Search results for: Data stream analysis.

Authors: Boutahar Lhoucine, El Bikri Khalid, Benamar Rhali

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In this paper, the non-linear free axisymmetric vibration of a thin annular plate made of functionally graded material (FGM) has been studied by using the energy method and a multimode approach. FGM properties vary continuously as well as non-homogeneity through the thickness direction of the plate. The theoretical model is based on the classical plate theory and the Von Kármán geometrical non-linearity assumptions. An approximation has been adopted in the present work consisting of neglecting the in-plane deformation in the formulation. Hamilton’s principle is used to derive the governing equation of motion. The problem is solved by a numerical iterative procedure in order to obtain more accurate results for vibration amplitudes up to 1.5 times the plate thickness. The numerical results are given for the first axisymmetric non-linear mode shape for a wide range of vibration amplitudes and they are presented either in tabular form or in graphical form to show the effect that the vibration amplitude and the variation in material properties have significant effects on the frequencies and the bending stresses in large amplitude vibration of the functionally graded annular plate.

Keywords: Non-linear vibrations, Annular plates, Large amplitudes, FGM.

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Authors: Rabia Bibi, Muhammad Shahzad Faisal, Khalid Iqbal, Atif Inayat

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Internet is growing rapidly and new community-based content is added by people every second. With this fast-growing community-based content, if a user requires answers of particular questions, then reviews are required from experts or community. However, it is difficult to get quality answers. The Muslim community all over the world is seeking help to get their questions and issues discussed to get answers. Online web portals of religious schools and community-based question answering sites are two big platforms to solve the issues of users. In the case of religious schools, there are experts and qualified religious scholars (mufti) who can give the expert opinion. However, the quality of community-based content cannot be guaranteed as it may not be an answer that satisfies the question of a user. Users on CQA sites may include spammers or individual criticizing the questioner instead of providing useful answers. In this paper, we research strategies to naturally distinguish the right content. As an experiment, we concentrate on Yahoo! Answers, and Quora, popular online QA sites, where questions are asked, answered, edited, and organized by a large community of users. We present the classification of data to categorize both relevant and irrelevant answers. Specifically, we demonstrate that the proposed framework can isolate quality answers from the rest with an exactness near that of people.

Keywords: Community-based question and answering, evaluation and prediction of quality answer, answer classification, Islamic content, answer ranking.

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Authors: Seddeq E. Ghrare, Salahaddin M. Shreef

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Medical image modalities such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound (US), X-ray are adapted to diagnose disease. These modalities provide flexible means of reviewing anatomical cross-sections and physiological state in different parts of the human body. The raw medical images have a huge file size and need large storage requirements. So it should be such a way to reduce the size of those image files to be valid for telemedicine applications. Thus the image compression is a key factor to reduce the bit rate for transmission or storage while maintaining an acceptable reproduction quality, but it is natural to rise the question of how much an image can be compressed and still preserve sufficient information for a given clinical application. Many techniques for achieving data compression have been introduced. In this study, three different MRI modalities which are Brain, Spine and Knee have been compressed and reconstructed using wavelet transform. Subjective and objective evaluation has been done to investigate the clinical information quality of the compressed images. For the objective evaluation, the results show that the PSNR which indicates the quality of the reconstructed image is ranging from (21.95 dB to 30.80 dB, 27.25 dB to 35.75 dB, and 26.93 dB to 34.93 dB) for Brain, Spine, and Knee respectively. For the subjective evaluation test, the results show that the compression ratio of 40:1 was acceptable for brain image, whereas for spine and knee images 50:1 was acceptable.

Keywords: Medical Image, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Image Compression, Discrete Wavelet Transform, Telemedicine.

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Authors: Ali Raad Hassan

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In this paper, an (irregular) case relating to base circle, root circle, and pressure angle has been discussed and a computer programme has been developed to simulate and plot spur gear tooth profile, including involute and trochoid curves based on the formulation of rack cutter using different values of pressure angle and profile shift factor and it gave the values of all important geometric parameters. The results showed the flexibility of this approach and versatility of the programme to draw many different cases of spur gear teeth of any module, pressure angle, profile shift factor, number of teeth and rack cutter tip radius. The procedure developed can be extended to produce finite element models of heretofore intractable geometrical forms, to exploring fabrication of nonstandard tooth forms also. Finite elements model of these irregular cases have been built using above programme, and modal analysis has been done using ANSYS software, and natural frequencies of these selected cases have been obtained and discussed.

Keywords: involute, trochoid, pressure angle, profile shift factor, natural frequency

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Authors: Manisha Chaudhary, Joydip Dhar, Govind Prasad Sahu

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A mathematical model is proposed considering the forest biomass density B(t), density of wood based industries W(t) and density of synthetic industries S(t). It is assumed that the forest biomass grows logistically in the absence of wood based industries, but depletion of forestry biomass is due to presence of wood based industries. The growth of wood based industries depends on B(t), while S(t) grows at a constant rate, independent of B(t). Further there is a competition between W(t) and S(t) according to market demand. The proposed model has four ecologically feasible steady states, namely, E1: forest biomass free and wood industries free equilibrium; E2: wood industries free equilibrium and two coexisting equilibria E∗1 , E∗2 . Behavior of the system near all feasible equilibria is analyzed using the stability theory of differential equations. In the proposed model, the natural depletion rate h1 is a crucial parameter and system exhibits Hopf-bifurcation about the non-trivial equilibrium with respect to h1. The analytical results are verified using numerical simulation.

Keywords: A mathematical model, Competition between wood based and synthetic industries, Hopf-bifurcation, Stability analysis.

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Authors: E. A. Kiridi, A. O. Ogunlela

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The control of ammonia build-up and its by-product is a limiting factor for a successful commercial aquaculture in a developing country like Nigeria. The technology for an advanced treatment of fish tank effluent is uneconomical to local fish farmers which have led to indiscriminate disposal of aquaculture wastewater, thereby increasing the concentrations of these nitrogenous compound and other contaminants in surface and groundwater above the permissible level. Phytoremediation using water lettuce could offer cheaper and sustainable alternative. On the first day of experimentation, approximately 100 g of water lettuce were replicated in four hydroponic units containing aquaculture effluents. The water quality parameters measured were concentration of ammonium–nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N), nitrite-nitrogen (NO₂^--N), nitrate-nitrogen (NO₃^--N), and phosphate–phosphorus (PO₄^3--P). Others were total suspended solids (TSS), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and biomass value. At phytoremediation intervals of 7, 14, 21 and 28 days, the biomass recorded were 361.2 g, 498.7 g, 561.2 g, and 623.7 g. Water lettuce was able to reduce the pollutant concentration of all the selected parameter. The percentage reduction of pH ranged from 3.9% to 14.4%, EC from 49.8% to 96.2%, TDS from 50.4% to 96.2%, TSS from 38.3% to 81.7%, NH₄⁺-N from 38.9% to 90.7%, NO₂^--N from 0% to 74.9%, NO₃^--N from 63.2% to 95.9% and PO₄^3--P from 0% to 76.3%. At 95% confidence level, the analysis of variance shows that F(critical) is less than F(cal) and p < 0.05; therefore, it can be concluded statistically that the inequality between the pre-treatment and post-treatment values are significant. This suggests the potency of water lettuce for remediation of aquaculture effluent.

Keywords: Aquaculture effluent, nitrification, phytoremediation, water lettuce.

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Authors: Parham Azimi, Mohammad Reza Ghanbari

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The dramatic increasing of sea-freight container transportations and the developing trends for using containers in the multimodal handling systems through the sea, rail, road and land in nowadays market cause general managers of container terminals to face challenges such as increasing demand, competitive situation, new investments and expansion of new activities and need to use new methods to fulfil effective operations both along quayside and within the yard. Among these issues, minimizing the turnaround time of vessels is considered to be the first aim of every container port system. Regarding the complex structure of container ports, this paper presents a simulation model that calculates the number of trucks needed in the Iranian Shahid Rajaee Container Port for handling containers between the berth and the yard. In this research, some important criteria such as vessel turnaround time, gantry crane utilization and truck utilization have been considered. By analyzing the results of the model, it has been shown that increasing the number of trucks to 66 units has a significant effect on the performance indices of the port and can increase the capacity of loading and unloading up to 10.8%.

Keywords: Container Terminal, Gantry Crane Utilization, Simulation, Vessel Turnaround Time

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Authors: Robert Grzeszczak, Magdalena Gniadzik

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The article deals with one of the most significant issues concerning the functioning of the internal market of the European Union – the free movement of workers and free movement of persons. The purpose is to identify the political and legal effects of the “renationalisation process” on the EU and its Member States. The concept of renationalisation is expressed through Member States’ aim to verify the relationship with the EU. The tendency is more visible in the public opinion of several MS’s of the ‘EU core’ and may be confirmed by the changes applied by the regulatory body. The thesis for the article is the return of renationalisation tendencies in the area of the Single Market, which is supported by, among others, an open criticism of the foundations of EU integration or considerations on withdrawal from the EU by some MS. This analysis will focus primarily on the effects that renationalisation may have on the free movement of persons. The free movement of persons is one of the key issues for the development of the European integration. It is still subject to theoretical reflections, new doubts and practical issues. The latest developments in politics, law and jurisprudence demonstrate the need to reflect on the attempts to redefine certain principles regarding migrant EU workers and their protection against nationality-based discrimination.

Keywords: European law, European Union, common market, free movement of workers, posting of workers, case law.

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Authors: Zaouche Mohammed, Amini Mohammed, Foughali Khaled, Hamissi Aicha, Aktouf Mohand Arezki, Boureghda Ilyes

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In this paper, we present a piloting law based on the adaptive differentiators via high order sliding mode controller, by using an aircraft in virtual simulated environment. To deal with the design of an autopilot controller, we propose a framework based on Software in the Loop (SIL) methodology and we use Microsoft^TM Flight Simulator (FS-2004) as the environment for plane simulation. The aircraft dynamic model is nonlinear, Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) and tightly coupled. The nonlinearity resides in the dynamic equations and also in the aerodynamic coefficients' variability. In our case, two (02) aircrafts are used in the flight tests, the Zlin-142 and MQ-1 Predator. For both aircrafts and in a very low altitude flight, we send the piloting control inputs to the aircraft which has stalled due to a command disconnection. Then, we present the aircraft’s dynamic behavior analysis while reestablishing the command transmission. Finally, a comparative study between the two aircraft’s dynamic behaviors is presented.

Keywords: Adaptive differentiators, Microsoft Flight Simulator, MQ-1 predator, second order sliding modes, Zlin-142.

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Authors: Wanwisa Kuncharin, Badaruddin Mohamed

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There have been few studies of cross-border shopping. However, many have focused on macroeconomic effects rather than on discovering the motivation and behaviour of cross-border shoppers who purchase abroad. Hatyai, Thailand is located about 30 km from the Malaysian border. The statistics reports that each year more than 400,000 Malaysian visitors visited Hatyai. The aims of this study are fourfold: (1) to investigate factors motivating cross-border shoppers to shop in Hatyai, Thailand; (2) to examine the relationship between ethnicity and shopper ethnocentrism; (3) to discover the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on foreign product judgment; and (4) to explore the impact of shopper ethnocentrism on the willingness to buy foreign products. The results reveal that the three most popular consumption items were food and beverages, clothing, and grocery products. Factor analysis shows that the three key reasons for choosing Hatyai as the cross-border shopping destination included product and store, close distance, and low exchange rate. Moreover, there were significant differences in ethnocentrism by three ethnic groups. Shopper ethnocentrism had a significant negative correlation with foreign product judgment, while shopper ethnocentrism was not significantly correlated with willingness to buy foreign products.

Keywords: Cross-border shopping behaviours, Malaysian shoppers, Ethnocentrism, Hatyai, Thailand.

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Authors: Ghada Elshafei, Abdelazim Negm

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Recently, the green architecture becomes a significant way to a sustainable future. Green building designs involve finding the balance between comfortable homebuilding and sustainable environment. Moreover, the utilization of the new technologies such as artificial intelligence techniques are used to complement current practices in creating greener structures to keep the built environment more sustainable. The most common objectives in green buildings should be designed to minimize the overall impact of the built environment that effect on ecosystems in general and in particularly human health and natural environment. This will lead to protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, reducing pollution and sustaining the environmental. In green building design, multiple parameters which may be interrelated, contradicting, vague and of qualitative/quantitative nature are broaden to use. This paper presents a comprehensive critical state- ofart- review of current practices based on fuzzy and its combination techniques. Also, presented how green architecture/building can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to seek optimal green solutions strategies and models to assist in making the best possible decision out of different alternatives.

Keywords: Green architecture/building, technologies, optimization, strategies, fuzzy techniques and models.

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Authors: Thossaporn Thossansin

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This paper presents the development of a mobile application for students at the Faculty of Information Technology, Rangsit University (RSU), Thailand. RSU upgrades an enrollment process by improving its information systems. Students can download the RSU APP easily in order to access the RSU substantial information. The reason of having a mobile application is to help students to access the system regardless of time and place. The objectives of this paper include: 1. To develop an application on iOS platform for those students at the Faculty of Information Technology, Rangsit University, Thailand. 2. To obtain the students’ perception towards the new mobile app. The target group is those from the freshman year till the senior year of the faculty of Information Technology, Rangsit University. The new mobile application, called as RSU APP, is developed by the department of Information Technology, Rangsit University. It contains useful features and various functionalities particularly on those that can give support to students. The core contents of the app consist of RSU’s announcement, calendar, events, activities, and ebook. The mobile app is developed on the iOS platform. The user satisfaction is analyzed from the interview data from 81 interviewees as well as a Google application like a Google form which 122 interviewees are involved. The result shows that users are satisfied with the application as they score it the most satisfaction level at 4.67 SD 0.52. The score for the question if users can learn and use the application quickly is high which is 4.82 SD 0.71. On the other hand, the lowest satisfaction rating is in the app’s form, apps lists, with the satisfaction level as 4.01 SD 0.45.

Keywords: Mobile application, development of mobile application, framework of mobile development, software development for mobile devices.

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Authors: Elmira Tavasoli Yousef Abadi

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All structural components influencing the inelastic analysis alter response modification factor too. Ductility of connections has been regarded among the factors which have a direct impact on steel frame response modification factor. The experience of recent earthquakes such as the 1994 Northridge earthquake showed that structural connections in steel frame incurred unexpected (brittle) fracture in beam-to-column connection area. One of the methods to improve performance of moment frames is to reduce the beam section near the connection to the column. Reduced Beam Section (RBS) refers to one of the proposed moment connections in FEMA350. Ductility is the most important advantage of this connection over the other moment connections; it is found as the major factor in suitable plastic behavior of structural system. In this paper, beam-to-column connection with RBS and wide-flange beams has been examined via software Abaqus 6.12. It is observed that use of RBS connections can improve the connection behavior at inelastic area to a large extent and avoid stress concentrations and large deformation in the column.

Keywords: RBS, seismic performance, beam-to-column connection, ductility, wide-flange beam.

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Authors: Maryam Khazaei Pool, Lori Lewis

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This is a summary of articles based on higher order B-splines methods and the variation of B-spline methods such as Quadratic B-spline Finite Elements Method, Exponential Cubic B-Spline Method Septic B-spline Technique, Quintic B-spline Galerkin Method, and B-spline Galerkin Method based on the Quadratic B-spline Galerkin method (QBGM) and Cubic B-spline Galerkin method (CBGM). In this paper we study the B-spline methods and variations of B-spline techniques to find a numerical solution to the Burgers’ equation. A set of fundamental definitions including Burgers equation, spline functions, and B-spline functions are provided. For each method, the main technique is discussed as well as the discretization and stability analysis. A summary of the numerical results is provided and the efficiency of each method presented is discussed. A general conclusion is provided where we look at a comparison between the computational results of all the presented schemes. We describe the effectiveness and advantages of these methods.

Keywords: Burgers’ Equation, Septic B-spline, Modified Cubic B-Spline Differential Quadrature Method, Exponential Cubic B-Spline Technique, B-Spline Galerkin Method, and Quintic B-Spline Galerkin Method.

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Authors: Boris Golman, Wittaya Julklang

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The heat and mass transfer was investigated during the falling rate period of spray drying of a slurry droplet. The effect of the porosity of crust layer formed from primary particles during liquid evaporation was studied numerically using the developed mathematical model which takes into account the heat and mass transfer in the core and crust regions, the movement of the evaporation interface, and the external heat and mass transfer between the drying air and the droplet surface. It was confirmed that the heat transfer through the crust layer was more intense in the case of the dense droplet than the loose one due to the enhanced thermal conduction resulting in the higher average droplet temperature. The mass transfer was facilitated in the crust layer of loose droplet owing to the large pore space available for diffusion of water vapor from the evaporation interface to the outer droplet surface. The longer drying time is required for the droplet of high porosity to reach the final moisture content than that for the dense one due to the larger amount of water to be evaporated during the falling rate.

Keywords: Spray Drying, Slurry Droplet, Heat and Mass Transfer, Crust Layer Porosity, Mathematical Modeling.

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Authors: Samy M. El-Behery, W. A. El-Askary, K. A. Ibrahim, Mofreh H. Hamed

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A steady two-phase flow model has been developed to simulate the drying process of porous particle in a pneumatic conveying dryer. The model takes into account the momentum, heat and mass transfer between the continuous phase and the dispersed phase. A single particle model was employed to calculate the evaporation rate. In this model the pore structure is simplified to allow the dominant evaporation mechanism to be readily identified at all points within the duct. The predominant mechanism at any time depends upon the pressure, temperature and the diameter of pore from which evaporating is occurring. The model was validated against experimental studies of pneumatic transport at low and high speeds as well as pneumatic drying. The effects of operating conditions on the dryer parameters are studied numerically. The present results show that the drying rate is enhanced as the inlet gas temperature and the gas flow rate increase and as the solid mass flow rate deceases. The present results also demonstrate the necessity of measuring the inlet gas velocity or the solid concentration in any experimental analysis.

Keywords: Two-phase, gas-solid, pneumatic drying, pneumatic conveying, heat and mass transfer

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Authors: Zamri Noranai, Mohammad Zainal Md Yusof

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Sustainable energy usage has been recognized as one of the important measure to increase the competitiveness of the nation globally. Many strong emphases were given in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) to improve energy efficient especially to government buildings. With this in view, a project to investigate the potential of energy saving in selected building in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) was carried out. In this project, a case study involving electric energy consumption of the academic staff office building was conducted. The scope of the study include to identify energy consumption in a selected building, to study energy saving opportunities, to analyse cost investment in term of economic and to identify users attitude with respect to energy usage. The MS1525:2001, Malaysian Standard -Code of practice on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings was used as reference. Several energy efficient measures were considered and their merits and priority were compared. Improving human behavior can reduce energy consumption by 6% while technical measure can reduce energy consumption by 44%. Two economic analysis evaluation methods were applied; they are the payback period method and net present value method.

Keywords: office building, energy, efficiency, economic analyses

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Authors: Sang Wook Park, Se Woon Choi, Yousok Kim, Byung Kwan Oh, Hyo Seon Park

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Various retrofit techniques for reinforced concrete frame with infill wall have been steadily developed. Among those techniques, strengthening methodology based on diagonal FRP strips (FRP bracings) has numerous advantages such as feasibility of implementing without interrupting the building under operation, reduction of cost and time, and easy application. Considering the safety of structure and retrofit cost, the most appropriate retrofit solution is needed. Thus, the objective of this study is to suggest pareto-optimal solution for existing building using FRP bracings. To find pareto-optimal solution analysis, NSGA-II is applied. Moreover, the seismic performance of retrofit building is evaluated. The example building is 5-storey, 3-bay RC frames with infill wall. Nonlinear static pushover analyses are performed with FEMA 356. The criterion of performance evaluation is inter-story drift ratio at the performance level IO, LS, CP. Optimal retrofit solutions is obtained for 32 individuals and 200 generations. Through the proposed optimal solutions, we confirm the improvement of seismic performance of the example building.

Keywords: Retrofit, FRP bracings, reinforced concrete frame with infill wall, seismic performance evaluation, NSGA-II.

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Authors: Ananya Das, Arun Kumar, Gazala Habib, Vivekanandan Perumal

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Regulatory bodies has proposed limits on Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in air; however, it does not explicitly indicate the incorporation of effects of toxicities of constituents of PM in developing regulatory limits. This study aimed to provide a structured approach to incorporate toxic effects of components in developing regulatory limits on PM. A four-step human health risk assessment framework consists of - (1) hazard identification (parameters: PM and its constituents and their associated toxic effects on health), (2) exposure assessment (parameters: concentrations of PM and constituents, information on size and shape of PM; fate and transport of PM and constituents in respiratory system), (3) dose-response assessment (parameters: reference dose or target toxicity dose of PM and its constituents), and (4) risk estimation (metric: hazard quotient and/or lifetime incremental risk of cancer as applicable). Then parameters required at every step were obtained from literature. Using this information, an attempt has been made to determine limits on PM using component-specific information. An example calculation was conducted for exposures of PM_2.5 and its metal constituents from Indian ambient environment to determine limit on PM values. Identified data gaps were: (1) concentrations of PM and its constituents and their relationship with sampling regions, (2) relationship of toxicity of PM with its components.

Keywords: Air, component-specific toxicity, human health risks, particulate matter.

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Authors: Martin Hans Knahl

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The Internet is the global data communications infrastructure based on the interconnection of both public and private networks using protocols that implement Internetworking on a global scale. Hence the control of protocol and infrastructure development, resource allocation and network operation are crucial and interlinked aspects. Internet Governance is the hotly debated and contentious subject that refers to the global control and operation of key Internet infrastructure such as domain name servers and resources such as domain names. It is impossible to separate technical and political positions as they are interlinked. Furthermore the existence of a global market, transparency and competition impact upon Internet Governance and related topics such as network neutrality and security. Current trends and developments regarding Internet governance with a focus on the policy-making process, security and control have been observed to evaluate current and future implications on the Internet. The multi stakeholder approach to Internet Governance discussed in this paper presents a number of opportunities, issues and developments that will affect the future direction of the Internet. Internet operation, maintenance and advisory organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) are currently in the process of formulating policies for future Internet Governance. Given the controversial nature of the issues at stake and the current lack of agreement it is predicted that institutional as well as market governance will remain present for the network access and content.

Keywords: Internet Governance, ICANN, Democracy, Security

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu, O. O. Oyerinde

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This study examined the effect of sexuality education training programs on the knowledge and practice of sexual risk behavior among secondary school adolescents in Ibadan North Local Government area of Oyo State. A total of 105 students were sampled from two schools in the Local Government area. 70 students constituted the experimental group while 35 constituted the control group. Pretest-Posttest control group quasi-experimental design was adopted. A self-developed questionnaire was used to test participants’ knowledge and practice of sexual risk behavior before and after the training (α = .62, .82 and .74). Analysis indicated a significant effect of sexuality education training on participants’ knowledge and practice of sexual risk behavior, a significant gender difference in knowledge of sexual risk behavior but no significant age and gender difference in the practice of sexual risk behavior. It was thus concluded that sexuality education should be taught in schools and emphasized at homes with no age or gender restrictions.

Keywords: Early adolescent, health risk, sexual risk behavior, sexuality education.

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Authors: Tatjana Rakcejeva, Ingrida Augspole, Lija Dukalska, Fredijs Dimins

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carrot is one of the important root vegetable crops, and it is highly nutritious as it contains appreciable amount of vitamins, minerals and β-carotene. The major objective of current research was to evaluate the chemical composition of carrot variety 'Nante' hybrids in general and to select the best samples for fresh-cut salad production. The research was accomplished on fresh in Latvia cultivated carrots harvested in Zemgale region in the first part of October, 2011 and immediately used for experiments. Late-bearing variety 'Nante' hybrid carrots were used for analysis: 'Nante/Berlikum', 'Nante/Maestro', 'Nante/Forto', 'Nante/Bolero' and 'Nante/Champion'. The quality parameters as moisture, soluble solid, firmness, b-carotene, carotenoid, color, polyphenols, total phenolic compounds and total antioxidant capacity were analyzed using standard methods. For fresh-cut salad production as more applicable could be recommended hybrids 'Nante/Forto' and 'Nante/Berlikum' - mainly because it-s higher nutritive value, as higher total phenolic compounds, polyphenols and pronounced antioxidant capacity.

Keywords: carrots, chemical composition, evaluation

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Authors: M. Akbari, S. Sadodin

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In this paper, the melting of a semi-infinite body as a result of a moving laser beam has been studied. Because the Fourier heat transfer equation at short times and large dimensions does not have sufficient accuracy; a non-Fourier form of heat transfer equation has been used. Due to the fact that the beam is moving in x direction, the temperature distribution and the melting pool shape are not asymmetric. As a result, the problem is a transient threedimensional problem. Therefore, thermophysical properties such as heat conductivity coefficient, density and heat capacity are functions of temperature and material states. The enthalpy technique, used for the solution of phase change problems, has been used in an explicit finite volume form for the hyperbolic heat transfer equation. This technique has been used to calculate the transient temperature distribution in the semi-infinite body and the growth rate of the melt pool. In order to validate the numerical results, comparisons were made with experimental data. Finally, the results of this paper were compared with similar problem that has used the Fourier theory. The comparison shows the influence of infinite speed of heat propagation in Fourier theory on the temperature distribution and the melt pool size.

Keywords: Non-Fourier, Enthalpy technique, Melt pool, Radiational boundary condition

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Authors: Thorsten Herrmann, Alexander Laukemann, Hansgeorg Binz, Daniel Roth

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For the analysis of already identified and existing problems, the pertinent literature provides a comprehensive collection of approaches as well as methods in order to analyze the problems in detail. But coming up with problems, which are assets worth pursuing further, is often challenging. However, the importance of well-formulated problem ideas and their influence of subsequent creative processes are incontestable and proven. In order to meet the covered challenges, the Institute for Engineering Design and Industrial Design (IKTD) developed the Emoji Method. This paper presents the Emoji Method, which support designers to generate problem ideas in a structured way. Considering research findings from knowledge management and innovation management, research into emojis and emoticons reveal insights by means of identifying and formulating problem ideas within the early design phase. The simple application and the huge supporting potential of the Emoji Method within the early design phase are only few of the many successful results of the conducted evaluation. The Emoji Method encourages designers to identify problem ideas and describe them in a structured way in order to start focused with generating solution ideas for the revealed problem ideas.

Keywords: Emojis, problem ideas, innovation management, knowledge management.

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Authors: Mohammad Syuhaimi Ab-Rahman, Boonchuan Ng, Kasmiran Jumari

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This paper presented a new approach for centralized monitoring and self-protected against fiber fault in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) access network by using Smart Access Network Testing, Analyzing and Database (SANTAD). SANTAD will be installed with optical line terminal (OLT) at central office (CO) for in-service transmission surveillance and fiber fault localization within FTTH with point-to-multipoint (P2MP) configuration downwardly from CO towards customer residential locations based on the graphical user interface (GUI) processing capabilities of MATLAB software. SANTAD is able to detect any fiber fault as well as identify the failure location in the network system. SANTAD enable the status of each optical network unit (ONU) connected line is displayed onto one screen with capability to configure the attenuation and detect the failure simultaneously. The analysis results and information will be delivered to the field engineer for promptly actions, meanwhile the failure line will be diverted to protection line to ensure the traffic flow continuously. This approach has a bright prospect to improve the survivability and reliability as well as increase the efficiency and monitoring capabilities in FTTH.

Keywords: Fiber fault, FTTH, SANTAD, transmission surveillance, MATLAB.

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Authors: Taher M. Abou-deif, Mahmoud A. Fouad, Essam E. Khalil

Abstract:

The present paper was concerned primarily with the analysis, simulation of the air flow and thermal patterns in a lecture room. The paper is devoted to numerically investigate the influence of location and number of ventilation and air conditioning supply and extracts openings on air flow properties in a lecture room. The work focuses on air flow patterns, thermal behaviour in lecture room where large number of students. The effectiveness of an air flow system is commonly assessed by the successful removal of sensible and latent loads from occupants with additional of attaining air pollutant at a prescribed level to attain the human thermal comfort conditions and to improve the indoor air quality; this is the main target during the present paper. The study is carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation techniques as embedded in the commercially available CFD code (FLUENT 6.2). The CFD modelling techniques solved the continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations in addition to standard k – ε model equations for turbulence closure. Throughout the investigations, numerical validation is carried out by way of comparisons of numerical and experimental results. Good agreement is found among both predictions.

Keywords: Air Conditioning, CFD, Lecture Rooms, Thermal Comfort

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Authors: A. Das, L. Hitihamillage, S. Moridpour

Abstract:

Natural disasters are inevitable to the biodiversity. Disasters such as flood, tsunami and tornadoes could be brutal, harsh and devastating. In Australia, flooding is a major issue experienced by different parts of the country. In such crisis, delays in evacuation could decide the life and death of the people living in those regions. Congestion management could become a mammoth task if there are no steps taken before such situations. In the past to manage congestion in such circumstances, many strategies were utilised such as converting the road shoulders to extra lanes or changing the road geometry by adding more lanes. However, expansion of road to resolving congestion problems is not considered a viable option nowadays. The authorities avoid this option due to many reasons, such as lack of financial support and land space. They tend to focus their attention on optimising the current resources they possess and use traffic signals to overcome congestion problems. Traffic Signal Management strategy was considered a viable option, to alleviate congestion problems in the City of Geelong, Victoria. Arterial road with signalised intersections considered in this paper and the traffic data required for modelling collected from VicRoads. Traffic signalling software SIDRA used to model the roads, and the information gathered from VicRoads. In this paper, various signal parameters utilised to assess and improve the corridor performance to achieve the best possible Level of Services (LOS) for the arterial road.

Keywords: Congestion, constraints, management, LOS.

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Authors: Osama A. Terfas, Abdusalam A. Alaktiwi

Abstract:

Pressure vessels are usually operating at temperatures where the conditions of linear elastic fracture mechanics are no longer met because massive plasticity precedes crack propagation. In this work the development of a surface crack in a pressure vessel subject to bending and tension under elastic-plastic fracture mechanics conditions was investigated. Finite element analysis was used to evaluate the hydrostatic stress, the J-integral and crack growth for semi-elliptical surface-breaking cracks. The results showed non-uniform stress triaxiality and crack driving force around the crack front at large deformation levels. Different ductile crack extensions were observed which emphasis the dependent of ductile tearing on crack geometry and type of loading. In bending the crack grew only beneath the surface, and growth was suppressed at the deepest segment. This contrasts to tension where the crack breaks through the thickness with uniform growth along the entire crack front except at the free surface. Current investigations showed that the crack growth developed under linear elastic fracture mechanics conditions will no longer be applicable under ductile tearing scenarios.

Keywords: Bending, ductile tearing, fracture toughness, stress triaxiality, tension.

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Authors: Ayat E. Ali, Christeen R. Aziz, Merna A. Helmy, Mohammed M. Malek, Sherif H. El-Gohary

Abstract:

Goal: Purpose of the project was to make a plastic surgery prediction by using pre-operative images for the plastic surgeries’ patients and to show this prediction on a screen to compare between the current case and the appearance after the surgery. Methods: To this aim, we implemented a software which used data from the internet for facial skin diseases, skin burns, pre-and post-images for plastic surgeries then the post- surgical prediction is done by using K-nearest neighbor (KNN). So we designed and fabricated a smart mirror divided into two parts a screen and a reflective mirror so patient's pre- and post-appearance will be showed at the same time. Results: We worked on some skin diseases like vitiligo, skin burns and wrinkles. We classified the three degrees of burns using KNN classifier with accuracy 60%. We also succeeded in segmenting the area of vitiligo. Our future work will include working on more skin diseases, classify them and give a prediction for the look after the surgery. Also we will go deeper into facial deformities and plastic surgeries like nose reshaping and face slim down. Conclusion: Our project will give a prediction relates strongly to the real look after surgery and decrease different diagnoses among doctors. Significance: The mirror may have broad societal appeal as it will make the distance between patient's satisfaction and the medical standards smaller.

Keywords: K-nearest neighbor, face detection, vitiligo, bone deformity.

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Authors: Kwok W. Mui, Ling T. Wong, F. Xiao, Chin T. Cheung, Ho C. Yu

Abstract:

This study addresses a concept of the Sustainable Building Environmental Model (SBEM) developed to optimize energy consumption in air conditioning and ventilation (ACV) systems without any deterioration of indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The SBEM incorporates two main components: an adaptive comfort temperature control module (ACT) and a new carbon dioxide demand control module (nDCV). These two modules take an innovative approach to maintain satisfaction of the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) with optimum energy consumption; they provide a rational basis of effective control. A total of 2133 sets of measurement data of indoor air temperature (Ta), relative humidity (Rh) and carbon dioxide concentration (CO2) were conducted in some Hong Kong offices to investigate the potential of integrating the SBEM. A simulation was used to evaluate the dynamic performance of the energy and air conditioning system with the integration of the SBEM in an air-conditioned building. It allows us make a clear picture of the control strategies and performed any pre-tuned of controllers before utilized in real systems. With the integration of SBEM, it was able to save up to 12.3% in simulation of overall electricity consumption, and maintain the average carbon dioxide concentration within 1000ppm and occupant dissatisfaction in 20%. 

Keywords: —Sustainable building environmental model (SBEM), adaptive comfort temperature (ACT), new demand control ventilation (nDCV), energy saving.

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