Nurmakhmad Shermatov, Rajabali Barotov, Rano Eshankulova

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The results of the studies for the hydrogen production by the application of water electrolysis and plasma-chemical processing of gas condensate-waste of natural gas production methods are presented. Thin coating covers the electrode surfaces in the process of water electrolysis. Therefore, water for electrolysis was first exposed to electrosedimentation. The threshold voltage is shifted to a lower value compared with the use of electrodes made of stainless steel. At electrolysis of electrosedimented water by use of electrodes from stainless steel, a significant amount of hydrogen is formed. Pyrolysis of gas condensates in the atmosphere of a nitrogen was followed by the formation of acetylene (3-7 vol.%), ethylene (4-8 vol.%), and pyrolysis carbon (10-15 wt.%).

Keywords: Electrolyze, gas condensate, hydrogen, pyrolysis.

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Authors: Hichem Talbi, Mohamed Batouche, Amer Draa

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In this paper we present a new approach to deal with image segmentation. The fact that a single segmentation result do not generally allow a higher level process to take into account all the elements included in the image has motivated the consideration of image segmentation as a multiobjective optimization problem. The proposed algorithm adopts a split/merge strategy that uses the result of the k-means algorithm as input for a quantum evolutionary algorithm to establish a set of non-dominated solutions. The evaluation is made simultaneously according to two distinct features: intra-region homogeneity and inter-region heterogeneity. The experimentation of the new approach on natural images has proved its efficiency and usefulness.

Keywords: Image segmentation, multiobjective optimization, quantum computing, evolutionary algorithms.

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Authors: Robest Flasza, Milan Rippel, Jan Solc

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The main aim of this paper is to develop and calibrate an econometric model for modeling prices of long term electricity futures contracts. The calibration of our model is performed on data from EEX AG allowing us to capture the specific features of German electricity market. The data sample contains several structural breaks which have to be taken into account for modeling. We model the data with an ARIMAX model which reveals high correlation between the price of electricity futures contracts and prices of LT futures contracts of fuels (namely coal, natural gas and crude oil). Besides this, also a share price index of representative electricity companies traded on Xetra, spread between 10Y and 1Y German bonds and exchange rate between EUR and USD appeared to have significant explanatory power over these futures contracts on EEX.

Keywords: electricity futures, EEX, ARIMAX, emissionallowances

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Authors: Hailong Zhu, Zhaoxiang Li

Abstract:

Semilinear elliptic equations are ubiquitous in natural sciences. They give rise to a variety of important phenomena in quantum mechanics, nonlinear optics, astrophysics, etc because they have rich multiple solutions. But the nontrivial solutions of semilinear equations are hard to be solved for the lack of stabilities, such as Lane-Emden equation, Henon equation and Chandrasekhar equation. In this paper, bifurcation method is applied to solving semilinear elliptic equations which are with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions in 2D. Using this method, nontrivial numerical solutions will be computed and visualized in many different domains (such as square, disk, annulus, dumbbell, etc).

Keywords: Semilinear elliptic equations, positive solutions, bifurcation method, isotropy subgroups.

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