Search results for: risk priority number.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4707

Search results for: risk priority number.

3567 Assessment of Water Resources and Inculcation of Controlled Water Consumption System

Authors: Vakhtang Geladze, Nana Bolashvili, Tamazi Karalashvili, Nino Machavariani, Vajha Neidze, Nana Kvirkvelia, Tamar Chichinadze

Abstract:

Deficiency of fresh water is a vital global problem today. It must be taken into consideration that in the nearest future fresh water crisis will become even more acute owing to the global climate warming and fast desertification processes in the world. Georgia has signed the association agreement with Euro Union last year where the priority spheres of cooperation are the management of water resources, development of trans-boundary approach to the problem and active participation in the “Euro Union water initiative” component of “the East Europe, Caucasus and the Central Asia”. Fresh water resources are the main natural wealth of Georgia. According to the average water layer height, Georgia is behind such European countries only as Norway, Switzerland and Austria. The annual average water provision of Georgia is 4-8 times higher than in its neighbor countries Armenia and Azerbaijan. Despite abundant water resources in Georgia, there is considerable discrepancy between their volume and use in some regions because of the uneven territorial distribution. In the East Georgia, water supply of the territory and population is four times less than in the West Georgia.

Keywords: GIS, sociological survey, water consumption, water resources.

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3566 Multi-Objective Evolutionary Computation Based Feature Selection Applied to Behaviour Assessment of Children

Authors: F. Jiménez, R. Jódar, M. Martín, G. Sánchez, G. Sciavicco

Abstract:

Abstract—Attribute or feature selection is one of the basic strategies to improve the performances of data classification tasks, and, at the same time, to reduce the complexity of classifiers, and it is a particularly fundamental one when the number of attributes is relatively high. Its application to unsupervised classification is restricted to a limited number of experiments in the literature. Evolutionary computation has already proven itself to be a very effective choice to consistently reduce the number of attributes towards a better classification rate and a simpler semantic interpretation of the inferred classifiers. We present a feature selection wrapper model composed by a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm, the clustering method Expectation-Maximization (EM), and the classifier C4.5 for the unsupervised classification of data extracted from a psychological test named BASC-II (Behavior Assessment System for Children - II ed.) with two objectives: Maximizing the likelihood of the clustering model and maximizing the accuracy of the obtained classifier. We present a methodology to integrate feature selection for unsupervised classification, model evaluation, decision making (to choose the most satisfactory model according to a a posteriori process in a multi-objective context), and testing. We compare the performance of the classifier obtained by the multi-objective evolutionary algorithms ENORA and NSGA-II, and the best solution is then validated by the psychologists that collected the data.

Keywords: Feature selection, multi-objective evolutionary computation, unsupervised classification, behavior assessment system for children.

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3565 Health Monitoring of Power Transformers by Dissolved Gas Analysis using Regression Method and Study the Effect of Filtration on Oil

Authors: Anjali Chatterjee, Nirmal Kumar Roy

Abstract:

Economically transformers constitute one of the largest investments in a Power system. For this reason, transformer condition assessment and management is a high priority task. If a transformer fails, it would have a significant negative impact on revenue and service reliability. Monitoring the state of health of power transformers has traditionally been carried out using laboratory Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) tests performed at periodic intervals on the oil sample, collected from the transformers. DGA of transformer oil is the single best indicator of a transformer-s overall condition and is a universal practice today, which started somewhere in the 1960s. Failure can occur in a transformer due to different reasons. Some failures can be limited or prevented by maintenance. Oil filtration is one of the methods to remove the dissolve gases and prevent the deterioration of the oil. In this paper we analysis the DGA data by regression method and predict the gas concentration in the oil in the future. We bring about a comparative study of different traditional methods of regression and the errors generated out of their predictions. With the help of these data we can deduce the health of the transformer by finding the type of fault if it has occurred or will occur in future. Additional in this paper effect of filtration on the transformer health is highlight by calculating the probability of failure of a transformer with and without oil filtrating.

Keywords: Power Transformers, Dissolve gas Analysis, Regression method, Filtration, oil.

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3564 Behaviours of Energy Spectrum at Low Reynolds Numbers in Grid Turbulence

Authors: Md. Kamruzzaman, L. Djenidi, R. A. Antonia

Abstract:

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the energy spectrum of turbulent velocity fields at low Reynolds numbers in grid turbulence. Hot wire measurements are carried out in grid turbulence with subjected to a 1.36:1 contraction of the wind tunnel. Three different grids are used: (i) large square perforated grid (mesh size 43.75mm), (ii) small square perforated grid (mesh size 14. and (iii) woven mesh grid (mesh size 5mm). The results indicate that the energy spectrum at small Reynolds numbers does not follow Kolmogorov’s universal scaling. It is further found that the critical Reynolds number, below which the scaling breaks down, is around 25.

Keywords: Decay exponent, Energy spectrum, Taylor microscale Reynolds number, Taylor microscale, Turbulent kinetic energy.

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3563 Agro-Morphological Characterization of Vicia faba L. Accessions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Authors: Zia Amjad, Salem S. Alghamdi

Abstract:

The study was conducted at the student educational farm at the College of Food and Agriculture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The aim of study was to characterize 154 Vicia faba L. accessions using agro-morphological traits based on The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and The International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) descriptors. This research is significant as it contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in Saudi Arabia. In the study, 24 agro-morphological characters including 11 quantitative and 13 qualitative were observed for genetic variation. All the results were analyzed using multivariate analysis i.e., principal component analysis (PCA). First, six principal components (PC) had eigenvalues greater than one; accounted for 72% of available V. faba genetic diversity. However, first three components revealed more than 10% of genetic diversity each i.e., 22.36%, 15.86% and 10.89% respectively. PCA distributed the V. faba accessions into different groups based on their performance for the characters under observation. PC-1, which represented 22.36% of the genetic diversity, was positively associated with stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks, pod degree of curvature and to some extent with 100 seed weight. PC-2 covered 15.86 of the genetic diversity and showed positive association for average seed weight per plant, pod length, number of seeds per plant, 100 seed weight, stipule spot pigmentation, intensity of streaks (same as in PC-1) and to some extent for pod degree of curvature and number of pods per plant. PC-3 revealed 10.89% of genetic diversity and expressed positive association for number of pods per plant and number of leaflets per plant. This study contributes to the understanding of the genetic diversity and potential yield of V. faba in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By establishing a core collection of V. faba, the research provides a valuable resource for future conservation and utilization of this crop worldwide.

Keywords: Agro-morphological characterization, genetic diversity, core collection, PCA, Vicia faba L.

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3562 The Impact of Female Characters on a Movie’s Return on Investment

Authors: Raghav Lakhotia, Sameer Ganu, Anshul Goel, Abhishek Kumar

Abstract:

In the age and times where women’s empowerment is a significant topic of discussion, we aim to analyze the potential gender diversity influence on box office revenues. The following research is carried out by collecting data from 400 Hollywood movies between the years 2014-2017 and performing regression analysis to find a correlation between the presence of female characters in movies and their return on investment (ROI). The paper finds that there is a positive relationship between the performance of the movies (its ROI) and the gender diversity i.e. the more the number of female characters, the higher the revenue generated. Another factor such as Number of Votes also has a direct impact on the revenue of the movie. The research not only takes into consideration the mere presence of women on screen but also the exchange of at least one dialogue among themselves, which is presented by the Bechdel Score of the movie.

Keywords: Bechdel, diversity, Hollywood, return on investment.

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3561 Life Time Based Analysis of MAC Protocols of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks in WSN Applications

Authors: R. Alageswaran, S. Selvakumar, P. Neelamegam

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are emerging because of the developments in wireless communication technology and miniaturization of the hardware. WSN consists of a large number of low-cost, low-power, multifunctional sensor nodes to monitor physical conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion, etc. The MAC protocol to be used in the sensor networks must be energy efficient and this should aim at conserving the energy during its operation. In this paper, with the focus of analyzing the MAC protocols used in wireless Adhoc networks to WSN, simulation experiments were conducted in Global Mobile Simulator (GloMoSim) software. Number of packets sent by regular nodes, and received by sink node in different deployment strategies, total energy spent, and the network life time have been chosen as the metric for comparison. From the results of simulation, it is evident that the IEEE 802.11 protocol performs better compared to CSMA and MACA protocols.

Keywords: CSMA, DCF, MACA, TelosB

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3560 Electronic Markets has Weakened the “Tradeoff between Reach and Richness“ in the Internet

Authors: Haroon Altarawneh, Sattam Allahawiah

Abstract:

This paper has two main ideas. Firstly, it describes Evans and Wurster-s concepts “the trade-off between reach and richness", and relates them to the impact of technology on the virtual markets. Authors Evans and Wurster see the transfer of information as a 'trade'off between richness and reach-. Reach refers to the number of people who share particular information, with Richness ['Rich'] being a more complex concept combining: bandwidth, customization, interactivity, reliability, security and currency. Traditional shopping limits the number of shops the shopper is able to visit due to time and other cost constraints; the time spent traveling consequently leaves the shopper with less time to evaluate the product. The paper concludes that although the Web provides Reach, offering Richness and the sense of community required for creating and sustaining relationships with potential clients could be difficult.

Keywords: Internet, Web sites, Richness and Reach, Ecommerce, virtual markets.

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3559 On the Paradigm Shift of the Overall Urban Design in China

Authors: Gaoyuan Wang, Tian Chen, Junnan Liu

Abstract:

Facing a period of major change that is rarely seen in a century, China formulates the 14th Five-Year Plan and places emphasis on promoting high-quality development. In this context, the overall urban design has become a crucial and systematic tool for high-quality urban development. However, there are bottlenecks in the cognition of nature, content scope and transmission mechanisms of the current overall urban design in China. The paper interprets the emerging demands of the 14th Five-Year Plan on urban design in terms of new value-quality priority, new dynamic-space performance, new target-region coordination and new path-refined governance. Based on the new trend and appeal, the multi-dimensional thinking integrated with the major tasks of urban design are proposed accordingly, which is the biomass thinking in ecological, production and living element, the strategic thinking in spatial structure, the systematic thinking in the cityscape, the low-carbon thinking in urban form, the governance thinking in public space, the user thinking in design implementation. The paper explores the possibility of transforming the value thinking and technical system of urban design in China and provides a breakthrough path for the urban planning and design industry to better respond to the propositions of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan.

Keywords: China’s 14th five-year plan, overall urban design, urban design thinking, transformation of urban design.

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3558 Color Image Segmentation Using Competitive and Cooperative Learning Approach

Authors: Yinggan Tang, Xinping Guan

Abstract:

Color image segmentation can be considered as a cluster procedure in feature space. k-means and its adaptive version, i.e. competitive learning approach are powerful tools for data clustering. But k-means and competitive learning suffer from several drawbacks such as dead-unit problem and need to pre-specify number of cluster. In this paper, we will explore to use competitive and cooperative learning approach to perform color image segmentation. In competitive and cooperative learning approach, seed points not only compete each other, but also the winner will dynamically select several nearest competitors to form a cooperative team to adapt to the input together, finally it can automatically select the correct number of cluster and avoid the dead-units problem. Experimental results show that CCL can obtain better segmentation result.

Keywords: Color image segmentation, competitive learning, cluster, k-means algorithm, competitive and cooperative learning.

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3557 Vortex Shedding on Combined Bodies at Incidence to a Uniform Air Stream

Authors: T. Yavuz, Y. E. Akansu, M. Sarıoglu, M. Ozmert

Abstract:

Vortex-shedding phenomenon of the flow around combined two bodies having various geometries and sizes has been investigated experimentally in the Reynolds number range between 4.1x103 and 1.75x104. To see the effect of the rotation of the bodies on the vortex shedding, the combined bodies were rotated from 0° to 180°. The combined models have a cross section composing of a main circular cylinder and an attached circular or square cylinder. Results have shown that Strouhal numbers for two cases were changed considerably with the angle of incidence, while it was found to be largely independent of Reynolds number at 150. Characteristics of the vortex formation region and location of flow attachments, reattachments, and separations were observed by means of the flow visualizations. Depending on the inclination angle the effects of flow attachment, separation and reattachment on vortex-shedding phenomenon have been discussed.

Keywords: Bluff body, vortex shedding, flow separation, flow reattachment

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3556 Stochastic Risk Analysis Framework for Building Construction Projects

Authors: Abdulkadir Abu Lawal

Abstract:

The study was carried out to establish the probability density function of some selected building construction projects of similar complexity delivered using Bill of Quantities (BQ) and Lump Sum (LS) forms of contract, and to draw a reliability scenario for each form of contract. 30 of such delivered projects are analyzed for each of the contract forms using Weibull Analysis, and their Weibull functions (α, and β) are determined based on their completion times. For the BQ form of contract delivered projects, α is calculated as 1.6737E20 and β as + 0.0115 and for the LS form, α is found to be 5.6556E03 and β is determined as + 0.4535. Using these values, respective probability density functions are calculated and plotted, as handy tool for risk analysis of future projects of similar characteristics. By input of variables from other projects, decision making processes can be made for a whole project or its components using EVM Analysis in project evaluation and review techniques. This framework, as a quantitative approach, depends on the assumption of normality in projects completion time, it can help greatly in determining the completion time probability for veritable projects using any of the contract forms under consideration. Projects aspects that are not amenable to measurement, on the other hand, can be analyzed using fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic. This scenario can be drawn for different types of building construction projects, and using different suitable forms of contract in projects delivery.

Keywords: Building construction, Projects, Forms of contract, Probability density function, Reliability scenario.

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3555 A Robust Method for Encrypted Data Hiding Technique Based on Neighborhood Pixels Information

Authors: Ali Shariq Imran, M. Younus Javed, Naveed Sarfraz Khattak

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel method for data hiding based on neighborhood pixels information to calculate the number of bits that can be used for substitution and modified Least Significant Bits technique for data embedding. The modified solution is independent of the nature of the data to be hidden and gives correct results along with un-noticeable image degradation. The technique, to find the number of bits that can be used for data hiding, uses the green component of the image as it is less sensitive to human eye and thus it is totally impossible for human eye to predict whether the image is encrypted or not. The application further encrypts the data using a custom designed algorithm before embedding bits into image for further security. The overall process consists of three main modules namely embedding, encryption and extraction cm.

Keywords: Data hiding, image processing, information security, stagonography.

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3554 Non-Revenue Water Management in Palestine

Authors: Samah Jawad Jabari

Abstract:

Water is the most important and valuable resource not only for human life but also for all living things on the planet. The water supply utilities should fulfill the water requirement quantitatively and qualitatively. Drinking water systems are exposed to both natural (hurricanes and flood) and manmade hazards (risks) that are common in Palestine. Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is a manmade risk which remains a major concern in Palestine, as the NRW levels are estimated to be at a high level. In this research, Hebron city water distribution network was taken as a case study to estimate and audit the NRW levels. The research also investigated the state of the existing water distribution system in the study area by investigating the water losses and obtained more information on NRW prevention and management practices. Data and information have been collected from the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) and Hebron Municipality (HM) archive. In addition to that, a questionnaire has been designed and administered by the researcher in order to collect the necessary data for water auditing. The questionnaire also assessed the views of stakeholder in PWA and HM (staff) on the current status of the NRW in the Hebron water distribution system. The important result obtained by this research shows that NRW in Hebron city was high and in excess of 30%. The main factors that contribute to NRW were the inaccuracies in billing volumes, unauthorized consumption, and the method of estimating consumptions through faulty meters. Policy for NRW reduction is available in Palestine; however, it is clear that the number of qualified staff available to carry out the activities related to leak detection is low, and that there is a lack of appropriate technologies to reduce water losses and undertake sufficient system maintenance, which needs to be improved to enhance the performance of the network and decrease the level of NRW losses.

Keywords: Non-revenue water, water auditing, leak detection, water meters.

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3553 Radiation Effect on Unsteady MHD Flow over a Stretching Surface

Authors: Zanariah Mohd Yusof, Siti Khuzaimah Soid, Ahmad Sukri Abd Aziz, Seripah Awang Kechil

Abstract:

Unsteady magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) boundary layer flow and heat transfer over a continuously stretching surface in the presence of radiation is examined. By similarity transformation, the governing partial differential equations are transformed to a set of ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions are obtained by employing the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method scheme with shooting technique in Maple software environment. The effects of unsteadiness parameter, radiation parameter, magnetic parameter and Prandtl number on the heat transfer characteristics are obtained and discussed. It is found that the heat transfer rate at the surface increases as the Prandtl number and unsteadiness parameter increase but decreases with magnetic and radiation parameter.

Keywords: Heat transfer, magnetohydrodynamics, radiation, unsteadiness.

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3552 Influence of Synthetic Antioxidant in the Iodine Value and Acid Number of Jatropha Curcas Biodiesel

Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono

Abstract:

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels that promising for substituting petro diesel as energy source which is advantage on sustainability and ecofriendly. Due to the raw material that tend to decompose during storage, biodiesel also have the same characteristic that tend to decompose and formed higher acid value which is the result of oxidation to double bond on a chain of ester. Decomposition of biodiesel due to oxidation reaction could prevent by introduce a small amount of antioxidant. The origin of raw materials and the process for producing biodiesel will determine the effectiveness of antioxidant. The quality degradation on biodiesel could evaluate by measuring iodine value and acid number of biodiesel. Biodiesel made from high fatty acid Jatropha curcas oil by using esterification and transesterification process will stand on the quality by introduce 90 ppm pyrogallol powder on the biodiesel, which could increase Induction period time from 2 hours to more than 6 hours in rancimat test evaluation.

Keywords: Acid value, antioxidant, biodiesel, iodine value.

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3551 Frequent and Systematic Timing Enhancement of Congestion Window in Typical Transmission Control Protocol

Authors: Ghassan A. Abed, Akbal O. Salman, Bayan M. Sabbar

Abstract:

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) among the wired and wireless networks, it still has a practical problem; where the congestion control mechanism does not permit the data stream to get complete bandwidth over the existing network links. To solve this problem, many TCP protocols have been introduced with high speed performance. Therefore, an enhanced congestion window (cwnd) for the congestion control mechanism is proposed in this article to improve the performance of TCP by increasing the number of cycles of the new window to improve the transmitted packet number. The proposed algorithm used a new mechanism based on the available bandwidth of the connection to detect the capacity of network path in order to improve the regular clocking of congestion avoidance mechanism. The work in this paper based on using Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) to simulate the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: TCP, cwnd, Congestion Control, NS-2.

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3550 Quality and Quantity in the Strategic Network of Higher Education Institutions

Authors: Juha Kettunen

Abstract:

This study analyzes the quality and the size of the strategic network of higher education institutions. The study analyses the concept of fitness for purpose in quality assurance. It also analyses the transaction costs of networking that have consequences on the number of members in the network. Empirical evidence is presented of the Consortium on Applied Research and Professional Education, which is a European strategic network of six higher education institutions. The results of the study support the argument that the number of members in the strategic network should be relatively small to provide high quality results. The practical importance is that networking has been able to promote international research and development projects. The results of this study are important for those who want to design and improve international networks in higher education.

Keywords: Higher education, network, research and development, strategic management.

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3549 Optimization of Parametric Studies Using Strategies of Sampling Techniques

Authors: Lenka Ševelová, Aleš Florian

Abstract:

To improve the efficiency of parametric studies or tests planning the method is proposed, that takes into account all input parameters, but only a few simulation runs are performed to assess the relative importance of each input parameter. For K input parameters with N input values the total number of possible combinations of input values equals NK. To limit the number of runs, only some (totally N) of possible combinations are taken into account. The sampling procedure Updated Latin Hypercube Sampling is used to choose the optimal combinations. To measure the relative importance of each input parameter, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient is proposed. The sensitivity and the influence of all parameters are analyzed within one procedure and the key parameters with the largest influence are immediately identified.

Keywords: Concrete, pavement, simulation, reliability, Latin Hypercube Sampling, parametric studies.

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3548 A Fault Tolerant Token-based Algorithm for Group Mutual Exclusion in Distributed Systems

Authors: Abhishek Swaroop, Awadhesh Kumar Singh

Abstract:

The group mutual exclusion (GME) problem is a variant of the mutual exclusion problem. In the present paper a token-based group mutual exclusion algorithm, capable of handling transient faults, is proposed. The algorithm uses the concept of dynamic request sets. A time out mechanism is used to detect the token loss; also, a distributed scheme is used to regenerate the token. The worst case message complexity of the algorithm is n+1. The maximum concurrency and forum switch complexity of the algorithm are n and min (n, m) respectively, where n is the number of processes and m is the number of groups. The algorithm also satisfies another desirable property called smooth admission. The scheme can also be adapted to handle the extended group mutual exclusion problem.

Keywords: Dynamic request sets, Fault tolerance, Smoothadmission, Transient faults.

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3547 Surface Water Pollution by Open Refuse Dumpsite in North Central of Nigeria

Authors: Abimbola Motunrayo Folami, Ibironke Titilayo Enitan, Feroz Mohomed Swalaha

Abstract:

Water is a vital resource that is important in ensuring the growth and development of any country. To sustain the basic human needs and the demands for agriculture, industry, conservational and ecosystem, enough quality and quantity water is needed. Contamination of water resources is now a global and public health concern. Hence, this study assessed the water quality of Ndawuse River by measuring the physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of the river using standard methods. In total, 16 surface water samples were obtained from five locations along the river, from upstream to downstream as well as samples from the dumpsite. The results obtained were compared with the standard limits set by both the World Health Organization and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for domestic purposes. The results of the measured parameters indicated that biological oxygen demand (85.88 mg/L), turbidity (44.51 NTU), Iron (0.014 - 3.511 mg /L) and chromium (0.078 - 0.14 mg /L) were all above the standard limits. The results further showed that the quality of surface water is being significantly affected by human activities around the Ndawuse River which could pose an adverse health risk to several communities that rely on this river as their primary source of water. Therefore, there is a need for strict enforcement of environmental laws to protect the aquatic ecosystem and to avoid long term cumulative exposure risk that heavy metals may pose on human health.

Keywords: Abuja, contaminants, heavy metals, Ndawuse River, Nigeria, surface water.

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3546 Experimental Investigation of the Transient Cooling Characteristics of an Industrial Glass Tempering Unit

Authors: Hilmi Yazici, Mehmet Akcay, Mustafa Golcu, Mehmet F. Koseoglu, Yakup Sekmen

Abstract:

Energy consumption rate during the cooling process of industrial glass tempering process is considerably high. In this experimental study the effect of dimensionless jet to jet distance (S/D) and jet to plate distance (H/D) on the cooling time have been investigated. In the experiments 4 mm thick glass samples have been used. Cooling unit consists of 16 mutually placed seamless aluminum nozzles of 8 mm in diameter and 80 mm in length. Nozzles were in staggered arrangement. Experiments were conducted with circular jets for H/D values between 1 and 10, and for S/D values between 2 and 10. During the experiments Reynolds number has been kept constant at 30000. Experimental results showed that the longest cooling time with 87 seconds has been observed in the experiments for S/D=10 and H/D=10 values, while the shortest cooling time with 42.5 seconds has been measured in the experiments for S/D=2 and H/D=4 values.

Keywords: Glass tempering, cooling, Reynolds number, nozzle

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3545 Performance of a Connected Random Covered Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Network

Authors: M. Mahdavi, M. Ismail, K. Jumari, Z. M. Hanapi

Abstract:

For the sensor network to operate successfully, the active nodes should maintain both sensing coverage and network connectivity. Furthermore, scheduling sleep intervals plays critical role for energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks. Traditional methods for sensor scheduling use either sensing coverage or network connectivity, but rarely both. In this paper, we use random scheduling for sensing coverage and then turn on extra sensor nodes, if necessary, for network connectivity. Simulation results have demonstrated that the number of extra nodes that is on with upper bound of around 9%, is small compared to the total number of deployed sensor nodes. Thus energy consumption for switching on extra sensor node is small.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, energy efficient network, performance analysis, network coverage.

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3544 On the Steady-State Performance Characteristics of Finite Hydrodynamic Journal Bearing under Micro-Polar Lubrication with Turbulent Effect

Authors: Subrata Das, Sisir Kumar Guha

Abstract:

The objective of the present paper is to theoretically investigate the steady-state performance characteristics of journal bearing of finite width, operating with micropolar lubricant in a turbulent regime. In this analysis, the turbulent shear stress coefficients are used based on the Constantinescu’s turbulent model suggested by Taylor and Dowson with the assumption of parallel and inertia-less flow. The numerical solution of the modified Reynolds equation has yielded the distribution of film pressure which determines the static performance characteristics in terms of load capacity, attitude angle, end flow rate and frictional parameter at various values of eccentricity ratio, non-dimensional characteristics length, coupling number and Reynolds number.

Keywords: Hydrodynamic lubrication, steady-state, micropolar lubricant, turbulent.

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3543 Computation of the Filtering Properties of Photonic Crystal Waveguide Discontinuities Using the Mode Matching Method

Authors: Athanasios Theoharidis, Thomas Kamalakis, Ioannis Neokosmidis, Thomas Sphicopoulos

Abstract:

In this paper, the application of the Mode Matching (MM) method in the case of photonic crystal waveguide discontinuities is presented. The structure under consideration is divided into a number of cells, which supports a number of guided and evanescent modes. These modes can be calculated numerically by an alternative formulation of the plane wave expansion method for each frequency. A matrix equation is then formed relating the modal amplitudes at the beginning and at the end of the structure. The theory is highly efficient and accurate and can be applied to study the transmission sensitivity of photonic crystal devices due to fabrication tolerances. The accuracy of the MM method is compared to the Finite Difference Frequency Domain (FDFD) and the Adjoint Variable Method (AVM) and good agreement is observed.

Keywords: Optical Communications, Integrated Optics, Photonic Crystals, Optical Waveguide Discontinuities.

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3542 Performance Analysis of Learning Automata-Based Routing Algorithms in Sparse Graphs

Authors: Z.Farhadpour, Mohammad.R.Meybodi

Abstract:

A number of routing algorithms based on learning automata technique have been proposed for communication networks. How ever, there has been little work on the effects of variation of graph scarcity on the performance of these algorithms. In this paper, a comprehensive study is launched to investigate the performance of LASPA, the first learning automata based solution to the dynamic shortest path routing, across different graph structures with varying scarcities. The sensitivity of three main performance parameters of the algorithm, being average number of processed nodes, scanned edges and average time per update, to variation in graph scarcity is reported. Simulation results indicate that the LASPA algorithm can adapt well to the scarcity variation in graph structure and gives much better outputs than the existing dynamic and fixed algorithms in terms of performance criteria.

Keywords: Learning automata, routing, algorithm, sparse graph

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3541 On the Prediction of Transmembrane Helical Segments in Membrane Proteins Based on Wavelet Transform

Authors: Yu Bin, Zhang Yan

Abstract:

The prediction of transmembrane helical segments (TMHs) in membrane proteins is an important field in the bioinformatics research. In this paper, a new method based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) has been developed to predict the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins. PDB coded as 1KQG was chosen as an example to describe the prediction of the number and location of TMHs in membrane proteins by using this method. To access the effect of the method, 80 proteins with known 3D-structure from Mptopo database are chosen at random as the test objects (including 325 TMHs), 308 of which can be predicted accurately, the average predicted accuracy is 96.3%. In addition, the above 80 membrane proteins are divided into 13 groups according to their function and type. In particular, the results of the prediction of TMHs of the 13 groups are satisfying.

Keywords: discrete wavelet transform, hydrophobicity, membrane protein, transmembrane helical segments

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3540 Assuming the Decision of Having One (More) Child: The New Dimensions of the Post Communist Romanian Family

Authors: Raluca-Ioana Horea-Şerban, Marinela Istrate

Abstract:

The first part of the paper analyzes the dynamics of the total fertility rate both at the national and regional level, pointing out the regional disparities in the distribution of this indicator. At the same time, we also focus on the collapse of the number of live births, on the changes in the fertility rate by birth rank, as well as on the failure of acquiring the desired number of children. The second part of the study centres upon a survey applied to urban families with 3 and more than 3 offspring. The preliminary analysis highlights the fact that an increased fertility (more than 3rd rank) is triggered by the parents’ above the average material condition and superior education. The current situation of Romania, which is still passing through a period of relatively rapid demographic changes, marked by numerous convulsions, requires a new approach, in compliance with the recent interpretations appropriate to a new post-transitional demographic regime.

Keywords: Family size intention, fertility rate, regional disparities, third birth rank.

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3539 A Review of Coverage and Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: Hamid Barati, Ali Movaghar, Ali Barati, Arash Azizi Mazreah

Abstract:

The special constraints of sensor networks impose a number of technical challenges for employing them. In this review, we study the issues and existing protocols in three areas: coverage and routing. We present two types of coverage problems: to determine the minimum number of sensor nodes that need to perform active sensing in order to monitor a certain area; and to decide the quality of service that can be provided by a given sensor network. While most routing protocols in sensor networks are data-centric, there are other types of routing protocols as well, such as hierarchical, location-based, and QoS-aware. We describe and compare several protocols in each group. We present several multipath routing protocols and single-path with local repair routing protocols, which are proposed for recovering from sensor node crashes. We also discuss some transport layer schemes for reliable data transmission in lossy wireless channels.

Keywords: Sensor networks, Coverage, Routing, Robustness.

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3538 Dynamic Risk Identification Using Fuzzy Failure Mode Effect Analysis in Fabric Process Industries: A Research Article as Management Perspective

Authors: A. Sivakumar, S. S. Darun Prakash, P. Navaneethakrishnan

Abstract:

In and around Erode District, it is estimated that more than 1250 chemical and allied textile processing fabric industries are affected, partially closed and shut off for various reasons such as poor management, poor supplier performance, lack of planning for productivity, fluctuation of output, poor investment, waste analysis, labor problems, capital/labor ratio, accumulation of stocks, poor maintenance of resources, deficiencies in the quality of fabric, low capacity utilization, age of plant and equipment, high investment and input but low throughput, poor research and development, lack of energy, workers’ fear of loss of jobs, work force mix and work ethic. The main objective of this work is to analyze the existing conditions in textile fabric sector, validate the break even of Total Productivity (TP), analyze, design and implement fuzzy sets and mathematical programming for improvement of productivity and quality dimensions in the fabric processing industry. It needs to be compatible with the reality of textile and fabric processing industries. The highly risk events from productivity and quality dimension were found by fuzzy systems and results are wrapped up among the textile fabric processing industry.

Keywords: Break Even Point, Fuzzy Crisp Data, Fuzzy Sets, Productivity, Productivity Cycle, Total Productive Maintenance.

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