Search results for: site response
1289 Accurate And Efficient Global Approximation using Adaptive Polynomial RSM for Complex Mechanical and Vehicular Performance Models
Authors: Y. Z. Wu, Z. Dong, S. K. You
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Global approximation using metamodel for complex mathematical function or computer model over a large variable domain is often needed in sensibility analysis, computer simulation, optimal control, and global design optimization of complex, multiphysics systems. To overcome the limitations of the existing response surface (RS), surrogate or metamodel modeling methods for complex models over large variable domain, a new adaptive and regressive RS modeling method using quadratic functions and local area model improvement schemes is introduced. The method applies an iterative and Latin hypercube sampling based RS update process, divides the entire domain of design variables into multiple cells, identifies rougher cells with large modeling error, and further divides these cells along the roughest dimension direction. A small number of additional sampling points from the original, expensive model are added over the small and isolated rough cells to improve the RS model locally until the model accuracy criteria are satisfied. The method then combines local RS cells to regenerate the global RS model with satisfactory accuracy. An effective RS cells sorting algorithm is also introduced to improve the efficiency of model evaluation. Benchmark tests are presented and use of the new metamodeling method to replace complex hybrid electrical vehicle powertrain performance model in vehicle design optimization and optimal control are discussed.Keywords: Global approximation, polynomial response surface, domain decomposition, domain combination, multiphysics modeling, hybrid powertrain optimization
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19081288 Condition Monitoring System of Mine Air Compressors Based on Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: Sheng Fu, Yinbo Gao, Hao Lin
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In the current mine air compressors monitoring system, there are some difficulties in the installation and maintenance because of the wired connection. To solve the problem, this paper introduces a new air compressors monitoring system based on ZigBee in which the monitoring parameters are transmitted wirelessly. The collecting devices are designed to form a cluster network to collect vibration, temperature, and pressure of air cylinders and other parameters. All these devices are battery-powered. Besides, the monitoring software in PC is developed using MFC. Experiments show that the designed wireless sensor network works well in the site environmental condition and the system is very convenient to be installed since the wireless connection. This monitoring system will have a wide application prospect in the upgrade of the old monitoring system of the air compressors.
Keywords: Condition monitoring, wireless sensor network, air compressor, ZigBee, data collecting
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13881287 Modeling and Simulation of Delaminations in FML Using Step Pulsed Active Thermography
Authors: S. Sundaravalli, M. C. Majumder, G. K. Vijayaraghavan
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The study focuses to investigate the thermal response of delaminations and develop mathematical models using numerical results to obtain the optimum heat requirement and time to identify delaminations in GLARE type of Fibre Metal Laminates (FML) in both reflection mode and through-transmission (TT) mode of step pulsed active thermography (SPAT) method in the type of nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDTE) technique. The influence of applied heat flux and time on various sizes and depth of delaminations in FML is analyzed to investigate the thermal response through numerical simulations. A finite element method (FEM) is applied to simulate SPAT through ANSYS software based on 3D transient heat transfer principle with the assumption of reflection mode and TT mode of observation individually.
The results conclude that the numerical approach based on SPAT in reflection mode is more suitable for analysing smaller size of near-surface delaminations located at the thermal stimulator side and TT mode is more suitable for analysing smaller size of deeper delaminations located far from thermal stimulator side or near thermal detector/Infrared camera side. The mathematical models provide the optimum q and T at the required MRTD to identify unidentified delamination 7 with 25015.0022W/m2 at 2.531sec and delamination 8 with 16663.3356 W/m2 at 1.37857sec in reflection mode. In TT mode, the delamination 1 with 34954W/m2 at 13.0399sec, delamination 2 with 20002.67W/m2 at 1.998sec and delamination 7 with 20010.87 W/m2 at 0.6171sec could be identified.
Keywords: Step pulsed active thermography (SPAT), NDTE, FML, Delaminations, Finite element method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25511286 The Digital Filing Cabinet–A GIS Based Management Solution Tool for the Land Surveyor and Engineer
Authors: A. Giraldo, A. Lapatka, A. Namyslak, S. Pilny, J. B. Miima
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This paper explains how the New Jersey Institute of Technology surveying student team members designed and created an interactive GIS map, the purpose of which is to be useful to the land surveyor and engineer for project management. This was achieved by building a research and storage database that can be easily integrated into any land surveyor’s current operations through the use of ArcGIS 10, Arc Catalog, and AutoCAD. This GIS database allows for visual representation and information querying for multiple job sites, and simple access to uploaded data, which is geospatially referenced to each individual job site or project. It can also be utilized by engineers to determine design criteria, or to store important files. This cost-effective approach to a surveying map not only saves time, but saves physical storage space and paper resources.
Keywords: Data Storage, GIS, Land Surveying, Mapping.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19171285 Effects of Modified Bottom Boards on the Performance of Honeybee Colonies
Authors: M. Keshlaf, R. Spooner-Hart
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Australia does not have varroa mite. However, we investigated whether modified hive bottom boards used for varroa mite management in honey bee colonies had other benefits, for honey production. We compared a number of colony parameters between hives fitted with tube, mesh and conventional (solid) bottom boards in two locations in eastern Australian, Richmond NSW and Castlemaine Victoria. Colonies housed in hives with mesh and tube bottom boards were not significantly superior to those in hives with conventional bottom boards with regard to bee flight activity, nor did they produce more honey, brood or stored pollen, in either experimental site. Although the trial was conducted over only one season, it is suggested that there may be no benefit in Australian bee keepers changing from using conventional bottom boards in the absence of varroamite.
Keywords: Apis mellifera, honey production, mesh bottom boards, tube bottom boards.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20941284 The Collapse of a Crane on Site: A Case Study
Authors: T. Teruzzi, S. Antonietti, C. Mosca, C. Paglia
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This paper discusses the causes of the structural failure in a tower crane. The structural collapse occurred at the upper joints of the extension element used to increase the height of the crane. The extension element consists of a steel lattice structure made with angular profiles and plates joined to the tower element by arc welding. Macroscopic inspection of the sections showed that the break was always observed on the angular profiles at the weld bead edge. The case study shows how, using mechanical characterization, chemical analysis of the steel and macroscopic and microscopic metallographic examinations, it was possible to obtain significant evidence that identified the mechanism causing the breakage. The analyses identified the causes of the structural failure as the use of materials that were not suitable for welding and poor performance in the welding joints.
Keywords: Failure, weld, microstructure, microcracks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5081283 Design Exploration on Mixed-Use Development of Island House: Take the Southeast Coastal Area of Chinese as an Example
Authors: Fu Jiayan, Wang Zhu, Sun Jiaojiao
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Mixed-use development is one of the most important trends in new island house transformation along southeast coastal area in China. Unique island geographical environment and profound fishing village culture coexist for a long time in this. With artistic creation for the purpose of the "live-work" houses are in a large number of emergence, however, still lack of systematic strategy. Based on space effect from marine resources to regional human settlements, this article teases out the evolution regularity of island settlement context and architectural form, then, puts forward the formation mechanism and construction model of art island houses. Thereby, to further explore space design method and site creation strategy of mixed-use development.Keywords: Mixed-use, Island House, Art Creation, Southeast Coastal Area of Chinese.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14901282 Design and Analysis of an Electro Thermally Symmetrical Actuated Microgripper
Authors: Sh. Foroughi, V. Karamzadeh, M. Packirisamy
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This paper presents design and analysis of an electrothermally symmetrical actuated microgripper applicable for performing micro assembly or biological cell manipulation. Integration of micro-optics with microdevice leads to achieve extremely precise control over the operation of the device. Geometry, material, actuation, control, accuracy in measurement and temperature distribution are important factors which have to be taken into account for designing the efficient microgripper device. In this work, analyses of four different geometries are performed by means of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 with implementing Finite Element Methods. Then, temperature distribution along the fingertip, displacement of gripper site as well as optical efficiency vs. displacement and electrical potential are illustrated. Results show in addition to the industrial application of this device, the usage of that as a cell manipulator is possible.
Keywords: Electro thermal actuator, MEMS, Microgripper, MOEMS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7011281 Indonesian News Classification using Support Vector Machine
Authors: Dewi Y. Liliana, Agung Hardianto, M. Ridok
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Digital news with a variety topics is abundant on the internet. The problem is to classify news based on its appropriate category to facilitate user to find relevant news rapidly. Classifier engine is used to split any news automatically into the respective category. This research employs Support Vector Machine (SVM) to classify Indonesian news. SVM is a robust method to classify binary classes. The core processing of SVM is in the formation of an optimum separating plane to separate the different classes. For multiclass problem, a mechanism called one against one is used to combine the binary classification result. Documents were taken from the Indonesian digital news site, www.kompas.com. The experiment showed a promising result with the accuracy rate of 85%. This system is feasible to be implemented on Indonesian news classification.Keywords: classification, Indonesian news, text processing, support vector machine
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34891280 Impovement of a Label Extraction Method for a Risk Search System
Authors: Shigeaki Sakurai, Ryohei Orihara
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This paper proposes an improvement method of classification efficiency in a classification model. The model is used in a risk search system and extracts specific labels from articles posted at bulletin board sites. The system can analyze the important discussions composed of the articles. The improvement method introduces ensemble learning methods that use multiple classification models. Also, it introduces expressions related to the specific labels into generation of word vectors. The paper applies the improvement method to articles collected from three bulletin board sites selected by users and verifies the effectiveness of the improvement method.Keywords: Text mining, Risk search system, Corporate reputation, Bulletin board site, Ensemble learning
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13251279 Seismic Behavior of Self-Balancing Post-Tensioned Reinforced Concrete Spatial Structure
Authors: Mircea Pastrav, Horia Constantinescu
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The construction industry is currently trying to develop sustainable reinforced concrete structures. In trying to aid in the effort, the research presented in this paper aims to prove the efficiency of modified special hybrid moment frames composed of discretely jointed precast and post-tensioned concrete members. This aim is due to the fact that current design standards do not cover the spatial design of moment frame structures assembled by post-tensioning with special hybrid joints. This lack of standardization is coupled with the fact that previous experimental programs, available in scientific literature, deal mainly with plane structures and offer little information regarding spatial behavior. A spatial model of a modified hybrid moment frame is experimentally analyzed. The experimental results of a natural scale model test of a corner column-beams sub-structure, cut from an actual multilevel building tested to seismic type loading are presented in order to highlight the behavior of this type of structure. The test is performed under alternative cycles of imposed lateral displacements, up to a storey drift ratio of 0.035. Seismic response of the spatial model is discussed considering the acceptance criteria for reinforced concrete frame structures designed based on experimental tests, as well as some of its major sustainability features. The results obtained show an overall excellent behavior of the system. The joint detailing allows for quick and cheap repairs after an accidental event and a self-balancing behavior of the system that ensures it can be used almost immediately after an accidental event it.
Keywords: Modified hybrid joint, seismic type loading response, self-balancing structure, acceptance criteria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11601278 Variability of Soil Strength Parameters and its Effect on the Slope Stability of the Želazny Most Tailing Dam
Authors: Stella A. Arnaouti, Demos C. Angelides, Theodoros N. Chatzigogos, Witold M. Pytel
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The Želazny Most tailing pond is one of the largest facilities worldwide for waste disposal from the copper mines located in South-West Poland. A potential failure of the dam would allow more than 10 million cubic meters of contaminated slurry to flow to the valley, causing immense environmental problems to the surrounding area. Thus, the determination of the strength properties of the dam's soils and their variability is of utmost importance. An extensive site investigation consisting of more than 480 cone penetration tests (CPTs) with or without pore water pressure measurements were conducted within a period of 13 years to study the mechanical properties of the tailings body. The present work investigates the point variability of the soil strength parameters (effective friction angleKeywords: Soil strength variability, friction angle spatial variability, Želazny Most tailing dam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41721277 Identification of Promiscuous Epitopes for Cellular Immune Responses in the Major Antigenic Protein Rv3873 Encoded by Region of Difference 1 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Abu Salim Mustafa
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Rv3873 is a relatively large size protein (371 amino acids in length) and its gene is located in the immunodominant genomic region of difference (RD)1 that is present in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis but deleted from the genomes of all the vaccine strains of Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) and most other mycobacteria. However, when tested for cellular immune responses using peripheral blood mononuclear cells from tuberculosis patients and BCG-vaccinated healthy subjects, this protein was found to be a major stimulator of cell mediated immune responses in both groups of subjects. In order to further identify the sequence of immunodominant epitopes and explore their Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-restriction for epitope recognition, 24 peptides (25-mers overlapping with the neighboring peptides by 10 residues) covering the sequence of Rv3873 were synthesized chemically using fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl chemistry and tested in cell mediated immune responses. The results of these experiments helped in the identification of an immunodominant peptide P9 that was recognized by people expressing varying HLA-DR types. Furthermore, it was also predicted to be a promiscuous binder with multiple epitopes for binding to HLA-DR, HLA-DP and HLA-DQ alleles of HLA-class II molecules that present antigens to T helper cells, and to HLA-class I molecules that present antigens to T cytotoxic cells. In addition, the evaluation of peptide P9 using an immunogenicity predictor server yielded a high score (0.94), which indicated a greater probability of this peptide to elicit a protective cellular immune response. In conclusion, P9, a peptide with multiple epitopes and ability to bind several HLA class I and class II molecules for presentation to cells of the cellular immune response, may be useful as a peptide-based vaccine against tuberculosis.
Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Rv3873, peptides, vaccine
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8461276 Ratio-Dependent Food Chain Models with Three Trophic Levels
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In this paper we study a food chain model with three trophic levels and Michaelis-Menten type ratio-dependent functional response. Distinctive feature of this model is the sensitive dependence of the dynamical behavior on the initial populations and parameters of the real world. The stability of the equilibrium points are also investigated.
Keywords: Food chain, Ratio dependent models, Three level models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15241275 A Damage Level Assessment Model for Extra High Voltage Transmission Towers
Authors: Huan-Chieh Chiu, Hung-Shuo Wu, Chien-Hao Wang, Yu-Cheng Yang, Ching-Ya Tseng, Joe-Air Jiang
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Power failure resulting from tower collapse due to violent seismic events might bring enormous and inestimable losses. The Chi-Chi earthquake, for example, strongly struck Taiwan and caused huge damage to the power system on September 21, 1999. Nearly 10% of extra high voltage (EHV) transmission towers were damaged in the earthquake. Therefore, seismic hazards of EHV transmission towers should be monitored and evaluated. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish a damage level assessment model for EHV transmission towers. The data of earthquakes provided by Taiwan Central Weather Bureau serve as a reference and then lay the foundation for earthquake simulations and analyses afterward. Some parameters related to the damage level of each point of an EHV tower are simulated and analyzed by the data from monitoring stations once an earthquake occurs. Through the Fourier transform, the seismic wave is then analyzed and transformed into different wave frequencies, and the data would be shown through a response spectrum. With this method, the seismic frequency which damages EHV towers the most is clearly identified. An estimation model is built to determine the damage level caused by a future seismic event. Finally, instead of relying on visual observation done by inspectors, the proposed model can provide a power company with the damage information of a transmission tower. Using the model, manpower required by visual observation can be reduced, and the accuracy of the damage level estimation can be substantially improved. Such a model is greatly useful for health and construction monitoring because of the advantages of long-term evaluation of structural characteristics and long-term damage detection.Keywords: Smart grid, EHV transmission tower, response spectrum, damage level monitoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10661274 On a Negative Relation between Bacterial Taxis and Turing Pattern Formation
Authors: A. Elragig, S. Townley, H. Dreiwi
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In this paper we introduce a bacteria-leukocyte model with bacteria chemotaxsis. We assume that bacteria develop a tactic defence mechanism as a response to Leukocyte phagocytosis. We explore the effect of this tactic motion on Turing space in two parameter spaces. A fine tuning of bacterial chemotaxis shows a significant effect on developing a non-uniform steady state.
Keywords: Chemotaxis-diffusion driven instability, bacterial chemotaxis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17781273 Hospital Facility Location Selection Using Permanent Analytics Process
Authors: C. Ardil
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In this paper, a new MCDMA approach, the permanent analytics process is proposed to assess the immovable valuation criteria and their significance in the placement of the healthcare facility. Five decision factors are considered for the value and selection of immovables. In the multiple factor selection problems, the priority vector of the criteria used to compare several immovables is first determined using the permanent analytics method, a mathematical model for the multiple criteria decisionmaking process. Then, to demonstrate the viability and efficacy of the suggested approach, twenty potential candidate locations were evaluated using the hospital site selection problem's decision criteria. The ranking accuracy of estimation was evaluated using composite programming, which took into account both the permanent analytics process and the weighted multiplicative model.
Keywords: Hospital Facility Location Selection, Permanent Analytics Process, Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM)
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4351272 Biodiversity and Phytosociological Analysis of Plants around the Municipal Drains in Jaunpur
Authors: Ekta Singh, M. P. Singh
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The habitat where the present study has been carried out is productive in relation to nutrient quality and they may perform several useful functions, but are also threatened for their existence. Hence, the proposed work, will add much new information about biodiversity of macrophytes in drains and their embankment. All the species were identified with their different stages of growth which encountered on the three selected sites (I, II and III). The number of species occurring at each site is grouped seasonally, i.e. summer, rainy and winter season and the species were further recorded for the study of phytosociology. Phytosociological characters such as frequency, density and abundance were influenced by the climatic, anthropogenic and biotic stresses prevailing at the three study sites. All the species present at the study sites have shown maximum values of frequency, density and abundance in rainy season in comparison to that of summer and winter seasons.Keywords: Abundance, Biodiversity, Density, Frequency, Macrophytes, Phytosociology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32161271 Effect of Substituent on Titanocene/MMAO Catalyst for Ethylene/1-Hexene Copolymerization
Authors: M. Wannaborworn, B. Jongsomjit, T. Shiono
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Copolymerization of ethylene with 1-hexene was carried out using two ansa-fluorenyl titanium derivative complexes. The substituent effect on the catalytic activity, monomer reactivity ratio and polymer property was investigated. It was found that the presence of t-Bu groups on fluorenyl ring exhibited remarkable catalytic activity and produced polymer with high molecular weight. However, these catalysts produce polymer with narrow molecular weight distribution, indicating the characteristic of single-site metallocene catalyst. Based on 13C NMR, we can observe that monomer reactivity ratio was affected by catalyst structure. The rH values of complex 2 were lower than that of complex 1 which might be result from the higher steric hindrance leading to a reduction of 1- hexene insertion step.Keywords: Constrained geometry catalyst, linear low density polyethylene, copolymerization, reactivity ratio
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16351270 Relationship between Food Resources and Brooding Site by Asiatic Houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii ) in Central Steppe of Iran
Authors: S. Aghainajafi Zadeh, M.R. Hemami., F. Heydari
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Knowledge of food resource of the houbara which an endangered species would be a important step toward the preservation of this bird. Adequate study has not been done in this field and therefore the food sources of the houbara during the brooding season was studied in the central steppe of Iran. In order to determine the density of insect in plant communities the pitfall trap was used , positioned in five linear transects divided between plant communities and in two repetitions. The results showed that the among communities there was a significant difference in term of the number beetles and ants ( p= 0.01, F2, 29= 4.66) collectively. Also bush steppe habitat had a higher arthropoda density in comparison with the shrub steppe habitat. Considering that most houbara nests were found in the bush steppe habitat .It seems this habitat provides the most available food supply for the houbara chicks.Keywords: Asiatic houbara bustard, Brooding season, Food resource
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14301269 The Interior Design Proposals of Buildings for Tourism Purposes
Authors: Şebnem Ertaş
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“Architecture” is one component of sustainable cultural tourism. The sustainability of architecture is possible through preservation and restoration activities. In Turkey, which has an important place in the world’s cultural heritage, several studies focused on the sustainability of the cultural heritage were done in terms of the principles of “preserve-use-sustain”. Within the scope of this study, a methodology will be proposed in order to obtain the development of different scenarios supporting sustainable tourism. Sille is an ancient village located on the Spice Road and Silk Road dating back to the Ottoman and Seljuk eras. However, in recent years it is protected as an archeological site. In the “Alternative Project Phase”, the streets and buildings which bring dynamism to trade are determined; among these, 10 major buildings in Hacı Ali Ağa Street are studied.
Keywords: Tourism, cultural tourism, sustainability of architecture, interior design, Sille.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18061268 W-CAS: A Central Users Authentication and Authorization System for Enterprise Wide Web Applications
Authors: Sharil Tumin, Sylvia Encheva
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Centrally controlled authentication and authorization services can provide enterprise with an increase in security, more flexible access control solutions and an increased users' trust. By using redirections, users of all Web-based applications within an organization are authenticated at a single well known and secure Web site and using secure communication protocol. Users are first authenticated at the central server using their domain wide credentials before being redirected to a particular Web-based application. The central authentication server will then provide others with pertinence authorization related particulars and credentials of the authenticated user to the specific application. The trust between the clients and the server hosts is established by secure session keys exchange. Case- studies are provided to demonstrate the usefulness and flexibility of the proposed solution.
Keywords: Authentication, Authorization, Security, Protected Web-based Applications
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15521267 The Effect of Global Solar Variations on the Performance of n-AlGaAs/p-GaAs Solar Cells
Authors: A. Guechi, M. Chegaar
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This study investigates how AlGaAs/GaAs thin film solar cells perform under varying global solar spectrum due to the changes of environmental parameters such as the air mass and the atmospheric turbidity. The solar irradiance striking the solar cell is simulated using the spectral irradiance model SMARTS2 (Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine) for clear skies on the site of Setif (Algeria). The results show a reduction in the short circuit current due to increasing atmospheric turbidity, it is 63.09% under global radiation. However increasing air mass leads to a reduction in the short circuit current of 81.73%. The efficiency decreases with increasing atmospheric turbidity and air mass.
Keywords: AlGaAs/GaAs, Solar Cells, Environmental parameters, Spectral Variation, SMARTS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22071266 Directing the Forensic Investigation of a Catastrophic Structure Collapse: The Jacksonville Parking Garage Collapse
Authors: W. C. Bracken
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This paper discusses the forensic investigation of a fatality-involved catastrophic structure collapse and the special challenges faced when tasked with directing such an effort. While this paper discusses the investigation’s findings and the outcome of the event; this paper’s primary focus is on the challenges faced directing a forensic investigation that requires coordinating with governmental oversight while also having to accommodate multiple parties’ investigative teams. In particular the challenges discussed within this paper included maintaining on-site safety and operations while accommodating outside investigator’s interests. In addition this paper discusses unique challenges that one may face such as what to do about unethical conduct of interested party’s investigative teams, “off the record” sharing of information, and clandestinely transmitted evidence.Keywords: Catastrophic structure collapse, collapse investigation, Jacksonville parking garage collapse, forensic investigation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20981265 Development of a Numerical Model to Predict Wear in Grouted Connections for Offshore Wind Turbine Generators
Authors: Paul Dallyn, Ashraf El-Hamalawi, Alessandro Palmeri, Bob Knight
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In order to better understand the long term implications of the grout wear failure mode in large-diameter plainsided grouted connections, a numerical model has been developed and calibrated that can take advantage of existing operational plant data to predict the wear accumulation for the actual load conditions experienced over a given period, thus limiting the requirement for expensive monitoring systems. This model has been derived and calibrated based on site structural condition monitoring (SCM) data and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) data for two operational wind turbine generator substructures afflicted with this challenge, along with experimentally derived wear rates.
Keywords: Grouted Connection, Numerical Model, Offshore Structure, Wear, Wind Energy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26591264 Non-Timber Forest Products and Livelihood Linkages: A Case of Lamabagar, Nepal
Authors: Sandhya Rijal, Saroj Adhikari, Ramesh R. Pant
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Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) have attracted substantial interest in the recent years with the increasing recognition that these can provide essential community needs for improved and diversified rural livelihood and support the objectives of biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, various challenges are witnessed in their sustainable harvest and management. Assuming that sustainable management with community stewardship can offer one of the solutions to existing challenges, the study assesses the linkages between NTFPs and rural livelihood in Lamabagar village of Dolakha, Nepal. The major objective was to document the status of NTFPs and their contributions in households of Lamabagar. For status documentation, vegetation sampling was done using systematic random sampling technique. 30 plots of 10 m × 10 m were laid down in six parallel transect lines at horizontal distance of 160 m in two different community forests. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted in 76 households (excluding non-response rate) using stratified random sampling technique for contribution analysis. Likewise, key informant interview and focus group discussions were also conducted for data triangulations. 36 different NTFPs were recorded from the vegetation sample in two community forests of which 50% were used for medicinal purposes. The other uses include fodder, religious value, and edible fruits and vegetables. Species like Juniperus indica, Daphne bholua Aconitum spicatum, and Lyonia ovalifolia were frequently used for trade as a source of income, which was sold in local market. The protected species like Taxus wallichiana and Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora were also recorded in the area for which the trade is prohibited. The protection of these species urgently needs community stewardship. More than half of the surveyed households (55%) were depending on NTFPs for their daily uses, other than economic purpose whereas 45% of them sold those products in the market directly or in the form of local handmade products as a source of livelihood. NTFPs were the major source of primary health curing agents especially for the poor and unemployed people in the study area. Hence, the NTFPs contributed to livelihood under three different categories: subsistence, supplement income and emergency support, depending upon the economic status of the households. Although the status of forest improved after handover to the user group, the availability of valuable medicinal herbs like Rhododendron anthopogon, Swertia nervosa, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, and Aconitum spicatum were declining. Inadequacy of technology, lack of easy transport access, and absence of good market facility were the major limitations for external trade of NTFPs in the study site. It was observed that people were interested towards conservation only if they could get some returns: economic in terms of rural settlements. Thus, the study concludes that NTFPs could contribute rural livelihood and support conservation objectives only if local communities are provided with the easy access of technology, market and capital.
Keywords: Contribution, medicinal, subsistence, sustainable harvest.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9621263 Feature Extraction Technique for Prediction the Antigenic Variants of the Influenza Virus
Authors: Majid Forghani, Michael Khachay
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In genetics, the impact of neighboring amino acids on a target site is referred as the nearest-neighbor effect or simply neighbor effect. In this paper, a new method called wavelet particle decomposition representing the one-dimensional neighbor effect using wavelet packet decomposition is proposed. The main idea lies in known dependence of wavelet packet sub-bands on location and order of neighboring samples. The method decomposes the value of a signal sample into small values called particles that represent a part of the neighbor effect information. The results have shown that the information obtained from the particle decomposition can be used to create better model variables or features. As an example, the approach has been applied to improve the correlation of test and reference sequence distance with titer in the hemagglutination inhibition assay.Keywords: Antigenic variants, neighbor effect, wavelet packet, wavelet particle decomposition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7831262 The Mutated Distance between Two Mixture Trees
Authors: Wan Chian Li, Justie Su-Tzu Juan, Yi-Chun Wang, Shu-Chuan Chen
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The evolutionary tree is an important topic in bioinformation. In 2006, Chen and Lindsay proposed a new method to build the mixture tree from DNA sequences. Mixture tree is a new type evolutionary tree, and it has two additional information besides the information of ordinary evolutionary tree. One of the information is time parameter, and the other is the set of mutated sites. In 2008, Lin and Juan proposed an algorithm to compute the distance between two mixture trees. Their algorithm computes the distance with only considering the time parameter between two mixture trees. In this paper, we proposes a method to measure the similarity of two mixture trees with considering the set of mutated sites and develops two algorithm to compute the distance between two mixture trees. The time complexity of these two proposed algorithms are O(n2 × max{h(T1), h(T2)}) and O(n2), respectively
Keywords: evolutionary tree, mixture tree, mutated site, distance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14171261 Bioremediation of Phenanthrene by Monocultures and Mixed Culture Bacteria Isolated from Contaminated Soil
Authors: A. Fazilah, I. Darah, I. Noraznawati
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Three different bacteria capable of degrading phenanthrene were isolated from hydrocarbon contaminated site. In this study, the phenanthrene-degrading activity by defined monoculture was determined and mixed culture was identified as Acinetobacter sp. P3d, Bacillus sp. P4a and Pseudomonas sp. P6. All bacteria were able to grow in a minimal salt medium saturated with phenanthrene as the sole source of carbon and energy. Phenanthrene degradation efficiencies by different combinations (consortia) of these bacteria were investigated and their phenanthrene degradation was evaluated by gas chromatography. Among the monocultures, Pseudomonas sp. P6 exhibited 58.71% activity compared to Acinetobacter sp. P3d and Bacillus sp. P4a which were 56.97% and 53.05%, respectively after 28 days of cultivation. All consortia showed high phenanthrene elimination which were 95.64, 79.37, 87.19, 79.21% for Consortia A, B, C and D, respectively. The results indicate that all of the bacteria isolated may effectively degrade target chemical and have a promising application in bioremediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soil purposes.Keywords: Acinetobacter sp. P3d, Bacillus sp. P4a, consortia, phenanthrene, Pseudomonas sp. P6.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11551260 LED Lighting Interviews and Assessment in Forest Machines
Authors: Rauno Pääkkönen, Fabriziomaria Gobba, Leena Korpinen
Abstract:
The objective of the study is to assess the implementation of LED lighting into forest machine work in the dark. In addition, the paper includes a wide variety of important and relevant safety and health parameters. In modern, computerized work in the cab of forest machines, artificial illumination is a demanding task when performing duties, such as the visual inspections of wood and computer calculations. We interviewed entrepreneurs and gathered the following as the most pertinent themes: (1) safety, (2) practical problems, and (3) work with LED lighting. The most important comments were in regards to the practical problems of LED lighting. We found indications of technical problems in implementing LED lighting, like snow and dirt on the surfaces of lamps that dim the emission of light. Moreover, service work in the dark forest is dangerous and increases the risks of on-site accidents. We also concluded that the amount of blue light to the eyes should be assessed, especially, when the drivers are working in a semi-dark cab.Keywords: Forest machines, health, LED, safety.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2130