Search results for: framework methods
4042 Prediction of Road Accidents in Qatar by 2022
Authors: M. Abou-Amouna, A. Radwan, L. Al-kuwari, A. Hammuda, K. Al-Khalifa
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There is growing concern over increasing incidences of road accidents and consequent loss of human life in Qatar. In light to the future planned event in Qatar, World Cup 2022; Qatar should put into consideration the future deaths caused by road accidents, and past trends should be considered to give a reasonable picture of what may happen in the future. Qatar roads should be arranged and paved in a way that accommodate high capacity of the population in that time, since then there will be a huge number of visitors from the world. Qatar should also consider the risk issues of road accidents raised in that period, and plan to maintain high level to safety strategies. According to the increase in the number of road accidents in Qatar from 1995 until 2012, an analysis of elements affecting and causing road accidents will be effectively studied. This paper aims to identify and criticize the factors that have high effect on causing road accidents in the state of Qatar, and predict the total number of road accidents in Qatar 2022. Alternative methods are discussed and the most applicable ones according to the previous researches are selected for further studies. The methods that satisfy the existing case in Qatar were the multiple linear regression model (MLR) and artificial neutral network (ANN). Those methods are analyzed and their findings are compared. We conclude that by using MLR the number of accidents in 2022 will become 355,226 accidents, and by using ANN 216,264 accidents. We conclude that MLR gave better results than ANN because the artificial neutral network doesn’t fit data with large range varieties.
Keywords: Road Safety, Prediction, Accident, Model, Qatar.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26304041 Comparison of Cyclone Design Methods for Removal of Fine Particles from Plasma Generated Syngas
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.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23784040 Inspection of Geometrical Integrity of Work Piece and Measurement of Tool Wear by the Use of Photo Digitizing Method
Authors: R. Alipour, F. Nadjarian, A. Alinaghizade
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Considering complexity of products, new geometrical design and investment tolerances that are necessary, measuring and dimensional controlling involve modern and more precise methods. Photo digitizing method using two cameras to record pictures and utilization of conventional method named “cloud points" and data analysis by the use of ATOUS software, is known as modern and efficient in mentioned context. In this paper, benefits of photo digitizing method in evaluating sampling of machining processes have been put forward. For example, assessment of geometrical integrity surface in 5-axis milling process and measurement of carbide tool wear in turning process, can be can be brought forward. Advantages of this method comparing to conventional methods have been expressed.Keywords: photo digitizing, tool wear, geometrical integrity, cloud points
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13564039 Semi-Automatic Approach for Semantic Annotation
Authors: Mohammad Yasrebi, Mehran Mohsenzadeh
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The third phase of web means semantic web requires many web pages which are annotated with metadata. Thus, a crucial question is where to acquire these metadata. In this paper we propose our approach, a semi-automatic method to annotate the texts of documents and web pages and employs with a quite comprehensive knowledge base to categorize instances with regard to ontology. The approach is evaluated against the manual annotations and one of the most popular annotation tools which works the same as our tool. The approach is implemented in .net framework and uses the WordNet for knowledge base, an annotation tool for the Semantic Web.
Keywords: Semantic Annotation, Metadata, Information Extraction, Semantic Web, knowledge base.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18654038 Strategic Maintenance Management of Built Facilities in an Organisation
Authors: Anita D. Adamu, Winston M. W. Shakantu
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Maintenance management is no longer a stand-alone activity. It has now assumed a strategic position in many organisations that have recognised its importance in achieving primary goals and a key aspect of effective management of facilities. This paper aims at providing an understanding of the role and function of strategic management in creating and sustaining an effective maintenance management system in an organisation. The background provides an articulated concept and principles of strategic management. The theoretical concepts paved way for a conceptual framework for which strategic management can be integrated into the maintenance management system of an organisation to improve effectiveness in the maintenance of facilities.
Keywords: Facilities, maintenance management, organisations, strategic management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27584037 ClassMATE: Enabling Ambient Intelligence in the Classroom
Authors: Asterios Leonidis, George Margetis, Margherita Antona, Constantine Stephanidis
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Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments bring significant potential to exploit sophisticated computer technology in everyday life. In particular, the educational domain could be significantly enhanced through AmI, as personalized and adapted learning could be transformed from paper concepts and prototypes to real-life scenarios. In this paper, an integrated framework is presented, named ClassMATE, supporting ubiquitous computing and communication in a school classroom. The main objective of ClassMATE is to enable pervasive interaction and context aware education in the technologically augmented classroom of the future.Keywords: Ambient intelligence, smart classroom, pervasivecomputing, education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23234036 A New Decision Making Approach based on Possibilistic Influence Diagrams
Authors: Wided Guezguez, Nahla Ben Amor
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This paper proposes a new decision making approch based on quantitative possibilistic influence diagrams which are extension of standard influence diagrams in the possibilistic framework. We will in particular treat the case where several expert opinions relative to value nodes are available. An initial expert assigns confidence degrees to other experts and fixes a similarity threshold that provided possibility distributions should respect. To illustrate our approach an evaluation algorithm for these multi-source possibilistic influence diagrams will also be proposed.Keywords: influnece diagram, decision making, graphical decision models, influence diagrams, possibility theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13004035 Towards a UTAUT-based Model for the Study of EGovernment Citizen Acceptance in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alzahrani.M.E, Goodwin.R.D
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Among the most fundamental prerequisites for the successful development of electronic Government Services (e- Government) is Citizen Acceptance. Based on the UTAUT model, the paper describes a hypothetical framework that integrates the unique features of E- government to improve our understanding of the acceptance and usage of e-Government Saudi Arabia. The proposed model, based on UTAUT, includes the characteristics of Egovernment, consideration and inclusion of trust, privacy, and Saudi culture and context.
Keywords: E-government, technology adoption, citizen acceptance, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34464034 Ice Load Measurements on Known Structures Using Image Processing Methods
Authors: Azam Fazelpour, Saeed R. Dehghani, Vlastimil Masek, Yuri S. Muzychka
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This study employs a method based on image analyses and structure information to detect accumulated ice on known structures. The icing of marine vessels and offshore structures causes significant reductions in their efficiency and creates unsafe working conditions. Image processing methods are used to measure ice loads automatically. Most image processing methods are developed based on captured image analyses. In this method, ice loads on structures are calculated by defining structure coordinates and processing captured images. A pyramidal structure is designed with nine cylindrical bars as the known structure of experimental setup. Unsymmetrical ice accumulated on the structure in a cold room represents the actual case of experiments. Camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters are used to define structure coordinates in the image coordinate system according to the camera location and angle. The thresholding method is applied to capture images and detect iced structures in a binary image. The ice thickness of each element is calculated by combining the information from the binary image and the structure coordinate. Averaging ice diameters from different camera views obtains ice thicknesses of structure elements. Comparison between ice load measurements using this method and the actual ice loads shows positive correlations with an acceptable range of error. The method can be applied to complex structures defining structure and camera coordinates.
Keywords: Camera calibration, Ice detection, ice load measurements, image processing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12554033 Establishing of Education Strategy in New Technological Environments with using Student Feedback
Authors: Ali Kartal
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According to the new developments in the field of information and communication technologies, the necessity arises for active use of these new technologies in education. It is clear that the integration of technology in education system will be different for primary-higher education or traditional- distance education. In this study, the subject of the integration of technology for distance education was discussed. The subject was taken from the viewpoint of students. With using the information of student feedback about education program in which new technological medias are used, how can survey variables can be separated into the factors as positive, negative and supporter and how can be redesigned education strategy of the higher education associations with the examining the variables of each determinated factor is explained. The paper concludes with the recommendations about the necessitity of working as a group of different area experts and using of numerical methods in establishing of education strategy to be successful.
Keywords: Distance education, student feedback, working as a group, numerical methods.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15254032 Comparative Study on Status and Development of Transient Flow Analysis Including Simple Surge Tank
Authors: I. Abuiziah, A. Oulhaj, K. Sebari, D. Ouazar
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This paper presents the problem of modeling and simulating of transient phenomena in conveying pipeline systems based on the rigid column and full elastic methods. Transient analysis is important and one of the more challenging and complicated flow problem in the design and the operation of water pipeline systems. Transient can produce large pressure forces and rapid fluid acceleration into a water pipeline system, these disturbances may result in device failures, system fatigue or pipe ruptures, and even the dirty water intrusion. Several methods have been introduced and used to analyze transient flow, an accurate analysis and suitable protection devices should be used to protect water pipeline systems. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method has been used to solve the dynamic and continuity equations in the rigid column method, while the characteristics method used to solve these equations in the full elastic method. The results obtained provide that the model is an efficient tool for flow transient analysis and provide approximately identical results by using these two methods. Moreover; using the simple surge tank ”open surge tank” reduces the unfavorable effects of transients.
Keywords: Elastic method, Flow transient, Open surge tank, Pipeline, Protection devices, Numerical model, Rigid column method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29914031 Credit Spread Changes and Volatility Spillover Effects
Authors: Thomas I. Kounitis
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of a number of variables on the conditional mean and conditional variance of credit spread changes. The empirical analysis in this paper is conducted within the context of bivariate GARCH-in- Mean models, using the so-called BEKK parameterization. We show that credit spread changes are determined by interest-rate and equityreturn variables, which is in line with theory as provided by the structural models of default. We also identify the credit spread change volatility as an important determinant of credit spread changes, and provide evidence on the transmission of volatility between the variables under study.Keywords: Credit spread changes, GARCH-in-Mean models, structural framework, volatility transmission.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16524030 Introduction of the Harmfulness of the Seismic Signal in the Assessment of the Performance of Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures
Authors: Kahil Amar, Boukais Said, Kezmane Ali, Hamizi Mohand, Hannachi Naceur Eddine
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The principle of the seismic performance evaluation methods is to provide a measure of capability for a building or set of buildings to be damaged by an earthquake. The common objective of many of these methods is to supply classification criteria. The purpose of this study is to present a method for assessing the seismic performance of structures, based on Pushover method; we are particularly interested in reinforced concrete frame structures, which represent a significant percentage of damaged structures after a seismic event. The work is based on the characterization of seismic movement of the various earthquake zones in terms of PGA and PGD that is obtained by means of SIMQK_GR and PRISM software and the correlation between the points of performance and the scalar characterizing the earthquakes will developed.
Keywords: Seismic performance, Pushover method, characterization of seismic motion, harmfulness of the seismic signal
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20504029 New Data Reuse Adaptive Filters with Noise Constraint
Authors: Young-Seok Choi
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We present a new framework of the data-reusing (DR) adaptive algorithms by incorporating a constraint on noise, referred to as a noise constraint. The motivation behind this work is that the use of the statistical knowledge of the channel noise can contribute toward improving the convergence performance of an adaptive filter in identifying a noisy linear finite impulse response (FIR) channel. By incorporating the noise constraint into the cost function of the DR adaptive algorithms, the noise constrained DR (NC-DR) adaptive algorithms are derived. Experimental results clearly indicate their superior performance over the conventional DR ones.Keywords: Adaptive filter, data-reusing, least-mean square (LMS), affine projection (AP), noise constraint.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16264028 Geometric Operators in Decision Making with Minimization of Regret
Authors: José M. Merigó, Montserrat Casanovas
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We study different types of aggregation operators and the decision making process with minimization of regret. We analyze the original work developed by Savage and the recent work developed by Yager that generalizes the MMR method creating a parameterized family of minimal regret methods by using the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator. We suggest a new method that uses different types of geometric operators such as the weighted geometric mean or the ordered weighted geometric operator (OWG) to generalize the MMR method obtaining a new parameterized family of minimal regret methods. The main result obtained in this method is that it allows to aggregate negative numbers in the OWG operator. Finally, we give an illustrative example.Keywords: Decision making, Regret, Aggregation operators, OWA operator, OWG operator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16664027 Power Flow Analysis for Radial Distribution System Using Backward/Forward Sweep Method
Authors: J. A. Michline Rupa, S. Ganesh
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This paper proposes a backward/forward sweep method to analyze the power flow in radial distribution systems. The distribution system has radial structure and high R/X ratios. So the newton-raphson and fast decoupled methods are failed with distribution system. The proposed method presents a load flow study using backward/forward sweep method, which is one of the most effective methods for the load-flow analysis of the radial distribution system. By using this method, power losses for each bus branch and voltage magnitudes for each bus node are determined. This method has been tested on IEEE 33-bus radial distribution system and effective results are obtained using MATLAB.
Keywords: Backward/Forward sweep method, Distribution system, Load flow analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 175184026 A Comparative Analysis of Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis Methods for Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Decisions in Military Fighter Aircraft Selection
Authors: C. Ardil
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This paper considers a comparative analysis of multiple criteria decision making analysis methods for strategic, tactical, and operational decisions in military fighter aircraft selection for the air force fleet planning. The evaluation criteria governing the decision analysis process are determined from the literature for the three existing military combat aircraft. Military fighter aircraft selection problem is structured using "preference analysis for reference ideal solution (PARIS)” approach in multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDMA). Systematic comparisons were made with existing MCDMA methods (PARIS, and TOPSIS) to verify the stability and accuracy of the results obtained. The proposed integrated MCDMA systematic approach is expected to address the issues encountered in the aircraft selection process. The comparative analysis results show that the proposed method is an effective and accurate tool that can help analysts make better strategic, tactical, and operational decisions.
Keywords: aircraft, military fighter aircraft selection, multiple criteria decision making, multiple criteria decision making analysis, mean weight, entropy weight, MCDMA, PARIS, TOPSIS, Saab Gripen, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5744025 Objective Evaluation of Mathematical Morphology Edge Detection on Computed Tomography (CT) Images
Authors: Emhimed Saffor, Abdelkader Salama
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In this paper problem of edge detection in digital images is considered. Edge detection based on morphological operators was applied on two sets (brain & chest) ct images. Three methods of edge detection by applying line morphological filters with multi structures in different directions have been used. 3x3 filter for first method, 5x5 filter for second method, and 7x7 filter for third method. We had applied this algorithm on (13 images) under MATLAB program environment. In order to evaluate the performance of the above mentioned edge detection algorithms, standard deviation (SD) and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) were used for justification for all different ct images. The objective method and the comparison of different methods of edge detection, shows that high values of both standard deviation and PSNR values of edge detection images were obtained.
Keywords: Medical images, Matlab, Edge detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26374024 Migration of the Relational Data Base (RDB) to the Object Relational Data Base (ORDB)
Authors: Alae El Alami, Mohamed Bahaj
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This paper proposes an approach for translating an existing relational database (RDB) schema into ORDB. The transition is done with methods that can extract various functions from a RDB which is based on aggregations, associations between the various tables, and the reflexive relationships. These methods can extract even the inheritance knowing that no process of reverse engineering can know that it is an Inheritance; therefore, our approach exceeded all of the previous studies made for the transition from RDB to ORDB. In summation, the creation of the New Data Model (NDM) that stocks the RDB in a form of a structured table, and from the NDM we create our navigational model in order to simplify the implementation object from which we develop our different types. Through these types we precede to the last step, the creation of tables.
The step mentioned above does not require any human interference. All this is done automatically, and a prototype has already been created which proves the effectiveness of this approach.
Keywords: Relational databases, Object-relational databases, Semantic enrichment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19524023 Application of Powder Metallurgy Technologies for Gas Turbine Engine Wheel Production
Authors: Liubov Magerramova, Eugene Kratt, Pavel Presniakov
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A detailed analysis has been performed for several schemes of Gas Turbine Wheels production based on additive and powder technologies including metal, ceramic, and stereolithography 3-D printing. During the process of development and debugging of gas turbine engine components, different versions of these components must be manufactured and tested. Cooled blades of the turbine are among of these components. They are usually produced by traditional casting methods. This method requires long and costly design and manufacture of casting molds. Moreover, traditional manufacturing methods limit the design possibilities of complex critical parts of engine, so capabilities of Powder Metallurgy Techniques (PMT) were analyzed to manufacture the turbine wheel with air-cooled blades. PMT dramatically reduce time needed for such production and allow creating new complex design solutions aimed at improving the technical characteristics of the engine: improving fuel efficiency and environmental performance, increasing reliability, and reducing weight. To accelerate and simplify the blades manufacturing process, several options based on additive technologies were used. The options were implemented in the form of various casting equipment for the manufacturing of blades. Methods of powder metallurgy were applied for connecting the blades with the disc. The optimal production scheme and a set of technologies for the manufacturing of blades and turbine wheel and other parts of the engine can be selected on the basis of the options considered.Keywords: Additive technologies, gas turbine engine, powder technology, turbine wheel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19184022 Diagnosis of Diabetes Using Computer Methods: Soft Computing Methods for Diabetes Detection Using Iris
Authors: Piyush Samant, Ravinder Agarwal
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Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) techniques are quite popular and effective for chronic diseases. Iridology is more than 150 years old CAM technique which analyzes the patterns, tissue weakness, color, shape, structure, etc. for disease diagnosis. The objective of this paper is to validate the use of iridology for the diagnosis of the diabetes. The suggested model was applied in a systemic disease with ocular effects. 200 subject data of 100 each diabetic and non-diabetic were evaluated. Complete procedure was kept very simple and free from the involvement of any iridologist. From the normalized iris, the region of interest was cropped. All 63 features were extracted using statistical, texture analysis, and two-dimensional discrete wavelet transformation. A comparison of accuracies of six different classifiers has been presented. The result shows 89.66% accuracy by the random forest classifier.
Keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine, Iridology, iris, feature extraction, classification, disease prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18574021 Multiple Subcarrier Indoor Geolocation System in MIMO-OFDM WLAN APs Structure
Authors: Abdul Hafiizh, Shigeki Obote, Kenichi Kagoshima
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This report aims to utilize existing and future Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Wireless Local Area Network (MIMO-OFDM WLAN) systems characteristics–such as multiple subcarriers, multiple antennas, and channel estimation characteristics–for indoor location estimation systems based on the Direction of Arrival (DOA) and Radio Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) methods. Hybrid of DOA-RSSI methods also evaluated. In the experimental data result, we show that location estimation accuracy performances can be increased by minimizing the multipath fading effect. This is done using multiple subcarrier frequencies over wideband frequencies to estimate one location. The proposed methods are analyzed in both a wide indoor environment and a typical room-sized office. In the experiments, WLAN terminal locations are estimated by measuring multiple subcarriers from arrays of three dipole antennas of access points (AP). This research demonstrates highly accurate, robust and hardware-free add-on software for indoor location estimations based on a MIMO-OFDM WLAN system.
Keywords: Direction of Arrival (DOA), Indoor location estimation method, Multipath Fading, MIMO-OFDM, Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), WLAN, Hybrid DOA-RSSI
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17974020 Exponential Stability and Periodicity of a Class of Cellular Neural Networks with Time-Varying Delays
Authors: Zixin Liu, Shu Lü, Shouming Zhong, Mao Ye
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The problem of exponential stability and periodicity for a class of cellular neural networks (DCNNs) with time-varying delays is investigated. By dividing the network state variables into subgroups according to the characters of the neural networks, some sufficient conditions for exponential stability and periodicity are derived via the methods of variation parameters and inequality techniques. These conditions are represented by some blocks of the interconnection matrices. Compared with some previous methods, the method used in this paper does not resort to any Lyapunov function, and the results derived in this paper improve and generalize some earlier criteria established in the literature cited therein. Two examples are discussed to illustrate the main results.
Keywords: Cellular neural networks, exponential stability, time varying delays, partitioned matrices, periodic solution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15244019 Reality and Preferences in Community Mopane (Colophospermum Mopane) Woodland Management in Zimbabwe and Namibia
Authors: Constansia Musvoto, Isaac Mapaure, Tendayi Gondo, Albertina Ndeinoma, Takaendesa Mujawo
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There is increasing pressure on, and decline of mopane woodlands due to increasing use and competition for mopane resources in Zimbabwe in Namibia. Community management strategies, based largely on local knowledge are evidently unable to cope. Research has generated potentially useful information for mopane woodland management, but this information has not been utilized. The work reported in this paper sought to add value to research work conducted on mopane woodlands by developing effective community-based mopane woodland management regimes that were based on both local and scientific knowledge in Zimbabwe and Namibia. The conditions under which research findings were likely to be adopted for mopane woodland management by communities were investigated. The study was conducted at two sites each in Matobo and Omusati Districts in Zimbabwe and Namibia respectively. The mopane woodland resources in the two study areas were assessed using scientific ecological methods. A range of participatory methods was used to collect information on use of mopane woodland resources by communities, institutional arrangements governing access to and use of these resources and to evaluate scientific knowledge for applicability in local management regimes. Coppicing, thinning and pollarding were the research generated management methods evaluated. Realities such as availability of woodland resources and social roles and responsibilities influenced preferences for woodland management interventionsKeywords: Woodland management, community, coppicing, thinning, pollarding
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26584018 Explorative Data Mining of Constructivist Learning Experiences and Activities with Multiple Dimensions
Authors: Patrick Wessa, Bart Baesens
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This paper discusses the use of explorative data mining tools that allow the educator to explore new relationships between reported learning experiences and actual activities, even if there are multiple dimensions with a large number of measured items. The underlying technology is based on the so-called Compendium Platform for Reproducible Computing (http://www.freestatistics.org) which was built on top the computational R Framework (http://www.wessa.net).Keywords: Reproducible computing, data mining, explorative data analysis, compendium technology, computer assisted education
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12524017 On the Way to the European Research Area: Programmes of the European Union as Factor of the Innovation Development the Scientific Organization in Ukraine
Authors: Yuri Nikitin, Veronika Rukas
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Within the framework of the FP7 project "START" the cooperation with European research centres has had a positive impact on raising the level of innovation researches and the introduction of innovations Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences (ISM NAS) of Ukraine in the economy of Europe and Ukraine, which in turn permits to speeds up the way for Ukrainian science to the European research area through the creation in Ukraine the scientific organizations of innovative type.
Keywords: Programs of the EU, innovative scientific results, innovation competence of the staff, commercialization in business of industry of the Europe and Ukraine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20484016 Robust Conversion of Chaos into an Arbitrary Periodic Motion
Authors: Abolhassan Razminia, Mohammad-Ali Sadrnia
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One of the most attractive and important field of chaos theory is control of chaos. In this paper, we try to present a simple framework for chaotic motion control using the feedback linearization method. Using this approach, we derive a strategy, which can be easily applied to the other chaotic systems. This task presents two novel results: the desired periodic orbit need not be a solution of the original dynamics and the other is the robustness of response against parameter variations. The illustrated simulations show the ability of these. In addition, by a comparison between a conventional state feedback and our proposed method it is demonstrated that the introduced technique is more efficient.
Keywords: chaos, feedback linearization, robust control, periodic motion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16964015 Traffic Flow on Road Junctions
Authors: Wah Wah Aung, Cho Cho San
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The paper deals with a mathematical model for fluid dynamic flows on road networks which is based on conservation laws. This nonlinear framework is based on the conservation of cars. We focus on traffic circle, which is a finite number of roads that meet at some junctions. The traffic circle with junctions having either one incoming and two outgoing or two incoming and one outgoing roads. We describe the numerical schemes with the particular boundary conditions used to produce approximated solutions of the problem.
Keywords: boundary conditions, conservation laws, finite difference Schemes, traffic flow.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22334014 Computer-based Alarm Processing and Presentation Methods in Nuclear Power Plants
Authors: Jung-Woon Lee, Jung-Taek Kim, Jae-Chang Park, In-Koo Hwang, Sung-Pil Lyu
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Computerized alarm systems have been applied increasingly to nuclear power plants. For existing plants, an add-on computer alarm system is often installed to the control rooms. Alarm avalanches during the plant transients are major problems with the alarm systems in nuclear power plants. Computerized alarm systems can process alarms to reduce the number of alarms during the plant transients. This paper describes various alarm processing methods, an alarm cause tracking function, and various alarm presentation schemes to show alarm information to the operators effectively which are considered during the development of several computerized alarm systems for Korean nuclear power plants and are found to be helpful to the operators.Keywords: Alarm processing, Alarm presentation, Alarm causetracking, Alarm logic diagram computerization, Alarm patternrecognition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23724013 Solutions of Fuzzy Transportation Problem Using Best Candidates Method and Different Ranking Techniques
Authors: M. S. Annie Christi
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Transportation Problem (TP) is based on supply and demand of commodities transported from one source to the different destinations. Usual methods for finding solution of TPs are North-West Corner Rule, Least Cost Method Vogel’s Approximation Method etc. The transportation costs tend to vary at each time. We can use fuzzy numbers which would give solution according to this situation. In this study the Best Candidate Method (BCM) is applied. For ranking Centroid Ranking Technique (CRT) and Robust Ranking Technique have been adopted to transform the fuzzy TP and the above methods are applied to EDWARDS Vacuum Company, Crawley, in West Sussex in the United Kingdom. A Comparative study is also given. We see that the transportation cost can be minimized by the application of CRT under BCM.
Keywords: Best candidates method, centroid ranking technique, robust ranking technique, transportation problem, fuzzy transportation problem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1571