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Authors: Woo-Young Jung, Minho Kwon

Abstract:

Seismic design criteria based on performance of structures have recently been adopted by practicing engineers in response to destructive earthquakes. A simple but efficient structural-analysis tool capable of predicting both the strength and ductility is needed to analyze reinforced concrete (RC) structures under such event. A three-dimensional lattice model is developed in this study to analyze torsions in high-strength RC members. Optimization techniques for determining optimal variables in each lattice model are introduced. Pure torsion tests of RC members are performed to validate the proposed model. Correlation studies between the numerical and experimental results confirm that the proposed model is well capable of representing salient features of the experimental results.

Keywords: Torsion, non-linear analysis, three-dimensional lattice, high-strength concrete.

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Authors: Young-Seok Choi

Abstract:

We present a refined multiscale Shannon entropy for analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG), which reflects the underlying dynamics of EEG over multiple scales. The rationale behind this method is that neurological signals such as EEG possess distinct dynamics over different spectral modes. To deal with the nonlinear and nonstationary nature of EEG, the recently developed empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is incorporated, allowing a decomposition of EEG into its inherent spectral components, referred to as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). By calculating the Shannon entropy of IMFs in a time-dependent manner and summing them over adaptive multiple scales, it results in an adaptive subscale entropy measure of EEG. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed entropy properly reveals the dynamical changes over multiple scales.

Keywords: EEG, subscale entropy, Empirical mode decomposition, Intrinsic mode function.

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Authors: Jongwan Eun, Sam Helwany, Lakshyana K. C.

Abstract:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is significantly dependent on desalinated water and groundwater resource, which is expensive and highly energy intensive. Despite the scarce water resource, stagnates only 54% of the recycled water was reused in 2012, and due to the lack of infrastructure to reuse the recycled water, the portion is expected to decrease with growing water usage. In this study, an “Oasis” complex comprised of Sustainable Farming Compartments (SFC) was proposed for reusing treated wastewater. The wastewater is used to decrease the ambient temperature of the SFC via an evaporative cooler. The SFC prototype was designed, built, and tested in an environmentally controlled laboratory and field site to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the SFC subjected to various climatic conditions in Abu Dhabi. Based on the experimental results, the temperature drop achieved in the SFC in the laboratory and field site were5 ̊C from 22 ̊C and 7- 15 ̊C (from 33-45 ̊C to average 28 ̊C at relative humidity < 50%), respectively. An energy simulation using TRNSYS was performed to extend and validate the results obtained from the experiment. The results from the energy simulation and experiments show statistically close agreement. The total power consumption of the SFC system was approximately three and a half times lower than that of an electrical air conditioner. Therefore, by using treated wastewater, the SFC has a promising prospect to solve Abu Dhabi’s ecological concern related to desertification and wind erosion.

Keywords: Ecological farming system, energy simulation, evaporative cooling system, treated wastewater, temperature, humidity.

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Authors: J. Sliseris, K. Rocens

Abstract:

The new optimization method for fiber orientation angle optimization of symmetrical multilayer plates like plywood is proposed. Optimization method consists of seeking for minimal compliance by choosing appropriate fiber orientation angle in outer layers of flexural plate. The discrete values of fiber orientation angles are used in method. Optimization results of simply supported plate and multispan plate with uniformly distributed load are provided. Results show that stiffness could be increased up to 20% by changing wood fiber orientation angle in one or two outer layers.

Keywords: Minimal compliance, flexural plate, plywood, discrete fiber angle optimization.

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Authors: Mehdi Modabberifar, Behrouz Raad, Bahman Mirzakhani

Abstract:

Flanges are widely used for connecting valves, pipes and other industrial devices such as gearboxes. Method of producing a flange has a considerable impact on the manner of their involvement with the industrial engines and gearboxes. By Using die casting instead of sand casting and machining for manufacturing flanges, production speed and dimensional accuracy of the parts increases. Also, in die casting, obtained dimensions are close to final dimensions and hence the need for machining flanges after die casting process decreases which makes a significant savings in raw materials and improves the mechanical properties of flanges. In this paper, a typical die of an industrial helical gearbox flange (size ISO 50) was designed and die casting process for producing this type of flange was simulated using ProCAST software. The results of simulation were used for optimizing die design. Finally, using the results of the analysis, optimized die was built.

Keywords: Die casting, finite element, flange.

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Authors: J. E. Oti, J. M. Kinuthia, R. Robinson, P. Davies

Abstract:

In this study, the Compressive strength of concretes made with Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS), Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and Waste Glass Powder (WGP) after they were exposed 7800C (exposure duration of around 60 minutes) and then allowed to cool down gradually in the furnace for about 280 minutes at water binder ratio of 0.50 was investigated. GGBS, PFA, RHA and WGP were used to replace up to 20% Portland cement in the control concrete. Test for the determination of workability, compressive strength and tensile splitting strength of the concretes were carried out and the results were compared with control concrete. The test results showed that the compressive strength decreased by an average of around 30% after the concretes were exposed to the heating and cooling scenario.

Keywords: Pulverised Fuel Ash, Rice Husk Ash, heating and cooling, concrete.

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Authors: Meseret Teshome

Abstract:

This study has the objective of assessing the effect of kaizen (5S, Muda elimination and Quality Control Circle (QCC) on employees’ affective attitude (job satisfaction, commitment and job stress) in Kombolcha Textile Share Company. A conceptual model was developed to describe the relationship between Kaizen and Employees’ Affective Attitude (EAA) factors. The three factors of Employee Affective Attitude were measured using questionnaire derived from other validated questionnaire. In the data collection to conduct this study; questionnaire, unstructured interview, written documents and direct observations are used. To analyze the data, SPSS and Microsoft Excel were used. In addition, the internal consistency of similar items in the questionnaire instrument was measured for their equivalence by using the cronbach’s alpha test. In this study, the effect of 5S, Muda elimination and QCC on job satisfaction, commitment and job stress in Kombolcha Textile Share Company is assessed and factors that reduce employees’ job satisfaction with respect to kaizen implementation are identified. The total averages of means from the questionnaire are 3.1 for job satisfaction, 4.31 for job commitment and 4.2 for job stress. And results from interview and secondary data show that kaizen implementation have effect on EAA. In general, based on the thesis results it was concluded that kaizen (5S, muda elimination and QCC) have positive effect for improving EAA factors at KTSC. Finally, recommendations for improvement are given based on the results.

Keywords: Kaizen, job satisfaction, job commitment, job stress.

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Authors: Tang Yuan Chen, Chang Hsin Chen, Chiun Hsun Chen

Abstract:

In this research, the flow pattern influence on performance of a micro PEMFC was investigated experimentally. The investigation focused on the impacts of bend angels and rib/channel dimensions of serpentine flow channel pattern on the performance and investigated how they improve the performance. The fuel cell employed for these experiments was a micro single PEMFC with a membrane of 1.44 cm2 Nafion NRE-212. The results show that 60° and 120° bend angles can provide the better performances at 20 and 40 sccm inlet flow rates comparing to that the conventional design. Additionally, wider channel with narrower rib spacing gives better performance. These results may be applied to develop universal heuristics for the design of flow pattern of micro PEMFC.

Keywords: Flow pattern, MEMS, PEMFC, Performance

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Authors: Bharti B. Parmar, Vivek J. Pandya

Abstract:

The issue of unintentional islanding detection of grid connected synchronous distributed generation (SDG) remains the most challenging task faced by the distributed generation (DG) industry as SDG is highly capable of prolonging an island. This paper gives an insight of anti-islanding detection techniques mainly applied for SDG. Different techniques conclude that it is challenging to point out a generic method for a distinct purpose as the application of particular practice depends on nature of the end use and system dependent elements. Also, the setup and operational cost affect the selection of anti-islanding technique to achieve minimal compromising between cost and system quality. A test bench is created in the MATLAB/Simulink^® to demonstrate the results of a 33 kV system. The results are highly satisfactory and they are according to the current practices.

Keywords: Synchronous distributed generation, islanding, point of common coupling, loss of grid.

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Authors: A. M. Tahsini

Abstract:

The Spalart and Allmaras turbulence model has been implemented in a numerical code to study the compressible turbulent flows, which the system of governing equations is solved with a finite volume approach using a structured grid. The AUSM+ scheme is used to calculate the inviscid fluxes. Different benchmark problems have been computed to validate the implementation and numerical results are shown. A special Attention is paid to wall jet applications. In this study, the jet is submitted to various wall boundary conditions (adiabatic or uniform heat flux) in forced convection regime and both two-dimensional and axisymmetric wall jets are considered. The comparison between the numerical results and experimental data has given the validity of this turbulence model to study the turbulent wall jets especially in engineering applications.

Keywords: Wall Jet, Heat transfer, Numerical Simulation, Spalart-Allmaras Turbulence model.

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Authors: Khaled M. EL-Naggar

Abstract:

This paper presents a fast and efficient on-line technique for estimating impedance of unbalanced loads in power systems. The proposed technique is an application of a discrete timedynamic filter based on stochastic estimation theory which is suitable for estimating parameters in noisy environment. The algorithm uses sets of digital samples of the distorted voltage and current waveforms of the non-linear load to estimate the harmonic contents of these two signal. The non-linear load impedance is then calculated from these contents. The method is tested using practical data. Results are reported and compared with those obtained using the conventional least error squares technique. In addition to the very accurate results obtained, the method can detect and reject bad measurements. This can be considered as a very important advantage over the conventional static estimation methods such as the least error square method.

Keywords: Estimation, identification, Harmonics, Dynamic Filter.

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Authors: Jiqing Han, Rongchun Gao

Abstract:

One major source of performance decline in speaker recognition system is channel mismatch between training and testing. This paper focuses on improving channel robustness of speaker recognition system in two aspects of channel compensation technique and channel robust features. The system is text-independent speaker identification system based on two-stage recognition. In the aspect of channel compensation technique, this paper applies MAP (Maximum A Posterior Probability) channel compensation technique, which was used in speech recognition, to speaker recognition system. In the aspect of channel robust features, this paper introduces pitch-dependent features and pitch-dependent speaker model for the second stage recognition. Based on the first stage recognition to testing speech using GMM (Gaussian Mixture Model), the system uses GMM scores to decide if it needs to be recognized again. If it needs to, the system selects a few speakers from all of the speakers who participate in the first stage recognition for the second stage recognition. For each selected speaker, the system obtains 3 pitch-dependent results from his pitch-dependent speaker model, and then uses ANN (Artificial Neural Network) to unite the 3 pitch-dependent results and 1 GMM score for getting a fused result. The system makes the second stage recognition based on these fused results. The experiments show that the correct rate of two-stage recognition system based on MAP channel compensation technique and pitch-dependent features is 41.7% better than the baseline system for closed-set test.

Keywords: Channel Compensation, Channel Robustness, MAP, Speaker Identification

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Authors: Yucai Ding, Hong Zhu, Shouming Zhong, Yuping Zhang

Abstract:

This paper considers ­H∞ performance for Markovian jump systems with Time-varying delays. The systems under consideration involve disturbance signal, Markovian switching and timevarying delays. By using a new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and a convex optimization approach, a delay-dependent stability condition in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) is addressed, which guarantee asymptotical stability in mean square and a prescribed ­H∞ performance index for the considered systems. Two numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and the less conservatism of the proposed main results. All these results are expected to be of use in the study of stochastic systems with time-varying delays.

Keywords: ­H∞ performance, Markovian switching, Delaydependent stability, Linear matrix inequality (LMI)

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Authors: Chun-Yao Lee, Hung-Chi Lin

Abstract:

This paper presents a signal analysis process for improving energy completeness based on the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT). Firstly, the vibration signal of a DC Motor obtained by employing an accelerometer is the model used to analyze the signal. Secondly, the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and Hilbert spectrum of the decomposed signal are obtained by applying HHT. The results of the IMFs constituent and the original signal are compared and the process of energy loss is discussed. Finally, the differences between Wavelet Transform (WT) and HHT in analyzing the signal are compared. The simulated results reveal the analysis process based on HHT is advantageous for the enhancement of energy completeness.

Keywords: Hilbert-Huang transform, Hilbert spectrum, Wavelettransform, Wavelet spectrum, DC Motor.

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Authors: Ali Farhaninejad, Rizal Zahari, Ehsan Rasooliyazdi

Abstract:

Increasing energy absorption is a significant parameter in vehicle design. Absorbing more energy results in decreasing occupant damage. Limitation of the deflection in a side impact results in decreased energy absorption (SEA) and increased peak load (PL). Hence a high crash force jeopardizes passenger safety and vehicle integrity. The aims of this paper are to determine suitable dimensions and material of a square beam subjected to side impact, in order to maximize SEA and minimize PL. To achieve this novel goal, the geometric parameters of a square beam are optimized using the response surface method (RSM).multi-objective optimization is performed, and the optimum design for different response features is obtained.

Keywords: Crashworthiness, side impact, energy absorption, multi-objective optimization, Square beam, SEA

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Authors: Ivan Yatchev, Ewen Ritchie

Abstract:

Comparison of two approaches for the simulation of the dynamic behaviour of a permanent magnet linear actuator is presented. These are full coupled model, where the electromagnetic field, electric circuit and mechanical motion problems are solved simultaneously, and decoupled model, where first a set of static magnetic filed analysis is carried out and then the electric circuit and mechanical motion equations are solved employing bi-cubic spline approximations of the field analysis results. The results show that the proposed decoupled model is of satisfactory accuracy and gives more flexibility when the actuator response is required to be estimated for different external conditions, e.g. external circuit parameters or mechanical loads.

Keywords: Coupled problems, dynamic models, finite elementanalysis, linear actuators, permanent magnets.

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Authors: N. A. Samat, D. F. Percy

Abstract:

The main aim of this study is to describe and introduce a method of numerical analysis in obtaining approximate solutions for the SIR-SI differential equations (susceptible-infectiverecovered for human populations; susceptible-infective for vector populations) that represent a model for dengue disease transmission. Firstly, we describe the ordinary differential equations for the SIR-SI disease transmission models. Then, we introduce the numerical analysis of solutions of this continuous time, discrete space SIR-SI model by simplifying the continuous time scale to a densely populated, discrete time scale. This is followed by the application of this numerical analysis of solutions of the SIR-SI differential equations to the estimation of relative risk using continuous time, discrete space dengue data of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Finally, we present the results of the analysis, comparing and displaying the results in graphs, table and maps. Results of the numerical analysis of solutions that we implemented offers a useful and potentially superior model for estimating relative risks based on continuous time, discrete space data for vector borne infectious diseases specifically for dengue disease. 

Keywords: Dengue disease, disease mapping, numerical analysis, SIR-SI differential equations.

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Authors: Nestor A. Garcia Fragoso, Tetyana Baydyk, Ernst Kussul

Abstract:

This article contains information from our investigation in the field of voice recognition. For this purpose, we created a voice database that contains different phrases in two languages, English and Spanish, for men and women. As a classifier, the LIRA (Limited Receptive Area) grayscale neural classifier was selected. The LIRA grayscale neural classifier was developed for image recognition tasks and demonstrated good results. Therefore, we decided to develop a recognition system using this classifier for voice recognition. From a specific set of speakers, we can recognize the speaker’s voice. For this purpose, the system uses spectrograms of the voice signals as input to the system, extracts the characteristics and identifies the speaker. The results are described and analyzed in this article. The classifier can be used for speaker identification in security system or smart buildings for different types of intelligent devices.

Keywords: Extreme learning, LIRA neural classifier, speaker identification, voice recognition.

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Authors: G. Aouf, D. Tabbal, A. Sabsabi, R. Aouf

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to assess the viability of utilizing Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash (MSWIFA) with Ordinary Portland cement as soil reinforcement materials for geotechnical engineering applications. A detailed experimental program is carried out followed by analysis of results. Soil samples were prepared by adding cement to MSWIFA-soil mix at different percentages. Then, a series of laboratory tests were performed namely: Sieve analysis, Atterberg limits tests, Unconfined compression test, and Proctor tests. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of adding the cement at different percentages on the unconfined compression strength, maximum dry density (MDD), and optimum moisture content (OMC) of clayey soil-MSWIFA. The variations of admixtures’ contents were 10%, 20%, and 30% for MSWIFA by dry total weight of soil and 10%, 15%, and 20% for Portland cement by dry total weight of the mix. The test results reveal that adding MSWIFA to the soil up to 20% increased the MDD of the mixture and decreased the OMC, then an opposite trend for results were found when the percentage of MSWIFA exceeds 20%. This is due to the low specific gravity of MSWIFA and to the greater water absorption of MSWIFA. The laboratory tests also indicate that the Unconfined Compression Test values were found to be increased for all the mixtures with curing periods of 7, 14, and 28 days. It is also observed that the cement increased the strength of the finished product of the mix of soil and MSWIFA.

Keywords: Clayey soil, cement, Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fly Ash, MSWIFA, unconfined compression strength.

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Authors: Karina Natali, Wei-Hwa Chiang

Abstract:

This study examines the stack ventilation performance of an office building located in Taipei, Taiwan. Atriums in this building act as stacks that facilitate buoyancy-driven ventilation. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations are used to identify interior airflow patterns, and then used these patterns to assess the building’s heat expulsion efficiency. Ambient temperatures of 20°C were adopted as the typical seasonal spring temperature range in Taipei. Further, “zero-wind” conditions are established to ensure simulation results reflected only the buoyancy effect. After checking results against neutral pressure level (NPL) level, airflow, air velocity, and indoor temperature stratification, the lower stack is modified to reduce the NPL in order to remove heat accumulated on the top floor.

Keywords: Natural ventilation, side outlet, stack effect, thermal comfort.

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Authors: D. Laiadi, A. Hasseine, A. Merzougui

Abstract:

In this work, Experimental tie-line results and solubility (binodal) curves were obtained for the ternary systems (water + acetic acid + methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK)), (water + lactic acid+ methyl isobutyl ketone) at T = 294.15K and atmospheric pressure. The consistency of the values of the experimental tie-lines was determined through the Othmer-Tobias and Hands correlations. For the extraction effectiveness of solvents, the distribution and selectivity curves were plotted. In addition, these experimental tieline data were also correlated with NRTL model. The interaction parameters for the NRTL model were retrieved from the obtained experimental results by means of a combination of the homotopy method and the genetic algorithms.

Keywords: Liquid-liquid equilibria, homotopy methods, carboxylic acid, NRTL.

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Authors: Kiurski S. Jelena, Kecić S. Vesna, Aksentijević M. Snežana

Abstract:

Samples of tap and wastewater were collected in three offset printing facilities in Novi Sad, Serbia. Ten physicochemical parameters were analyzed within all collected samples: pH, conductivity, m - alkalinity, p - alkalinity, acidity, carbonate concentration, hydrogen carbonate concentration, active oxygen content, chloride concentration and total alkali content. All measurements were conducted using the standard analytical and instrumental methods. Comparing the obtained results for tap water and wastewater, a clear quality difference was noticeable, since all physicochemical parameters were significantly higher within wastewater samples. The study also involves the application of simple linear regression analysis on the obtained dataset. By using software package ORIGIN 5 the pH value was mutually correlated with other physicochemical parameters. Based on the obtained values of Pearson coefficient of determination a strong positive correlation between chloride concentration and pH (r = -0.943), as well as between acidity and pH (r = -0.855) was determined. In addition, statistically significant difference was obtained only between acidity and chloride concentration with pH values, since the values of parameter F (247.634 and 182.536) were higher than F_critical (5.59). In this way, results of statistical analysis highlighted the most influential parameter of water contamination in offset printing, in the form of acidity and chloride concentration. The results showed that variable dependence could be represented by the general regression model: y = a₀ + a₁x+ k, which further resulted with matching graphic regressions.

Keywords: Pollution, printing industry, simple linear regression analysis, wastewater.

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Authors: S. M. Mirdamadi, S. Esmaeili, S. A. Tohidloo

Abstract:

The main purpose of this research was to analyze Socio-Cultural obstacles of disseminating of nanotechnology in Iran's agricultural section. One hundred twenty eight out of a total of 190 researchers with different levels of expertise in and familiarity with nanotechnology were randomly selected and questionnaires completed by them. Face validity have been done by expert's suggestion and correction, reliability by using Cronbakh-Alpha formula. The results of a factor analysis showed variation for different factors. For cultural factors 19/475 percent, for management 13/139 percent, information factor 11/277 percent, production factor 9/703 percent, social factor 9/267 percent, and for attitude factor it became 8/947 percent. Also results indicated that socio-cultural factors were the most important obstacle for nanotechnology dissemination in agricultural section in Iran.

Keywords: Agriculture, Iran, nanotechnology, public perception, social-cultural obstacles.

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Authors: H. Rahman, T. Donchev, D. Petkova

Abstract:

Earthquakes claim thousands of lives around the world annually due to inadequate design of lateral load resisting systems particularly shear walls. Additionally, corrosion of the steel reinforcement in concrete structures is one of the main challenges in construction industry. Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) reinforcement can be used as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement. FRP has several excellent mechanical properties than steel such as high resistance to corrosion, high tensile strength and light self-weight; additionally, it has electromagnetic neutrality advantageous to the structures where it is important such as hospitals, some laboratories and telecommunications. This paper is about results of experimental research and it is incorporating experimental testing of two medium-scale concrete shear wall samples; one reinforced with Basalt FRP (BFRP) bar and one reinforced with steel bars as a control sample. The samples are tested under quasi-static-cyclic loading following modified ATC-24 protocol standard seismic loading. The results of both samples are compared to allow a judgement about performance of BFRP reinforced against steel reinforced concrete shear walls. The results of the conducted researches show a promising momentum toward utilisation of the BFRP as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement with the aim of improving durability with suitable energy dissipation in the reinforced concrete shear walls.  

Keywords: Shear walls, internal FRP reinforcement, cyclic loading, energy dissipation and seismic behaviour.

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Authors: P. Gnanasekar, A. Nagappan, S. Sharavanan, O. Saravanan, D. Vinodkumar, T. Elayabharathi, G. Karthik

Abstract:

In this paper we present the deep study about the Bio- Medical Images and tag it with some basic extracting features (e.g. color, pixel value etc). The classification is done by using a nearest neighbor classifier with various distance measures as well as the automatic combination of classifier results. This process selects a subset of relevant features from a group of features of the image. It also helps to acquire better understanding about the image by describing which the important features are. The accuracy can be improved by increasing the number of features selected. Various types of classifications were evolved for the medical images like Support Vector Machine (SVM) which is used for classifying the Bacterial types. Ant Colony Optimization method is used for optimal results. It has high approximation capability and much faster convergence, Texture feature extraction method based on Gabor wavelets etc..

Keywords: ACO Ant Colony Optimization, Correlogram, CCM Co-Occurrence Matrix, RTS Rough-Set theory

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Authors: Rupaban Subadar

Abstract:

Performance of a dual maximal ratio combining receiver has been analyzed for M-ary coherent and non-coherent modulations over correlated Nakagami-m fading channels with nonidentical and arbitrary fading parameter. The classical probability density function (PDF) based approach is used for analysis. Expressions for outage probability and average symbol error performance for M-ary coherent and non-coherent modulations have been obtained. The obtained results are verified against the special case published results and found to be matching. The effect of the unequal fading parameters, branch correlation and unequal input average SNR on the receiver performance has been studied.

Keywords: MRC, correlated Nakagami-m fading, non-identicalfading statistics, average symbol error rate

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Authors: Raluca-Cristina Buţurcă, CarlesM.Gasol, Xavier Gabarrell, Dan Scarpete

Abstract:

The environmental performance of rapeseed oil (RO) and rapeseed methyl ester(RME) from winter rape as fuels produced in Romanian agroclimate is analyzed in this paper. The proposed methodology is life cycle assessment (LCA) and takes into consideration the influence of grain production and agroclimatic conditions. This study shows favorable results first for RO and then for RME. When compared to diesel fuel, both studied biofuels show better results in the following impact categories: Abiotic depletion potential (ADP), Ozone layer depletion (ODP) and Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP).Furthermore, the environmental performance of the two biofuels studied can be improved by changing the type of fertilizer used and also by using biofuels instead of diesel in the field works.

Keywords: Biodiesel, life cycle assessment, rapeseed oil.

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Authors: Faisal Amin, Abdul Mueed, Xu Jiadong

Abstract:

This paper describes the development of a fully automated measurement software for antenna radiation pattern measurements in a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR). The CATR has a frequency range from 2-40 GHz and the measurement hardware includes a Network Analyzer for transmitting and Receiving the microwave signal and a Positioner controller to control the motion of the Styrofoam column. The measurement process includes Calibration of CATR with a Standard Gain Horn (SGH) antenna followed by Gain versus angle measurement of the Antenna under test (AUT). The software is designed to control a variety of microwave transmitter / receiver and two axis Positioner controllers through the standard General Purpose interface bus (GPIB) interface. Addition of new Network Analyzers is supported through a slight modification of hardware control module. Time-domain gating is implemented to remove the unwanted signals and get the isolated response of AUT. The gated response of the AUT is compared with the calibration data in the frequency domain to obtain the desired results. The data acquisition and processing is implemented in Agilent VEE and Matlab. A variety of experimental measurements with SGH antennas were performed to validate the accuracy of software. A comparison of results with existing commercial softwares is presented and the measured results are found to be within .2 dBm.

Keywords: Antenna measurement, calibration, time-domain gating, VNA, Positioner controller

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Authors: Songtao Wu, Yuesheng Zhu, Ziqiang Sun

Abstract:

Region covariance (RC) descriptor is an effective and efficient feature for visual tracking. Current RC-based tracking algorithms use the whole RC matrix to track the target in video directly. However, there exist some issues for these whole RCbased algorithms. If some features are contaminated, the whole RC will become unreliable, which results in lost object-tracking. In addition, if some features are very discriminative to the background, other features are still processed and thus reduce the efficiency. In this paper a new robust tracking method is proposed, in which the whole RC matrix is decomposed into several low rank matrices. Those matrices are dynamically chosen and processed so as to achieve a good tradeoff between discriminability and complexity. Experimental results have shown that our method is more robust to complex environment changes, especially either when occlusion happens or when the background is similar to the target compared to other RC-based methods.

Keywords: Visual tracking, region covariance descriptor, lowrankregion covariance

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Authors: To-Yuan Chen, Tzu-Ching Shih, Hao-Li Liu, Kuen-Cheng Ju

Abstract:

The focal spot of a high intensity focused ultrasound transducer is small. To heat a large target volume, multiple treatment spots are required. If the power of each treatment spot is fixed, it could results in insufficient heating of initial spots and over-heating of later ones, which is caused by the thermal diffusion. Hence, to produce a uniform heated volume, the delivered energy of each treatment spot should be properly adjusted. In this study, we proposed an iterative, extrapolation technique to adjust the required ultrasound energy of each treatment spot. Three different scanning pathways were used to evaluate the performance of this technique. Results indicate that by using the proposed technique, uniform heating volume could be obtained.

Keywords: focused ultrasound, thermal therapy, uniform heating, iteration, extrapolation, scan

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