Search results for: higher order ODEs.

Authors: Hsien-Chou Liao, Yu-Shiang Wang

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Surveillance system is widely used in the traffic monitoring. The deployment of cameras is moving toward a ubiquitous camera (UbiCam) environment. In our previous study, a novel service, called GPS-VT, was firstly proposed by incorporating global positioning system (GPS) and visual tracking techniques for the UbiCam environment. The first prototype is called GODTA (GPS-based Moving Object Detection and Tracking Approach). For a moving person carried GPS-enabled mobile device, he can be tracking when he enters the field-of-view (FOV) of a camera according to his real-time GPS coordinate. In this paper, GPS-VT service is applied to the tracking of vehicles. The moving speed of a vehicle is much faster than a person. It means that the time passing through the FOV is much shorter than that of a person. Besides, the update interval of GPS coordinate is once per second, it is asynchronous with the frame rate of the real-time image. The above asynchronous is worsen by the network transmission delay. These factors are the main challenging to fulfill GPS-VT service on a vehicle.In order to overcome the influence of the above factors, a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) is used to predict the possible lane before the vehicle enters the FOV of a camera. Then, a template matching technique is used for the visual tracking of a target vehicle. The experimental result shows that the target vehicle can be located and tracking successfully. The success location rate of the implemented prototype is higher than that of the previous GODTA.

Keywords: visual surveillance, visual tracking, globalpositioning system, intelligent transportation system

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Authors: Vesna Vulić

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Croatia has made large steps forward in the development of higher education over the past 10 years. Purposes and objectives of the tertiary education system are focused on the personal development of young people so that they obtain competences for employment on a flexible labour market. The most frequent tensions between the tertiary institutions and employers are complaints that the current tertiary education system still supplies students with an abundance of theoretical knowledge and not enough practical skills. Polytechnics and schools of professional higher education should deliver professional education and training that will satisfy the needs of their local communities. The 21^st century sets demand on undergraduates as well as their lecturers to strive for the highest standards. The skills students acquire during their studies should serve the needs of their future professional careers. In this context, teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) presents an enormous challenge for teachers. They have to cope with teaching the language in classes with a large number of students, limitations of time, inadequate equipment and teaching material; most frequently, this leads to focusing on specialist vocabulary neglecting the development of skills and competences required for future employment. Globalization has transformed the labour market and set new standards a perspective employee should meet. When knowledge of languages is considered, new generic skills and competences are required. Not only skillful written and oral communication is needed, but also information, media, and technology literacy, learning skills which include critical and creative thinking, collaborating and communicating, as well as social skills. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the needs of two groups of ESP first year Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students taking ESP as a mandatory course: 47 first-year Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students, 21 first-year employed part-time Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students and 30 graduates with a degree in Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study with various amounts of work experience. The survey adopted a quantitative approach with the aim to determine the differences between the groups in their perception of the four language skills and different areas of law, as well as getting the insight into students' satisfaction with the current course and their motivation for studying ESP. Their perceptions will be compared to the results of the questionnaire conducted among sector professionals in order to examine how they perceive the same elements of the ESP course content and to what extent it fits into their working environment. The results of the survey indicated that there is a strong correlation between acquiring work experience and the level of importance given to particular areas of law studied in an ESP course which is in line with our initial hypothesis. In conclusion, the results of the survey should help lecturers in re-evaluating and updating their ESP course syllabi.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, ESP, language skills, motivation, needs analysis.

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Authors: Laleh Taheri, Noraini C. Pa., Rusli Abdullah, Salfarina Abdullah

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Knowledge plays an important role to the success of any organization. Software development organizations are highly knowledge-intensive organizations especially in their requirement elicitation process (REP). There are several problems regarding communicating and using the knowledge in REP such as misunderstanding, being out of scope, conflicting information and changes of requirements. All of these problems occurred in transmitting the requirements knowledge during REP. Several researches have been done in REP in order to solve the problem towards requirements. Knowledge Audit (KA) approaches were proposed in order to solve managing knowledge in human resources, financial and manufacturing. There is lack of study applying the KA in requirements elicitation process. Therefore, this paper proposes a KA model for REP in supporting to acquire good requirements.

Keywords: Knowledge Audit, Requirement Elicitation Process, KA Model, Knowledge in Requirement Elicitation.

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Authors: E. Thipe, T. Workneh, A. Odindo, M. Laing

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The postharvest quality management of tomatoes is important to limit the amount of losses that occur due to deterioration between harvest and consumption. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of pre- and postharvest integrated agrotechnologies, involving greenhouse microclimate and postharvest storage conditions, on the postharvest quality attributes of four tomato cultivars. Tomato fruit firmness, colour (hue angle (h°) and L* value), pH and total soluble solids for the cultivars Bona, Star 9037, Star 9009 and Zeal, grown in a fan-pad evaporativelycooled and an open-ended naturally-ventilated tunnel, were harvested at the mature-green stage. The tomatoes were stored for 28 days under cold storage conditions, with a temperature of 13°C and RH of 85%, and under ambient air conditions, with a temperature of 23± 2°C and RH of 52± 4%. This study has provided information on the effect of integrated pre-harvest and postharvest agro-technologies, involving greenhouse microclimate and postharvest storage environment on the postharvest quality attributes of four of the tomato cultivars in South Africa. NVT-grown tomatoes retained better textural qualities, but ripened faster by changing from green to red faster, although these were reduced under cold storage conditions. FPVT-grown tomatoes had lower firmness, but ripened slowly with higher colour attributes. With cold storage conditions, the firmness of FPVT-grown tomatoes was maintained. Cultivar Bona firmness and colour qualities depreciated the fastest, but it had higher TSS content and lower pH values. Star 9009 and Star 9037 presented better quality, by retaining higher firmness and ripening slowly, but they had the lowest TSS contents and high pH values, especially Star 9037. Cold storage improved the firmness of tomato cultivars with poor textural quality and faster colour changes.

Keywords: Greenhouse, micro-climate, tomato, postharvest quality, storage.

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Authors: Rizauddin Ramli, Jaber Abu Qudeiri, Hidehiko Yamamoto

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Nowadays the market for industrial companies is becoming more and more globalized and highly competitive, forcing them to shorten the duration of the manufacturing system development time in order to reduce the time to market. In order to achieve this target, the hierarchical systems used in previous manufacturing systems are not enough because they cannot deal effectively with unexpected situations. To achieve flexibility in manufacturing systems, the concept of an Autonomous Decentralized Flexible Manufacturing System (AD-FMS) is useful. In this paper, we introduce a hypothetical reasoning based algorithm called the Algorithm for Future Anticipative Reasoning (AFAR) which is able to decide on a conceivable next action of an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) that works autonomously in the AD-FMS.

Keywords: Flexible Manufacturing System, Automated GuidedVehicle, Hypothetical Reasoning, Autonomous Decentralized.

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Authors: S. M. Shahinul Islam, Israt Ara, Narendra Tuteja, Sreeramanan Subramaniam

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Through anther and microspore culture methods, complete homozygous plants can be produced within a year as compared to the long inbreeding method. Isolated microspore culture is one of the most important techniques for rapid development of haploid plants. The efficiency of this method is influenced by several factors such as cultural conditions, growth regulators, plant media, pretreatments, physical and growth conditions of the donor plants, pollen isolation procedure, etc. The main purpose of this study was to improve the isolated microspore culture protocol in order to increase the efficiency of embryoids, its regeneration and reducing albinisms. Under this study we have tested mainly three different microspore isolation procedures by glass rod, homozeniger and by blending and found the efficiency on gametic embryogenesis. There are three types of media viz. washing, pre-culture and induction was used. The induction medium as AMC (modified MS) supplemented by 2, 4-D (2.5 mg/l), kinetin (0.5 mg/l) and higher amount of D-Manitol (90 g/l) instead of sucrose and two types of amino acids (L-glutamine and L-serine) were used. Out of three main microspore isolation procedure by homogenizer isolation (P₄) showed best performance on ELS induction (177%) and green plantlets (104%) compared with other techniques. For all cases albinisims occurred but microspore isolation from excised anthers by glass rod and homogenizer showed lesser numbers of albino plants that was also one of the important findings in this study.

Keywords: Androgenesis, pretreatment, microspore culture, regeneration, albino plants, Oryza sativa.

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Authors: Devendra Kumar Pandey, Debabrata Chakraborty

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The advancement in various concrete ingredients like plasticizers, additives and fibers, etc. has enabled concrete technologists to develop many viable varieties of special concretes in recent decades. Such various varieties of concrete have significant enhancement in green as well as hardened properties of concrete. A prudent selection of appropriate type of concrete can resolve many design and application issues in construction projects. This paper focuses on usage of self-compacting concrete, high early strength concrete, structural lightweight concrete, fiber reinforced concrete, high performance concrete and ultra-high strength concrete in the structures. The modified properties of strength at various ages, flowability, porosity, equilibrium density, flexural strength, elasticity, permeability etc. need to be carefully studied and incorporated into the design of the structures. The paper demonstrates various mixture combinations and the concrete properties that can be leveraged. The selection of such products based on the end use of structures has been proposed in order to efficiently utilize the modified characteristics of these concrete varieties. The study involves mapping the characteristics with benefits and savings for the structure from design perspective. Self-compacting concrete in the structure is characterized by high shuttering loads, better finish, and feasibility of closer reinforcement spacing. The structural design procedures can be modified to specify higher formwork strength, height of vertical members, cover reduction and increased ductility. The transverse reinforcement can be spaced at closer intervals compared to regular structural concrete. It allows structural lightweight concrete structures to be designed for reduced dead load, increased insulation properties. Member dimensions and steel requirement can be reduced proportionate to about 25 to 35 percent reduction in the dead load due to self-weight of concrete. Steel fiber reinforced concrete can be used to design grade slabs without primary reinforcement because of 70 to 100 percent higher tensile strength. The design procedures incorporate reduction in thickness and joint spacing. High performance concrete employs increase in the life of the structures by improvement in paste characteristics and durability by incorporating supplementary cementitious materials. Often, these are also designed for slower heat generation in the initial phase of hydration. The structural designer can incorporate the slow development of strength in the design and specify 56 or 90 days strength requirement. For designing high rise building structures, creep and elasticity properties of such concrete also need to be considered. Lastly, certain structures require a performance under loading conditions much earlier than final maturity of concrete. High early strength concrete has been designed to cater to a variety of usages at various ages as early as 8 to 12 hours. Therefore, an understanding of concrete performance specifications for special concrete is a definite door towards a superior structural design approach.

Keywords: High performance concrete, special concrete, structural design, structural lightweight concrete.

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Authors: M. Sadighi, H. Pouriayevali, M. Saadati

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This paper describes analysis of low velocity transverse impact on fully backed sandwich beams with composite faces from Eglass/epoxy and cores from Polyurethane or PVC. Indentation on sandwich beams has been analyzed with the existing theories and modeled with the FE code ABAQUS, also loadings have been done experimentally to verify theoretical results. Impact on fully backed has been modeled in two cases of impactor energy with SDOF model (single-degree-of-freedom) and indentation stiffness: lower energy for elastic indentation of sandwich beams and higher energy for plastic area in indentation. Impacts have been modeled by ABAQUS. Impact results can describe response of beam in terms of core and faces thicknesses, core material, indentor energy and energy absorbed. The foam core is modeled using the crushable foam material model and response of the foam core is experimentally characterized in uniaxial compression with higher velocity loading to define quasi impact behaviour.

Keywords: Low velocity impact, fully backed, indentation, sandwich beams, foams, finite element.

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Authors: Jiming Yang

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A kind of singularly perturbed boundary value problems is under consideration. In order to obtain its approximation, simple upwind difference discretization is applied. We use a moving mesh iterative algorithm based on equi-distributing of the arc-length function of the current computed piecewise linear solution. First, a maximum norm a posteriori error estimate on an arbitrary mesh is derived using a different method from the one carried out by Chen [Advances in Computational Mathematics, 24(1-4) (2006), 197-212.]. Then, basing on the properties of discrete Green-s function and the presented posteriori error estimate, we theoretically prove that the discrete solutions computed by the algorithm are first-order uniformly convergent with respect to the perturbation parameter ε.

Keywords: Convergence analysis, green's function, singularly perturbed, equi-distribution, moving mesh.

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Authors: Diako Azizi, Ahmad Gholami, Vahid Abbasi

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High voltage generators are being subject to higher voltage rating and are being designed to operate in harsh conditions. Stator windings are the main component of generators in which Electrical, magnetically and thermal stresses remain major failures for insulation degradation accelerated aging. A large number of generators failed due to stator winding problems, mainly insulation deterioration. Insulation degradation assessment plays vital role in the asset life management. Mostly the stator failure is catastrophic causing significant damage to the plant. Other than generation loss, stator failure involves heavy repair or replacement cost. Electro thermal analysis is the main characteristic for improvement design of stator slot-s insulation. Dielectric parameters such as insulation thickness, spacing, material types, geometry of winding and slot are major design consideration. A very powerful method available to analyze electro thermal performance is Finite Element Method (FEM) which is used in this paper. The analysis of various stator coil and slot configurations are used to design the better dielectric system to reduce electrical and thermal stresses in order to increase the power of generator in the same volume of core. This paper describes the process used to perform classical design and improvement analysis of stator slot-s insulation.

Keywords: Electromagnetic field, field distribution, insulation, winding, finite element method

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Authors: Sh. Jamali, A. Eftekhari

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Transmission control protocol (TCP) Vegas detects network congestion in the early stage and successfully prevents periodic packet loss that usually occurs in TCP Reno. It has been demonstrated that TCP Vegas outperforms TCP Reno in many aspects. However, TCP Vegas suffers several problems that affect its congestion avoidance mechanism. One of the most important weaknesses in TCP Vegas is that alpha and beta depend on a good expected throughput estimate, which as we have seen, depends on a good minimum RTT estimate. In order to make the system more robust alpha and beta must be made responsive to network conditions (they are currently chosen statically). This paper proposes a modified Vegas algorithm, which can be adjusted to present good performance compared to other transmission control protocols (TCPs). In order to do this, we use PSO algorithm to tune alpha and beta. The simulation results validate the advantages of the proposed algorithm in term of performance.

Keywords: Self-managing, Congestion control, TCP.

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Authors: Khalid. M. O. Elmabrok, M. L. Burby, G. G. Nasr

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Flow instability during gas lift operation is caused by three major phenomena – the density wave oscillation, the casing heading pressure and the flow perturbation within the two-phase flow region. This paper focuses on the causes and the effect of flow instability during gas lift operation and suggests ways to control it in order to maximise productivity during gas lift operations. A laboratory-scale two-phase flow system to study the effects of flow perturbation was designed and built. The apparatus is comprised of a 2 m long by 66 mm ID transparent PVC pipe with air injection point situated at 0.1 m above the base of the pipe. This is the point where stabilised bubbles were visibly clear after injection. Air is injected into the water filled transparent pipe at different flow rates and pressures. The behavior of the different sizes of the bubbles generated within the two-phase region was captured using a digital camera and the images were analysed using the advanced image processing package. It was observed that the average maximum bubbles sizes increased with the increase in the length of the vertical pipe column from 29.72 to 47 mm. The increase in air injection pressure from 0.5 to 3 bars increased the bubble sizes from 29.72 mm to 44.17 mm and then decreasing when the pressure reaches 4 bars. It was observed that at higher bubble velocity of 6.7 m/s, larger diameter bubbles coalesce and burst due to high agitation and collision with each other. This collapse of the bubbles causes pressure drop and reverse flow within two phase flow and is the main cause of the flow instability phenomena.

Keywords: Gas lift instability, bubble forming, bubble collapsing, image processing.

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Authors: Madhu Sudan, G. N. Tiwari

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In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the effect of wall window orientation on Daylight Illuminance Ratio (DIR) and energy saving in a building known as “SODHA BERS COMPLEX (SBC)” at Varanasi, UP, India. The building has been designed incorporating all passive concepts for thermal comfort as well daylighting concepts to maximize the use of natural daylighting for the occupants in the day to day activities. The annual average DIR and the energy saving has been estimated by using the DIR model for wall window with different orientations under clear sky condition. It has been found that for south oriented window the energy saving per square meter is more compared to the other orientations due to the higher level of solar insolation for the south window in northern hemisphere whereas energy saving potential is minimum for north oriented wall window. The energy saving potential was 26%, 81% and 51% higher for east, south and west oriented window in comparison to north oriented window. The average annual DIR has same trends of variation as the annual energy saving and it is maximum for south oriented window and minimum for north oriented window.

Keywords: Clear sky, Daylight Illuminance Ratio, Energy saving, Wall window.

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Authors: Jong-Whoi Shin, Jin-Tae Lee, Sang-Soo Jang, Jae-II Lee

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Recent widespread use of information and communication technology has greatly changed information security risks that businesses and institutions encounter. Along with this situation, in order to ensure security and have confidence in electronic trading, it has become important for organizations to take competent information security measures to provide international confidence that sensitive information is secure. Against this backdrop, the approach to information security checking has come to an important issue, which is believed to be common to all countries. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the new system of information security checking program in Korea and to propose synthetic information security countermeasures under domestic circumstances in order to protect physical equipment, security management and technology, and the operation of security check for securing services on ISP(Internet Service Provider), IDC(Internet Data Center), and e-commerce(shopping malls, etc.)

Keywords: Information Security Check Service, safety criteria, object enterpriser.

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Authors: F. Javier Benitez, Francisco J. Real, Juan Luis Acero, Francisco Casas

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Three emerging contaminants (amitriptyline hydrochloride, methyl salicylate and 2-phenoxyethanol) frequently found in waste-waters were selected to be individually degraded in ultra-pure water by the combined advanced oxidation process constituted by UV radiation and chlorine. The influence of pH, initial chlorine concentration and nature of the contaminants was firstly explored. The trend for the reactivity of the selected compounds was deduced: amitriptyline hydrochloride > methyl salicylate > 2-phenoxyethanol. A later kinetic study was carried out and focused on the specific evaluation of the first-order rate constants and the determination of the partial contribution to the global reaction of the direct photochemical pathway and the radical pathway. A comparison between the rate constant values among photochemical experiments without and with the presence of Cl₂ reveals a clear increase in the oxidation efficiency of the combined process with respect to the photochemical reaction alone. In a second stage, the simultaneous oxidation of mixtures of the selected contaminants in several types of water (ultrapure water, surface water from a reservoir, and two secondary effluents) was also performed by the same combination UV/Cl₂ under more realistic operating conditions. The efficiency of this combined system UV/Cl₂ was compared to other oxidants such as the UV/S₂O₈^2- and UV/H₂O₂ AOPs. Results confirmed that the UV/Cl₂ system provides higher elimination efficiencies among the AOPs tested.

Keywords: Emerging contaminants, amitriptyline, methyl salicylate, 2-phenoxyethanol, chlorination, photolysis, rate constants, UV/chlorine advanced oxidation process.

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Authors: Rory Anthony Hutagalung, Leonardus Widjaya

Abstract:

Microalgae Meyerella planktonica is a potential biofuel source because it can grow in bulk in either autotrophic or heterotrophic condition. However, the quantitative growth of this algal type is still low as it tends to precipitates on the bottom. Besides, the lipid concentration is still low when grown in autotrophic condition. In contrast, heterotrophic condition can enhance the lipid concentration. The combination of autotrophic condition and agitation treatment was conducted to increase the density of the culture. On the other hand, a heterotrophic condition was set up to raise the lipid production. A two-stage experiment was applied to increase the density at the first step and to increase the lipid concentration in the next step. The autotrophic condition resulted higher density but lower lipid concentration compared to heterotrophic one. The agitation treatment produced higher density in both autotrophic and heterotrophic conditions. The two-stage experiment managed to enhance the density during the autotrophic stage and the lipid concentration during the heterotrophic stage. The highest yield was performed by using 0.4% v/v glycerol as a carbon source (2.9±0.016 x 10^6 cells w/w) attained 7 days after the heterotrophic stage began. The lipid concentration was stable starting from day 7.

Keywords: Agitation, Glycerol, Heterotrophic, Lipid Productivity, Meyerella planktonica.

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Authors: Zhihan Li

Abstract:

Nowadays, most universities use the course enrollment system considering students’ registration orders. However, the students’ preference level to certain courses is also one important factor to consider. In this research, the possibility of applying a preference-first system has been discussed and analyzed compared to the order-first system. A bipartite graph is applied to resemble the relationship between students and courses they tend to register. With the graph set up, we apply Ford-Fulkerson (F.F.) Algorithm to maximize parings between two sets of nodes, in our case, students and courses. Two models are proposed in this paper: the one considered students’ order first, and the one considered students’ preference first. By comparing and contrasting the two models, we highlight the usability of models which potentially leads to better designs for school course registration systems.

Keywords: Bipartite graph, Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm, graph theory, maximum matching.

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Authors: G.Mehdiyeva, M.Imanova, V.Ibrahimov

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Taking into account that many problems of natural sciences and engineering are reduced to solving initial-value problem for ordinary differential equations, beginning from Newton, the scientists investigate approximate solution of ordinary differential equations. There are papers of different authors devoted to the solution of initial value problem for ODE. The Euler-s known method that was developed under the guidance of the famous scientists Adams, Runge and Kutta is the most popular one among these methods. Recently the scientists began to construct the methods preserving some properties of Adams and Runge-Kutta methods and called them hybrid methods. The constructions of such methods are investigated from the middle of the XX century. Here we investigate one generalization of multistep and hybrid methods and on their base we construct specific methods of accuracy order p = 5 and p = 6 for k = 1 ( k is the order of the difference method).

Keywords: Multistep and hybrid methods, initial value problem, degree and stability of hybrid methods

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Authors: Mareli Hattingh, I. Jaco Van der Walt, Frans B. Waanders

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A waste-to-energy plasma system was designed by Necsa for commercial use to create electricity from unsorted municipal waste. Fly ash particles must be removed from the syngas stream at operating temperatures of 1000 °C and recycled back into the reactor for complete combustion. A 2D2D high efficiency cyclone separator was chosen for this purpose. During this study, two cyclone design methods were explored: The Classic Empirical Method (smaller cyclone) and the Flow Characteristics Method (larger cyclone). These designs were optimized with regard to efficiency, so as to remove at minimum 90% of the fly ash particles of average size 10 μm by 50 μm. Wood was used as feed source at a concentration of 20 g/m³ syngas. The two designs were then compared at room temperature, using Perspex test units and three feed gases of different densities, namely nitrogen, helium and air. System conditions were imitated by adapting the gas feed velocity and particle load for each gas respectively. Helium, the least dense of the three gases, would simulate higher temperatures, whereas air, the densest gas, simulates a lower temperature. The average cyclone efficiencies ranged between 94.96% and 98.37%, reaching up to 99.89% in individual runs. The lowest efficiency attained was 94.00%. Furthermore, the design of the smaller cyclone proved to be more robust, while the larger cyclone demonstrated a stronger correlation between its separation efficiency and the feed temperatures. The larger cyclone can be assumed to achieve slightly higher efficiencies at elevated temperatures. However, both design methods led to good designs. At room temperature, the difference in efficiency between the two cyclones was almost negligible. At higher temperatures, however, these general tendencies are expected to be amplified so that the difference between the two design methods will become more obvious. Though the design specifications were met for both designs, the smaller cyclone is recommended as default particle separator for the plasma system due to its robust nature.

Keywords: Cyclone, design, plasma, renewable energy, solid separation, waste processing.

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Authors: R. Padilla, C. F. F. Costa Filho, M. G. F. Costa

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In the past years a lot of effort has been made in the field of face detection. The human face contains important features that can be used by vision-based automated systems in order to identify and recognize individuals. Face location, the primary step of the vision-based automated systems, finds the face area in the input image. An accurate location of the face is still a challenging task. Viola-Jones framework has been widely used by researchers in order to detect the location of faces and objects in a given image. Face detection classifiers are shared by public communities, such as OpenCV. An evaluation of these classifiers will help researchers to choose the best classifier for their particular need. This work focuses of the evaluation of face detection classifiers minding facial landmarks.

Keywords: Face datasets, face detection, facial landmarking, haar wavelets, Viola-Jones detectors.

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Authors: Ahmad Luthfi

Abstract:

One of the main goals of a computer forensic analyst is to determine the cause and effect of the acquisition of a digital evidence in order to obtain relevant information on the case is being handled. In order to get fast and accurate results, this paper will discuss the approach known as Ontology Framework. This model uses a structured hierarchy of layers that create connectivity between the variant and searching investigation of activity that a computer forensic analysis activities can be carried out automatically. There are two main layers are used, namely Analysis Tools and Operating System. By using the concept of Ontology, the second layer is automatically designed to help investigator to perform the acquisition of digital evidence. The methodology of automation approach of this research is by utilizing Forward Chaining where the system will perform a search against investigative steps and atomically structured in accordance with the rules of the Ontology.

Keywords: Ontology, Framework, Automation, Forensics.

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Authors: Heroe Wijanto, Sugihartono, Suhartono Tjondronegoro, Kuspriyanto

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The use of High Order Statistics (HOS) analysis is expected to provide so many candidates of features that can be selected for pattern recognition. More candidates of the feature can be extracted using simple manipulation through a specific mathematical function prior to the HOS analysis. Feature extraction method using HOS analysis combined with Difference to the Nth-Power manipulation has been examined in application for Automatic Modulation Recognition (AMR) to perform scheme recognition of three digital modulation signal, i.e. QPSK-16QAM-64QAM in the AWGN transmission channel. The simulation results is reported when the analysis of HOS up to order-12 and the manipulation of Difference to the Nth-Power up to N = 4. The obtained accuracy rate of AMR using the method of Simple Decision obtained 90% in SNR > 10 dB in its classifier, while using the method of Voted Decision is 96% in SNR > 2 dB.

Keywords: modulation, automatic modulation recognition, feature analysis, feature manipulation.

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Authors: Juliana A. Galhardi, Daniel M. Bonotto

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Coal is an important non-renewable energy source of and can be associated with radioactive elements. In Figueira city, Paraná state, Brazil, it was recorded high uranium activity near the coal mine that supplies a local thermoelectric power plant. In this context, the radon activity (Rn-222, produced by the Ra-226 decay in the U-238 natural series) was evaluated in groundwater, river water and effluents produced from the acid mine drainage in the coal reject dumps. The samples were collected in August 2013 and in February 2014 and analyzed at LABIDRO (Laboratory of Isotope and Hydrochemistry), UNESP, Rio Claro city, Brazil, using an alpha spectrometer (AlphaGuard) adjusted to evaluate the mean radon activity concentration in five cycles of 10 minutes. No radon activity concentration above 100 Bq.L-1, which was a previous critic value established by the World Health Organization. The average radon activity concentration in groundwater was higher than in surface water and in effluent samples, possibly due to the accumulation of uranium and radium in the aquifer layers that favors the radon trapping. The lower value in the river waters can indicate dilution and the intermediate value in the effluents may indicate radon absorption in the coal particles of the reject dumps. The results also indicate that the radon activities in the effluents increase with the sample acidification, possibly due to the higher radium leaching and the subsequent radon transport to the drainage flow. The water samples of Laranjinha River and Ribeirão das Pedras stream, which, respectively, supply Figueira city and receive the mining effluent, exhibited higher pH values upstream the mine, reflecting the acid mine drainage discharge. The radionuclides transport indicates the importance of monitoring their activity concentration in natural waters due to the risks that the radioactivity can represent to human health.

Keywords: Radon, radium, acid mine drainage, coal

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Authors: Sarah E. Stief, Anne Theresa Eidhoff, Markus Voeth

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Despite all progress firms are facing the increasing need to adapt and assimilate digital technologies to transform their business activities in order to pursue business development. By using new digital technologies, firms can implement major business improvements in order to stay competitive and foster new growth potentials. The corresponding phenomenon of digital transformation has received some attention in previous literature in respect to industries such as media and publishing. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding of the concept and its organization within firms. With the help of twenty-three in-depth field interviews with German experts responsible for their company’s digital transformation, we examined what digital transformation encompasses, how it is organized and which opportunities and challenges arise within firms. Our results indicate that digital transformation is an inevitable task for all firms, as it bears the potential to comprehensively optimize and reshape established business activities and can thus be seen as a strategy of business development.

Keywords: Business development, digitalization, digital strategies, digital transformation.

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Authors: H. B. Mahmud, Syamsul Bahri, Y. W. Yee, Y. T. Yeap

Abstract:

This paper reports the strength and durability properties of high strength high performance concrete incorporating rice husk ash (RHA) having high silica, low carbon content and appropriate fineness. In this study concrete containing 10%, 15% and 20% RHA as cement replacement and water to binder ratio of 0.25 were investigated. The results show that increasing amount of RHA increases the dosage of superplasticizer to maintain similar workability. Partial replacement of cement with RHA did not increase the early age compressive strength of concrete. However, concrete containing RHA showed higher compressive strength at later ages. The results showed that compressive strength of concrete in the 90-115 MPa range can be obtained at 28 curing days and the durability properties of RHA concrete performed better than that of control concrete. The water absorption of concrete incorporating 15% RHA exhibited the lowest value. The porosity of concrete is consistent with water absorption whereby higher replacement of RHA decreased the porosity of concrete. There is a positive correlation between reducing porosity and increasing compressive strength of high strength high performance concrete. The results also indicate that up to 20% of RHA incorporation could be advantageously blended with cement without adversely affecting the strength and durability properties of concrete.

Keywords: Compressive strength, durability, high performance concrete, rice husk ash.

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Authors: Chuan-Kun Liu, Chi-Wang Li

Abstract:

Simultaneous recovery of copper and DCA from simulated MEUF concentrated stream was investigated. Effects of surfactant (DCA) and metal (copper) concentrations, surfactant to metal molar ratio (S/M ratio), electroplating voltage, EDTA concentration, solution pH, and salt concentration on metal recovery and current efficiency were studied. Electric voltage of -0.5 V was shown to be optimum operation condition in terms of Cu recovery, current efficiency, and surfactant recovery. Increasing Cu recovery and current efficiency were observed with increases of Cu concentration while keeping concentration of DCA constant. However, increasing both Cu and DCA concentration while keeping S/M ratio constant at 2.5 showed detrimental effect on Cu recovery at DCA concentration higher than 15 mM. Cu recovery decreases with increasing pH while current efficiency showed an opposite trend. It is believed that conductivity is the main cause for discrepancy of Cu recovery and current efficiency observed at different pH. Finally, it was shown that EDTA had adverse effect on both Cu recovery and current efficiency while addition of NaCl salt had negative impact on current efficiency at concentration higher than 8000 mg/L.

Keywords: metal recovery, MEUF waste, surfactant, electroplating.

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Authors: Diako Azizi, Ahmad Gholami, Vahid Abbasi

Abstract:

High voltage generators are being subject to higher voltage rating and are being designed to operate in harsh conditions. Stator windings are the main component of generators in which Electrical, magnetical and thermal stresses remain major failures for insulation degradation accelerated aging. A large number of generators failed due to stator winding problems, mainly insulation deterioration. Insulation degradation assessment plays vital role in the asset life management. Mostly the stator failure is catastrophic causing significant damage to the plant. Other than generation loss, stator failure involves heavy repair or replacement cost. Electro thermal analysis is the main characteristic for improvement design of stator slot-s insulation. Dielectric parameters such as insulation thickness, spacing, material types, geometry of winding and slot are major design consideration. A very powerful method available to analyze electro thermal performance is Finite Element Method (FEM) which is used in this paper. The analysis of various stator coil and slot configurations are used to design the better dielectric system to reduce electrical and thermal stresses in order to increase the power of generator in the same volume of core. This paper describes the process used to perform classical design and improvement analysis of stator slot-s insulation.

Keywords: Electrical field, field distribution, insulation, winding, finite element method, electro thermal

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Authors: Chaiyakrit Raoupatham, Ram Hari Dhakal, Chalermchai Wanichlamlert

Abstract:

Fresh concrete has one of dynamic properties known as slump. Slump of concrete is design to compatible with placing method. Due to hydration reaction of cement, the slump of concrete is loss through time. Therefore, delayed concrete probably get reject because slump is unacceptable. In order to recover the slump of delayed concrete the second dose of superplasticizer (naphthalene based type F) is added into the system, the slump recovery can be done as long as the concrete is not setting. By adding superplasticizer as solution for recover unusable slump loss concrete may affects other concrete properties. Therefore, this paper was observed setting times and compressive strength of concrete after being re-dose with chemical admixture type F (superplasticizer, naphthalene based) for slump recovery. The concrete used in this study was fly ash concrete with fly ash replacement of 0%, 30% and 50% respectively. Concrete mix designed for test specimen was prepared with paste content (ratio of volume of cement to volume of void in the aggregate) of 1.2 and 1.3, water-to-binder ratio (w/b) range of 0.3 to 0.58, initial dose of superplasticizer (SP) range from 0.5 to 1.6%. The setting times of concrete were tested both before and after re-dosed with different amount of second dose and time of dosing. The research was concluded that addition of second dose of superplasticizer would increase both initial and final setting times accordingly to dosage of addition. As for fly ash concrete, the prolongation effect was higher as the replacement of fly ash increase. The prolongation effect can reach up to maximum about 4 hours. In case of compressive strength, the re-dosed concrete has strength fluctuation within acceptable range of ±10%.

Keywords: Compressive strength, Fly ash concrete, Second dose of superplasticizer, Slump recovery, Setting times.

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Authors: Giovanni Masala, Stefania Marica

Abstract:

Forecasting electricity load plays a crucial role regards decision making and planning for economical purposes. Besides, in the light of the recent privatization and deregulation of the power industry, the forecasting of future electricity load turned out to be a very challenging problem. Empirical data about electricity load highlights a clear seasonal behavior (higher load during the winter season), which is partly due to climatic effects. We also emphasize the presence of load periodicity at a weekly basis (electricity load is usually lower on weekends or holidays) and at daily basis (electricity load is clearly influenced by the hour). Finally, a long-term trend may depend on the general economic situation (for example, industrial production affects electricity load). All these features must be captured by the model. The purpose of this paper is then to build an hourly electricity load model. The deterministic component of the model requires non-linear regression and Fourier series while we will investigate the stochastic component through econometrical tools. The calibration of the parameters’ model will be performed by using data coming from the Italian market in a 6 year period (2007- 2012). Then, we will perform a Monte Carlo simulation in order to compare the simulated data respect to the real data (both in-sample and out-of-sample inspection). The reliability of the model will be deduced thanks to standard tests which highlight a good fitting of the simulated values.

Keywords: ARMA-GARCH process, electricity load, fitting tests, Fourier series, Monte Carlo simulation, non-linear regression.

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Authors: Junjie Chen, Deguang Xu

Abstract:

Transient simulation of the hydrogen-assisted self-ignition of propane-air mixtures were carried out in platinum-coated micro-channels from ambient cold-start conditions, using a two-dimensional model with reduced-order reaction schemes, heat conduction in the solid walls, convection and surface radiation heat transfer. The self-ignition behavior of hydrogen-propane mixed fuel is analyzed and compared with the heated feed case. Simulations indicate that hydrogen can successfully cause self-ignition of propane-air mixtures in catalytic micro-channels with a 0.2 mm gap size, eliminating the need for startup devices. The minimum hydrogen composition for propane self-ignition is found to be in the range of 0.8-2.8% (on a molar basis), and increases with increasing wall thermal conductivity, and decreasing inlet velocity or propane composition. Higher propane-air ratio results in earlier ignition. The ignition characteristics of hydrogen-assisted propane qualitatively resemble the selectively inlet feed preheating mode. Transient response of the mixed hydrogen- propane fuel reveals sequential ignition of propane followed by hydrogen. Front-end propane ignition is observed in all cases. Low wall thermal conductivities cause earlier ignition of the mixed hydrogen-propane fuel, subsequently resulting in low exit temperatures. The transient-state behavior of this micro-scale system is described, and the startup time and minimization of hydrogen usage are discussed.

Keywords: Micro-combustion, Self-ignition, Hydrogen addition, Heat transfer, Catalytic combustion, Transient simulation.

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