Search results for: community based facility management
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 13407

Search results for: community based facility management

3447 Low-Cost Eco-Friendly Building Material: A Case Study in Ethiopia

Authors: W. Z. Taffese

Abstract:

This work presents a low-cost and eco-friendly building material named Agrostone panel. Africa-s urban population is growing at an annual rate of 2.8% and 62% of its population will live in urban areas by 2050. As a consequence, many of the least urbanized and least developed African countries- will face serious challenges in providing affordable housing to the urban dwellers. Since the cost of building materials accounts for the largest proportion of the overall construction cost, innovating low-cost building material is vital. Agrostone panel is used in housing projects in Ethiopia. It uses raw materials of agricultural/industrial wastes and/or natural minerals as a filler, magnesium-based chemicals as a binder and fiberglass as reinforcement. Agrostone panel reduces the cost of wall construction by 50% compared with the conventional building materials. The pros and cons of Agrostone panel as well as the use of other waste materials as a raw material to make the panel more sustainable, low-cost and better properties are discussed.

Keywords: Agrostone Panel, Low-cost and sustainable Building Materials, Agro-waste for construction

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9770
3446 An Artificial Neural Network Model for Earthquake Prediction and Relations between Environmental Parameters and Earthquakes

Authors: S. Niksarlioglu, F. Kulahci

Abstract:

Earthquakes are natural phenomena that occur with influence of a lot of parameters such as seismic activity, changing in the ground waters' motion, changing in the water-s temperature, etc. On the other hand, the radon gas concentrations in soil vary as nonlinear generally with earthquakes. Continuous measurement of the soil radon gas is very important for determination of characteristic of the seismic activity. The radon gas changes as continuous with strain occurring within the Earth-s surface during an earthquake and effects from the physical and the chemical processes such as soil structure, soil permeability, soil temperature, the barometric pressure, etc. Therefore, at the modeling researches are notsufficient to knowthe concentration ofradon gas. In this research, we determined relationships between radon emissions based on the environmental parameters and earthquakes occurring along the East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ), Turkiye and predicted magnitudes of some earthquakes with the artificial neural network (ANN) model.

Keywords: Earthquake, Modeling, Prediction, Radon.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2987
3445 Sustainability Analysis and Quality Assessment of Rainwater Harvested from Green Roofs: A Review

Authors: Mst. Nilufa Sultana, Shatirah Akib, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohamed Roseli Zainal Abidin

Abstract:

Most people today are aware that global climate change is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs, an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia. This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kuala Lumpur, and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.

Keywords: Green roofs, INWQS, MSMA-SME, Rainwater harvesting.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2877
3444 A Hypercube Social Feature Extraction and Multipath Routing in Delay Tolerant Networks

Authors: S. Balaji, M. Rajaram, Y. Harold Robinson, E. Golden Julie

Abstract:

Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) which have sufficient state information include trajectory and contact information, to protect routing efficiency. However, state information is dynamic and hard to obtain without a global and/or long-term collection process. To deal with these problems, the internal social features of each node are introduced in the network to perform the routing process. This type of application is motivated from several human contact networks where people contact each other more frequently if they have more social features in common. Two unique processes were developed for this process; social feature extraction and multipath routing. The routing method then becomes a hypercube–based feature matching process. Furthermore, the effectiveness of multipath routing is evaluated and compared to that of single-path routing.

Keywords: Delay tolerant networks, entropy, human contact networks, hyper cubes, multipath Routing, social features.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1287
3443 An Advanced Hybrid P2p Botnet 2.0

Authors: T. T. Lu, H.Y. Liao, M .F. Chen

Abstract:

Recently, malware attacks have become more serious over the Internet by e-mail, denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS). The Botnets have become a significant part of the Internet malware attacks. The traditional botnets include three parts – botmaster, command and control (C&C) servers and bots. The C&C servers receive commands from botmaster and control the distributions of computers remotely. Bots use DNS to find the positions of C&C server. In this paper, we propose an advanced hybrid peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet 2.0 (AHP2P botnet 2.0) using web 2.0 technology to hide the instructions from botmaster into social sites, which are regarded as C&C servers. Servent bots are regarded as sub-C&C servers to get the instructions from social sites. The AHP2P botnet 2.0 can evaluate the performance of servent bots, reduce DNS traffics from bots to C&C servers, and achieve harder detection bots actions than IRC-based botnets over the Internet.

Keywords: Peer-to-peer, Botnets, Botnet 2.0, Hybridpeer-to-peer

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2406
3442 Optimization of Heat Treatment Due to Austenising Temperature, Time and Quenching Solution in Hadfield Steels

Authors: Sh. Hosseini, M. B. Limooei, M. Hossein Zade, E. Askarnia, Z. Asadi

Abstract:

Manganese steel (Hadfield) is one of the important alloys in industry due to its special properties. High work hardening ability with appropriate toughness and ductility are the properties that caused this alloy to be used in wear resistance parts and in high strength condition. Heat treatment is the main process through which the desired mechanical properties and microstructures are obtained in Hadfield steel. In this study various heat treatment cycles, differing in austenising temperature, time and quenching solution are applied. For this purpose, the same samples of manganese steel was heat treated in 9 different cycles, and then the mechanical properties and microstructures were investigated. Based on the results of the study, the optimum heat treatment cycle was obtained.

Keywords: Manganese steel (Hadfield), heat treatment, austenising temperature, austenising time, quenching solution, mechanical properties.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4454
3441 A Computer Model of Language Acquisition – Syllable Learning – Based on Hebbian Cell Assemblies and Reinforcement Learning

Authors: Sepideh Fazeli, Fariba Bahrami

Abstract:

Investigating language acquisition is one of the most challenging problems in the area of studying language. Syllable learning as a level of language acquisition has a considerable significance since it plays an important role in language acquisition. Because of impossibility of studying language acquisition directly with children, especially in its developmental phases, computer models will be useful in examining language acquisition. In this paper a computer model of early language learning for syllable learning is proposed. It is guided by a conceptual model of syllable learning which is named Directions Into Velocities of Articulators model (DIVA). The computer model uses simple associational and reinforcement learning rules within neural network architecture which are inspired by neuroscience. Our simulation results verify the ability of the proposed computer model in producing phonemes during babbling and early speech. Also, it provides a framework for examining the neural basis of language learning and communication disorders.

Keywords: Brain modeling, computer models, language acquisition, reinforcement learning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1573
3440 Forecasting Stock Indexes Using Bayesian Additive Regression Tree

Authors: Darren Zou

Abstract:

Forecasting the stock market is a very challenging task. Various economic indicators such as GDP, exchange rates, interest rates, and unemployment have a substantial impact on the stock market. Time series models are the traditional methods used to predict stock market changes. In this paper, a machine learning method, Bayesian Additive Regression Tree (BART) is used in predicting stock market indexes based on multiple economic indicators. BART can be used to model heterogeneous treatment effects, and thereby works well when models are misspecified. It also has the capability to handle non-linear main effects and multi-way interactions without much input from financial analysts. In this research, BART is proposed to provide a reliable prediction on day-to-day stock market activities. By comparing the analysis results from BART and with time series method, BART can perform well and has better prediction capability than the traditional methods.

Keywords: Bayesian, Forecast, Stock, BART.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 705
3439 Energy Distribution of EEG Signals: EEG Signal Wavelet-Neural Network Classifier

Authors: I. Omerhodzic, S. Avdakovic, A. Nuhanovic, K. Dizdarevic

Abstract:

In this paper, a wavelet-based neural network (WNN) classifier for recognizing EEG signals is implemented and tested under three sets EEG signals (healthy subjects, patients with epilepsy and patients with epileptic syndrome during the seizure). First, the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with the Multi-Resolution Analysis (MRA) is applied to decompose EEG signal at resolution levels of the components of the EEG signal (δ, θ, α, β and γ) and the Parseval-s theorem are employed to extract the percentage distribution of energy features of the EEG signal at different resolution levels. Second, the neural network (NN) classifies these extracted features to identify the EEGs type according to the percentage distribution of energy features. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated using in total 300 EEG signals. The results showed that the proposed classifier has the ability of recognizing and classifying EEG signals efficiently.

Keywords: Epilepsy, EEG, Wavelet transform, Energydistribution, Neural Network, Classification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1949
3438 Unveiling the Indonesian Identity through Proverbial Expressions: The Relation of Meaning between Authority and Globalization

Authors: Prima Gusti Yanti, Fairul Zabadi

Abstract:

The purpose of the study is to find out relation of moral massage between the authority and globalization in proverb. Proverb is one of the many forms of cultural identity of the Indonesian/Malay people filled with moral values. The values contained within those proverbs are beneficial not only to the society, but also to those who held power amidst on this era of globalization. The method being used is qualitative research through content analysis which is done by describing and uncovering the forms and meanings of proverbs used within Indonesia Minangkabau society. Sources for this study’s data were extracted from a Minangkabau native speaker in the sub district of Tanah Abang, Jakarta. Said sources were retrieved through a series of interviews with the Minangkabau native speaker, whose speech is still adorned with idiomatic expressions. The research findings show that there are 30 existed proverbs or idiomatic expressions in the Minangkabau language often used by its indigenous people. The thirty data contain moral values which are closely interwoven with the matter of power and globalization. Analytical results show that the fourteen moral values contained within proverbs reflect a firm connection between rule and power in globalization; such as: responsible, brave, togetherness and consensus, tolerance, politeness, thorough and meticulous, honest and keeping promise, ingenious and learning, care, self-correction, be fair, alert, arbitrary, self-awareness. Structurally, proverbs possess an unchangeably formal construction; symbolically, proverbs possess meanings that are clearly decided through ethnographic communicative factors along with situational and cultural contexts. Values contained within proverbs may be used as a guide in social management, be it between fellow men, between men and nature, or even between men and their Creator. Therefore, the meanings and values contained within the morals of proverbs could also be utilized as a counsel for those who rule and in charge of power in order to stem the tides of globalization that had already spread into sectoral, territorial and educational continuums.

Keywords: Continuum, globalization, identity, proverb, rule-power.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1893
3437 A Case Study of Collective Action in Fishermen's Wives Group (KUNITA), Malaysia

Authors: Nor Hafizah S., Salfarina A. G., Intan Hashimah H., Juliana A. W.

Abstract:

Collective action can be an effective means for local development as well as important strategy to enhance livelihoods especially among rural people. This article explores the level of collective action among members of Fishermen-s Wives Group (KUNITA) in Malaysia. KUNITA was established by the Malaysian Fishery Development Authority (LKIM) with an objective to increase the socio-economic status of fishermen-s families. The members who are mostly the wives and daughters of fishermen are strongly encouraged by LKIM to venture into entrepreneurship activities. The objective of this research was to see the level of collective action among members in KUNITA groups in the state of Selangor. The finding shows that high level of collective action among KUNITA members is strongly based on volunteerism. However, the level of cooperation among members in the group is relatively low. The findings present significant challenges for the group in maintaining the sustainability of KUNITA organization.

Keywords: Collective action, entrepreneurship, fishermen' swives group, LKIM.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1904
3436 On the Optimality of Blocked Main Effects Plans

Authors: Rita SahaRay, Ganesh Dutta

Abstract:

In this article, experimental situations are considered where a main effects plan is to be used to study m two-level factors using n runs which are partitioned into b blocks, not necessarily of same size. Assuming the block sizes to be even for all blocks, for the case n ≡ 2 (mod 4), optimal designs are obtained with respect to type 1 and type 2 optimality criteria in the class of designs providing estimation of all main effects orthogonal to the block effects. In practice, such orthogonal estimation of main effects is often a desirable condition. In the wider class of all available m two level even sized blocked main effects plans, where the factors do not occur at high and low levels equally often in each block, E-optimal designs are also characterized. Simple construction methods based on Hadamard matrices and Kronecker product for these optimal designs are presented.

Keywords: Design matrix, Hadamard matrix, Kronecker product, type 1 criteria, type 2 criteria.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1039
3435 Employment Promotion and Its Role in Counteracting Unemployment during the Financial Crisis in the USA

Authors: Beata Wentura-Dudek

Abstract:

In the United States in 2007-2010 before the crisis, the US labour market policy focused mainly on providing residents with unemployment insurance, after the recession this policy changed. The aim of the article was to present quantitative research presenting the most effective labor market instruments contributing to reducing unemployment during the crisis in the USA. The article presents research based on the analysis of available documents and statistical data. The results of the conducted research show that the most effective forms of counteracting unemployment at that time were: direct job creation, job search assistance, subsidized employment, training and employment promotion using new technologies, including social media.

Keywords: United States, financial crisis, unemployment, employment promotion, social media, job creation, training, labour market, employment agencies, lifelong learning, job search assistance, subsidized employment, companies, tax.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 708
3434 Numerical and Infrared Mapping of Temperature in Heat Affected Zone during Plasma Arc Cutting of Mild Steel

Authors: Dalvir Singh, Somnath Chattopadhyaya

Abstract:

During welding or flame cutting of metals, the prediction of heat affected zone (HAZ) is critical. There is need to develop a simple mathematical model to calculate the temperature variation in HAZ and derivative analysis can be used for this purpose. This study presents analytical solution for heat transfer through conduction in mild steel plate. The homogeneous and nonhomogeneous boundary conditions are single variables. The full field analytical solutions of temperature measurement, subjected to local heating source, are derived first by method of separation of variables followed with the experimental visualization using infrared imaging. Based on the present work, it is suggested that appropriate heat input characteristics controls the temperature distribution in and around HAZ.

Keywords: Conduction Heat Transfer, Heat Affected Zone (HAZ), Infra-Red Imaging, Numerical Method, Orthogonal Function, Plasma Arc Cutting, Separation of Variables, Temperature Measurement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1769
3433 Passive Ventilation System Analysis using Solar Chimney in South of Algeria

Authors: B. Belfuguais, S. Larbi

Abstract:

The work presented in this study is related to an energy system analysis based on passive cooling system for dwellings. It consists to solar chimney energy performances determination versus geometrical and environmental considerations as the size and inlet width conditions of the chimney. Adrar site located in the southern region of Algeria is chosen for this study according to ambient temperature and solar irradiance technical data availability. Obtained results are related to the glazing temperature distributions, the chimney air flow and internal wall temperatures. The air room change per hour (ACH) parameter, the outlet air velocity and mass air flow rate are also determined. It is shown that the chimney width has a significant effect on energy performances compared to its entry size. A good agreement is observed between these results and those obtained by others from the literature.

Keywords: Solar chimney, Energy performances, Passive ventilation, Numerical simulation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2907
3432 Frequency Transformation with Pascal Matrix Equations

Authors: Phuoc Si Nguyen

Abstract:

Frequency transformation with Pascal matrix equations is a method for transforming an electronic filter (analogue or digital) into another filter. The technique is based on frequency transformation in the s-domain, bilinear z-transform with pre-warping frequency, inverse bilinear transformation and a very useful application of the Pascal’s triangle that simplifies computing and enables calculation by hand when transforming from one filter to another. This paper will introduce two methods to transform a filter into a digital filter: frequency transformation from the s-domain into the z-domain; and frequency transformation in the z-domain. Further, two Pascal matrix equations are derived: an analogue to digital filter Pascal matrix equation and a digital to digital filter Pascal matrix equation. These are used to design a desired digital filter from a given filter.

Keywords: Frequency transformation, Bilinear z-transformation, Pre-warping frequency, Digital filters, Analog filters, Pascal’s triangle.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1898
3431 Dynamic Construction Site Layout Using Ant Colony Optimization

Authors: Y. Abdelrazig

Abstract:

Evolutionary optimization methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. More recently, ant colony optimization algorithms, which are evolutionary methods based on the foraging behavior of ants, have been successfully applied to benchmark combinatorial optimization problems. This paper proposes a formulation of the site layout problem in terms of a sequencing problem that is suitable for solution using an ant colony optimization algorithm. In the construction industry, site layout is a very important planning problem. The objective of site layout is to position temporary facilities both geographically and at the correct time such that the construction work can be performed satisfactorily with minimal costs and improved safety and working environment. During the last decade, evolutionary methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. This paper proposes an ant colony optimization model for construction site layout. A simple case study for a highway project is utilized to illustrate the application of the model.

Keywords: Construction site layout, optimization, ant colony.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3089
3430 The Design of Self-evolving Artificial Immune System II for Permutation Flow-shop Problem

Authors: Meng-Hui Chen, Pei-Chann Chang, Wei-Hsiu Huang

Abstract:

Artificial Immune System is adopted as a Heuristic Algorithm to solve the combinatorial problems for decades. Nevertheless, many of these applications took advantage of the benefit for applications but seldom proposed approaches for enhancing the efficiency. In this paper, we continue the previous research to develop a Self-evolving Artificial Immune System II via coordinating the T and B cell in Immune System and built a block-based artificial chromosome for speeding up the computation time and better performance for different complexities of problems. Through the design of Plasma cell and clonal selection which are relative the function of the Immune Response. The Immune Response will help the AIS have the global and local searching ability and preventing trapped in local optima. From the experimental result, the significant performance validates the SEAIS II is effective when solving the permutation flows-hop problems.

Keywords: Artificial Immune System, Clonal Selection, Immune Response, Permutation Flow-shop Scheduling Problems

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1587
3429 Concepts Extraction from Discharge Notes using Association Rule Mining

Authors: Basak Oguz Yolcular

Abstract:

A large amount of valuable information is available in plain text clinical reports. New techniques and technologies are applied to extract information from these reports. In this study, we developed a domain based software system to transform 600 Otorhinolaryngology discharge notes to a structured form for extracting clinical data from the discharge notes. In order to decrease the system process time discharge notes were transformed into a data table after preprocessing. Several word lists were constituted to identify common section in the discharge notes, including patient history, age, problems, and diagnosis etc. N-gram method was used for discovering terms co-Occurrences within each section. Using this method a dataset of concept candidates has been generated for the validation step, and then Predictive Apriori algorithm for Association Rule Mining (ARM) was applied to validate candidate concepts.

Keywords: association rule mining, otorhinolaryngology, predictive apriori, text mining

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1596
3428 BECOME: Body Experience-Based Co-Operation between Juveniles through Mutually Excited Team Gameplay

Authors: Tsugunosuke Sakai, Haruya Tamaki, Ryuichi Yoshida, Ryohei Egusa, Etsuji Yamaguchi, Shigenori Inagaki, Fusako Kusunoki, Miki Namatame, Masanori Sugimoto, Hiroshi Mizoguchi

Abstract:

We aim to develop a full-body interaction game that could let children cooperate and interact with other children in small groups. As the first step for our aim, the objective of the full-body interaction game developed in this study is to make interaction between children. The game requires two children to jump together with the same timing. We let children experience the game and answer the questionnaires. The children using several strategies to coordinate the timing of their jumps were observed. These included shouting time, watching each other, and jumping in a constant rhythm as if they were skipping rope. In this manner, we observed the children playing the game while cooperating with each other. The results of a questionnaire to evaluate the proposed interactive game indicate that the jumping game was a very enjoyable experience in which the participants could immerse themselves. Therefore, the game enabled children to experience cooperation with others by using body movements.

Keywords: Children, cooperation, full-body interaction game, kinect sensor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1328
3427 Reduction of Differential Column Shortening in Tall Buildings

Authors: Hansoo Kim, Seunghak Shin

Abstract:

The differential column shortening in tall buildings can be reduced by improving material and structural characteristics of the structural systems. This paper proposes structural methods to reduce differential column shortening in reinforced concrete tall buildings; connecting columns with rigidly jointed horizontal members, using outriggers, and placing additional reinforcement at the columns. The rigidly connected horizontal members including outriggers reduce the differential shortening between adjacent vertical members. The axial stiffness of columns with greater shortening can be effectively increased by placing additional reinforcement at the columns, thus the differential column shortening can be reduced in the design stage. The optimum distribution of additional reinforcement can be determined by applying a gradient based optimization technique.

Keywords: Column shortening, long-term behavior, optimization, tall building.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3977
3426 Empirical Study from Final Exams of Computer Science Courses Demystifying the Notion of 'an Average Software Engineer'

Authors: Alex Elentukh

Abstract:

The paper is based on data collected from final exams administered during five years teaching the graduate course in software engineering. The visualization instrument with four distinct personas has been used to improve effectiveness of each class. The study offers a plethora of clues toward students' behavioral preferences. Diversity among students (professional background, physical proximity) is too significant to assume a single face of a learner. This is particularly true for a body of on-line graduate students in computer science. Conclusions of the study (each learner is unique and each class is unique) are extrapolated to demystify the notion of an 'average software engineer'. An immediate direction for an educator is to assure a course applies to a wide audience of very different individuals. On another hand, a student should be clear about his/her abilities and preferences - to follow the most effective learning path.

Keywords: K.3.2 computer & information science education, learner profiling, adaptive learning, software engineering.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 587
3425 Enhanced Genetic Algorithm Approach for Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow Including FACTS Devices

Authors: R.Narmatha Banu, D.Devaraj

Abstract:

This paper presents a genetic algorithm based approach for solving security constrained optimal power flow problem (SCOPF) including FACTS devices. The optimal location of FACTS devices are identified using an index called overload index and the optimal values are obtained using an enhanced genetic algorithm. The optimal allocation by the proposed method optimizes the investment, taking into account its effects on security in terms of the alleviation of line overloads. The proposed approach has been tested on IEEE-30 bus system to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for solving the SCOPF problem.

Keywords: Optimal Power Flow, Genetic Algorithm, FlexibleAC transmission system (FACTS) devices, Severity Index (SI), Security Enhancement, Thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1744
3424 Efficiency Improvements of GaAs-based Solar Cells by Hydrothermally-deposited ZnO Nanostructure Array

Authors: Chun-Yuan Huang, Chiao-Yang Cheng, Chun-Yem Huang, Yan-Kuin Su, James Chin-Lung Fang

Abstract:

ZnO nanostructures including nanowires, nanorods, and nanoneedles were successfully deposited on GaAs substrates, respectively, by simple two-step chemical method for the first time. A ZnO seed layer was firstly pre-coated on the O2-plasma treated substrate by sol-gel process, followed by the nucleation of ZnO nanostructures through hydrothermal synthesis. Nanostructures with different average diameter (15-250 nm), length (0.9-1.8 μm), density (0.9-16×109 cm-2) were obtained via adjusting the growth time and concentration of precursors. From the reflectivity spectra, we concluded ordered and taper nanostructures were preferential for photovoltaic applications. ZnO nanoneedles with an average diameter of 106 nm, a moderate length of 2.4 μm, and the density of 7.2×109 cm-2 could be synthesized in the concentration of 0.04 M for 18 h. Integrated with the nanoneedle array, the power conversion efficiency of single junction solar cell was increased from 7.3 to 12.2%, corresponding to a 67% improvement.

Keywords: Anti-reflection, Chemical synthesis, Solar cells, ZnO nanostructures.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1921
3423 Worm Gearing Design Improvement by Considering Varying Mesh Stiffness

Authors: A. H. Elkholy, A. H. Falah

Abstract:

A new approach has been developed to estimate the load share and distribution of worm gear drives, and to calculate the instantaneous tooth meshing stiffness. In the approach, the worm gear drive was modelled as a series of spur gear slices, and each slice was analyzed separately using the well-established formulae of spur gear loading and stresses. By combining the results obtained for all slices, the entire envolute worm gear set loading and stressing was obtained. The geometric modelling method presented allows tooth elastic deformation and tooth root stresses of worm gear drives under different load conditions to be investigated. Based on the slicing method introduced in this study, the instantaneous meshing stiffness and load share are obtained. In comparison with existing methods, this approach has both good analysis accuracy and less computing time.

Keywords: Gear, load/stress distribution, worm, wheel, tooth stiffness, contact line.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2205
3422 Incident Shock Wave Interaction with an Axisymmetric Cone Body Placed in Shock Tube

Authors: Rabah Haoui

Abstract:

This work presents a numerical simulation of the interaction of an incident shock wave propagates from the left to the right with a cone placed in a tube at shock. The Mathematical model is based on a non stationary, viscous and axisymmetric flow. The Discretization of the Navier-stokes equations is carried out by the finite volume method in the integral form along with the Flux Vector Splitting method of Van Leer. Here, adequate combination of time stepping parameter, CFL coefficient and mesh size level is selected to ensure numerical convergence. The numerical simulation considers a shock tube filled with air. The incident shock wave propagates to the right with a determined Mach number and crosses the cone by leaving behind it a stationary detached shock wave in front of the nose cone. This type of interaction is observed according to the time of flow.

Keywords: Supersonic flow, viscous flow, finite volume, cone body

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1544
3421 Determining Earthquake Performances of Existing Reinforced Concrete Buildings by Using ANN

Authors: Musa H. Arslan, Murat Ceylan, Tayfun Koyuncu

Abstract:

In this study, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) analytical method has been developed for analyzing earthquake performances of the Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings. 66 RC buildings with four to ten storeys were subjected to performance analysis according to the parameters which are the existing material, loading and geometrical characteristics of the buildings. The selected parameters have been thought to be effective on the performance of RC buildings. In the performance analyses stage of the study, level of performance possible to be shown by these buildings in case of an earthquake was determined on the basis of the 4-grade performance levels specified in Turkish Earthquake Code-2007 (TEC-2007). After obtaining the 4-grade performance level, selected 23 parameters of each building have been matched with the performance level. In this stage, ANN-based fast evaluation algorithm mentioned above made an economic and rapid evaluation of four to ten storey RC buildings. According to the study, the prediction accuracy of ANN has been found about 74%.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, earthquake, performance, reinforced concrete.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2640
3420 Influence of Biofertilizers on Flower Yield and Essential Oil of Chamomile ( Matricaria chamomile L.)

Authors: M. Haj Seyed Hadi, M. Taghi Darzi, Z. Ghandeharialavijeh, GH. Riazi

Abstract:

The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of vermicompost and amino acids on the qualitative and quantitative yield of chamomile. The experiment was conducted during the growing season of 2010 at the Alborz Medical Research Center. The Treatment groups consisted of vermicompost (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 tons/ha) and the sprays of amino acids (budding stag, flowering stage, and budding + flowering stage). The experimental design was a factorial experiment based on Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The present results have shown that the highest plant height, flower head diameter, fresh and dry flower yield and significant essential oil content were obtained by using 20- ton vermicompost per hectare. Effects of amino acids were similar to those seen in vermicompost treatment and all measured traits were seen to be significant after the spray of amino acids at the budding + flowering stage).

Keywords: Vermicompost, amino acids, chamomile, yield

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2199
3419 A Neuro-Fuzzy Approach Based Voting Scheme for Fault Tolerant Systems Using Artificial Bee Colony Training

Authors: D. Uma Devi, P. Seetha Ramaiah

Abstract:

Voting algorithms are extensively used to make decisions in fault tolerant systems where each redundant module gives inconsistent outputs. Popular voting algorithms include majority voting, weighted voting, and inexact majority voters. Each of these techniques suffers from scenarios where agreements do not exist for the given voter inputs. This has been successfully overcome in literature using fuzzy theory. Our previous work concentrated on a neuro-fuzzy algorithm where training using the neuro system substantially improved the prediction result of the voting system. Weight training of Neural Network is sub-optimal. This study proposes to optimize the weights of the Neural Network using Artificial Bee Colony algorithm. Experimental results show the proposed system improves the decision making of the voting algorithms.

Keywords: Voting algorithms, Fault tolerance, Fault masking, Neuro-Fuzzy System (NFS), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC)

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2636
3418 Modeling of Normal and Atherosclerotic Blood Vessels using Finite Element Methods and Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: K. Kamalanand, S. Srinivasan

Abstract:

Analysis of blood vessel mechanics in normal and diseased conditions is essential for disease research, medical device design and treatment planning. In this work, 3D finite element models of normal vessel and atherosclerotic vessel with 50% plaque deposition were developed. The developed models were meshed using finite number of tetrahedral elements. The developed models were simulated using actual blood pressure signals. Based on the transient analysis performed on the developed models, the parameters such as total displacement, strain energy density and entropy per unit volume were obtained. Further, the obtained parameters were used to develop artificial neural network models for analyzing normal and atherosclerotic blood vessels. In this paper, the objectives of the study, methodology and significant observations are presented.

Keywords: Blood vessel, atherosclerosis, finite element model, artificial neural networks

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2287