Search results for: Soil improvement.

Authors: Wang Qian, Bian Cheng Xiang

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In recent years, with the improvement of China's urbanization level, the number of urban motor vehicles has grown rapidly. As residents' daily commuting necessities, cars cause a lot of exhaust emissions and urban traffic congestion. In the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" of China, it is proposed to strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Urban transport accounts for a high proportion of carbon emission sources. It is an important driving force for the realization of China's carbon peak strategy. Some cities have introduced and implemented the policy of "car restriction" to solve the related urban problems by reducing the use of cars. This paper analyzes the implementation of the "automobile restriction" policy, evaluates the relevant effects of the automobile restriction policy, and discusses how to better optimize the "automobile restriction" policy in the process of urban governance.

Keywords: Carbon emission, traffic jam, vehicle restriction, policy evaluation.

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Authors: Paul Henshall, Philip Eames, Roger Moss, Stan Shire, Farid Arya, Trevor Hyde

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Encapsulating the absorber of a flat plate solar thermal collector in vacuum by an enclosure that can be evacuated can result in a significant increase in collector performance and achievable operating temperatures. This is a result of the thermal insulation effectiveness of the vacuum layer surrounding the absorber, as less heat is lost during collector operation. This work describes experimental thermal insulation characterization tests of prototype vacuum flat plate solar thermal collectors that demonstrate the improvement in absorber heat loss coefficients. Furthermore, this work describes the selection and sizing of a getter, suitable for maintaining the vacuum inside the enclosure for the lifetime of the collector, which can be activated at low temperatures.

Keywords: Vacuum, thermal, flat-plate solar collector.

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Authors: Sahar Khedr, Dina Sayed, Ayman Hanafy

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Arabic is one of the most ancient and critical languages in the world. It has over than 250 million Arabic native speakers and more than twenty countries having Arabic as one of its official languages. In the past decade, we have witnessed a rapid evolution in smart devices, social network and technology sector which led to the need to provide tools and libraries that properly tackle the Arabic language in different domains. Stemming is one of the most crucial linguistic fundamentals. It is used in many applications especially in information extraction and text mining fields. The motivation behind this work is to enhance the Arabic light stemmer to serve the data mining industry and leverage it in an open source community. The presented implementation works on enhancing the Arabic light stemmer by utilizing and enhancing an algorithm that provides an extension for a new set of rules and patterns accompanied by adjusted procedure. This study has proven a significant enhancement for better search accuracy with an average 10% improvement in comparison with previous works.

Keywords: Arabic data mining, Arabic Information extraction, Arabic Light stemmer, Arabic stemmer.

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Authors: Alina Trifan, António J. R. Neves

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Although most digital cameras acquire images in a raw format, based on a Color Filter Array that arranges RGB color filters on a square grid of photosensors, most image compression techniques do not use the raw data; instead, they use the rgb result of an interpolation algorithm of the raw data. This approach is inefficient and by performing a lossless compression of the raw data, followed by pixel interpolation, digital cameras could be more power efficient and provide images with increased resolution given that the interpolation step could be shifted to an external processing unit. In this paper, we conduct a survey on the use of lossless compression algorithms with raw Bayer images. Moreover, in order to reduce the effect of the transition between colors that increase the entropy of the raw Bayer image, we split the image into three new images corresponding to each channel (red, green and blue) and we study the same compression algorithms applied to each one individually. This simple pre-processing stage allows an improvement of more than 15% in predictive based methods.

Keywords: Bayer images, CFA, losseless compression, image coding standards.

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Authors: Naima Ikken, Abdelhadi Bouknadel, Nour-eddine Tariba Ahmed Haddou, Hafsa El Omari

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The operation of grid-connected inverters necessity a single-phase phase locked loop (PLL) is proposed in this article to accurately and quickly estimate and detect the grid phase angle. This article presents the improvement of a method of phase-locked loop. The novelty is to generate a method (PLL) of synchronizing the grid with a Notch filter based on adaptive fuzzy logic for inverter systems connected to the grid. The performance of the proposed method was tested under normal and abnormal operating conditions (amplitude, frequency and phase shift variations). In addition, simulation results with ISPM software are developed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method strategy. Finally, the experimental test will be used to extract the result and discuss the validity of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Phase locked loop, PLL, notch filter, fuzzy logic control.

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Authors: J. Fernandez de Canete, P. Del Saz Orozco, S. Gonzalez-Perez

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LabVIEW and SIMULINK are two most widely used graphical programming environments for designing digital signal processing and control systems. Unlike conventional text-based programming languages such as C, Cµ and MATLAB, graphical programming involves block-based code developments, allowing a more efficient mechanism to build and analyze control systems. In this paper a LabVIEW environment has been employed as a graphical user interface for monitoring the operation of a controlled distillation column, by visualizing both the closed loop performance and the user selected control conditions, while the column dynamics has been modeled under the SIMULINK environment. This tool has been applied to the PID based decoupled control of a binary distillation column. By means of such integrated environments the control designer is able to monitor and control the plant behavior and optimize the response when both, the quality improvement of distillation products and the operation efficiency tasks, are considered.

Keywords: Distillation control, software tools, SIMULINKLabVIEWinterface.

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Authors: Seong-Bae Park, Hee-Geun Yoon

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It is an important task in Korean-English machine translation to classify the gender of names correctly. When a sentence is composed of two or more clauses and only one subject is given as a proper noun, it is important to find the gender of the proper noun for correct translation of the sentence. This is because a singular pronoun has a gender in English while it does not in Korean. Thus, in Korean-English machine translation, the gender of a proper noun should be determined. More generally, this task can be expanded into the classification of the general Korean names. This paper proposes a statistical method for this problem. By considering a name as just a sequence of syllables, it is possible to get a statistics for each name from a collection of names. An evaluation of the proposed method yields the improvement in accuracy over the simple looking-up of the collection. While the accuracy of the looking-up method is 64.11%, that of the proposed method is 81.49%. This implies that the proposed method is more plausible for the gender classification of the Korean names.

Keywords: machine translation, natural language processing, gender of proper nouns, statistical method

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Authors: C.Kia, M.R.Arshad, A.H.Adom, P.A.Wilson

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This paper presents recent work on the improvement of the robotics vision based control strategy for underwater pipeline tracking system. The study focuses on developing image processing algorithms and a fuzzy inference system for the analysis of the terrain. The main goal is to implement the supervisory fuzzy learning control technique to reduce the errors on navigation decision due to the pipeline occlusion problem. The system developed is capable of interpreting underwater images containing occluded pipeline, seabed and other unwanted noise. The algorithm proposed in previous work does not explore the cooperation between fuzzy controllers, knowledge and learnt data to improve the outputs for underwater pipeline tracking. Computer simulations and prototype simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. The system accuracy level has also been discussed.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, Underwater target tracking, Autonomous underwater vehicles, Artificial intelligence, Simulations, Robot navigation, Vision system.

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Authors: Hossein Nejati, Seyed H. Mirisaee, Gholam H. Dastghaibifard

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Computers are being integrated in the various aspects of human every day life in different shapes and abilities. This fact has intensified a requirement for the software development technologies which is ability to be: 1) portable, 2) adaptable, and 3) simple to develop. This problem is also known as the Pervasive Computing Problem (PCP) which can be implemented in different ways, each has its own pros and cons and Context Oriented Programming (COP) is one of the methods to address the PCP. In this paper a design for a COP framework, a context aware framework, is presented which has eliminated weak points of a previous design based on interpreter languages, while introducing the compiler languages power in implementing these frameworks. The key point of this improvement is combining COP and Dependency Injection (DI) techniques. Both old and new frameworks are analyzed to show advantages and disadvantages. Finally a simulation of both designs is proposed to indicating that the practical results agree with the theoretical analysis while the new design runs almost 8 times faster.

Keywords: Dependency Injection, Compiler-based architecture, Context-Oriented Programming, COP, Pervasive ComputingProblem

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Authors: I. Derek Kaka’an, P. Smolianov, S. Dion, C. Schoen, J. Norberg, C. G. Iortimah

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This study examines the current state of football in Nigeria to identify the country's practices, which could be useful internationally, and to determine areas for improvement. Over 200 sources of literature on sport delivery systems in successful sports nations were analyzed to construct a globally applicable model of elite football integrated with mass participation, comprising of the following three levels: macro (socio-economic, cultural, legislative, and organizational), meso (infrastructures, personnel, and services enabling sports programs) and micro level (operations, processes, and methodologies for the development of individual athletes). The model has received scholarly validation and has shown to be a framework for program analysis that is not culturally bound. It has recently been utilized for further understanding such sports systems as US rugby, tennis, soccer, swimming, and volleyball, as well as Dutch and Russian swimming. A questionnaire was developed using the above-mentioned model. Survey questions were validated by 12 experts including academicians, executives from sports governing bodies, football coaches, and administrators. To identify best practices and determine areas for improvement of football in Nigeria, 116 coaches completed the questionnaire. Useful exemplars and possible improvements were further identified through semi-structured discussions with 10 Nigerian football administrators and experts. Finally, a content analysis of the Nigeria Football Federation's website and organizational documentation was conducted. This paper focuses on the micro level of Nigerian football delivery, particularly talent search and development as well as advanced athlete preparation and support. Results suggested that Nigeria could share such progressive practices as the provision of football programs in all schools and full-time coaches paid by governments based on the level of coach education. Nigerian football administrators and coaches could provide better football services affordable for all, where success in mass and elite sports is guided by science focused on athletes' needs. Better implemented could be international best practices such as lifelong guidelines for health and excellence of everyone and integration of fitness tests into player development and ranking as done in best Dutch, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and other European clubs; integration of educational and competitive events for elite and developing athletes as well as fans as done at the 2018 World Cup Russia; and academies with multi-stage athlete nurturing as done by Ajax in Africa as well as Barcelona FC and other top clubs expanding across the world. The methodical integration of these practices into the balanced development of mass and elite football will help contribute to international sports success as well as national health, education, crime control, and social harmony in Nigeria.

Keywords: Football, high performance, mass participation, Nigeria, sport development.

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Authors: Kawai Nobuaki

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This paper describes the design and implementation of web system for continuable and viable collaboration. This study proposes the improvement of the system based on a result of a certain practice. As contemporary higher education information environments transform, this study highlights the significance of university identity and college identity that are formed continuously through independent activities of the students. Based on these discussions, the present study proposes a practical media environment design which facilitates the processes of organizational identity formation based on a continuous and cyclical model. Even if users change by this system, the communication system continues operation and cooperation. The activity becomes the archive and produces new activity. Based on the result, this study elaborates a plan with a re-design by a system from the viewpoint of second-order cybernetics. Systems theory is a theoretical foundation for our study.

Keywords: Collaborative work, learning management system, second-order cybernetics, systems theory, user generated contents, viable system model.

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Authors: A. Manivannan, R. T. Narendhirakannan

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The objective of this research was to investigate biodegradation of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) to produce bioethanol using dilute-acid pretreatment (1% sulfuric acid) results in high hemicellulose decomposition and using yeast (Pachysolen tannophilus) as bioethanol producing strain. A maximum ethanol yield of 1.14g/L with coefficient, 0.24g g^-1; productivity, 0.015g l^-1h^-1 was comparable to predicted value 32.05g/L obtained by Central Composite Design (CCD). Maximum ethanol yield coefficient was comparable to those obtained through enzymatic saccharification and fermentation of acid hydrolysate using fully equipped fermentor. Although maximum ethanol concentration was low in lab scale, the improvement of lignocellulosic ethanol yield is necessary for large scale production.

Keywords: Acid hydrolysis, Biodegradation, Hemicellulose, Pachysolen tannophilus, Water hyacinth.

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Authors: Brittany E. Coff, Tommy K. K. Ngai, Laura A. S. MacDonald

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Many organizations in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector provide education and training in order to increase the effectiveness of their WASH interventions. A key challenge for these organizations is measuring how well their education and training activities contribute to WASH improvements. It is crucial for implementers to understand the returns of their education and training activities so that they can improve and make better progress toward the desired outcomes. This paper presents information on CAWST’s development and piloting of the evaluation methodology. The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) has developed a methodology for evaluating education and training activities, so that organizations can understand the effectiveness of their WASH activities and improve accordingly. CAWST developed this methodology through a series of research partnerships, followed by staged field pilots in Nepal, Peru, Ethiopia and Haiti. During the research partnerships, CAWST collaborated with universities in the UK and Canada to: review a range of available evaluation frameworks, investigate existing practices for evaluating education activities, and develop a draft methodology for evaluating education programs. The draft methodology was then piloted in three separate studies to evaluate CAWST’s, and CAWST’s partner’s, WASH education programs. Each of the pilot studies evaluated education programs in different locations, with different objectives, and at different times within the project cycles. The evaluations in Nepal and Peru were conducted in 2013 and investigated the outcomes and impacts of CAWST’s WASH education services in those countries over the past 5-10 years. In 2014, the methodology was applied to complete a rigorous evaluation of a 3-day WASH Awareness training program in Ethiopia, one year after the training had occurred. In 2015, the methodology was applied in Haiti to complete a rapid assessment of a Community Health Promotion program, which informed the development of an improved training program. After each pilot evaluation, the methodology was reviewed and improvements were made. A key concept within the methodology is that in order for training activities to lead to improved WASH practices at the community level, it is not enough for participants to acquire new knowledge and skills; they must also apply the new skills and influence the behavior of others following the training. The steps of the methodology include: development of a Theory of Change for the education program, application of the Kirkpatrick model to develop indicators, development of data collection tools, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and use of the findings for improvement. The methodology was applied in different ways for each pilot and was found to be practical to apply and adapt to meet the needs of each case. It was useful in gathering specific information on the outcomes of the education and training activities, and in developing recommendations for program improvement. Based on the results of the pilot studies, CAWST is developing a set of support materials to enable other WASH implementers to apply the methodology. By using this methodology, more WASH organizations will be able to understand the outcomes and impacts of their training activities, leading to higher quality education programs and improved WASH outcomes.

Keywords: Education and training, capacity building, evaluation, water and sanitation.

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Authors: Won Kyung Ham, Kang Hoon Cho, Yongho Chung, Sang C. Park

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Presented in this paper is a framework of a software ‘WEMax’. The WEMax is invented for analysis and simulation for manned assembly lines to sustain and improve performance of manufacturing systems. In a manufacturing system, performance, such as productivity, is a key of competitiveness for output products. However, the manned assembly lines are difficult to forecast performance, because human labors are not expectable factors by computer simulation models or mathematical models. Existing approaches to performance forecasting of the manned assembly lines are limited to matters of the human itself, such as ergonomic and workload design, and non-human-factor-relevant simulation. Consequently, an approach for the forecasting and improvement of manned assembly line performance is needed to research. As a solution of the current problem, this study proposes a framework that is for generation and simulation of virtual manned assembly lines, and the framework has been implemented as a software.

Keywords: Performance Forecasting, Simulation, Virtual Manned Assembly Line.

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Authors: J. I. Aguwa, S. Sadiku, M. Abdullahi

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This study examined the structural reliability of the Nigerian grown Opepe timber as bridge beam material. The strength of a particular specie of timber depends so much on some factors such as soil and environment in which it is grown. The steps involved are collection of the Opepe timber samples, seasoning/preparation of the test specimens, determination of the strength properties/statistical analysis, development of a computer programme in FORTRAN language and finally structural reliability analysis using FORM 5 software. The result revealed that the Nigerian grown Opepe is a reliable and durable structural bridge beam material for span of 5000mm, depth of 400mm, breadth of 250mm and end bearing length of 150mm. The probabilities of failure in bending parallel to the grain, compression perpendicular to the grain, shear parallel to the grain and deflection are 1.61 x 10^-7, 1.43 x 10^-8, 1.93 x 10^-4 and 1.51 x 10^-15 respectively. The paper recommends establishment of Opepe plantation in various Local Government Areas in Nigeria for structural applications such as in bridges, railway sleepers, generation of income to the nation as well as creating employment for the numerous unemployed youths.

Keywords: Bending and deflection, Bridge beam, Compression, Nigerian Opepe, Shear, Structural reliability.

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Authors: JanuszKwaśniewski, IreneuszDominik, KrzysztofLalik

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The knowledge about rock layers thickness,especially above drilled mining pavements is crucial for workers safety. The measuring systems used nowadays are generally imperfect and there is a strong demand for improvement. The application of a new type of a measurement system called Self-excited Acoustical System is presentedin the paper. The system was applied until now to monitor stress changes in metal and concrete constructions. The change in measurement methodology resulted in possibility of measuring the thickness of the rocks above the tunnels as well as thickness of a singular rocklayer. The idea is to find two resonance frequencies of the self-exited system,which consists of a vibration exciter and vibration receiver placed at a distance, which are coupled with a proper power amplifier, and which operate in a closed loop with a positive feedback. The resonance with the higher amplitude determines thickness of the whole rock, whereas the lower amplitude resonance indicates thickness of a singular layer. The results of the laboratory tests conducted on a group of different rock materials are also presented.

Keywords: Autooscillator, non-destructive testing, rock thickness measurement.

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Authors: L. Mortari, A. Bevilacqua, R. Silva

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The experience presented in this paper aims to understand how educational research can support the introduction and optimization of teaching innovations in legal education. In this increasingly complex context, a strong need to introduce paths aimed at acquiring not only professional knowledge and skills but also reflective, critical and problem-solving skills emerges. Through a peer observation intertwined with an analysis of discursive practices, researchers and the teacher worked together through a process of participatory and transformative accompaniment whose objective was to promote the active participation and engagement of students in learning processes, an element indispensable to work in the more specific direction of strengthening key competences. This reflective faculty development path led the teacher to activate metacognitive processes, becoming thus aware of the strengths and areas of improvement of his teaching innovation.

Keywords: Discursive analysis, faculty development, legal education, peer observation, teaching innovation.

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Authors: N. Zainul Abidin, N. Yusof, H. Awang

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Bringing change to the housing industry requires multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from the government and local industry and the effect of competitive advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand, organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost escalation would hinder a faster progress.

Keywords: Developers, Green Concept, Housing Industry, Sustainable Construction

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Authors: Hassan Jassim Motlak

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A novel design technique employing CMOS Current Feedback Operational Amplifier (CFOA) is presented. The feature of consumption very low power in designing pseudo-OTA is used to decreasing the total power consumption of the proposed CFOA. This design approach applies pseudo-OTA as input stage cascaded with buffer stage. Moreover, the DC input offset voltage and harmonic distortion (HD) of the proposed CFOA are very low values compared with the conventional CMOS CFOA due to the symmetrical input stage. P-Spice simulation results are obtained using 0.18μm MIETEC CMOS process parameters and supply voltage of ±1.2V, 50μA biasing current. The p-spice simulation shows excellent improvement of the proposed CFOA over existing CMOS CFOA. Some of these performance parameters, for example, are DC gain of 62. dB, openloop gain bandwidth product of 108 MHz, slew rate (SR+) of +71.2V/μS, THD of -63dB and DC consumption power (PC) of 2mW.

Keywords: Pseudo-OTA used CMOS CFOA, low power CFOA, high-performance CFOA, novel CFOA.

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Authors: Hoda Zolfagharnejad, Behnam Kamkar, Omid Abdi

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Crop coefficient (Kc) is an important factor contributing to estimation of evapotranspiration, and is also used to determine the irrigation schedule. This study investigated and determined the monthly Kc of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) using five vegetation indices (VIs): Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Difference Vegetation Index (DVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Infrared Percentage Vegetation Index (IPVI), and Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI) of four basins in Golestan province, Iran. 14 Landsat-8 images according to crop growth stage were used to estimate monthly Kc of wheat. VIs were calculated based on infrared and near infrared bands of Landsat 8 images using Geographical Information System (GIS) software. The best VIs were chosen after establishing a regression relationship among these VIs with FAO Kc and Kc that was modified for the study area by the previous research based on R² and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). The result showed that local modified SAVI with R²= 0.767 and RMSE= 0.174 was the best index to produce monthly wheat Kc maps.

Keywords: Crop coefficient, remote sensing, vegetation indices, wheat.

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Authors: S. Balaji, E. Golden Julie, M. Rajaram, Y. Harold Robinson

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Network lifetime improvement and uncertainty in multiple systems are the issues of wireless sensor network routing. This paper presents fuzzy based particle swarm optimization routing technique to improve the network scalability. Significantly, in the cluster formation procedure, fuzzy based system is used to solve the uncertainty and network balancing. Cluster heads play an important role to reduce the energy consumption using particle swarm optimization algorithm, the cluster head sends its information along data packets to the heads with link. The simulation results show that the presented routing protocol can perform load balancing effectively and reduce the energy consumption of cluster heads.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, fuzzy logic, PSO, LEACH.

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Authors: Pushpa N. Rathie, Prabhata K. Swamee, André L. B. Cavalcante, Luan Carlos de S. M. Ozelim

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Implicit equations play a crucial role in Engineering. Based on this importance, several techniques have been applied to solve this particular class of equations. When it comes to practical applications, in general, iterative procedures are taken into account. On the other hand, with the improvement of computers, other numerical methods have been developed to provide a more straightforward methodology of solution. Analytical exact approaches seem to have been continuously neglected due to the difficulty inherent in their application; notwithstanding, they are indispensable to validate numerical routines. Lagrange-s Inversion Theorem is a simple mathematical tool which has proved to be widely applicable to engineering problems. In short, it provides the solution to implicit equations by means of an infinite series. To show the validity of this method, the tree-parameter infiltration equation is, for the first time, analytically and exactly solved. After manipulating these series, closed-form solutions are presented as H-functions.

Keywords: Green-Ampt Equation, Lagrange's Inversion Theorem, Talsma-Parlange Equation, Three-Parameter Infiltration Equation

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Authors: Eshagh Rasouli Sarabi, Mir Saeed Moosavi

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In Iran, due to abundance of energy resources, energy consumption is extraordinarily higher than international standards and transportation sector is considered to be one of the major consumers of energy. Moreover, air pollution in urban areas as a result of high dependence on private vehicle and lower standards of vehicles, high subsidies spent on fuel and time waste due to traffic congestion in urban areas all have led to speculations on new strategies and policies in order to control energy consumption in transportation sector. These strategies and policies will be introduced in this paper and their consequences will be analyzed with consideration to socio-economic factors affecting the urban society of Iran. Besides, the intention is to suggest and analyze new approaches such as broader application of public transportation system, demand management in transport sector, replacement of deteriorated vehicles, quality improvement in car manufacture and introduction of substitute fuels.

Keywords: Consumption, energy, fuel, transportation.

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Authors: Peter W. Olupot, Stefan Jonsson, Joseph K. Byaruhanga

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Porcelain specimens were fired at 6C/min to 1250C (dwell time 0.5-3h) and cooled at 6C/min to room temperature. Additionally, three different slower firing/cooling cycles were tried. Sintering profile and effects on MOR, crystalline phase content and morphology were investigated using dilatometry, 4-point bending strength, XRD and FEG-SEM respectively. Industrial-sized specimens prepared using the promising cycle were tested basing on the ANSI standards. Increasing dwell time from 1h to 3h at peak temperature of 1250C resulted in neither a significant effect on the quartz and mullite content nor MOR. Reducing the firing/cooling rate to below 6C/min, for peak temperature of 1250C (dwell time of 1h) does not result in improvement of strength of porcelain. The industrial sized specimen exhibited flashover voltages of 20.3kV (dry) and 9.3kV (wet) respectively, transverse strength of 12.5kN and bulk density of 2.27g/cm3, which are satisfactory. There was however dye penetration during porosity test. KeywordsDwell time, Microstructure, Porcelain, Strength.

Keywords: Dwell time, Microstructure, Porcelain, Strength.

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Authors: Victoriano Valencia García, Luis Usero Aragonés, Eugenio J. Fernández Vicente

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Nowadays, the successful implementation of ICTs is vital for almost any kind of organization. Good governance and ICT management are essential for delivering value, managing technological risks, managing resources and performance measurement. In addition, outsourcing is a strategic IT service solution which complements IT services provided internally in organizations. This paper proposes the measurement tools of a new holistic maturity model based on standards ISO/IEC 20000 and ISO/IEC 38500, and the frameworks and best practices of ITIL and COBIT, with a specific focus on IT outsourcing. These measurement tools allow independent validation and practical application in the field of higher education, using a questionnaire, metrics tables, and continuous improvement plan tables as part of the measurement process. Guidelines and standards are proposed in the model for facilitating adaptation to universities and achieving excellence in the outsourcing of IT services.

Keywords: IT Governance, IT Management, IT Services, Maturity Model, Measurement Tools, Outsourcing.

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Authors: H. Shayeghi, B. Mohamadi

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

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

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Authors: G Lakshmi Narayana Rao, S Sampath, K Rajagopal

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Transesterified vegetable oils (biodiesel) are promising alternative fuel for diesel engines. Used vegetable oils are disposed from restaurants in large quantities. But higher viscosity restricts their direct use in diesel engines. In this study, used cooking oil was dehydrated and then transesterified using an alkaline catalyst. The combustion, performance and emission characteristics of Used Cooking oil Methyl Ester (UCME) and its blends with diesel oil are analysed in a direct injection C.I. engine. The fuel properties and the combustion characteristics of UCME are found to be similar to those of diesel. A minor decrease in thermal efficiency with significant improvement in reduction of particulates, carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons is observed compared to diesel. The use of transesterified used cooking oil and its blends as fuel for diesel engines will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and also decrease considerably the environmental pollution.

Keywords: Combustion characteristics, diesel engine, emission characteristics, used cooking oil.

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Authors: Wendong Tao

Abstract:

Stormwater wetlands have been mainly designed in an empirical approach for water quality improvement, with little quantitative understanding of the internal microbial processes. This study investigated into heterotrophic bacterial production rate, heterotrophic bacterial mineralization percentage, and algal biomass in hypertrophic and eutrophic surface flow stormwater wetlands. Compared to a nearby wood leachate treatment wetland, the stormwater wetlands had much higher chlorophyll-a concentrations. The eutrophic stormwater wetland had improved water quality, whereas the hypertrophic stormwater wetland had degraded water quality. Heterotrophic bacterial activities in water were limited in the stormwater wetlands due to competition of algal growth for nutrients. The relative contribution of biofilms to the overall heterotrophic activities was higher in the stormwater wetlands than that in the wood leachate treatment wetland.

Keywords: chlorophyll-a, constructed wetland, heterotrophicproduction, mineralization, stormwater

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Authors: Sahira N. Muslim, Alaa N. Mohammed, Saba Saadoon Khazaal, Batool Kadham Salman, Israa M. S. AL-Kadmy, Sraa N. Muslim, Ahmed S. Dwaish, Sawsan Mohammed Kareem, Sarah N. Aziz, Ruaa A. Jasim

Abstract:

Tannase has wide applications in food, beverage, brewing, cosmetics and chemical industries and one of the major applications of tannase is the production of gallic acid. Gallic acid is used for manufacturing of trimethoprim. In the present study, a local fungal strain of Penicillium expansum A₄ isolated from spoilt apple samples gave the highest production level of tannase. Tannase was partially purified with a recovery yield of 92.52% and 6.32 fold of purification by precipitation using ammonium sulfate at 50% saturation. Tannase led to increased antimicrobial activity of ceftazidime against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and S. aureus and had a synergism effect at low concentrations of ceftazidime, and thus, tannase may be a useful adjuvant agent for the treatment of many bacterial infections in combination with ceftazidime.

Keywords: Ceftazidime, Penicillium expansum, tannase, antimicrobial activity.

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Authors: M. Mohamed, X. Zhang, K. Wu, M. Elfituri, A. Legnain

Abstract:

Performance of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultrawideband (UWB) signal generation using frequency quadrupling technique and transmission over fiber is experimentally investigated. The frequency quadrupling is achived by using only one Mach- Zehnder modulator (MZM) that is biased at maximum transmission (MATB) point. At the output, a frequency quadrupling signal is obtained then sent to a second MZM. This MZM is used for MBOFDM UWB signal modulation. In this work, we demonstrate 30- GHz mm-wave wireless that carries three-bands OFDM UWB signals, and error vector magnitude (EVM) is used to analyze the transmission quality. It is found that our proposed technique leads to an improvement of 3.5 dB in EVM at 40% of local oscillator (LO) modulation with comparison to the technique using two cascaded MZMs biased at minimum transmission (MITB) point.

Keywords: Optical communication, Frequency up-conversion, Mach-Zehnder modulator, millimeter wave generation, radio over fiber

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