Search results for: Behavior model simulation

Authors: Felipe Azocar Simonet, Luis Acosta Espejo

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In this article, we will try to find an efficient boundary approximation for the bi-objective location problem with coherent coverage for two levels of hierarchy (CCLP). We present the mathematical formulation of the model used. Supported efficient solutions and unsupported efficient solutions are obtained by solving the bi-objective combinatorial problem through the weights method using a Lagrangean heuristic. Subsequently, the results are validated through the DEA analysis with the GEM index (Global efficiency measurement).

Keywords: Coherent covering location problem, efficient frontier, Lagrangian relaxation, data envelopment analysis.

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Authors: H. Ferfera-Harrar, T. Benhalima, D. Lerari

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Contamination of water, due to the discharge of untreated industrial wastewaters into the ecosystem, has become a serious problem for many countries. In this study, bioadsorbents based on chitosan-g-poly(acrylamide) and montmorillonite (MMt) clay (CTS-g-PAAm/MMt) hydrogel nanocomposites were prepared via free‐radical grafting copolymerization and crosslinking of acrylamide monomer (AAm) onto natural polysaccharide chitosan (CTS) as backbone, in presence of various contents of MMt clay as nanofiller. Then, they were hydrolyzed to obtain highly functionalized pH‐sensitive nanomaterials with uppermost swelling properties. Their structure characterization was conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. The adsorption performances of the developed nanohybrids were examined for removal of methylene blue (MB) cationic dye from aqueous solutions. The factors affecting the removal of MB, such as clay content, pH medium, adsorbent dose, initial dye concentration and temperature were explored. The adsorption process was found to be highly pH dependent. From adsorption kinetic results, the prepared adsorbents showed remarkable adsorption capacity and fast adsorption rate, mainly more than 88% of MB removal efficiency was reached after 50 min in 200 mg L^-1 of dye solution. In addition, the incorporating of various content of clay has enhanced adsorption capacity of CTS-g-PAAm matrix from 1685 to a highest value of 1749 mg g^-1 for the optimized nanocomposite containing 2 wt.% of MMt. The experimental kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model, while the equilibrium data were represented perfectly by Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum Langmuir equilibrium adsorption capacity (q_m) was found to increase from 2173 mg g⁻¹ until 2221 mg g⁻¹ by adding 2 wt.% of clay nanofiller. Thermodynamic parameters revealed the spontaneous and endothermic nature of the process. In addition, the reusability study revealed that these bioadsorbents could be well regenerated with desorption efficiency overhead 87% and without any obvious decrease of removal efficiency as compared to starting ones even after four consecutive adsorption/desorption cycles, which exceeded 64%. These results suggest that the optimized nanocomposites are promising as low cost bioadsorbents.

Keywords: Chitosan, clay, dye adsorption, hydrogels nanocomposites.

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Authors: S.M. Abdul Khader, Md. Zubair, Raghuvir Pai. B, V.R.K. Rao, S. Ganesh Kamath

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The recent advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be useful in observing the detailed hemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms for understanding not only their formation and rupture but also for clinical evaluation and treatment. However, important hemodynamic quantities are difficult to measure in vivo. In the present study, an approximate model of normal middle cerebral artery (MCA) along with two cases consisting broad and narrow saccular aneurysms are analyzed. The models are generated in ANSYS WORKBENCH and transient analysis is performed in ANSYS-CFX. The results obtained are compared for three cases and agree well with the available literature.

Keywords: Aneurysms, ANSYS – CFX, CFD, Pulsatile flow.

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Authors: C. Barreto Carvalho, C. da Motta, J. Pinto-Gouveia, E. B. Peixoto

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Auditory hallucinations among the most invalidating and distressing experiences reported by patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, leading to feelings of powerlessness and helplessness towards their illness. In more severe cases, these auditory hallucinations can take the form of commanding voices, which are often related to high suicidality rates in these patients. Several authors propose that the meanings attributed to the hallucinatory experience, rather than characteristics like form and content, can be determinant in patients’ reactions to hallucinatory activity, particularly in the case of voice-hearing experiences. In this study, 48 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia presenting auditory hallucinations were studied. Multiple regression analyses were computed to study the influence of several developmental aspects, such as family and social dynamics, bullying, depression, and sociocognitive variables on the auditory hallucinations, on patients’ attributions and relationships with their voices, and on the resulting invalidation of hallucinatory experience. Overall, results showed how relationships with voices can mirror several aspects of interpersonal relationship with others, and how self-schemas, depression and actual social relationships help shaping the voice-hearing experience. Early experiences of victimization and submission help predict the attributions of omnipotence of the voices, and increased hostility from parents seems to increase the malevolence of the voices, suggesting that socio-cognitive factors can significantly contribute to the etiology and maintenance of auditory hallucinations. The understanding of the characteristics of auditory hallucinations and the relationships patients established with their voices can allow the development of more promising therapeutic interventions that can be more effective in decreasing invalidation caused by this devastating mental illness.

Keywords: Auditory hallucinations, beliefs, life events, schizophrenia.

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Authors: S. H. Yahaya, J. M. Ali, M. R. Arham

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This paper presents the analysis of duct design using static and dynamic approaches. The static approach is used to find out applicability between the design and material applied. The material used in this paper is Thermoplastic Olefins (TPO). For the dynamic approach, the focusing is only on the CFD simulations. The fatigue life in this design and material applied also covered.

Keywords: CFD, structural analysis, fluid analysis, duct design, fatigue life

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Authors: Sebastien Harasse, Laurent Bonnaud, Michel Desvignes

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Counting people from a video stream in a noisy environment is a challenging task. This project aims at developing a counting system for transport vehicles, integrated in a video surveillance product. This article presents a method for the detection and tracking of multiple faces in a video by using a model of first and second order local moments. An iterative process is used to estimate the position and shape of multiple faces in images, and to track them. the trajectories are then processed to count people entering and leaving the vehicle.

Keywords: face detection, tracking, counting, local statistics

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Authors: Farhad F. Yusifov

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With the explosive growth of data available on the Internet, personalization of this information space become a necessity. At present time with the rapid increasing popularity of the WWW, Websites are playing a crucial role to convey knowledge and information to the end users. Discovering hidden and meaningful information about Web users usage patterns is critical to determine effective marketing strategies to optimize the Web server usage for accommodating future growth. The task of mining useful information becomes more challenging when the Web traffic volume is enormous and keeps on growing. In this paper, we propose a intelligent model to discover and analyze useful knowledge from the available Web log data.

Keywords: Clustering, Self organizing map, Web log files, Web traffic.

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Authors: H.Panahi, S.Asadi

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In this article, we consider the estimation of P[Y < X], when strength, X and stress, Y are two independent variables of Burr Type XII distribution. The MLE of the R based on one simple iterative procedure is obtained. Assuming that the common parameter is known, the maximum likelihood estimator, uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator and Bayes estimator of P[Y < X] are discussed. The exact confidence interval of the R is also obtained. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to compare the different proposed methods.

Keywords: Stress-Strength model, Maximum likelihood estimator, Bayes estimator, Burr type XII distribution.

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Authors: Swathi Sampath, V. Kalaichelvi

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The assessment of the risk posed by a borrower to a lender is one of the common problems that financial institutions have to deal with. Consumers vying for a mortgage are generally compared to each other by the use of a number called the Credit Score, which is generated by applying a mathematical algorithm to information in the applicant’s credit report. The higher the credit score, the lower the risk posed by the candidate, and the better he is to be taken on by the lender. The objective of the present work is to use fuzzy logic and linguistic rules to create a model that generates Credit Scores.

Keywords: Credit scoring, fuzzy logic, mortgage, risk assessment.

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Authors: Muhammad Yasir Wadood, Fatemeh Babaeian

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By developing ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, there is a high demand for UWB filters with low insertion loss, wide bandwidth, and having a planar structure which is compatible with other components of the UWB system. A microstrip interdigital filter is a great option for designing UWB filters. However, the presence of via holes in this structure creates difficulties in the fabrication procedure of the filter. Especially in the higher frequency band, any misalignment of the drilled via hole with the Microstrip stubs causes large errors in the measurement results compared to the desired results. Moreover, in this case (high-frequency designs), the line width of the stubs are very narrow, so highly precise small via holes are required to be implemented, which increases the cost of fabrication significantly. Also, in this case, there is a risk of having fabrication errors. To combat this issue, in this paper, a via-less UWB microstrip filter is proposed which is designed based on a modification of a conventional inter-digital bandpass filter. The novel approaches in this filter design are 1) replacement of each via hole with a quarter-wavelength open circuit stub to avoid the complexity of manufacturing, 2) using a bend structure to reduce the unwanted coupling effects and 3) minimising the size. Using the proposed structure, a UWB filter operating in the frequency band of 3.9-6.6 GHz (1-dB bandwidth) is designed and fabricated. The promising results of the simulation and measurement are presented in this paper. The selected substrate for these designs was Rogers RO4003 with a thickness of 20 mils. This is a common substrate in most of the industrial projects. The compact size of the proposed filter is highly beneficial for applications which require a very miniature size of hardware.

Keywords: Band-pass filters, inter-digital filter, microstrip, via-less.

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Authors: Rahmi Kafadar, Levent Genc

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In present study, it was aimed to determine potential agricultural lands (PALs) in Gokceada (Imroz) Island of Canakkale province, Turkey. Seven-band Landsat 8 OLI images acquired on July 12 and August 13, 2013, and their 14-band combination image were used to identify current Land Use Land Cover (LULC) status. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to three Landsat datasets in order to reduce the correlation between the bands. A total of six Original and PCA images were classified using supervised classification method to obtain the LULC maps including 6 main classes (“Forest”, “Agriculture”, “Water Surface”, “Residential Area- Bare Soil”, “Reforestation” and “Other”). Accuracy assessment was performed by checking the accuracy of 120 randomized points for each LULC maps. The best overall accuracy and Kappa statistic values (90.83%, 0.8791% respectively) were found for PCA images which were generated from 14-bands combined images called 3- B/JA. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with 15 m spatial resolution (ASTER) was used to consider topographical characteristics. Soil properties were obtained by digitizing 1:25000 scaled soil maps of Rural Services Directorate General. Potential Agricultural Lands (PALs) were determined using Geographic information Systems (GIS). Procedure was applied considering that “Other” class of LULC map may be used for agricultural purposes in the future properties. Overlaying analysis was conducted using Slope (S), Land Use Capability Class (LUCC), Other Soil Properties (OSP) and Land Use Capability Sub-Class (SUBC) properties. A total of 901.62 ha areas within “Other” class (15798.2 ha) of LULC map were determined as PALs. These lands were ranked as “Very Suitable”, “Suitable”, “Moderate Suitable” and “Low Suitable”. It was determined that the 8.03 ha were classified as “Very Suitable” while 18.59 ha as suitable and 11.44 ha as “Moderate Suitable” for PALs. In addition, 756.56 ha were found to be “Low Suitable”. The results obtained from this preliminary study can serve as basis for further studies.

Keywords: Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), LANDSAT 8 OLI-TIRS, Land Use Land Cover (LULC).

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Authors: A. K. Sethi, R. N. Patra, B. Nayak

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In this paper, we have considered Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric with generalized Chaplygin gas which has viscosity in the context of Lyra geometry. The viscosity is considered in two different ways (i.e. zero viscosity, non-constant r (rho)-dependent bulk viscosity) using constant deceleration parameter which concluded that, for a special case, the viscous generalized Chaplygin gas reduces to modified Chaplygin gas. The represented model indicates on the presence of Chaplygin gas in the Universe. Observational constraints are applied and discussed on the physical and geometrical nature of the Universe.

Keywords: Bulk viscosity, Lyra geometry, generalized Chaplygin gas, cosmology.

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Authors: Ahmed Mahmoudi, Imen Mejri, Mohamed A. Abbassi, Ahmed Omri

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A new algorithm based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is proposed as a potential solver for one-dimensional heat and mass transfer for isothermal carbonization of wood particles. To check the validity of this algorithm, the LBM results have been compared with the published data and a good agreement is obtained. Then, the model is used to study the effect of reactor temperature and particle size on the evolution of the local temperature and mass loss inside the wood particle.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann Method, pyrolysis, conduction, carbonization.

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Authors: Turgay Temel, John Hallam

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A sequential decision problem, based on the task ofidentifying the species of trees given acoustic echo data collectedfrom them, is considered with well-known stochastic classifiers,including single and mixture Gaussian models. Echoes are processedwith a preprocessing stage based on a model of mammalian cochlearfiltering, using a new discrete low-pass filter characteristic. Stoppingtime performance of the sequential decision process is evaluated andcompared. It is observed that the new low pass filter processingresults in faster sequential decisions.

Keywords: Classification, neuro-spike coding, parametricmodel, Gaussian mixture with EM algorithm, sequential decision.

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Authors: Mohammad Ehson Rangiha, Bill Karakostas

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Social Business Process Management (SBPM) promises to overcome limitations of traditional BPM by allowing flexible process design and enactment through the involvement of users from a social community. This paper proposes a meta-model and architecture for socially driven business process management systems. It discusses the main facets of the architecture such as goalbased role assignment that combines social recommendations with user profile, and process recommendation, through a real example of a charity organization.

Keywords: Business Process Management, Goal-Based Modelling, Process Recommendation Social Collaboration, Social BPM.

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Authors: Abhishek Soni, Bhagat Singh

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In the present work, reverse engineering (RE) approach has been used to create a 3D model of a fractured femur bone using the computed tomography (CT) scan data. Thereafter, counter fit fixation plates of Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) have been designed and analyzed considering physiological static loading conditions. From the analysis, it has been inferred that the stresses and deformation developed are quite low. It implies that these designed customized fixation plates are able to provide stable fixation resulting in improved fracture union.

Keywords: Biomechanical evaluations, customized implant, reverse engineering, titanium alloy.

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Authors: Toshio Akimitsu, Yoichi Okabe, Akira Hirose

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Many experimental results suggest that more precise spike timing is significant in neural information processing. We construct a self-organization model using the spatiotemporal pat-terns, where Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP) tunes the conduction delays between neurons. We show that, for highly syn-chronized inputs, the fluctuation of conduction delays causes globally continuous and locally distributed firing patterns through the self-organization.

Keywords: Self-organization, synfire-chain, Spike-Timing DependentPlasticity, distributed information representation.

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Authors: Svetlana Cojocaru, Mircea Petic, Inga Titchiev

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Humanity faces more and more often with different social disasters, which in turn can generate new accidents and catastrophes. To mitigate their consequences, it is important to obtain early possible signals about the events which are or can occur and to prepare the corresponding scenarios that could be applied. Our research is focused on solving two problems in this domain: identifying signals related that an accident occurred or may occur and mitigation of some consequences of disasters. To solve the first problem, methods of selecting and processing texts from global network Internet are developed. Information in Romanian is of special interest for us. In order to obtain the mentioned tools, we should follow several steps, divided into preparatory stage and processing stage. Throughout the first stage, we manually collected over 724 news articles and classified them into 10 categories of social disasters. It constitutes more than 150 thousand words. Using this information, a controlled vocabulary of more than 300 keywords was elaborated, that will help in the process of classification and identification of the texts related to the field of social disasters. To solve the second problem, the formalism of Petri net has been used. We deal with the problem of inhabitants’ evacuation in useful time. The analysis methods such as reachability or coverability tree and invariants technique to determine dynamic properties of the modeled systems will be used. To perform a case study of properties of extended evacuation system by adding time, the analysis modules of PIPE such as Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN) Analysis, Simulation, State Space Analysis, and Invariant Analysis have been used. These modules helped us to obtain the average number of persons situated in the rooms and the other quantitative properties and characteristics related to its dynamics.

Keywords: Lexicon of disasters, modelling, Petri nets, text annotation, social disasters.

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Authors: HyoungMin Ham, JooSeok Song

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RFID tag is a small and inexpensive microchip which is capable of transmitting unique identifier through wireless network in a short distance. If a group of RFID tags can be scanned simultaneously by one reader, RFID Group proof could be generated. Group proof can be used in various applications, such as good management which is usually achieved using barcode system. A lot of RFID group proof schemes have been proposed by many researchers. In this paper, we introduce some existing group proof schemes and then analyze their vulnerabilities to the privacy. Moreover, we propose a new attack model, which threats the privacy of user by tracking tags in a group.

Keywords: grouping proof, privacy, RFID, yoking proof

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Authors: A. Banovcinova, M. Zakova

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Labor market activity and paid employment should be a key factor in protecting individuals and families from falling into poverty and providing them with sufficient resources to meet the needs of their members. However, due to various processes in the labor market as well as the influence of individual factors and often insufficient social capital, there is a relatively large group of households that cannot eliminate paid employment and find themselves in a state of so-called working poverty. The aim of the research was to find out what strategies families use in managing poverty and meeting their needs and which of these strategies prevail in the Slovak population. A quantitative research strategy was chosen. The method of data collection was a structured interview focused on finding out the use of individual management strategies and also selected demographic indicators. The research sample consisted of members of families in which at least one member has a paid job. The condition for inclusion in the research was that the family's income did not exceed 60% of the national median equalized disposable income. The analysis of the results showed 5 basic areas to which management strategies are related - work, financial security, needs, social contacts and perception of the current situation. The prevailing strategies were strategies aimed at increasing and streamlining labor market activity and the planned and effective management of the family budget. Strategies that were rejected were mainly related to debt creation. The results make it possible to identify the preferred ways of managing poverty in individual areas of life, as well as the factors that influence this behavior. This information is important for working with families living in a state of working poverty and can help professionals develop positive ways of coping for families.

Keywords: Copying strategies, family, in-work poverty, quantitative research.

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Authors: Tatyana T. Tabakova, Elitsa N. Kolentsova, Dimitar Y. Dimitrov, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Yordanka G. Karakirova, Petya Cv. Petrova, Georgi V. Avdeev

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The catalytic oxidation of CO and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is considered as one of the most efficient ways to reduce harmful emissions from various chemical industries. The effectiveness of gold-based catalysts for many reactions of environmental significance was proven during the past three decades. The aim of this work was to combine the favorable features of Au and Cu-Ce mixed oxides in the design of new catalytic materials of improved efficiency and economic viability for removal of air pollutants in waste gases from formaldehyde production. Supported oxides of copper and cerium with Cu: Ce molar ratio 2:1 and 1:5 were prepared by wet impregnation of g-alumina. Gold (2 wt.%) catalysts were synthesized by a deposition-precipitation method. Catalysts characterization was carried out by texture measurements, powder X-ray diffraction, temperature programmed reduction and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The catalytic activity in the oxidation of CO, CH₃OH and (CH₃)₂O was measured using continuous flow equipment with fixed bed reactor. Both Cu-Ce/alumina samples demonstrated similar catalytic behavior. The addition of gold caused significant enhancement of CO and methanol oxidation activity (100 % degree of CO and CH₃OH conversion at about 60 and 140 ^oC, respectively). The composition of Cu-Ce mixed oxides affected the performance of gold-based samples considerably. Gold catalyst on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 1:5 exhibited higher activity for CO and CH₃OH oxidation in comparison with Au on Cu-Ce/γ-Al₂O₃ 2:1. The better performance of Au/Cu-Ce 1:5 was related to the availability of highly dispersed gold particles and copper oxide clusters in close contact with ceria.

Keywords: CO and VOCs oxidation, copper oxide, ceria, gold catalysts.

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Authors: Chigbogu G. Ozoegwu, Sam N. Omenyi

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The objective in this work is to generate and discuss the stability results of fully-immersed end-milling process with parameters; tool mass m=0.0431kg,tool natural frequency ω_n = 5700 rads^-1, damping factor ξ=0.002 and workpiece cutting coefficient C=3.5x10^7 Nm^-7/4. Different no of teeth is considered for the end-milling. Both 1-DOF and 2-DOF chatter models of the system are generated on the basis of non-linear force law. Chatter stability analysis is carried out using a modified form (generalized for both 1-DOF and 2-DOF models) of recently developed method called Full-discretization. The full-immersion three tooth end-milling together with higher toothed end-milling processes has secondary Hopf bifurcation lobes (SHBL’s) that exhibit one turning (minimum) point each. Each of such SHBL is demarcated by its minimum point into two portions; (i) the Lower Spindle Speed Portion (LSSP) in which bifurcations occur in the right half portion of the unit circle centred at the origin of the complex plane and (ii) the Higher Spindle Speed Portion (HSSP) in which bifurcations occur in the left half portion of the unit circle. Comments are made regarding why bifurcation lobes should generally get bigger and more visible with increase in spindle speed and why flip bifurcation lobes (FBL’s) could be invisible in the low-speed stability chart but visible in the high-speed stability chart of the fully-immersed three-tooth miller.

Keywords: Chatter, flip bifurcation, modified full-discretization map stability lobe, secondary Hopf bifurcation.

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Authors: Ru-Shuo Sheu, Han-Hsin Chou, Te-Shyang Tan

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Considering a reservoir with periodic states and different cost functions with penalty, its release rules can be modeled as a periodic Markov decision process (PMDP). First, we prove that policy- iteration algorithm also works for the PMDP. Then, with policy- iteration algorithm, we obtain the optimal policies for a special aperiodic reservoir model with two cost functions under large penalty and give a discussion when the penalty is small.

Keywords: periodic Markov decision process, periodic state, policy-iteration algorithm.

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Authors: R. Manaffar, R. Maleki, S. Zare, N. Agh, S. Soltanian, B. Sehatnia, P. Sorgeloos, P. Bossier, G. Van Stappen

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Artemia is one of the most conspicuous invertebrates associated with aquaculture. It can be considered as a model organism, offering numerous advantages for comprehensive and multidisciplinary studies using morphologic or molecular methods. Since DNA extraction is an important step of any molecular experiment, a new and a rapid method of DNA extraction from adult Artemia was described in this study. Besides, the efficiency of this technique was compared with two widely used alternative techniques, namely Chelex® 100 resin and SDS-chloroform methods. Data analysis revealed that the new method is the easiest and the most cost effective method among the other methods which allows a quick and efficient extraction of DNA from the adult animal.

Keywords: APD, Artemia, DNA extraction, Molecularexperiments

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Authors: Bernard Kumi-Boateng, Issaka Yakubu

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Forest fire, which is, an uncontrolled fire occurring in nature has become a major concern for the Forestry Commission of Ghana (FCG). The forest fires in Ghana usually result in massive destruction and take a long time for the firefighting crews to gain control over the situation. In order to assess the effect of forest fire at local scale, it is important to consider the role fire plays in vegetation composition, biodiversity, soil erosion, and the hydrological cycle. The occurrence, frequency and behaviour of forest fires vary over time and space, primarily as a result of the complicated influences of changes in land use, vegetation composition, fire suppression efforts, and other indigenous factors. One of the forest zones in Ghana with a high level of vegetation stress is the Goaso forest area. The area has experienced changes in its traditional land use such as hunting, charcoal production, inefficient logging practices and rural abandonment patterns. These factors which were identified as major causes of forest fire, have recently modified the incidence of fire in the Goaso area. In spite of the incidence of forest fires in the Goaso forest area, most of the forest services do not provide a cartographic representation of the burned areas. This has resulted in significant amount of information being required by the firefighting unit of the FCG to understand fire risk factors and its spatial effects. This study uses Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System techniques to develop a fire risk hazard model using the Goaso Forest Area (GFA) as a case study. From the results of the study, natural forest, agricultural lands and plantation cover types were identified as the major fuel contributing loads. However, water bodies, roads and settlements were identified as minor fuel contributing loads. Based on the major and minor fuel contributing loads, a forest fire risk hazard model with a reasonable accuracy has been developed for the GFA to assist decision making.

Keywords: Forest risk, GIS, remote sensing, Goaso.

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Authors: J. H. Park, S. C. Jeong, J. H. Koo, H. Y. Jung, S. M. Lee

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We propose an integral tracking control method for a piezoelectric actuator system. The proposed method achieves the output tracking without requiring any hysteresis observer or schemes to compensate the hysteresis effect. With the proposed control law, the system is converted into the standard singularly perturbed model. Using Tikhonov-s theorem, we guarantee that the tracking error can be reduced to arbitrarily small bound. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

Keywords: Piezoelectric actuator, tracking control, hysteresis effect.

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Authors: Akekaluck Hemtanon, Bunyarit Uyyanonvara

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This research explores on the development of the structure of Carbon Credit Registry System those accords to the need of future events in Thailand. This research also explores the big picture of every connected system by referring to the design of each system, the Data Flow Diagram, and the design in term of the system-s data using DES standard. The purpose of this paper is to show how to design the model of each system. Furthermore, this paper can serve as guideline for designing an appropriate Carbon Credit Registry System.

Keywords: CDM, CDM BE, Annex I County, Non-Annex I country, CERs, Kyoto Protocol.

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Authors: P. V. S. Mascarenhas, B. C. P. Albuquerque, D. J. F. Campos, L. L. Almeida, V. R. Domingues, L. C. S. M. Ozelim

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Retaining slope structures are increasingly considered in geotechnical engineering projects due to extensive urban cities growth. These kinds of engineering constructions may present instabilities over the time and may require reinforcement or even rebuilding of the structure. In this context, statistical analysis is an important tool for decision making regarding retaining structures. This study approaches the failure probability of the construction of a retaining wall over the debris of an old and collapsed one. The new solution’s extension length will be of approximately 350 m and will be located over the margins of the Lake Paranoá, Brasilia, in the capital of Brazil. The building process must also account for the utilization of the ruins as a caisson. A series of in situ and laboratory experiments defined local soil strength parameters. A Standard Penetration Test (SPT) defined the in situ soil stratigraphy. Also, the parameters obtained were verified using soil data from a collection of masters and doctoral works from the University of Brasília, which is similar to the local soil. Initial studies show that the concrete wall is the proper solution for this case, taking into account the technical, economic and deterministic analysis. On the other hand, in order to better analyze the statistical significance of the factor-of-safety factors obtained, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed for the concrete wall and two more initial solutions. A comparison between the statistical and risk results generated for the different solutions indicated that a Gabion solution would better fit the financial and technical feasibility of the project.

Keywords: Economical analysis, probability of failure, retaining walls, statistical analysis.

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Authors: O. P. Sharma, V. Janyani, S. Sancheti

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Data rate, tolerable bit error rate or frame error rate and range & coverage are the key performance requirement of a communication link. In this paper performance of MFSK link is analyzed in terms of bit error rate, number of errors and total number of data processed. In the communication link model proposed, which is implemented using MATLAB block set, an improvement in BER is observed. Different parameters which effects and enables to keep BER low in M-ary communication system are also identified.

Keywords: Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), Bit Error Rate (BER), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Orthogonal Signaling.

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Authors: Syed Zohaib Javaid Zaidi, W. Iqbal

Abstract:

The industrial automation is dependent upon pneumatic control systems. The industrial units are now controlled with digital control systems to tackle the process variables like Temperature, Pressure, Flow rates and Composition.

This research work produces an evaluation of the response time fluctuations for proportional mode, proportional integral and proportional integral derivative modes of automated chemical process control. The controller output is measured for different values of gain with respect to time in three modes (P, PI and PID). In case of P-mode for different values of gain the controller output has negligible change. When the controller output of PI-mode is checked for constant gain, it can be seen that by decreasing the integral time the controller output has showed more fluctuations. The PID mode results have found to be more interesting in a way that when rate minute has changed, the controller output has also showed fluctuations with respect to time.  The controller output for integral mode and derivative mode are observed with lesser steady state error, minimum offset and larger response time to control the process variable.   The tuning parameters in case of P-mode are only steady state gain with greater errors with respect to controller output. The integral mode showed controller outputs with intermediate responses during integral gain (ki).  By increasing the rate minute the derivative gain (kd) also increased which showed the controlled oscillations in case of PID mode and lesser overshoot.

Keywords: Controller Output, P, PI &PID modes, Steady state gain.

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