Search results for: technical operators in the railway domain

Authors: W. Hasan, H. Farhat

Abstract:

A hybrid quasi-steady thermal lattice Boltzmann model was used to study the combined effects of temperature and contact angle on the movement of slugs and droplets of oil in water (O/W) system flowing between two parallel plates. The model static contact angle due to the deposition of the O/W droplet on a flat surface with simulated hydrophilic characteristic at different fluid temperatures, matched very well the proposed theoretical calculation. Furthermore, the model was used to simulate the dynamic behavior of droplets and slugs deposited on the domain’s upper and lower surfaces, while subjected to parabolic flow conditions. The model accurately simulated the contact angle hysteresis for the dynamic droplets cases. It was also shown that at elevated temperatures the required power to transport the mixture diminished remarkably.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann method, Gunstensen model, thermal, contact angle, high viscosity ratio.

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Authors: Pedro Barbosa Cabral, Neuza Pedro, Ana Mafalda Gonçalves

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The purpose of this research is the analysis of the impact of ICT-related training in the adoption of a learning management systems (LMS) for teaching practicesby faculties in a higher education institution. Based on comparative analyses the impact will be obtained by the number of LMS courses created and managed by participants in ICT for teaching workshops and those who have not attended to any workshops. Involving near 1320 LMS courses and 265 faculties, the results evidence that(i) faculties who have not attend any workshop present a larger distribution of empty courses and (ii) faculties who have attended three or more workshops managed a higher distribution of courses with a considerable level of use intensity, when compared to the others groups. These findings supportthe idea that faculty training is a crucial factor in the process of LMS integration in higher education institutions and that faculties who have been enrolled in three or more workshops develop a higher level of technical and pedagogical proficiency in LMS.

Keywords: Higher Education, Faculty Training, LMS, Comparative Analyses

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Authors: N. Moghadam, H. Sadeghi

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In this paper a novel scheme for watermarking digital audio during its compression to MPEG-1 Layer III format is proposed. For this purpose we slightly modify some of the selected MDCT coefficients, which are used during MPEG audio compression procedure. Due to the possibility of modifying different MDCT coefficients, there will be different choices for embedding the watermark into audio data, considering robustness and transparency factors. Our proposed method uses a genetic algorithm to select the best coefficients to embed the watermark. This genetic selection is done according to the parameters that are extracted from the perceptual content of the audio to optimize the robustness and transparency of the watermark. On the other hand the watermark security is increased due to the random nature of the genetic selection. The information of the selected MDCT coefficients that carry the watermark bits, are saves in a database for future extraction of the watermark. The proposed method is suitable for online MP3 stores to pursue illegal copies of musical artworks. Experimental results show that the detection ratio of the watermarks at the bitrate of 128kbps remains above 90% while the inaudibility of the watermark is preserved.

Keywords: Content-Based Audio Watermarking, Genetic AudioWatermarking.

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Authors: Tamás Mankovits, Dávid Huri, Imre Kállai, Imre Kocsis, Tamás Szabó

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Non-linear FEM calculations are indispensable when important technical information like operating performance of a rubber component is desired. Rubber bumpers built into air-spring structures may undergo large deformations under load, which in itself shows non-linear behavior. The changing contact range between the parts and the incompressibility of the rubber increases this non-linear behavior further. The material characterization of an elastomeric component is also a demanding engineering task. In this paper a comprehensive investigation is introduced including laboratory measurements, mesh density analysis and complex finite element simulations to obtain the load-displacement curve of the chosen rubber bumper. Contact and friction effects are also taken into consideration. The aim of this research is to elaborate a FEM model which is accurate and competitive for a future shape optimization task.

Keywords: Rubber bumper, finite element analysis, compression test, Mooney-Rivlin material model.

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Authors: Zhongzhen Luo, Saeid Habibi, Martin v. Mohrenschildt

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Self-driving vehicle require a high level of situational awareness in order to maneuver safely when driving in real world condition. This paper presents a LiDAR based real time perception system that is able to process sensor raw data for multiple target detection and tracking in dynamic environment. The proposed algorithm is nonparametric and deterministic that is no assumptions and priori knowledge are needed from the input data and no initializations are required. Additionally, the proposed method is working on the three-dimensional data directly generated by LiDAR while not scarifying the rich information contained in the domain of 3D. Moreover, a fast and efficient for real time clustering algorithm is applied based on a radially bounded nearest neighbor (RBNN). Hungarian algorithm procedure and adaptive Kalman filtering are used for data association and tracking algorithm. The proposed algorithm is able to run in real time with average run time of 70ms per frame.

Keywords: LiDAR, real-time system, clustering, tracking, data association.

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Authors: Mohammad Shams Esfand Abadi, John Hakon Husøy

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Employing a recently introduced unified adaptive filter theory, we show how the performance of a large number of important adaptive filter algorithms can be predicted within a general framework in nonstationary environment. This approach is based on energy conservation arguments and does not need to assume a Gaussian or white distribution for the regressors. This general performance analysis can be used to evaluate the mean square performance of the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm, its normalized version (NLMS), the family of Affine Projection Algorithms (APA), the Recursive Least Squares (RLS), the Data-Reusing LMS (DR-LMS), its normalized version (NDR-LMS), the Block Least Mean Squares (BLMS), the Block Normalized LMS (BNLMS), the Transform Domain Adaptive Filters (TDAF) and the Subband Adaptive Filters (SAF) in nonstationary environment. Also, we establish the general expressions for the steady-state excess mean square in this environment for all these adaptive algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate through simulations that these results are useful in predicting the adaptive filter performance.

Keywords: Adaptive filter, general framework, energy conservation, mean-square performance, nonstationary environment.

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Authors: Hae-Yeoun Lee, In-Koo Kang, Heung-Kyu Lee

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This paper addresses an efficient technique to embed and detect digital fingerprint code. Orthogonal modulation method is a straightforward and widely used approach for digital fingerprinting but shows several limitations in computational cost and signal efficiency. Coded modulation method can solve these limitations in theory. However it is difficult to perform well in practice if host signals are not available during tracing colluders, other kinds of attacks are applied, and the size of fingerprint code becomes large. In this paper, we propose a hybrid modulation method, in which the merits of or-thogonal modulation and coded modulation method are combined so that we can achieve low computational cost and high signal efficiency. To analyze the performance, we design a new fingerprint code based on GD-PBIBD theory and modulate this code into images by our method using spread-spectrum watermarking on frequency domain. The results show that the proposed method can efficiently handle large fingerprint code and trace colluders against averaging attacks.

Keywords: Fingerprinting, GD-PBIBD theory, Hybrid modulationtechnique.

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Authors: Kuen-Long Leu, Yung-Yuan Chen, Chin-Long Wey, Jwu-E Chen, Chung-Hsien Hsu

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The increasing importance of FlexRay systems in automotive domain inspires unceasingly relative researches. One primary issue among researches is to verify the reliability of FlexRay systems either from protocol aspect or from system design aspect. However, research rarely discusses the effect of network topology on the system reliability. In this paper, we will illustrate how to model the reliability of FlexRay systems with various network topologies by a well-known probabilistic reasoning technology, Bayesian Network. In this illustration, we especially investigate the effectiveness of error containment built in star topology and fault-tolerant midpoint synchronization algorithm adopted in FlexRay communication protocol. Through a FlexRay steer-by-wire case study, the influence of different topologies on the failure probability of the FlexRay steerby- wire system is demonstrated. The notable value of this research is to show that the Bayesian Network inference is a powerful and feasible method for the reliability assessment of FlexRay systems.

Keywords: Bayesian Network, FlexRay, fault tolerance, network topology, reliability.

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Authors: S. Oujdi, H. Belbachir

Abstract:

Existing methods of data mining cannot be applied on spatial data because they require spatial specificity consideration, as spatial relationships. This paper focuses on the classification with decision trees, which are one of the data mining techniques. We propose an extension of the C4.5 algorithm for spatial data, based on two different approaches Join materialization and Querying on the fly the different tables. Similar works have been done on these two main approaches, the first - Join materialization - favors the processing time in spite of memory space, whereas the second - Querying on the fly different tables- promotes memory space despite of the processing time. The modified C4.5 algorithm requires three entries tables: a target table, a neighbor table, and a spatial index join that contains the possible spatial relationship among the objects in the target table and those in the neighbor table. Thus, the proposed algorithms are applied to a spatial data pattern in the accidentology domain. A comparative study of our approach with other works of classification by spatial decision trees will be detailed.

Keywords: C4.5 Algorithm, Decision trees, S-CART, Spatial data mining.

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Authors: Marília Guterres Ferreira, Raul Sidnei Wazlawick

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As seen in literature, about 70% of the improvement initiatives fail, and a significant number do not even get started. This paper analyses the problem of failing initiatives on Software Process Improvement (SPI), and proposes good practices supported by motivational tools that can help minimizing failures. It elaborates on the hypothesis that human factors are poorly addressed by deployers, especially because implementation guides usually emphasize only technical factors. This research was conducted with SPI deployers and analyses 32 SPI initiatives. The results indicate that although human factors are not commonly highlighted in guidelines, the successful initiatives usually address human factors implicitly. This research shows that practices based on human factors indeed perform a crucial role on successful implantations of SPI, proposes change management as a theoretical framework to introduce those practices in the SPI context and suggests some motivational tools based on SPI deployers experience to support it.

Keywords: Change management, human factors, motivation, software process improvement.

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Authors: S. S. Bhandari, N. Chakpitak, K. Meksamoot, T. Chandarasupsang

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Under the limitation of investment budget, a utility company is required to maximize the utilization of their existing assets during their life cycle satisfying both engineering and financial requirements. However, utility does not have knowledge about the status of each asset in the portfolio neither in terms of technical nor financial values. This paper presents a knowledge based model for the utility companies in order to make an optimal decision on power transformer with their utilization. CommonKADS methodology, a structured development for knowledge and expertise representation, is utilized for designing and developing knowledge based model. A case study of One MVA power transformer of Nepal Electricity Authority is presented. The results show that the reusable knowledge can be categorized, modeled and utilized within the utility company using the proposed methodologies. Moreover, the results depict that utility company can achieve both engineering and financial benefits from its utilization.

Keywords: CommonKADS, Knowledge Engineering, LifeCycle Management, Power Transformer.

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Authors: Wipassorn Vinicchayakul, Pichaya Supanakoon, Sathaporn Promwong

Abstract:

A human’s hand localization is revised by using radar cross section (RCS) measurements with a minimum root mean square (RMS) error matching algorithm on a touchless keypad mock-up model. RCS and frequency transfer function measurements are carried out in an indoor environment on the frequency ranged from 3.0 to 11.0 GHz to cover federal communications commission (FCC) standards. The touchless keypad model is tested in two different distances between the hand and the keypad. The initial distance of 19.50 cm is identical to the heights of transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) antennas, while the second distance is 29.50 cm from the keypad. Moreover, the effects of Rx angles relative to the hand of human factor are considered. The RCS input parameters are compared with power loss parameters at each frequency. From the results, the performance of the RCS input parameters with the second distance, 29.50 cm at 3 GHz is better than the others.

Keywords: Radar cross section (RCS), fingerprint-based localization, minimum root mean square (RMS) error matching algorithm, touchless keypad model.

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Authors: M. Hossein Ghadiri, Mohd Farid Mohamed, N. Lukman N. Ibrahim

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Wind catchers are traditional natural ventilation systems attached to buildings in order to ventilate the indoor air. The most common type of wind catcher is four sided one which is capable to catch wind in all directions. CFD simulation is the perfect way to evaluate the wind catcher performance. The accuracy of CFD results is the issue of concern, so sensitivity analyses is crucial to find out the effect of different settings of CFD on results. This paper presents a series of 3D steady RANS simulations for a generic isolated four-sided wind catcher attached to a room subjected to wind direction ranging from 0º to 180º with an interval of 45º. The CFD simulations are validated with detailed wind tunnel experiments. The influence of an extensive range of computational parameters is explored in this paper, including the resolution of the computational grid, the size of the computational domain and the turbulence model. This study found that CFD simulation is a reliable method for wind catcher study, but it is less accurate in prediction of models with non perpendicular wind directions.

Keywords: Wind catcher, CFD, natural ventilation, sensitivity study.

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Authors: Nichole Haag, Kimberly Velk, Tyler McCune, Chun Wu

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Methicillin/multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are infectious bacteria that are resistant to common antibiotics. A previous in silico study in our group has identified a hypothetical protein SAV1226 as one of the potential drug targets. In this study, we reported the bioinformatics characterization, as well as cloning, expression, purification and kinetic assays of hypothetical protein SAV1226 from methicillin/vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus Mu50 strain. MALDI-TOF/MS analysis revealed a low degree of structural similarity with known proteins. Kinetic assays demonstrated that hypothetical protein SAV1226 is neither a domain of an ATP dependent dihydroxyacetone kinase nor of a phosphotransferase system (PTS) dihydroxyacetone kinase, suggesting that the function of hypothetical protein SAV1226 might be misannotated on public databases such as UniProt and InterProScan 5.

Keywords: Dihydroxyacetone kinase, essential genes, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, drug target.

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Authors: J. M. de Luis Ruiz, P. M. Sierra García, R. P. García, R. P. Álvarez, F. P. García, E. C. López

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Given the evolution of viaducts, structural health monitoring requires more complex techniques to define their state. two alternatives can be distinguished: experimental and operational modal analysis. Although accelerometers or Global Positioning System (GPS) have been applied for the monitoring of structures under exploitation, the dynamic monitoring during the stage of construction is not common. This research analyzes whether GPS data can be applied to certain dynamic geometric controls of evolving structures. The fundamentals of this work were applied to the New Bridge of Cádiz (Spain), a worldwide milestone in bridge building. GPS data were recorded with an interval of 1 second during the erection of segments and turned to the frequency domain with Fourier transform. The vibration period and amplitude were contrasted with those provided by the finite element model, with differences of less than 10%, which is admissible. This process provides a vibration record of the structure with GPS, avoiding specific equipment.

Keywords: Fourier transform, global position system, operational modal analysis, structural health monitoring.

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Authors: M. Othman, N. Bhuiyan, G. J. Gouw

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In today-s global and competitive market, manufacturing companies are working hard towards improving their production system performance. Most companies develop production systems that can help in cost reduction. Manufacturing systems consist of different elements including production methods, machines, processes, control and information systems. Human issues are an important part of manufacturing systems, yet most companies do not pay sufficient attention to them. In this paper, a workforce planning (WP) model is presented. A non-linear programming model is developed in order to minimize the hiring, firing, training and overtime costs. The purpose is to determine the number of workers for each worker type, the number of workers trained, and the number of overtime hours. Moreover, a decision support system (DSS) based on the proposed model is introduced using the Excel-Lingo software interfacing feature. This model will help to improve the interaction between the workers, managers and the technical systems in manufacturing.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Human Factors, Manufacturing System, Workforce Planning.

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Authors: H. Shayeghi, B. Mohamadi

Abstract:

This paper presents a possibilistic (fuzzy) model in optimal siting and sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) for loss reduction and improve voltage profile in power distribution system. Multi-objective problem is developed in two phases. In the first one, the set of non-dominated planning solutions is obtained (with respect to the objective functions of fuzzy economic cost, and exposure) using genetic algorithm. In the second phase, one solution of the set of non-dominated solutions is selected as optimal solution, using a suitable max-min approach. This method can be determined operation-mode (PV or PQ) of DG. Because of considering load uncertainty in this paper, it can be obtained realistic results. The whole process of this method has been implemented in the MATLAB7 environment with technical and economic consideration for loss reduction and voltage profile improvement. Through numerical example the validity of the proposed method is verified.

Keywords: Fuzzy Power Flow, DG siting and sizing, LoadUncertainty, Multi-objective Possibilistic Model.

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Authors: Zoran Constantinescu, Monica Vlâdoiu

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Lately there has been a significant boost of interest in music digital libraries, which constitute an attractive area of research and development due to their inherent interesting issues and challenging technical problems, solutions to which will be highly appreciated by enthusiastic end-users. We present here a DL that we have developed to support users in their quest for classical music pieces within a particular collection of 18,000+ audio recordings. To cope with the early DL model limitations, we have used a refined socio-semantic and contextual model that allows rich bibliographic content description, along with semantic annotations, reviewing, rating, knowledge sharing etc. The multi-layered service model allows incorporation of local and distributed information, construction of rich hypermedia documents, expressing the complex relationships between various objects and multi-dimensional spaces, agents, actors, services, communities, scenarios etc., and facilitates collaborative activities to offer to individual users the needed collections and services.

Keywords: audio recordings, music metadata, music digitallibrary, socio-semantic model

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Authors: Phakamas Rachamontree, Theerawut Phusantisampan, Natthakorn Woravutthikul, Peerapong Pornwongthong, Malinee Sriariyanun

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A total of 115 yeast strains isolated from local cassava processing wastes were measured for crude protein content. Among these strains, the strain MSY-2 possessed the highest protein concentration (>3.5 mg protein/mL). By using molecular identification tools, it was identified to be a strain of Pichia kudriavzevii based on similarity of D1/D2 domain of 26S rDNA region. In this study, to optimize the protein production by MSY-2 strain, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied. The tested parameters were the carbon content, nitrogen content, and incubation time. Here, the value of regression coefficient (R2) = 0.7194 could be explained by the model which is high to support the significance of the model. Under the optimal condition, the protein content was produced up to 3.77 g per L of the culture and MSY-2 strain contains 66.8 g protein per 100 g of cell dry weight. These results revealed the plausibility of applying the novel strain of yeast in single-cell protein production.

Keywords: Single cell protein, response surface methodology, yeast, cassava processing waste.

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Authors: Guomin Luo, Daming Zhang, Yong Kwee Koh, Kim Teck Ng, Helmi Kurniawan, Weng Hoe Leong

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Partial discharge (PD) detection is an important method to evaluate the insulation condition of metal-clad apparatus. Non-intrusive sensors which are easy to install and have no interruptions on operation are preferred in onsite PD detection. However, it often lacks of accuracy due to the interferences in PD signals. In this paper a novel PD extraction method that uses frequency analysis and entropy based time-frequency (TF) analysis is introduced. The repetitive pulses from convertor are first removed via frequency analysis. Then, the relative entropy and relative peak-frequency of each pulse (i.e. time-indexed vector TF spectrum) are calculated and all pulses with similar parameters are grouped. According to the characteristics of non-intrusive sensor and the frequency distribution of PDs, the pulses of PD and interferences are separated. Finally the PD signal and interferences are recovered via inverse TF transform. The de-noised result of noisy PD data demonstrates that the combination of frequency and time-frequency techniques can discriminate PDs from interferences with various frequency distributions.

Keywords: Entropy, Fourier analysis, non-intrusive measurement, time-frequency analysis, partial discharge

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Authors: Nazirah Zainul Abidin, Nurul Zahirah Mokhtar Azizi

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Cost has always been the leading concern in green building development. The perception that construction cost for green building is higher than conventional buildings has only made the discussion of green building cost more difficult. Understanding the factors that will influence the cost of green construction is expected to shed light into what makes green construction more or at par with conventional projects, or perhaps, where cost can be optimised. This paper identifies the elements of cost before shifting the attention to the influencing factors. Findings from past studies uncovered various factors related to cost which are grouped into five focal themes i.e. awareness, knowledge, financial, technical, and government support. A conceptual framework is produced in a form of a flower diagram indicating the cost influencing factors of green building development. These factors were found to be both physical and non-physical aspects of a project. The framework provides ground for the next stage of research that is to further explore how these factors influence the project cost and decision making.

Keywords: Green project, factors influencing cost, hard cost, soft cost.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

This paper investigates the application of the determinate fuzzy preference programming method for a more nuanced and comprehensive evaluation of stealth aircraft. Traditional methods often struggle to incorporate subjective factors and uncertainties inherent in complex systems like stealth aircraft. Determinate fuzzy preference programming addresses this limitation by leveraging the strengths of determinate fuzzy sets. The proposed novel multiple criteria decision-making algorithm integrates these concepts to consider aspects and criteria influencing aircraft performance. This approach aims to provide a more holistic assessment by enabling decision-makers to observe positive and negative outranking flows simultaneously. By demonstrating the validity and effectiveness of this approach through a practical example of selecting a stealth aircraft, this paper aims to establish the determinate fuzzy preference programming method as a valuable tool for informed decision-making in this critical domain.

Keywords: Determinate fuzzy set, stealth aircraft selection, distance function, decision making, uncertainty, preference programming. MCDM

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Authors: Klementina Puto, Ermelinda Nexhipi, Evi Llaka

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Dairy by-products are a fairly good environment for microorganisms due to their composition for their growth. Microbial populations have a significant impact in the production of cheese, butter, yogurt, etc. in terms of their organoleptic quality and at the same time some also cause their breakdown. In this paper, the microbiological contamination of soft cheese, butter and yogurt produced in the country (domestic) and imported is assessed, as an indicator of hygiene with impact on public health. The study was extended during September 2018-June 2019 and was divided into three periods, September-December, January-March, and April-June. During this study, a total of 120 samples were analyzed, of which 60 samples of cheese and butter locally produced, and 60 samples of imported soft cheese and butter productions. The microbial indicators analyzed are Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli. Analyzes have been conducted at the Food Safety Laboratory (FSIV) in Tirana in accordance with EU Regulation 2073/2005. Sampling was performed according to the specific international standards for these products (ISO 6887 and ISO 8261). Sampling and transport of samples were done under sterile conditions. Also, coding of samples was done to preserve the anonymity of subjects. After the analysis, the country's soft cheese products compared to imports were more contaminated with S. aureus and E. coli. Meanwhile, the imported butter samples that were analyzed, resulted within norms compared to domestic ones. Based on the results, it was concluded that the microbial quality of samples of cheese, butter and yogurt analyzed remains a real problem for hygiene in Albania. The study will also serve business operators in Albania to improve their work to ensure good hygiene on the basis of the HACCP plan and to provide a guarantee of consumer health.

Keywords: Consumer, health, dairy, by-products, microbial.

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Authors: Mesfer Al Duhayyim, Paul Newbury

Abstract:

This paper proposes an effective adaptive e-learning system that uses a coloured concept map to show the learner's knowledge level for each concept in the chosen subject area. A Fuzzy logic system is used to evaluate the learner's knowledge level for each concept in the domain, and produce a ranked concept list of learning materials to address weaknesses in the learner’s understanding. This system obtains information on the learner's understanding of concepts by an initial pre-test before the system is used for learning and a post-test after using the learning system. A Fuzzy logic system is used to produce a weighted concept map during the learning process. The aim of this research is to prove that such a proposed novel adapted e-learning system will enhance learner's performance and understanding. In addition, this research aims to increase participants' overall understanding of their learning level by providing a coloured concept map of understanding followed by a ranked concepts list of learning materials.

Keywords: Adaptive e-learning system, coloured concept map, fuzzy logic, ranked concept list.

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Authors: Ajay Verma, Nitin Seth

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In present days market environment, supply chains has to be competitive enough to handle pressures like varying customer’s expectations, low cost high quality products to be delivered at the minimum time and the most important is throat cutting competition at world wide scale. Recently, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature. Various researchers and practitioners have tried to identify and implement enablers in supply chains which can bring competitiveness in the supply chains i.e. supply chain competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to suggest select enablers for supply chain competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector using an integrated approach of literature review and exploratory interviews with eminent professionals from the supply chain area in various industries, academia and research. The aim of the paper is to highlight the important enablers in the area of supply chain competitiveness and suggest recommendations to the industry and managers of manufacturing supply chains with a view to encourage more efforts in this wider domain area.

Keywords: Supply Chain Competitiveness, Supply Chain Collaboration, Coordination, Quality Management, Cost.

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Authors: Diego Felix, Eugene Hyun, Michael McGuire, Mihai Sima

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Terminal localization for indoor Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is critical for the deployment of location-aware computing inside of buildings. A major challenge is obtaining high localization accuracy in presence of fluctuations of the received signal strength (RSS) measurements caused by multipath fading. This paper focuses on reducing the effect of the distance-varying noise by spatial filtering of the measured RSS. Two different survey point geometries are tested with the noise reduction technique: survey points arranged in sets of clusters and survey points uniformly distributed over the network area. The results show that the location accuracy improves by 16% when the filter is used and by 18% when the filter is applied to a clustered survey set as opposed to a straight-line survey set. The estimated locations are within 2 m of the true location, which indicates that clustering the survey points provides better localization accuracy due to superior noise removal.

Keywords: Position measurement, Wireless LAN, Radio navigation, Filtering

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Authors: Sidhartha Panda, N. P. Padhy

Abstract:

Power system stabilizers (PSS) are now routinely used in the industry to damp out power system oscillations. In this paper, particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to design a robust power system stabilizer (PSS). The design problem of the proposed controller is formulated as an optimization problem and PSO is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The non-linear simulation results are presented under wide range of operating conditions; disturbances at different locations as well as for various fault clearing sequences to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. Further, all the simulations results are compared with a conventionally designed power system stabilizer to show the superiority of the proposed design approach.

Keywords: Particle swarm optimization, power system stabilizer, low frequency oscillations, power system stability.

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Authors: Mahdi Kiani, Hassan Salarieh, Aria Alasty, S. Mahdi Darbandi

Abstract:

The design and implementation of the hybrid control method for a three-pole active magnetic bearing (AMB) is proposed in this paper. The system is inherently nonlinear and conventional nonlinear controllers are a little complicated, while the proposed hybrid controller has a piecewise linear form, i.e. linear in each sub-region. A state-feedback hybrid controller is designed in this study, and the unmeasurable states are estimated by an observer. The gains of the hybrid controller are obtained by the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method in each sub-region. To evaluate the performance, the designed controller is implemented on an experimental setup in static mode. The experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently stabilize the three-pole AMB system. The simplicity of design, domain of attraction, uncomplicated control law, and computational time are advantages of this method over other nonlinear control strategies in AMB systems.

Keywords: Active magnetic bearing, three pole AMB, hybrid control, Lyapunov function.

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Authors: S. Mahmoodzadeh, J. Shahrabi, M. A. Torkamani, J. Sabaghzadeh Ghomi

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Recognizing behavioral patterns of financial markets is essential for traders. Japanese candlestick chart is a common tool to visualize and analyze such patterns in an economic time series. Since the world was introduced to Japanese candlestick charting, traders saw how combining this tool with intelligent technical approaches creates a powerful formula for the savvy investors. This paper propose a generalization to box counting method of Grassberger-Procaccia, which is based on computing the correlation dimension of Japanese candlesticks instead commonly used 'close' points. The results of this method applied on several foreign exchange rates vs. IRR (Iranian Rial). Satisfactorily show lower chaotic dimension of Japanese candlesticks series than regular Grassberger-Procaccia method applied merely on close points of these same candles. This means there is some valuable information inside candlesticks.

Keywords: Chaos, Japanese candlestick, generalized box counting, strange attractor.

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Authors: Dejan Metodijeski, Elizabeta Mitreva, Nako Taskov, Oliver Filiposki

Abstract:

Tourism development strategies are an important link in the tourism policy that is used to make its management better and easier. A public-public partnership (PUP) is a partnership between two or more public authorities or between a public authority and any non-profit organization with the goal of providing services and facilities or transferring technical skills. The paper presents this kind of partnership between two public authorities in Macedonia, the Municipality of Gazi Baba on one hand, and the University of Goce Delcev on the other. The main idea of this partnership is the development of a tourism strategy for the Municipality of Gazi Baba by the University on one side, and on the other, the construction of a mini park in the court of the University by the Municipality. This paper presents the causes and analyzes the procedures relating to this partnership and the methodology of the tourism development strategy. It contains a relevant literature review related to PUPs and tourism development strategy. The results and benefits of this partnership are presented with figures.

Keywords: Public-public partnership, tourism development strategy, municipality of Gazi Baba, Macedonia.

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