Search results for: Contour Direction Technique

Authors: Qiang Yang, Ping-An Du

Abstract:

Group decision making with multiple attribute has attracted intensive concern in the decision analysis area. This paper assumes that the contributions of all the decision makers (DMs) are not equal to the decision process based on different knowledge and experience in group setting. The aim of this paper is to develop a novel approach to determine weights of DMs in the group decision making problems. In this paper, the weights of DMs are determined in the group decision environment via angle cosine and projection method. First of all, the average decision of all individual decisions is defined as the ideal decision. After that, we define the weight of each decision maker (DM) by aggregating the angle cosine and projection between individual decision and ideal decision with associated direction indicator μ. By using the weights of DMs, all individual decisions are aggregated into a collective decision. Further, the preference order of alternatives is ranked in accordance with the overall row value of collective decision. Finally, an example in a chemical company is provided to illustrate the developed approach.

Keywords: Angel cosine, ideal decision, projection method, weights of decision makers.

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Authors: A. Sayadi, A. Khodadadi D., S. Partani

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Today Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is known as one of the most important tools for decision makers in the construction of civil and industrial projects towards sustainable development. In the past, projects were evaluated based on cost and benefit analysis regardless of the physical and biological environmental effects and its socio-economical impacts. According to the Department of Environment (DOE) of Iran's regulations, the construction of hydroelectric dams is an activity that requires an EIA report. In this paper the environmental impact assessment of the Gotvand hydro-electrical dam has been evaluated in the three environment elements, biological, Physical-chemical and cultural units. This dam is one of the largest dams in Iran with a volume of 4500 MCM and is going to be the last dam on the Karoon River in the south of Iran. In this paper the ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) technique was employed for the environmental impact assessment of the dam. The research includes all socio economical and environmental effects of the dam during the construction and operation of the hydro electric dam and Environmental management, monitoring and mitigation of negative impacts were analyzed. In this project the results led to using some techniques to protect the destructive impacts on biological aspects beside the effective long time period impacts on the biological aspects. The impacts on physical aspects are temporary and negative commonly that could be restored and rehabilitated in natural process in the long time in operation period.

Keywords: "Gotvand Hydro Electric Dam", "EIA", "ICOLD and Leopold matrices"

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Authors: H. R. Kazemi Nia, A. Yeganeh Fallah

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Without uncertainty by applying external loads on beams, bending is created. The created bending in I-beams, puts one of the flanges in tension and the other one in compression. With increasing of bending, compression flange buckled and beam in out of its plane direction twisted, this twisting well-known as Lateral Torsional Buckling. Providing bending moment varieties along the beam, the critical moment is greater than the case its under pure bending. In other words, the value of bending gradient coefficient is always greater than unite. In this article by the use of " ANSYS 10.0" software near 80 3-D finite element models developed for the propose of analyzing beams` lateral torsional buckling and surveying influence of slenderness on beams' bending gradient coefficient. Results show that, presented Cb coefficient via AISC is not correct for some of beams and value of this coefficient is smaller than what proposed by AISC. Therefore instead of using a constant Cb for each case of loading , a function with two criterion for calculation of Cb coefficient for some cases is proposed.

Keywords: Beams critical moment, Bending Gradient Coefficient, finite element, Lateral Torsional Buckling

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Authors: Svetlana Perovic

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This paper examines the role and the place of transdisciplinarity in the urbanism of the 21st century, with the emphasis on Montenegro urbanism. Global processes require a systematic strategy and systemic synergistic engagement in the development of cities in 21st centuries. Urbanism as a profession and a discipline should be developed parallel and in correlation, based on the principles of integrality and communication skills, in order to enable development of the sustainable urban system. The importance of integrated urbanism and other disciplines are also emphasized as well as their synergies activities. The paper also presents the positive examples of urban theory and practice in the world, which influenced the direction of development of the modern urbanism. Transdisciplinarity is a priority methodology for sustainable urban development, which is insufficiently developed in Montenegro, but there is a basis for its development. It is necessary to unite different social sensibilities, academic and non-academic knowledge, as well as the public and private sectors in order to develop holistic, inclusive and sustainable urban spaces of the 21st centuries.

Keywords: Montenegro urbanism, sustainability, the 21st century, transdisciplinarity.

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Authors: Manoj Singh, Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, Abdul Hakim Khan

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The investigation in the present paper is to obtain certain types of relations for the well known hypergeometric functions by employing the technique of fractional derivative and integral.

Keywords: Fractional Derivatives and Integrals, Hypergeometric functions.

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Authors: R.Rahimi, F.Moharrami

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Titanium gels doped with water-soluble cationic porphyrin were synthesized by the sol–gel polymerization of Ti (OC4H9)4. In this work we investigate the spectroscopic properties along with SEM images of tetra carboxyl phenyl porphyrin when incorporated into porous matrix produced by the sol–gel technique.

Keywords: TCPP, Titanium matrix, UV/Vis spectroscopy, SEM.

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Authors: Rym Zouari, Sami Ben Amar, Abdelwaheb Dogui

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This paper presents an experimental characterization of the anisotropic mechanical behavior of 4 textile woven fabrics with different weaves (Twill 3, Plain, Twill4 and Satin 4) by off-axis tensile testing. These tests are applied according seven directions oriented by 15° increment with respect to the warp direction. Fixed and articulated jaws are used. Analysis of experimental results is done through global (Effort/Elongation curves) and local scales. Global anisotropy was studied from the Effort/Elongation curves: shape, breaking load (Frup), tensile elongation (EMT), tensile energy (WT) and linearity index (LT). Local anisotropy was studied from the measurement of strain tensor components in the central area of the specimen as a function of testing orientation and effort: longitudinal strain ɛ_L, transverse strain ɛ_T and shearing ɛ_LT. The effect of used jaws is also analyzed.

Keywords: Anisotropy, Off-axis tensile test, strain fields, Textile woven fabric.

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Authors: S. A. M. Elshourbagy

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This paper investigates the effects of lubrication on the quantity of heat emission of two spur gear. System with and without lubrication effected on the quantity of heat induced on the gear box (oil - bearings – gears). Both of lubrication and speed of motor are affected on the performance of gears. Research investigated the lubrication on the system with and without loading as well as the wear of gears and bearing's conditions. Gear box investigated includes the motor, pump, two spur gears, two shafts; speed change used pulleys and belts. Load used equal one weight ones of gear. Lubrication mechanism used jet system (upper and lower jet). Gear box we used system of jet lubrication is perpendicular direction of the contact line between two teeth. Results appeared in this work that the lubrication is the vital parameter which is affected on the performance and durability of gears and bearings. In macroscopic observation, we noted that damage of bearings happened during the absence of lubrication as well as abrasive of wear of teeth. Higher speed of motor without lubrication increased the noise, but in the presence of lubrication was decreased.

Keywords: Lubrication, jet, laser gun, spur gear, temperature

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Authors: H.A. Ashorynejad, M. Farhadi, K.Sedighi, A.Hasanpour

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We report the results of an lattice Boltzmann simulation of magnetohydrodynamic damping of sidewall convection in a rectangular enclosure filled with a porous medium. In particular we investigate the suppression of convection when a steady magnetic field is applied in the vertical direction. The left and right vertical walls of the cavity are kept at constant but different temperatures while both the top and bottom horizontal walls are insulated. The effects of the controlling parameters involved in the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics are studied in detail. The heat and mass transfer mechanisms and the flow characteristics inside the enclosure depended strongly on the strength of the magnetic field and Darcy number. The average Nusselt number decreases with rising values of the Hartmann number while this increases with increasing values of the Darcy number.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann method , Natural convection , Magnetohydrodynamic , Porous medium

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Authors: Wanhyun Cho, Soonja Kang, Sangkyoon Kim, Soonyoung Park

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In this paper, we propose the variational EM inference algorithm for the multi-class Gaussian process classification model that can be used in the field of human behavior recognition. This algorithm can drive simultaneously both a posterior distribution of a latent function and estimators of hyper-parameters in a Gaussian process classification model with multiclass. Our algorithm is based on the Laplace approximation (LA) technique and variational EM framework. This is performed in two steps: called expectation and maximization steps. First, in the expectation step, using the Bayesian formula and LA technique, we derive approximately the posterior distribution of the latent function indicating the possibility that each observation belongs to a certain class in the Gaussian process classification model. Second, in the maximization step, using a derived posterior distribution of latent function, we compute the maximum likelihood estimator for hyper-parameters of a covariance matrix necessary to define prior distribution for latent function. These two steps iteratively repeat until a convergence condition satisfies. Moreover, we apply the proposed algorithm with human action classification problem using a public database, namely, the KTH human action data set. Experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm shows good performance on this data set.

Keywords: Bayesian rule, Gaussian process classification model with multiclass, Gaussian process prior, human action classification, laplace approximation, variational EM algorithm.

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Authors: D. Hephzibah, P. Kumaran, N. M. Saifuddin

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Anaerobic digestion is a well-known technique for sustainable energy recovery from sewage sludge. However, sewage sludge digestion is restricted due to certain factors. Pre-treatment methods have been established in various publications as a promising technique to improve the digestibility of the sewage sludge and to enhance the biogas generated which can be used for energy recovery. In this study, continuous flow microwave (MW) pre-treatment with different intensities were compared by using 5 L semi-continuous digesters at a hydraulic retention time of 27 days. We focused on the effects of MW at different intensities on the sludge solubilization, sludge digestibility, and biogas production of the untreated and MW pre-treated sludge. The MW pre-treatment demonstrated an increase in the ratio of soluble chemical oxygen demand to total chemical oxygen demand (sCOD/tCOD) and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration. Besides that, the total volatile solid (TVS) removal efficiency and tCOD removal efficiency also increased during the digestion of the MW pre-treated sewage sludge compared to the untreated sewage sludge. Furthermore, the biogas yield also subsequently increases due to the pre-treatment effect. A higher MW power level and irradiation time generally enhanced the biogas generation which has potential for sustainable energy recovery from sewage treatment plant. However, the net energy balance tabulation shows that the MW pre-treatment leads to negative net energy production.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, biogas, microwave pre-treatment, sewage sludge.

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Authors: AHM Shamsuzzoha, Tauno Kekäle, Petri Helo

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Product customization is an essential requirement for manufacturing firms to achieve higher customers- satisfaction and fulfill business target. In order to achieve these objectives, firms need to handle both external varieties such as customer preference, government regulations, cultural considerations etc and internal varieties such as functional requirements of product, production efficiency, quality etc. Both of the varieties need to be accumulated and integrated together for the purpose of producing customized product. These varieties are presented and discussed in this paper along with the perspectives of modular product design and development process. Other development strategies such as modularity, component commonality, product family design and product platform are presented with a view to achieve product variety quickly and economically. A case example both for the concept of modular design and platform based product development process is also presented with the help of design structure matrix (DSM) tool. This paper is concluded with several managerial implications and future research direction.

Keywords: Customization modular design, platform development, product variety.

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Authors: Kusumaphorn Sompong, Helen Lawton Smith, Barbara Igel

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This paper provides a key driver-based conceptual framework that can be used to improve a firm-s success in commercializing technology and in new product innovation resulting from collaboration with other organizations through strategic alliances. Based on a qualitative study using an interview approach, strategic alliances of entrepreneurs in the food processing industry in Thailand are explored. This paper describes factors affecting decisions to collaborate through alliances. It identifies four issues: maintaining the efficiency of the value chain for production capability, adapting to present and future competition, careful assessment of value of outcomes, and management of innovation. We consider five driving factors: resource orientation, assessment of risk, business opportunity, sharing of benefits and confidence in alliance partners. These factors will be of interest to entrepreneurs and policy makers with regard to further understanding of the direction of business strategies.

Keywords: Managing collaboration, strategic alliance, technology commercialization, innovation.

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Authors: Kalu Ram Meena, Aditi Kar Gangopadhyay, Satrajit Mandal

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Two normal populations with different means and same variance are considered, where the variance is known. The population with the smaller sample mean is selected. Various estimators are constructed for the mean of the selected normal population. Finally, they are compared with respect to the bias and MSE risks by the mehod of Monte-Carlo simulation and their performances are analysed with the help of graphs.

Keywords: Estimation after selection, Brewster-Zidek technique.

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Authors: Alpha Agape Gopalai, Darwin Gouwanda, S.M.N. Arosha Senanayake

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This paper explores the opportunity of using tri-axial wireless accelerometers for supervised monitoring of sports movements. A motion analysis system for the upper extremities of lawn bowlers in particular is developed. Accelerometers are placed on parts of human body such as the chest to represent the shoulder movements, the back to capture the trunk motion, back of the hand, the wrist and one above the elbow, to capture arm movements. These sensors placement are carefully designed in order to avoid restricting bowler-s movements. Data is acquired from these sensors in soft-real time using virtual instrumentation; the acquired data is then conditioned and converted into required parameters for motion regeneration. A user interface was also created to facilitate in the acquisition of data, and broadcasting of commands to the wireless accelerometers. All motion regeneration in this paper deals with the motion of the human body segment in the X and Y direction, looking into the motion of the anterior/ posterior and lateral directions respectively.

Keywords: Motion Regeneration, Virtual Instrumentation, Wireless Accelerometers

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Authors: Robson C. Santos, Christian N. Barreto, Gerson G. Cunha, Severino J. C. Neto

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This paper aims to project the construction of a prototype azimuthal thruster, mounted with materials of low cost and easy access, testing in a controlled environment to measure their performance, characteristics and feasibility of future projects. The construction of the simulation of dynamic positioning software, responsible for simulating a vessel and reposition it when necessary. Validation tests were performed in the form of partial or complete system. These tests validate the system manually or automatically. The system provides an interface to the user and simulates the conditions unfavorable positioning of a vessel, accurately calculates the azimuth angle, the direction of rotation of the helix and the time that this should be turned on so that the vessel back to position original. A serial communication connects the Simulation Dynamic Positioning System with Embedded System causing the usergenerated data to simulate the DP system arrives in the form of control signals to the motors of the propellant. This article addresses issues in the marine industry employees.

Keywords: Azimuthal Thruster, Dynamic Positioning, Embedded System.

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Authors: Mohamed El Morsy, Gabriela Achtenová

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Research on damage of gears and gear pairs using vibration signals remains very attractive, because vibration signals from a gear pair are complex in nature and not easy to interpret. Predicting gear pair defects by analyzing changes in vibration signal of gears pairs in operation is a very reliable method. Therefore, a suitable vibration signal processing technique is necessary to extract defect information generally obscured by the noise from dynamic factors of other gear pairs.This article presents the value of cepstrum analysis in vehicle gearbox fault diagnosis. Cepstrum represents the overall power content of a whole family of harmonics and sidebands when more than one family of sidebands is present at the same time. The concept for the measurement and analysis involved in using the technique are briefly outlined. Cepstrum analysis is used for detection of an artificial pitting defect in a vehicle gearbox loaded with different speeds and torques. The test stand is equipped with three dynamometers; the input dynamometer serves asthe internal combustion engine, the output dynamometers introduce the load on the flanges of the output joint shafts. The pitting defect is manufactured on the tooth side of a gear of the fifth speed on the secondary shaft. Also, a method for fault diagnosis of gear faults is presented based on order Cepstrum. The procedure is illustrated with the experimental vibration data of the vehicle gearbox. The results show the effectiveness of Cepstrum analysis in detection and diagnosis of the gear condition.

Keywords: Cepstrum analysis, fault diagnosis, gearbox.

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Authors: Christopher Paterson, Richard Curry, Alan Purvis, Simon Johnson

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Emerging Bio-engineering fields such as Brain Computer Interfaces, neuroprothesis devices and modeling and simulation of neural networks have led to increased research activity in algorithms for the detection, isolation and classification of Action Potentials (AP) from noisy data trains. Current techniques in the field of 'unsupervised no-prior knowledge' biosignal processing include energy operators, wavelet detection and adaptive thresholding. These tend to bias towards larger AP waveforms, AP may be missed due to deviations in spike shape and frequency and correlated noise spectrums can cause false detection. Also, such algorithms tend to suffer from large computational expense. A new signal detection technique based upon the ideas of phasespace diagrams and trajectories is proposed based upon the use of a delayed copy of the AP to highlight discontinuities relative to background noise. This idea has been used to create algorithms that are computationally inexpensive and address the above problems. Distinct AP have been picked out and manually classified from real physiological data recorded from a cockroach. To facilitate testing of the new technique, an Auto Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) noise model has been constructed bases upon background noise of the recordings. Along with the AP classification means this model enables generation of realistic neuronal data sets at arbitrary signal to noise ratio (SNR).

Keywords: Action potential detection, Low SNR, Phase spacediagrams/trajectories, Unsupervised/no-prior knowledge.

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Authors: D. Toghraie, A. R. Azimian

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In this paper, the Lennard -Jones potential is applied to molecules of liquid argon as well as its vapor and platinum as solid surface in order to perform a non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation to study the microscopic aspects of liquid-vapor-solid interactions. The channel is periodic in x and y directions and along z direction it is bounded by atomic walls. It was found that density of the liquids near the solid walls fluctuated greatly and that the structure was more like a solid than a liquid. This indicates that the interactions of solid and liquid molecules are very strong. The resultant surface tension, liquid density and vapor density are found to be well predicted when compared with the experimental data for argon. Liquid and vapor densities were found to depend on the cutoff radius which induces the use of P3M (particle-particle particle-mesh) method which was implemented for evaluation of force and surface tension.

Keywords: Lennard-Jones Potential, Molecular DynamicsSimulation, Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBC), Non-EquilibriumMolecular Dynamics (NEMD).

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Authors: Khoo Shin Yee, Lian Yee Cheng, Ong Zhi Chao, Zubaidah Ismail, Siamak Noroozi

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Structural frequency response testing is accurate in identifying the dynamic characteristic of a machinery structure. In practical perspective, conventional structural frequency response testing such as experimental modal analysis with impulse technique (also known as “impulse testing”) has limitation especially on its long acquisition time. The high acquisition time is mainly due to the redundancy procedure where the engineer has to repeatedly perform the test in 3 directions, namely the axial-, horizontal- and vertical-axis, in order to comprehensively define the dynamic behavior of a 3D structure. This is unfavorable to numerous industries where the downtime cost is high. This study proposes to reduce the testing time by using oblique impact. Theoretically, a single oblique impact can induce significant vibration responses and vibration modes in all the 3 directions. Hence, the acquisition time with the implementation of the oblique impulse technique can be reduced by a factor of three (i.e. for a 3D dynamic system). This study initiates an experimental investigation of impulse testing with oblique excitation. A motor-driven test rig has been used for the testing purpose. Its dynamic characteristic has been identified using the impulse testing with the conventional normal impact and the proposed oblique impact respectively. The results show that the proposed oblique impulse testing is able to obtain all the desired natural frequencies in all 3 directions and thus providing a feasible solution for a fast and time effective way of conducting the impulse testing.

Keywords: Frequency response function, impact testing, modal analysis, oblique angle, oblique impact.

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Authors: M. Norazamina, A. Azizah, Y. Najihah Marha, A. Suraya

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Malaysian Public Sector departments or agencies are responsible to provide efficient public services with zero corruption. However, corruption continues to occur due to the absence of ethical leadership and well-execution of ethical guidelines. Thus, the objective of this paper is to explore the attributes of ethical leadership and ethical guidelines. This study employs a qualitative research by analyzing data from interviews with key informers of public sector using conceptual content analysis (NVivo11). The study reveals eight attributes of ethical leadership which are role model, attachment, ethical support, knowledgeable, discipline, leaders’ spirituality encouragement, virtue values and shared values. Meanwhile, five attributes (guidelines, communication, check and balance, concern on stakeholders and compliance) of ethical guidelines are identified. These identified attributes should become the ethical identity and ethical direction of Malaysian Public Sector. This could enhance the public trust as well as the international community trust towards the public sector.

Keywords: Check and balance, ethical guidelines, ethical leadership, public sector, spirituality encouragement .

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Authors: S. Visetpotjanakit, C. Khrautongkieo

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Radiation monitoring in the environment and foodstuffs is one of the main responsibilities of Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) as the nuclear regulatory body of Thailand. The main goal of the OAP is to assure the safety of the Thai people and environment from any radiological incidents. Various radioanalytical methods have been developed to monitor radiation and radionuclides in the environmental and foodstuff samples. To validate our analytical performance, several proficiency test exercises from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been performed. Here, the results of a proficiency test exercise referred to as the Proficiency Test for Tritium, Cobalt, Strontium and Caesium Isotopes in Seawater 2017 (IAEA-RML-2017-01) are presented. All radionuclides excepting ³H were analysed using various radioanalytical methods, i.e. direct gamma-ray counting for determining ⁶⁰Co, ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs and developed radiochemical techniques for analysing ¹³⁴Cs, ¹³⁷Cs using AMP pre-concentration technique and 90Sr using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) liquid extraction technique. The analysis results were submitted to IAEA. All results passed IAEA criteria, i.e. accuracy, precision and trueness and obtained ‘Accepted’ statuses. These confirm the data quality from the OAP environmental radiation laboratory to monitor radiation in the environment.

Keywords: International atomic energy agency, proficiency test, radiation monitoring, seawater.

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Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

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Asphalt concrete pavements gradually lose their skid resistance causing safety problems especially under wet conditions and high driving speeds. In order to enact the actual field polishing and wearing process of asphalt pavement surfaces in a laboratory setting, several laboratory-scale accelerated polishing devices were developed by different agencies. To mimic the actual process, friction and texture measuring devices are needed to quantify surface deterioration at different polishing intervals that reflect different stages of the pavement life. The test could still be considered lengthy and to some extent labor-intensive. Therefore, there is a need to come up with another method that can assist in investigating the bituminous pavement surface characteristics in a practical and time-efficient test procedure.

The purpose of this paper is to utilize a well-developed image analysis technique to characterize asphalt pavement surfaces without the need to use conventional friction and texture measuring devices in an attempt to shorten and simplify the polishing procedure in the lab.

Promising findings showed the possibility of using image analysis in lieu of the labor-sensitive-variable-in-nature friction and texture measurements. It was found that the exposed aggregate surface area of asphalt specimens made from limestone and gravel aggregates produced solid evidence of the validity of this method in describing asphalt pavement surfaces. Image analysis results correlated well with the British Pendulum Numbers (BPN), Polish Values (PV) and Mean Texture Depth (MTD) values.

Keywords: Friction, Image Analysis, Polishing, Statistical Analysis, Texture.

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Authors: Md Abdullah Al Faruque, Ram Balachandar

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The present study was carried out to understand the extent of effect of roughness and Reynolds number in open channel flow (OCF). To this extent, four different types of bed surface conditions consisting smooth, distributed roughness, continuous roughness, natural sand bed and two different Reynolds number for each bed surfaces were adopted in this study. Particular attention was given on mean velocity, turbulence intensity, Reynolds shear stress, correlation, higher order moments and quadrant analysis. Further, the extent of influence of roughness and Reynolds number in the depth-wise direction also studied. Increasing Reynolds shear stress near rough beds are noticed due to arrays of discrete roughness elements and flow over these elements generating a series of wakes which contributes to the generation of significantly higher Reynolds shear stress.

Keywords: Bed roughness, ejection, sweep, open channel flow, Reynolds Shear Stress, turbulent boundary layer, velocity triple product.

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Authors: Bahaa Khalil, Taha B. M. J. Ouarda, André St-Hilaire

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The world economic crises and budget constraints have caused authorities, especially those in developing countries, to rationalize water quality monitoring activities. Rationalization consists of reducing the number of monitoring sites, the number of samples, and/or the number of water quality variables measured. The reduction in water quality variables is usually based on correlation. If two variables exhibit high correlation, it is an indication that some of the information produced may be redundant. Consequently, one variable can be discontinued, and the other continues to be measured. Later, the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression technique is employed to reconstitute information about discontinued variable by using the continuously measured one as an explanatory variable. In this paper, two record extension techniques are employed to reconstitute information about discontinued water quality variables, the OLS and the Line of Organic Correlation (LOC). An empirical experiment is conducted using water quality records from the Nile Delta water quality monitoring network in Egypt. The record extension techniques are compared for their ability to predict different statistical parameters of the discontinued variables. Results show that the OLS is better at estimating individual water quality records. However, results indicate an underestimation of the variance in the extended records. The LOC technique is superior in preserving characteristics of the entire distribution and avoids underestimation of the variance. It is concluded from this study that the OLS can be used for the substitution of missing values, while LOC is preferable for inferring statements about the probability distribution.

Keywords: Record extension, record augmentation, monitoringnetworks, water quality indicators.

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Authors: Anirut Luadsong, Nitima Aschariyaphotha

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The spectral action balance equation is an equation that used to simulate short-crested wind-generated waves in shallow water areas such as coastal regions and inland waters. This equation consists of two spatial dimensions, wave direction, and wave frequency which can be solved by finite difference method. When this equation with dominating convection term are discretized using central differences, stability problems occur when the grid spacing is chosen too coarse. In this paper, we introduce the splitting upwind schemes for avoiding stability problems and prove that it is consistent to the upwind scheme with same accuracy. The splitting upwind schemes was adopted to split the wave spectral action balance equation into four onedimensional problems, which for each small problem obtains the independently tridiagonal linear systems. For each smaller system can be solved by direct or iterative methods at the same time which is very fast when performed by a multi-processor computer.

Keywords: upwind scheme, parallel algorithm, spectral action balance equation, splitting method.

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Authors: See Zi Siang, Khairul Hazrin Hashim, Harold Thwaites, Lee Xia Sheng, Ooi Wooi Har

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The paper explores the development of an optimization of method and apparatus for retrieving extended high dynamic range from digital negative image. Architectural photo imaging can benefit from high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) technique for preserving and presenting sufficient luminance in the shadow and highlight clipping image areas. The HDRI technique that requires multiple exposure images as the source of HDRI rendering may not be effective in terms of time efficiency during the acquisition process and post-processing stage, considering it has numerous potential imaging variables and technical limitations during the multiple exposure process. This paper explores an experimental method and apparatus that aims to expand the dynamic range from digital negative image in HDRI environment. The method and apparatus explored is based on a single source of RAW image acquisition for the use of HDRI post-processing. It will cater the optimization in order to avoid and minimize the conventional HDRI photographic errors caused by different physical conditions during the photographing process and the misalignment of multiple exposed image sequences. The study observes the characteristics and capabilities of RAW image format as digital negative used for the retrieval of extended high dynamic range process in HDRI environment.

Keywords: High Dynamic Range Image, Photography Workflow Optimization, Digital Negative Image, Architectural Image

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Authors: Amol A. Talankar, Prakash Verma, Nitin Seth

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The purpose of this study is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for the effective implementation of Six Sigma in non-formal service Sectors.

Based on the survey of literature, the critical success factors (CSFs) for Six Sigma have been identified and are assessed for their importance in Non-formal service sector using Delphi Technique. These selected CSFs were put forth to the panel of expert to cluster them and prepare cognitive map to establish their relationship.

All the critical success factors examined and obtained from the review of literature have been assessed for their importance with respect to their contribution to Six Sigma effectiveness in non formal service sector.

The study is limited to the non-formal service sectors involved in the organization of religious festival only. However, the similar exercise can be conducted for broader sample of other non-formal service sectors like temple/ashram management, religious tours management etc.

The research suggests an approach to identify CSFs of Six Sigma for Non-formal service sector. All the CSFs of the formal service sector will not be applicable to Non-formal services, hence opinion of experts was sought to add or delete the CSFs. In the first round of Delphi, the panel of experts has suggested, two new CSFs-“competitive benchmarking (F19) and resident’s involvement (F28)”, which were added for assessment in the next round of Delphi.  One of the CSFs-“fulltime six sigma personnel (F15)” has been omitted in proposed clusters of CSFs for non-formal organization, as it is practically impossible to deploy full time trained Six Sigma recruits.

Keywords: Critical success factors (CSFs), Quality assurance, non-formal service sectors, Six Sigma.

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Authors: Wann-Ming Wey

Abstract:

In recent years, the problems of global climate change and natural disasters have induced the concerns and attentions of environmental sustainability issues for the public. Aside from the environmental planning efforts done for human environment, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) has been widely used as one of the future solutions for the sustainable city development. In order to be more consistent with the urban sustainable development, the development of the built environment planning based on the concept of Green TOD which combines both TOD and Green Urbanism is adapted here. The connotation of the urban development under the green TOD including the design toward environment protect, the maximum enhancement resources and the efficiency of energy use, use technology to construct green buildings and protected areas, natural ecosystems and communities linked, etc. Green TOD is not only to provide the solution to urban traffic problems, but to direct more sustainable and greener consideration for future urban development planning and design. In this study, we use both the TOD and Green Urbanism concepts to proceed to the study of the built environment planning and design. Fuzzy Delphi Technique (FDT) is utilized to screen suitable criteria of the green TOD. Furthermore, Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) were then developed to evaluate the criteria and prioritize the alternatives. The study results can be regarded as the future guidelines of the built environment planning and designing under green TOD development in Taiwan.

Keywords: Green transit-oriented development, built environment, fuzzy Delphi technique, quality function deployment, fuzzy analytic network process.

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Authors: M.R.Isvandzibaei, E.Bidokh, M.R.Alinaghizadeh, A.Nasirian, A.Moarrefzadeh

Abstract:

In this paper a study on the vibration of thin cylindrical shells with ring supports and made of functionally graded materials (FGMs) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented. Material properties vary along the thickness direction of the shell according to volume fraction power law. The cylindrical shells have ring supports which are arbitrarily placed along the shell and impose zero lateral deflections. The study is carried out based on third order shear deformation shell theory (T.S.D.T). The analysis is carried out using Hamilton-s principle. The governing equations of motion of FGM cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of ring support position and the influence of boundary conditions. The present analysis is validated by comparing results with those available in the literature.

Keywords: Vibration, FGM, Cylindrical shell, Hamilton'sprinciple, Ring support.

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