Search results for: Knowledge Based Systems

Authors: Obaid AlOtaibi, Salman Hussain

Abstract:

Wind energy is associated with many geographical factors including wind speed, climate change, surface topography, environmental impacts, and several economic factors, most notably the advancement of wind technology and energy prices. It is the fastest-growing and least economically expensive method for generating electricity. Wind energy generation is directly related to the characteristics of spatial wind. Therefore, the feasibility study for the wind energy conversion system is based on the value of the energy obtained relative to the initial investment and the cost of operation and maintenance. In Kuwait, wind energy is an appropriate choice as a source of energy generation. It can be used in groundwater extraction in agricultural areas such as Al-Abdali in the north and Al-Wafra in the south, or in fresh and brackish groundwater fields or remote and isolated locations such as border areas and projects away from conventional power electricity services, to take advantage of alternative energy, reduce pollutants, and reduce energy production costs. The study covers the State of Kuwait with an exception of metropolitan area. Climatic data were attained through the readings of eight distributed monitoring stations affiliated with Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). The data were used to assess the daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual available wind energy accessible for utilization. The researchers applied the Suitability Model to analyze the study by using the ArcGIS program. It is a model of spatial analysis that compares more than one location based on grading weights to choose the most suitable one. The study criteria are: the average annual wind speed, land use, topography of land, distance from the main road networks, urban areas. According to the previous criteria, the four proposed locations to establish wind farm projects are selected based on the weights of the degree of suitability (excellent, good, average, and poor). The percentage of areas that represents the most suitable locations with an excellent rank (4) is 8% of Kuwait’s area. It is relatively distributed as follows: Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdeba, Al-Salmi (5.22%), Al-Abdali (1.22%), Umm al-Hayman (0.70%), North Wafra and Al-Shaqeeq (0.86%). The study recommends to decision-makers to consider the proposed location (No.1), (Al-Shqaya, Al-Dabdaba, and Al-Salmi) as the most suitable location for future development of wind farms in Kuwait, this location is economically feasible.

Keywords: Kuwait, renewable energy, spatial analysis, wind energy.

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Authors: Kamand Bagherian, Nariman Niknejad

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A vibration isolation technology for precise position control of a rotary system powered by two permanent magnet DC (PMDC) motors is proposed, where this system is mounted on an oscillatory frame. To achieve vibration isolation for this system, active damping and disturbance rejection (ADDR) technology is presented which introduces a cooperation of a main and an auxiliary PMDC, controlled by discrete-time sliding mode control (DTSMC) based schemes. The controller of the main actuator tracks a desired position and the auxiliary actuator simultaneously isolates the induced vibration, as its controller follows a torque trend. To determine this torque trend, a combination of two algorithms is introduced by the ADDR technology. The first torque-trend producing algorithm rejects the disturbance by counteracting the perturbation, estimated using a model-based observer. The second torque trend applies active variable damping to minimize the oscillation of the output shaft. In this practice, the presented technology is implemented on a rotary system with a pendulum attached, mounted on a linear actuator simulating an oscillation-transmitting structure. In addition, the obtained results illustrate the functionality of the proposed technology.

Keywords: Vibration isolation, position control, discrete-time nonlinear controller, active damping, disturbance tracking algorithm, oscillation transmitting support, stability robustness.

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Authors: Xhevrie Mamaqi, Jesus Miguel, Pilar Olave

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The lifelong learning is a crucial element in the modernization of European education and training systems. The most important actors in the development process of the lifelong learning are the trainers, whose professional characteristics need new competences and skills in the current labour market. The main objective of this paper is to establish an importance ranking of the new competences, capabilities and skills that the lifelong learning Spanish trainers must possess nowadays. A wide study of secondary sources has allowed the design of a questionnaire that organizes the trainer-s skills and competences. The e-Delphi method is used for realizing a creative, individual and anonymous evaluation by experts on the importance ranking that presents the criteria, sub-criteria and indicators of the e-Delphi questionnaire. Twenty Spanish experts in the lifelong learning have participated in two rounds of the e- DELPHI method. In the first round, the analysis of the experts- evaluation has allowed to establish the ranking of the most importance criteria, sub-criteria and indicators and to eliminate the least valued. The minimum level necessary to reach the consensus among experts has been achieved in the second round.

Keywords: competences and skills, lifelong learningtrainers, Spain, e-DELHI method.

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Authors: H. Sadi-Guettaf, F. Hadj Bekkouche

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Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic glucocorticoid that is used in therapy. However prolonged treatments with high doses are often required. This causes side effects that interfere with the activity of several endocrine systems, including the gonadotropic axis. The aim of our study is to determine the effect of Dex on testicular function in prepubertal Wistar rats. Newborn Wistar rats are submitted to intraperitoneal injection of Dex (1μg of Dex dissolved in NaCl 0.9% / 5g bw) for 20 days and then sacrificed at the age of 40days. A control group received NaCl 0.9%. The rat is weighed daily. The plasmatic levels of testosterone, LH and FSH were measured by radioimmunoassay. A histomorphometric study was performed on sections of testis. Treated groups showed a significant decrease in body weight (p < 0.05), testis weight (p < 0.05) and plasma levels of testosterone (p < 0.05), of LH (P < .05) and FSH (p> 0.05). There is a reduction of seminiferous tubules average diameter and also of the seminiferous epithelium thickness with an increasing of lumen tubular. The diameter of the Leydig cells and Sertoli cell nucleus is also significantly reduced. Spermatogenesis is blocked at the stage round spermatid unlike witnesses or elongated spermatid stage is found. These results suggest that Dex administered during neonatal life influences testicular activity in the long term.

Keywords: Dexamethasone, FSH, LH, rat, testis, testosterone.

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Authors: Shanar Askar, Shahzad Memon, LachhmanDas, MSKalhoro

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Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a promising technology which can offer high speed data, voice and video service to the customer end, which is presently, dominated by the cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. The performance assessment of Wimax systems is dealt with. The biggest advantage of Broadband wireless application (BWA) over its wired competitors is its increased capacity and ease of deployment. The aims of this paper are to model and simulate the fixed OFDM IEEE 802.16d physical layer under variant combinations of digital modulation (BPSK, QPSK, and 16-QAM) over diverse combination of fading channels (AWGN, SUIs). Stanford University Interim (SUI) Channel serial was proposed to simulate the fixed broadband wireless access channel environments where IEEE 802.16d is to be deployed. It has six channel models that are grouped into three categories according to three typical different outdoor Terrains, in order to give a comprehensive effect of fading channels on the overall performance of the system.

Keywords: WIMAX, OFDM, Additive White Gaussian Noise, Fading Channel, SUI, Doppler Effect.

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Authors: El-Sadek H. Nour El-deen, K. Harby

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Energy saving and environment friendly applications are turning out to be one of the most important topics nowadays. In this work, a simulation analysis using TRNSYS software has been carried out to study the benefit of employing a solar adsorption cooling system under the climatic conditions of Al-Minya city, Egypt. A theoretical model was carried out on a two bed adsorption cooling system employing granular activated carbon-HFC-404A as working pair. Temporal and averaged history of solar collector, adsorbent beds, evaporator and condenser has been shown. System performance in terms of daily average cooling capacity and average coefficient of performance around the year has been investigated. The results showed that maximum yearly average coefficient of performance (COP) and cooling capacity are about 0.26 and 8 kW respectively. The maximum value of the both average cooling capacity and COP cyclic is directly proportional to the maximum solar radiation. The system performance was found to be increased with the average ambient temperature. Finally, the proposed solar powered adsorption cooling systems can be used effectively under Al-Minya climatic conditions.

Keywords: Adsorption, solar energy, environment, cooling, Egypt.

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Authors: U. Datta

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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.

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Authors: M. Yilmaz, I. Yilmaz, M. Uysal

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The Earth system generates different phenomena that are observable at the surface of the Earth such as mass deformations and displacements leading to plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanism. The dynamic processes associated with the interior, surface, and atmosphere of the Earth affect the three pillars of geodesy: shape of the Earth, its gravity field, and its rotation. Geodesy establishes a characteristic structure in order to define, monitor, and predict of the whole Earth system. The traditional and new instruments, observables, and techniques in geodesy are related to the gravity field. Therefore, the geodesy monitors the gravity field and its temporal variability in order to transform the geodetic observations made on the physical surface of the Earth into the geometrical surface in which positions are mathematically defined. In this paper, the main components of the gravity field modeling, (Free-air and Bouguer) gravity anomalies are calculated via recent global models (EGM2008, EIGEN6C4, and GECO) over a selected study area. The model-based gravity anomalies are compared with the corresponding terrestrial gravity data in terms of standard deviation (SD) and root mean square error (RMSE) for determining the best fit global model in the study area at a regional scale in Turkey. The least SD (13.63 mGal) and RMSE (15.71 mGal) were obtained by EGM2008 for the Free-air gravity anomaly residuals. For the Bouguer gravity anomaly residuals, EIGEN6C4 provides the least SD (8.05 mGal) and RMSE (8.12 mGal). The results indicated that EIGEN6C4 can be a useful tool for modeling the gravity field of the Earth over the study area.

Keywords: Free-air gravity anomaly, Bouguer gravity anomaly, global model, land gravity.

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Authors: L. Bertola, T. Cox, P. Wheeler, S. Garvey, H. Morvan

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Electromagnetic Launch (EML) systems have been proposed for military applications to accelerate jet planes on aircraft carriers. This paper proposes the implementation of similar technology to aid civil aircraft take-off, which can provide significant economic, environmental and technical benefits. Assisted launch has the potential of reducing on ground noise and emissions near airports and improving overall aircraft efficiency through reducing engine thrust requirements. This paper presents a take-off performance analysis for an Airbus A320-200 taking off with and without the assistance of the electromagnetic catapult. Assisted take-off allows for a significant reduction in take-off field length, giving more capacity with existing airport footprints and reducing the necessary footprint of new airports, which will both reduce costs and increase the number of suitable sites. The electromagnetic catapult may allow the installation of smaller engines with lower rated thrust. The consequent fuel consumption and operational cost reduction is estimated. The potential of reducing the aircraft operational costs and the runway length required make EML system an attractive solution to the air traffic growth in busy airports.

Keywords: EML system, fuel consumption, take-off analysis, weight reduction.

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Authors: Pedro Gómez-del-Hoyo, Jose-Luis Bárcena-Humanes, Nerea del-Rey-Maestre, María-Pilar Jarabo-Amores, David Mata-Moya

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A study of achievable coverages using passive radar systems in terrestrial traffic monitoring applications is presented. The study includes the estimation of the bistatic radar cross section of different commercial vehicle models that provide challenging low values which make detection really difficult. A semi-urban scenario is selected to evaluate the impact of excess propagation losses generated by an irregular relief. A bistatic passive radar exploiting UHF frequencies radiated by digital video broadcasting transmitters is assumed. A general method of coverage estimation using electromagnetic simulators in combination with estimated car average bistatic radar cross section is applied. In order to reduce the computational cost, hybrid solution is implemented, assuming free space for the target-receiver path but estimating the excess propagation losses for the transmitter-target one.

Keywords: Bistatic radar cross section, passive radar, propagation losses, radar coverage.

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Authors: Praveen Huded M., Suresh R. Dash

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Pile foundations are one of the most preferred deep foundation systems for high rise or heavily loaded structures. In many instances, the failure of the pile founded structures in liquefiable soils had been observed even in many recent earthquakes. Failure of pile foundation have occurred because of buckling, as the pile behaves as an unsupported slender structural element once the surrounding soil liquefies. However, the buckling capacity depends on the depth of soil liquefied and its residual strength. Hence it is essential to check the pile against the possible buckling failure. Beam on non-linear Winkler Foundation is one of the efficient methods to model the pile-soil behavior in liquefiable soil. The pile-soil interaction is modelled through p-y springs, there are different p-y curves available for modeling liquefiable soil. In the present work, the influence of two such p-y curves on the buckling capacity of pile foundation is studied considering the initial geometric and non-linear behavior of pile foundation. The proposed method is validated against experimental results. A significant difference in the buckling capacity is observed for the two p-y curves used in the analysis. A parametric study is conducted to understand the influence of pile flexural rigidity, different initial geometric imperfections, and different soil relative densities on the buckling capacity of pile foundation.

Keywords: pile foundation, liquefaction, buckling load, non-linear p-y curve

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Authors: Abdalraheem Huwaysh, Yasmin ElAhmar

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Water quality is an important factor that determines its usage for domestic, agricultural and industrial uses. This study was carried out through the Tajoura Area, Jifarah Plain, Northwest Libya. Chemical and physical parameters were measured and analyzed for groundwater samples collected in 2021 from 26 wells distributed throughout the investigation area. Overexploitation of groundwater caused considerable deterioration in the water quality, especially at Tajoura Town (20 km east of Tripoli). The aquifer shows an increase in salinization, which has reached an alarming level in many places during the past 25 years as a result of the seawater intrusion. Based on the WHO and Libyan standards, groundwater from the targeted area was not suitable for direct drinking purposes. Sodium is the dominant cation, while the dominant anion is chloride. Based on the Piper trilinear diagram, most of the groundwater samples (90%) were identified as sodium chloride type. The best groundwater quality exists at the southern part of the study area. Serious degradation in the water quality, expressed in salinity increase, occurs as we go towards the coastline. The abundance of NaCl waters is strong evidence to attribute the successive deterioration of the water quality to the seawater intrusion. Considering the values of Cl- concentration and the ratio of Cl-/HCO3-, about 70% of the groundwater samples were strongly affected by the saline water. Car wash stations in the study area as well as the unlined disposal pond used for the collection of untreated wastewaters, contribute significantly to the deterioration of water quality. In the area of interest (Tajoura), treatment of the groundwater before drinking is essential, and its quality needs to be routinely checked.

Keywords: Tajoura, groundwater, overexploitation, seawater intrusion.

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Authors: Seyed Hossein Iranmanesh, Zahra Mokhtari

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Estimation time and cost of work completion in a project and follow up them during execution are contributors to success or fail of a project, and is very important for project management team. Delivering on time and within budgeted cost needs to well managing and controlling the projects. To dealing with complex task of controlling and modifying the baseline project schedule during execution, earned value management systems have been set up and widely used to measure and communicate the real physical progress of a project. But it often fails to predict the total duration of the project. In this paper data mining techniques is used predicting the total project duration in term of Time Estimate At Completion-EAC (t). For this purpose, we have used a project with 90 activities, it has updated day by day. Then, it is used regular indexes in literature and applied Earned Duration Method to calculate time estimate at completion and set these as input data for prediction and specifying the major parameters among them using Clem software. By using data mining, the effective parameters on EAC and the relationship between them could be extracted and it is very useful to manage a project with minimum delay risks. As we state, this could be a simple, safe and applicable method in prediction the completion time of a project during execution.

Keywords: Data Mining Techniques, Earned Duration Method, Earned Value, Estimate At Completion.

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Authors: N. David, H. O. Gao

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Air pollution is a serious environmental threat on a global scale and can cause harm to human health, morbidity and premature mortality. Reliable monitoring and control systems are therefore necessary to develop coping skills against the hazards associated with this phenomenon. However, existing environmental monitoring means often do not provide a sufficient response due to practical and technical limitations. Commercial microwave links that form the infrastructure for transmitting data between cell phone towers can be harnessed to map rain at high tempo-spatial resolution. Rainfall causes a decrease in the signal strength received by these wireless communication links allowing it to be used as a built-in sensor network to map the phenomenon. In this study, we point to the potential that lies in this system to indirectly monitor areas where air pollution is reduced. The relationship between pollutant wash-off and rainfall provides an opportunity to acquire important spatial information about air quality using existing cell-phone tower signals. Since the density of microwave communication networks is high relative to any dedicated sensor arrays, it could be possible to rely on this available observation tool for studying precipitation scavenging on air pollutants, for model needs and more.

Keywords: Air pollution, commercial microwave links, rainfall.

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Authors: Abbul B. Khan, Neeraj Dohare, Rajan Patel

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The mixed micellization of adiphenine hydrochloride (ADP) with 1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (C10mim.Cl), was investigated at different mole fractions and temperatures by surface tension measurements. The synergistic behavior (i.e., non-ideal behavior) for binary mixtures was explained by the deviation of critical micelle concentration (cmc) from ideal critical micelle concentration (cmc*), micellar mole fraction (Xim) from ideal micellar mole fraction (Xiideal), the values of interaction parameter (β) and activity coefficients (fi) (for both mixed micelles and mixed monolayer). The excess free energy (ΔGex) for the ADP- C10mim.Cl binary mixtures explain the stability of mixed micelles in comparison to micelles of pure ADP and C10mim.Cl. Interfacial parameters, i.e., Gibbs surface excess (Гmax), minimum head group area at air/ water interface (Amin), and free energy of micellization (ΔG0m) were also evaluated for the systems.

Keywords: Adiphenine hydrochloride, Critical micelle concentration, Interaction parameter, Activity coefficient.

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Authors: Hamid Abdi, Abolfazl Salami, Abolfazl Ahmadi

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Programmable logic controllers are the main controllers in the today's industries; they are used for several applications in industrial control systems and there are lots of examples exist from the PLC applications in industries especially in big companies and plants such as refineries, power plants, petrochemical companies, steel companies, and food and production companies. In the PLCs there are some functions in the function library in software that can be used in PLC programs as basic program elements. The aim of this project are introducing and implementing a new function block of a neural network to the function library of PLC. This block can be applied for some control applications or nonlinear functions calculations after it has been trained for these applications. The implemented neural network is a Perceptron neural network with three layers, three input nodes and one output node. The block can be used in manual or automatic mode. In this paper the structure of the implemented function block, the parameters and the training method of the network are presented by considering the especial method of PLC programming and its complexities. Finally the application of the new block is compared with a classic simulated block and the results are presented.

Keywords: Programmable Logic Controller, PLC Programming, Neural Networks, Perception Network, Intelligent Control.

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Authors: Praveen Kumar S P, Bong-Su Sin, Kwon-Hee Lee

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Finned-tube heat exchangers are predominantly used in space conditioning systems, as well as other applications requiring heat exchange between two fluids. The design of finned-tube heat exchangers requires the selection of over a dozen design parameters by the designer such as tube pitch, tube diameter, tube thickness, etc… Finned-tube heat exchangers are common devices; however, their performance characteristics are complicated. In this paper numerical studies have been carried out to analyze the performances of finned tube heat exchanger (without fins considered for experimental purpose) by predicting the characteristics of temperature difference and pressure drop. In this study, a design considering 5 design variables and also maximizing the temperature difference and pressure drop was suggested by applying DOE. During this process, L₁₈ orthogonal array was adopted. Parametric analytical studies have been carried out using ANOVA to determine the relative importance of each variable with respect to the temperature difference and the pressure drop. Following the results, the final design was suggested by predicting the optimum design therefore confirming the optimized condition.

Keywords: Heat Exchanger, Fluid Analysis, Heat Transfer, Design of Experiment (DOE), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

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Authors: Zsolt János Viharos, Krisztián Balázs Kis, Imre Paniti, Gábor Belső, Péter Németh, János Farkas

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The paper presents the results and industrial applications in the production setup period estimation based on industrial data inherited from the field of polymer cutting. The literature of polymer cutting is very limited considering the number of publications. The first polymer cutting machine is known since the second half of the 20th century; however, the production of polymer parts with this kind of technology is still a challenging research topic. The products of the applying industrial partner must met high technical requirements, as they are used in medical, measurement instrumentation and painting industry branches. Typically, 20% of these parts are new work, which means every five years almost the entire product portfolio is replaced in their low series manufacturing environment. Consequently, it requires a flexible production system, where the estimation of the frequent setup periods' lengths is one of the key success factors. In the investigation, several (input) parameters have been studied and grouped to create an adequate training information set for an artificial neural network as a base for the estimation of the individual setup periods. In the first group, product information is collected such as the product name and number of items. The second group contains material data like material type and colour. In the third group, surface quality and tolerance information are collected including the finest surface and tightest (or narrowest) tolerance. The fourth group contains the setup data like machine type and work shift. One source of these parameters is the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) but some data were also collected from Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings. The number of the applied tools is one of the key factors on which the industrial partners’ estimations were based previously. The artificial neural network model was trained on several thousands of real industrial data. The mean estimation accuracy of the setup periods' lengths was improved by 30%, and in the same time the deviation of the prognosis was also improved by 50%. Furthermore, an investigation on the mentioned parameter groups considering the manufacturing order was also researched. The paper also highlights the manufacturing introduction experiences and further improvements of the proposed methods, both on the shop floor and on the quotation preparation fields. Every week more than 100 real industrial setup events are given and the related data are collected.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, low series manufacturing, polymer cutting, setup period estimation.

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Authors: B. E. Narkhede, S. K. Mahajan, B. T. Patil, R. D. Raut

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Information quality is a major performance measure for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system of any firm. This study identifies various critical success factors of information quality. The effect of various critical success factors like project management, reengineering efforts and interdepartmental communications on information quality is analyzed using a multiple regression model. Here quantitative data are collected from respondents from various firms through structured questionnaire for assessment of the information quality, project management, reengineering efforts and interdepartmental communications. The validity and reliability of the data are ensured using techniques like factor analysis, computing of Cronbach’s alpha. This study gives relative importance of each of the critical success factors. The findings suggest that among the various factors influencing information quality careful reengineering efforts are the most influencing factor. This paper gives clear insight to managers and practitioners regarding the relative importance of critical success factors influencing information quality so that they can formulate a strategy at the beginning of ERP system implementation.

Keywords: Enterprise resource planning, information systems, multiple regression, information quality.

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Authors: Bakari M. M. Mwinyiwiwa, Mighanda J. Manyahi, Nicodemu Gregory, Alex L. Kyaruzi

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Microgrids are increasingly being considered to provide electricity for the expanding energy demand in the grid distribution network and grid isolated areas. However, the technical challenges associated with the operation and controls are immense. Management of dynamic power balances, power flow, and network voltage profiles imposes unique challenges in the context of microgrids. Stability of the microgrid during both grid-connected and islanded mode is considered as the major challenge during its operation. Traditional control methods have been employed are based on the assumption of linear loads. For instance the concept of PQ, voltage and frequency control through decoupled PQ are some of very useful when considering linear loads, but they fall short when considering nonlinear loads. The deficiency of traditional control methods of microgrid suggests that more research in the control of microgrids should be done. This research aims at introducing the dq technique concept into decoupled PQ for dynamic load demand control in inverter interfaced DG system operating as isolated LV microgrid. Decoupled PQ in exact mathematical formulation in dq frame is expected to accommodate all variations of the line parameters (resistance and inductance) and to relinquish forced relationship between the DG variables such as power, voltage and frequency in LV microgrids and allow for individual parameter control (frequency and line voltages). This concept is expected to address and achieve accurate control, improve microgrid stability and power quality at all load conditions.

Keywords: Decoupled PQ, microgrid, multisource, renewable energy, dq control.

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Authors: Wern Lin Yeo, Choo Kim Tan, Sook Ling Lew

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The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of anxiety level between male and female undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia. Convenient sampling method used in this study in which the students were selected based on the grouping assigned by the faculty. There were 214 undergraduates who registered the probability courses had participated in this study. Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) was the instrument used in study which used to determine students’ anxiety level towards probability. Reliability and validity of instrument was done before the major study was conducted. In the major study, students were given briefing about the study conducted. Participation of this study was voluntary. Students were given consent form to determine whether they agree to participate in the study. Duration of two weeks was given for students to complete the given online questionnaire. The data collected will be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to determine the level of anxiety. There were three anxiety level, i.e., low, average and high. Students’ anxiety level was determined based on their scores obtained compared with the mean and standard deviation. If the scores obtained were below mean and standard deviation, the anxiety level was low. If the scores were at below and above the mean and between one standard deviation, the anxiety level was average. If the scores were above the mean and greater than one standard deviation, the anxiety level was high. Results showed that both of genders were having average anxiety level. Among low, average and high anxiety level, frequency of males were found to be higher as compared to females. Hence, the mean values obtained for males (M = 3.62) was higher than females (M = 3.42). In order to be significant of anxiety level among the gender, the p-value should be less than .05. The p-value obtained in this study was .117. However, this value was greater than .05. Thus, there was no significant difference of anxiety level among the gender. In other words, there was no relationship of anxiety level with the gender.

Keywords: Anxiety level, gender, mathematics anxiety, probability and statistics.

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Authors: Roy J. Issa

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Spray chilling using air-mist nozzles has received much attention in the food processing industry because of the benefits it has shown over forced air convection. These benefits include an increase in the heat transfer coefficient and a reduction in the water loss by the product during cooling. However, few studies have simulated the heat transfer and aerodynamics phenomena of the air-mist chilling process for optimal operating conditions. The study provides insight into the optimal conditions for spray impaction, heat transfer efficiency and control of surface flooding. A computational fluid dynamics model using a two-phase flow composed of water droplets injected with air is developed to simulate the air-mist chilling of food products. The model takes into consideration droplet-to-surface interaction, water-film accumulation and surface runoff. The results of this study lead to a better understanding of the heat transfer enhancement, water conservation, and to a clear direction for the optimal design of air-mist chilling systems that can be used in commercial applications in the food and meat processing industries.

Keywords: Droplets impaction efficiency, Droplet size, Heat transfer enhancement factor, Water runoff.

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Authors: Raghavi Janaswamy, Saraswathi K. Vasudev

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Music is one of the supreme arts of expressions, next to the speech itself. Its evolution over centuries has paved the way with a variety of training protocols and performing methods. Indian classical music is one of the most elaborate and refined systems with immense emphasis on the voice culture related to range, breath control, quality of the tone, flexibility and diction. Several exercises namely saraliswaram, jantaswaram, dhatuswaram, upper stayi swaram, alamkaras and varnams lay the required foundation to gain the voice culture and deeper understanding on the voice development and further on to the intricacies of the raga system. This article narrates a few of the Carnatic music training methods with an emphasis on the advanced practice methods for articulating the vocal skills, continuity in the voice, ability to produce gamakams, command in the multiple speeds of rendering with reasonable volume. The creativity on these exercises and their impact on the voice production are discussed. The articulation of the outlined conscious practice methods and vocal exercises bestow the optimum use of the natural human vocal system to not only enhance the signing quality but also to gain health benefits.

Keywords: Carnatic music, Saraliswaram, Varnam, Vocal training.

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Authors: Ayman El Sabagh, Celaleddin Barutçular, Hirofumi Saneoka

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Drought is one of the most serious problems posing a grave threat to cereals production including maize. Maize improvement in drought-stress tolerance poses a great challenge as the global need for food and bio-energy increases. Thus, the current study was planned to explore the variations and determine the performance of target traits of maize hybrids at grain growth stage under drought conditions during 2014 under Adana, Mediterranean climate conditions, Turkey. Maize hybrids (Sancia, Indaco, 71May69, Aaccel, Calgary, 70May82, 72May80) were evaluated under (irrigated and water stress). Results revealed that, grain yield and yield traits had a negative effects because of water stress conditions compared with the normal irrigation. As well as, based on the result under normal irrigation, the maximum biological yield and harvest index were recorded. According to the differences among hybrids were found that, significant differences were observed among hybrids with respect to yield and yield traits under current research. Based on the results, grain weight had more effect on grain yield than grain number during grain filling growth stage under water stress conditions. In this concern, according to low drought susceptibility index (less grain yield losses), the hybrid (Indaco) was more stable in grain number and grain weight. Consequently, it may be concluded that this hybrid would be recommended for use in the future breeding programs for production of drought tolerant hybrids.

Keywords: Drought susceptibility index, grain filling, grain yield, maize, water stress.

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Authors: Bindu Sankar, Jaideep Chakraborty, Rashmi Nawlakha, A. Venkatesan, S. Raghupathy, T. Jayanthi, S.A.V. Satya Murty

Abstract:

Component handling system is one of the important sub systems of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) used for fuel handling. Core handling system is again a sub system of component handling system. Core handling system consists of in-vessel and ex-vessel subassembly handling. In-vessel core handling involves transfer arm, large rotatable plug and small rotatable plug operations. Modeling and simulation of in-vessel core handling is a part of development of Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor Operator Training Simulator. This paper deals with simulation and modeling of operations of transfer arm, large rotatable plug and small rotatable plug needed for in-vessel core handling. Process modeling was developed in house using platform independent Cµ code with OpenGL (Open Graphics Library). The control logic models and virtual panel were modeled using simulation tool.

Keywords: Animation, Core Handling System, Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, Simulator

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Authors: Won-Pil Park, Qyoun-Jung Lee, Dae-Gon Woo, Chang-Yong Ko, Eun-Geun Kim, Dohyung Lim, Yong-Heum Lee, Tae-Min Shin, Han-Sung Kim

Abstract:

The disaster from functional gastrointestinal disorders has detrimental impact on the quality of life of the effected population and imposes a tremendous social and economic burden. There are, however, rare diagnostic methods for the functional gastrointestinal disorders. Our research group identified recently that the gastrointestinal tract well in the patients with the functional gastrointestinal disorders becomes more rigid than healthy people when palpating the abdominal regions overlaying the gastrointestinal tract. Objective of current study is, therefore, identify feasibility of a diagnostic system for the functional gastrointestinal disorders based on ultrasound technique, which can quantify the characteristics above. Two-dimensional finite difference (FD) models (one normal and two rigid model) were developed to analyze the reflective characteristic (displacement) on each soft-tissue layer responded after application of ultrasound signals. The FD analysis was then based on elastic ultrasound theory. Validation of the model was performed via comparison of the characteristic of the ultrasonic responses predicted by FD analysis with that determined from the actual specimens for the normal and rigid conditions. Based on the results from FD analysis, ultrasound system for diagnosis of the functional gastrointestinal disorders was developed and clinically tested via application of it to 40 human subjects with/without functional gastrointestinal disorders who were assigned to Normal and Patient Groups. The FD models were favorably validated. The results from FD analysis showed that the maximum displacement amplitude in the rigid models (0.12 and 0.16) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly less than that in the normal model (0.29). The results from actual specimens showed that the maximum amplitude of the ultrasonic reflective signal in the rigid models (0.2±0.1Vp-p) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly higher than that in the normal model (0.1±0.2 Vp-p). Clinical tests using our customized ultrasound system showed that the maximum amplitudes of the ultrasonic reflective signals near to the gastrointestinal tract well for the patient group (2.6±0.3 Vp-p) were generally higher than those in normal group (0.1±0.2 Vp-p). Here, maximum reflective signals was appeared at 20mm depth approximately from abdominal skin for all human subjects, corresponding to the location of the boundary layer close to gastrointestinal tract well. These findings suggest that our customized ultrasound system using the ultrasonic reflective signal may be helpful to the diagnosis of the functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Keywords: Finite Difference (FD) Analysis, FunctionalGastrointestinal Disorders, Gastrointestinal Tract, UltrasonicResponses.

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Authors: Moheb R. Girgis, Tarek M. Mahmoud, Tarek Abd-El-Hafeez

Abstract:

This paper proposes a system to extract images from web pages and then detect the skin color regions of these images. As part of the proposed system, using BandObject control, we built a Tool bar named 'Filter Tool Bar (FTB)' by modifying the Pavel Zolnikov implementation. The Yahoo! Team provides us with the Yahoo! SDK API, which also supports image search and is really useful. In the proposed system, we introduced three new methods for extracting images from the web pages (after loading the web page by using the proposed FTB, before loading the web page physically from the localhost, and before loading the web page from any server). These methods overcome the drawback of the regular expressions method for extracting images suggested by Ilan Assayag. The second part of the proposed system is concerned with the detection of the skin color regions of the extracted images. So, we studied two famous skin color detection techniques. The first technique is based on the RGB color space and the second technique is based on YUV and YIQ color spaces. We modified the second technique to overcome the failure of detecting complex image's background by using the saturation parameter to obtain an accurate skin detection results. The performance evaluation of the efficiency of the proposed system in extracting images before and after loading the web page from localhost or any server in terms of the number of extracted images is presented. Finally, the results of comparing the two skin detection techniques in terms of the number of pixels detected are presented.

Keywords: Browser Helper Object, Color spaces, Image and URL extraction, Skin detection, Web Browser events.

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Authors: Juliana C. Alencar, Monica Ferreira do Amaral Porto

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The blue-green infrastructure in recent years has been pointed out as a possibility to increase the environmental quality of watersheds. The regulation ecosystem services brought by these areas are many, such as the improvement of the air quality of the air, water, soil, microclimate, besides helping to control the peak flows and to promote the quality of life of the population. This study proposes a blue-green infrastructure scenario for the Jaguaré watershed, located in the western zone of the São Paulo city in Brazil. Based on the proposed scenario, it was verified the impact of the adoption of the blue and green infrastructure in the control of the peak flow of the basin, the benefits for the avifauna that are also reflected in the flora and finally, the quantification of the regulation ecosystem services brought by the adoption of the scenario proposed. A survey of existing green areas and potential areas for expansion and connection of these areas to form a network in the watershed was carried out. Based on this proposed new network of green areas, the peak flow for the proposed scenario was calculated with the help of software, ABC6. Finally, a survey of the ecosystem services contemplated in the proposed scenario was made. It was possible to conclude that the blue and green infrastructure would provide several regulation ecosystem services for the watershed, such as the control of the peak flow, the connection frame between the forest fragments that promoted the environmental enrichment of these fragments, improvement of the microclimate and the provision of leisure areas for the population.

Keywords: Blue and green infrastructure, sustainable drainage, urban waters, ecosystem services.

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Authors: Mojtaba Mahmoodian, Joshua Phelan, Mehdi Shahparvari

Abstract:

With a large percentage of countries’ total infrastructure expenditure attributed to water network maintenance, it is essential to optimise maintenance strategies to rehabilitate or replace underground pipes before failure occurs. The aim of this paper is to provide water utility managers with a maintenance management approach for underground water pipes, subject to external loading and material corrosion, to give the lowest life cycle cost over a predetermined time period. This reliability-based maintenance management methodology details the optimal years for intervention, the ideal number of maintenance activities to perform before replacement and specifies feasible renewal options and intervention prioritisation to minimise the life cycle cost. The study was then extended to include feasible renewal methods by determining the structural condition index and potential for soil loss, then obtaining the failure impact rating to assist in prioritising pipe replacement. A case study on optimisation of maintenance plans for the Melbourne water pipe network is considered in this paper to evaluate the practicality of the proposed methodology. The results confirm that the suggested methodology can provide water utility managers with a reliable systematic approach to determining optimum maintenance plans for pipe networks.

Keywords: Water pipe networks, maintenance management, reliability analysis, optimum maintenance plan.

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Authors: Seyed Sina Khamesi, Rana Rafiei

Abstract:

The extensive aeration process is widely used for wastewater treatment. However, due to the high energy consumption of this process, which is closely related to the issues of environmental sustainability and global climate change, this article presents a simple solution to reduce energy consumption in this process. The amount of required energy is one of the critical considerations for various wastewater treatment techniques. For this purpose, an industrial wastewater treatment plant and all energy-consumer equipment in terms of energy consumption have been analyzed. The investigations and measurements revealed that the aeration unit has the highest energy consumption rate. To address this, an innovative approach is proposed to reduce energy consumption in the identified high-consumer unit. The proposed solution involves introducing baffles to divide the tank into multiple parts and using a tank with a small width and long length to enhance the mixing process. This approach reduces the need for additional equipment and significantly lowers energy consumption. To thoroughly scrutinize the proposed solution and analyze the behavior of the multi-phase fluid inside the tank, the sewage flow has been modeled using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The study presents an optimal design for the aeration unit based on these findings. The results indicate that implementing the technique suggested in this article can decrease total energy consumption by 33.15% and can be applied to all types of biological treatment plants.

Keywords: Wastewater treatment, aeration, energy consumption, Computational Fluid Dynamics, activated sludge.

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