Search results for: Quality of Service Requirements
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4619

Search results for: Quality of Service Requirements

3359 Mitigation of Sag in Real Time

Authors: Vijay Gajanan Neve, Pallavi V. Pullawar, G. M. Dhole

Abstract:

Modern industrial processes are based on a large amount of electronic devices such as programmable logic controllers and adjustable speed drives. Unfortunately, electronic devices are sensitive to disturbances, and thus, industrial loads become less tolerant to power quality problems such as sags, swells, and harmonics. Voltage sags are an important power quality problem. In this paper proposed a new configuration of Static Var Compensator (SVC) considering three different conditions named as topologies and Booster transformer with fuzzy logic based controller, capable of compensating for power quality problems associated with voltage sags and maintaining a prescribed level of voltage profile. Fuzzy logic controller is designed to achieve the firing angles for SVC such that it maintains voltage profile. The online monitoring system for voltage sag mitigation in the laboratory using the hardware is used. The results are presented from the performance of each topology and Booster transformer considered in this paper.

Keywords: Booster Transformer, Fuzzy logic, Static Var Compensator, Voltage sag.

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3358 Valorization of Beer Brewing Wastes by Composting

Authors: M. E. Silva, I. Brás

Abstract:

The aim of this work was to study the viability of recycling the residual yeast and diatomaceous earth (RYDE) slurry generated by the beer brewing industry by composting with animal manures, as well as to evaluate the quality of the composts obtained. Two pilot composting trials were carried out with different mixes: cow manure/RYDE slurry (Pile CM) and sheep manure/RYDE slurry (Pile SM). For all piles, wood chips were applied as bulking agent. The process was monitored by evaluating standard physical and chemical parameters. The compost quality was assessed by the heavy metals content and phytotoxicity. Both piles reached a thermophilic phase in the first day, however having different trends. The pH showed a slight alkaline character. The C/N reached values lower than 19 at the end of composting process. Generally, all the piles exhibited absence of heavy metals. However, the pile SM exhibited phytotoxicity. This study showed that RYDE slurry can be valorized by composting with cow manure.

Keywords: Beer brewing wastes, compost; quality, valorization.

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3357 Enhancing Students’ Performance in Basic Science and Technology in Nigeria Using Moodle LMS

Authors: Olugbade Damola, Adekomi Adebimbo, Sofowora Olaniyi Alaba

Abstract:

One of the major problems facing education in Nigeria is the provision of quality Science and Technology education. Inadequate teaching facilities, non-usage of innovative teaching strategies, ineffective classroom management, lack of students’ motivation and poor integration of ICT has resulted in the increase in percentage of students who failed Basic Science and Technology in Junior Secondary Certification Examination for National Examination Council in Nigeria. To address these challenges, the Federal Government came up with a road map on education. This was with a view of enhancing quality education through integration of modern technology into teaching and learning, enhancing quality assurance through proper monitoring and introduction of innovative methods of teaching. This led the researcher to investigate how MOODLE LMS could be used to enhance students’ learning outcomes in BST. A sample of 120 students was purposively selected from four secondary schools in Ogbomoso. The experimental group was taught using MOODLE LMS, while the control group was taught using the conventional method. Data obtained were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The result showed that MOODLE LMS was an effective learning platform in teaching BST in junior secondary schools (t=4.953, P<0.05). Students’ attitudes towards BST was also enhanced through MOODLE LMS (t=15.632, P<0.05). The use of MOODLE LMS significantly enhanced students’ retention (t=6.640, P<0.05). In conclusion, the Federal Government efforts at enhancing quality assurance through integration of modern technology and e-learning in Secondary schools proved to have yielded good result has students found MOODLE LMS to be motivating and interactive. Attendance was improved.

Keywords: MOODLE, learning management system, quality assurance, basic science and technology.

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3356 Developing and Validating an Instrument for Measuring Mobile Government Adoption in Saudi Arabia

Authors: Sultan Alotaibi, Dmitri Roussinov

Abstract:

Many governments recently started to change the ways of providing their services by allowing their citizens to access services from anywhere without the need of visiting the location of the service provider. Mobile government (M-government) is one of the techniques that fulfill that goal. It has been adopted by many governments. M-government can be defined as an implementation of Electronic Government (E-Government) by using mobile technology with the aim of improving service delivery to citizens, businesses and all government agencies. There have been several research projects developing models to understand the behavior of individuals towards the adoption of m-government. This paper proposes a model for adoption of m-government services in Saudi Arabia by extending Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by introducing external factors. This paper also reports on the development of a survey instrument designed to measure user perception of mobile government acceptance. A survey instrument has been developed by using existing scales from prior instruments and a pilot study has been conducted by distributing the survey to 33 participants. As a result, a survey instrument has been refined to retain 43 items. The results also showed that the reliabilities of all the scales in the survey instrument are above the levels acceptable in current academic research, thus the instruments developed by us are capable of analyzing the factors in M-government adoption.

Keywords: TAM, m-government, e-government, model, acceptance.

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3355 Critical Approach to Define the Architectural Structure of a Health Prototype in a Rural Area of Brazil

Authors: Domenico Chizzoniti, Monica Moscatelli, Letizia Cattani, Luca Preis

Abstract:

A primary healthcare facility in developing countries should be a multifunctional space able to respond to different requirements: Flexibility, modularity, aggregation and reversibility. These basic features could be better satisfied if applied to an architectural artifact that complies with the typological, figurative and constructive aspects of the context in which it is located. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify a procedure that can define the figurative aspects of the architectural structure of the health prototype for the marginal areas of developing countries through a critical approach. The application context is the rural areas of the Northeast of Bahia in Brazil. The prototype should be located in the rural district of Quingoma, in the municipality of Lauro de Freitas, a particular place where there is still a cultural fusion of black and indigenous populations. Based on the historical analysis of settlement strategies and architectural structures in spaces of public interest or collective use, this paper aims to provide a procedure able to identify the categories and rules underlying typological and figurative aspects, in order to detect significant and generalizable elements, as well as materials and constructive techniques typically adopted in the rural areas of Brazil. The object of this work is therefore not only the recovery of certain constructive approaches but also the development of a procedure that integrates the requirements of the primary healthcare prototype with its surrounding economic, social, cultural, settlement and figurative conditions.

Keywords: Architectural typology, Developing countries, Local construction techniques, Primary health care.

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3354 Filtering and Reconstruction System for Gray Forensic Images

Authors: Ahd Aljarf, Saad Amin

Abstract:

Images are important source of information used as evidence during any investigation process. Their clarity and accuracy is essential and of the utmost importance for any investigation. Images are vulnerable to losing blocks and having noise added to them either after alteration or when the image was taken initially, therefore, having a high performance image processing system and it is implementation is very important in a forensic point of view. This paper focuses on improving the quality of the forensic images. For different reasons packets that store data can be affected, harmed or even lost because of noise. For example, sending the image through a wireless channel can cause loss of bits. These types of errors might give difficulties generally for the visual display quality of the forensic images. Two of the images problems: noise and losing blocks are covered. However, information which gets transmitted through any way of communication may suffer alteration from its original state or even lose important data due to the channel noise. Therefore, a developed system is introduced to improve the quality and clarity of the forensic images.

Keywords: Image Filtering, Image Reconstruction, Image Processing, Forensic Images.

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3353 Quality of Life of Poor Residential Neighborhoods in Oshogbo, Nigeria

Authors: Funmilayo L. Amao

Abstract:

As a result of the high cost of housing, the increasing population is forced to live in substandard housing and unhealthy conditions giving rise to poor residential neighborhoods. The paper examines the causes and characteristics of poor residential neighborhood. The paper finds the problems that have influence poor neighborhoods to; poverty, growth of informal sector and housing shortage. The paper asserts that poor residential neighborhoods have adverse effects on the people.

The secondary data was obtained from books, journals and seminar papers while primary data relating to building and environmental quality from structured questionnaire administered on sample of 500 household heads, from sampling frame of 5000 housing units.

The study reveals that majority of the respondents are poor and employed in informal sector. The paper suggests urban renewal and slum upgrading programs as methods in dealing with the situation and an improvement in the socio-economic circumstances of the inhabitants.

Keywords: Environmental Degeneration, Housing, Poverty, Quality of life, Urban Upgrading.

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3352 Some Issues of Measurement of Impairment of Non-Financial Assets in the Public Sector

Authors: Mariam Vardiashvili

Abstract:

The economic value of the asset impairment process is quite large. Impairment reflects the reduction of future economic benefits or service potentials itemized in the asset. The assets owned by public sector entities bring economic benefits or are used for delivery of the free-of-charge services. Consequently, they are classified as cash-generating and non-cash-generating assets. IPSAS 21 - Impairment of non-cash-generating assets, and IPSAS 26 - Impairment of cash-generating assets, have been designed considering this specificity.  When measuring impairment of assets, it is important to select the relevant methods. For measurement of the impaired Non-Cash-Generating Assets, IPSAS 21 recommends three methods: Depreciated Replacement Cost Approach, Restoration Cost Approach, and  Service Units Approach. Impairment of Value in Use of Cash-Generating Assets (according to IPSAS 26) is measured by discounted value of the money sources to be received in future. Value in use of the cash-generating asserts (as per IPSAS 26) is measured by the discounted value of the money sources to be received in the future. The article provides classification of the assets in the public sector  as non-cash-generating assets and cash-generating assets and, deals also with the factors which should be considered when evaluating  impairment of assets. An essence of impairment of the non-financial assets and the methods of measurement thereof evaluation are formulated according to IPSAS 21 and IPSAS 26. The main emphasis is put on different methods of measurement of the value in use of the impaired Cash-Generating Assets and Non-Cash-Generation Assets and the methods of their selection. The traditional and the expected cash flow approaches for calculation of the discounted value are reviewed. The article also discusses the issues of recognition of impairment loss and its reflection in the financial reporting. The article concludes that despite a functional purpose of the impaired asset, whichever method is used for measuring the asset, presentation of realistic information regarding the value of the assets should be ensured in the financial reporting. In the theoretical development of the issue, the methods of scientific abstraction, analysis and synthesis were used. The research was carried out with a systemic approach. The research process uses international standards of accounting, theoretical researches and publications of Georgian and foreign scientists.

Keywords: Non-cash-generating assets, cash-generating assets, recoverable value, recoverable service amount, value in use.

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3351 Analysis of Air Quality in the Outdoor Environment of the City of Messina by an Application of the Pollution Index Method

Authors: G. Cannistraro, L. Ponterio

Abstract:

In this paper is reported an analysis about the outdoor air pollution of the urban centre of the city of Messina. The variations of the most critical pollutants concentrations (PM10, O3, CO, C6H6) and their trends respect of climatic parameters and vehicular traffic have been studied. Linear regressions have been effectuated for representing the relations among the pollutants; the differences between pollutants concentrations on weekend/weekday were also analyzed. In order to evaluate air pollution and its effects on human health, a method for calculating a pollution index was implemented and applied in the urban centre of the city. This index is based on the weighted mean of the most detrimental air pollutants concentrations respect of their limit values for protection of human health. The analyzed data of the polluting substances were collected by the Assessorship of the Environment of the Regional Province of Messina in the year 2004. A statistical analysis of the air quality index trends is also reported.

Keywords: Environmental pollution, Pollutants levels, Linearregression, Air Quality Index, Statistical analysis.

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3350 Quality Attributes of Various Spray Dried Pulp Powder Prepared from Low Temperature Stored Calcium Salts Pretreated Guava Fruits

Authors: Renu Rahel, A. S. Chauhan, K. Srinivasulu, R. Ravi, V. B. Kudachikar

Abstract:

The effect of calcium salts on the storage stability and on the quality attributes of both fresh and processed product (guava powder) of white flesh guavas (var ‘Allahabad safeda’) was studied. The pulp behavioral studies of fully ripened guava fruits indicated that fruits pretreated with 3% and 4.5% calcium chloride had the least viscosity. The guava pulp powder using spray drying technique was developed and its storage stability and the moisture sorption studies were carried out for product quality evaluation at normal storage condition (27°C; 65%RH). Results revealed that powder obtained from 3% calcium chloride pretreated guavas was found to be at par with the powder obtained from control guavas after 90 days of normal storage. Studies on microbiological quality of guava pulp powder indicated that among the treatments powder obtained from guava fruit pretreated with 3% calcium chloride to be the most effective through restricting microbial counts of total plate count, yeast, mold, Staphylococcus and E. coli below their permissible limit. Moisture sorption studies of guava powder revealed that foil laminate 12μm PET/9 μm foil/38-40 μm is the most suitable packaging material recommended.

Keywords: White flesh guava, calcium salts, spray drying, powder, storage stability.

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3349 Qualitative Data Analysis for Health Care Services

Authors: Taner Ersoz, Filiz Ersoz

Abstract:

This study was designed enable application of multivariate technique in the interpretation of categorical data for measuring health care services satisfaction in Turkey. The data was collected from a total of 17726 respondents. The establishment of the sample group and collection of the data were carried out by a joint team from The Ministry of Health and Turkish Statistical Institute (Turk Stat) of Turkey. The multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was used on the data of 2882 respondents who answered the questionnaire in full. The multiple correspondence analysis indicated that, in the evaluation of health services females, public employees, younger and more highly educated individuals were more concerned and complainant than males, private sector employees, older and less educated individuals. Overall 53 % of the respondents were pleased with the improvements in health care services in the past three years. This study demonstrates the public consciousness in health services and health care satisfaction in Turkey. It was found that most the respondents were pleased with the improvements in health care services over the past three years. Awareness of health service quality increases with education levels. Older individuals and males would appear to have lower expectancies in health services.

Keywords: Multiple correspondence analysis, optimal scaling, multivariate categorical data, health care services, health satisfaction survey, statistical visualizing, Turkey.

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3348 Balance of Rural and Urban Structures

Authors: Ehrenstorfer Barbara, Peherstorfer Tanja, Nový Jan

Abstract:

Urbanization and regionalization are two different approaches when it comes to economical structures and development, infrastructure and mobility, quality of life and living, education, social cohesion and many other topics. At first glance, the structures associated with urbanization and regionalization seems to be contradicting. This paper discusses possibilities of transfer and cooperation between rural and urban structures. An empirical investigation contributed to reveal scenarios of supposable forms of exchange and cooperation of remote rural areas and big cities.

Keywords: Learning Regions, Quality of Life and Living, Regional and Rural Development, Social Innovation.

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3347 Metal Streak Analysis with different Acquisition Settings in Postoperative Spine Imaging: A Phantom Study

Authors: N. D. Osman, M. S. Salikin, M. I. Saripan

Abstract:

CT assessment of postoperative spine is challenging in the presence of metal streak artifacts that could deteriorate the quality of CT images. In this paper, we studied the influence of different acquisition parameters on the magnitude of metal streaking. A water-bath phantom was constructed with metal insertion similar with postoperative spine assessment. The phantom was scanned with different acquisition settings and acquired data were reconstructed using various reconstruction settings. Standardized ROIs were defined within streaking region for image analysis. The result shows increased kVp and mAs enhanced SNR values by reducing image noise. Sharper kernel enhanced image quality compared to smooth kernel, but produced more noise in the images with higher CT fluctuation. The noise between both kernels were significantly different (P <0.05) with increment of noise in the bone kernel images (mean difference = 54.78). The technical settings should be selected appropriately to attain the acceptable image quality with the best diagnostic value.

Keywords: Computed tomography, metal streak, noise, CT fluctuation.

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3346 Fuzzy Hyperbolization Image Enhancement and Artificial Neural Network for Anomaly Detection

Authors: Sri Hartati, 1Agus Harjoko, Brad G. Nickerson

Abstract:

A prototype of an anomaly detection system was developed to automate process of recognizing an anomaly of roentgen image by utilizing fuzzy histogram hyperbolization image enhancement and back propagation artificial neural network. The system consists of image acquisition, pre-processor, feature extractor, response selector and output. Fuzzy Histogram Hyperbolization is chosen to improve the quality of the roentgen image. The fuzzy histogram hyperbolization steps consist of fuzzyfication, modification of values of membership functions and defuzzyfication. Image features are extracted after the the quality of the image is improved. The extracted image features are input to the artificial neural network for detecting anomaly. The number of nodes in the proposed ANN layers was made small. Experimental results indicate that the fuzzy histogram hyperbolization method can be used to improve the quality of the image. The system is capable to detect the anomaly in the roentgen image.

Keywords: Image processing, artificial neural network, anomaly detection.

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3345 High Speed Video Transmission for Telemedicine using ATM Technology

Authors: J. P. Dubois, H. M. Chiu

Abstract:

In this paper, we study statistical multiplexing of VBR video in ATM networks. ATM promises to provide high speed realtime multi-point to central video transmission for telemedicine applications in rural hospitals and in emergency medical services. Video coders are known to produce variable bit rate (VBR) signals and the effects of aggregating these VBR signals need to be determined in order to design a telemedicine network infrastructure capable of carrying these signals. We first model the VBR video signal and simulate it using a generic continuous-data autoregressive (AR) scheme. We carry out the queueing analysis by the Fluid Approximation Model (FAM) and the Markov Modulated Poisson Process (MMPP). The study has shown a trade off: multiplexing VBR signals reduces burstiness and improves resource utilization, however, the buffer size needs to be increased with an associated economic cost. We also show that the MMPP model and the Fluid Approximation model fit best, respectively, the cell region and the burst region. Therefore, a hybrid MMPP and FAM completely characterizes the overall performance of the ATM statistical multiplexer. The ramifications of this technology are clear: speed, reliability (lower loss rate and jitter), and increased capacity in video transmission for telemedicine. With migration to full IP-based networks still a long way to achieving both high speed and high quality of service, the proposed ATM architecture will remain of significant use for telemedicine.

Keywords: ATM, multiplexing, queueing, telemedicine, VBR.

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3344 Ezilla Cloud Service with Cassandra Database for Sensor Observation System

Authors: Kuo-Yang Cheng, Yi-Lun Pan, Chang-Hsing Wu, His-En Yu, Hui-Shan Chen, Weicheng Huang

Abstract:

The main mission of Ezilla is to provide a friendly interface to access the virtual machine and quickly deploy the high performance computing environment. Ezilla has been developed by Pervasive Computing Team at National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC). Ezilla integrates the Cloud middleware, virtualization technology, and Web-based Operating System (WebOS) to form a virtual computer in distributed computing environment. In order to upgrade the dataset and speedup, we proposed the sensor observation system to deal with a huge amount of data in the Cassandra database. The sensor observation system is based on the Ezilla to store sensor raw data into distributed database. We adopt the Ezilla Cloud service to create virtual machines and login into virtual machine to deploy the sensor observation system. Integrating the sensor observation system with Ezilla is to quickly deploy experiment environment and access a huge amount of data with distributed database that support the replication mechanism to protect the data security.

Keywords: Cloud, Virtualization, Cassandra, WebOS

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3343 Multivariate Analytical Insights into Spatial and Temporal Variation in Water Quality of a Major Drinking Water Reservoir

Authors: Azadeh Golshan, Craig Evans, Phillip Geary, Abigail Morrow, Zoe Rogers, Marcel Maeder

Abstract:

22 physicochemical variables have been determined in water samples collected weekly from January to December in 2013 from three sampling stations located within a major drinking water reservoir. Classical Multivariate Curve Resolution Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) analysis was used to investigate the environmental factors associated with the physico-chemical variability of the water samples at each of the sampling stations. Matrix augmentation MCR-ALS (MA-MCR-ALS) was also applied, and the two sets of results were compared for interpretative clarity. Links between these factors, reservoir inflows and catchment land-uses were investigated and interpreted in relation to chemical composition of the water and their resolved geographical distribution profiles. The results suggested that the major factors affecting reservoir water quality were those associated with agricultural runoff, with evidence of influence on algal photosynthesis within the water column. Water quality variability within the reservoir was also found to be strongly linked to physical parameters such as water temperature and the occurrence of thermal stratification. The two methods applied (MCR-ALS and MA-MCR-ALS) led to similar conclusions; however, MA-MCR-ALS appeared to provide results more amenable to interpretation of temporal and geological variation than those obtained through classical MCR-ALS.

Keywords: Catchment management, drinking water reservoir, multivariate curve resolution alternating least squares, thermal stratification, water quality.

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3342 A Review on Process Parameters of Ti/Al Dissimilar Joint Using Laser Beam Welding

Authors: K. Kalaiselvan, K. Sekar, S. Elavarasi

Abstract:

The use of laser beam welding for joining titanium and aluminum offers more advantages compared with conventional joining processes. Dissimilar metal combination is very much needed for aircraft structural industries and research activities. The quality of a weld joint is directly influenced by the welding input parameters. The common problem that is faced by the manufactures is the control of the process parameters to obtain a good weld joint with minimal detrimental. To overcome this issue, various parameters can be preferred to obtain quality of weld joint. In this present study an overall literature review on processing parameters such as offset distance, welding speed, laser power, shielding gas and filler metals are discussed with the effects on quality weldment. Additionally, mechanical properties of welds joint are discussed. The aim of the report is to review the recent progress in the welding of dissimilar titanium (Ti) and aluminum (Al) alloys to provide a basis for follow up research.

Keywords: Laser beam welding, titanium, aluminum, process parameters.

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3341 Expelling Policy Based Buffer Control during Congestion in Differentiated Service Routers

Authors: Kumar Padmanabh, Rajarshi Roy

Abstract:

In this paper a special kind of buffer management policy is studied where the packet are preempted even when sufficient space is available in the buffer for incoming packets. This is done to congestion for future incoming packets to improve QoS for certain type of packets. This type of study has been done in past for ATM type of scenario. We extend the same for heterogeneous traffic where data rate and size of the packets are very versatile in nature. Typical example of this scenario is the buffer management in Differentiated Service Router. There are two aspects that are of interest. First is the packet size: whether all packets have same or different sizes. Second aspect is the value or space priority of the packets, do all packets have the same space priority or different packets have different space priorities. We present two types of policies to achieve QoS goals for packets with different priorities: the push out scheme and the expelling scheme. For this work the scenario of packets of variable length is considered with two space priorities and main goal is to minimize the total weighted packet loss. Simulation and analytical studies show that, expelling policies can outperform the push out policies when it comes to offering variable QoS for packets of two different priorities and expelling policies also help improve the amount of admissible load. Some other comparisons of push out and expelling policies are also presented using simulations.

Keywords: Buffer Management Policy, Diffserv, ATM, Pushout Policy, Expeling Policy.

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3340 Optimal Criteria for Non-Minimal Phase Plants

Authors: Z. Nemec, R. Matousek

Abstract:

The paper describes the evaluation of quality of control for cases of controlled non-minimal phase plants. Control circuits containing non-minimal phase plants have different properties, they manifest reversed reaction at the beginning of unit step response. For these types of plants are developed special criterion of quality of control, which considers the difference and can be helpful for synthesis of optimal controller tuning. All results are clearly presented using Matlab/Simulink models.

Keywords: control design, non-minimal phase system, optimalcriteria, power plant, heating plant, water turbine, Matlab, Simulink.

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3339 Blind Low Frequency Watermarking Method

Authors: Dimitar Taskovski, Sofija Bogdanova, Momcilo Bogdanov

Abstract:

We present a low frequency watermarking method adaptive to image content. The image content is analyzed and properties of HVS are exploited to generate a visual mask of the same size as the approximation image. Using this mask we embed the watermark in the approximation image without degrading the image quality. Watermark detection is performed without using the original image. Experimental results show that the proposed watermarking method is robust against most common image processing operations, which can be easily implemented and usually do not degrade the image quality.

Keywords: Blind, digital watermarking, low frequency, visualmask.

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3338 Modeling and Analysis for Effective Capacity of a Cross-Layer Optimized Wireless Networks

Authors: Reham A. El-mayet, Hesham M. El-Badawy, Salwa H. Elramly

Abstract:

New generation mobile communication networks have the ability of supporting triple play. In order that, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) access techniques have been chosen to enlarge the system ability for high data rates networks. Many of cross-layer modeling and optimization schemes for Quality of Service (QoS) and capacity of downlink multiuser OFDM system were proposed. In this paper, the Maximum Weighted Capacity (MWC) based resource allocation at the Physical (PHY) layer is used. This resource allocation scheme provides a much better QoS than the previous resource allocation schemes, while maintaining the highest or nearly highest capacity and costing similar complexity. In addition, the Delay Satisfaction (DS) scheduling at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, which allows more than one connection to be served in each slot is used. This scheduling technique is more efficient than conventional scheduling to investigate both of the number of users as well as the number of subcarriers against system capacity. The system will be optimized for different operational environments: the outdoor deployment scenarios as well as the indoor deployment scenarios are investigated and also for different channel models. In addition, effective capacity approach [1] is used not only for providing QoS for different mobile users, but also to increase the total wireless network's throughput.

Keywords: Cross-layer, effective capacity, LTE, OFDM, QoS, resource allocation, wireless networks.

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3337 Design of Quality Assessment System for On-Orbit 3D Printing Based on 3D Reconstruction Technology

Authors: Jianning Tang, Xiaofeng Wu

Abstract:

With the increasing demand for space use in multiple sectors (navigation, telecommunication, imagery, etc.), the deployment and maintenance demand of satellites are growing. Considering the high launching cost and the restrictions on weight and size of the payload when using launch vehicle, the technique of on-orbit manufacturing has obtained more attention because of its significant potential to support future space missions. 3D printing is the most promising manufacturing technology that could be applied in space. However, due to the lack of autonomous quality assessment, the operation of conventional 3D printers still relies on human presence to supervise the printing process. This paper is proposed to develop an automatic 3D reconstruction system aiming at detecting failures on the 3D printed objects through application of point cloud technology. Based on the data obtained from the point cloud, the 3D printer could locate the failure and repair the failure. The system will increase automation and provide 3D printing with more feasibilities for space use without human interference.

Keywords: 3D printing, quality assessment, point cloud, on-orbit manufacturing.

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3336 Numerical Simulation in the Air-Curtain Installed Subway Tunnel for the Indoor Air Quality

Authors: Kyung Jin Ryu, Makhsuda Juraeva, Sang-Hyun Jeong, Dong Joo Song

Abstract:

The Platform Screen Doors improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in the subway station; however, and the air quality is degraded in the subway tunnel. CO2 concentration and indoor particulate matter value are high in the tunnel. The IAQ level in subway tunnel degrades by increasing the train movements. Air-curtain installation reduces dusts, particles and moving toxic smokes and permits traffic by generating virtual wall. The ventilation systems of the subway tunnel need improvements to have better air-quality. Numerical analyses might be effective tools analyze the flowfield inside the air-curtain installed subway tunnel. The ANSYS CFX software is used for steady computations of the airflow inside the tunnel. The single-track subway tunnel has the natural shaft, the mechanical shaft, and the PSDs installed stations. The height and width of the tunnel are 6.0 m and 4.0 m respectively. The tunnel is 400 m long and the air-curtain is installed at the top of the tunnel. The thickness and the width of the air-curtain are 0.08 m and 4 m respectively. The velocity of the air-curtain changes between 20 - 30 m/s. Three cases are analyzed depending on the installing location of the air-curtain. The discharged-air through the natural shafts increases as the velocity of the air-curtain increases when the air-curtain is installed between the mechanical and the natural shafts. The pollutant-air is exhausted by the mechanical and the natural shafts and remained air is pushed toward tunnel end. The discharged-air through the natural shaft is low when the air-curtain installed before the natural shaft. The mass flow rate decreases in the tunnel after the mechanical shaft as the air-curtain velocity increases. The computational results of the air-curtain installed tunnel become basis for the optimum design study. The air-curtain installing location is chosen between the mechanical and the natural shafts. The velocity of the air-curtain is fixed as 25 m/s. The thickness and the blowing angles of the air-curtain are the design variables for the optimum design study. The object function of the design optimization is maximizing the discharged air through the natural shaft.

Keywords: air-curtain, indoor air quality, single-track subway tunnel

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3335 University Students’ Perception on Public Transit in Dhaka City

Authors: Md. Mosabbir Pasha, Ijaj Mahmud Chowdhury, M. A. Afrahim Bhuiyan

Abstract:

With the increasing population and intensive land use, huge traffic demand is generating worldwide both in developing and developed countries. As a developing country, Bangladesh is also facing the same problem in recent years by producing huge numbers of daily trips. As a matter of fact, extensive traffic demand is increasing day by day. Also, transport system in Dhaka is heterogeneous, reflecting the heterogeneity in the socio-economic and land use patterns. Trips produced here are for different purposes such as work, business, educational etc. Due to the significant concentration of educational institutions a large share of the trips are generated by educational purpose. And one of the major percentages of educational trips is produced by university going students and most of them are travelled by car, bus, train, taxi, rickshaw etc. The aim of the study was to find out the university students’ perception on public transit ridership. A survey was conducted among 330 students from eight different universities. It was found out that 26% of the trips produced by university going students are travelled by public bus service and only 5% are by train. Percentage of car share is 16% and 12% of the trips are travelled by private taxi. It has been observed from the study, students those who prefer bus instead of other options, 42 percent of their family resides outside Dhaka. And those who prefer walking, of them, over 40 percent students’ family reside outside of Dhaka and of them over 85 percent students have a tendency to live in a mess. On the contrary, students travelling by car represents, most of their family reside in Dhaka. The study also revealed that the most important reason that restricts students not to use public transit is poor service. Negative attitudes such as discomfort, uneasiness in using public transit also reduces the usage of public transit. The poor waiting area is another major cause of not using public transit. Insufficient security also plays a significant role in not using public transit. On the contrary, the fare is not a problem for students those who use public transit as a mode of transportation. Students also think stations are not far away from their home or institution and they do not need to wait long for the buses or trains. It was also found accessibility to public transit is moderate.

Keywords: Traffic demand, fare, poor service, public transit ridership.

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3334 Automatic Classification of Lung Diseases from CT Images

Authors: Abobaker Mohammed Qasem Farhan, Shangming Yang, Mohammed Al-Nehari

Abstract:

Pneumonia is a kind of lung disease that creates congestion in the chest. Such pneumonic conditions lead to loss of life due to the severity of high congestion. Pneumonic lung disease is caused by viral pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, or COVID-19 induced pneumonia. The early prediction and classification of such lung diseases help reduce the mortality rate. We propose the automatic Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system in this paper using the deep learning approach. The proposed CAD system takes input from raw computerized tomography (CT) scans of the patient's chest and automatically predicts disease classification. We designed the Hybrid Deep Learning Algorithm (HDLA) to improve accuracy and reduce processing requirements. The raw CT scans are pre-processed first to enhance their quality for further analysis. We then applied a hybrid model that consists of automatic feature extraction and classification. We propose the robust 2D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model to extract the automatic features from the pre-processed CT image. This CNN model assures feature learning with extremely effective 1D feature extraction for each input CT image. The outcome of the 2D CNN model is then normalized using the Min-Max technique. The second step of the proposed hybrid model is related to training and classification using different classifiers. The simulation outcomes using the publicly available dataset prove the robustness and efficiency of the proposed model compared to state-of-art algorithms.

Keywords: CT scans, COVID-19, deep learning, image processing, pneumonia, lung disease.

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3333 Effects of Audit Quality and Corporate Governance on Earnings Management of Quoted Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman

Abstract:

The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.

Keywords: Audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management.

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3332 Response of King Abdulla Canal Water to the Upgrade of As Samra WWTP

Authors: Abbas S. Al-Omari, Zain M. Al-Houri

Abstract:

The response of King Abdulla Canal (KAC) water to the upgrade of As Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant which discharges its effluent to the Zarqa River is investigated. Time series quality data that extends between October 2005 and December 2009 obtained by a state of the art telemetric monitoring system were analyzed for COD, EC, TP and TN at two monitoring stations located upstream and downstream of the confluence of the Zarqa River with KAC. The samples- means and the t-test showed that there has been significant improvement in the quality of the KAC water for COD, and TP. However, the improvement in the TN was found statistically insignificant, whereas the EC of the KAC was unaffected by the upgrade. Comparing the selected parameters with the standards and guidelines for using treated wastewater in irrigation showed that the KAC water has improved towards meeting the required standards and guidelines for treated wastewater reuse in irrigation.

Keywords: As Samra wastewater treatment plant, Telemetric monitoring system, Treated wastewater, Water quality monitoring, Zarqa River watershed.

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3331 Factors Affecting Test Automation Stability and Their Solutions

Authors: Nagmani Lnu

Abstract:

Test automation is a vital requirement of any organization to release products faster to their customers. In most cases, an organization has an approach to developing automation but struggles to maintain it. It results in an increased number of flaky tests, reducing return on investments and stakeholders’ confidence. Challenges grow in multiple folds when automation is for User Interface (UI) behaviors. This paper describes the approaches taken to identify the root cause of automation instability in an extensive payments application and the best practices to address that using processes, tools, and technologies, resulting in a 75% reduction of effort.

Keywords: Automation stability, test stability, flaky test, test quality, test automation quality.

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3330 Non-Methane Hydrocarbons Emission during the Photocopying Process

Authors: Kiurski S. Jelena, Aksentijević M. Snežana, Kecić S. Vesna, Oros B. Ivana

Abstract:

Prosperity of electronic equipment in photocopying environment not only has improved work efficiency, but also has changed indoor air quality. Considering the number of photocopying employed, indoor air quality might be worse than in general office environments. Determining the contribution from any type of equipment to indoor air pollution is a complex matter. Non-methane hydrocarbons are known to have an important role on air quality due to their high reactivity. The presence of hazardous pollutants in indoor air has been detected in one photocopying shop in Novi Sad, Serbia. Air samples were collected and analyzed for five days, during 8-hr working time in three time intervals, whereas three different sampling points were determined. Using multiple linear regression model and software package STATISTICA 10 the concentrations of occupational hazards and microclimates parameters were mutually correlated. Based on the obtained multiple coefficients of determination (0.3751, 0.2389 and 0.1975), a weak positive correlation between the observed variables was determined. Small values of parameter F indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the concentration levels of nonmethane hydrocarbons and microclimates parameters. The results showed that variable could be presented by the general regression model: y = b0 + b1xi1+ b2xi2. Obtained regression equations allow to measure the quantitative agreement between the variables and thus obtain more accurate knowledge of their mutual relations.

Keywords: Indoor air quality, multiple regression analysis, nonmethane hydrocarbons, photocopying process.

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