Search results for: Salt and pepper noise reduction.
Commenced in January 2007
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Edition: International
Paper Count: 2474

Search results for: Salt and pepper noise reduction.

1514 Strategic Leadership and Sustainable Project Management in Enugu, Nigeria

Authors: Nnadi Ezekiel Ejiofor

Abstract:

The study investigates the connection between strategic leadership and project management sustainability, with an emphasis on building projects Nigeria. The study set out to accomplish two specific goals: first, it sought to establish a link between creative project management and resource efficiency in construction projects in Nigeria; and second, it sought to establish a link between innovative thinking and waste minimization in those same projects. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 45 registered construction enterprises in the study area as part of the study's descriptive research approach. Due to the nonparametric nature of the data, Spearman Rank Order Correlation was used to evaluate the acquired data. The findings demonstrate that creative project management had a significant positive impact on resource efficiency in construction projects carried out by project management firms (r =.849; p.001), and that innovative thinking had a significant impact on waste reduction in those same projects (r =.849; p.001). It was determined that strategic leadership had a significant impact on the sustainability of project management, and it was thus advised that project managers should foresee, prepare for, and effectively communicate present and future developments to project staff in order to ensure that the objective of sustainable initiatives, such as recycling and reuse, is implemented in construction projects.

Keywords: Construction, project management, strategic leadership, sustainability, waste reduction.

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1513 Efficacy of Combined CHAp and Lanthanum Carbonate in Therapy for Hyperphosphatemia

Authors: Andreea Cârâc, Elena Moroşan, Ana Corina Ioniță, Rica Boscencu, Geta Cârâc

Abstract:

Although, lanthanum carbonate has not been approved by the FDA for treatment of hyperphosphatemia, we prospectively evaluated the efficacy of the combination of Calcium hydroxyapatite (CHAp) and Lanthanum Carbonate (LaC) for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia on mice. CHAp was prepared by co-precipitation method using Ca(OH)2, H3PO4, NH4OH with calcination at 1200ºC. Lanthanum carbonate was prepared by chemical method using NaHCO3 and LaCl3 at low pH environment, below 4.0. The structures were characterized by FTIR spectra and SEM -EDX analysis. The study group included 16 subjects-mice divided into four groups according to the administered substance: lanthanum carbonate (group A), CHAp (group B), lanthanum carbonate + CHAp (group C) and salt water (group D). The results indicate a phosphate decrease when subjects (mice) were treated with CHAp and lanthanum carbonate (0.5% CMC), in a single dose of 1500 mg/kg. Serum phosphate concentration decreased [(from 4.5 ± 0.8 mg/dL) to 4.05 ± 0.2 mg/dL), P < 0.01] in group A and in group C (to 3.6 ± 0.2 mg/dL) at 12 hours from the administration. The combination of CHAp and lanthanum carbonate is a suitable regimen for hyperphosphatemia treatment because it avoids both the hypercalcemia of CaCO3 and the adverse effects of CHAp.

Keywords: Calcium hydroxyapatite, hyperphosphatemia, lanthanum carbonate, phosphatebinder, structures.

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1512 Effects of Salinity and Drought Levels in Seed Germination of Five Crop Species

Authors: Ahmad Gholami, Saeed Sharafi, Hamid Abbasdokht

Abstract:

The heterotrophic seedling growth can be defined as a product of two components: (1) the weight of mobilized seed reserve, and (2) conversion efficiency of utilized seed reserve to seedling tissue. The first component can be further divided into (1) initial seed weight, and (2) the fraction of seed reserve, which is mobilized. The objective of this study was the identification of the sensitive seedling growth component(s) in response to drought and salinity stresses. Two experiments were separately conducted using various salinity levels (osmotic pressure) of 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1, 1.25 and 1.5 MPa created using NaCl as first experiment and by polyethylene glycol (drought stress) of 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2 and 1.4 MPa in second experiment. Seeds of five crops species (Hordeum vulgare, Brassica napus, Zea mays, Medicago sativa and Medicago scutellata) were used in each experiment. In both experiments, seedling growth, fraction of seed reserve utilization and weight of mobilized seed reserve decreased with increasing drought and salt intensity. However, drought and salinity stresses had no effect on the conversion efficiency. It was concluded that the sensitive component of seedling growth is the weight of mobilized seed reserve.

Keywords: Salinity, Drought, Seed reserve, Seedling, Cropsspecies

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1511 Identification of Transformer Core Vibrations and the Effect of Third Harmonic in the Electricity Grid

Authors: Setareh Gorji Ghalamestani, Lieven Vandevelde, Jan Melkebeek

Abstract:

In this work, an experimental technique is applied for the measurements of the vibrations and deformation of a test transformer core. Since the grid voltage contains some higher harmonics, in addition to a purely sinusoidal magnetisation of the core the presence of third harmonic is also studied. The vibrations of the transformer core for points as well as the surface scan of the leg show more deformation in the corners of the leg than the middle of the leg. The influence of the higher harmonic of the magnetisation on the core deformation is also more significant in the corners of the leg. The core deformation shape under a sinusoidal magnetisation with a higher harmonic is more wavy and fluctuating than that under a purely sinusoidal magnetisation.

Keywords: Vibrations and noise, transformer, vibration measurements, laser vibrometer, higher harmonic.

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1510 Preliminary Study of Fermented Pickle of Tabah Bamboo Shoot (Gigantochloa nigrociliata (Buese) Kurz)

Authors: Luh Putu T. Darmayanti, A. A. Duwipayana, I Nengah K. Putra, Nyoman S. Antara

Abstract:

Processing tabah bamboo shoot as fermented pickle is one of the way to increase the shelf life of this bamboo shoot. The advantage of this shoot is low concentration of hydro cyanic acid (HCN) make it potential for functional food product. This study aimed to determine the characteristic of tabah bamboo shoot pickle such as total of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), pH, total acidity, and hydro cyanic acid (HCN) content, and also find the LAB’s type involved during fermentation, and organic acids’ profiles. The pickle was made by natural fermentation with 6% salt concentration and fermentation conducted for 13 days. The result showed during the fermentation time, in the 4th day LAB’s number was highest as much as 72 x 107 CFU/ml and the lowest pH was 3.09. We also found decreasing in HCN from 37.8 ppm at the beginning to 20.52 ppm at the end of fermentation process. The organic acids detected during the fermentation were lactic acid with the highest concentration was 0.0546 g/100 g and small amount of acetic acid. By using PCR method, the 18 of LABs which had rod shape were detected as member of Lactobacillus spp., in which 17 strains detected as L. plantarum.

Keywords: Fermentation, LAB, pickle, tabah bamboo shoot.

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1509 Puff Noise Detection and Cancellation for Robust Speech Recognition

Authors: Sangjun Park, Jungpyo Hong, Byung-Ok Kang, Yun-keun Lee, Minsoo Hahn

Abstract:

In this paper, an algorithm for detecting and attenuating puff noises frequently generated under the mobile environment is proposed. As a baseline system, puff detection system is designed based on Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), and 39th Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) is extracted as feature parameters. To improve the detection performance, effective acoustic features for puff detection are proposed. In addition, detected puff intervals are attenuated by high-pass filtering. The speech recognition rate was measured for evaluation and confusion matrix and ROC curve are used to confirm the validity of the proposed system.

Keywords: Gaussian mixture model, puff detection and cancellation, speech enhancement.

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1508 Seawater Desalination for Production of Highly Pure Water Using a Hydrophobic PTFE Membrane and Direct Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD)

Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Yehia Manawi

Abstract:

Qatar’s primary source of fresh water is through seawater desalination. Amongst the major processes that are commercially available on the market, the most common large scale techniques are Multi-Stage Flash distillation (MSF), Multi Effect distillation (MED), and Reverse Osmosis (RO). Although commonly used, these three processes are highly expensive down to high energy input requirements and high operating costs allied with maintenance and stress induced on the systems in harsh alkaline media. Beside that cost, environmental footprint of these desalination techniques are significant; from damaging marine eco-system, to huge land use, to discharge of tons of GHG and huge carbon footprint. Other less energy consuming techniques based on membrane separation are being sought to reduce both the carbon footprint and operating costs is membrane distillation (MD). Emerged in 1960s, MD is an alternative technology for water desalination attracting more attention since 1980s. MD process involves the evaporation of a hot feed, typically below boiling point of brine at standard conditions, by creating a water vapor pressure difference across the porous, hydrophobic membrane. Main advantages of MD compared to other commercially available technologies (MSF and MED) and specially RO are reduction of membrane and module stress due to absence of trans-membrane pressure, less impact of contaminant fouling on distillate due to transfer of only water vapor, utilization of low grade or waste heat from oil and gas industries to heat up the feed up to required temperature difference across the membrane, superior water quality, and relatively lower capital and operating cost. To achieve the objective of this study, state of the art flat-sheet cross-flow DCMD bench scale unit was designed, commissioned, and tested. The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristics and morphology of the membrane suitable for DCMD through SEM imaging and contact angle measurement and to study the water quality of distillate produced by DCMD bench scale unit. Comparison with available literature data is undertaken where appropriate and laboratory data is used to compare a DCMD distillate quality with that of other desalination techniques and standards. Membrane SEM analysis showed that the PTFE membrane used for the study has contact angle of 127º with highly porous surface supported with less porous and bigger pore size PP membrane. Study on the effect of feed solution (salinity) and temperature on water quality of distillate produced from ICP and IC analysis showed that with any salinity and different feed temperature (up to 70ºC) the electric conductivity of distillate is less than 5 μS/cm with 99.99% salt rejection and proved to be feasible and effective process capable of consistently producing high quality distillate from very high feed salinity solution (i.e. 100000 mg/L TDS) even with substantial quality difference compared to other desalination methods such as RO and MSF.

Keywords: Membrane Distillation, Waste Heat, Seawater Desalination, Membrane, Freshwater, Direct Contact Membrane Distillation

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1507 The Principle Probabilities of Space-Distance Resolution for a Monostatic Radar and Realization in Cylindrical Array

Authors: Anatoly D. Pluzhnikov, Elena N. Pribludova, Alexander G. Ryndyk

Abstract:

In conjunction with the problem of the target selection on a clutter background, the analysis of the scanning rate influence on the spatial-temporal signal structure, the generalized multivariate correlation function and the quality of the resolution with the increase pulse repetition frequency is made. The possibility of the object space-distance resolution, which is conditioned by the range-to-angle conversion with an increased scanning rate, is substantiated. The calculations for the real cylindrical array at high scanning rate are presented. The high scanning rate let to get the signal to noise improvement of the order of 10 dB for the space-time signal processing.

Keywords: Antenna pattern, array, signal processing, spatial resolution.

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1506 On Phase Based Stereo Matching and Its Related Issues

Authors: Andr´as R¨ovid, Takeshi Hashimoto

Abstract:

The paper focuses on the problem of the point correspondence matching in stereo images. The proposed matching algorithm is based on the combination of simpler methods such as normalized sum of squared differences (NSSD) and a more complex phase correlation based approach, by considering the noise and other factors, as well. The speed of NSSD and the preciseness of the phase correlation together yield an efficient approach to find the best candidate point with sub-pixel accuracy in stereo image pairs. The task of the NSSD in this case is to approach the candidate pixel roughly. Afterwards the location of the candidate is refined by an enhanced phase correlation based method which in contrast to the NSSD has to run only once for each selected pixel.

Keywords: Stereo matching, Sub-pixel accuracy, phase correlation, SVD, NSSD.

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1505 Computer Study of Cluster Mechanism of Anti-greenhouse Effect

Authors: A. Galashev

Abstract:

Absorption spectra of infra-red (IR) radiation of the disperse water medium absorbing the most important greenhouse gases: CO2 , N2O , CH4 , C2H2 , C2H6 have been calculated by the molecular dynamics method. Loss of the absorbing ability at the formation of clusters due to a reduction of the number of centers interacting with IR radiation, results in an anti-greenhouse effect. Absorption of O3 molecules by the (H2O)50 cluster is investigated at its interaction with Cl- ions. The splitting of ozone molecule on atoms near to cluster surface was observed. Interaction of water cluster with Cl- ions causes the increase of integrated intensity of emission spectra of IR radiation, and also essential reduction of the similar characteristic of Raman spectrum. Relative integrated intensity of absorption of IR radiation for small water clusters was designed. Dependences of the quantity of weight on altitude for vapor of monomers, clusters, droplets, crystals and mass of all moisture were determined. The anti-greenhouse effect of clusters was defined as the difference of increases of average global temperature of the Earth, caused by absorption of IR radiation by free water molecules forming clusters, and absorption of clusters themselves. The greenhouse effect caused by clusters makes 0.53 K, and the antigreenhouse one is equal to 1.14 K. The increase of concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere does not always correlate with the amplification of greenhouse effect.

Keywords: Greenhouse gases, infrared absorption and Raman spectra, molecular dynamics method, water clusters.

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1504 Optimization of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for Determination of Quantum Dots (Qds) in Liquid Solutions

Authors: David Prochazka, Ľudmila Ballová, Karel Novotný, Jan Novotný, Radomír Malina, Petr Babula, Vojtěch Adam, René Kizek, Klára Procházková, Jozef Kaiser

Abstract:

Here we report on the utilization of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for determination of Quantum Dots (QDs) in liquid solution. The process of optimization of experimental conditions from choosing the carrier medium to application of colloid QDs is described. The main goal was to get the best possible signal to noise ratio. The results obtained from the measurements confirmed the capability of LIBS technique for qualitative and afterwards quantitative determination of QDs in liquid solution.

Keywords: Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, liquid analysis, nanocrystals, nanotechnology, Quantum dots.

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1503 A Moving Human-Object Detection for Video Access Monitoring

Authors: Won-Ho Kim, Nuwan Sanjeewa Rajasooriya

Abstract:

In this paper, a simple moving human detection method is proposed for video surveillance system or access monitoring system. The frame difference and noise threshold are used for initial detection of a moving human-object, and simple labeling method is applied for final human-object segmentation. The simulated results show that the applied algorithm is fast to detect the moving human-objects by performing 95% of correct detection rate. The proposed algorithm has confirmed that can be used as an intelligent video access monitoring system.

Keywords: Moving human-object detection, Video access monitoring, Image processing.

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1502 Combined DWT-CT Blind Digital Image Watermarking Algorithm

Authors: Nidal F. Shilbayeh, Belal AbuHaija, Zainab N. Al-Qudsy

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a new robust and secure system that is based on the combination between two different transforms Discrete wavelet Transform (DWT) and Contourlet Transform (CT). The combined transforms will compensate the drawback of using each transform separately. The proposed algorithm has been designed, implemented and tested successfully. The experimental results showed that selecting the best sub-band for embedding from both transforms will improve the imperceptibility and robustness of the new combined algorithm. The evaluated imperceptibility of the combined DWT-CT algorithm which gave a PSNR value 88.11 and the combination DWT-CT algorithm improves robustness since it produced better robust against Gaussian noise attack. In addition to that, the implemented system shored a successful extraction method to extract watermark efficiently.

Keywords: DWT, CT, Digital Image Watermarking, Copyright Protection.

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1501 Fast Segmentation for the Piecewise Smooth Mumford-Shah Functional

Authors: Yingjie Zhang

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with an improved algorithm based on the piecewise-smooth Mumford and Shah (MS) functional for an efficient and reliable segmentation. In order to speed up convergence, an additional force, at each time step, is introduced further to drive the evolution of the curves instead of only driven by the extensions of the complementary functions u + and u - . In our scheme, furthermore, the piecewise-constant MS functional is integrated to generate the extra force based on a temporary image that is dynamically created by computing the union of u + and u - during segmenting. Therefore, some drawbacks of the original algorithm, such as smaller objects generated by noise and local minimal problem also are eliminated or improved. The resulting algorithm has been implemented in Matlab and Visual Cµ, and demonstrated efficiently by several cases.

Keywords: Active contours, energy minimization, image segmentation, level sets.

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1500 Gas Flow into Rotary Valve Intake and Exhaust Mechanism in Internal Combustion Engine

Authors: R. Usubamatov, Z. A. Rashid

Abstract:

Simple design of a rotary valve system is capable of controlling intake and exhaust gases, which will eliminate the need of known complex mechanisms. The cost of material and production, maintenance, and noise level of the system can be further reduced. The new mechanism enables the elimination of the overlapping of valves work that reduces gas leakage. This paper examines theoretically the gas flow through the holes of a rotary valve design in a small engine. Preliminary results show that the new gas flow has many positive differences than a conventional poppet-valve system. New dependencies on the gas speed enable the finding of better solutions for the geometry of a rotary valve system that will result in a higher efficiency of an internal-combustion engine of the automotive industry.

Keywords: Gas arrangement, internal combustion engine.

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1499 Influence of Electrolytes and High Viscosity on Liquid-Liquid Separation

Authors: K. Anusarn, P. Chuttrakul, M. Schmidt, T. Kangsadan, A. Pfennig

Abstract:

Liquid-liquid extraction is a process using two immiscible liquids to extract compounds from one phase without high temperature requirement. Mostly, the technical implementation of this process is carried out in mixer-settlers or extraction columns. In real chemical processes, chemicals may have high viscosity and contain impurities. These impurities may change the settling behavior of the process without measurably changing the physical properties of the phases. In the current study, the settling behavior and the affected parameters in a high-viscosity system were observed. Batchsettling experiments were performed to experimentally quantify the settling behavior and the mixer-settler model of Henschke [1] was used to evaluate the behavior of the toluene + water system. The viscosity of the system was increased by adding polyethylene glycol 4000 to the aqueous phase. NaCl and Na2SO4 were used to study the influence of electrolytes. The results from this study show that increasing the viscosity of water has a higher influence on the settling behavior in comparison to the effects of the electrolytes. It can be seen from the experiments that at high salt concentrations, there was no effect on the settling behavior.

Keywords: Coalescence; electrolytes; liquid-liquid separation; high viscosity; mixer- settler.

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1498 Assessment of the Occupancy’s Effect on Speech Intelligibility in Al-Madinah Holy Mosque

Authors: Wasim Orfali, Hesham Tolba

Abstract:

This research investigates the acoustical characteristics of Al-Madinah Holy Mosque. Extensive field measurements were conducted in different locations of Al-Madinah Holy Mosque to characterize its acoustic characteristics. The acoustical characteristics are usually evaluated by the use of objective parameters in unoccupied rooms due to practical considerations. However, under normal conditions, the room occupancy can vary such characteristics due to the effect of the additional sound absorption present in the room or by the change in signal-to-noise ratio. Based on the acoustic measurements carried out in Al-Madinah Holy Mosque with and without occupancy, and the analysis of such measurements, the existence of acoustical deficiencies has been confirmed.

Keywords: Worship sound, Al-Madinah Holy Mosque, mosque acoustics, speech intelligibility.

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1497 Recycled Plastic Fibers for Minimizing Plastic Shrinkage Cracking of Cement Based Mortar

Authors: B.S. Al-Tulaian, M. J. Al-Shannag, A.M. Al-Hozaimy

Abstract:

The development of new construction materials using  recycled plastic is important to both the construction and the plastic  recycling industries. Manufacturing of fibers from industrial or  postconsumer plastic waste is an attractive approach with such  benefits as concrete performance enhancement, and reduced needs  for land filling. The main objective of this study is to investigate the  effect of Plastic fibers obtained locally from recycled waste on plastic  shrinkage cracking of ordinary cement based mortar. Parameters  investigated include: fiber length ranging from 20 to 50mm, and fiber  volume fraction ranging from 0% to 1.5% by volume. The test results  showed significant improvement in crack arresting mechanism and  substantial reduction in the surface area of cracks for the mortar  reinforced with recycled plastic fibers compared to plain mortar.  Furthermore, test results indicated that there was a slight decrease in  compressive strength of mortar reinforced with different lengths and  contents of recycled fibers compared to plain mortar. This study  suggests that adding more than 1% of RP fibers to mortar, can be  used effectively for controlling plastic shrinkage cracking of cement  based mortar, and thus results in waste reduction and resources  conservation.

 

Keywords: Mortar, plastic, shrinkage cracking, compressive strength, RF recycled fibers.

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1496 130 nm CMOS Mixer and VCO for 2.4 GHz Low-power Wireless Personal Area Networks

Authors: Gianluca Cornetta, David J. Santos

Abstract:

This paper describes a 2.4 GHz passive switch mixer and a 5/2.5 GHz voltage-controlled negative Gm oscillator (VCO) with an inversion-mode MOS varactor. Both circuits are implemented using a 1P8M 0.13 μm process. The switch mixer has an input referred 1 dB compression point of -3.89 dBm and a conversion gain of -0.96 dB when the local oscillator power is +2.5 dBm. The VCO consumes only 1.75 mW, while drawing 1.45 mA from a 1.2 V supply voltage. In order to reduce the passives size, the VCO natural oscillation frequency is 5 GHz. A clocked CMOS divideby- two circuit is used for frequency division and quadrature phase generation. The VCO has a -109 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz frequency offset and a 2.35-2.5 GHz tuning range (after the frequency division), thus complying with ZigBee requirements.

Keywords: Switch Mixers, Varactors, IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee), Direct Conversion Receiver, Wireless Sensor Networks.

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1495 Image Segment Matching Using Affine- Invariant Regions

Authors: Ibrahim El rube'

Abstract:

In this paper, a method for matching image segments using triangle-based (geometrical) regions is proposed. Triangular regions are formed from triples of vertex points obtained from a keypoint detector (SIFT). However, triangle regions are subject to noise and distortion around the edges and vertices (especially acute angles). Therefore, these triangles are expanded into parallelogramshaped regions. The extracted image segments inherit an important triangle property; the invariance to affine distortion. Given two images, matching corresponding regions is conducted by computing the relative affine matrix, rectifying one of the regions w.r.t. the other one, then calculating the similarity between the reference and rectified region. The experimental tests show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithm against geometrical distortion.

Keywords: Image matching, key point detection, affine invariant, triangle-shaped segments.

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1494 Efficient Dimensionality Reduction of Directional Overcurrent Relays Optimal Coordination Problem

Authors: Fouad Salha , X. Guillaud

Abstract:

Directional over current relays (DOCR) are commonly used in power system protection as a primary protection in distribution and sub-transmission electrical systems and as a secondary protection in transmission systems. Coordination of protective relays is necessary to obtain selective tripping. In this paper, an approach for efficiency reduction of DOCRs nonlinear optimum coordination (OC) is proposed. This was achieved by modifying the objective function and relaxing several constraints depending on the four constraints classification, non-valid, redundant, pre-obtained and valid constraints. According to this classification, the far end fault effect on the objective function and constraints, and in consequently on relay operating time, was studied. The study was carried out, firstly by taking into account the near-end and far-end faults in DOCRs coordination problem formulation; and then faults very close to the primary relays (nearend faults). The optimal coordination (OC) was achieved by simultaneously optimizing all variables (TDS and Ip) in nonlinear environment by using of Genetic algorithm nonlinear programming techniques. The results application of the above two approaches on 6-bus and 26-bus system verify that the far-end faults consideration on OC problem formulation don-t lose the optimality.

Keywords: Backup/Primary relay, Coordination time interval (CTI), directional over current relays, Genetic algorithm, time dial setting (TDS), pickup current setting (Ip), nonlinear programming.

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1493 Video Coding Algorithm for Video Sequences with Abrupt Luminance Change

Authors: Sang Hyun Kim

Abstract:

In this paper, a fast motion compensation algorithm is proposed that improves coding efficiency for video sequences with brightness variations. We also propose a cross entropy measure between histograms of two frames to detect brightness variations. The framewise brightness variation parameters, a multiplier and an offset field for image intensity, are estimated and compensated. Simulation results show that the proposed method yields a higher peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) compared with the conventional method, with a greatly reduced computational load, when the video scene contains illumination changes.

Keywords: Motion estimation, Fast motion compensation, Brightness variation compensation, Brightness change detection, Cross entropy.

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1492 Performance Evaluation of the OCDM/WDM Technique for Optical Packet Switches

Authors: V. Eramo, L. Piazzo, M. Listanti, A. Germoni, A Cianfrani

Abstract:

The performance of the Optical Code Division Multiplexing/ Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM/OCDM) technique for Optical Packet Switch is investigated. The impact on the performance of the impairment due to both Multiple Access Interference and Beat noise is studied. The Packet Loss Probability due to output packet contentions is evaluated as a function of the main switch and traffic parameters when Gold coherent optical codes are adopted. The Packet Loss Probability of the OCDM/WDM switch can reach 10-9 when M=16 wavelengths, Gold code of length L=511 and only 24 wavelength converters are used in the switch.

Keywords: Optical code division multiplexing, bufferless optical packet switch, performance evaluation.

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1491 Adaptive Total Variation Based on Feature Scale

Authors: Jianbo Hu, Hongbao Wang

Abstract:

The widely used Total Variation de-noising algorithm can preserve sharp edge, while removing noise. However, since fixed regularization parameter over entire image, small details and textures are often lost in the process. In this paper, we propose a modified Total Variation algorithm to better preserve smaller-scaled features. This is done by allowing an adaptive regularization parameter to control the amount of de-noising in any region of image, according to relative information of local feature scale. Experimental results demonstrate the efficient of the proposed algorithm. Compared with standard Total Variation, our algorithm can better preserve smaller-scaled features and show better performance.

Keywords: Adaptive, de-noising, feature scale, regularizationparameter, Total Variation.

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1490 A Cross-Layer Approach for Cooperative MIMO Multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: Jain-Shing Liu

Abstract:

In this work, we study the problem of determining the minimum scheduling length that can satisfy end-to-end (ETE) traffic demand in scheduling-based multihop WSNs with cooperative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission scheme. Specifically, we present a cross-layer formulation for the joint routing, scheduling and stream control problem by incorporating various power and rate adaptation schemes, and taking into account an antenna beam pattern model and the signal-to-interference-and-noise (SINR) constraint at the receiver. In the context, we also propose column generation (CG) solutions to get rid of the complexity requiring the enumeration of all possible sets of scheduling links.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Cross-Layer Design, CooperativeMIMO System, Column Generation.

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1489 Asynchronous Parallel Distributed Genetic Algorithm with Elite Migration

Authors: Kazunori Kojima, Masaaki Ishigame, Goutam Chakraborty, Hiroshi Hatsuo, Shozo Makino

Abstract:

In most of the popular implementation of Parallel GAs the whole population is divided into a set of subpopulations, each subpopulation executes GA independently and some individuals are migrated at fixed intervals on a ring topology. In these studies, the migrations usually occur 'synchronously' among subpopulations. Therefore, CPUs are not used efficiently and the communication do not occur efficiently either. A few studies tried asynchronous migration but it is hard to implement and setting proper parameter values is difficult. The aim of our research is to develop a migration method which is easy to implement, which is easy to set parameter values, and which reduces communication traffic. In this paper, we propose a traffic reduction method for the Asynchronous Parallel Distributed GA by migration of elites only. This is a Server-Client model. Every client executes GA on a subpopulation and sends an elite information to the server. The server manages the elite information of each client and the migrations occur according to the evolution of sub-population in a client. This facilitates the reduction in communication traffic. To evaluate our proposed model, we apply it to many function optimization problems. We confirm that our proposed method performs as well as current methods, the communication traffic is less, and setting of the parameters are much easier.

Keywords: Parallel Distributed Genetic Algorithm (PDGA), asynchronousPDGA, Server-Client configuration, Elite Migration

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1488 Motion Prediction and Motion Vector Cost Reduction during Fast Block Motion Estimation in MCTF

Authors: Karunakar A K, Manohara Pai M M

Abstract:

In 3D-wavelet video coding framework temporal filtering is done along the trajectory of motion using Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering (MCTF). Hence computationally efficient motion estimation technique is the need of MCTF. In this paper a predictive technique is proposed in order to reduce the computational complexity of the MCTF framework, by exploiting the high correlation among the frames in a Group Of Picture (GOP). The proposed technique applies coarse and fine searches of any fast block based motion estimation, only to the first pair of frames in a GOP. The generated motion vectors are supplied to the next consecutive frames, even to subsequent temporal levels and only fine search is carried out around those predicted motion vectors. Hence coarse search is skipped for all the motion estimation in a GOP except for the first pair of frames. The technique has been tested for different fast block based motion estimation algorithms over different standard test sequences using MC-EZBC, a state-of-the-art scalable video coder. The simulation result reveals substantial reduction (i.e. 20.75% to 38.24%) in the number of search points during motion estimation, without compromising the quality of the reconstructed video compared to non-predictive techniques. Since the motion vectors of all the pair of frames in a GOP except the first pair will have value ±1 around the motion vectors of the previous pair of frames, the number of bits required for motion vectors is also reduced by 50%.

Keywords: Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering, predictivemotion estimation, lifted wavelet transform, motion vector

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1487 A Combined Conventional and Differential Evolution Method for Model Order Reduction

Authors: J. S. Yadav, N. P. Patidar, J. Singhai, S. Panda, C. Ardil

Abstract:

In this paper a mixed method by combining an evolutionary and a conventional technique is proposed for reduction of Single Input Single Output (SISO) continuous systems into Reduced Order Model (ROM). In the conventional technique, the mixed advantages of Mihailov stability criterion and continued Fraction Expansions (CFE) technique is employed where the reduced denominator polynomial is derived using Mihailov stability criterion and the numerator is obtained by matching the quotients of the Cauer second form of Continued fraction expansions. Then, retaining the numerator polynomial, the denominator polynomial is recalculated by an evolutionary technique. In the evolutionary method, the recently proposed Differential Evolution (DE) optimization technique is employed. DE method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. The proposed method is illustrated through a numerical example and compared with ROM where both numerator and denominator polynomials are obtained by conventional method to show its superiority.

Keywords: Reduced Order Modeling, Stability, Mihailov Stability Criterion, Continued Fraction Expansions, Differential Evolution, Integral Squared Error.

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1486 Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Synthesis by Chemical Vapor Deposition Using Platinum-Group Metal Catalysts

Authors: T. Maruyama, T. Saida, S. Naritsuka, S. Iijima

Abstract:

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are generally synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Fe, Co, and Ni as catalysts. However, due to the Ostwald ripening of metal catalysts, the diameter distribution of the grown SWCNTs is considerably wide (>2 nm), which is not suitable for electronics applications. In addition, reduction in the growth temperature is desirable for fabricating SWCNT devices compatible with the LSI process. Herein, we performed SWCNT growth by alcohol catalytic CVD using platinum-group metal catalysts (Pt, Rh, and Pd) because these metals have high melting points, and the reduction in the Ostwald ripening of catalyst particles is expected. Our results revealed that web-like SWCNTs were obtained from Pt and Rh catalysts at growth temperature between 500 °C and 600 °C by optimizing the ethanol pressure. The SWCNT yield from Pd catalysts was considerably low. By decreasing the growth temperature, the diameter and chirality distribution of SWCNTs from Pt and Rh catalysts became small and narrow. In particular, the diameters of most SWCNTs grown using Pt catalysts were below 1 nm and their diameter distribution was considerably narrow. On the contrary, SWCNTs can grow from Rh catalysts even at 300 °C by optimizing the growth condition, which is the lowest temperature recorded for SWCNT growth. Our results demonstrated that platinum-group metals are useful for the growth of small-diameter SWCNTs and facilitate low-temperature growth.

Keywords: Carbon nanotube, chemical vapor deposition, catalyst, Pt, Rh, Pd.

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1485 Indirect Solar Desalination: Value Engineering and Cost Benefit Analysis

Authors: Grace Rachid, Mutasem El-Fadel, Mahmoud Al-Hindi, Ibrahim Jamali, Daniel Abdel Nour

Abstract:

This study examines the feasibility of indirect solar desalination in oil producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It relies on value engineering (VE) and costbenefit with sensitivity analyses to identify optimal coupling configurations of desalination and solar energy technologies. A comparative return on investment was assessed as a function of water costs for varied plant capacities (25,000 to 75,000 m3/day), project lifetimes (15 to 25 years), and discount rates (5 to 15%) taking into consideration water and energy subsidies, land cost as well as environmental externalities in the form of carbon credit related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. The results showed reverse osmosis (RO) coupled with photovoltaic technologies (PVs) as the most promising configuration, robust across different prices for Brent oil, discount rates, as well as different project lifetimes. Environmental externalities and subsidies analysis revealed that a 16% reduction in existing subsidy on water tariffs would ensure economic viability. Additionally, while land costs affect investment attractiveness, the viability of RO coupled with PV remains possible for a land purchase cost <$ 80/m2 or a lease rate <$1/m2/yr. Beyond those rates, further subsidy lifting is required.

Keywords: Solar energy, desalination, value engineering, CBA, carbon credit, subsidies.

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