Search results for: BRC Global Standard.

Authors: Kul Pun, F. A. Hamad, T. Ahmed, J. O. Ugwu, J. Eyers, G. Lawson, P. A. Russell

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Determining droplet size and distribution is essential when determining the separation efficiency of a two/three-phase separator. This paper investigates the effect of liquid flow and oil pad thickness on the droplet size at the lab scale. The findings show that increasing the inlet flow rates of the oil and water results in size reduction of the droplets and increasing the thickness of the oil pad increases the size of the droplets. The data were fitted with a simple Gaussian model, and the parameters of mean, standard deviation, and amplitude were determined. Trends have been obtained for the fitted parameters as a function of the Reynolds number, which suggest a way forward to better predict the starting parameters for population models when simulating separation using CFD packages. The key parameter to predict to fix the position of the Gaussian distribution was found to be the mean droplet size.

Keywords: Two-phase separator, average bubble droplet, bubble size distribution, liquid-liquid phase.

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Authors: Ehsan Daryadel, Farhad Talaei

Abstract:

Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems on Earth. Nevertheless, various challenges threaten these ecosystems and disrupt their ecological character. Among these, the effects of human-based threats are more devastating. Following mass degradation of wetlands during 1970s, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) was concluded to conserve wetlands of international importance and prevent destruction and degradation of such ecosystems through wise use of wetlands as a mean to achieve sustainable development in all over the world. Therefore, in this paper, efforts have been made to analyze threats to wetlands and then investigate solutions in the framework of the Ramsar Convention. Finally, in order to operate these mechanisms, this study concludes that all states should in turn make their best effort to improve and restore global wetlands through preservation of environmental standards and close contribution and also through taking joint measures with other states effectively.

Keywords: Ramsar Convention, Threats, Wetland Ecosystems, Wise Use.

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Authors: P. Painmanakul, T. Chintateerachai, S. Lertlapwasin, N. Rojvilavan, T. Chalermsinsuwan, N. Chawaloesphonsiya, O. Larpparisudthi

Abstract:

Conventional coagulation, advance oxidation process (AOPs), and the combined process were evaluated and compared for its suitability to treat the stabilized cutting-oil wastewater. The 90% efficiency was obtained from the coagulation at Al₂(SO₄)₃ dosage of 150 mg/L and pH 7. On the other hands, efficiencies of AOPs for 30 minutes oxidation time were 10% for acoustic oxidation, 12% for acoustic oxidation with hydrogen peroxide, 76% for Fenton, and 92% sono-Fenton processes. The highest efficiency for effective oil removal of AOPs required large amount of chemical. Therefore, AOPs were studied as a post-treatment after conventional separation process. The efficiency was considerable as the effluent COD can pass the standard required for industrial wastewater discharge with less chemical and energy consumption.

 

Keywords: Cutting oily-wastewater, Advance oxidation process, Sono-Fenton, Combined process.

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Authors: Urvi Shriram

Abstract:

The higher compounded growth rates coupled with favourable demographics in emerging markets portend abundant opportunities for multinational organizations. With many organizations competing for talent in these growing markets, their ability to succeed will depend on their understanding of local workforce needs and aspirations. Using data from the Towers Watson 2010 Global Workforce Study, this paper highlights differences in employee engagement, turnover risks, and attraction and retention drivers between the two markets. Apart from looking at the traditional drivers of employee engagement, the study also explores the value placed by employees on elements like a strong senior leadership, managerial capabilities and career advancement opportunities. Results reveal that emerging markets employees seem to be more engaged and value the non-traditional elements more highly than the developed markets employees.

Keywords: Attraction and retention drivers, emerging markets, employee engagement, turnover risk

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Authors: Labiba Gilani, Asifullah Khan, Anwar M. Mirza

Abstract:

This paper introduces a technique of distortion estimation in image watermarking using Genetic Programming (GP). The distortion is estimated by considering the problem of obtaining a distorted watermarked signal from the original watermarked signal as a function regression problem. This function regression problem is solved using GP, where the original watermarked signal is considered as an independent variable. GP-based distortion estimation scheme is checked for Gaussian attack and Jpeg compression attack. We have used Gaussian attacks of different strengths by changing the standard deviation. JPEG compression attack is also varied by adding various distortions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed technique is able to detect the watermark even in the case of strong distortions and is more robust against attacks.

Keywords: Blind Watermarking, Genetic Programming (GP), Fitness Function, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT).

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Authors: L. Sellami, D. Idoughi, P. F. Tiako

Abstract:

Cloud computing provides infrastructure to the enterprise through the Internet allowing access to cloud services at anytime and anywhere. This pervasive aspect of the services, the distributed nature of data and the wide use of information make cloud computing vulnerable to intrusions that violate the security of the cloud. This requires the use of security mechanisms to detect malicious behavior in network communications and hosts such as intrusion detection systems (IDS). In this article, we focus on the detection of intrusion into the cloud sing IDSs. We base ourselves on client authentication in the computing cloud. This technique allows to detect the abnormal use of ubiquitous service and prevents the intrusion of cloud computing. This is an approach based on client authentication data. Our IDS provides intrusion detection inside and outside cloud computing network. It is a double protection approach: The security user node and the global security cloud computing.

Keywords: Cloud computing, intrusion detection system, privacy, trust.

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Authors: Puntani Pongsumpun, I-Ming Tang

Abstract:

The incidences of dengue hemorrhagic disease (DHF) over the long term exhibit a seasonal behavior. It has been hypothesized that these behaviors are due to the seasonal climate changes which in turn induce a seasonal variation in the incubation period of the virus while it is developing the mosquito. The standard dynamic analysis is applied for analysis the Susceptible-Exposed- Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model which includes an annual variation in the length of the extrinsic incubation period (EIP). The presence of both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections is allowed in the present model. We found that dynamic behavior of the endemic state changes as the influence of the seasonal variation of the EIP becomes stronger. As the influence is further increased, the trajectory exhibits sustained oscillations when it leaves the chaotic region.

Keywords: Chaotic behavior, dengue hemorrhagic fever, extrinsic incubation period, SEIR model.

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Authors: Jianlin Li, Jizhen Li

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Transnational corporations (TNCs) are playing a major role in global R&D, not only through activities in their home countries but also increasingly abroad. However, the process of R&D offshoring is not yet discussed thoroughly. Based on in-depth case study on Agilent China Communications Operation, this paper presents a stage model for theorizing the R&D offshoring process. This stage model outlines 5 maturity levels of organization and the offshoring process: Subsidiary team, Mirror team, Independent team, Mirror sector and the Independent sector (from software engineering point of view, it is similar to the local team's capability level of maturity model). Moreover, the paper gives a detailed discussion on the relevant characteristics, as well as the ability/responsibility of transfer, priorities and the corresponding organization structure. It also gives the characteristics and key points of different level-s R&D offshoring implementation using actual team practice.

Keywords: Internationalization of R&D, R&D offshoring process, Multinational Corporations, Organization Level.

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Authors: Jozef Junak, Nadezda Stevulova

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This paper is aimed to the use of different types of industrial wastes in concrete production. From examined waste (crushed concrete waste) our tested concrete samples with dimension 150 mm were prepared. In these samples, fractions 4/8 mm and 8/16 mm by recycled concrete aggregate with a range of variation from 0 to 100% were replaced. Experiment samples were tested for compressive strength after 2, 7, 14 and 28 days of hardening. From obtained results it is evident that all samples prepared with washed recycled concrete aggregates met the requirement of standard for compressive strength of 20 MPa already after 14 days of hardening. Sample prepared with recycled concrete aggregates (4/8 mm: 100% and 8/16 mm: 60%) reached 101% of compressive strength value (34.7 MPa) after 28 days of hardening in comparison with the reference sample (34.4 MPa). The lowest strength after 28 days of hardening (27.42 MPa) was obtained for sample consisting of recycled concrete in proportion of 40% for 4/8 fraction and 100% for 8/16 fraction of recycled concrete.

Keywords: Recycled concrete aggregate, re-use, workability, compressive strength.

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Authors: R. Alageswaran, S. Selvakumar, P. Neelamegam

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are emerging because of the developments in wireless communication technology and miniaturization of the hardware. WSN consists of a large number of low-cost, low-power, multifunctional sensor nodes to monitor physical conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion, etc. The MAC protocol to be used in the sensor networks must be energy efficient and this should aim at conserving the energy during its operation. In this paper, with the focus of analyzing the MAC protocols used in wireless Adhoc networks to WSN, simulation experiments were conducted in Global Mobile Simulator (GloMoSim) software. Number of packets sent by regular nodes, and received by sink node in different deployment strategies, total energy spent, and the network life time have been chosen as the metric for comparison. From the results of simulation, it is evident that the IEEE 802.11 protocol performs better compared to CSMA and MACA protocols.

Keywords: CSMA, DCF, MACA, TelosB

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Authors: R.Sukesh Kumar, Abhisek Verma, Jasprit Singh

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In this work a novel approach for color image segmentation using higher order entropy as a textural feature for determination of thresholds over a two dimensional image histogram is discussed. A similar approach is applied to achieve multi-level thresholding in both grayscale and color images. The paper discusses two methods of color image segmentation using RGB space as the standard processing space. The threshold for segmentation is decided by the maximization of conditional entropy in the two dimensional histogram of the color image separated into three grayscale images of R, G and B. The features are first developed independently for the three ( R, G, B ) spaces, and combined to get different color component segmentation. By considering local maxima instead of the maximum of conditional entropy yields multiple thresholds for the same image which forms the basis for multilevel thresholding.

Keywords: conditional entropy, multi-level thresholding, segmentation, two dimensional image histogram

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Authors: G. Minak, D. Ghelli, A. Zucchelli

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This paper presents the results of an experimental characterization of a glass fibre-epoxy composite. The behavior of the traditional two-phase composite has been compared with the one of a new three-phase composite where the epoxy matrix was modified by addition of a 3% weight fraction of montmorillonite nano-particles. Two different types of nano-clays, Cloisite® 30B and RXG7000, produced by Southern Clay Products Inc., have been considered. Three-point bending tests, both monotonic and cyclic, were carried out. A strong reduction of the ultimate flexural strength upon nano-modification has been observed in quasi-static tests. Fatigue tests yielded a smaller strength loss. In both quasi-static and fatigue tests a more pronounced tendency to delamination has been noticed in three-phase composites, especially in the case of 30B nano-clay, with respect to the standard two-phase glass fiber composite.

Keywords: Bending fatigue, epoxy resin, glass fiber, montmorillonite.

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Authors: Mateus N. Esperança, Marcel O. Cerri, Alberto C. Badino

Abstract:

The performance of airlift bioreactors are closely related with their geometry, especially the gas-liquid separator design. In this study, the influence of the gas-liquid separator geometry on oxygen transfer and gas hold-up was evaluated in 10-L concentric-tube airlift bioreactor operating with distilled water and xanthan gum solution. The specific airflow rate (ɸ_AIR) exhibited the higher effect on the oxygen transfer coefficient (k_La) for both fluids. While the gas-liquid separator openness angle (α) and liquid volume fraction on the gas-liquid separator (V_GLS) have presented opposite effects on oxygen mass transfer, they affected negatively the global gas hold-up of distilled water system. The best degassing zone geometry corresponded to a 90° openness angle with 10% of the liquid on it.

Keywords: Airlift bioreactor, gas holdup, gas-liquid separator, oxygen transfer.

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Authors: Shashikant R. Kuchekar, Somnath D. Bhumkar, Haribhau R. Aher, Bhaskar H. Zaware, Ponnadurai Ramasami

Abstract:

A precise, sensitive, rapid and selective method for the solvent extraction, spectrophotometric determination of palladium(II) using para-methylphenyl thiourea (PMPT) as an extractant is developed. Palladium(II) forms yellow colored complex with PMPT which shows an absorption maximum at 300 nm. The colored complex obeys Beer’s law up to 7.0 µg ml^-1 of palladium. The molar absorptivity and Sandell’s sensitivity were found to be 8.486 x 10³ l mol^-1cm^-1 and 0.0125 μg cm^-2 respectively. The optimum conditions for the extraction and determination of palladium have been established by monitoring the various experimental parameters. The precision of the method has been evaluated and the relative standard deviation has been found to be less than 0.53%. The proposed method is free from interference from large number of foreign ions. The method has been successfully applied for the determination of palladium from alloy, synthetic mixtures corresponding to alloy samples.

Keywords: Para-methylphenyl thiourea, palladium, spectrophotometry.

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Authors: Ji Nyong Jang, Min Woo Lee, Eun Kyung Kim, Ki Keun Kim, Jae Sung Lim

Abstract:

Since DVB-RCS has been successively implemented, the mobile communication on the multi-beam satellite communication is attractive attention. And the DVB-RCS standard sets up to support mobility of a RCST. In the case of the spot-beam satellite system, the received signal strength does not differ largely between the center and the boundary of the beam. Thus, the RSS based handoff detection algorithm is not benefit to the satellite system as a terrestrial system. Therefore we propose an Adaptive handoff detection algorithm based on RCST mobility information. Our handoff detection algorithm not only can be used as centralized handoff detection algorithm but also removes uncertainties of handoff due to the variation of RSS. Performances were compared with RSS based handoff algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed handoff detection algorithm not only achieved better handoff and link degradation rate, but also achieved better forward link spectral efficiency.

Keywords: DVB-RCS, satellite multi-beam handoff, mobility information, handover.

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Authors: S. Yunus, A. Suratman, N. Mohamad Nor, M. Othman

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This paper presents the measurement and simulation results by Finite Element Method (FEM) for earth resistance (R_DC) for interconnected vertical ground rod configurations. The soil resistivity was measured using the Wenner four-pin Method, and R_DC was measured using the Fall of Potential (FOP) method, as outlined in the standard. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed to interpret the soil resistivity to that of a 2-layer soil model. The same soil resistivity data that were obtained by Wenner four-pin method were used in FEM for simulation. This paper compares the results of R_DC obtained by FEM simulation with the real measurement at field site. A good agreement was seen for R_DC obtained by measurements and FEM. This shows that FEM is a reliable software to be used for design of earthing systems. It is also found that the parallel rod system has a better performance compared to a similar setup using a grid layout.

Keywords: Earthing systems, earth electrodes, Finite Element Method, FEM, Genetic Algorithm, GA, earth resistances.

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Authors: Tatyana Boikova

Abstract:

The strong international competition as the factor of rising economic development efficiency should not turn into destructive force for models of social orientation. What result Europe received from the accelerated integration without a long transition period of the accepted countries. Correlative relationship between the research and development expenditure and labor productivity, inflation and the rate economy's growth of the USA and the euro zone, employment and gross value added between Old and New Europe is analyzed in this article. The article estimates the differences in economic growth of Old and New Europe. Correlation rate between cycles of the euro area and the countries of Central and the Eastern Europe very much differs, though some of these countries have high correlation as members of the Economic and Monetary Union. Besides, the majority of the countries of Central and the Eastern Europe does not correspond to criteria of an optimum currency area.

Keywords: endogenous economic growth, sustainability, competitiveness, economic development

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Authors: S. Homrossukon, S. Sansureerungsigun

Abstract:

This work aims to introduce an efficient and to standardize the measuring system analyses for automotive industrial. The study started by literature reviewing about the management and analyses measurement system. The approach of measuring system management, then, was constructed. Such approach was validated by collecting the current measuring system data using the equipments of interest including vernier caliper and micrometer. Their accuracy and precision of measurements were analyzed. Finally, the measuring system was improved and evaluated. The study showed that vernier did not meet its measuring characteristics based on the linearity whereas all equipments were lacking of the measuring precision characteristics. Consequently, the causes of measuring variation via the equipments of interest were declared. After the improvement, it was found that their measuring performance could be accepted as the standard required. Finally, the standardized approach for analyzing the measuring system of automotive was concluded.

Keywords: Automotive part manufacturing measurement, measuring accuracy, measuring precision, measurement system analyses.

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Authors: P. O. Umenne, Odhiambo Marcel O.

Abstract:

A simple network model is developed in OPNET to study the performance of the Wi-Fi protocol. The model is simulated in OPNET and performance factors such as load, throughput and delay are analysed from the model. Four applications such as oracle, http, ftp and voice are applied over the Wireless LAN network to determine the throughput. The voice application utilises a considerable amount of bandwidth of up to 5Mbps, as a result the 802.11g standard of the Wi-Fi protocol was chosen which can support a data rate of up to 54Mbps. Results indicate that when the load in the Wi-Fi network is increased the queuing delay on the point-to-point links in the Wi-Fi network significantly reduces until it is comparable to that of WiMAX. In conclusion, the queuing delay of the Wi-Fi protocol for the network model simulated was about 0.00001secs comparable to WiMAX network values.

Keywords: WLAN-Wireless Local Area Network, MIMO-Multiple Input Multiple Output, Queuing delay, Throughput, AP-Access Point, IP-Internet protocol, TOS-Type of Service.

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Authors: Elina Ligere, Valts Ozolins, Lauris Smits, Normunds Sikora, Ivars Melderis, Laila Feldmane, Aris Lacis, Vladimir Kasyanov

Abstract:

Biomechanical properties of infantile aorta in vitro in cases of different standard anastomoses: end-to-end (ETE), extended anastomosis end-to-end (EETE) and subclavian flap aortoplasty (SFA) used for surgical correction of coarctation were analyzed to detect the influence of the method on the biomechanics of infantile aorta and possible changes in haemodinamics. 10 specimens of native aorta, 3 specimens with ETE, 4 EEET and 3 SFA were investigated. The experiments showed a non-linear relationship between stress and strain in the infantile aorta, the modulus of elasticity of the aortic wall increased with the increase of inner pressure. In the case of anastomosis end-to-end the modulus was almost constant, relevant to the modulus of elasticity of the aorta with the inner pressure 100-120 mmHg. The anastomoses EETE and SFA showed elastic properties closer to native aorta, the stiffness of ETE did not change with the changes in inner pressure.

Keywords: biomechanics, coarctation, mechanical properties, neonatal aorta

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Authors: Hapriza Ashari, Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod

Abstract:

This article aims to assess the level of basic knowledge of statutory employment rights at the workplace as prescribed by the Malaysian Employment Act 1955. The statutory employment rights comprises of a variety of individual employment rights such as protections of wages, statutory right to the general standard of working time, statutory right to rest day, public holidays, annual leave and sick leave as well as female employee’s statutory right to paid maternity leave. A field survey was carried out to collect data by using self-administered questionnaires from Human Resource (HR) practitioners in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results reveal that the level of basic knowledge of legislated employment rights varies between different types of statutory rights from high level to low level.

Keywords: Employment legislation, Human Resource (HR) practitioner, legal knowledge, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

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Authors: O. Hassoon, M. Tarfoui, A. El Malk

Abstract:

Fiber Bragg optic sensor is embedded in composite material to detect and monitor the damage that occurs in composite structures. In this paper, we deal with the mode-Ι delamination to determine the material strength to crack propagation, using the coupling mode theory and T-matrix method to simulate the FBGs spectrum for both uniform and non-uniform strain distribution. The double cantilever beam test is modeled in FEM to determine the longitudinal strain. Two models are implemented, the first is the global half model, and the second is the sub-model to represent the FBGs with higher refined mesh. This method can simulate damage in composite structures and converting strain to a wavelength shifting in the FBG spectrum.

Keywords: Fiber Bragg grating, Delamination detection, DCB, FBG spectrum, Structure health monitoring.

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Authors: Baghdasaryan Marinka

Abstract:

Monitoring the distribution of electric power consumption in the technological process of ore grinding is conducted. As a result, the impacts of the mill filling rate, the productivity of the ore supply, the volumetric density of the grinding balls, the specific density of the ground ore, and the relative speed of the mill rotation on the specific consumption of electric power have been studied. The power and technological factors affecting the reactive power generated by the synchronous motors, operating within the technological scheme are studied. A block diagram for evaluating the power consumption modes of the technological process is presented, which includes the analysis of the technological scheme, the determination of the place and volumetric density of the ore-grinding mill, the evaluation of the technological and power factors affecting the energy saving process, as well as the assessment of the electric power standards.

Keywords: Electric power standard, factor, ore grinding, power consumption, reactive power, technological.

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Authors: W. Schellong

Abstract:

Industry accounts for one-third of global final energy demand. Crossover technologies (e.g. motors, pumps, process heat, and air conditioning) play an important role in improving energy efficiency. These technologies are used in many applications independent of the production branch. Especially electrical power is used by drives, pumps, compressors, and lightning. The paper demonstrates the algorithm of the energy analysis by some selected case studies for typical industrial processes. The energy analysis represents an essential part of energy management systems (EMS). Generally, process control system (PCS) can support EMS. They provide information about the production process, and they organize the maintenance actions. Combining these tools into an integrated process allows the development of an energy critical equipment strategy. Thus, asset and energy management can use the same common data to improve the energy efficiency.

Keywords: Crossover technologies, data management, energy analysis, energy efficiency, process control.

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Authors: Denis Trcek

Abstract:

Trust is essential for further and wider acceptance of contemporary e-services. It was first addressed almost thirty years ago in Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria standard by the US DoD. But this and other proposed approaches of that period were actually solving security. Roughly some ten years ago, methodologies followed that addressed trust phenomenon at its core, and they were based on Bayesian statistics and its derivatives, while some approaches were based on game theory. However, trust is a manifestation of judgment and reasoning processes. It has to be dealt with in accordance with this fact and adequately supported in cyber environment. On the basis of the results in the field of psychology and our own findings, a methodology called qualitative algebra has been developed, which deals with so far overlooked elements of trust phenomenon. It complements existing methodologies and provides a basis for a practical technical solution that supports management of trust in contemporary computing environments. Such solution is also presented at the end of this paper.

Keywords: internet security, trust management, multi-agent systems, reasoning and judgment, modeling and simulation, qualitativealgebra

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Authors: Nelson J. Cossa, Narayanan S. Potty, Mohd Shahir Liew, Arazi B. Idrus

Abstract:

The oil and gas industry has moved towards Load and Resistance Factor Design through API RP2A - LRFD and the recently published international standard, ISO-19902, for design of fixed steel offshore structures. The ISO 19902 is intended to provide a harmonized design practice that offers a balanced structural fitness for the purpose, economy and safety. As part of an ongoing work, the reliability analysis of tubular joints of the jacket structure has been carried out to calibrate the load and resistance factors for the design of offshore platforms in Malaysia, as proposed in the ISO. Probabilistic models have been established for the load effects (wave, wind and current) and the tubular joints strengths. In this study the First Order Reliability Method (FORM), coded in MATLAB Software has been employed to evaluate the reliability index of the typical joints, designed using API RP2A - WSD and ISO 19902.

Keywords: FORM, Reliability Analysis, Tubular Joints

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Authors: Salima Behdenna, Fatiha Barigou, Ghalem Belalem

Abstract:

Due to the quick increase in the volume of Arabic opinions posted on various social media, Arabic sentiment analysis has become one of the most important areas of research. Compared to English, there is very little works on Arabic sentiment analysis, in particular aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA). In ABSA, aspect extraction is the most important task. In this paper, we propose a semantic ABSA approach for standard Arabic reviews to extract explicit aspect terms and identify the polarity of the extracted aspects. The proposed approach was evaluated using HAAD datasets. Experiments showed that the proposed approach achieved a good level of performance compared with baseline results. The F-measure was improved by 19% for the aspect term extraction tasks and 55% aspect term polarity task.

Keywords: Sentiment analysis, opinion mining, Arabic, aspect level, opinion, polarity.

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Authors: G. Van Dijck, M. M. Van Hulle, M. Wevers

Abstract:

A genetic algorithm (GA) based feature subset selection algorithm is proposed in which the correlation structure of the features is exploited. The subset of features is validated according to the classification performance. Features derived from the continuous wavelet transform are potentially strongly correlated. GA-s that do not take the correlation structure of features into account are inefficient. The proposed algorithm forms clusters of correlated features and searches for a good candidate set of clusters. Secondly a search within the clusters is performed. Different simulations of the algorithm on a real-case data set with strong correlations between features show the increased classification performance. Comparison is performed with a standard GA without use of the correlation structure.

Keywords: Classification, genetic algorithm, hierarchicalagglomerative clustering, wavelet transform.

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Authors: Fei Hao, Hai Wang

Abstract:

One of research issues in social network analysis is to evaluate the position/importance of users in social networks. As the information diffusion in social network is evolving, it seems difficult to evaluate the importance of users using traditional approaches. In this paper, we propose an evaluation approach for user importance with fractal view in social networks. In this approach, the global importance (Fractal Importance) and the local importance (Topological Importance) of nodes are considered. The basic idea is that the bigger the product of fractal importance and topological importance of a node is, the more important of the node is. We devise the algorithm called TFRank corresponding to the proposed approach. Finally, we evaluate TFRank by experiments. Experimental results demonstrate our TFRank has the high correlations with PageRank algorithm and potential ranking algorithm, and it shows the effectiveness and advantages of our approach.

Keywords: TFRank, Fractal Importance, Topological Importance, Social Network

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

Abstract:

The paper will focus on the hybrid living typologies which are brought about due to the Global Crisis. Mixing of the generations and the groups of people, mingling the functions of living with working and socializing, merging the act of living in synergy with the urban realm and its constituent elements will be the springboard of proposing an essential sustainable housing approach and the respective urban development. The thematic will be based on methodologies developed both on the academic, educational environment including participation of students’ research and on the practical aspect of architecture including case studies executed by the author in the island of Cyprus. Both paths of the research will deal with the explorative understanding of the hybrid ways of living, testing the limits of its autonomy. The evolution of the living typologies into substantial hybrid entities, will deal with the understanding of new ways of living which include among others: re-introduction of natural phenomena, accommodation of the activity of work and services in the living realm, interchange of public and private, injections of communal events into the individual living territories. The issues and the binary questions raised by what is natural and artificial, what is private and what public, what is ephemeral and what permanent and all the in-between conditions are eloquently traced in the everyday life in the island. Additionally, given the situation of Cyprus with the eminent scar of the dividing ‘Green line’ and the waiting of the ‘ghost city’ of Famagusta to be resurrected, the conventional way of understanding the limits and the definitions of the properties is irreversibly shaken. The situation is further aggravated by the unprecedented phenomenon of the crisis on the island. All these observations set the premises of reexamining the urban development and the respective sustainable housing in a synergy where their characteristics start exchanging positions, merge into each other, contemporarily emerge and vanish, changing from permanent to ephemeral. This fluidity of conditions will attempt to render a future of the built- and unbuilt realm where the main focusing point will be redirected to the human and the social. Weather and social ritual scenographies together with ‘spontaneous urban landscapes’ of ‘momentary relationships’ will suggest a recipe for emerging urban environments and sustainable living. Thus, the paper will aim at opening a discourse on the future of the sustainable living merged in a sustainable urban development in relation to the imminent solution of the division of island, where the issue of property became the main obstacle to be overcome. At the same time, it will attempt to link this approach to the global need for a sustainable evolution of the urban and living realms.

Keywords: Social ritual scenographies, spontaneous urban landscapes, substantial hybrid entities, re-introduction of natural phenomena.

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