Search results for: CRM system development
1834 Implementation and Demonstration of Software-Defined Traffic Grooming
Authors: Lei Guo, Xu Zhang, Weigang Hou
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Since the traditional network is closed and it has no architecture to create applications, it has been unable to evolve with changing demands under the rapid innovation in services. Additionally, due to the lack of the whole network profile, the quality of service cannot be well guaranteed in the traditional network. The Software Defined Network (SDN) utilizes global resources to support on-demand applications/services via open, standardized and programmable interfaces. In this paper, we implement the traffic grooming application under a real SDN environment, and the corresponding analysis is made. In our SDN: 1) we use OpenFlow protocol to control the entire network by using software applications running on the network operating system; 2) several virtual switches are combined into the data forwarding plane through Open vSwitch; 3) An OpenFlow controller, NOX, is involved as a logically centralized control plane that dynamically configures the data forwarding plane; 4) The traffic grooming based on SDN is demonstrated through dynamically modifying the idle time of flow entries. The experimental results demonstrate that the SDN-based traffic grooming effectively reduces the end-to-end delay, and the improvement ratio arrives to 99%.
Keywords: NOX, OpenFlow, software defined network, traffic grooming.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10291833 Entrepreneurship Education as a Pre-Requisite for Graduate Entrepreneurship: A Study of Graduate Entrepreneurs in Yenagoa City
Authors: Kurotimi M. Fems, Francis D. W. Poazi, Helen Opigo
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The concepts of entrepreneurship education together with graduate entrepreneurship have taken centre stage in many countries as a 21st century strategy for economic growth and development. Entrepreneurship education has been viewed as a pre-requisite tool for a more effective and successful business operation. This paper seeks to verify if entrepreneurship education is pre-requisite to graduate entrepreneurship, and to ascertain if such other factors as the need for achievement, competence and experience etc. also play a foundational role in the choice of a graduate becoming an entrepreneur. The scope of the research study is entrepreneurs within Yenagoa metropolis in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. The sample target is graduates engaged in entrepreneurship activities (graduates who own and run businesses). Stratified sampling technique was used and 101 responses were obtained from a total of 300 questionnaires issued. Bar chart, tables and percentages were used to analyze the collected data. The findings revealed that personality traits, situational circumstance, need for achievement and experience/competence were the foundational factors stimulating graduate entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurial pursuits. Of all, personality trait showed the highest score with 73 (73%) out of 101 entrepreneurs agreeing. Experience/Competence and situational circumstances followed behind with 66 (65%) and 63 (62.4%), respectively. Entrepreneurship education revealed the least score with 33 (32.3%) out of 101 participating entrepreneurs. All hope, however, is not lost, as this shows that something can be done to increase the impact of entrepreneurship education on graduate entrepreneurship.Keywords: Creative destruction, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship education, graduate entrepreneurship, pre-requisite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13881832 Vehicle Risk Evaluation in Low Speed Accidents: Consequences for Relevant Test Scenarios
Authors: Philip Feig, Klaus Gschwendtner, Julian Schatz, Frank Diermeyer
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Projects of accident research analysis are mostly focused on accidents involving personal damage. Property damage only has a high frequency of occurrence combined with high economic impact. This paper describes main influencing parameters for the extent of damage and presents a repair cost model. For a prospective evaluation method of the monetary effect of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), it is necessary to be aware of and quantify all influencing parameters. Furthermore, this method allows the evaluation of vehicle concepts in combination with an ADAS at an early point in time of the product development process. In combination with a property damage database and the introduced repair cost model relevant test scenarios for specific vehicle configurations and their individual property damage risk may be determined. Currently, equipment rates of ADAS are low and a purchase incentive for customers would be beneficial. The next ADAS generation will prevent property damage to a large extent or at least reduce damage severity. Both effects may be a purchasing incentive for the customer and furthermore contribute to increased traffic safety.Keywords: Property damage analysis, effectiveness, ADAS, damage risk, accident research, accident scenarios.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13881831 Effect of Physical Contact (Hand-Holding) on Heart Rate Variability
Authors: T. Pishbin, S.M.P. Firoozabadi, N. Jafarnia Dabanloo, F. Mohammadi, S. Koozehgari
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Heart-s electric field can be measured anywhere on the surface of the body (ECG). When individuals touch, one person-s ECG signal can be registered in other person-s EEG and elsewhere on his body. Now, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that physical contact (hand-holding) of two persons changes their heart rate variability. Subjects were sixteen healthy female (age: 20- 26) which divided into eight sets. In each sets, we had two friends that they passed intimacy test of J.sternberg. ECG of two subjects (each set) acquired for 5 minutes before hand-holding (as control group) and 5 minutes during they held their hands (as experimental group). Then heart rate variability signals were extracted from subjects' ECG and analyzed in linear feature space (time and frequency domain) and nonlinear feature space. Considering the results, we conclude that physical contact (hand-holding of two friends) increases parasympathetic activity, as indicate by increase SD1, SD1/SD2, HF and MF power (p<0.05) and decreases sympathetic activity, as indicate by decrease LF power (p<0.01) and LF/HF ratio (p<0.05).Keywords: Autonomic nervous system (ANS), Hand- holding, Heart rate variability (HRV), Power spectral density analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31031830 Requirements Engineering via Controlling Actors Definition for the Organizations of European Critical Infrastructure
Authors: Jiri F. Urbanek, Jiri Barta, Oldrich Svoboda, Jiri J. Urbanek
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The organizations of European and Czech critical infrastructure have specific position, mission, characteristics and behaviour in European Union and Czech state/business environments, regarding specific requirements for regional and global security environments. They must respect policy of national security and global rules, requirements and standards in all their inherent and outer processes of supply - customer chains and networks. A controlling is generalized capability to have control over situational policy. This paper aims and purposes are to introduce the controlling as quite new necessary process attribute providing for critical infrastructure is environment the capability and profit to achieve its commitment regarding to the effectiveness of the quality management system in meeting customer/ user requirements and also the continual improvement of critical infrastructure organization’s processes overall performance and efficiency, as well as its societal security via continual planning improvement via DYVELOP modelling.
Keywords: Added Value, DYVELOP, Controlling, Environments, Process Approach.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17561829 Studying on ARINC653 Partition Run-time Scheduling and Simulation
Authors: Dongliang Wang, Jun Han, Dianfu Ma, Xianqi Zhao
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Avionics software is safe-critical embedded software and its architecture is evolving from traditional federated architectures to Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) to improve resource usability. ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Standard Software Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in Safety-critical avionics Real-time operating systems. Arinc653 uses two-level scheduling strategies, but current modeling tools only apply to simple problems of Arinc653 two-level scheduling, which only contain time property. In avionics industry, we are always manually allocating tasks and calculating the timing table of a real-time system to ensure it-s running as we design. In this paper we represent an automatically generating strategy which applies to the two scheduling problems with dependent constraints in Arinc653 partition run-time environment. It provides the functionality of automatic generation from the task and partition models to scheduling policy through allocating the tasks to the partitions while following the constraints, and then we design a simulating mechanism to check whether our policy is schedulable or notKeywords: Arinc653, scheduling, task allocation, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23451828 Histogenesis of Rabbit Vallate Papillae
Authors: Elnasharty M., El Sharaby A., Nor El-din A.
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The gustatory system allows animals to distinguish varieties of food and affects greatly the consumption of food, hence the health and growth of animals. In the current study, we investigated the histogenesis of vallate papillae (VLP) in the rabbit tongue using light and scanning electron microscopy. Samples were obtained from rabbit embryos at the embryonic days 16-30 (E16-30), and from newborns until maturity; 6 months. At E16, the first primordia of vallate papillae were observed as small pits on the surface epithelium of the tongue-s root. At E18, the caudal part was prominent with loose mesenchymal tissue core; meanwhile the rostral part of the papilla was remained as a thick mass of epithelial cells. At E20-24, the side epithelium formed the primitive annular groove. At E26, the primitive taste buds appeared only at the papillary surface and reached their maturity by E28. The annular groove started to appear at E26 became more defined at E28. The definitive vallate papillae with substantial number of apparently mature taste buds were observed by the end of the second week. We conclude that the vallate papillae develop early and mature during the early postnatal life.Keywords: Rabbit, vallate papillae, histogenesis, taste buds.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19741827 Augmenting People's Creative Idea Generation Using an Artificial Intelligent Sketching Collaborator
Authors: Joseph Maloba Makokha
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Idea generation is an important part of the design process, and many strategies to support this stage have been developed. As artificial intelligence (AI) gains adoption in many domains, we need to understand its role, if any, in the design process. This paper introduces the concept of a “Disruptive Interjector”, an AI system that frequently interjects with suggestions based on observing what a user does. The concept emanates from a study that was conducted with pairs of humans on one hand, and human-AI pairs on the other collaborating on idea generation by sketching. Results from a study show that participants who collaborated with, and took cues from the AI sketch suggestions generated more ideas; and also had more ideas ranked by experts as “creative” compared to two humans working together on the same tasks. It is notable that while researchers from diverse fields of engineering, psychology, art and others have explored conditions and environments that enhance people's creativity - and have provided insights on creativity in general - there still exists a gap on the role that AI can play on creativity. We attempt to narrow this gap.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, design collaboration, creativity, human-machine collaboration, machine learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10541826 Influence of Distributed Generation on Congestion and LMP in Competitive Electricity Market
Authors: Durga Gautam, Mithulananthan Nadarajah
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This paper presents the influence of distributed generation (DG) on congestion and locational marginal price (LMP) in an optimal power flow (OPF) based wholesale electricity market. The problem of optimal placement to manage congestion and reduce LMP is formulated for the objective of social welfare maximization. From competitive electricity market standpoint, DGs have great value when they reduce load in particular locations and at particular times when feeders are heavily loaded. The paper lies on the groundwork that solution to optimal mix of generation and transmission resources can be achieved by addressing congestion and corresponding LMP. Obtained as lagrangian multiplier associated with active power flow equation for each node, LMP gives the short run marginal cost (SRMC) of electricity. Specific grid locations are examined to study the influence of DG penetration on congestion and corresponding shadow prices. The influence of DG on congestion and locational marginal prices has been demonstrated in a modified IEEE 14 bus test system.
Keywords: Congestion management, distributed generation, electricity market, locational marginal price, optimal power flow, social welfare.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29181825 Automatic 3D Reconstruction of Coronary Artery Centerlines from Monoplane X-ray Angiogram Images
Authors: Ali Zifan, Panos Liatsis, Panagiotis Kantartzis, Manolis Gavaises, Nicos Karcanias, Demosthenes Katritsis
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We present a new method for the fully automatic 3D reconstruction of the coronary artery centerlines, using two X-ray angiogram projection images from a single rotating monoplane acquisition system. During the first stage, the input images are smoothed using curve evolution techniques. Next, a simple yet efficient multiscale method, based on the information of the Hessian matrix, for the enhancement of the vascular structure is introduced. Hysteresis thresholding using different image quantiles, is used to threshold the arteries. This stage is followed by a thinning procedure to extract the centerlines. The resulting skeleton image is then pruned using morphological and pattern recognition techniques to remove non-vessel like structures. Finally, edge-based stereo correspondence is solved using a parallel evolutionary optimization method based on f symbiosis. The detected 2D centerlines combined with disparity map information allow the reconstruction of the 3D vessel centerlines. The proposed method has been evaluated on patient data sets for evaluation purposes.Keywords: Vessel enhancement, centerline extraction, symbiotic reconstruction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22721824 A Case Study on Barriers in Total Productive Maintenance Implementation in the Abu Dhabi Power Industry
Authors: A. Alseiari, P. Farrell
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Maintenance has evolved into an imperative function, and contributes significantly to efficient and effective equipment performance. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is an ideal approach to support the development and implementation of operation performance improvement. It systematically aims to understand the function of equipment, the service quality relationship with equipment and the probable critical equipment failure conditions. Implementation of TPM programmes need strategic planning and there has been little research applied in this area within Middle-East power plants. In the power sector of Abu Dhabi, technologically and strategically, the power industry is extremely important, and it thus needs effective and efficient equipment management support. The aim of this paper is to investigate barriers to successful TPM implementation in the Abu Dhabi power industry. The study has been conducted in the context of a leading power company in the UAE. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 employees, including maintenance and operation staff, and senior managers. The findings of this research identified seven key barriers, thus: managerial; organisational; cultural; financial; educational; communications; and auditing. With respect to the understanding of these barriers and obstacles in TPM implementation, the findings can contribute towards improved equipment operations and maintenance in power organisations.
Keywords: Abu Dhabi power industry, TPM implementation, key barriers, organisational culture, critical success factors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7781823 Applying GQM Approach towards Development of Criterion-Referenced Assessment Model for OO Programming Courses
Authors: Norazlina Khamis, Sufian Idris, Rodina Ahmad
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The most influential programming paradigm today is object oriented (OO) programming and it is widely used in education and industry. Recognizing the importance of equipping students with OO knowledge and skills, it is not surprising that most Computer Science degree programs offer OO-related courses. How do we assess whether the students have acquired the right objectoriented skills after they have completed their OO courses? What are object oriented skills? Currently none of the current assessment techniques would be able to provide this answer. Traditional forms of OO programming assessment provide a ways for assigning numerical scores to determine letter grades. But this rarely reveals information about how students actually understand OO concept. It appears reasonable that a better understanding of how to define and assess OO skills is needed by developing a criterion referenced model. It is even critical in the context of Malaysia where there is currently a growing concern over the level of competency of Malaysian IT graduates in object oriented programming. This paper discussed the approach used to develop the criterion-referenced assessment model. The model can serve as a guideline when conducting OO programming assessment as mentioned. The proposed model is derived by using Goal Questions Metrics methodology, which helps formulate the metrics of interest. It concluded with a few suggestions for further study.Keywords: Object-oriented programming, programmingassessment, criterion-referenced assessment model, goal questionsmetrics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11091822 Experimental Study of Open Water Non-Series Marine Propeller Performance
Authors: M. A. Elghorab, A. Abou El-Azm Aly, A. S. Elwetedy, M. A. Kotb
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Later marine propeller is the main component of ship propulsion system. For a non-series propeller, it is difficult to indicate the open water marine propeller performance without an experimental study to measure the marine propeller parameters. In the present study, the open water performance of a non-series marine propeller has been carried out experimentally. The geometrical aspects of a commercial non-series marine propeller have been measured for a propeller blade area ratio of 0.3985. The measured propeller performance parameters were the thrust and torque coefficients for different propeller rotational speed and different water channel flow velocity, then the open water performance for the propeller has been plotted. In addition, a direct comparison between the obtained experimental results and a theoretical study of a B-series marine propeller of the same blade area ratio has been carried out. A correction factor has been introduced to apply the operating conditions of the experimental results to that of the theoretical study for the studied marine propeller.Keywords: Advance speed, marine propeller, open water performance, thrust coefficient, torque coefficient.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33531821 Triangle Issues of Sustainability at the University Level within a Vision of Knowledge Economy and Society
Authors: Ashiquer Rahman
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The paper focuses on the importance of the knowledge economy and society, emphasizing the significance of the triangle issues (Innovation, Sustainability, and Higher Education) for building a sustainable campus at the university level and preparing students to face the upcoming sustainability challenges in the competitive and sustainable world. Within a framework of the knowledge economy and society, the paper discusses the significance of sustainable campus, triangle issues and potential action plan for the university level. It makes mention of the emergence of a knowledge-based economy and society as well as the necessity of combining innovation, sustainability, and education to create a sustainable campus at the university level. The paper outlines nine significant issues or challenges related to a sustainable campus that have been emphasized, and cross-linked with each other. Optimistically, it will be a milestone in higher education, a pathway to meet the imminent sustainable challenges of the completive world and be able to manage the knowledge economy and societal system
Keywords: Triangle issues, sustainable campus, higher education, knowledge economy, knowledge society.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2511820 The Upconversion of co-doped Nd3+/Er3+Tellurite Glass
Authors: Azman, K., Sahar, M.R., Rohani, M.S.
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Series of tellurite glass of the system 78TeO2-10PbO- 10Li2O-(2-x)Nd2O3-xEr2O3, where x = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 was successfully been made. A study of upconversion luminescence of the Nd3+/Er3+ co-doped tellurite glass has been carried out. From Judd-Ofelt analysis, the experimental lifetime, exp. τ of the glass serie are found higher in the visible region as they varies from 65.17ms to 114.63ms, whereas in the near infrared region (NIR) the lifetime are varies from 2.133ms to 2.270ms. Meanwhile, the emission cross section,σ results are found varies from 0.004 x 1020 cm2 to 1.007 x 1020 cm2 with respect to composition. The emission spectra of the glass are found been contributed from Nd3+ and Er3+ ions by which nine significant transition peaks are observed. The upconversion mechanism of the co-doped tellurite glass has been shown in the schematic energy diagrams. In this works, it is found that the excited state-absorption (ESA) is still dominant in the upconversion excitation process as the upconversion excitation mechanism of the Nd3+ excited-state levels is accomplished through a stepwise multiphonon process. An efficient excitation energy transfer (ET) has been observed between Nd3+ as a donor and Er3+ as the acceptor. As a result, respective emission spectra had been observed.Keywords: Tellurite glass, co-dopant, upconvertionluminescence spectra.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18411819 Comparison of Artificial Neural Network and Multivariate Regression Methods in Prediction of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity
Authors: Ali Keshavarzi, Fereydoon Sarmadian
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Investigation of soil properties like Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) plays important roles in study of environmental reaserches as the spatial and temporal variability of this property have been led to development of indirect methods in estimation of this soil characteristic. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) provide an alternative by estimating soil parameters from more readily available soil data. 70 soil samples were collected from different horizons of 15 soil profiles located in the Ziaran region, Qazvin province, Iran. Then, multivariate regression and neural network model (feedforward back propagation network) were employed to develop a pedotransfer function for predicting soil parameter using easily measurable characteristics of clay and organic carbon. The performance of the multivariate regression and neural network model was evaluated using a test data set. In order to evaluate the models, root mean square error (RMSE) was used. The value of RMSE and R2 derived by ANN model for CEC were 0.47 and 0.94 respectively, while these parameters for multivariate regression model were 0.65 and 0.88 respectively. Results showed that artificial neural network with seven neurons in hidden layer had better performance in predicting soil cation exchange capacity than multivariate regression.Keywords: Easily measurable characteristics, Feed-forwardback propagation, Pedotransfer functions, CEC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22111818 Comparative Analysis of Sigmoidal Feedforward Artificial Neural Networks and Radial Basis Function Networks Approach for Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Ashish Payal, C. S. Rai, B. V. R. Reddy
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With the increasing use and application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), need has arisen to explore them in more effective and efficient manner. An important area which can bring efficiency to WSNs is the localization process, which refers to the estimation of the position of wireless sensor nodes in an ad hoc network setting, in reference to a coordinate system that may be internal or external to the network. In this paper, we have done comparison and analysed Sigmoidal Feedforward Artificial Neural Networks (SFFANNs) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) networks for developing localization framework in WSNs. The presented work utilizes the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), measured by static node on 100 x 100 m2 grid from three anchor nodes. The comprehensive evaluation of these approaches is done using MATLAB software. The simulation results effectively demonstrate that FFANNs based sensor motes will show better localization accuracy as compared to RBF.
Keywords: Localization, wireless sensor networks, artificial neural network, radial basis function, multi-layer perceptron, backpropagation, RSSI.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15231817 Measurement of Convective Heat Transfer from a Vertical Flat Plate Using Mach-Zehnder Interferometer with Wedge Fringe Setting
Authors: Divya Haridas, C. B. Sobhan
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Laser interferometric methods have been utilized for the measurement of natural convection heat transfer from a heated vertical flat plate, in the investigation presented here. The study mainly aims at comparing two different fringe orientations in the wedge fringe setting of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), used for the measurements. The interference fringes are set in horizontal and vertical orientations with respect to the heated surface, and two different fringe analysis methods, namely the stepping method and the method proposed by Naylor and Duarte, are used to obtain the heat transfer coefficients. The experimental system is benchmarked with theoretical results, thus validating its reliability in heat transfer measurements. The interference fringe patterns are analyzed digitally using MATLAB 7 and MOTIC Plus softwares, which ensure improved efficiency in fringe analysis, hence reducing the errors associated with conventional fringe tracing. The work also discuss the relative merits and limitations of the two methods used.
Keywords: MZI, Natural Convection, Naylor Method, Vertical Flat Plate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31251816 Stator-Flux-Oriented Based Encoderless Direct Torque Control for Synchronous Reluctance Machines Using Sliding Mode Approach
Authors: J. Soltani, H. Abootorabi Zarchi, Gh. R. Arab Markadeh
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In this paper a sliding-mode torque and flux control is designed for encoderless synchronous reluctance motor drive. The sliding-mode plus PI controllers are designed in the stator-flux field oriented reference frame which is able to track the mentioned reference signals with a minimum pulsations in the state condition. In addition, with these controllers a fast dynamic response is also achieved for the drive system. The proposed control scheme is robust subject to parameters variation except to stator resistance. To solve this problem a simple estimator is used for on-line detecting of this parameter. Moreover, the rotor position and speed are estimated by on-line obtaining of the stator-flux-space vector. The effectiveness and capability of the proposed control approach is verified by both the simulation and experimental results.Keywords: Synchronous Reluctance Motor, Direct Torque and Flux Control, Sliding Mode, Field-Oriented Frame, Encoderless.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25781815 The Situation in the Public Procurement Market in Post-Communist Countries: The Case of the Czech Republic
Authors: Jan Pavel
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Public procurement is one of the most important areas in the public sector that introduces a possibility for a corruption. Due to the volume of the funds that are allocated through this institution (in the EU countries it is between 10 – 15% of GDP), it has very serious implications for the efficiency of public expenditures and the overall economic efficiency as well. Indicators that are usually used for the measurement of the corruption (such as Corruption Perceptions Index - CPI) show that the worst situation is in the post-communist countries and Mediterranean countries. The presented paper uses the Czech Republic as an example of a post-communist country and analyses the factors which influence the scope of corruption in public procurement. Moreover, the paper discusses indicators that could point at the public procurement market inefficiency. The presented results show that post-communist states use the institute of public contracts significantly more than the old member countries of the continental Europe. It has a very important implication because it gives more space for corruption. Furthermore, it appears that the inefficient functioning of public procurement market is clearly manifested in the low number of bids, low level of market transparency and an ineffective control system. Some of the observed indicators are statistically significantly correlated with the CPI.Keywords: Czech Republic, Corruption, Public Procurement, Post-Communist Countries
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17761814 IS Flexibility Planning for IT/Business Strategy Alignment via Future Oriented POC Analysis
Authors: Masaru Furukawa, Shigeki Hirobayashi, Tadanobu Misawa
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Nowadays, IT/Business strategy alignment is still a key topic of concern among managers worldwide. Change has always being considered the primary challenge affecting the strategy alignment. Planning for alignment in uncertain and dynamic changing environments is burdened with risk as organizations seek to understand how much flexibility to build in their management information system so as to maintain high levels of alignment. The literature review showed that there is a tight relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and the strategy alignment with strategic information systems (SIS) planning serving as a moderator of this relationship, and that emphasized the needs for organizations to use SIS planning consistently and to monitor the relationship between IS flexibility and the alignment. This paper presents the procedure of SIS planning with IS flexibility renovation via future oriented analysis of POC (penalty of change) as a function of cost and time. Using this SIS planning and monitoring IS flexibility and the alignment during periods of increased change in dynamic and uncertain environments reduces the risk that could transform IT into an inhibitor rather than an enabler of change.
Keywords: IT/Business strategy alignment, strategic information systems (SIS) planning, IS flexibility, penalty of change (POC).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16231813 Mathematical Simulation of Bubble Column Slurry Reactor for Direct Dimethyl Ether Synthesis Process from Syngas
Authors: Zhen Chen, Haitao Zhang, Weiyong Ying, Dingye Fang
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Based on a global kinetics of direct dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis process from syngas, a steady-state one-dimensional mathematical model for the bubble column slurry reactor (BCSR) has been established. It was built on the assumption of plug flow of gas phase, sedimentation-dispersion model of catalyst grains and isothermal chamber regardless of reaction heats and rates for the design of an industrial scale bubble column slurry reactor. The simulation results indicate that higher pressure and lower temperature were favorable to the increase of CO conversion, DME selectivity, products yield and the height of slurry bed, which has a coincidence with the characteristic of DME synthesis reaction system, and that the height of slurry bed is lessen with the increasing of operation temperature in the range of 220-260℃. CO conversion, the optimal operation conditions in BCSR were proposed.
Keywords: Alcohol/ether fuel, bubble column slurry reactor, global kinetics, mathematical model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26251812 The Effect of Vertical Shear-Link in Improving the Seismic Performance of Structures with Eccentrically Bracing Systems
Authors: Mohammad Reza Baradaran, Farhad Hamzezarghani, Mehdi Rastegari Ghiri, Zahra Mirsanjari
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Passive control methods can be utilized to build earthquake resistant structures, and also to strengthen the vulnerable ones. In this paper, we studied the effect of this system in increasing the ductility and energy dissipation and also modeled the behavior of this type of eccentric bracing, and compared the hysteresis diagram of the modeled samples with the laboratory samples. We studied several samples of frames with vertical shear-links in order to assess the behavior of this type of eccentric bracing. Each of these samples was modeled in finite element software ANSYS 9.0, and was analyzed under the static cyclic loading. It was found that vertical shear-links have a more stable hysteresis loops. Another analysis showed that using honeycomb beams as the horizontal beam along with steel reinforcement has no negative effect on the hysteresis behavior of the sample.Keywords: Vertical shear-link, passive control, cyclic analysis, energy dissipation, honeycomb beam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27411811 Behavior of Current in a Semiconductor Nanostructure under Influence of Embedded Quantum Dots
Authors: H. Paredes Gutiérrez, S. T. Pérez-Merchancano
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Motivated by recent experimental and theoretical developments, we investigate the influence of embedded quantum dot (EQD) of different geometries (lens, ring and pyramidal) in a double barrier heterostructure (DBH). We work with a general theory of quantum transport that accounts the tight-binding model for the spin dependent resonant tunneling in a semiconductor nanostructure, and Rashba spin orbital to study the spin orbit coupling. In this context, we use the second quantization theory for Rashba effect and the standard Green functions method. We calculate the current density as a function of the voltage without and in the presence of quantum dots. In the second case, we considered the size and shape of the quantum dot, and in the two cases, we worked considering the spin polarization affected by external electric fields. We found that the EQD generates significant changes in current when we consider different morphologies of EQD, as those described above. The first thing shown is that the current decreases significantly, such as the geometry of EQD is changed, prevailing the geometrical confinement. Likewise, we see that the current density decreases when the voltage is increased, showing that the quantum system studied here is more efficient when the morphology of the quantum dot changes.
Keywords: Quantum semiconductors, nanostructures, quantum dots, spin polarization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9561810 The Effect of Intermediate Stiffeners on Steel Reinforced Concrete Beams Behaviors
Authors: Teguh Sudibyo, Cheng-Cheng Chen
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Eight steel reinforced concrete beams (SRC), were fabricated and tested under earthquake type cyclic loading. The effectiveness of intermediate stiffeners, such as mid-span stiffener and plastic hinge zone stiffeners, in enhancing composite action and ductility of SRC beams was investigated. The effectiveness of strengthened beam-to-column (SBC) and weakened beam-to-column (WBC) connections in enhancing beam ductility was also studied. It was found that: (1) All the specimens possessed fairly high flexural ductility and were found adequate for structures in high seismic zones. (2) WBC connections induced stress concentration which caused extra damage to concrete near the flange tapering zone. This extra damage inhibited the flexural strength development and the ductility of the specimens with WBC connections to some extent. (3) Specimens with SBC connections demonstrated higher flexural strength and ductility compared to specimens with WBC connections. (4) The intermediate stiffeners, especially combination of plastic hinge zone stiffener and mid span stiffeners, have an obvious effect in enhancing the ductility of the beams with SBC connection.Keywords: Composite beam, concrete encased steel beam, steel reinforced concrete, stiffeners.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38581809 Response of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genotypes to Drought Stress at Different Growth Stages
Authors: Ali. Marjani, M. Farsi, M. Rahimizadeh
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Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important grain legume crops in the world. However, drought stress is a serious threat to chickpea production, and development of drought-resistant varieties is a necessity. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the response of 8 chickpea genotypes (MCC* 696, 537, 80, 283, 392, 361, 252, 397) and drought stress (S1: non-stress, S2: stress at vegetative growth stage, S3: stress at early bloom, S4: stress at early pod visible) at different growth stages. Experiment was arranged in split plot design with four replications. Difference among the drought stress time was found to be significant for investigated traits except biological yield. Differences were observed for genotypes in flowering time, pod information time, physiological maturation time and yield. Plant height reduced due to drought stress in vegetative growth stage. Stem dry weight reduced due to drought stress in pod visibly. Flowering time, maturation time, pod number, number of seed per plant and yield cause of drought stress in flowering was also reduced. The correlation between yield and number of seed per plant and biological yield was positive. The MCC283 and MCC696 were the high-tolerance genotypes. These results demonstrated that drought stress delayed phonological growth in chickpea and that flowering stage is sensitive.
Keywords: Chickpea, drought stress, growth stage, tolerance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9941808 General Awareness of Teenagers in Information Security
Authors: Magdalena Naplavova, Tomas Ludik, Petr Hruza, Frantisek Bozek
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The use of IT equipment has become a part of every day. However, each device that is part of cyberspace should be secured against unauthorized use. It is very important to know the basics of these security devices, but also the basics of safe conduct their owners. This information should be part of every curriculum computer science education in primary and secondary schools. Therefore, the work focuses on the education of pupils in primary and secondary schools on the Internet. Analysis of the current state describes approaches to the education of pupils in security issues on the Internet. The paper presents a questionnaire-based survey which was carried out in the Czech Republic, whose task was to ascertain the level of opinion pupils in primary and secondary schools on the issue of communication in social networks. The research showed that awareness of socio-pathological phenomena on the Internet environment is very low. Based on the results it was proposed appropriate ways of teaching to this issue and its inclusion a proposal of curriculum for primary and secondary schools.
Keywords: Cyberspace, educational system, general awareness, information security, questionnaire, socio-pathological phenomena.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23471807 Coupled Lateral-Torsional Free Vibrations Analysis of Laminated Composite Beam using Differential Quadrature Method
Authors: S.H. Mirtalaie, M. Mohammadi, M.A. Hajabasi, F.Hejripour
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In this paper the Differential Quadrature Method (DQM) is employed to study the coupled lateral-torsional free vibration behavior of the laminated composite beams. In such structures due to the fiber orientations in various layers, the lateral displacement leads to a twisting moment. The coupling of lateral and torsional vibrations is modeled by the bending-twisting material coupling rigidity. In the present study, in addition to the material coupling, the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia are taken into account in the definition of the potential and kinetic energies of the beam. The governing differential equations of motion which form a system of three coupled PDEs are solved numerically using DQ procedure under different boundary conditions consist of the combinations of simply, clamped, free and other end conditions. The resulting natural frequencies and mode shapes for cantilever beam are compared with similar results in the literature and good agreement is achieved.
Keywords: Differential Quadrature Method, Free vibration, Laminated composite beam, Material coupling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21291806 “Context” Thinking of Contemporary Urban History Space under the Basis of Enlightenment of Chinese Traditional Cultural Philology - Taking West Expansion Plan of Tianyi Pavilion as an Example
Abstract:
Facing the understanding problem of update and preservation of urban history space under background of rapid Chinese urbanization, so at first there is a need to dig the philosophic principles of “antithesis” and “unification” which are contained in the traditional Chinese literature known as “antithesis” and do the job of planning translation by personal understanding in order to form understanding and value systems of dialectical urban history space under the foundation of “antithesis”. Then we could put forward a “context” concept for urban history space under the foregoing basis. After that, we will take the update and preservation of Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion’s historical district as an example to discuss problems related to understanding of urban history area under the basis of Chinese tradition culture, improvement of value system, construction of urban trait space and Chinese “localization” of planning theory.
Keywords: Antithesis, traditional values, City renewal and conservation, the “context” of city history space.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17991805 Study of the Transport of Multivalent Metal Cations through Cation-Exchange Membranes by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
Authors: V. Pérez-Herranz, M. Pinel, E. M. Ortega, M. García-Gabaldón
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In the present work, Electrochemical Impedance Spectrocopy (EIS) is applied to study the transport of different metal cations through a cation-exchange membrane. This technique enables the identification of the ionic-transport characteristics and to distinguish between different transport mechanisms occurring at different current density ranges. The impedance spectra are dependent on the applied dc current density, on the type of cation and on the concentration. When the applied dc current density increases, the diameter of the impedance spectra loops increases because all the components of membrane system resistance increase. The diameter of the impedance plots decreases in the order of Na(I), Ni(II) and Cr(III) due to the increased interactions between the negatively charged sulfonic groups of the membrane and the cations with greater charge. Nyquist plots are shifted towards lower values of the real impedance, and its diameter decreases with the increase of concentration due to the decrease of the solution resistance.
Keywords: Ion-exchange Membranes, Electrochemical Impedance Espectroscopy, Multivalent Metal Cations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1885