Search results for: Content- Based Recommendation
2887 Carbon Disulfide Production via Hydrogen Sulfide Methane Reformation
Authors: H. Hosseini, M. Javadi, M. Moghiman, M. H. Ghodsi Rad
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Carbon disulfide is widely used for the production of viscose rayon, rubber, and other organic materials and it is a feedstock for the synthesis of sulfuric acid. The objective of this paper is to analyze possibilities for efficient production of CS2 from sour natural gas reformation (H2SMR) (2H2S+CH4 =CS2 +4H2) . Also, the effect of H2S to CH4 feed ratio and reaction temperature on carbon disulfide production is investigated numerically in a reforming reactor. The chemical reaction model is based on an assumed Probability Density Function (PDF) parameterized by the mean and variance of mixture fraction and β-PDF shape. The results show that the major factors influencing CS2 production are reactor temperature. The yield of carbon disulfide increases with increasing H2S to CH4 feed gas ratio (H2S/CH4≤4). Also the yield of C(s) increases with increasing temperature until the temperature reaches to 1000°K, and then due to increase of CS2 production and consumption of C(s), yield of C(s) drops with further increase in the temperature. The predicted CH4 and H2S conversion and yield of carbon disulfide are in good agreement with result of Huang and TRaissi.Keywords: Carbon disulfide, sour natural gas, H2SMR, probability density function.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 52582886 A Formal Property Verification for Aspect-Oriented Programs in Software Development
Authors: Moustapha Bande, Hakima Ould-Slimane, Hanifa Boucheneb
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Software development for complex systems requires efficient and automatic tools that can be used to verify the satisfiability of some critical properties such as security ones. With the emergence of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), considerable work has been done in order to better modularize the separation of concerns in the software design and implementation. The goal is to prevent the cross-cutting concerns to be scattered across the multiple modules of the program and tangled with other modules. One of the key challenges in the aspect-oriented programs is to be sure that all the pieces put together at the weaving time ensure the satisfiability of the overall system requirements. Our paper focuses on this problem and proposes a formal property verification approach for a given property from the woven program. The approach is based on the control flow graph (CFG) of the woven program, and the use of a satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver to check whether each property (represented par one aspect) is satisfied or not once the weaving is done.Keywords: Aspect-oriented programming, control flow graph, satisfiability modulo theories, property verification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7512885 Instruction and Learning Design Consideration for the Development of Mobile Learning Application
Authors: M. Sarrab, M. Elbasir
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The use of information technology in education have changed not only the learners learning style but also the way they taught, where nowadays learners are connected with diversity of information sources with means of knowledge available everywhere. The advantage of network wireless technologies and mobility technologies used in the education and learning processes lead to mobile learning as a new model of learning technology. Currently, most of mobile learning applications are developed for the formal education and learning environment. Despite the long history and large amount of research on mobile learning and instruction design model still there is a need of well-defined process in designing mobile learning applications. Based on this situation, this paper emphasizes on identifying instruction design phase’s considerations and influencing factors in developing mobile learning application. This set of instruction design steps includes analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation and continuous has been built from a literature study, with focus on standards for learning, mobile application software quality and guidelines. The effort is part of an Omani-funded research project investigating the development, adoption and dissemination of mobile learning in Oman.Keywords: Instruction design, mobile learning, mobile application.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16892884 Post-Cracking Behaviour of High Strength Fiber Concrete Prediction and Validation
Authors: Andrejs Krasnikovs, Olga Kononova, Amjad Khabbaz, Edgar Machanovsky, Artur Machanovsky
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Fracture process in mechanically loaded steel fiber reinforced high-strength (SFRHSC) concrete is characterized by fibers bridging the crack providing resistance to its opening. Structural SFRHSC fracture model was created; material fracture process was modeled, based on single fiber pull-out laws, which were determined experimentally (for straight fibers, fibers with end hooks (Dramix), and corrugated fibers (Tabix)) as well as obtained numerically ( using FEM simulations). For this purpose experimental program was realized and pull-out force versus pull-out fiber length was obtained (for fibers embedded into concrete at different depth and under different angle). Model predictions were validated by 15x15x60cm prisms 4 point bending tests. Fracture surfaces analysis was realized for broken prisms with the goal to improve elaborated model assumptions. Optimal SFRHSC structures were recognized.Keywords: crack, fiber concrete, fiber pull-out, strength.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20982883 The Technological Problem of Simulation of the Logistics Center
Authors: Juraj Camaj, Anna Dolinayova, Jana Lalinska, Miroslav Bariak
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Planning of infrastructure and processes in logistic center within the frame of various kinds of logistic hubs and technological activities in them represent quite complex problem. The main goal is to design appropriate layout, which enables to realize expected operation on the desired levels. The simulation software represents progressive contemporary experimental technique, which can support complex processes of infrastructure planning and all of activities on it. It means that simulation experiments, reflecting various planned infrastructure variants, investigate and verify their eligibilities in relation with corresponding expected operation. The inducted approach enables to make qualified decisions about infrastructure investments or measures, which derive benefit from simulation-based verifications. The paper represents simulation software for simulation infrastructural layout and technological activities in marshalling yard, intermodal terminal, warehouse and combination between them as the parts of logistic center.
Keywords: Marshalling yard, intermodal terminal, warehouse, transport technology, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25302882 Vibration Control of a Cantilever Beam Using a Tunable Vibration Absorber Embedded with ER Fluids
Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Chun-Ying Lee, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Geng-Fung Chen
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This paper investigates experimental studies on vibration suppression for a cantilever beam using an Electro-Rheological (ER) sandwich shock absorber. ER fluid (ERF) is a class of smart materials that can undergo significant reversible changes immediately in its rheological and mechanical properties under the influence of an applied electric field. Firstly, an ER sandwich beam is fabricated by inserting a starch-based ERF into a hollow composite beam. At the same time, experimental investigations are focused on the frequency response of the ERF sandwich beam. Second, the ERF sandwich beam is attached to a cantilever beam to become as a shock absorber. Finally, a fuzzy semi-active vibration control is designed to suppress the vibration of the cantilever beam via the ERF sandwich shock absorber. To check the consistency of the proposed fuzzy controller, the real-time implementation validated the performance of the controller.
Keywords: Electro-Rheological Fluid, Semi-active vibration control, shock absorber, fuzzy control, Real-time control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32282881 Transformation Building of Micro- Entrepreneurs: A Conceptual Model
Authors: Abu Bakar Sedek Abdul Jamak, Saridan Abu Bakar, Zulkipli Ghazali, Roselind Wan
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The majority of micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia operate very small-scaled business activities such as food stalls, burger stalls, night market hawkers, grocery stores, constructions, rubber and oil palm small holders, and other agro-based services and activities. Why are they venturing into entrepreneurship - is it for survival, out of interest or due to encouragement and assistance from the local government? And why is it that some micro-entrepreneurs are lagging behind in entrepreneurship, and what do they need to rectify this situation so that they are able to progress further? Furthermore, what are the skills that the micro entrepreneurs should developed to transform them into successful micro-enterprises and become small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)? This paper proposes a 7-Step approach that can serve as a basis for identification of critical entrepreneurial success factors that enable policy makers, practitioners, consultants, training managers and other agencies in developing tools to assist micro business owners. This paper also highlights the experience of one of the successful companies in Malaysia that has transformed from micro-enterprise to become a large organization in less than 10 years.Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Micro-entrepreneurs, Transformation, Customers
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23842880 Dissecting Big Trajectory Data to Analyse Road Network Travel Efficiency
Authors: Rania Alshikhe, Vinita Jindal
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Digital innovation has played a crucial role in managing smart transportation. For this, big trajectory data collected from trav-eling vehicles, such as taxis through installed global positioning sys-tem (GPS)-enabled devices can be utilized. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to trace the movements of vehicles in fine spatiotemporal granularity. This paper aims to explore big trajectory data to measure the travel efficiency of road networks using the proposed statistical travel efficiency measure (STEM) across an entire city. Further, it identifies the cause of low travel efficiency by proposed least square approximation network-based causality exploration (LANCE). Finally, the resulting data analysis reveals the causes of low travel efficiency, along with the road segments that need to be optimized to improve the traffic conditions and thus minimize the average travel time from given point A to point B in the road network. Obtained results show that our proposed approach outperforms the baseline algorithms for measuring the travel efficiency of the road network.
Keywords: GPS trajectory, road network, taxi trips, digital map, big data, STEM, LANCE
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5102879 FITTER - A Framework for Integrating Activity Tracking Technologies into Electric Recreation for Children and Adolescents
Authors: R. Altamimi, G. Skinner, K. Nesbitt
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Encouraging physical activity amongst children and adolescents is becoming an increasingly relevant issue in modern society. Studies have shown that involving children and adolescents in physical activity is essential for their physical, mental and social development. However, with technology playing an increasingly important role in reducing physical work it is becoming more critical to incorporate adequate physical activities into our lives. One way to overcome this problem is to harness technology so that it promotes physical activities, for example, by motivating children and adolescents to exercise more. This paper describes a promising solution to the question of how to increase levels of physical activity in children and adolescents by combining gaming technologies with exercise tracking goals. This research describes a framework called FITTER (Framework for Integrating activity Tracking Technologies for Electronic Recreation) that combines video game play with more traditional, non-computer physical activities.
Keywords: Exergames, Home-based eHealth, Human-computer Interaction, Natural User Interfaces, Wearable Health Informatics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24472878 Improved Rare Species Identification Using Focal Loss Based Deep Learning Models
Authors: Chad Goldsworthy, B. Rajeswari Matam
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The use of deep learning for species identification in camera trap images has revolutionised our ability to study, conserve and monitor species in a highly efficient and unobtrusive manner, with state-of-the-art models achieving accuracies surpassing the accuracy of manual human classification. The high imbalance of camera trap datasets, however, results in poor accuracies for minority (rare or endangered) species due to their relative insignificance to the overall model accuracy. This paper investigates the use of Focal Loss, in comparison to the traditional Cross Entropy Loss function, to improve the identification of minority species in the “255 Bird Species” dataset from Kaggle. The results show that, although Focal Loss slightly decreased the accuracy of the majority species, it was able to increase the F1-score by 0.06 and improve the identification of the bottom two, five and ten (minority) species by 37.5%, 15.7% and 10.8%, respectively, as well as resulting in an improved overall accuracy of 2.96%.
Keywords: Convolutional neural networks, data imbalance, deep learning, focal loss, species classification, wildlife conservation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14192877 Implementation of Adder-Subtracter Design with VerilogHDL
Authors: May Phyo Thwal, Khin Htay Kyi, Kyaw Swar Soe
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According to the density of the chips, designers are trying to put so any facilities of computational and storage on single chips. Along with the complexity of computational and storage circuits, the designing, testing and debugging become more and more complex and expensive. So, hardware design will be built by using very high speed hardware description language, which is more efficient and cost effective. This paper will focus on the implementation of 32-bit ALU design based on Verilog hardware description language. Adder and subtracter operate correctly on both unsigned and positive numbers. In ALU, addition takes most of the time if it uses the ripple-carry adder. The general strategy for designing fast adders is to reduce the time required to form carry signals. Adders that use this principle are called carry look- ahead adder. The carry look-ahead adder is to be designed with combination of 4-bit adders. The syntax of Verilog HDL is similar to the C programming language. This paper proposes a unified approach to ALU design in which both simulation and formal verification can co-exist.Keywords: Addition, arithmetic logic unit, carry look-ahead adder, Verilog HDL.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 89262876 Study of the Late Phase of Core Degradation during Reflooding by Safety Injection System for VVER1000 with ASTECv2 Computer Code
Authors: Antoaneta Stefanova, Rositsa Gencheva, Pavlin Groudev
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This paper presents the modeling approach in SBO sequence for VVER 1000 reactors and describes the reactor core behavior at late in-vessel phase in case of late reflooding by HPIS and gives preliminary results for the ASTECv2 validation. The work is focused on investigation of plant behavior during total loss of power and the operator actions. The main goal of these analyses is to assess the phenomena arising during the Station blackout (SBO) followed by primary side high pressure injection system (HPIS) reflooding of already damaged reactor core at very late “in-vessel” phase. The purpose of the analyses is to define how the later HPIS switching on can delay the time of vessel failure or possibly avoid vessel failure. The times for HPP injection were chosen based on previously performed investigations.Keywords: VVER, operator action validation, reflooding of overheated reactor core, ASTEC computer code.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14422875 Contact Angle Measurement of the Vinyl Ester Matrix Nanocomposites Based On Layered Silicate
Authors: A. I. Alateyah, H. N. Dhakal, Z. Y. Zhang
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Contact angle measurement was utilized in order to study the subject of the wettability and surface chemistry of the nanocomposites materials. Water and glycerol droplets were used in this study. The incorporation of layered silicate into the vinyl ester matrix helped to improve the wettability and reduced the θ values of both liquids used. The addition of 2 wt.% clay loading reduced the θ values of water and glycerol by up to 21% and 6% respectively. Likewise, the incorporation of 4 wt.% clay loading reduced the water and glycerol θ values by 49% and 38% respectively. Also this study confirms the findings in the literature regarding the relationship between the intercalation nanocomposites level and the wettability. Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy were utilised in order to characterise the interlamellar structure of nanocomposites.
Keywords: Vinyl ester, nanocomposites, layered silicate, characterisations, contact angle measurement, wettability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21232874 Development of Mobile Application Social Guidance and Counseling for Junior High School
Authors: Suyoto, Tri Prasetyaningrum
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At this paper, we will present the development of mobile application Social Guidance and Counseling (GC) that called “m-NingBK: Social GC”. The application is used for GC services that run on mobile devices. The application is designed specifically for Junior High School student. The methods are a combination of interactive multimedia approaches and educational psychology. Therefore, the design process is carried out three processes, which are digitizing of material social GC services, visualizing wisely and making interactive. This method is intended to make students not only hear and see but also "do" the virtual. There are five components used in multimedia applications "m-NingBK: Social GC" i.e. text, images / graphics, audio / sound, animation and video. Four menus provided by this application is the potential self, social, Expert System and about. The application is built using the Java programming language. This application was tested using a Smartphone with Android Operating System. Based on the test, people give rating: 16.7% excellent, 61.1% good, 19.4% adequate, and 2.8% poor.
Keywords: Expert Systems, Guidance and Counseling, mobile application, multimedia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29192873 An Inductive Coupling Based CMOS Wireless Powering Link for Implantable Biomedical Applications
Authors: Lei Yao, Jia Hao Cheong, Rui-Feng Xue, Minkyu Je
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A closed-loop controlled wireless power transmission circuit block for implantable biomedical applications is described in this paper. The circuit consists of one front-end rectifier, power management sub-block including bandgap reference and low drop-out regulators (LDOs) as well as transmission power detection / feedback circuits. Simulation result shows that the front-end rectifier achieves 80% power efficiency with 750-mV single-end peak-to-peak input voltage and 1.28-V output voltage under load current of 4 mA. The power management block can supply 1.8mA average load current under 1V consuming only 12μW power, which is equivalent to 99.3% power efficiency. The wireless power transmission block described in this paper achieves a maximum power efficiency of 80%. The wireless power transmission circuit block is designed and implemented using UMC 65-nm CMOS/RF process. It occupies 1 mm × 1.2 mm silicon area.
Keywords: Implantable biomedical devices, wireless power transfer, LDO, rectifier, closed-loop power control
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22852872 Modal Analysis of a Cantilever Beam Using an Inexpensive Smartphone Camera: Motion Magnification Technique
Authors: Hasan Hassoun, Jaafar Hallal, Denis Duhamel, Mohammad Hammoud, Ali Hage Diab
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This paper aims to prove the accuracy of an inexpensive smartphone camera as a non-contact vibration sensor to recover the vibration modes of a vibrating structure such as a cantilever beam. A video of a vibrating beam is filmed using a smartphone camera and then processed by the motion magnification technique. Based on this method, the first two natural frequencies and their associated mode shapes are estimated experimentally and compared to the analytical ones. Results show a relative error of less than 4% between the experimental and analytical approaches for the first two natural frequencies of the beam. Also, for the first two-mode shapes, a Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) value of above 0.9 between the two approaches is obtained. This slight error between the different techniques ensures the viability of a cheap smartphone camera as a non-contact vibration sensor, particularly for structures vibrating at relatively low natural frequencies.
Keywords: Modal Analysis, motion magnification, smartphone camera, structural vibration, vibration modes.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7342871 Quantifying the Stability of Software Systems via Simulation in Dependency Networks
Authors: Weifeng Pan
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The stability of a software system is one of the most important quality attributes affecting the maintenance effort. Many techniques have been proposed to support the analysis of software stability at the architecture, file, and class level of software systems, but little effort has been made for that at the feature (i.e., method and attribute) level. And the assumptions the existing techniques based on always do not meet the practice to a certain degree. Considering that, in this paper, we present a novel metric, Stability of Software (SoS), to measure the stability of object-oriented software systems by software change propagation analysis using a simulation way in software dependency networks at feature level. The approach is evaluated by case studies on eight open source Java programs using different software structures (one employs design patterns versus one does not) for the same object-oriented program. The results of the case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed metric. The approach has been fully automated by a tool written in Java.Keywords: Software stability, change propagation, design pattern, software maintenance, object-oriented (OO) software.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16782870 A Fast Silhouette Detection Algorithm for Shadow Volumes in Augmented Reality
Authors: Hoshang Kolivand, Mahyar Kolivand, Mohd Shahrizal Sunar, Mohd Azhar M. Arsad
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Real-time shadow generation in virtual environments and Augmented Reality (AR) was always a hot topic in the last three decades. Lots of calculation for shadow generation among AR needs a fast algorithm to overcome this issue and to be capable of implementing in any real-time rendering. In this paper, a silhouette detection algorithm is presented to generate shadows for AR systems. Δ+ algorithm is presented based on extending edges of occluders to recognize which edges are silhouettes in the case of real-time rendering. An accurate comparison between the proposed algorithm and current algorithms in silhouette detection is done to show the reduction calculation by presented algorithm. The algorithm is tested in both virtual environments and AR systems. We think that this algorithm has the potential to be a fundamental algorithm for shadow generation in all complex environments.Keywords: Silhouette detection, shadow volumes, real-time shadows, rendering, augmented reality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20212869 Security Enhanced RFID Middleware System
Authors: Jieun Song, Taesung Kim, Sokjoon Lee, Howon Kim
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Recently, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology attracts the world market attention as essential technology for ubiquitous environment. The RFID market has focused on transponders and reader development. But that concern has shifted to RFID software like as high-valued e-business applications, RFID middleware and related development tools. However, due to the high sensitivity of data and service transaction within the RFID network, security consideration must be addressed. In order to guarantee trusted e-business based on RFID technology, we propose a security enhanced RFID middleware system. Our proposal is compliant with EPCglobal ALE (Application Level Events), which is standard interface for middleware and its clients. We show how to provide strengthened security and trust by protecting transported data between middleware and its client, and stored data in middleware. Moreover, we achieve the identification and service access control against illegal service abuse. Our system enables secure RFID middleware service and trusted e-business service.Keywords: RFID Middleware, ALE (Application Level Events), Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20672868 Specific Frequency of Globular Clusters in Different Galaxy Types
Authors: Ahmed H. Abdullah, Pavel Kroupa
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Globular clusters (GC) are important objects for tracing the early evolution of a galaxy. We study the correlation between the cluster population and the global properties of the host galaxy. We found that the correlation between cluster population (NGC) and the baryonic mass (Mb) of the host galaxy are best described as 10 −5.6038Mb. In order to understand the origin of the U -shape relation between the GC specific frequency (SN) and Mb (caused by the high value of SN for dwarfs galaxies and giant ellipticals and a minimum SN for intermediate mass galaxies≈ 1010M), we derive a theoretical model for the specific frequency (SNth). The theoretical model for SNth is based on the slope of the power-law embedded cluster mass function (β) and different time scale (Δt) of the forming galaxy. Our results show a good agreement between the observation and the model at a certain β and Δt. The model seems able to reproduce higher value of SNth of β = 1.5 at the midst formation time scale.Keywords: Galaxies, dwarf, globular cluster, specific frequency, formation time scale.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8002867 Quantum-Like Approach for Deriving a Theory Describing the Concept of Interpretation
Authors: Yehuda Roth
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In quantum theory, a system’s time evolution is predictable unless an observer performs measurement, as the measurement process can randomize the system. This randomness appears when the measuring device does not accurately describe the measured item, i.e., when the states characterizing the measuring device appear as a superposition of those being measured. When such a mismatch occurs, the measured data randomly collapse into a single eigenstate of the measuring device. This scenario resembles the interpretation process in which the observer does not experience an objective reality but interprets it based on preliminary descriptions initially ingrained into his/her mind. This distinction is the motivation for the present study in which the collapse scenario is regarded as part of the interpretation process of the observer. By adopting the formalism of the quantum theory, we present a complete mathematical approach that describes the interpretation process. We demonstrate this process by applying the proposed interpretation formalism to the ambiguous image "My wife and mother-in-law" to identify whether a woman in the picture is young or old.
Keywords: Interpretation, ambiguous images, data reception, state matching, classification, determination.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1892866 Economic Loss due to Ganoderma Disease in Oil Palm
Authors: K. Assis, K. P. Chong, A. S. Idris, C. M. Ho
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Oil palm or Elaeis guineensis is considered as the golden crop in Malaysia. But oil palm industry in this country is now facing with the most devastating disease called as Ganoderma Basal Stem Rot disease. The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic loss due to this disease. There were three commercial oil palm sites selected for collecting the required data for economic analysis. Yield parameter used to measure the loss was the total weight of fresh fruit bunch in six months. The predictors include disease severity, change in disease severity, number of infected neighbor palms, age of palm, planting generation, topography, and first order interaction variables. The estimation model of yield loss was identified by using backward elimination based regression method. Diagnostic checking was conducted on the residual of the best yield loss model. The value of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was used to measure the forecast performance of the model. The best yield loss model was then used to estimate the economic loss by using the current monthly price of fresh fruit bunch at mill gate.
Keywords: Ganoderma, oil palm, regression model, yield loss, economic loss.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32372865 Improved Neutron Leakage Treatment on Nodal Expansion Method for PWR Reactors
Authors: Antonio Carlos Marques Alvim, Fernando Carvalho da Silva, Aquilino Senra Martinez
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For a quick and accurate calculation of spatial neutron distribution in nuclear power reactors 3D nodal codes are usually used aiming at solving the neutron diffusion equation for a given reactor core geometry and material composition. These codes use a second order polynomial to represent the transverse leakage term. In this work, a nodal method based on the well known nodal expansion method (NEM), developed at COPPE, making use of this polynomial expansion was modified to treat the transverse leakage term for the external surfaces of peripheral reflector nodes. The proposed method was implemented into a computational system which, besides solving the diffusion equation, also solves the burnup equations governing the gradual changes in material compositions of the core due to fuel depletion. Results confirm the effectiveness of this modified treatment of peripheral nodes for practical purposes in PWR reactors.Keywords: Transverse leakage, nodal expansion method, power density, PWR reactors
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20402864 Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Number of Waves on Heat Transfer in a Wavy Wall Enclosure
Authors: Ali Reza Tahavvor, Saeed Hosseini, Afshin Karimzadeh Fard
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In this paper the effect of wall waviness of side walls in a two-dimensional wavy enclosure is numerically investigated. Two vertical wavy walls and straight top wall are kept isothermal and the bottom wall temperature is higher and spatially varying with cosinusoidal temperature distribution. A computational code based on Finite-volume approach is used to solve governing equations and SIMPLE method is used for pressure velocity coupling. Test is performed for several different numbers of undulations. The Prandtl number was kept constant and the Ra number denotes that the flow is laminar. Temperature and velocity fields are determined. Therefore, according to the obtained results a correlation is proposed for average Nusselt number as a function of number of side wall waves. The results indicate that the Nusselt number is highly affected by number of waves and increasing it decreases the wavy walls Nusselt number; although the Nusselt number is not highly affected by surface waviness when the number of undulations is below one.
Keywords: Cavity, natural convection, Nusselt number, wavy wall.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23582863 Methods of Geodesic Distance in Two-Dimensional Face Recognition
Authors: Rachid Ahdid, Said Safi, Bouzid Manaut
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In this paper, we present a comparative study of three methods of 2D face recognition system such as: Iso-Geodesic Curves (IGC), Geodesic Distance (GD) and Geodesic-Intensity Histogram (GIH). These approaches are based on computing of geodesic distance between points of facial surface and between facial curves. In this study we represented the image at gray level as a 2D surface in a 3D space, with the third coordinate proportional to the intensity values of pixels. In the classifying step, we use: Neural Networks (NN), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The images used in our experiments are from two wellknown databases of face images ORL and YaleB. ORL data base was used to evaluate the performance of methods under conditions where the pose and sample size are varied, and the database YaleB was used to examine the performance of the systems when the facial expressions and lighting are varied.
Keywords: 2D face recognition, Geodesic distance, Iso-Geodesic Curves, Geodesic-Intensity Histogram, facial surface, Neural Networks, K-Nearest Neighbor, Support Vector Machines.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18152862 An Experimental Study on Intellectual Concentration Influenced by Indoor Airflow
Authors: Kyoko Ito, Shinya Furuta, Daisuke Kamihigashi, Kimi Ueda, Hirotake Ishii, Hiroshi Shimoda, Fumiaki Obayashi, Kazuhiro Taniguchi
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In order to improve intellectual concentration, few studies have verified the effect of indoor airflow among the thermal environment conditions, and the differences of the season in effects have not been studied. In this study, in order to investigate the influence of the airflow in winter on the intellectual concentration, an evaluation experiment was conducted. In the previous study, an effective airflow in summer was proposed and the improvement of intellectual concentration by evaluation experiment was confirmed. Therefore, an airflow profile in winter was proposed with reference to the airflow profile in summer. The airflows are a combination of a simulative airflow and mild airflow. An experiment has been conducted to investigate the influence of a room airflow in winter on intellectual concentration. As a result of comparison with no airflow condition, no significant difference was found. Based on the results, it is a future task to ask preliminary preference in advance and to establish a mechanism that can provide controllable airflow for each individual, taking into account the preference for airflow to be different for each individual.Keywords: Intellectual concentration, airflow, winter, experiment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7852861 Trace Emergence of Ants- Traffic Flow, based upon Exclusion Process
Authors: Ali Lemouari, Mohamed Benmohamed
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Biological evolution has generated a rich variety of successful solutions; from nature, optimized strategies can be inspired. One interesting example is the ant colonies, which are able to exhibit a collective intelligence, still that their dynamic is simple. The emergence of different patterns depends on the pheromone trail, leaved by the foragers. It serves as positive feedback mechanism for sharing information. In this paper, we use the dynamic of TASEP as a model of interaction at a low level of the collective environment in the ant-s traffic flow. This work consists of modifying the movement rules of particles “ants" belonging to the TASEP model, so that it adopts with the natural movement of ants. Therefore, as to respect the constraints of having no more than one particle per a given site, and in order to avoid collision within a bidirectional circulation, we suggested two strategies: decease strategy and waiting strategy. As a third work stage, this is devoted to the study of these two proposed strategies- stability. As a final work stage, we applied the first strategy to the whole environment, in order to get to the emergence of traffic flow, which is a way of learning.Keywords: Ants system, emergence, exclusion process, pheromone.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13272860 Examining Organizational Improvisation: The Role of Strategic Reasoning and Managerial Factors
Authors: Darwina Arshad, Paul Hughes
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Recent environmental turbulence including financial crisis, intensified competitive forces, rapid technological change and high market turbulence have dramatically changed the current business climate. The managers firms have to plan and decide what the best approaches that best fit their firms in order to pursue superior performance. This research aims to examine the influence of strategic reasoning and top level managers- individual characteristics on the effectiveness of organizational improvisation and firm performance. Given the lack of studies on these relationships in the previous literature, there is significant contribution to the body of knowledge as well as for managerial practices. 128 responses from top management of technology-based companies in Malaysia were used as a sample. Three hypotheses were examined and the findings confirm that (a) there is no relationship between intuitive reasoning and organizational improvisation but there is a link between rational reasoning and organizational improvisation, (b) top level managers- individual characteristics as a whole affect organizational improvisation; and (c) organizational improvisation positively affects firm performance. The theoretical and managerial implications were discussed in the conclusions.Keywords: Organizational improvisation, strategic reasoning, firm performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26302859 Investigation of Constant Transconductance Circuit for Low Power Low-Noise Amplifier
Authors: Wei Yi Lim, M. Annamalai Arasu, M. Kumarasamy Raja, Minkyu Je
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In this paper, the design of wide-swing constant transconductance (gm) bias circuit that generates bias voltage for low-noise amplifier (LNA) circuit design by using an off-chip resistor is demonstrated. The overall transconductance (Gm) generated by the constant gm bias circuit is important to maintain the overall gain and noise figure of the LNA circuit. Therefore, investigation is performed to study the variation in Gm with process, temperature and supply voltage (PVT). Temperature and supply voltage are swept from -10 °C to 85 °C and 1.425 V to 1.575 V respectively, while the process conditions are also varied to the extreme and the gm variation is eventually concluded at between -3 % to 7 %. With the slight variation in the gm value, through simulation, at worst condition of state SS, we are able to attain a conversion gain (S21) variation of -3.10 % and a noise figure (NF) variation of 18.71 %. The whole constant gm circuit draws approximately 100 µA from a 1.5V supply and is designed based on 0.13 µm CMOS process.
Keywords: Transconductance, LNA, temperature, process.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 41302858 DEA Method for Evaluation of EU Performance
Authors: M. Staníčková
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The paper deals with an application of quantitative analysis – the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method to performance evaluation of the European Union Member States, in the reference years 2000 and 2011. The main aim of the paper is to measure efficiency changes over the reference years and to analyze a level of productivity in individual countries based on DEA method and to classify the EU Member States to homogeneous units (clusters) according to efficiency results. The theoretical part is devoted to the fundamental basis of performance theory and the methodology of DEA. The empirical part is aimed at measuring degree of productivity and level of efficiency changes of evaluated countries by basic DEA model – CCR CRS model, and specialized DEA approach – the Malmquist Index measuring the change of technical efficiency and the movement of production possibility frontier. Here, DEA method becomes a suitable tool for setting a competitive/uncompetitive position of each country because there is not only one factor evaluated, but a set of different factors that determine the degree of economic development.
Keywords: CCR CRS model, cluster analysis, DEA method, efficiency, EU, Malmquist index, performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2621