Search results for: work in process (WIP)

Authors: I-Huan Chiu, Kazuhiko Ninomiya, Shin’ichiro Takeda, Meito Kajino, Miho Katsuragawa, Shunsaku Nagasawa, Atsushi Shinohara, Tadayuki Takahashi, Ryota Tomaru, Shin Watanabe, Goro Yabu

Abstract:

In recent years, a nondestructive elemental analysis method based on muonic X-ray measurements has been developed and applied for various samples. Muonic X-rays are emitted after the formation of a muonic atom, which occurs when a negatively charged muon is captured in a muon atomic orbit around the nucleus. Because muonic X-rays have a higher energy than electronic X-rays due to the muon mass, they can be measured without being absorbed by a material. Thus, estimating the two-dimensional (2D) elemental distribution of a sample became possible using an X-ray imaging detector. In this work, we report a non-destructive imaging experiment using muonic X-rays at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex. The irradiated target consisted of a polypropylene material, and a double-sided silicon strip detector, which was developed as an imaging detector for astronomical obervation, was employed. A peak corresponding to muonic X-rays from the carbon atoms in the target was clearly observed in the energy spectrum at an energy of 14 keV, and 2D visualizations were successfully reconstructed to reveal the projection image from the target. This result demonstrates the potential of the nondestructive elemental imaging method that is based on muonic X-ray measurement. To obtain a higher position resolution for imaging a smaller target, a new detector system will be developed to improve the statistical analysis in further research.

Keywords: DSSD, muon, muonic X-ray, imaging, non-destructive analysis

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1255

Authors: A. Nassef, S. Samy, W. H. El Garaihy

Abstract:

Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) of commercial Al-Mg-Si alloy was conducted using two strain rates. The ECAP processing was conducted at room temperature and at 250°C. Route A was adopted up to a total number of four passes in the present work. Structural evolution of the aluminum alloy discs was investigated before and after ECAP processing using optical microscopy (OM). Following ECAP, simple compression tests and Vicker’s hardness were performed. OM micrographs showed that, the average grain size of the as-received Al-Mg-Si disc tends to be larger than the size of the ECAP processed discs. Moreover, significant difference in the grain morphologies of the as-received and processed discs was observed. Intensity of deformation was observed via the alignment of the Al-Mg-Si consolidated particles (grains) in the direction of shear, which increased with increasing the number of passes via ECAP. Increasing the number of passes up to 4 resulted in increasing the grains aspect ratio up to ~5. It was found that the pressing temperature has a significant influence on the microstructure, Hv-values, and compressive strength of the processed discs. Hardness measurements demonstrated that 1-pass resulted in increase of Hv-value by 42% compared to that of the as-received alloy. 4-passes of ECAP processing resulted in additional increase in the Hv-value. A similar trend was observed for the yield and compressive strength. Experimental data of the Hv-values demonstrated that there is a lack of any significant dependence on the processing strain rate.

Keywords: Al-Mg-Si alloy, Equal channel angular pressing, Grain refinement, Severe plastic deformation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2245

Authors: Mustapha Kamel Mihoubi, Mohamed Essadik Kerkar

Abstract:

Probabilistic risk analysis models are used to provide a better understanding of the reliability and structural failure of works, including when calculating the stability of large structures to a major risk in the event of an accident or breakdown. This work is interested in the study of the probability of failure of concrete dams through the application of reliability analysis methods including the methods used in engineering. It is in our case, the use of level 2 methods via the study limit state. Hence, the probability of product failures is estimated by analytical methods of the type first order risk method (FORM) and the second order risk method (SORM). By way of comparison, a level three method was used which generates a full analysis of the problem and involves an integration of the probability density function of random variables extended to the field of security using the Monte Carlo simulation method. Taking into account the change in stress following load combinations: normal, exceptional and extreme acting on the dam, calculation of the results obtained have provided acceptable failure probability values which largely corroborate the theory, in fact, the probability of failure tends to increase with increasing load intensities, thus causing a significant decrease in strength, shear forces then induce a shift that threatens the reliability of the structure by intolerable values of the probability of product failures. Especially, in case the increase of uplift in a hypothetical default of the drainage system.

Keywords: Dam, failure, limit-state, Monte Carlo simulation, reliability, probability, simulation, sliding, Taylor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1224

Authors: M. Rossini, A. Portioli Studacher

Abstract:

The market competition is moving from the single firm to the whole supply chain because of increasing competition and growing need for operational efficiencies and customer orientation. Supply chain management allows companies to look beyond their organizational boundaries to develop and leverage resources and capabilities of their supply chain partners. This creates competitive advantages in the marketplace and because of this SCM has acquired strategic importance. Lean Approach is a management strategy that focuses on reducing every type of waste present in an organization. This approach is becoming more and more popular among supply chain managers. The supply chain application of lean approach is not frequent. In particular, it is not well studied which are the impacts of lean approach principles in a supply chain context. In literature there are only few studies aimed at understanding the qualitative impact of the lean approach in supply chains. Therefore, the goal of this research work is to study the impacts of lean principles implementation along a supply chain. To achieve this, a simulation model of a threeechelon multi-product supply chain has been built. Kanban system (and several priority policies) and setup time reduction degrees are implemented in the lean-configured supply chain to apply pull and lot-sizing decrease principles respectively. To evaluate the benefits of lean approach, lean supply chain is compared with an EOQ-configured supply chain. The simulation results show that Kanban system and setup-time reduction improve inventory stock level. They also show that logistics efforts are affected to lean implementation degree. The paper concludes describing performances of lean supply chain in different contexts.

Keywords: Inventory policy, Kanban, lean supply chain, simulation study, supply chain management, planning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2128

Authors: Ali Akbar Sadat Asl

Abstract:

Diagnosis and deciding about diseases in medical fields is facing innate uncertainty which can affect the whole process of treatment. This decision is made based on expert knowledge and the way in which an expert interprets the patient's condition, and the interpretation of the various experts from the patient's condition may be different. Fuzzy logic can provide mathematical modeling for many concepts, variables, and systems that are unclear and ambiguous and also it can provide a framework for reasoning, inference, control, and decision making in conditions of uncertainty. In systems with high uncertainty and high complexity, fuzzy logic is a suitable method for modeling. In this paper, we use type-2 fuzzy logic for uncertainty modeling that is in diagnosis of leukemia. The proposed system uses an indirect-direct approach and consists of two stages: In the first stage, the inference of blood test state is determined. In this step, we use an indirect approach where the rules are extracted automatically by implementing a clustering approach. In the second stage, signs of leukemia, duration of disease until its progress and the output of the first stage are combined and the final diagnosis of the system is obtained. In this stage, the system uses a direct approach and final diagnosis is determined by the expert. The obtained results show that the type-2 fuzzy expert system can diagnose leukemia with the average accuracy about 97%.

Keywords: Expert system, leukemia, medical diagnosis, type-2 fuzzy logic.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1052

Authors: Xi Gu, Guan Heng Yeoh, Victoria Timchenko

Abstract:

In the current work, a three-dimensional geometry of a 75% stenosed blood vessel is analyzed. Large eddy simulation (LES) with the help of a dynamic subgrid scale Smagorinsky model is applied to model the turbulent pulsatile flow. The geometry, the transmural pressure and the properties of the blood and the elastic boundary were based on clinical measurement data. For the flexible wall model, a thin solid region is constructed around the 75% stenosed blood vessel. The deformation of this solid region was modelled as a deforming boundary to reduce the computational cost of the solid model. Fluid-structure interaction is realized via a twoway coupling between the blood flow modelled via LES and the deforming vessel. The information of the flow pressure and the wall motion was exchanged continually during the cycle by an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method. The boundary condition of current time step depended on previous solutions. The fluctuation of the velocity in the post-stenotic region was analyzed in the study. The axial velocity at normalized position Z=0.5 shows a negative value near the vessel wall. The displacement of the elastic boundary was concerned in this study. In particular, the wall displacement at the systole and the diastole were compared. The negative displacement at the stenosis indicates a collapse at the maximum velocity and the deceleration phase.

Keywords: Large Eddy Simulation, Fluid Structural Interaction, Constricted Artery, Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2342

Authors: Atef M. Ghaleb, Mohamed Z. Ramadan, Khalid Saad Aljaloud

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to assesses the lifting capabilities of persons experiencing hypoxia. It also examines the behavior of the physiological response induced through the lifting process related to changing in the hypoxia and lifting frequency variables. For this purpose, the study performed two consecutive tests by using; (1) training and acclimatization; and (2) an actual collection of data. A total of 10 male students from King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were recruited in the study. A two-way repeated measures design, with two independent variables (ambient oxygen (15%, 18% and 21%)) and lifting frequency (1 lift/min and 4 lifts/min) and four dependent variables i.e., maximum acceptable weight of lift (MAWL), Electromyography (EMG) of four muscle groups (anterior deltoid, trapezius, biceps brachii, and erector spinae), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and rating of oxygen feeling (ROF) were used in this study. The results show that lifting frequency has significantly impacted the MAWL and muscles’ activities. The oxygen content had a significant effect on the RPE and ROE. The study has revealed that acclimatization and training sessions significantly reduce the effect of the hypoxia on the human physiological parameters during the manual materials handling tasks.

Keywords: Lifting capabilities, muscle activities (sEMG), oxygen content, perceived exertion.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 643

Authors: Zohreh Orshesh

Abstract:

In this study, a 3D combustion chamber was simulated using FLUENT 6.32. Aims to obtain accurate information about the profile of the combustion in the furnace and also check the effect of oxygen enrichment on the combustion process. Oxygen enrichment is an effective way to reduce combustion pollutant. The flow rate of air to fuel ratio is varied as 1.3, 3.2 and 5.1 and the oxygen enriched flow rates are 28, 54 and 68 lit/min. Combustion simulations typically involve the solution of the turbulent flows with heat transfer, species transport and chemical reactions. It is common to use the Reynolds-averaged form of the governing equation in conjunction with a suitable turbulence model. The 3D Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations with standard k-ε turbulence model are solved together by Fluent 6.3 software. First order upwind scheme is used to model governing equations and the SIMPLE algorithm is used as pressure velocity coupling. Species mass fractions at the wall are assumed to have zero normal gradients.Results show that minimum mole fraction of CO2 happens when the flow rate ratio of air to fuel is 5.1. Additionally, in a fixed oxygen enrichment condition, increasing the air to fuel ratio will increase the temperature peak. As a result, oxygen-enrichment can reduce the CO2 emission at this kind of furnace in high air to fuel rates.

Keywords: Combustion chamber, Oxygen enrichment, Reynolds Averaged Navier- Stokes, CO2 emission

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1532

Authors: T. Sungkaworn, W. Triampo, P. Nalakarn, D. Triampo, I. M. Tang, Y. Lenbury, P. Picha

Abstract:

Semiconductor nanomaterials like TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) approximately less than 100 nm in diameter have become a new generation of advanced materials due to their novel and interesting optical, dielectric, and photo-catalytic properties. With the increasing use of NPs in commerce, to date few studies have investigated the toxicological and environmental effects of NPs. Motivated by the importance of TiO2-NPs that may contribute to the cancer research field especially from the treatment prospective together with the fractal analysis technique, we have investigated the effect of TiO2-NPs on colony morphology in the dark condition using fractal dimension as a key morphological characterization parameter. The aim of this work is mainly to investigate the cytotoxic effects of TiO2-NPs in the dark on the growth of human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cell colonies from morphological aspect. The in vitro studies were carried out together with the image processing technique and fractal analysis. It was found that, these colonies were abnormal in shape and size. Moreover, the size of the control colonies appeared to be larger than those of the treated group. The mean Df +/- SEM of the colonies in untreated cultures was 1.085±0.019, N= 25, while that of the cultures treated with TiO2-NPs was 1.287±0.045. It was found that the circularity of the control group (0.401±0.071) is higher than that of the treated group (0.103±0.042). The same tendency was found in the diameter parameters which are 1161.30±219.56 μm and 852.28±206.50 μm for the control and treated group respectively. Possible explanation of the results was discussed, though more works need to be done in terms of the for mechanism aspects. Finally, our results indicate that fractal dimension can serve as a useful feature, by itself or in conjunction with other shape features, in the classification of cancer colonies.

Keywords: Tumor growth, Cell colonies, TiO2, Nanoparticles, Fractal, Morphology, Aggregation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2003

Authors: Miled Amel, Ben Maad Hatem, Askri Faouzi, Ben Nasrallah Sassi

Abstract:

Metal hydride water pumping system uses hydrogen as working fluid to pump water for low head and high discharge. The principal operation of this pump is based on the desorption of hydrogen at high pressure and its absorption at low pressure by a metal hydride. This work is devoted to study a concept of the dynamic behavior of a metal hydride pump using unsteady model and LaNi5 as hydriding alloy. This study shows that with MHP, it is possible to pump 340l/kg-cycle of water in 15 000s using 1 Kg of LaNi5 at a desorption temperature of 360 K, a pumping head equal to 5 m and a desorption gear ratio equal to 33. This study reveals also that the error given by the steady model, using LaNi5 is about 2%.A dimensional mathematical model and the governing equations of the pump were presented to predict the coupled heat and mass transfer within the MHP. Then, a numerical simulation is carried out to present the time evolution of the specific water discharge and to test the effect of different parameters (desorption temperature, absorption temperature, desorption gear ratio) on the performance of the water pumping system (specific water discharge, pumping efficiency and pumping time). In addition, a comparison between results obtained with steady and unsteady model is performed with different hydride mass. Finally, a geometric configuration of the reactor is simulated to optimize the pumping time.

Keywords: Dynamic behavior, unsteady model, LaNi5, performance of the water pumping system.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 769

Authors: Erfan Asghari Fesaghandis, Reza Ghaffari Adli, Abbas Kianvash, Hossein Aghajani, Homa Homaie

Abstract:

NiTi alloys possess magnificent superelastic, shape memory, high strength and biocompatible properties. For improving mechanical properties, foremost, superelasticity behavior, heat treatment process is carried out. In this paper, two different heat treatment methods were undertaken: (1) solid solution, and (2) aging. The effect of each treatment in a constant time is investigated. Five samples were prepared to study the structure and optimize mechanical properties under different time and temperature. For measuring the upper plateau stress, lower plateau stress and residual strain, tensile test is carried out. The samples were aged at two different temperatures to see difference between aging temperatures. The sample aged at 500 °C has a bigger crystallite size and lower amount of Ni which causes the mentioned sample to possess poor pseudo elasticity behaviour than the other aged sample. The sample aged at 460 °C has shown remarkable superelastic properties. The mentioned sample’s higher plateau is 580 MPa with the lowest residual strain (0.17%) while other samples have possessed higher residual strains. X-ray diffraction was used to investigate the produced phases.

Keywords: Heat treatment, phase transformation, superelasticity, NiTi alloy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 698

Authors: Lee Bih Ni, Emily Doreen Lee, Wee Hui Yean

Abstract:

This paper was prepared to see the perceptions of online lectures regarding collaborative learning, in terms of how lecturers view online collaborative learning in the higher learning institution. The purpose of this study was conducted to determine the perceptions of online lectures about collaborative learning, especially how lecturers see online collaborative learning in the university. Adult learning education enhance collaborative learning culture with the target of involving learners in the learning process to make teaching and learning more effective and open at the university. This will finally make students learning that will assist each other. It is also to cut down the pressure of loneliness and isolation might felt among adult learners. Their ways in collaborative online was also determined. In this paper, researchers collect data using questionnaires instruments. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted. By analyzing the data, researchers report the results according the proof taken from the respondents. Results from the study, it is not only dependent on the lecturer but also a student to shape a good collaborative learning practice. Rational concepts and pattern to achieve these targets be clear right from the beginning and may be good seen by a number of proposals submitted and include how the higher learning institution has trained with ongoing lectures online. Advantages of online collaborative learning show that lecturers should be trained effectively. Studies have seen that the lecturer aware of online collaborative learning. This positive attitude will encourage the higher learning institution to continue to give the knowledge and skills required.

Keywords: Collaborative Online Learning, Lecturers’ Training.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2452

Authors: Kyi Pyar Zaw, Zin Mar Kyu

Abstract:

Character recognition is the process of converting a text image file into editable and searchable text file. Feature Extraction is the heart of any character recognition system. The character recognition rate may be low or high depending on the extracted features. In the proposed paper, 25 features for one character are used in character recognition. Basically, there are three steps of character recognition such as character segmentation, feature extraction and classification. In segmentation step, horizontal cropping method is used for line segmentation and vertical cropping method is used for character segmentation. In the Feature extraction step, features are extracted in two ways. The first way is that the 8 features are extracted from the entire input character using eight direction chain code frequency extraction. The second way is that the input character is divided into 16 blocks. For each block, although 8 feature values are obtained through eight-direction chain code frequency extraction method, we define the sum of these 8 feature values as a feature for one block. Therefore, 16 features are extracted from that 16 blocks in the second way. We use the number of holes feature to cluster the similar characters. We can recognize the almost Myanmar common characters with various font sizes by using these features. All these 25 features are used in both training part and testing part. In the classification step, the characters are classified by matching the all features of input character with already trained features of characters.

Keywords: Chain code frequency, character recognition, feature extraction, features matching, segmentation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 751

Authors: Makoto Sakamoto, Yasuo Uchida, Makoto Nagatomo, Takao Ito, Tsunehiro Yoshinaga, Satoshi Ikeda, Masahiro Yokomichi, Hiroshi Furutani

Abstract:

In theoretical computer science, the Turing machine has played a number of important roles in understanding and exploiting basic concepts and mechanisms in computing and information processing [20]. It is a simple mathematical model of computers [9]. After that, M.Blum and C.Hewitt first proposed two-dimensional automata as a computational model of two-dimensional pattern processing, and investigated their pattern recognition abilities in 1967 [7]. Since then, a lot of researchers in this field have been investigating many properties about automata on a two- or three-dimensional tape. On the other hand, the question of whether processing fourdimensional digital patterns is much more difficult than two- or threedimensional ones is of great interest from the theoretical and practical standpoints. Thus, the study of four-dimensional automata as a computasional model of four-dimensional pattern processing has been meaningful [8]-[19],[21]. This paper introduces a cooperating system of four-dimensional finite automata as one model of four-dimensional automata. A cooperating system of four-dimensional finite automata consists of a finite number of four-dimensional finite automata and a four-dimensional input tape where these finite automata work independently (in parallel). Those finite automata whose input heads scan the same cell of the input tape can communicate with each other, that is, every finite automaton is allowed to know the internal states of other finite automata on the same cell it is scanning at the moment. In this paper, we mainly investigate some accepting powers of a cooperating system of eight- or seven-way four-dimensional finite automata. The seven-way four-dimensional finite automaton is an eight-way four-dimensional finite automaton whose input head can move east, west, south, north, up, down, or in the fu-ture, but not in the past on a four-dimensional input tape.

Keywords: computational complexity, cooperating system, finite automaton, four-dimension, hierarchy, multihead.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1887

Authors: P. Manivannan, M. Rajasimman

Abstract:

Response surface methodology was used for quantitative investigation of water and solids transfer during osmotic dehydration of beetroot in aqueous solution of salt. Effects of temperature (25 – 45oC), processing time (30–150 min), salt concentration (5–25%, w/w) and solution to sample ratio (5:1 – 25:1) on osmotic dehydration of beetroot were estimated. Quadratic regression equations describing the effects of these factors on the water loss and solids gain were developed. It was found that effects of temperature and salt concentrations were more significant on the water loss than the effects of processing time and solution to sample ratio. As for solids gain processing time and salt concentration were the most significant factors. The osmotic dehydration process was optimized for water loss, solute gain, and weight reduction. The optimum conditions were found to be: temperature – 35oC, processing time – 90 min, salt concentration – 14.31% and solution to sample ratio 8.5:1. At these optimum values, water loss, solid gain and weight reduction were found to be 30.86 (g/100 g initial sample), 9.43 (g/100 g initial sample) and 21.43 (g/100 g initial sample) respectively.

Keywords: Optimization, Osmotic dehydration, Beetroot, saltsolution, response surface methodology

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3457

Authors: Dyi-Cheng Chen, Wen-Hsuan Ku, Ming-Ren Chen

Abstract:

The current of professional bicycle pedal-s manufacturing model mostly used casting, forging, die-casting processing methods, so the paper used 7075 aluminum alloy which is to produce the bicycle parts most commonly, and employs the rigid-plastic finite element (FE) DEFORMTM 3D software to simulate and to analyze the professional bicycle pedal design. First we use Solid works 2010 3D graphics software to design the professional bicycle pedal of the mold and appearance, then import finite element (FE) DEFORMTM 3D software for analysis. The paper used rigid-plastic model analytical methods, and assuming mode to be rigid body. A series of simulation analyses in which the variables depend on different temperature of forging billet, friction factors, forging speed, mold temperature are reveal to effective stress, effective strain, damage and die radial load distribution for forging bicycle pedal. The analysis results hope to provide professional bicycle pedal forming mold references to identified whether suit with the finite element results for high-strength design suitability of aluminum alloy.

Keywords: Bicycle pedal, finite element analysis, 7075 aluminum alloy, Taguchi method

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2791

Authors: Hani Baek, Gwang Min Sun, Chansun Shin, Sung Ho Ahn

Abstract:

Fast neutron irradiation using nuclear reactors is an effective method to improve switching loss and short circuit durability of power semiconductor (insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) and insulated gate transistors (IGT), etc.). However, not only fast neutrons but also thermal neutrons, epithermal neutrons and gamma exist in the nuclear reactor. And the electrical properties of the IGBT may be deteriorated by the irradiation of gamma. Gamma irradiation damages are known to be caused by Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effect and Single Event Effect (SEE), Displacement Damage. Especially, the TID effect deteriorated the electrical properties such as leakage current and threshold voltage of a power semiconductor. This work can confirm the effect of the gamma irradiation on the electrical properties of 600 V NPT-IGBT. Irradiation of gamma forms lattice defects in the gate oxide and Si-SiO₂ interface of the IGBT. It was confirmed that this lattice defect acts on the center of the trap and affects the threshold voltage, thereby negatively shifted the threshold voltage according to TID. In addition to the change in the carrier mobility, the conductivity modulation decreases in the n-drift region, indicating a negative influence that the forward voltage drop decreases. The turn-off delay time of the device before irradiation was 212 ns. Those of 2.5, 10, 30, 70 and 100 kRad(Si) were 225, 258, 311, 328, and 350 ns, respectively. The gamma irradiation increased the turn-off delay time of the IGBT by approximately 65%, and the switching characteristics deteriorated.

Keywords: NPT-IGBT, gamma irradiation, switching, turn-off delay time, recombination, trap center.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 870

Authors: H. Higashiyama, M. Sano, F. Nakanishi, M. Sugiyama, O. Takahashi, S. Tsukuma

Abstract:

The heat island phenomenon becomes one of the environmental problems. As countermeasures in the field of road engineering, cool pavements such as water retaining pavements and solar radiation reflective pavements have been developed to reduce the surface temperature of asphalt pavements in the hot summer climate in Japan. The authors have studied on the water retaining pavements with cement–based grouting materials. The cement–based grouting materials consist of cement, ceramic waste powder, and natural zeolite. The ceramic waste powder is collected through the recycling process of electric porcelain insulators. In this study, mixing ratio between the ceramic waste powder and the natural zeolite and a type of cement for the cement–based grouting materials is investigated to measure the surface temperature of asphalt pavements in the outdoor. All of the developed cement–based grouting materials were confirmed to effectively reduce the surface temperature of the asphalt pavements. Especially, the cement–based grouting material using the ultra–rapid hardening cement with the mixing ratio of 0.7:0.3 between the ceramic waste powder and the natural zeolite reduced mostly the surface temperature by 20 °C and more.

Keywords: Ceramic waste powder, natural zeolite, road surface temperature, water retaining pavements.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1705

Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

Abstract:

An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., a family of products that shares the common features). Software testing is a timeconsuming and costly ongoing activity during the application software development process. Generating reusable test cases for the framework applications during the framework development stage, and providing and using the test cases to test part of the framework application whenever the framework is used reduces the application development time and cost considerably. This paper introduces the Framework Interface State Transition Tester (FIST2), a tool for automated unit testing of Java framework applications. During the framework development stage, given the formal descriptions of the framework hooks, the specifications of the methods of the framework-s extensible classes, and the illegal behavior description of the Framework Interface Classes (FICs), FIST2 generates unitlevel test cases for the classes. At the framework application development stage, given the customized method specifications of the implemented FICs, FIST2 automates the use, execution, and evaluation of the already generated test cases to test the implemented FICs. The paper illustrates the use of the FIST2 tool for testing several applications that use the SalesPoint framework.

Keywords: Automated testing, class testing, FICs, FIST2, object-oriented framework, object-oriented testing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1617

Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Manisha Prashar, Pourush Bassi, Atul Bisht

Abstract:

Software effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and/or noisy input. Effort estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans, budgets. There are various models like Halstead, Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili, Doty and GA Based models which have already used to estimate the software effort for projects. In this study Statistical Models, Fuzzy-GA and Neuro-Fuzzy (NF) Inference Systems are experimented to estimate the software effort for projects. The performances of the developed models were tested on NASA software project datasets and results are compared with the Halstead, Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili, Doty and Genetic Algorithm Based models mentioned in the literature. The result shows that the NF Model has the lowest MMRE and RMSE values. The NF Model shows the best results as compared with the Fuzzy-GA based hybrid Inference System and other existing Models that are being used for the Effort Prediction with lowest MMRE and RMSE values.

Keywords: Neuro-Fuzzy Model, Halstead Model, Walston-Felix Model, Bailey-Basili Model, Doty Model, GA Based Model, Genetic Algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3226

Authors: Bhim Kumar Dahal

Abstract:

Transportation network development in the developing country is in rapid pace. The majority of the network belongs to railway and expressway which passes through diverse topography, landform and geological conditions despite the avoidance principle during route selection. Construction of such networks demand many low to high embankment which required improvement in the foundation soil. This paper is mainly focused on the various advanced ground improvement techniques used to improve the soft soil, modelling approach and its predictability for embankments construction. The ground improvement techniques can be broadly classified in to three groups i.e. densification group, drainage and consolidation group and reinforcement group which are discussed with some case studies.  Various methods were used in modelling of the embankments from simple 1-dimensional to complex 3-dimensional model using variety of constitutive models. However, the reliability of the predictions is not found systematically improved with the level of sophistication.  And sometimes the predictions are deviated more than 60% to the monitored value besides using same level of erudition. This deviation is found mainly due to the selection of constitutive model, assumptions made during different stages, deviation in the selection of model parameters and simplification during physical modelling of the ground condition. This deviation can be reduced by using optimization process, optimization tools and sensitivity analysis of the model parameters which will guide to select the appropriate model parameters.

Keywords: Embankment, ground improvement, modelling, model prediction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 950

Authors: C. Villegas-Quezada, J. Climent

Abstract:

Several works regarding facial recognition have dealt with methods which identify isolated characteristics of the face or with templates which encompass several regions of it. In this paper a new technique which approaches the problem holistically dispensing with the need to identify geometrical characteristics or regions of the face is introduced. The characterization of a face is achieved by randomly sampling selected attributes of the pixels of its image. From this information we construct a set of data, which correspond to the values of low frequencies, gradient, entropy and another several characteristics of pixel of the image. Generating a set of “p" variables. The multivariate data set with different polynomials minimizing the data fitness error in the minimax sense (L∞ - Norm) is approximated. With the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) it is able to circumvent the problem of dimensionality inherent to higher degree polynomial approximations. The GA yields the degree and values of a set of coefficients of the polynomials approximating of the image of a face. By finding a family of characteristic polynomials from several variables (pixel characteristics) for each face (say Fi ) in the data base through a resampling process the system in use, is trained. A face (say F ) is recognized by finding its characteristic polynomials and using an AdaBoost Classifier from F -s polynomials to each of the Fi -s polynomials. The winner is the polynomial family closer to F -s corresponding to target face in data base.

Keywords: AdaBoost Classifier, Holistic Face Recognition, Minimax Multivariate Approximation, Genetic Algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1496

Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

Abstract:

This paper explores the features of political economy in the dynamics of representative politics in India. Politics is seen as enhancing economic benefits through acquiring and maintenance of power in the realm of democratic set up. The system of representation is riddled with competitive populism. Emerging leaders and parties are forced to accommodate their ideologies in coping with competitive politics. Electoral politics and voting behaviour reflect series of influences mooted by the politicians. Voters are accustomed to expect benefits outs of state exchequer. The electoral competitors show a changing phase of investment and return policy. Every elector has to spend and realize his costs in his tenure. In the case of defeated electors, even the cost recovery is not possible directly; there are indirect means to recover their costs. The series of case studies show the method of party funding, campaign financing, electoral expenditure, and cost recovery. Regulations could not restrict the level of spending. Several cases of disproportionate accumulation of wealth by the politicians reveal that money played a major part in electoral process. The political economy of representative politics hitherto ignores how a politician spends and recovers his cost and multiples his wealth. To be sure, the acquiring and maintenance of power is to enhance the wealth of the electors.

Keywords: Political economy, representative politics, costrecovery, electoral politics

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1550

Authors: U. Datta

Abstract:

The main objective of this study is to find a suitable approach to monitor the land infrastructure growth over a period of time using multispectral satellite images. Bi-temporal change detection method is unable to indicate the continuous change occurring over a long period of time. To achieve this objective, the approach used here estimates a statistical model from series of multispectral image data over a long period of time, assuming there is no considerable change during that time period and then compare it with the multispectral image data obtained at a later time. The change is estimated pixel-wise. Statistical composite hypothesis technique is used for estimating pixel based change detection in a defined region. The generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) is used to detect the changed pixel from probabilistic estimated model of the corresponding pixel. The changed pixel is detected assuming that the images have been co-registered prior to estimation. To minimize error due to co-registration, 8-neighborhood pixels around the pixel under test are also considered. The multispectral images from Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 from 2015 to 2018 are used for this purpose. There are different challenges in this method. First and foremost challenge is to get quite a large number of datasets for multivariate distribution modelling. A large number of images are always discarded due to cloud coverage. Due to imperfect modelling there will be high probability of false alarm. Overall conclusion that can be drawn from this work is that the probabilistic method described in this paper has given some promising results, which need to be pursued further.

Keywords: Co-registration, GLRT, infrastructure growth, multispectral, multitemporal, pixel-based change detection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 727

Authors: Miloš Matúš, Peter Križan, Ľubomír Šooš, Juraj Beniak

Abstract:

The moisture content of densified biomass is a limiting parameter influencing the quality of this solid biofuel. It influences its calorific value, density, mechanical strength and dimensional stability as well as affecting its production process. This paper deals with experimental research into the effect of moisture content of the densified material on the final quality of biofuel in the form of logs (briquettes or pellets). Experiments based on the singleaxis densification of the spruce sawdust were carried out with a hydraulic piston press (piston and die), where the densified logs were produced at room temperature. The effect of moisture content on the qualitative properties of the logs, including density, change of moisture, expansion and physical changes, and compressive and impact resistance were studied. The results show the moisture ranges required for producing good-quality logs. The experiments were evaluated and the moisture content of the tested material was optimized to achieve the optimum value for the best quality of the solid biofuel. The dense logs also have high-energy content per unit volume. The research results could be used to develop and optimize industrial technologies and machinery for biomass densification to achieve high quality solid biofuel.

Keywords: Biomass, briquettes, densification, fuel quality, moisture content, density.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2768

Authors: Siti Azrina B. A. Aziz, Siti Hafizah A. Hamid

Abstract:

New approaches to analyze and visualize data stream in real-time basis is important in making a prompt decision by the decision maker. Financial market trading and surveillance, large-scale emergency response and crowd control are some example scenarios that require real-time analytic and data visualization. This situation has led to the development of techniques and tools that support humans in analyzing the source data. With the emergence of Big Data and social media, new techniques and tools are required in order to process the streaming data. Today, ranges of tools which implement some of these functionalities are available. In this paper, we present chronological evolution evaluation of technologies for supporting of real-time analytic and visualization of the data stream. Based on the past research papers published from 2002 to 2014, we gathered the general information, main techniques, challenges and open issues. The techniques for streaming text visualization are identified based on Text Visualization Browser in chronological order. This paper aims to review the evolution of streaming text visualization techniques and tools, as well as to discuss the problems and challenges for each of identified tools.

Keywords: Information visualization, visual analytics, text mining, visual text analytics tools, big data visualization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1001

Authors: Amir Moslemi, Amir Movafeghi, Shahab Moradi

Abstract:

One of the most important challenging factors in medical images is nominated as noise. Image denoising refers to the improvement of a digital medical image that has been infected by Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The digital medical image or video can be affected by different types of noises. They are impulse noise, Poisson noise and AWGN. Computed tomography (CT) images are subjects to low quality due to the noise. Quality of CT images is dependent on absorbed dose to patients directly in such a way that increase in absorbed radiation, consequently absorbed dose to patients (ADP), enhances the CT images quality. In this manner, noise reduction techniques on purpose of images quality enhancement exposing no excess radiation to patients is one the challenging problems for CT images processing. In this work, noise reduction in CT images was performed using two different directional 2 dimensional (2D) transformations; i.e., Curvelet and Contourlet and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) thresholding methods of BayesShrink and AdaptShrink, compared to each other and we proposed a new threshold in wavelet domain for not only noise reduction but also edge retaining, consequently the proposed method retains the modified coefficients significantly that result good visual quality. Data evaluations were accomplished by using two criterions; namely, peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and Structure similarity (Ssim).

Keywords: Computed Tomography (CT), noise reduction, curve-let, contour-let, Signal to Noise Peak-Peak Ratio (PSNR), Structure Similarity (Ssim), Absorbed Dose to Patient (ADP).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2918

Authors: Domenico Chizzoniti, Monica Moscatelli, Letizia Cattani, Luca Preis

Abstract:

A primary healthcare facility in developing countries should be a multifunctional space able to respond to different requirements: Flexibility, modularity, aggregation and reversibility. These basic features could be better satisfied if applied to an architectural artifact that complies with the typological, figurative and constructive aspects of the context in which it is located. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify a procedure that can define the figurative aspects of the architectural structure of the health prototype for the marginal areas of developing countries through a critical approach. The application context is the rural areas of the Northeast of Bahia in Brazil. The prototype should be located in the rural district of Quingoma, in the municipality of Lauro de Freitas, a particular place where there is still a cultural fusion of black and indigenous populations. Based on the historical analysis of settlement strategies and architectural structures in spaces of public interest or collective use, this paper aims to provide a procedure able to identify the categories and rules underlying typological and figurative aspects, in order to detect significant and generalizable elements, as well as materials and constructive techniques typically adopted in the rural areas of Brazil. The object of this work is therefore not only the recovery of certain constructive approaches but also the development of a procedure that integrates the requirements of the primary healthcare prototype with its surrounding economic, social, cultural, settlement and figurative conditions.

Keywords: Architectural typology, Developing countries, Local construction techniques, Primary health care.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 942

Authors: Yitao Lei, Xingxiang Zhai, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

Abstract:

As the quantity and complexity of computing in large-scale software systems increase, distributed system computing becomes increasingly important. The distributed system realizes high-performance computing by collaboration between different computing resources. If there are no efficient resource scheduling resources, the abuse of distributed computing may cause resource waste and high costs. However, resource scheduling is usually an NP-hard problem, so we cannot find a general solution. However, some optimization algorithms exist like genetic algorithm, ant colony optimization, etc. The large scale of distributed systems makes this traditional optimization algorithm challenging to work with. Heuristic and machine learning algorithms are usually applied in this situation to ease the computing load. As a result, we do a review of traditional resource scheduling optimization algorithms and try to introduce a deep reinforcement learning method that utilizes the perceptual ability of neural networks and the decision-making ability of reinforcement learning. Using the machine learning method, we try to find important factors that influence the performance of distributed system computing and help the distributed system do an efficient computing resource scheduling. This paper surveys the application of deep reinforcement learning on distributed system computing resource scheduling. The research proposes a deep reinforcement learning method that uses a recurrent neural network to optimize the resource scheduling. The paper concludes the challenges and improvement directions for Deep Reinforcement Learning-based resource scheduling algorithms.

Keywords: Resource scheduling, deep reinforcement learning, distributed system, artificial intelligence.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 494

Authors: Mária Hudáková, Mária Lusková

Abstract:

This report is focused on widening the theoretical knowledge as well as controlling practical application from the risk management point of view, regarding to dynamic business changes that have occurred in Slovakia which recently has been considered to be an environment full of risk and uncertainty. The idea of the report is the proposal of the controlling operation model in the course of risk management process in an enterprise operating in Slovakia, by which the controller is able to identify early risk factors in suggested major areas of the business management upon appropriate business information integration, consecutive control and prognoses and to prepare in time full-value documents in order to suggest measures for reduction thereof. Dealing with risk factors, that can quickly limit the growth potential of the enterprise, is an essential part of managerial activities on each level. This is the reason why mutual unofficial, ergo collegial cooperation of individual departments is necessary for controlling application from the business risk management point of view. An important part of the report is elaborated survey of the most important risk factors existing in major management areas of enterprises operating in Slovakia. The outcome of the performed survey is a catalogue of the most important enterprise risk factors. The catalogue serves for better understanding risk factors affecting the Slovak enterprises, their importance and evaluation.

Keywords: Controlling, information system, risks management, risk factor, crisis of enterprise.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 890