Search results for: Agent based modeling

Authors: Sun Lim, Sewoong Jun, Il-Kyun Jung

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This paper presents a wrap-around view system with 4 smart cameras module and remote motion mobile robot control equipped with smart camera module system. The two-level scheme for remote motion control with smart-pad(IPAD) is introduced on this paper. In the low-level, the wrap-around view system is controlled or operated to keep the reference points lying around top view image plane. On the higher level, a robot image based motion controller is utilized to drive the mobile platform to reach the desired position or track the desired motion planning through image feature feedback. The design wrap-around view system equipped on presents such advantages as follows: 1) a satisfactory solution for the FOV and affine problem; 2) free of any complex and constraint with robot pose. The performance of the wrap-around view equipped on mobile robot remote control is proven by experimental results.

Keywords: four smart camera, wrap-around view, remote mobile robot control

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Authors: Lai Yi-Hsiu

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The present paper aims to examine the language processing of Chinese-speaking seniors with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from the perspective of temporal cues. Twenty healthy adults, 17 healthy seniors, and 13 seniors with AD in Taiwan participated in this study to tell stories based on two sets of pictures. Nine temporal cues were fetched and analyzed. Oral productions in Mandarin Chinese were compared and discussed to examine to what extent and in what way these three groups of participants performed with significant differences. Results indicated that the age effects were significant in filled pauses. The dementia effects were significant in mean duration of pauses, empty pauses, filled pauses, lexical pauses, normalized mean duration of filled pauses and lexical pauses. The findings reported in the current paper help characterize the nature of language processing in seniors with or without AD, and contribute to the interactions between the AD neural mechanism and their temporal parameters.

Keywords: Language processing, Alzheimer’s disease, Mandarin Chinese, temporal cues.

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Authors: Ramdan B. A. Koad, Ahmed. F. Zobaa

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Since the output characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) system depends on the ambient temperature, solar radiation and load impedance, its maximum power point (MPP) is not constant. Under each condition PV module has a point at which it can produce its MPP. Therefore, a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method is needed to uphold the PV panel operating at its MPP. This paper presents comparative study between the conventional MPPT methods used in (PV) system: Perturb and Observe (P&O), Incremental Conductance (IncCond), andParticle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithmfor (MPPT) of (PV) system. To evaluate the study, the proposed PSO MPPT is implemented on a DC-DC cuk converter and has been compared with P&O and INcond methods in terms of their tracking speed, accuracy and performance by using the Matlab tool Simulink. The simulation result shows that the proposed algorithm is simple, and is superior to the P&O and IncCond methods.

Keywords: Incremental Conductance (IncCond) Method, Perturb and Observe (P&O) Method, Photovoltaic Systems (PV) and Practical Swarm Optimization Algorithm (PSO).

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Authors: Ming-Hsiung Wu, Yu-Hsi Yuan

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The aim of the research is to understand whether the accuracy of customer detection of employee emotional labor strategy would influence the overall service satisfaction. From path analysis, it was found that employee-s positive emotions positively influenced service quality. Service quality in turn influenced Customer detection of employee emotional deep action strategy and Customer detection of employee emotional surface action strategy. Lastly, Customer detection of employee emotional deep action strategy and Customer detection of employee emotional surface action strategy positively influenced service satisfaction. Based on the analysis results, suggestions are proposed to provide reference for human resource management and use in relative fields.

Keywords: Emotional labor, Emotional deep action strategy, Emotional surface action strategy, Service satisfaction

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Authors: Do-Hwan Kim, Roberto Leon

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Probabilistic characteristics of seismic responses of the Partially Restrained connection rotation (PRCR) and panel zone deformation (PZD) installed in older steel moment frames were investigated in accordance with statistical inference in decision-making process. The 4, 6 and 8 story older steel moment frames with clip angle and T-stub connections were designed and analyzed using 2%/50yrs ground motions in four cities of the Mid-America earthquake region. The probability density function and cumulative distribution function of PRCR and PZD were determined by the goodness-of-fit tests based on probabilistic parameters measured from the results of the nonlinear time-history analyses. The obtained probabilistic parameters and distributions can be used to find out what performance level mainly PR connections and panel zones satisfy and how many PR connections and panel zones experience a serious damage under the Mid-America ground motions.

Keywords: Mid-America earthquake, Panel zone, PR connection, Probabilistic characteristics, seismic performance

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

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The early diagnostic decision making in industrial processes is absolutely necessary to produce high quality final products. It helps to provide early warning for a special event in a process, and finding its assignable cause can be obtained. This work presents a hybrid diagnostic schmes for batch processes. Nonlinear representation of raw process data is combined with classification tree techniques. The nonlinear kernel-based dimension reduction is executed for nonlinear classification decision boundaries for fault classes. In order to enhance diagnosis performance for batch processes, filtering of the data is performed to get rid of the irrelevant information of the process data. For the diagnosis performance of several representation, filtering, and future observation estimation methods, four diagnostic schemes are evaluated. In this work, the performance of the presented diagnosis schemes is demonstrated using batch process data.

Keywords: Diagnostics, batch process, nonlinear representation, data filtering, multivariate statistical approach

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Authors: Kitty Kioskli, Nineta Polemi

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Evaluating the levels of cyber-security risks within an enterprise is most important in protecting its information system, services and all its digital assets against security incidents (e.g. accidents, malicious acts, massive cyber-attacks). The existing risk assessment methodologies (e.g. eBIOS, OCTAVE, CRAMM, NIST-800) adopt a technical approach considering as attack factors only the capability, intention and target of the attacker, and not paying attention to the attacker’s psychological profile and personality traits. In this paper, a socio-technical approach is proposed in cyber risk assessment, in order to achieve more realistic risk estimates by considering the personality traits of the attackers. In particular, based upon principles from investigative psychology and behavioural science, a multi-dimensional, extended, quantifiable model for an attacker’s profile is developed, which becomes an additional factor in the cyber risk level calculation.

Keywords: Attacker, behavioural models, cyber risk assessment, cyber-security, human factors, investigative psychology, ISO27001, ISO27005.

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Authors: Bachir Chemani, Halima Chemani

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This paper studies the application of a variety of sawdust materials in the production of lightweight insulating bricks. First, the mineralogical and chemical composition of clays was determined. Next, ceramic bricks were fabricated with different quantities of materials (3–6 and 9 wt. % for sawdust, 65 wt. % for grey clay, 24–27 and 30 wt. % for yellow clay and 2 wt% of tuff). These bricks were fired at 800 and 950 °C. The effect of adding this sawdust on the technological behaviour of the brick was assessed by drying and firing shrinkage, water absorption, porosity, bulk density and compressive strength. The results have shown that the optimum sintering temperature is 950 °C. Below this temperature, at 950 °C, increased open porosity was observed, which decreased the compressive strength of the bricks. Based on the results obtained, the optimum amounts of waste were 9 wt. % sawdust of eucalyptus, 24 wt. % shaping moisture and 1.6 particle size diameter. These percentages produced bricks whose mechanical properties were suitable for use as secondary raw materials in ceramic brick production.

Keywords: Clay brick, Porosity, Sawdust.

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Authors: Yasin Bilim, Alaaddin Başoda

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The recent growth of internet applications on hospitality and tourism provokes on-line consumer comments and reviews. Many researchers and practitioners have named this enormous potential as “e-WOM (electronic word of mouth)”. Travel comments are important experiential information for the potential travellers. Many researches have been conducted to analyse the effects of e-WOM on hotel consumers. Broadly quantitative methods have been used for analysing online comments. But, a few studies have mentioned about the positive practical aspects of the comments for hotel marketers. The study aims to show different usage and effects of hotel consumers’ comments. As qualitative analysis method, grounded theory, content and discourse analysis, were used. The data based on the 10 resort hotel consumers’ on-line comments. Results show that consumers tend to write comments about service person, rooms, food services and pool in their online space. These indicators can be used by hotel marketers as a marketing information tool.

Keywords: Comments, E-WOM, hotel consumer, qualitative.

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Authors: S. Hosseini, M. Ahmadi Najafabadi, M. Akhlaghi

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The health of the journal bearings is very important in preventing unforeseen breakdowns in rotary machines, and poor lubrication is one of the most important factors for producing the bearing failures. Hydrodynamic lubrication (HL), mixed lubrication (ML), and boundary lubrication (BL) are three regimes of a journal bearing lubrication. This paper uses acoustic emission (AE) measurement technique to correlate features of the AE signals to the three lubrication regimes. The transitions from HL to ML based on operating factors such as rotating speed, load, inlet oil pressure by time domain and time-frequency domain signal analysis techniques are detected, and then metal-to-metal contacts between sliding surfaces of the journal and bearing are identified. It is found that there is a significant difference between theoretical and experimental operating values that are obtained for defining the lubrication regions.

Keywords: Acoustic emission technique, pressure fed journal bearing, time and frequency signal analysis, metal-to-metal contact.

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Authors: Chartree Sithananun, Teekayu Limchamroon, Tanawat Limwathanagura, Thanyarat Singhanart

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The objective of this paper is to present the development of the frame of Chulalongkorn University team in TSAE Auto Challenge Student Formula and Student Formula SAE Competition of Japan. Chulalongkorn University's SAE team, has established since year 2003, joined many competitions since year 2006 and became the leading team in Thailand. Through these 5 years, space frame was the most selected and developed year by year through six frame designs. In this paper, the discussions on the conceptual design of these frames are introduced, focusing on the mass and torsional stiffness improvement. The torsional stiffness test was performed on the real used frames and the results are compared. It can be seen that the 2010-2011 frame is firstly designed based on the analysis and experiment that considered the required mass and torsional stiffness. From the torsional stiffness results, it can be concluded that the frames were developed including the decreasing of mass and the increasing torsional stiffness by applying many techniques.

Keywords: SAE Student Formula, Space Frame, Torsional Stiffness

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Authors: Z. Zakaria, S. W. Lye, S. Endy

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Despite the continuous advancements in automated conflict resolution tools, there is still a low rate of adoption of automation from Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs). Trust or acceptance in these tools and conformance to the individual ATCO preferences in strategy execution for conflict resolution are two key factors that impact their use. This paper proposes a methodology to unearth and classify ATCO conflict resolution strategies from simulator data of trained and qualified ATCOs. The methodology involves the extraction of ATCO executive control actions and the establishment of a system of strategy resolution classification based on ATCO radar commands and prevailing flight parameters in deconflicting a pair of aircraft. Six main strategies used to handle various categories of conflict were identified and discussed. It was found that ATCOs were about twice more likely to choose only vertical maneuvers in conflict resolution compared to horizontal maneuvers or a combination of both vertical and horizontal maneuvers.

Keywords: Air traffic control strategies, conflict resolution, simulator data, strategy classification system.

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Authors: M. Takhtravanchi, C. Pathirage

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In the construction industry, project members are conveyor of project knowledge which is, often, not managed properly to be used in future projects. As construction projects are temporary and unique, project members are willing to be recruited once a project is completed. Therefore, poor management of knowledge across construction projects will lead to a considerable amount of knowledge loss; the ignoring of which would be detrimental to project performance. This issue is more prominent in projects undertaken through the traditional procurement system, as this system does not incentives project members for integration. Thus, disputes exist between the design and construction phases based on the poor management of knowledge between those two phases. This paper aims to highlight the challenges of the knowledge management that exists within the traditional procurement system. Expert interviews were conducted and challenges were identified and analysed by the Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach in order to summarise the relationships among them. Two identified key challenges are the Culture of an Organisation and Knowledge Management Policies. A knowledge of the challenges and their relationships will help project manager and stakeholders to have a better understanding of the importance of knowledge management.

Keywords: Challenges, construction industry, knowledge management, traditional procurement system.

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Authors: Wen Liu

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With the rapid progress of modern cities, the railway construction must be developing quickly in China.As a typical high-density country, shopping center on the subway should be one important factor during the process of urban development. The paper discusses the influence of the layout of shopping center on the subway, and put it in the time and space’s axis of Shanghai urban development. We usethe digital technology to establish the database of relevant information. And then get the change role about shopping center on subway in Shanghaiby the Kernel density estimate.The result shows the development of shopping center on subway has a relationship with local economic strength, population size, policysupport, and city construction. And the suburbanization trend of shopping center would be increasingly significant.By this case research, we could see the Kernel density estimate is an efficient analysis method on the spatial layout. It could reveal the characters of layout form of shopping center on subway in essence. And it can also be applied to the other research of space form.

Keywords: Shanghai, Shopping center on the subway, Layout form, The Kernel density estimate.

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Authors: Çiğdem Bakır, Mecit Yüzkat

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With the increasing emphasis on water quality worldwide, the search for and expanding the market for new and intelligent monitoring systems has increased. The current method is the laboratory process, where samples are taken from bodies of water, and tests are carried out in laboratories. This method is time-consuming, a waste of manpower and uneconomical. To solve this problem, we used machine learning methods to detect water pollution in our study. We created decision trees with the Orange3 software used in the study and tried to determine all the factors that cause water pollution. An automatic prediction model based on water quality was developed by taking many model inputs such as water temperature, pH, transparency, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and ammonia nitrogen with machine learning methods. The proposed approach consists of three stages: Preprocessing of the data used, feature detection and classification. We tried to determine the success of our study with different accuracy metrics and the results were presented comparatively. In addition, we achieved approximately 98% success with the decision tree.

Keywords: Decision tree, water quality, water pollution, machine learning.

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Authors: Dina K. Badawy, Dina M. Ibrahim, Alsayed A. Sallam

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Distributed database is a collection of logically related databases that cooperate in a transparent manner. Query processing uses a communication network for transmitting data between sites. It refers to one of the challenges in the database world. The development of sophisticated query optimization technology is the reason for the commercial success of database systems, which complexity and cost increase with increasing number of relations in the query. Mariposa, query trading and query trading with processing task-trading strategies developed for autonomous distributed database systems, but they cause high optimization cost because of involvement of all nodes in generating an optimal plan. In this paper, we proposed a modification on the autonomous strategy K-QTPT that make the seller’s nodes with the lowest cost have gradually high priorities to reduce the optimization time. We implement our proposed strategy and present the results and analysis based on those results.

Keywords: Autonomous strategies, distributed database systems, high priority, query optimization.

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Authors: Romisaa Ali

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This paper presents a comparison between twin-delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning algorithms in the context of training robust navigation policies for Jackal robots. By leveraging an open-source framework and custom motion control environments, the study evaluates the performance, robustness, and transferability of the trained policies across a range of scenarios. The primary focus of the experiments is to assess the training process, the adaptability of the algorithms, and the robot’s ability to navigate in previously unseen environments. Moreover, the paper examines the influence of varying environment complexities on the learning process and the generalization capabilities of the resulting policies. The results of this study aim to inform and guide the development of more efficient and practical reinforcement learning-based navigation policies for Jackal robots in real-world scenarios.

Keywords: Jackal robot environments, reinforcement learning, TD3, SAC, robust navigation, transferability, Custom Environment.

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Authors: M A Hannan, A. Hussain, S. A. Samad, K. A. Ishak, A. Mohamed

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This paper presents a general trainable framework for fast and robust upright human face and non-human object detection and verification in static images. To enhance the performance of the detection process, the technique we develop is based on the combination of fast neural network (FNN) and classical neural network (CNN). In FNN, a useful correlation is exploited to sustain high level of detection accuracy between input image and the weight of the hidden neurons. This is to enable the use of Fourier transform that significantly speed up the time detection. The combination of CNN is responsible to verify the face region. A bootstrap algorithm is used to collect non human object, which adds the false detection to the training process of the human and non-human object. Experimental results on test images with both simple and complex background demonstrate that the proposed method has obtained high detection rate and low false positive rate in detecting both human face and non-human object.

Keywords: Algorithm, detection of human and non-human object, FNN, CNN, Image training.

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Authors: Ahmed Shuhaiber

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The explosion of the World Wide Web and the electronic trend of university teaching have transformed the learning style to become more learner-centered, which has popularized the digital delivery of mediated lectures as an alternative or an adjunct to traditional lectures. Despite its potential and popularity, virtual lectures have not been adopted yet in Jordanian universities. This research aimed to fill this gap by studying the factors that influence students’ willingness to accept virtual lectures in one Jordanian University. A quantitative approach was followed, by obtaining 216 survey responses and statistically applying the UTAUT model with some modifications. Results revealed that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, and self-efficacy could significantly influence students’ attitudes towards virtual lectures. Additionally, Facilitating conditions and attitudes towards virtual lectures were found with significant influence on students’ intention to take virtual lectures. Research implications and future work were specified afterwards.

Keywords: E-Learning, Student willingness, UTAUT, Virtual Lectures, Web-based learning systems.

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Authors: R. Sabre, W. Horrigue, J. C. Simon

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This paper is interested in two difficulties encountered in practice when observing a continuous time process. The first is that we cannot observe a process over a time interval; we only take discrete observations. The second is the process frequently observed with a constant additive error. It is important to give an estimator of the spectral density of such a process taking into account the additive observation error and the choice of the discrete observation times. In this work, we propose an estimator based on the spectral smoothing of the periodogram by the polynomial Jackson kernel reducing the additive error. In order to solve the aliasing phenomenon, this estimator is constructed from observations taken at well-chosen times so as to reduce the estimator to the field where the spectral density is not zero. We show that the proposed estimator is asymptotically unbiased and consistent. Thus we obtain an estimate solving the two difficulties concerning the choice of the instants of observations of a continuous time process and the observations affected by a constant error.

Keywords: Spectral density, stable processes, aliasing, periodogram.

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Authors: M. Polanský

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This paper introduces a new method called ARPDC (Advanced Robust Parallel Distributed Compensation) for automatic control of nonlinear systems. This method improves a quality of robust control by interpolating of robust and optimal controller. The weight of each controller is determined by an original criteria function for model validity and disturbance appreciation. ARPDC method is based on nonlinear Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy systems and Parallel Distributed Compensation (PDC) control scheme. The relaxed stability conditions of ARPDC control of nominal system have been derived. The advantages of presented method are demonstrated on the inverse pendulum benchmark problem. From comparison between three different controllers (robust, optimal and ARPDC) follows, that ARPDC control is almost optimal with the robustness close to the robust controller. The results indicate that ARPDC algorithm can be a good alternative not only for a robust control, but in some cases also to an adaptive control of nonlinear systems.

Keywords: Robust control, optimal control, Takagi–Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models, linear matrix inequality (LMI), observer, Advanced Robust Parallel Distributed Compensation (ARPDC).

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Authors: Amro Issam Hamed Attia Ramadan, Marco Zappatore, Pasquale Balena, Antonella Longo

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Considering the energy crisis that is hitting Europe, it becomes increasingly necessary to change energy policies to depend less on fossil fuels and replace them with energy from renewable sources. This has triggered the urge to use clean energy, not only to satisfy energy needs and fulfill the required consumption, but also to decrease the danger of climatic changes due to harmful emissions. Many countries have already started creating energy communities based on renewable energy sources. The first step to understanding energy needs in any place is to perfectly know the consumption. In this work, we aim to estimate electricity consumption for a municipality that makes up part of a rural area located in southern Italy using forecast models that allow for the estimation of electricity consumption for the next 10 years, and we then apply the same model to the province where the municipality is located and estimate the future consumption for the same period to examine whether it is possible to start from the municipality level to reach the province level when creating energy communities.

Keywords: ARIMA, electricity consumption, forecasting models, time series.

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Authors: Fredrik Pettersson

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The paper applies a discourse analytical approach to investigate important concepts influencing the infrastructure planning process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden. Two discourses, one concerning regional development and one concerning sustainability are identified, discussed and contrasted. It is argued that the perceptions of problems and their suggested solutions related to transportation are based on specific ideas, in turn dependent on the importance given to certain concepts, such as regional enlargement, Scania as a transit region, the national environmental quality goals and regional attractiveness. These concepts, their underlying meaning structures and their relevance for the infrastructure planning process are analyzed. The handling of conflicting interests in the planning process, and the possible implications this may have is also discussed. The results indicate that the regional development discourse is dominant and although the solutions to the problems caused by transport are framed in similar ways in the two discourses a harmonization between conflicting goals is proving difficult to achieve.

Keywords: Discourse analysis, Infrastructure planning, Regional development, Sustainability.

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Authors: G. Parmar, S. Mukherjee, R. Prasad

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The authors present an optimization algorithm for order reduction and its application for the determination of the relative mapping errors of linear time invariant dynamic systems by the simplified models. These relative mapping errors are expressed by means of the relative integral square error criterion, which are determined for both unit step and impulse inputs. The reduction algorithm is based on minimization of the integral square error by particle swarm optimization technique pertaining to a unit step input. The algorithm is simple and computer oriented. It is shown that the algorithm has several advantages, e.g. the reduced order models retain the steady-state value and stability of the original system. Two numerical examples are solved to illustrate the superiority of the algorithm over some existing methods.

Keywords: Order reduction, Particle swarm optimization, Relative mapping error, Stability.

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Authors: Seema Singh, Puja Anand, Alok Bhasin

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The interior design profession aims to create aesthetically pleasing design solutions for human habitats but of late, growing awareness about depleting environmental resources, both tangible and intangible, and damages to the eco-system led to the quest for creating healthy and sustainable interior environments. The paper proposes adapting traditionally produced organic wool textiles for the mainstream interior design industry. This can create sustainable livelihoods whereby eco-friendly bridges can be built between Interior designers and consumers and pastoral communities. This study focuses on traditional textiles produced by two pastoral communities from India that use organic wool from indigenous sheep varieties. The Gaddi communities of Himachal Pradesh use wool from the Gaddi sheep breed to create Pattu (a multi-purpose textile). The Kurumas of Telangana weave a blanket called the Gongadi, using wool from the Black Deccani variety of sheep. These communities have traditionally reared indigenous sheep breeds for their wool and produce hand-spun and hand-woven textiles for their own consumption, using traditional processes that are chemical free. Based on data collected personally from field visits and documentation of traditional crafts of these pastoral communities, and using traditionally produced indigenous organic wool, the authors have developed innovative textile samples by including design interventions and exploring dyeing and weaving techniques. As part of the secondary research, the role of pastoralism in sustaining the eco-systems of Himachal Pradesh and Telangana was studied, and also the role of organic wool in creating healthy interior environments. The authors found that natural wool from indigenous sheep breeds can be used to create interior textiles that have the potential to be marketed to an urban audience, and this will help create earnings for pastoral communities. Literature studies have shown that organic & sustainable wool can reduce indoor pollution & toxicity levels in interiors and further help in creating healthier interior environments. Revival of indigenous breeds of sheep can further help in rejuvenating dying crafts, and promotion of these indigenous textiles can help in sustaining traditional eco-systems and the pastoral communities whose way of life is endangered today. Based on research and findings, the authors propose that adapting traditional textiles can have potential for application in Interiors, creating eco-friendly spaces. Interior textiles produced through such sustainable processes can help reduce indoor pollution, give livelihood opportunities to traditional economies, and leave almost zero carbon foot-print while being in sync with available natural resources, hence ultimately benefiting the society. The win-win situation for all the stakeholders in this eco-friendly model makes it pertinent to re-think how we design lifestyle textiles for interiors. This study illustrates a specific example from the two pastoral communities and can be used as a model that can work equally well in any community, regardless of geography.

Keywords: Design Intervention, Eco-Friendly, Healthy Interiors, Indigenous, Organic Wool, Pastoralism, Sustainability.

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Authors: H. S. Youm, S. G. Hong

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This paper presents the test results on 5 slab-column connection specimens with Ultra High Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) overlay including 1 control specimen to investigate retrofitting effect of UHPFRC overlay on the punching shear capacity. The test parameters were the thickness of the UHPFRC overlay and the amount of steel re-bars in it. All specimens failed in punching shear mode with abrupt failure aspect. The test results showed that by adding a thin layer of UHPFRC over the Reinforced Concrete (RC) substrates, considerable increases in global punching shear resistance up to 82% and structural rigidity were achieved. Furthermore, based on the cracking patterns the composite systems appeared to be governed by two failure modes: 1) diagonal shear failure in RC section and 2) debonding failure at the interface.

Keywords: Punching shear strength, retrofit, slab-column connection, UHPFRC, UHPFRC overlay.

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Authors: Roza Rahbari

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After the Nigatta earthquake in Japan, in 1960, the liquefaction and its related hazards, moved to the thick of matter. Most of the research have been carried out on clean sands and silty sands so far, in order to study the effect of fine particles, confinement pressures, density and so on. However, because of this delusion that adhesiveness of clay prevents the liquefaction in sand, studies on clayey sands have not been taken seriously. However, several liquefactions happened in clayey sands in recent years, and lead to the necessity of more studies in this field. The studies which were carried out so far focused on high plastic clays. In this paper, the effect of low plasticity clays on the behavioral characteristics of sands is discussed. Thus, some triaxial tests were carried out on clean sands and clayey sands with different percentages of added clay. Specimens were compacted in various densities to study the effect of quantity of clay on various densities, too. Based on the findings, the amount of clay affects the behavior of sand greatly and leads to substantial changes in peak bearing capacity and steady state values.

Keywords: Liquefaction, clay, sand, triaxial, monotonic.

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Authors: Azeem Ahmad, Magnus Goransson, Aamir Shahzad

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The selection of appropriate requirements for product releases can make a big difference in a product success. The selection of requirements is done by different requirements prioritization techniques. These techniques are based on pre-defined and systematic steps to calculate the requirements relative weight. Prioritization is complicated by new development settings, shifting from traditional co-located development to geographically distributed development. Stakeholders, connected to a project, are distributed all over the world. These geographically distributions of stakeholders make it hard to prioritize requirements as each stakeholder have their own perception and expectations of the requirements in a software project. This paper discusses limitations of the Analytical Hierarchy Process with respect to geographically distributed stakeholders- (GDS) prioritization of requirements. This paper also provides a solution, in the form of a modified AHP, in order to prioritize requirements for GDS. We will conduct two experiments in this paper and will analyze the results in order to discuss AHP limitations with respect to GDS. The modified AHP variant is also validated in this paper.

Keywords: Requirements Prioritization, GeographicallyDistributed Stakeholders, AHP, Modified AHP.

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Authors: Michael A. Unbehauen, Gregory D. Sloan, Alberto J. Squatrito

Abstract:

Missile proliferation and global stability are intrinsically linked. Missile threats continually appear at the forefront of global security issues. North Korea’s recently demonstrated nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capabilities, for the first time since the Cold War, renewed public interest in strategic missile defense capabilities. To protect from limited ICBM attacks from so-called rogue actors, the United States developed the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system. This study examines if the GMD missile defense shield has contributed to a safer world or triggered a new arms race. Based upon increased missile-related developments and the lack of adherence to international missile treaties, it is generally perceived that the GMD system is a destabilizing factor for global security. By examining the current state of arms control treaties as well as existing missile arsenals and ongoing efforts in technologies to overcome U.S. missile defenses, this study seeks to analyze the contribution of GMD to global stability. A thorough investigation cannot ignore that, through the establishment of this limited capability, the U.S. violated longstanding, successful weapons treaties and caused concern among states that possess ICBMs. GMD capability contributes to the perception that ICBM arsenals could become ineffective, creating an imbalance in favor of the United States, leading to increased global instability and tension. While blame for the deterioration of global stability and non-adherence to arms control treaties is often placed on U.S. missile defense, the facts do not necessarily support this view. The notion of a renewed arms race due to GMD is supported neither by current missile arsenals nor by the inevitable development of new and enhanced missile technology, to include multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs), maneuverable reentry vehicles (MaRVs), and hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs). The methodology in this study encapsulates a period of time, pre- and post-GMD introduction, while analyzing international treaty adherence, missile counts and types, and research in new missile technologies. The decline in international treaty adherence, coupled with a measurable increase in the number and types of missiles or research in new missile technologies during the period after the introduction of GMD, could be perceived as a clear indicator of GMD contributing to global instability. However, research into improved technology (MIRV, MaRV and HGV) prior to GMD, as well as a decline of various global missile inventories and testing of systems during this same period, would seem to invalidate this theory. U.S. adversaries have exploited the perception of the U.S. missile defense shield as a destabilizing factor as a pretext to strengthen and modernize their militaries and justify their policies. As a result, it can be concluded that global stability has not significantly decreased due to GMD; but rather, the natural progression of technological and missile development would inherently include innovative and dynamic approaches to target engagement, deterrence, and national defense.

Keywords: Arms control, arms race, global security, GMD, ICBM, missile defense, proliferation.

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Authors: Lazim Abdullah, N orhanadiah Zam

Abstract:

Increasing number of vehicles and lack of awareness among road users may lead to road accidents. However no specific literature was found to rank vehicles involved in accidents based on fuzzy variables of road users. This paper proposes a ranking of four selected motor vehicles involved in road accidents. Human and non-human factors that normally linked with road accidents are considered for ranking. The imprecision or vagueness inherent in the subjective assessment of the experts has led the application of fuzzy sets theory to deal with ranking problems. Data in form of linguistic variables were collected from three authorised personnel of three Malaysian Government agencies. The Multi Criteria Decision Making, fuzzy TOPSIS was applied in computational procedures. From the analysis, it shows that motorcycles vehicles yielded the highest closeness coefficient at 0.6225. A ranking can be drawn using the magnitude of closeness coefficient. It was indicated that the motorcycles recorded the first rank.

Keywords: Road accidents, decision making, closeness coefficient, fuzzy number

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