Search results for: virtual work theorem.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4810

Search results for: virtual work theorem.

3760 Artificial Neural Network Development by means of Genetic Programming with Graph Codification

Authors: Daniel Rivero, Julián Dorado, Juan R. Rabuñal, Alejandro Pazos, Javier Pereira

Abstract:

The development of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) is usually a slow process in which the human expert has to test several architectures until he finds the one that achieves best results to solve a certain problem. This work presents a new technique that uses Genetic Programming (GP) for automatically generating ANNs. To do this, the GP algorithm had to be changed in order to work with graph structures, so ANNs can be developed. This technique also allows the obtaining of simplified networks that solve the problem with a small group of neurons. In order to measure the performance of the system and to compare the results with other ANN development methods by means of Evolutionary Computation (EC) techniques, several tests were performed with problems based on some of the most used test databases. The results of those comparisons show that the system achieves good results comparable with the already existing techniques and, in most of the cases, they worked better than those techniques.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, Genetic Programming.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1451
3759 Helping Others and Youth Mental Health: A Qualitative Study Exploring Perspectives of Youth Engaging in Prosocial Activities

Authors: Saima Hirani, Emmanuela Ojukwu, Nilanga Aki Bandara

Abstract:

Mental health challenges that begin during the youth age period may continue across the entire life course. One way to support youth mental health is to encourage youth engagement in prosocial activities. This study aimed to explore youth’s perceptions about helping others and mental wellbeing, barriers, and enablers for youth to initiate and continue prosocial activities, and strategies for developing the attribute of helping others in youth. We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured, virtual interviews with 18 young individuals (aged 16-24 years) living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Youth perceived helping others as a source of feeling peace and calm, finding meaning in life, experiencing social connection and promoting self-care, and relieving stress. Participants reported opportunities to learn new skills, the role of religion, social connections, previous positive experiences, and role modeling as enablers for their prosocial behavior. Heavy time commitment, negative behavior from others, self-doubt, and late exposure to such activities were considered barriers by youth when participating in prosocial activities. Youth also brought forward key recommendations for engaging youth in helping others. The findings of this study support the notion that youth have positive experiences when engaging in helping others and that involving young people in prosocial activities could be used as a protective intervention for promoting youth mental health and overall wellbeing.

Keywords: Helping others, prosocial behavior, youth, mental wellbeing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 266
3758 Developing a Multiagent Based Decision Support System for Realtime Multi-Risk Disaster Management

Authors: D. Moser, D. Pinto, A. Cipriano

Abstract:

A Disaster Management System (DMS) is very important for countries with multiple disasters, such as Chile. In the world (also in Chile)different disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruption, fire or other natural or man-made disasters) happen and have an effect on the population. It is also possible that two or more disasters occur at the same time. This meansthata multi-risk situation must be mastered. To handle such a situation a Decision Support System (DSS) based on multiagents is a suitable architecture. The most known DMSs are concernedwith only a singledisaster (sometimes thecombination of earthquake and tsunami) and often with a particular disaster. Nevertheless, a DSS helps for a better real-time response. Analyze the existing systems in the literature and expand them for multi-risk disasters to construct a well-organized system is the proposal of our work. The here shown work is an approach of a multi-risk system, which needs an architecture and well defined aims. In this moment our study is a kind of case study to analyze the way we have to follow to create our proposed system in the future.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Disaster Management System, Multi-Risk, Multiagent System.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2596
3757 FWM Aware Fuzzy Dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment in Transparent Optical Networks

Authors: Debajyoti Mishra, Urmila Bhanja

Abstract:

In this paper, a novel fuzzy approach is developed while solving the Dynamic Routing and Wavelength Assignment (DRWA) problem in optical networks with Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). In this work, the effect of nonlinear and linear impairments such as Four Wave Mixing (FWM) and amplifier spontaneous emission (ASE) noise are incorporated respectively. The novel algorithm incorporates fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to reduce the effect of FWM noise and ASE noise on a requested lightpath referred in this work as FWM aware fuzzy dynamic routing and wavelength assignment algorithm. The FWM crosstalk products and the static FWM noise power per link are pre computed in order to reduce the set up time of a requested lightpath, and stored in an offline database. These are retrieved during the setting up of a lightpath and evaluated online taking the dynamic parameters like cost of the links into consideration.

Keywords: Amplifier spontaneous emission (ASE), Dynamic routing and wavelength assignment, Four wave mixing (FWM), Fuzzy rule based system (FRBS).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1730
3756 A Hybrid Scheme for on-Line Diagnostic Decision Making Using Optimal Data Representation and Filtering Technique

Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

Abstract:

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

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1309
3755 Teachers’ Emotional Experience in Online Classes in Adult Education in Selected European Countries

Authors: Andreas Ahrens, Jelena Zascerinska

Abstract:

Emotions are crucial in online classes in adult education. Despite that, a little attention was devoted to the emotional experience of being an online teacher in the field of andragogy, and the online teacher’s emotional perspectives in ever changing environments have to be analysed. The paper aims at the analysis of teachers’ emotional experience in online classes in adult education in selected European countries. The research tends to propose implications for training of teachers who work in online classes in adult education. The survey was conducted in April 2022. In the selected European countries 78 respondents took part in the study. Among them, 30 respondents represented Germany, 28 respondents Greece, and 20 respondents were from Italy. The theoretical findings allow defining teacher emotional experience. The analysis of the elements of the respondents’ emotional experience allows concluding that teachers’ attitude to online classes has to be developed. The key content for teacher training is presented. Directions of further work are proposed.

Keywords: Adult education, online classes, teacher emotional experience, European countries.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 419
3754 Effect of Swirl on Gas-Fired Combustion Behavior in a 3-D Rectangular Combustion Chamber

Authors: Man Young Kim

Abstract:

The objective of this work is to investigate the turbulent reacting flow in a three dimensional combustor with emphasis on the effect of inlet swirl flow through a numerical simulation. Flow field is analyzed using the SIMPLE method which is known as stable as well as accurate in the combustion modeling, and the finite volume method is adopted in solving the radiative transfer equation. In this work, the thermal and flow characteristics in a three dimensional combustor by changing parameters such as equivalence ratio and inlet swirl angle have investigated. As the equivalence ratio increases, which means that more fuel is supplied due to a larger inlet fuel velocity, the flame temperature increases and the location of maximum temperature has moved towards downstream. In the mean while, the existence of inlet swirl velocity makes the fuel and combustion air more completely mixed and burnt in short distance. Therefore, the locations of the maximum reaction rate and temperature were shifted to forward direction compared with the case of no swirl.

Keywords: Gaseous Fuel, Inlet Swirl, Thermal Radiation, Turbulent Combustion

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1626
3753 Blockchain’s Feasibility in Military Data Networks

Authors: Brenden M. Shutt, Lubjana Beshaj, Paul L. Goethals, Ambrose Kam

Abstract:

Communication security is of particular interest to military data networks. A relatively novel approach to network security is blockchain, a cryptographically secured distribution ledger with a decentralized consensus mechanism for data transaction processing. Recent advances in blockchain technology have proposed new techniques for both data validation and trust management, as well as different frameworks for managing dataflow. The purpose of this work is to test the feasibility of different blockchain architectures as applied to military command and control networks. Various architectures are tested through discrete-event simulation and the feasibility is determined based upon a blockchain design’s ability to maintain long-term stable performance at industry standards of throughput, network latency, and security. This work proposes a consortium blockchain architecture with a computationally inexpensive consensus mechanism, one that leverages a Proof-of-Identity (PoI) concept and a reputation management mechanism.

Keywords: Blockchain, command & control network, discrete-event simulation, reputation management.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 825
3752 Construction of Water Electrolyzer for Single Slice O2/H2 Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

Authors: May Zin Lwin., Mya Mya Oo

Abstract:

In the first part of the research work, an electrolyzer (10.16 cm dia and 24.13 cm height) to produce hydrogen and oxygen was constructed for single slice O2/H2 fuel cell using cation exchange membrane. The electrolyzer performance was tested with 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH electrolyte solution with current input 4 amp and 2.84 V from the rectifier. Rates of volume of hydrogen produced were 0.159 cm3/sec, 0.155 cm3/sec, 0.169 cm3/sec and 0.163 cm3/sec respectively from 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH solution. Rates of volume of oxygen produced were 0.212 cm3/sec, 0.201 cm3/sec, 0.227 cm3/sec and 0.219 cm3/sec respectively from 23% NaOH, 30% NaOH, 30% KOH and 35% KOH solution (1.5 L). In spite of being tested the increased concentration of electrolyte solution, the gas rate does not change significantly. Therefore, inexpensive 23% NaOH electrolyte solution was chosen to use as the electrolyte in the electrolyzer. In the second part of the research work, graphite serpentine flow plates, fiberglass end plates, stainless steel screen electrodes, silicone rubbers were made to assemble the single slice O2/H2 polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).

Keywords: electrolyzer, electrolyte solution, fuel cell, rectifier

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2073
3751 On the Learning of Causal Relationships between Banks in Saudi Equities Market Using Ensemble Feature Selection Methods

Authors: Adel Aloraini

Abstract:

Financial forecasting using machine learning techniques has received great efforts in the last decide . In this ongoing work, we show how machine learning of graphical models will be able to infer a visualized causal interactions between different banks in the Saudi equities market. One important discovery from such learned causal graphs is how companies influence each other and to what extend. In this work, a set of graphical models named Gaussian graphical models with developed ensemble penalized feature selection methods that combine ; filtering method, wrapper method and a regularizer will be shown. A comparison between these different developed ensemble combinations will also be shown. The best ensemble method will be used to infer the causal relationships between banks in Saudi equities market.

Keywords: Causal interactions , banks, feature selection, regularizere,

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1739
3750 Process Optimisation for Internal Cylindrical Rough Turning of Nickel Alloy 625 Weld Overlay

Authors: Lydia Chan, Islam Shyha, Dale Dreyer, John Hamilton, Phil Hackney

Abstract:

Nickel-based superalloys are generally known to be difficult to cut due to their strength, low thermal conductivity, and high work hardening tendency. Superalloy such as alloy 625 is often used in the oil and gas industry as a surfacing material to provide wear and corrosion resistance to components. The material is typically applied onto a metallic substrate through weld overlay cladding, an arc welding technique. Cladded surfaces are always rugged and carry a tough skin; this creates further difficulties to the machining process. The present work utilised design of experiment to optimise the internal cylindrical rough turning for weld overlay surfaces. An L27 orthogonal array was used to assess effects of the four selected key process variables: cutting insert, depth of cut, feed rate, and cutting speed. The optimal cutting conditions were determined based on productivity and the level of tool wear.

Keywords: Cylindrical turning, nickel superalloy, turning of overlay, weld overlay.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 920
3749 From Traditional to Applied: A Case Study in Industrial Engineering Curriculum

Authors: Hani Shafeek, Mohammed Aman, Muhammad Marsudi

Abstract:

Applied industrial engineering is concerned with imparting employable skills to improve the productivity for current situation of products and services. The purpose of this case study is to present the results of an initial research study conducted to identify the desired professional characteristics of an industrial engineer with an undergraduate degree and the emerging topic areas that should be incorporated into the curriculum to prepare industrial engineering (IE) graduates for the future workforce. Conclusions and recommendations for applied industrial engineering syllabus have been gathered and reported below. A two-pronged approach was taken which included a method of benchmarking by comparing the applied industrial engineering curricula of various universities and an industry survey to identify job market requirements. This methodology produced an analysis of the changing nature of industrial engineering from learning to practical education. A curriculum study for engineering is a relatively unexplored area of research in the Middle East, much less for applied industrial engineering. This work is an effort to bridge the gap between theoretical study in the classroom and the real world work applications in the industrial and service sectors.

Keywords: Applied industrial engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Industrial Engineering Curriculum, Syllabus.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2515
3748 Normalizing Flow to Augmented Posterior: Conditional Density Estimation with Interpretable Dimension Reduction for High Dimensional Data

Authors: Cheng Zeng, George Michailidis, Hitoshi Iyatomi, Leo L Duan

Abstract:

The conditional density characterizes the distribution of a response variable y given other predictor x, and plays a key role in many statistical tasks, including classification and outlier detection. Although there has been abundant work on the problem of Conditional Density Estimation (CDE) for a low-dimensional response in the presence of a high-dimensional predictor, little work has been done for a high-dimensional response such as images. The promising performance of normalizing flow (NF) neural networks in unconditional density estimation acts a motivating starting point. In this work, we extend NF neural networks when external x is present. Specifically, they use the NF to parameterize a one-to-one transform between a high-dimensional y and a latent z that comprises two components [zP , zN]. The zP component is a low-dimensional subvector obtained from the posterior distribution of an elementary predictive model for x, such as logistic/linear regression. The zN component is a high-dimensional independent Gaussian vector, which explains the variations in y not or less related to x. Unlike existing CDE methods, the proposed approach, coined Augmented Posterior CDE (AP-CDE), only requires a simple modification on the common normalizing flow framework, while significantly improving the interpretation of the latent component, since zP represents a supervised dimension reduction. In image analytics applications, AP-CDE shows good separation of x-related variations due to factors such as lighting condition and subject id, from the other random variations. Further, the experiments show that an unconditional NF neural network, based on an unsupervised model of z, such as Gaussian mixture, fails to generate interpretable results.

Keywords: Conditional density estimation, image generation, normalizing flow, supervised dimension reduction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 140
3747 Mitigation of ISI for Next Generation Wireless Channels in Outdoor Vehicular Environments

Authors: Mohd. Israil, M. Salim Beg

Abstract:

In order to accommodate various multimedia services, next generation wireless networks are characterized by very high transmission bit rates. Thus, in such systems and networks, the received signal is not only limited by noise but - especially with increasing symbols rate often more significantly by the intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by the time dispersive radio channels such as those are used in this work. This paper deals with the study of the performance of detector for high bit rate transmission on some worst case models of frequency selective fading channels for outdoor mobile radio environments. This paper deals with a number of different wireless channels with different power profiles and different number of resolvable paths. All the radio channels generated in this paper are for outdoor vehicular environments with Doppler spread of 100 Hz. A carrier frequency of 1800 MHz is used and all the channels used in this work are such that they are useful for next generation wireless systems. Schemes for mitigation of ISI with adaptive equalizers of different types have been investigated and their performances have been investigated in terms of BER measured as a function of SNR.

Keywords: Mobile channels, Rayleigh Fading, Equalization, NMLD.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1411
3746 Regression Approach for Optimal Purchase of Hosts Cluster in Fixed Fund for Hadoop Big Data Platform

Authors: Haitao Yang, Jianming Lv, Fei Xu, Xintong Wang, Yilin Huang, Lanting Xia, Xuewu Zhu

Abstract:

Given a fixed fund, purchasing fewer hosts of higher capability or inversely more of lower capability is a must-be-made trade-off in practices for building a Hadoop big data platform. An exploratory study is presented for a Housing Big Data Platform project (HBDP), where typical big data computing is with SQL queries of aggregate, join, and space-time condition selections executed upon massive data from more than 10 million housing units. In HBDP, an empirical formula was introduced to predict the performance of host clusters potential for the intended typical big data computing, and it was shaped via a regression approach. With this empirical formula, it is easy to suggest an optimal cluster configuration. The investigation was based on a typical Hadoop computing ecosystem HDFS+Hive+Spark. A proper metric was raised to measure the performance of Hadoop clusters in HBDP, which was tested and compared with its predicted counterpart, on executing three kinds of typical SQL query tasks. Tests were conducted with respect to factors of CPU benchmark, memory size, virtual host division, and the number of element physical host in cluster. The research has been applied to practical cluster procurement for housing big data computing.

Keywords: Hadoop platform planning, optimal cluster scheme at fixed-fund, performance empirical formula, typical SQL query tasks.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 831
3745 Evaluating per-user Fairness of Goal-Oriented Parallel Computer Job Scheduling Policies

Authors: Sangsuree Vasupongayya

Abstract:

Fair share objective has been included into the goaloriented parallel computer job scheduling policy recently. However, the previous work only presented the overall scheduling performance. Thus, the per-user performance of the policy is still lacking. In this work, the details of per-user fair share performance under the Tradeoff-fs(Tx:avgX) policy will be further evaluated. A basic fair share priority backfill policy namely RelShare(1d) is also studied. The performance of all policies is collected using an event-driven simulator with three real job traces as input. The experimental results show that the high demand users are usually benefited under most policies because their jobs are large or they have a lot of jobs. In the large job case, one job executed may result in over-share during that period. In the other case, the jobs may be backfilled for performances. However, the users with a mixture of jobs may suffer because if the smaller jobs are executing the priority of the remaining jobs from the same user will be lower. Further analysis does not show any significant impact of users with a lot of jobs or users with a large runtime approximation error.

Keywords: deviation, fair share, discrepancy search, priority scheduling.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1345
3744 A Proposal for a Secure and Interoperable Data Framework for Energy Digitalization

Authors: Hebberly Ahatlan

Abstract:

The process of digitizing energy systems involves transforming traditional energy infrastructure into interconnected, data-driven systems that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and responsiveness. As smart grids become increasingly integral to the efficient distribution and management of electricity from both fossil and renewable energy sources, the energy industry faces strategic challenges associated with digitalization and interoperability — particularly in the context of modern energy business models, such as virtual power plants (VPPs). The critical challenge in modern smart grids is to seamlessly integrate diverse technologies and systems, including virtualization, grid computing and service-oriented architecture (SOA), across the entire energy ecosystem. Achieving this requires addressing issues like semantic interoperability, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence, and digital asset scalability, all while ensuring security and risk management. This paper proposes a four-layer digitalization framework to tackle these challenges, encompassing persistent data protection, trusted key management, secure messaging, and authentication of IoT resources. Data assets generated through this framework enable AI systems to derive insights for improving smart grid operations, security, and revenue generation. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a Trusted Energy Interoperability Alliance as a universal guiding standard in the development of this digitalization framework to support more dynamic and interoperable energy markets.

Keywords: Digitalization, IT/OT convergence, semantic interoperability, TEIA alliance, VPP.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 96
3743 Challenges for Rural School Leaders in a Developing Context: The Case of Solomon Islands

Authors: G. Lingam, N. Lingam, K. Raghuwaiya

Abstract:

Thirty-eight rural school leaders in Solomon Islands responded to a questionnaire aimed at identifying their perceptions of work challenges. The data analysis points to an overwhelming percentage of school leaders feeling they face multifaceted problems in their work settings, including such challenges as untrained teachers, lack of funding, limited learning and teaching resources, and land disputes. The latter in particular is beyond the school leader’s jurisdiction; addressing it needs urgent attention from the principal stakeholder(s). Such challenges, seemingly tangential to the business of schooling, inadvertently affect the provision of good-quality education. The findings demonstrate that contextual challenges raise questions about what powers leadership at school level has to deal with some of them. The suggestion is advanced for the significant place-conscious leadership development to help address some community and cultural challenges. Implications of this paper are likely to be relevant to other similar contexts in the Pacific region and beyond.

Keywords: Rural school leaders, leadership, challenges, Solomon Islands, contextual factors.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4698
3742 Predictive Models for Compressive Strength of High Performance Fly Ash Cement Concrete for Pavements

Authors: S. M. Gupta, Vanita Aggarwal, Som Nath Sachdeva

Abstract:

The work reported through this paper is an experimental work conducted on High Performance Concrete (HPC) with super plasticizer with the aim to develop some models suitable for prediction of compressive strength of HPC mixes. In this study, the effect of varying proportions of fly ash (0% to 50% @ 10% increment) on compressive strength of high performance concrete has been evaluated. The mix designs studied were M30, M40 and M50 to compare the effect of fly ash addition on the properties of these concrete mixes. In all eighteen concrete mixes that have been designed, three were conventional concretes for three grades under discussion and fifteen were HPC with fly ash with varying percentages of fly ash. The concrete mix designing has been done in accordance with Indian standard recommended guidelines. All the concrete mixes have been studied in terms of compressive strength at 7 days, 28 days, 90 days, and 365 days. All the materials used have been kept same throughout the study to get a perfect comparison of values of results. The models for compressive strength prediction have been developed using Linear Regression method (LR), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Leave-One-Out Validation (LOOV) methods.

Keywords: ANN, concrete mixes, compressive strength, fly ash, high performance concrete, linear regression, strength prediction models.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2070
3741 Groundwater Level Prediction at a Pilot Area in Southeastern Part of the UAE using Shallow Seismic Method

Authors: Murad A, Baker H, Mahmoud S, Gabr A

Abstract:

The groundwater is one of the main sources for sustainability in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Intensive developments in Al-Ain area lead to increase water demand, which consequently reduced the overall groundwater quantity in major aquifers. However, in certain residential areas within Al-Ain, it has been noticed that the groundwater level is rising, for example in Sha-ab Al Askher area. The reasons for the groundwater rising phenomenon are yet to be investigated. In this work, twenty four seismic refraction profiles have been carried out along the study pilot area; as well as field measurement of the groundwater level in a number of available water wells in the area. The processed seismic data indicated the deepest and shallowest groundwater levels are 15m and 2.3 meters respectively. This result is greatly consistent with the proper field measurement of the groundwater level. The minimum detected value may be referred to perched subsurface water which may be associated to the infiltration from the surrounding water bodies such as lakes, and elevated farms. The maximum values indicate the accurate groundwater level within the study area. The findings of this work may be considered as a preliminary help to the decision makers.

Keywords: groundwater, shallow seismic method, United Arab Emirates

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1488
3740 Risk Factors in a Road Construction Site

Authors: V.R Gannapathy, S.K Subramaniam, A.B Mohamad Diah, M.K Suaidi, A.H Hamidon

Abstract:

The picture of a perfect road construction site is the one that utilizes conventional vertical road signs and a flagman to optimize the traffic flow with minimum hazel to the public. Former research has been carried out by Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and Ministry of Works to further enhance smoothness in traffic operations and particularly in safety issues within work zones. This paper highlights on hazardous zones in a certain road construction or road maintenance site. Most cases show that the flagman falls into high risk of fatal accidents within work zone. Various measures have been taken by both the authorities and contractors to overcome such miseries, yet it-s impossible to eliminate the usage of a flagman since it is considered the best practice. With the implementation of new technologies in automating the traffic flow in road construction site, it is possible to eliminate the usage of a flagman. The intelligent traffic light system is designed to solve problems which contribute hazardous at road construction site and to be inline with the road safety regulation which is taken into granted.

Keywords: Intelligent Traffic Light, Critical Zones, Safety Regulation, Flagman

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6354
3739 Analysis of the Gait Characteristics of Soldier between the Normal and Loaded Gait

Authors: Ji-il Park, Min Kyu Yu, Jong-woo Lee, Sam-hyeon Yoo

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to analyze the gait strategy between the normal and loaded gait. To this end, five male participants satisfied two conditions: the normal and loaded gait (backpack load 25.2 kg). As expected, results showed that additional loads elicited not a proportional increase in vertical and shear ground reaction force (GRF) parameters but also increase of the impulse, momentum and mechanical work. However, in case of the loaded gait, the time duration of the double support phase was increased unexpectedly. It is because the double support phase which is more stable than the single support phase can reduce instability of the loaded gait. Also, the directions of the pre-collision and after-collision were moved upward and downward compared to the normal gait. As a result, regardless of the additional backpack load, the impulse-momentum diagram during the step-to-step transition was maintained such as the normal gait. It means that human walk efficiently to keep stability and minimize total net works in case of the loaded gait.

Keywords: Normal gait, loaded gait, impulse, collision, gait analysis, mechanical work, backpack load.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1251
3738 Optimization of R507A-R23 Cascade Refrigeration System using Genetic Algorithm

Authors: A. D. Parekh, P. R. Tailor, H.R Jivanramajiwala

Abstract:

The present work deals with optimization of cascade refrigeration system using eco friendly refrigerants pair R507A and R23. R507A is azeotropic mixture composed of HFC refrigerants R125/R143a (50%/50% by wt.). R23 is a single component HFC refrigerant used as replacement to CFC refrigerant R13 in low temperature applications. These refrigerants have zero ozone depletion potential and are non-flammable. Optimization of R507AR23 cascade refrigeration system performance parameters such as minimum work required, refrigeration effect, coefficient of performance and exergetic efficiency was carried out in terms of eight operating parameters- combinations using Genetic Algorithm tool. The eight operating parameters include (1) low side evaporator temperature (2) high side condenser temperature (3) temperature difference in the cascade heat exchanger (4) low side condenser temperature (5) low side degree of subcooling (6) high side degree of subcooling (7) low side degree of superheating (8) high side degree of superheating. Results show that for minimum work system should operate at high temperature in low side evaporator, low temperature in high side condenser, low temperature difference in cascade condenser, high temperature in low side condenser and low degree of subcooling and superheating in both side. For maximum refrigeration effect system should operate at high temperature in low side evaporator, high temperature in high side condenser, high temperature difference in cascade condenser, low temperature in low side condenser and higher degree of subcooling in LT and HT side. For maximum coefficient of performance and exergetic efficiency, system should operate at high temperature in low side evaporator, low temperature in high side condenser, low temperature difference in cascade condenser, high temperature in low side condenser and higher degree of subcooling and superheating in low side of the system.

Keywords: Cascade refrigeration system, Genetic Algorithm, R507A, R23,

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2127
3737 Deviations and Defects of the Sub-Task’s Requirements in Construction Projects

Authors: Abdullah Almusharraf, Andrew Whyte

Abstract:

The sub-task pattern in terms of deviations and defects should be identified and understood in order to improve the quality of practices in construction projects. Therefore, sub-task susceptibility to exposure to deviations and defects has been evaluated and classified via six classifications proposed in this study. Thirty-four case studies of specific sub-tasks (from compression members in constructed concrete structures) were collected from seven construction projects in order to examine the study’s proposed classifications. The study revealed that the sub-task has a high sensitivity to deviation, where 91% of the cases were recorded as deviations; however, only 19% of cases were recorded as defects. Other findings were that the actual work during the execution process is a high source of deviation for this sub-task (74%), while only 26% of the source of deviation was due to both design documentation and the actual work. These findings significantly imply that the study’s proposed classifications could be used to determine the pattern of each sub-task and develop proactive actions to overcome issues of sub-task deviations and defects.

Keywords: Sub-tasks, deviations, defects, quality, construction projects.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2140
3736 Region Segmentation based on Gaussian Dirichlet Process Mixture Model and its Application to 3D Geometric Stricture Detection

Authors: Jonghyun Park, Soonyoung Park, Sanggyun Kim, Wanhyun Cho, Sunworl Kim

Abstract:

In general, image-based 3D scenes can now be found in many popular vision systems, computer games and virtual reality tours. So, It is important to segment ROI (region of interest) from input scenes as a preprocessing step for geometric stricture detection in 3D scene. In this paper, we propose a method for segmenting ROI based on tensor voting and Dirichlet process mixture model. In particular, to estimate geometric structure information for 3D scene from a single outdoor image, we apply the tensor voting and Dirichlet process mixture model to a image segmentation. The tensor voting is used based on the fact that homogeneous region in an image are usually close together on a smooth region and therefore the tokens corresponding to centers of these regions have high saliency values. The proposed approach is a novel nonparametric Bayesian segmentation method using Gaussian Dirichlet process mixture model to automatically segment various natural scenes. Finally, our method can label regions of the input image into coarse categories: “ground", “sky", and “vertical" for 3D application. The experimental results show that our method successfully segments coarse regions in many complex natural scene images for 3D.

Keywords: Region segmentation, tensor voting, image-based 3D, geometric structure, Gaussian Dirichlet process mixture model

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1882
3735 Moving towards Zero Waste in a UK Local Authority Area: Challenges to the Introduction of Separate Food Waste Collections

Authors: C. Cole, M. Osmani, A. Wheatley, M. Quddus

Abstract:

EU and UK Government targets for minimising and recycling household waste has led the responsible authorities to research the alternatives to landfill. In the work reported here the local waste collection authority (Charnwood Borough Council) has adopted the aspirational strategy of becoming a “Zero Waste Borough” to lead the drive for public participation. The work concludes that the separate collection of food waste would be needed to meet the two regulatory standards on recycling and biologically active wastes.

An analysis of a neighbouring Authority (Newcastle-Under-Lyne Borough Council (NBC), a similar sized local authority that has a successful weekly food waste collection service was undertaken. Results indicate that the main challenges for Charnwood Borough Council would be gaining householder co-operation, the extra costs of collection and organising alternative treatment. The analysis also demonstrated that there was potential offset value via anaerobic digestion for CBC to overcome these difficulties and improve its recycling performance.

Keywords: England, Food Waste Collections, Household Waste, Local Authority.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1930
3734 Automatic Lip Contour Tracking and Visual Character Recognition for Computerized Lip Reading

Authors: Harshit Mehrotra, Gaurav Agrawal, M.C. Srivastava

Abstract:

Computerized lip reading has been one of the most actively researched areas of computer vision in recent past because of its crime fighting potential and invariance to acoustic environment. However, several factors like fast speech, bad pronunciation, poor illumination, movement of face, moustaches and beards make lip reading difficult. In present work, we propose a solution for automatic lip contour tracking and recognizing letters of English language spoken by speakers using the information available from lip movements. Level set method is used for tracking lip contour using a contour velocity model and a feature vector of lip movements is then obtained. Character recognition is performed using modified k nearest neighbor algorithm which assigns more weight to nearer neighbors. The proposed system has been found to have accuracy of 73.3% for character recognition with speaker lip movements as the only input and without using any speech recognition system in parallel. The approach used in this work is found to significantly solve the purpose of lip reading when size of database is small.

Keywords: Contour Velocity Model, Lip Contour Tracking, LipReading, Visual Character Recognition.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2393
3733 Key Performance Indicators and the Model for Achieving Digital Inclusion for Smart Cities

Authors: Khalid Obaed Mahmod, Mesut Cevik

Abstract:

The term smart city has appeared recently and was accompanied by many definitions and concepts, but as a simplified and clear definition, it can be said that the smart city is a geographical location that has gained efficiency and flexibility in providing public services to citizens through its use of technological and communication technologies, and this is what distinguishes it from other cities. Smart cities connect the various components of the city through the main and sub networks in addition to a set of applications, and thus are able to collect data that is the basis for providing technological solutions to manage resources and provide services. The basis of the work of the smart city is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the technology of the Internet of Things (IoT). The work presents the concept of smart cities, the pillars, standards and evaluation indicators on which smart cities depend, and the reasons that prompted the world to move towards its establishment. It also provides a simplified hypothetical way to measure the ideal smart city model by defining some indicators and key pillars, simulating them with logic circuits and testing them to determine if the city can be considered an ideal smart city or not.

Keywords: Evaluation indicators, logic gates, performance factors, pillars, smart city.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 327
3732 A Semi-Fragile Watermarking Scheme for Color Image Authentication

Authors: M. Hamad Hassan, S.A.M. Gilani

Abstract:

In this paper, a semi-fragile watermarking scheme is proposed for color image authentication. In this particular scheme, the color image is first transformed from RGB to YST color space, suitable for watermarking the color media. Each channel is divided into 4×4 non-overlapping blocks and its each 2×2 sub-block is selected. The embedding space is created by setting the two LSBs of selected sub-block to zero, which will hold the authentication and recovery information. For verification of work authentication and parity bits denoted by 'a' & 'p' are computed for each 2×2 subblock. For recovery, intensity mean of each 2×2 sub-block is computed and encoded upto six to eight bits depending upon the channel selection. The size of sub-block is important for correct localization and fast computation. For watermark distribution 2DTorus Automorphism is implemented using a private key to have a secure mapping of blocks. The perceptibility of watermarked image is quite reasonable both subjectively and objectively. Our scheme is oblivious, correctly localizes the tampering and able to recovery the original work with probability of near one.

Keywords: Image Authentication, YST Color Space, Intensity Mean, LSBs, PSNR.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1824
3731 Numerical Study of a Butterfly Valve for Vibration Analysis and Reduction

Authors: Malik I. Al-Amayreh, Mohammad I. Kilani, Ahmed S. Al-Salaymeh

Abstract:

This work presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of a butterfly valve used to control the flow of combustible gas mixture in an industrial process setting.The work uses CFD simulation to analyze the flow characteristics in the vicinity of the valve, including the pressure distributions and Frequency spectrum of the pressure pulsations downstream the valves and the vortex shedding allow predicting the torque fluctuations acting on the valve shaft and the possibility of generating mechanical vibration and resonance.These fluctuations are due to aerodynamic torque resulting from fluid turbulence and vortex shedding in the valve vicinity. The valve analyzed is located in a pipeline between two opposing 90o elbows, which exposes the valve and the surrounding structure to the turbulence generated upstream and downstream the elbows at either end of the pipe.CFD simulations show that the best location for the valve from a vibration point of view is in the middle of the pipe joining the elbows.

Keywords: Butterfly Valve Vibration Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Flow Circuit Design, Fluid Mechanics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3802