Search results for: information technology application

Authors: Andres Gonzalez, Adam Boies, Jacob Swanson, David Kittelson

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The concern of the indoor air quality (IAQ) has been increasing due to its risk to human health. The smoking, sweeping, and stove and stovetop use are the activities that have a major contribution to the indoor air pollution. Outdoor air pollution also affects IAQ. The most important factors over IAQ from cooking activities are the materials, fuels, foods, and ventilation. The low-cost, mobile air quality monitoring (LCMAQM) sensors, is reachable technology to assess the IAQ. This is because of the lower cost of LCMAQM compared to conventional instruments. The IAQ was assessed, using LCMAQM, during cooking activities in a University of Minnesota graduate-housing evaluating different ventilation systems. The gases measured are carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂). The particles measured are particle matter (PM) _2.5 micrometer (µm) and lung deposited surface area (LDSA). The measurements are being conducted during April 2019 in Como Student Community Cooperative (CSCC) that is a graduate housing at the University of Minnesota. The measurements are conducted using an electric stove for cooking. The amount and type of food and oil using for cooking are the same for each measurement. There are six measurements: two experiments measure air quality without any ventilation, two using an extractor as mechanical ventilation, and two using the extractor and windows open as mechanical and natural ventilation. 3The results of experiments show that natural ventilation is most efficient system to control particles and CO₂. The natural ventilation reduces the concentration in 79% for LDSA and 55% for PM_2.5, compared to the no ventilation. In the same way, CO₂ reduces its concentration in 35%. A well-mixed vessel model was implemented to assess particle the formation and decay rates. Removal rates by the extractor were significantly higher for LDSA, which is dominated by smaller particles, than for PM_2.5, but in both cases much lower compared to the natural ventilation. There was significant day to day variation in particle concentrations under nominally identical conditions. This may be related to the fat content of the food. Further research is needed to assess the impact of the fat in food on particle generations.

Keywords: Cooking, indoor air quality, low-cost sensor, ventilation.

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Authors: J. R. Wang, H. T. Lin, H. C. Chang, W. K. Lin, W. Y. Li, C. Shih

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This analysis of Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP) was performed mainly by TRACE, assisted with FRAPTRAN and FRAPCON. SNAP v2.2.1 and TRACE v5.0p3 are used to develop the Kuosheng NPP SPU TRACE model which can simulate the turbine trip without bypass transient. From the analysis of TRACE, the important parameters such as dome pressure, coolant temperature and pressure can be determined. Through these parameters, comparing with the criteria which were formulated by United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC), we can determine whether the Kuoshengnuclear power plant failed or not in the accident analysis. However, from the data of TRACE, the fuel rods status cannot be determined. With the information from TRACE and burn-up analysis obtained from FRAPCON, FRAPTRAN analyzes more details about the fuel rods in this transient. Besides, through the SNAP interface, the data results can be presented as an animation. From the animation, the TRACE and FRAPTRAN data can be merged together that may be realized by the readers more easily. In this research, TRACE showed that the maximum dome pressure of the reactor reaches to 8.32 MPa, which is lower than the acceptance limit 9.58 MPa. Furthermore, FRAPTRAN revels that the maximum strain is about 0.00165, which is below the criteria 0.01. In addition, cladding enthalpy is 52.44 cal/g which is lower than 170 cal/g specified by the USNRC NUREG-0800 Standard Review Plan.

Keywords: Turbine trip without bypass, Kuosheng NPP, TRACE, FRAPTRAN, SNAP animation.

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Authors: G. Settanni, A. Panarese, R. Vaira, A. Galiano

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Nowadays, artificial intelligence is used successfully in the field of e-commerce for its ability to learn from a large amount of data. In this research study, a prototype software platform was designed and implemented in order to suggest to users the most suitable products for their needs. The platform includes a recommender system based on artificial intelligence algorithms that provide suggestions and decision support to the customer. Specifically, support vector machine algorithms have been implemented combined with natural language processing techniques that allow the user to interact with the system, express their requests and receive suggestions. The interested user can access the web platform on the internet using a computer, tablet or mobile phone, register, provide the necessary information and view the products that the system deems them the most appropriate. The platform also integrates a dashboard that allows the use of the various functions, which the platform is equipped with, in an intuitive and simple way. Also, Long Short-Term Memory algorithms have been implemented and trained on historical data in order to predict customer scores of the different items. Items with the highest scores are recommended to customers.

Keywords: Deep Learning, Long Short-Term Memory, Machine Learning, Recommender Systems, Support Vector Machine.

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Authors: L. P. K. Liyanage, N. R. P. Withana, A. L. Sandika

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The purpose of this study was to determine tourist and community perception-based sustainable tourism indicators as well as Human Pressure Index (HPI) and Tourist Activity Index (TAI). Study was carried out in Sinharaja forest which is considered as one of the major eco-tourism destination in Sri Lanka. Data were gathered using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire as well as records from Forest department. Convenient sampling technique was applied. For the majority of issues, the responses were obtained on multi-point Likert-type scales. Visual portrayal was used for display analyzed data. The study revealed that the host community of the Kudawa gets many benefits from tourism. Also, tourism has caused negative impacts upon the environment and community. The study further revealed the need of proper waste management and involvement of local cultural events for the tourism business in the Kudawa conservation center. The TAI, which accounted to be 1.27 and monthly evolution of HPI revealed that congestion can be occurred in the Sinharaja rainforest during peak season. The results provide useful information to any party involved with tourism planning anywhere, since such attempts would be more effective once the people’s perceptions on these aspects are taken into account.

Keywords: Kudawa conservation center, Sinharaja world heritage rainforest, sustainability indicators.

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Authors: Amanda M. Tadini, Houssam Hajjoul, Gustavo Nicolodelli, Stéphane Mounier, Célia R. Montes, Débora M. B. P. Milori

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Soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in maintaining soil productivity and accounting for the promotion of biological diversity. The main components of the SOM are the humic substances which can be fractionated according to its solubility in humic acid (HA), fulvic acids (FA) and humin (HU). The determination of the chemical properties of organic matter as well as its interaction with metallic species is an important tool for understanding the structure of the humic fractions. Fluorescence spectroscopy has been studied as a source of information about what is happening at the molecular level in these compounds. Specially, soils of Amazon region are an important ecosystem of the planet. The aim of this study is to understand the molecular and structural composition of HA samples from Spodosol of Amazonia using the fluorescence Emission-Excitation Matrix (EEM) and Time Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy (TRFS). The results showed that the samples of HA showed two fluorescent components; one has a more complex structure and the other one has a simpler structure, which was also seen in TRFS through the evaluation of each sample lifetime. Thus, studies of this nature become important because it aims to evaluate the molecular and structural characteristics of the humic fractions in the region that is considered as one of the most important regions in the world, the Amazon.

Keywords: Amazonian soil, characterization, fluorescence, humic acid, lifetime.

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Authors: Abass Braimah, Maha Hussein Abdallah

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The global ascendancy of terrorist attacks on building infrastructure with economic and heritage significance has increased awareness of the possibility of terrorism in Canada. Many structures in Canada that are at risk of terrorist attacks include government buildings, built many years ago of historic stone masonry construction. Although many researchers are investigating ways to retrofit masonry stone buildings to mitigate the effect of blast loadings, lack of knowledge on the dynamic behavior of historic stone masonry structures under blast loads makes it difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of the retrofitting techniques. This paper presents a review of open-source literature for the experimental and numerical stone masonry structures under blast loads. This review yielded very little information of the response of the historic stone masonry structures under blast loads. Thus, a comprehensive study is needed to understand the blast load effects on historic stone masonry buildings. The out-of-plane response of historic masonry structures to blast loads is investigated by using single-degree-of-freedom analysis. This approach presents equations that can be used effectively in the analysis of historic masonry walls to out-of-plane blast loading.

Keywords: Blast loads, historical buildings, masonry structure, single-degree-of-freedom analysis.

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Authors: Gupta Amit, Kumar Ramesh, Tewari P. C.

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Globalization is putting enormous pressure on the business organizations specially manufacturing one to rethink the supply chain in innovative manners. Inventory consumes major portion of total sale revenue. Effective and efficient inventory management plays a vital role for the successful functioning of any organization. Selection of inventory policy is one of the important purchasing activities. This paper focuses on selection and ranking of alternative inventory policies. A deterministic quantitative model based on Distance Based Approach (DBA) method has been developed for evaluation and ranking of inventory policies. We have employed this concept first time for this type of the selection problem. Four inventory policies economic order quantity (EOQ), just in time (JIT), vendor managed inventory (VMI) and monthly policy are considered. Improper selection could affect a company’s competitiveness in terms of the productivity of its facilities and quality of its products. The ranking of inventory policies is a multi-criteria problem. There is a need to first identify the selection criteria and then processes the information with reference to relative importance of attributes for comparison. Criteria values for each inventory policy can be obtained either analytically or by using a simulation technique or they are linguistic subjective judgments defined by fuzzy sets, like, for example, the values of criteria. A methodology is developed and applied to rank the inventory policies.

Keywords: Inventory Policy, Ranking, DBA, Selection criteria.

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Authors: K. E. Oyetade, S. D. Eyono Obono

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Age ratings are very helpful in providing parents with relevant information for the purchase and use of digital technologies by the children; this is why the non-definition of age ratings for the use of ICTs by children in schools is a major concern; and this problem serves as a motivation for this study whose aim is to examine the factors affecting the perceptions of educators on the learners’ youngest age for the introduction of ICTs in schools. This aim is achieved through two types of research objectives: the identification and design of theories and models on age ratings, and the empirical testing of such theories and models in a survey of educators from the Camperdown district of the South African KwaZulu-Natal province. A questionnaire is used for the collection of the data of this survey whose validity and reliability is checked in SPSS prior to its descriptive and correlative quantitative analysis. The main hypothesis supporting this research is the association between the demographics of educators, their personality, and their perceptions on the learners’ youngest age for the introduction of ICTs in schools; as claimed by existing research; except that the present study looks at personality from three dimensions: self-actualized personalities, fully functioning personalities, and healthy personalities. This hypothesis was fully confirmed by the empirical study conducted by this research except for the demographic factor where only the educators’ grade or class was found to be associated with the personality of educators.

Keywords: Age ratings, Educators, E-learning, Personality Theories.

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Authors: M. Eisakhani, A. Pauzi, O. Karim, A. Malakahmad, S.R. Mohamed Kutty, M. H. Isa

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Cameron Highlands is a mountainous area subjected to torrential tropical showers. It extracts 5.8 million liters of water per day for drinking supply from its rivers at several intake points. The water quality of rivers in Cameron Highlands, however, has deteriorated significantly due to land clearing for agriculture, excessive usage of pesticides and fertilizers as well as construction activities in rapidly developing urban areas. On the other hand, these pollution sources known as non-point pollution sources are diverse and hard to identify and therefore they are difficult to estimate. Hence, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide an extensive approach to evaluate landuse and other mapping characteristics to explain the spatial distribution of non-point sources of contamination in Cameron Highlands. The method to assess pollution sources has been developed by using Cameron Highlands Master Plan (2006-2010) for integrating GIS, databases, as well as pollution loads in the area of study. The results show highest annual runoff is created by forest, 3.56 × 108 m3/yr followed by urban development, 1.46 × 108 m3/yr. Furthermore, urban development causes highest BOD load (1.31 × 106 kgBOD/yr) while agricultural activities and forest contribute the highest annual loads for phosphorus (6.91 × 104 kgP/yr) and nitrogen (2.50 × 105 kgN/yr), respectively. Therefore, best management practices (BMPs) are suggested to be applied to reduce pollution level in the area.

Keywords: Cameron Highlands, Land use, Non-point Sources of Pollution

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Authors: Rhoann Kerh, Chen-Fu Chien, Kuo-Yi Lin

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In the era of rapidly increasing notebook market, consumer electronics manufacturers are facing a highly dynamic and competitive environment. In particular, the product appearance is the first part for user to distinguish the product from the product of other brands. Notebook product should differ in its appearance to engage users and contribute to the user experience (UX). The UX evaluates various product concepts to find the design for user needs; in addition, help the designer to further understand the product appearance preference of different market segment. However, few studies have been done for exploring the relationship between consumer background and the reaction of product appearance. This study aims to propose a data mining framework to capture the user’s information and the important relation between product appearance factors. The proposed framework consists of problem definition and structuring, data preparation, rules generation, and results evaluation and interpretation. An empirical study has been done in Taiwan that recruited 168 subjects from different background to experience the appearance performance of 11 different portable computers. The results assist the designers to develop product strategies based on the characteristics of consumers and the product concept that related to the UX, which help to launch the products to the right customers and increase the market shares. The results have shown the practical feasibility of the proposed framework.

Keywords: Consumers Decision Making, Product Design, Rough Set Theory, User Experience.

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Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom

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This study has only one objective which is to identify the different in factors of choosing the distributor for food and non-food OTOP entrepreneur in Thailand. In this research, the types of OTOP product will be divided into two groups which are food and non-food. The sample for the food type OTOP product was the processed fruit and vegetable from Nakorn Pathom province and the sample for the non-food type OTOP product was the court doll from Ang Thong province. The research was divided into 3 parts which were a study of the distribution pattern and how to choose the distributor of the food type OTOP product, a study of the distribution pattern and how to choose the distributor of the non-food type OTOP product and a comparison between 2 types of products to find the differentiation in the factor of choosing distributor. The data and information was collected by using the interview. The populations in the research were 5 producers of the processed fruit and vegetable from Nakorn Pathom province and 5 producers of the court doll from Ang Thong province. The significant factor in choosing the distributor of the food type OTOP product is the material handling efficiency and on-time delivery but for the non-food type OTOP product is focused on the channel of distribution and cost of the distributor.

Keywords: Distributor, OTOP, Food and Non-Food, Selection.

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Authors: Dewan Md. Farid, Nouria Harbi, Suman Ahmmed, Md. Zahidur Rahman, Chowdhury Mofizur Rahman

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Network security attacks are the violation of information security policy that received much attention to the computational intelligence society in the last decades. Data mining has become a very useful technique for detecting network intrusions by extracting useful knowledge from large number of network data or logs. Naïve Bayesian classifier is one of the most popular data mining algorithm for classification, which provides an optimal way to predict the class of an unknown example. It has been tested that one set of probability derived from data is not good enough to have good classification rate. In this paper, we proposed a new learning algorithm for mining network logs to detect network intrusions through naïve Bayesian classifier, which first clusters the network logs into several groups based on similarity of logs, and then calculates the prior and conditional probabilities for each group of logs. For classifying a new log, the algorithm checks in which cluster the log belongs and then use that cluster-s probability set to classify the new log. We tested the performance of our proposed algorithm by employing KDD99 benchmark network intrusion detection dataset, and the experimental results proved that it improves detection rates as well as reduces false positives for different types of network intrusions.

Keywords: Clustering, detection rate, false positive, naïveBayesian classifier, network intrusion detection.

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Authors: Munir Majdalawieh, Adam Marks

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In today’s very competitive higher education industry (HEI), HEIs are faced with the primary concern of developing, deploying, and sustaining high quality academic programs. Today, the HEI has well-established accreditation systems endorsed by a country’s legislation and institutions. The accreditation system is an educational pathway focused on the criteria and processes for evaluating educational programs. Although many aspects of the accreditation process highlight both the past and the present (prove), the “program review” assessment is "forward-looking assessment" (improve) and thus transforms the process into a continuing assessment activity rather than a periodic event. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual measurement framework for program review to be used by HEIs to undertake a robust and targeted approach to proactively and continuously review their academic programs to evaluate its practicality and effectiveness as well as to improve the education of the students. The proposed framework consists of two main components: program review principles and the program review measurement matrix.

Keywords: Academic program, program review principles, curriculum development, accreditation, evaluation, assessment, review measurement matrix, program review process, information technologies supporting learning, learning/teaching methodologies and assessment.

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Authors: Apetsi K. Ampiah, Zhao Xin

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Earthquakes over the years have been known to cause devastating damage on buildings and induced huge loss on human life and properties. It is for this reason that engineers have devised means of protecting buildings and thus protecting human life. Since the invention of devices such as the viscous and friction dampers, scientists/researchers have been able to incorporate these devices into buildings and other engineering structures. The viscous damper is a hydraulic device which dissipates the seismic forces by pushing fluid through an orifice, producing a damping pressure which creates a force. In the friction damper, the force is mainly resisted by converting the kinetic energy into heat by friction. Devices such as viscous and friction dampers are able to absorb almost all the earthquake energy, allowing the structure to remain undamaged (or with some amount of damage) and ready for immediate reuse (with some repair works). Comparing these two devices presents the engineer with adequate information on the merits and demerits of these devices and in which circumstances their use would be highly favorable. This paper examines the performance of both viscous and friction dampers under different ground motions. A two-storey frame installed with both devices under investigation are modeled in commercial computer software and analyzed under different ground motions. The results of the performance of the structure are then tabulated and compared. Also included in this study is the ease of installation and maintenance of these devices.

Keywords: Friction damper, seismic, slip load, viscous damper.

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Authors: M. R. Nematollahi

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Vibration characteristics of subcooled flow boiling on thin and long structures such as a heating rod were recently investigated by the author. The results show that the intensity of the subcooled boiling-induced vibration (SBIV) was influenced strongly by the conditions of the subcooling temperature, linear power density and flow velocity. Implosive bubble formation and collapse are the main nature of subcooled boiling, and their behaviors are the only sources to originate from SBIV. Therefore, in order to explain the phenomenon of SBIV, it is essential to obtain reliable information about bubble behavior in subcooled boiling conditions. This was investigated at different conditions of coolant subcooling temperatures of 25 to 75°C, coolant flow velocities of 0.16 to 0.53m/s, and linear power densities of 100 to 600 W/cm. High speed photography at 13,500 frames per second was performed at these conditions. The results show that even at the highest subcooling condition, the absolute majority of bubbles collapse very close to the surface after detaching from the heating surface. Based on these observations, a simple model of surface tension and momentum change is introduced to offer a rough quantitative estimate of the force exerted on the heating surface during the bubble ebullition. The formation of a typical bubble in subcooled boiling is predicted to exert an excitation force in the order of 10-4 N.

Keywords: Subcooled boiling, vibration mechanism, bubble behavior.

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Authors: Rudolf Egger

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This paper explores the relationships between the basic learning processes of leading trade union workers and their methods for coping with the changes in the life-courses of societies today. It will discuss the fragile discourse on lifelong learning in trade unions and the “production of self-techniques” to get in touch with the new economic forms. On the basis of an empirical project, different processes of the socialization of leading trade union workers will be analysed to discover the consequences of the lifelong learning discourse. The results show what competences they need to develop for the “wider benefits of negotiations”. The main challenge remains to make visible how deeply intertwined trade union learning and education are with development in an ongoing dynamic economic process, rather than a quick-fix injection of skills and information. There is a complex relationship existing between the three ‘partners’, work, learning and society forming. The author suggests that contemporary trade unions could be trendsetters who make their own learning agendas by drawing less on formal education and more on informal and non-formal learning contexts. This is in parallel with growing political and scientific consciousness of the need to arrive at new educational/vocational policies and practices.

Keywords: Lifelong learning, Trade unions, Non-formal learning, Educational/vocational policies.

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Authors: N. R. N. Idris, S. Baharom

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A meta-analysis may be performed using aggregate data (AD) or an individual patient data (IPD). In practice, studies may be available at both IPD and AD level. In this situation, both the IPD and AD should be utilised in order to maximize the available information. Statistical advantages of combining the studies from different level have not been fully explored. This study aims to quantify the statistical benefits of including available IPD when conducting a conventional summary-level meta-analysis. Simulated meta-analysis were used to assess the influence of the levels of data on overall meta-analysis estimates based on IPD-only, AD-only and the combination of IPD and AD (mixed data, MD), under different study scenario. The percentage relative bias (PRB), root mean-square-error (RMSE) and coverage probability were used to assess the efficiency of the overall estimates. The results demonstrate that available IPD should always be included in a conventional meta-analysis using summary level data as they would significantly increased the accuracy of the estimates.On the other hand, if more than 80% of the available data are at IPD level, including the AD does not provide significant differences in terms of accuracy of the estimates. Additionally, combining the IPD and AD has moderating effects on the biasness of the estimates of the treatment effects as the IPD tends to overestimate the treatment effects, while the AD has the tendency to produce underestimated effect estimates. These results may provide some guide in deciding if significant benefit is gained by pooling the two levels of data when conducting meta-analysis.

Keywords: Aggregate data, combined-level data, Individual patient data, meta analysis.

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Authors: Anshu Manik, William G. Buttlar, Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan

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Over the years, there is a growing trend towards quality-based specifications in highway construction. In many Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QC/QA) specifications, the contractor is primarily responsible for quality control of the process, whereas the highway agency is responsible for testing the acceptance of the product. A cooperative investigation was conducted in Illinois over several years to develop a prototype End-Result Specification (ERS) for asphalt pavement construction. The final characteristics of the product are stipulated in the ERS and the contractor is given considerable freedom in achieving those characteristics. The risk for the contractor or agency depends on how the acceptance limits and processes are specified. Stochastic simulation models are very useful in estimating and analyzing payment risk in ERS systems and these form an integral part of the Illinois-s prototype ERS system. This paper describes the development of an innovative methodology to estimate the variability components in in-situ density, air voids and asphalt content data from ERS projects. The information gained from this would be crucial in simulating these ERS projects for estimation and analysis of payment risks associated with asphalt pavement construction. However, these methods require at least two parties to conduct tests on all the split samples obtained according to the sampling scheme prescribed in present ERS implemented in Illinois.

Keywords: Asphalt Pavement, Risk Analysis, StochasticSimulation, QC/QA.

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Authors: Abdallah Al-Shammari

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This study discusses the effect of uncertainty on production levels of a petrochemical complex. Uncertainly or variations in some model parameters, such as prices, supply and demand of materials, can affect the optimality or the efficiency of any chemical process. For any petrochemical complex with many plants, there are many sources of uncertainty and frequent variations which require more attention. Many optimization approaches are proposed in the literature to incorporate uncertainty within the model in order to obtain a robust solution. In this work, a stability analysis approach is applied to a deterministic LP model of a petrochemical complex consists of ten plants to investigate the effect of such variations on the obtained optimal production levels. The proposed approach can determinate the allowable variation ranges of some parameters, mainly objective or RHS coefficients, before the system lose its optimality. Parameters with relatively narrow range of variations, i.e. stability limits, are classified as sensitive parameters or constraints that need accurate estimate or intensive monitoring. These stability limits offer easy-to-use information to the decision maker and help in understanding the interaction between some model parameters and deciding when the system need to be re-optimize. The study shows that maximum production of ethylene and the prices of intermediate products are the most sensitive factors that affect the stability of the optimum solution

Keywords: Linear programming, Petrochemicals, stability analysis, uncertainty

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Authors: Padmanabhan Balasubramanian, C. Ardil

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In this paper, we consider the problem of logic simplification for a special class of logic functions, namely complementary Boolean functions (CBF), targeting low power implementation using static CMOS logic style. The functions are uniquely characterized by the presence of terms, where for a canonical binary 2-tuple, D(mj) ∪ D(mk) = { } and therefore, we have | D(mj) ∪ D(mk) | = 0 [19]. Similarly, D(Mj) ∪ D(Mk) = { } and hence | D(Mj) ∪ D(Mk) | = 0. Here, 'mk' and 'Mk' represent a minterm and maxterm respectively. We compare the circuits minimized with our proposed method with those corresponding to factored Reed-Muller (f-RM) form, factored Pseudo Kronecker Reed-Muller (f-PKRM) form, and factored Generalized Reed-Muller (f-GRM) form. We have opted for algebraic factorization of the Reed-Muller (RM) form and its different variants, using the factorization rules of [1], as it is simple and requires much less CPU execution time compared to Boolean factorization operations. This technique has enabled us to greatly reduce the literal count as well as the gate count needed for such RM realizations, which are generally prone to consuming more cells and subsequently more power consumption. However, this leads to a drawback in terms of the design-for-test attribute associated with the various RM forms. Though we still preserve the definition of those forms viz. realizing such functionality with only select types of logic gates (AND gate and XOR gate), the structural integrity of the logic levels is not preserved. This would consequently alter the testability properties of such circuits i.e. it may increase/decrease/maintain the same number of test input vectors needed for their exhaustive testability, subsequently affecting their generalized test vector computation. We do not consider the issue of design-for-testability here, but, instead focus on the power consumption of the final logic implementation, after realization with a conventional CMOS process technology (0.35 micron TSMC process). The quality of the resulting circuits evaluated on the basis of an established cost metric viz., power consumption, demonstrate average savings by 26.79% for the samples considered in this work, besides reduction in number of gates and input literals by 39.66% and 12.98% respectively, in comparison with other factored RM forms.

Keywords: Reed-Muller forms, Logic function, Hammingdistance, Algebraic factorization, Low power design.

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Authors: Osama Brinji, Wing Kong Chiu, Graham Tew

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Understanding the stability of rail ballast is one of the most important aspects in the railways. An unstable track may cause some issues such as unnecessary vibration and ultimately loss of track quality. The track foundation plays an important role in the stabilization of the railway. The dynamic response of rail ballast in the vicinity of the rail sleeper can affect the stability of the rail track and this has not been studied in detail. A review of literature showed that most of the works focused on the area under the concrete sleeper. Although there are some theories about the shear (longitudinal) effect of the rail ballast, these have not properly been studied and hence are not well understood. The stability of a rail track will depend on the compactness of the ballast in its vicinity. This paper will try to determine the dynamic response of the ballast to identify its resonant behaviour. This preliminary research is one of several studies that examine the vibration response of the granular materials. The main aim is to use this information for future design of sleepers to ensure that any dynamic response of the sleeper will not compromise the state of compactness of the ballast. This paper will report on the dependence of damping and the natural frequency of the ballast as a function of depth and distance from the point of excitation introduced through a concrete block. The concrete block is used to simulate a sleeper and the ballast is simulated with gravel. In spite of these approximations, the results presented in the paper will show an agreement with theories and the assumptions that are used in study the mechanical behaviour of the rail ballast.

Keywords: Ballast, dynamic response, sleeper, stability.

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Authors: Gheida J. Shahrour, Martin J. Russell

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The 3D body movement signals captured during human-human conversation include clues not only to the content of people’s communication but also to their culture and personality. This paper is concerned with automatic extraction of this information from body movement signals. For the purpose of this research, we collected a novel corpus from 27 subjects, arranged them into groups according to their culture. We arranged each group into pairs and each pair communicated with each other about different topics. A state-of-art recognition system is applied to the problems of person, culture, and topic recognition. We borrowed modeling, classification, and normalization techniques from speech recognition. We used Gaussian Mixture Modeling (GMM) as the main technique for building our three systems, obtaining 77.78%, 55.47%, and 39.06% from the person, culture, and topic recognition systems respectively. In addition, we combined the above GMM systems with Support Vector Machines (SVM) to obtain 85.42%, 62.50%, and 40.63% accuracy for person, culture, and topic recognition respectively. Although direct comparison among these three recognition systems is difficult, it seems that our person recognition system performs best for both GMM and GMM-SVM, suggesting that intersubject differences (i.e. subject’s personality traits) are a major source of variation. When removing these traits from culture and topic recognition systems using the Nuisance Attribute Projection (NAP) and the Intersession Variability Compensation (ISVC) techniques, we obtained 73.44% and 46.09% accuracy from culture and topic recognition systems respectively.

Keywords: Person Recognition, Topic Recognition, Culture Recognition, 3D Body Movement Signals, Variability Compensation.

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Authors: Valeri A. Makarov, Nazareth P. Castellanos, Manuel G. Velarde

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In order to answer the general question: “What does a simple agent with a limited life-time require for constructing a useful representation of the environment?" we propose a robot platform including the simplest probabilistic sensory and motor layers. Then we use the platform as a test-bed for evaluation of the navigational capabilities of the robot with different “brains". We claim that a protocognitive behavior is not a consequence of highly sophisticated sensory–motor organs but instead emerges through an increment of the internal complexity and reutilization of the minimal sensory information. We show that the most fundamental robot element, the short-time memory, is essential in obstacle avoidance. However, in the simplest conditions of no obstacles the straightforward memoryless robot is usually superior. We also demonstrate how a low level action planning, involving essentially nonlinear dynamics, provides a considerable gain to the robot performance dynamically changing the robot strategy. Still, however, for very short life time the brainless robot is superior. Accordingly we suggest that small organisms (or agents) with short life-time does not require complex brains and even can benefit from simple brain-like (reflex) structures. To some extend this may mean that controlling blocks of modern robots are too complicated comparative to their life-time and mechanical abilities.

Keywords: Neural network, probabilistic control, robot navigation.

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Authors: Nazrina Aziz, Dong Q. Wang

Abstract:

There have been various methods created based on the regression ideas to resolve the problem of data set containing censored observations, i.e. the Buckley-James method, Miller-s method, Cox method, and Koul-Susarla-Van Ryzin estimators. Even though comparison studies show the Buckley-James method performs better than some other methods, it is still rarely used by researchers mainly because of the limited diagnostics analysis developed for the Buckley-James method thus far. Therefore, a diagnostic tool for the Buckley-James method is proposed in this paper. It is called the renovated Cook-s Distance, (RD* i ) and has been developed based on the Cook-s idea. The renovated Cook-s Distance (RD* i ) has advantages (depending on the analyst demand) over (i) the change in the fitted value for a single case, DFIT* i as it measures the influence of case i on all n fitted values Yˆ∗ (not just the fitted value for case i as DFIT* i) (ii) the change in the estimate of the coefficient when the ith case is deleted, DBETA* i since DBETA* i corresponds to the number of variables p so it is usually easier to look at a diagnostic measure such as RD* i since information from p variables can be considered simultaneously. Finally, an example using Stanford Heart Transplant data is provided to illustrate the proposed diagnostic tool.

Keywords: Buckley-James estimators, censored regression, censored data, diagnostic analysis, product-limit estimator, renovated Cook's Distance.

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Authors: Solvita Kalnina, Tatjana Rakcejeva, Daiga Kunkulberga, Anda Linina

Abstract:

Triticale is a manmade hybrid of wheat and rye that carries the A and B genome of durum wheat and the R genome of rye. In the scientific literature information about in Latvia harvested organic and conventional triticale grain physically-chemical composition was not found in general. Therefore, the main purpose of the current research was to investigate physically-chemical parameters of in Latvia harvested organic and convectional triticale grains. The research was accomplished on in Year 2012 from State Priekuli Plant Breeding Institute (Latvia) harvested organic and conventional triticale grains: “Dinaro”, “9403-97”, “9405-23” and “9402-3”. In the present research significant differences in chemical composition between organic and conventional triticale grains harvested in Latvia was found. It is necessary to mention that higher 1000 grain weight, bulk density and gluten index was obtained for conventional and organic triticale grain variety “9403-97”. However higher falling number, gluten and protein content was obtained for triticale grain variety “9405-23”.

Keywords: Physically-chemical parameters, technological properties, triticale grains.

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Authors: Jyh-Cherng Gu, Ming-Ta Yang, Chao-Fong Yan, Hsin-Yung Chung, Yung-Ruei Chang, Yih-Der Lee, Chen-Min Chan, Chia-Hao Hsu

Abstract:

There are a number of Distributed Generations (DGs) installed in microgrid, which may have diverse path and direction of power flow or fault current. The overcurrent protection scheme for the traditional radial type distribution system will no longer meet the needs of microgrid protection. Integrating the Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) with IEC 61850 communication protocol, the paper proposes a Microgrid Protection Management System (MPMS) to protect power system from the fault. In the proposed method, the MPMS performs logic programming of each IED to coordinate their tripping sequence. The GOOSE message defined in IEC 61850 is used as the transmission information medium among IEDs. Moreover, to cope with the difference in fault current of microgrid between grid-connected mode and islanded mode, the proposed MPMS applies the group setting feature of IED to protect system and robust adaptability. Once the microgrid topology varies, the MPMS will recalculate the fault current and update the group setting of IED. Provided there is a fault, IEDs will isolate the fault at once. Finally, the Matlab/Simulink and Elipse Power Studio software are used to simulate and demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

Keywords: IEC 61850, IED, Group Setting, Microgrid.

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Authors: J.S. Ubhi, M.S. Patterh, T.S. Kamal

Abstract:

In this paper, the effect of transmission codes on the performance of coherent square M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (CSMQAM) under hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (H-S/MRC) diversity is analysed. The fading channels are modeled as frequency non-selective slow independent and identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The results for coded MQAM are computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code and compared with uncoded MQAM under H-S/MRC diversity by plotting error probabilities versus average signal to noise ratio (SNR) for various values L and N in order to examine the improvement in the performance of the digital communications system as the number of selected diversity branches is increased. The results for no diversity, conventional SC and Lth order MRC schemes are also plotted for comparison. Closed form analytical results derived in this paper are sufficiently simple and therefore can be computed numerically without any approximations. The analytical results presented in this paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design and analysis of digital communication systems over wireless fading channels.

Keywords: Error probability, diversity reception, Rayleigh fading channels, wireless digital communications.

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Authors: Pongthep Bunrueng

Abstract:

This action research accentuates the outcome of a development in English pronunciation, using principles of phonetics for English major students at Loei Rajabhat University. The research is split into 5 separate modules: 1) Organs of Speech and How to Produce Sounds, 2) Monopthongs, 3) Diphthongs, 4) Consonant sounds, and 5) Suprasegmental Features. Each module followed a 4 step action research process, 1) Planning, 2) Acting, 3) Observing, and 4) Reflecting. The research targeted 2nd year students who were majoring in English Education at Loei Rajabhat University during the academic year of 2011. A mixed methodology employing both quantitative and qualitative research was used, which put theory into action, taking segmental features up to suprasegmental features. Multiple tools were employed which included the following documents: pre-test and post-test papers, evaluation and assessment papers, group work assessment forms, a presentation grading form, an observation of participants form and a participant self-reflection form.

All 5 modules for the target group showed that results from the post-tests were higher than those of the pre-tests, with 0.01 statistical significance. All target groups attained results ranging from low to moderate and from moderate to high performance. The participants who attained low to moderate results had to re-sit the second round. During the first development stage, participants attended classes with group participation, in which they addressed planning through mutual co-operation and sharing of responsibility. Analytic induction of strong points for this operation illustrated that learner cognition, comprehension, application, and group practices were all present whereas the participants with weak results could be attributed to biological differences, differences in life and learning, or individual differences in responsiveness and self-discipline.

Participants who were required to be re-treated in Spiral 2 received the same treatment again. Results of tests from the 5 modules after the 2^nd treatment were that the participants attained higher scores than those attained in the pre-test. Their assessment and development stages also showed improved results. They showed greater confidence at participating in activities, produced higher quality work, and correctly followed instructions for each activity. Analytic induction of strong and weak points for this operation remains the same as for Spiral 1, though there were improvements to problems which existed prior to undertaking the second treatment.

Keywords: Action research, English pronunciation, phonetics, segmental features, suprasegmental features.

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Authors: Ahmad Sharif Ahmadi, Yoshitaka Kajita

Abstract:

With massive population expansion and fast economic development in last decade, urban land has increasingly expanded and formed high informal development territory in Kabul city. This paper investigates integrated urbanization trends in Kabul city since the formation of the basic structure of the present city using GIS and remote sensing. This study explores the spatial and temporal difference of urban land expansion and land use categories among different time intervals, 1964-1978 and 1978-2008 from 1964 to 2008 in Kabul city. Furthermore, the goal of this paper is to understand the extent of urban land expansion and the factors driving urban land expansion in Kabul city. Many factors like population expansion, the return of refugees from neighboring countries and significant economic growth of the city affected urban land expansion. Across all the study area urban land expansion rate, population expansion rate and economic growth rate have been compared to analyze the relationship of driving forces with urban land expansion. Based on urban land change data detected by interpreting land use maps, it was found that in the entire study area the urban territory has been expanded by 14 times between 1964 and 2008.

Keywords: GIS, Kabul city, land use, urban land expansion, urbanization.

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Authors: Farhad Alizadeh, Alireza Faregh Gharamaleki, Mojtaba Jalilzadeh, Houshang Gholami, Ali Akhoundzadeh

Abstract:

This study presented hybrid pre-processing approach along with a conceptual model to enhance the accuracy of river discharge prediction. In order to achieve this goal, Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition algorithm (EEMD), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Mutual Information (MI) were employed as a hybrid pre-processing approach conjugated to Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM). A conceptual strategy namely multi-station model was developed to forecast the Souris River discharge more accurately. The strategy used herein was capable of covering uncertainties and complexities of river discharge modeling. DWT and EEMD was coupled, and the feature selection was performed for decomposed sub-series using MI to be employed in multi-station model. In the proposed feature selection method, some useless sub-series were omitted to achieve better performance. Results approved efficiency of the proposed DWT-EEMD-MI approach to improve accuracy of multi-station modeling strategies.

Keywords: River stage-discharge process, LSSVM, discrete wavelet transform (DWT), ensemble empirical decomposition mode (EEMD), multi-station modeling.

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