Search results for: increasing literacy.

Authors: Vijay Kumar Bajpai, Sudhir Kumar Singh

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In this study, the performance analyses of the twenty five Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) used for electricity generation are carried out through various Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. Three efficiency indices are defined and pursued. During the calculation of the operational performance, energy and non-energy variables are used as input, and net electricity produced is used as desired output (Model-1). CO2 emitted to the environment is used as the undesired output (Model-2) in the computation of the pure environmental performance while in Model-3 CO2 emissions is considered as detrimental input in the calculation of operational and environmental performance. Empirical results show that most of the plants are operating in increasing returns to scale region and Mettur plant is efficient one with regards to energy use and environment. The result also indicates that the undesirable output effect is insignificant in the research sample. The present study will provide clues to plant operators towards raising the operational and environmental performance of CFPPs.

Keywords: Coal fired power plants, environmental performance, data envelopment analysis, operational performance.

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Authors: Yousef S. Al-Othman

Abstract:

The growth and expansion of the industrial facilities comes proportional to the market increasing demand of products and services. Furthermore, raw material producers such as oil companies usually undergo massive revamping projects to maintain a synchronized supply. These revamping projects are usually delivered through challenging construction projects held and associated with daily site risks related to the construction process. Henceforth, a case study related to these risks and corresponding on-spot corrective measurements has been made on a certain number of construction project contractors at Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) to derive the benefits and overall effectiveness of the on-spot corrective measurements during the construction phase of a project, and how would the same help in avoiding major incidents, ensuring a smooth, cost effective and on time delivery of the project. Findings of this case study shall have an added value to the overall risk management process by minimizing the daily site risks that may affect the project lead time, resulting in an undisturbed on-site construction process.

Keywords: Oil and gas, risk management, construction projects, project lead time.

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Authors: Kimia Khoshdel Vajari, Saber Saffar

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Reducing the residual stresses caused by welding is desirable for the industry. The effect of welding sequence, as well as the effect of yield stress on the number of residual stresses generated in Inconel X750 superalloy sheets and beams, have been investigated. The finite element model used in this research is a three-dimensional thermal and mechanical model, and the type of analysis is indirect coupling. This analysis is done in two stages. First, thermal analysis is performed, and then the thermal changes of the first analysis are used as the applied load in the second analysis. ABAQUS has been used for modeling, and the Dflux subroutine has been used in the Fortran programming environment to move the arc and the molten pool. The results of this study show that the amount of tensile residual stress in symmetric, discontinuous, and symmetric-discontinuous welds is reduced to a maximum of 27%, 54%, and 37% compared to direct welding, respectively. The results also show that the amount of residual stresses created by welding increases linearly with increasing yield stress with a slope of 40%.

Keywords: Residual stress, X750 superalloy, finite element, welding, thermal analysis.

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Authors: Gulmira Kenenbay, Urishbay Chomanov, Tamara Tultabayeva, Aruzhan Shoman

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Wheat germ has a balanced amino acid composition of the protein, which is well digested by enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract of humans, a high content of vitamins, minerals and unsaturated acids. Introduction components grain food products will enrich their biologically important substances, giving these products a number of valuable properties and reducing their caloric. A complex natural system of substances in foods will help replenish the body's need of essential nutrients, increasing its resistance to the harmful effects of the environment, prolong life. In this regard, there was a need for the development of production technology of protein complexes from wheat germ and then applying them in food, particularly in the dairy industry. Experimental studies were conducted to determine the number of herbal supplements on the sensory characteristics of the product. Studies have been conducted to determine the optimal process parameters of water activity and moisture content of the investigational product. 

Keywords: Wheat germ, sensory characteristics of the product, water activity.

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Authors: S. P. Sharma, Som Nath Saha

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This paper presents the performance, based on exergy analysis of double flow solar air heaters with corrugated and flat plate absorber. A mathematical model of double flow solar air heater based on energy balance equations has been presented and the results obtained have been compared with that of a conventional flat-plate solar air heater. The double flow corrugated absorber solar air heater performs thermally better than the flat plate double flow and conventional flat-plate solar air heater under same operating conditions. However, the corrugated absorber leads to higher pressure drop thereby increasing pumping power. The results revealed that the energy and exergy efficiencies of double flow corrugated absorber solar air heater is much higher than conventional solar air heater with the concept involving of increase in heat transfer surface area and turbulence in air flow. The results indicate that the energy efficiency increases, however, exergy efficiency decreases with increase in mass flow rate.

Keywords: Corrugated absorber, double flow, exergy efficiency, solar air heater.

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Authors: Hoda Aslani, Mohammad Moghiman, Mohammad Aslani

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Considering the demand to reduce global warming potential and importance of solidification in various applications, there is an increasing interest in energy storage systems to find the efficient phase change materials. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental study and comparison on the potential of titania nanofluids with and without surfactant for cooling energy storage systems. A designed cooling generation device based on compression refrigeration cycle is used to explore nanofluids solidification characteristics. In this work, titania nanoparticles of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04 wt.% are dispersed in deionized water as base fluid. Measurement of phase change parameters of nanofluids illustrates that the addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as surfactant to titania nanofluids advances the onset nucleation time and leads to lower solidification time. Also, the experimental results show that only adding 0.02 wt.% titania nanoparticles, especially in the case of nanofluids with a surfactant, can evidently reduce the supercooling degree by nearly 70%. Hence, it is concluded that there is a great energy saving potential in the energy storage systems using titania nanofluid with PVP.

Keywords: Cooling energy storage, nanofluid, PVP, solidification, titania.

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Authors: Ran Zhao, Zhi-liang Dong, You-yuan Wang, Lin-wang Su

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In order to study pressed pile test and ultimate bearing capacity character of large-diameter steel pipe pile, based on two high-piled wharfs of Zhanjiang Port, pressed pile test and numerical simulation of three large-diameter steel pipe piles are analyzed in this paper. Anchored pile method is used to pressed pile test, and the curves of Q-s and ultimate bearing capacity are attained. Then the three piles are numerically simulated by ABAQUS, and results of numerical simulation and those of field test are comparatively analyzed. The results show that settlement value of numerical simulation is larger than that of field test in the process of loading, the difference value is widening with the increasing of load, and the ultimate difference value of settlement is 20% to 30%.

Keywords: Large-diameter steel pipe pile, field test, finite element analysis, comparative analysis.

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Authors: Ekrem Erdem, Can Tansel Tugcu

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Improved resource efficiency of production is a key requirement for sustainable growth, worldwide. In this regards, by considering the energy and tourism as the extra inputs to the classical Coub-Douglas production function, this study aims at investigating the efficiency changes in the North African countries. To this end, the study uses panel data for the period 1995-2010 and adopts the Malmquist index based on the data envelopment analysis. Results show that tourism increases technical and scale efficiencies, while it decreases technological and total factor productivity changes. On the other hand, when the production function is augmented by the energy input; technical efficiency change decreases, while the technological change, scale efficiency change and total factor productivity change increase. Thus, in order to satisfy the needs for sustainable growth, North African governments should take some measures for increasing the contribution that the tourism makes to economic growth and some others for efficient use of resources in the energy sector.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Economic efficiency, North African countries, Sustainable growth.

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Authors: Lele Zhang, HuiLeng Choo, Alexander Konyukhov, Shuguang Li

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China is currently the world's largest producer and distributor of electric bicycle (e-bike). The increasing number of e-bikes on the road is accompanied by rising injuries and even deaths of e-bike drivers. Therefore, there is a growing need to improve the safety structure of e-bikes. This 3D frictionless contact analysis is a preliminary, but necessary work for further structural design improvement of an e-bike. The contact analysis between e-bike and the ground was carried out as follows: firstly, the Penalty method was illustrated and derived from the simplest spring-mass system. This is one of the most common methods to satisfy the frictionless contact case; secondly, ANSYS static analysis was carried out to verify finite element (FE) models with contact pair (without friction) between e-bike and the ground; finally, ANSYS transient analysis was used to obtain the data of the penetration p(u) of e-bike with respect to the ground. Results obtained from the simulation are as estimated by comparing with that from theoretical method. In the future, protective shell will be designed following the stability criteria and added to the frame of e-bike. Simulation of side falling of the improvedsafety structure of e-bike will be confirmed with experimental data.

Keywords: Frictionless contact, penalty method, e-bike, finite element.

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Authors: Takahiro Nishigaki, Takashi Onoda

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In recent years, the number of document data has been increasing since the spread of the Internet. Many methods have been studied for extracting topics from large document data. We proposed Independent Topic Analysis (ITA) to extract topics independent of each other from large document data such as newspaper data. ITA is a method for extracting the independent topics from the document data by using the Independent Component Analysis. The topic represented by ITA is represented by a set of words. However, the set of words is quite different from the topics the user imagines. For example, the top five words with high independence of a topic are as follows. Topic1 = {"scor", "game", "lead", "quarter", "rebound"}. This Topic 1 is considered to represent the topic of "SPORTS". This topic name "SPORTS" has to be attached by the user. ITA cannot name topics. Therefore, in this research, we propose a method to obtain topics easy for people to understand by using the web search engine, topics given by the set of words given by independent topic analysis. In particular, we search a set of topical words, and the title of the homepage of the search result is taken as the topic name. And we also use the proposed method for some data and verify its effectiveness.

Keywords: Independent topic analysis, topic extraction, topic naming, web search engine.

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Authors: Mohammad Jafarifar

Abstract:

This paper presents a speed estimation scheme based on second-order sliding-mode Super Twisting Algorithm (STA) and Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) estimation theory for Sensorless control of multiphase induction machine. A stator current observer is designed based on the STA, which is utilized to take the place of the reference voltage model of the standard MRAS algorithm. The observer is insensitive to the variation of rotor resistance and magnetizing inductance when the states arrive at the sliding mode. Derivatives of rotor flux are obtained and designed as the state of MRAS, thus eliminating the integration. Compared with the first-order sliding-mode speed estimator, the proposed scheme makes full use of the auxiliary sliding-mode surface, thus alleviating the chattering behavior without increasing the complexity. Simulation results show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Keywords: Multiphase induction machine, field oriented control, sliding mode, super twisting algorithm, MRAS algorithm.

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Authors: Z. Zainuddin, W. D. Wan Rosli, R. Lanouette, S. Sathasivam

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This paper reports work done to improve the modeling of complex processes when only small experimental data sets are available. Neural networks are used to capture the nonlinear underlying phenomena contained in the data set and to partly eliminate the burden of having to specify completely the structure of the model. Two different types of neural networks were used for the application of pulping problem. A three layer feed forward neural networks, using the Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) methods were used in this investigation. Preconditioning is a method to improve convergence by lowering the condition number and increasing the eigenvalues clustering. The idea is to solve the modified odified problem M-1 Ax= M-1b where M is a positive-definite preconditioner that is closely related to A. We mainly focused on Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient- based training methods which originated from optimization theory, namely Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient with Fletcher-Reeves Update (PCGF), Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient with Polak-Ribiere Update (PCGP) and Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient with Powell-Beale Restarts (PCGB). The behavior of the PCG methods in the simulations proved to be robust against phenomenon such as oscillations due to large step size.

Keywords: Convergence, pulping modeling, neural networks, preconditioned conjugate gradient.

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Authors: Ilham S. M. Elsayed

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The purpose of this study is to investigate Alahsa Governorate status and its vulnerability to generate urban heat islands. Alahsa Governorate is a famous oasis in the Arabic Peninsula including several oil centers. Extensive literature review was done to collect previous relative data on the urban heat island of Alahsa Governorate. Data used for the purpose of this research were collected from authorized bodies who control weather station networks over Alahsa Governorate, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Although, the number of weather station networks within the region is very limited and the analysis using GIS software and its techniques is difficult and limited, the data analyzed confirm an increase in temperature for more than 2 °C from 2004 to 2014. Such increase is considerable whenever human health and comfort are the concern. The increase of temperature within one decade confirms the availability of urban heat islands. The study concludes that, Alahsa Governorate is vulnerable to create urban heat islands and more attention should be drawn to strategic planning of the governorate that is developing with a high pace and considerable increasing levels of urbanization.

Keywords: Urban heat island, Alahsa Governorate, weather station, population density.

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Authors: Jamie L. Stangel

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Increased popularity and visibility of college athletics has contributed to an environment in which institutions—most of which lack self-sufficient athletics department budgets—reallocate monies from the university general fund and seek additional funding sources to keep up with increasing levels of spending on athletics. Given the prevalence of debates on student debt levels, coach salaries, and athlete pay, empirical evidence on whether this spending yields expected return on investment is necessary. This study considered the relationship between the independent variable of winning percentage of the men’s basketball team at a mid-major university, moderated by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament appearance, and number of applicants, number of enrollments, average SAT score of students, and donor giving to the university general and athletic funds. The results indicate that, other than a small correlation between athletic success and number of applicants, only when NCAA tournament appearance is used as a moderating variable, these purported benefits are not supported, suggesting the need for a reevaluation of athletic department spending and perceptions on tangible and intangible benefits for universities.

Keywords: Athletic success, enrollment, NCAA, private giving.

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Authors: Kazeem A. Adebiyi

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Despite many success stories of manufacturing safety, many organizations are still reluctant, perceiving it as cost increasing and time consuming. The clear contributor may be due to the use of lagging indicators rather than leading indicator measures. The study therefore proposes a combinatorial model for determining the best safety strategy. A combination theory and cost benefit analysis was employed to develop a monetary saving / loss function in terms value of preventions and cost of prevention strategy. Documentations, interviews and structured questionnaire were employed to collect information on Before-And-After safety programme records from a Tobacco company between periods of 1993-2001(for pre-safety) and 2002-2008 (safety period) for the model application. Three combinatorial alternatives A, B, C were obtained resulting into 4, 6 and 4 strategies respectively with PPE and Training being predominant. A total of 728 accidents were recorded for a 9 year period of pre-safety programme and 163 accidents were recorded for 7 years period of safety programme. Six preventions activities (alternative B) yielded the best results. However, all the years of operation experienced except year 2004. The study provides a leading resources for planning successful safety programme

Keywords: Combination, Manufacturing Safety, Monetary Savings, Prevention Strategies.

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Authors: Ihor Trots, Yuriy Tasinkevych, Andrzej Nowicki, Marcin Lewandowski

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The paper presents the study of synthetic transmit aperture method applying the Golay coded transmission for medical ultrasound imaging. Longer coded excitation allows to increase the total energy of the transmitted signal without increasing the peak pressure. Signal-to-noise ratio and penetration depth are improved maintaining high ultrasound image resolution. In the work the 128-element linear transducer array with 0.3 mm inter-element spacing excited by one cycle and the 8 and 16-bit Golay coded sequences at nominal frequencies 4 MHz was used. Single element transmission aperture was used to generate a spherical wave covering the full image region and all the elements received the echo signals. The comparison of 2D ultrasound images of the wire phantom as well as of the tissue mimicking phantom is presented to demonstrate the benefits of the coded transmission. The results were obtained using the synthetic aperture algorithm with transmit and receive signals correction based on a single element directivity function.

Keywords: Golay coded sequences, radiation pattern, synthetic aperture, ultrasound imaging.

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Authors: K. Anusarn, P. Chuttrakul, M. Schmidt, T. Kangsadan, A. Pfennig

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Liquid-liquid extraction is a process using two immiscible liquids to extract compounds from one phase without high temperature requirement. Mostly, the technical implementation of this process is carried out in mixer-settlers or extraction columns. In real chemical processes, chemicals may have high viscosity and contain impurities. These impurities may change the settling behavior of the process without measurably changing the physical properties of the phases. In the current study, the settling behavior and the affected parameters in a high-viscosity system were observed. Batchsettling experiments were performed to experimentally quantify the settling behavior and the mixer-settler model of Henschke [1] was used to evaluate the behavior of the toluene + water system. The viscosity of the system was increased by adding polyethylene glycol 4000 to the aqueous phase. NaCl and Na2SO4 were used to study the influence of electrolytes. The results from this study show that increasing the viscosity of water has a higher influence on the settling behavior in comparison to the effects of the electrolytes. It can be seen from the experiments that at high salt concentrations, there was no effect on the settling behavior.

Keywords: Coalescence; electrolytes; liquid-liquid separation; high viscosity; mixer- settler.

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Authors: Jana Aleksić, Marijana Petković

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Female population has an increasing role when it comes to purchase. Consequently, the female population has a greater role in modern marketing. Although it is thought that women buy more than men, marketing strategy was not directed specifically towards women. The thing that has changed regarding women’s role in modern marketing is the fact that the female population has a leading position when it comes to decision making in various fields and various sectors, which was not the case in the past. Marketing should be directed towards women but it should be done in the right way. Compared to men, women buy in a different way, and they look for more various advantages in the product itself, than men do. This paper aims to show the importance of the female role in the modern marketing and management and to redirect marketing in some way towards female population through new marketing strategies and management systems. Hypothesis is that women have an important role in marketing, and marketing strategy of modern society could and should be based on and directed towards female population and their tastes when it comes to purchasing. It is necessary and desirable to apply marketing strategy with a special strategy that has an emphasis on women and their purchase or in a word to apply WS- woman strategy. This research was carried out as a random sample research, where were obtained 212 valid surveys whose results serve as a basis for drawing conclusions about the research as well as to verify the formulated hypotheses. The research was carried out during 2011 and 2012. The study has shown a significant role of the female population in the marketing process.

Keywords: Marketing, management, female, purchase, strategy.

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Authors: Arūnas Burinskas

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Although Europe is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution called Industry 4.0, many believe that this will increase the flexibility of production, the mass adaptation of products to consumers and the speed of their service; it will also improve product quality and dramatically increase productivity. However, as expected, all the benefits of Industry 4.0 face many of the inevitable changes and challenges they pose. One of them is the inevitable transformation of current competition and business models. This article examines the possible results of competitive conversion from the classic Bertrand and Cournot models to qualitatively new competition based on innovation. Ability to deliver a new product quickly and the possibility to produce the individual design (through flexible and quickly configurable factories) by reducing equipment failures and increasing process automation and control is highly important. This study shows that the ongoing transformation of the competition model is changing the game. This, together with the creation of complex value networks, means huge investments that make it particularly difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the ongoing digitalization of data raises new concerns regarding legal obligations, intellectual property, and security.

Keywords: Bertrand and Cournot Competition, competition model, Industry 4.0, industrial organization, monopolistic competition.

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Authors: M. Emami, R. Tarighi, R. Goodarzi

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Maximal radar wave absorbing cannot be achieved by shaping alone. We have to focus on the parameters of absorbing materials such as permittivity, permeability, and thickness so that best absorbing according to our necessity can happen. The real and imaginary parts of the relative complex permittivity (ε_r' and ε_r") and permeability (µ_r' and µ_r") were obtained by simulation. The microwave absorbing property of carbon and Ni(C) is simulated in this study by MATLAB software; the simulation was in the frequency range between 2 to 12 GHz for carbon black (C), and carbon coated nickel (Ni(C)) with different thicknesses. In fact, we draw reflection loss (RL) for C and Ni-C via frequency. We have compared their absorption for 3-mm thickness and predicted for other thicknesses by using of electromagnetic wave transmission theory. The results showed that reflection loss position changes in low frequency with increasing of thickness. We found out that, in all cases, using nanocomposites as absorbance cannot get better results relative to pure nanoparticles. The frequency where absorption is maximum can determine the best choice between nanocomposites and pure nanoparticles. Also, we could find an optimal thickness for long wavelength absorbing in order to utilize them in protecting shields and covering.

Keywords: Absorbing, carbon, carbon nickel, frequency, thicknesses.

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Authors: Sawsan J. Al-husseini, Talib A. Dosa

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Educational institutions are today facing increasing pressures due to economic, political and social upheaval. This is only exacerbated by the nature of education as an intangible good which relies upon the intellectual assets of the organisation, its staff. Top management support has been acknowledged as having a positive general influence on knowledge management and creativity. However, there is a lack of models linking top management support, knowledge sharing, and innovation within higher education institutions, in general within developing countries, and particularly in Iraq. This research sought to investigate the impact of top management support on innovation through the mediating role of knowledge sharing in Iraqi private HEIs. A quantitative approach was taken and 262 valid responses were collected to test the causal relationships between top management support, knowledge sharing, and innovation. Employing structural equation modelling with AMOS v.25, the research demonstrated that knowledge sharing plays a pivotal role in the relationship between top management support and innovation. The research has produced some guidelines for researchers as well as leaders, and provided evidence to support the use of knowledge sharing to increase innovation within the higher education environment in developing countries, particularly Iraq.

Keywords: Top management support, knowledge sharing, innovation, structural equation modelling.

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Authors: Mansi Jhamb, R. K. Sharma, A. K. Gupta

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In the current scenario, with the increasing integration densities, most system-on-chip designs are partitioned into multiple clock domains. In this paper, an asynchronous FIFO (First-in First-out pipeline) design is employed as a data transfer interface between two independent clock domains. Since the clocks on the either sides of the FIFO run at a different speed, the task to ensure the correct data transmission through this FIFO is manually performed. Firstly an existing asynchronous FIFO design is discussed and simulated. Gate-level simulation results depicted the flaw in existing design. In order to solve this problem, a novel modified asynchronous FIFO design is proposed. The results obtained from proposed design are in perfect accordance with theoretical expectations. The proposed asynchronous FIFO design outperforms the existing design in terms of accuracy and speed. In order to evaluate the performance of the FIFO designs presented in this paper, the circuits were implemented in 0.24µ TSMC CMOS technology and simulated at 2.5V using HSpice (© Avant! Corporation). The layout design of the proposed FIFO is also presented.

Keywords: Asynchronous, Clock, CMOS, C-element, FIFO, Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS), HSpice.

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Authors: Emel Kızılkaya Aydogan, Mihrimah Ozmen, Yılmaz Delice

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In recent days, there is a change and the ongoing development of the telecommunications sector in the global market. In this sector, churn analysis techniques are commonly used for analysing why some customers terminate their service subscriptions prematurely. In addition, customer churn is utmost significant in this sector since it causes to important business loss. Many companies make various researches in order to prevent losses while increasing customer loyalty. Although a large quantity of accumulated data is available in this sector, their usefulness is limited by data quality and relevance. In this paper, a cost-sensitive feature selection framework is developed aiming to obtain the feature reducts to predict customer churn. The framework is a cost based optional pre-processing stage to remove redundant features for churn management. In addition, this cost-based feature selection algorithm is applied in a telecommunication company in Turkey and the results obtained with this algorithm.

Keywords: Churn prediction, data mining, decision-theoretic rough set, feature selection.

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Authors: Laimona Sliburyte

Abstract:

The ever increasing product diversity and competition on the market of goods and services has dictated the pace of growth in the number of advertisements. Despite their admittedly diminished effectiveness over the recent years, advertisements remain the favored method of sales promotion. Consequently, the challenge for an advertiser is to explore every possible avenue of making an advertisement more noticeable, attractive and impellent for consumers. One way to achieve this is through invoking celebrity endorsements. On the one hand, the use of a celebrity to endorse a product involves substantial costs, however, on the other hand, it does not immediately guarantee the success of an advertisement. The question of how celebrities can be used in advertising to the best advantage is therefore of utmost importance. Celebrity endorsements have become commonplace: empirical evidence indicates that approximately 20 to 25 per cent of advertisements feature some famous person as a product endorser. The popularity of celebrity endorsements demonstrates the relevance of the topic, especially in the context of the current global economic downturn, when companies are forced to save in order to survive, yet simultaneously to heavily invest in advertising and sales promotion. The issue of the effective use of celebrity endorsements also figures prominently in the academic discourse. The study presented below is thus aimed at exploring what qualities (characteristics) of a celebrity endorser have an impact on the ffectiveness of the advertisement in which he/she appears and how.

Keywords: Advertising, celebrity, celebrity endorsements, effectiveness of celebrity.

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Authors: Suwimon Saneewong Na Ayuttaya

Abstract:

This paper presents a numerical investigation of electrically driven flow for enhancing convective heat transfer in a channel flow. This study focuses on the electrode arrangements, number of electrode and electrical voltage on Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) and effect of airflow driven on solid sample surface. The inlet airflow and inlet temperature are 0.35 m/s and 60 ^oC, respectively. High electrical voltage is tested in the range of 0-30 kV and number of electrode is tested in the range of 1-5. The numerical results show that electric field intensity is depended on electrical voltage and number of electrode. Increasing number of electrodes is increased shear flow, so swirling flow is increased. The swirling flows from aligned and staggered arrangements are affecting within the solid sample. When electrical voltage is increased, temperature distribution and convective heat transfer on the solid sample are significantly increased due to the electric force much stronger.

Keywords: Electrohydrodynamics, swirling flow, convective heat transfer, solid sample.

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Authors: Wael M Albadri, Hassnen M Jafer, Ehab H Sfoog

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Relationship between undrained shear strength (Su) and over consolidation ratio (OCR) of clay soil (marine clay) is very important in the field of geotechnical engineering to estimate the settlement behaviour of clay and to prepare a small scale physical modelling test. In this study, a relationship between shear strength and OCR parameters was determined using the laboratory vane shear apparatus and the fully automatic consolidated apparatus. The main objective was to establish non-linear correlation formula between shear strength and OCR and comparing it with previous studies. Therefore, in order to achieve this objective, three points were chosen to obtain 18 undisturbed samples which were collected with an increasing depth of 1.0 m to 3.5 m each 0.5 m. Clay samples were prepared under undrained condition for both tests. It was found that the OCR and shear strength are inversely proportional at similar depth and at same undrained conditions. However, a good correlation was obtained from the relationships where the R2 values were very close to 1.0 using polynomial equations. The comparison between the experimental result and previous equation from other researchers produced a non-linear correlation which has a similar pattern with this study.

Keywords: Shear strength, over-consolidation ratio, vane shear test, clayey soil.

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

Cloud computing is becoming more and more matured over the last few years and consequently the demands for better cloud services is increasing rapidly. One of the research topics to improve cloud services is the desktop computing in virtualized environment. This paper aims at the development of an adaptive virtual desktop service in cloud computing platform based on our previous research on the virtualization technology. We implement cloud virtual desktop and application software streaming technology that make it possible for providing Virtual Desktop as a Service (VDaaS). Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, it allows shifting the user’s desktop from the traditional PC environment to the cloud-enabled environment, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. Users no longer need to burden the platform maintenances and drastically reduces the overall cost of hardware and software licenses. Moreover, this flexible remote desktop service represents the next significant step to the mobile workplace, and it lets users access their desktop environments from virtually anywhere.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Virtual Desktop, VDaaS.

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Authors: Denis V. Shutin, Alexander Yu. Babin, Leonid A. Savin

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One of the ways of reducing vibroactivity of rotor systems is to apply active hybrid bearings. Their design allows correction of the rotor’s location by means of separately controlling the supply pressure of the lubricant into the friction area. In a most simple case, the control system is based on a P-regulator. Increase of the gain coefficient allows decreasing the amplitude of rotor’s vibrations. The same effect can be achieved by means of increasing the pressure in the collector of a traditional passive hybrid bearing. However, these approaches affect the dynamic characteristics of the bearing differently. Theoretical studies show that the increase of the gain coefficient of an active bearing increases the stiffness of the bearing, as well as the increase of the pressure in the collector. Nevertheless, in case of a passive bearing, the damping properties deteriorate, whereas the active hybrid bearings obtain higher damping properties, which allow effectively providing the energy dissipation of the rotor vibrations and reducing the load on the constructional elements of a machine.

Keywords: Active bearings, control system, damping, hybrid bearings, stiffness.

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Authors: Alsaidi M. Altaher, Mohd T. Ismail

Abstract:

In wavelet regression, choosing threshold value is a crucial issue. A too large value cuts too many coefficients resulting in over smoothing. Conversely, a too small threshold value allows many coefficients to be included in reconstruction, giving a wiggly estimate which result in under smoothing. However, the proper choice of threshold can be considered as a careful balance of these principles. This paper gives a very brief introduction to some thresholding selection methods. These methods include: Universal, Sure, Ebays, Two fold cross validation and level dependent cross validation. A simulation study on a variety of sample sizes, test functions, signal-to-noise ratios is conducted to compare their numerical performances using three different noise structures. For Gaussian noise, EBayes outperforms in all cases for all used functions while Two fold cross validation provides the best results in the case of long tail noise. For large values of signal-to-noise ratios, level dependent cross validation works well under correlated noises case. As expected, increasing both sample size and level of signal to noise ratio, increases estimation efficiency.

Keywords: wavelet regression, simulation, Threshold.

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Authors: K. Krushnamurty, D. Rasmitha, I. Srikanth, K. Ramji, Ch. Subrahmanyam

Abstract:

E-glass-epoxy laminated composites having different fiber volume fractions (40, 50, 60 and 70) were fabricated with and without the addition of nanoclay. Flexural strength and tensile strength of the composite laminates were determined. It was observed that, with increasing the fiber volume fraction (V_f) of fiber from 40 to 60, the ability of nanoclay to enhance the tensile and flexural strength of E-glass-epoxy composites decreases significantly. At 70V_f, the tensile and flexural strength of the nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy were found to be lowest when compared to the E-glass-epoxy composite made without the addition of nanoclay. Based on the obtained data and microstructure of the tested samples, plausible mechanism for the observed trends has been proposed. The enhanced mechanical properties for nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy composites for 40-60 V_f, due to higher interface toughness coupled with strong interfilament bonding may have ensured the homogeneous load distribution across all the glass fibers. Results in the decrease in mechanical properties at 70V_f, may be due to the inability of the matrix to bind the nanoclay and glass-fibers.

Keywords: E-glass-epoxy composite laminates, fiber volume fraction, e-glass fiber, mechanical properties, delamination.

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