Search results for: tool.

Authors: Mansoor Ahsan, Suhail Akhtar, Adnan Ali, Farrukh Mazhar, Muddssar Khalid

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In the present era of aviation technology, autonomous navigation and control have emerged as a prime area of active research. Owing to the tremendous developments in the field, autonomous controls have led today’s engineers to claim that future of aerospace vehicle is unmanned. Development of guidance and navigation algorithms for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an extremely challenging task, which requires efforts to meet strict, and at times, conflicting goals of guidance and control. In this paper, aircraft altitude and heading controllers and an efficient algorithm for self-governing navigation using MATLAB® mapping toolbox is presented which also enables loitering of a fixed wing UAV over a specified area. For this purpose, a nonlinear mathematical model of a UAV is used. The nonlinear model is linearized around a stable trim point and decoupled for controller design. The linear controllers are tested on the nonlinear aircraft model and navigation algorithm is subsequently developed for for autonomous flight of the UAV. The results are presented for trajectory controllers and waypoint based navigation. Our investigation reveals that MATLAB® mapping toolbox can be exploited to successfully deliver an efficient algorithm for autonomous aerial navigation for a UAV.

Keywords: Navigation, trajectory-control, unmanned aerial vehicle, PID-control, MATLAB® mapping toolbox.

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Authors: Dhurgham Al-Karawi, Nisreen Polus, Shakir Al-Zaidi, Sabah Jassim

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The management of COVID-19 patients based on chest imaging is emerging as an essential tool for evaluating the spread of the pandemic which has gripped the global community. It has already been used to monitor the situation of COVID-19 patients who have issues in respiratory status. There has been increase to use chest imaging for medical triage of patients who are showing moderate-severe clinical COVID-19 features, this is due to the fast dispersal of the pandemic to all continents and communities. This article demonstrates the development of machine learning techniques for the test of COVID-19 patients using Chest X-Ray (CXR) images in nearly real-time, to distinguish the COVID-19 infection with a significantly high level of accuracy. The testing performance has covered a combination of different datasets of CXR images of positive COVID-19 patients, patients with viral and bacterial infections, also, people with a clear chest. The proposed AI scheme successfully distinguishes CXR scans of COVID-19 infected patients from CXR scans of viral and bacterial based pneumonia as well as normal cases with an average accuracy of 94.43%, sensitivity 95%, and specificity 93.86%. Predicted decisions would be supported by visual evidence to help clinicians speed up the initial assessment process of new suspected cases, especially in a resource-constrained environment.

Keywords: COVID-19, chest x-ray scan, artificial intelligence, texture analysis, local binary pattern transform, Gabor filter.

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Authors: Wei Zhang, Yao-Yu Li, Yi-Fan Zhu, Qun Li, Wei-Ping Wang

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It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation of knowledge in the form of numerical relationships. Little work, however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel (SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K). Three-levels specifications of SPK are studied with the corresponding sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method. These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK) consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to the complex military applications.

Keywords: admissible support vector kernel, reproducing kernel, structural prior knowledge, motivated support vector regression

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Authors: Wei Zhang, Yao-Yu Li, Yi-Fan Zhu, Qun Li, Wei-Ping Wang

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It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation of knowledge in form of numerical relationships. Little work, however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel (SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K). Three-levels specifications of SPK are studies with the corresponding sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method. These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK) consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to the complex military applications.

Keywords: admissible support vector kernel, reproducing kernel, structural prior knowledge, motivated support vector regression

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Authors: C. Hemasundara Rao, M. Madhavi Latha

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Image compression can improve the performance of the digital systems by reducing time and cost in image storage and transmission without significant reduction of the image quality. Furthermore, the discrete cosine transform has emerged as the new state-of-the art standard for image compression. In this paper, a hybrid image compression technique based on reversible blockade transform coding is proposed. The technique, implemented over regions of interest (ROIs), is based on selection of the coefficients that belong to different transforms, depending on the coefficients is proposed. This method allows: (1) codification of multiple kernals at various degrees of interest, (2) arbitrary shaped spectrum,and (3) flexible adjustment of the compression quality of the image and the background. No standard modification for JPEG2000 decoder was required. The method was applied over different types of images. Results show a better performance for the selected regions, when image coding methods were employed for the whole set of images. We believe that this method is an excellent tool for future image compression research, mainly on images where image coding can be of interest, such as the medical imaging modalities and several multimedia applications. Finally VLSI implementation of proposed method is shown. It is also shown that the kernal of Hartley and Cosine transform gives the better performance than any other model.

Keywords: VLSI, Discrete Cosine Transform, JPEG, Hartleytransform, Radon Transform

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Authors: Celso A. G. Santos, Paula K. M. M. Freire

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The urban centers within northeastern Brazil are mainly influenced by the intense rainfalls, which can occur after long periods of drought, when flood events can be observed during such events. Thus, this paper aims to study the rainfall frequencies in such region through the wavelet transform. An application of wavelet analysis is done with long time series of the total monthly rainfall amount at the capital cities of northeastern Brazil. The main frequency components in the time series are studied by the global wavelet spectrum and the modulation in separated periodicity bands were done in order to extract additional information, e.g., the 8 and 16 months band was examined by an average of all scales, giving a measure of the average annual variance versus time, where the periods with low or high variance could be identified. The important increases were identified in the average variance for some periods, e.g. 1947 to 1952 at Teresina city, which can be considered as high wet periods. Although, the precipitation in those sites showed similar global wavelet spectra, the wavelet spectra revealed particular features. This study can be considered an important tool for time series analysis, which can help the studies concerning flood control, mainly when they are applied together with rainfall-runoff simulations.

Keywords: rainfall data, urban center, wavelet transform.

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Authors: T. Mokhele, O. Mutanga, F. Ahmed

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South Africa is one of the few countries that have stopped using the same Enumeration Areas (EAs) for census enumeration and dissemination. The advantage of this change is that confidentiality issue could be addressed for census dissemination as the design of geographic unit for collection is mainly to ensure that this unit is covered by one enumerator. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the performance of automated zone design output areas against non-zone design developed geographies using the 2001 census data, and 2011 census to some extent, as the main input. The comparison of the Automated Zone-design Tool (AZTool) census output areas with the Small Area Layers (SALs) and SubPlaces based on confidentiality limit, population distribution, and degree of homogeneity, as well as shape compactness, was undertaken. Further, SPSS was employed for validation of the AZTool output results. The results showed that AZTool developed output areas out-perform the existing official SAL and SubPlaces with regard to minimum population threshold, population distribution and to some extent to homogeneity. Therefore, it was concluded that AZTool program provides a new alternative to the creation of optimised census output areas for dissemination of population census data in South Africa.

Keywords: AZTool, enumeration areas, small areal layers, South Africa.

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Authors: Klio Monokrousou, Maria Giannopoulou

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Urban areas, as they have been developed and operate today, are areas of accumulation of a significant amount of people and a large number of activities that generate desires and reasons for traveling. The territorial expansion of the cities as well as the need to preserve the importance of the central city areas lead to the continuous increase of transportation needs which in the limited urban space results in creating serious traffic and operational problems. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards more holistic approaches and integrated policies that make it economically competitive, socially just and more environmentally friendly. Over the last 25 years, the goal of sustainable transport development has been central to the agenda of any plan or policy for the city. The modern planning of urban space takes into account the economic and social aspects of the city and the importance of the environment to sustainable urban development. In this context, the European Union promotes direct or indirect related interventions according to the cohesion and environmental policies; many countries even had the chance to actually test them. This paper explores the methods and processes that have been developed towards this direction and presents a review and systematic presentation of this work. The ultimate purpose of this research is to effectively use this review to create a decision making methodological framework which can be the basis of a useful operational tool for sustainable urban planning.

Keywords: Sustainable urban development, urban mobility, urban regeneration methods.

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Authors: Peng Shen Ong, Yoong Choon Chang, Chee Pun Ooi, Ettikan K. Karuppiah, Shahirina Mohd Tahir

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Falling has been one of the major concerns and threats to the independence of the elderly in their daily lives. With the worldwide significant growth of the aging population, it is essential to have a promising solution of fall detection which is able to operate at high accuracy in real-time and supports large scale implementation using multiple cameras. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a highly promising tool to be used as a hardware accelerator in many emerging embedded vision based system. Thus, it is the main objective of this paper to present an FPGA-based solution of visual based fall detection to meet stringent real-time requirements with high accuracy. The hardware architecture of visual based fall detection which utilizes the pixel locality to reduce memory accesses is proposed. By exploiting the parallel and pipeline architecture of FPGA, our hardware implementation of visual based fall detection using FGPA is able to achieve a performance of 60fps for a series of video analytical functions at VGA resolutions (640x480). The results of this work show that FPGA has great potentials and impacts in enabling large scale vision system in the future healthcare industry due to its flexibility and scalability.

Keywords: Fall detection, FPGA, hardware implementation.

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Authors: B. T. Sayed, Nafaâ Jabeur, M. Aref

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Creation and maintenance of knowledge management systems has been recognized as an important research area. Consecutively lack of accurate results from knowledge management systems limits the organization to apply their knowledge management processes. This leads to a failure in getting the right information to the right people at the right time thus followed by a deficiency in decision making processes. An Intranet offers a powerful tool for communication and collaboration, presenting data and information, and the means that creates and shares knowledge, all in one easily accessible place. This paper proposes an archetype describing how a knowledge management system, with the support of intranet capabilities, could very much increase the accuracy of capturing, storing and retrieving knowledge based processes thereby increasing the efficiency of the system. This system will expect a critical mass of usage, by the users, for intranet to function as knowledge management systems. This prototype would lead to a design of an application that would impose creation and maintenance of an effective knowledge management system through intranet. The aim of this paper is to introduce an effective system to handle capture, store and distribute knowledge management in a form that may not lead to any failure which exists in most of the systems. The methodology used in the system would require all the employees, in the organization, to contribute the maximum to deliver the system to a successful arena. The system is still in its initial mode and thereby the authors are under the process to practically implement the ideas, as mentioned in the system, to produce satisfactory results.

Keywords: Knowledge Management Systems, Intranet, Methodology.

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Authors: C. Lanzerstorfer

Abstract:

Liquid sprays of water are frequently used in air pollution control for gas cooling purposes and for gas cleaning. Twin-fluid nozzles with internal mixing are often used for these purposes because of the small size of the drops produced. In these nozzles the liquid is dispersed by compressed air or another pressurized gas. In high efficiency scrubbers for particle separation, several nozzles are operated in parallel because of the size of the cross section. In such scrubbers, the scrubbing water has to be re-circulated. Precipitation of some solid material can occur in the liquid circuit, caused by chemical reactions. When such precipitations are detached from the place of formation, they can partly or totally block the liquid flow to a nozzle. Due to the resulting unbalanced supply of the nozzles with water and gas, the efficiency of separation decreases. Thus, the nozzles have to be cleaned if a certain fraction of blockages is reached. The aim of this study was to provide a tool for continuously monitoring the status of the nozzles of a scrubber based on the available operation data (water flow, air flow, water pressure and air pressure). The difference between the air pressure and the water pressure is not well suited for this purpose, because the difference is quite small and therefore very exact calibration of the pressure measurement would be required. Therefore, an equation for the reference air flow of a nozzle at the actual water flow and operation pressure was derived. This flow can be compared with the actual air flow for assessment of the status of the nozzles.

Keywords: Twin-fluid nozzles, operation data, condition monitoring, flow equation.

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Authors: K. Jagannath, Akhilesh Kotian, S. S. Sharma, Achutha Kini U., P. R. Prabhu

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Boiling process is characterized by the rapid formation of vapour bubbles at the solid–liquid interface (nucleate boiling) with pre-existing vapour or gas pockets. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool to study bubble dynamics. In the present study, CFD simulation has been carried out to determine the bubble detachment diameter and its terminal velocity. Volume of fluid method is used to model the bubble and the surrounding by solving single set of momentum equations and tracking the volume fraction of each of the fluids throughout the domain. In the simulation, bubble is generated by allowing water-vapour to enter a cylinder filled with liquid water through an inlet at the bottom. After the bubble is fully formed, the bubble detaches from the surface and rises up during which the bubble accelerates due to the net balance between buoyancy force and viscous drag. Finally when these forces exactly balance each other, it attains a constant terminal velocity. The bubble detachment diameter and the terminal velocity of the bubble are captured by the monitor function provided in FLUENT. The detachment diameter and the terminal velocity obtained are compared with the established results based on the shape of the bubble. A good agreement is obtained between the results obtained from simulation and the equations in comparison with the established results.

Keywords: Bubble growth, computational fluid dynamics, detachment diameter, terminal velocity.

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Authors: B. S. Fatoyinbo, D. Stretch, O. T. Amoo, D. Allopi

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This study extends the use of the Drainage Area Regionalization (DAR) method in generating synthetic data and calibrating PyTOPKAPI stream yield for an ungauged basin at a daily time scale. The generation of runoff in determining a river yield has been subjected to various topographic and spatial meteorological variables, which integers form the Catchment Characteristics Model (CCM). Many of the conventional CCM models adapted in Africa have been challenged with a paucity of adequate, relevance and accurate data to parameterize and validate the potential. The purpose of generating synthetic flow is to test a hydrological model, which will not suffer from the impact of very low flows or very high flows, thus allowing to check whether the model is structurally sound enough or not. The employed physically-based, watershed-scale hydrologic model (PyTOPKAPI) was parameterized with GIS-pre-processing parameters and remote sensing hydro-meteorological variables. The validation with mean annual runoff ratio proposes a decent graphical understanding between observed and the simulated discharge. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency and coefficient of determination (R²) values of 0.704 and 0.739 proves strong model efficiency. Given the current climate variability impact, water planner can now assert a tool for flow quantification and sustainable planning purposes.

Keywords: Ungauged Basin, Catchment Characteristics Model, Synthetic data, GIS.

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Authors: Kavala Kiran Kumar, R. Govardhana Rao

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Active power filter continues to be a powerful tool to control harmonics in power systems thereby enhancing the power quality. This paper presents a fuzzy tuned PID controller based shunt active filter to diminish the harmonics caused by non linear loads like thyristor bridge rectifiers and imbalanced loads. Here Fuzzy controller provides the tuning of PID, based on firing of thyristor bridge rectifiers and variations in input rms current. The shunt APF system is implemented with three phase current controlled Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and is connected at the point of common coupling for compensating the current harmonics by injecting equal but opposite filter currents. These controllers are capable of controlling dc-side capacitor voltage and estimating reference currents. Hysteresis Current Controller (HCC) is used to generate switching signals for the voltage source inverter. Simulation studies are carried out with non linear loads like thyristor bridge rectifier along with unbalanced loads and the results proved that the APF along with fuzzy tuned PID controller work flawlessly for different firing angles of non linear load.

Keywords: Active power filters (APF), Fuzzy logic controller (FLC), Hysteresis current controller (HCC), PID, Total harmonic Distortion (THD), Voltage source inverter (VSI).

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Authors: Taposh Roy, Dipankar Choudhury, Belinda Pingguan-Murphy

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The tribological outcomes of micro dent are found to be outstanding in many engineering and natural surfaces. Ceramic (Al₂O₃) is considered one of the most potential material to bearing surfaces particularly, artificial hip or knee implant. A well-defined micro dent on alumina oxide interface could further decrease friction and wear rate, thus increase their stability and durability. In this study we fabricated circular micro dent surface profiles (Dia: 400µm, Depth 20µm, P: 1.5mm; Dia: 400µm, Depth 20µm, P: 2mm) on pure Al₂O₃ (99.6%) substrate by using a micro tool machines. A preliminary tribological experiment was carried out to compare friction coefficient of these fabricated dent surfaces with that of non-textured surfaces. The experiment was carried on well know pin-on-disk specimens while other experimental parameters such as hertz pressure, speed, lubrication, and temperature were maintained to standard of simulated hip joints condition. The experiment results revealed that micro dent surface texture reduced 15%, 8% and 4% friction coefficient under 0.132,0.162, 0.187 GPa contact pressure respectively. Since this is a preliminary tribological study, we will pursue further experiments considering higher ranges of dent profiles and longer run experiments. However, the preliminary results confirmed the suitability of fabricating dent profile to ceramic surfaces by using micro tooling, and also their improved tribological performance in simulated hip joints.

Keywords: Micro dent, tribology, ceramic on ceramic hipjoints.

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Authors: Réka Sárközi, Péter Iványi, Attila B. Széll

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The aim of this paper is to present the adaptation of the dome construction tool for formex algebra to the parametric design software Grasshopper. Formex algebra is a mathematical system, primarily used for planning structural systems such like truss-grid domes and vaults, together with the programming language Formian. The goal of the research is to allow architects to plan truss-grid structures easily with parametric design tools based on the versatile formex algebra mathematical system. To produce regular structures, coordinate system transformations are used and the dome structures are defined in spherical coordinate system. Owing to the abilities of the parametric design software, it is possible to apply further modifications on the structures and gain special forms. The paper covers the basic dome types, and also additional dome-based structures using special coordinate-system solutions based on spherical coordinate systems. It also contains additional structural possibilities like making double layer grids in all geometry forms. The adaptation of formex algebra and the parametric workflow of Grasshopper together give the possibility of quick and easy design and optimization of special truss-grid domes.

Keywords: Parametric design, structural morphology, space structures, spherical coordinate system.

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Authors: J. Tospornsampan, I. Kita, M. Ishii, Y. Kitamura

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In this paper a procedure for the split-pipe design of looped water distribution network based on the use of simulated annealing is proposed. Simulated annealing is a heuristic-based search algorithm, motivated by an analogy of physical annealing in solids. It is capable for solving the combinatorial optimization problem. In contrast to the split-pipe design that is derived from a continuous diameter design that has been implemented in conventional optimization techniques, the split-pipe design proposed in this paper is derived from a discrete diameter design where a set of pipe diameters is chosen directly from a specified set of commercial pipes. The optimality and feasibility of the solutions are found to be guaranteed by using the proposed method. The performance of the proposed procedure is demonstrated through solving the three well-known problems of water distribution network taken from the literature. Simulated annealing provides very promising solutions and the lowest-cost solutions are found for all of these test problems. The results obtained from these applications show that simulated annealing is able to handle a combinatorial optimization problem of the least cost design of water distribution network. The technique can be considered as an alternative tool for similar areas of research. Further applications and improvements of the technique are expected as well.

Keywords: Combinatorial problem, Heuristics, Least-cost design, Looped network, Pipe network, Optimization

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Authors: Siri-orn Champatong

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study five vital factors related to employees’ job performance. A total of 250 respondents were sampled from employees who worked at a public warehouse organization, Bangkok, Thailand. Samples were divided into two groups according to their work experience. The average working experience was about 9 years for group one and 28 years for group two. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test analysis, one way ANOVA, and Pearson Product-moment correlation coefficient. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings disclosed that the majority of respondents were female between 23- 31 years old, single, and hold an undergraduate degree. The average income of respondents was less than 30,900 baht. The findings also revealed that the factors of organization chart awareness, job process and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and policy and management were ranked as medium level. The hypotheses testing revealed that difference in gender, age, and position had differences in terms of the awareness of organization chart, job process and technology, internal environment, employee loyalty, and policy and management in the same direction with low level.

Keywords: Employees, Factors Related, Job Performance, Public Warehouse Organization.

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Authors: A. El-S. Makled, M. K. Al-Tamimi

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A mathematical model to predict the performance parameters (thrusts, chamber pressures, fuel mass flow rates, mixture ratios, and regression rates during firing time) of hybrid rocket motor (HRM) is evaluated. The internal ballistic (IB) hybrid combustion model assumes that the solid fuel surface regression rate is controlled only by heat transfer (convective and radiative) from flame zone to solid fuel burning surface. A laboratory HRM is designed, manufactured, and tested for low thrust profile space missions (10-15 N) and for validating the mathematical model (computer program). The polymer material and gaseous oxidizer which are selected for this experimental work are polymethyle-methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene (PE) as solid fuel grain and gaseous oxygen (GO₂) as oxidizer. The variation of various operational parameters with time is determined systematically and experimentally in firing of up to 20 seconds, and an average combustion efficiency of 95% of theory is achieved, which was the goal of these experiments. The comparison between recording fire data and predicting analytical parameters shows good agreement with the error that does not exceed 4.5% during all firing time. The current mathematical (computer) code can be used as a powerful tool for HRM analytical design parameters.

Keywords: Hybrid combustion, internal ballistics, hybrid rocket motor, performance parameters.

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Authors: S. Mezghani, E. Perrin, J. L Bodnar, J. Marthe, B. Cauwe, V. Vrabie

Abstract:

Non contact evaluation of the thickness of paint coatings can be attempted by different destructive and nondestructive methods such as cross-section microscopy, gravimetric mass measurement, magnetic gauges, Eddy current, ultrasound or terahertz. Infrared thermography is a nondestructive and non-invasive method that can be envisaged as a useful tool to measure the surface thickness variations by analyzing the temperature response. In this paper, the thermal quadrupole method for two layered samples heated up with a pulsed excitation is firstly used. By analyzing the thermal responses as a function of thermal properties and thicknesses of both layers, optimal parameters for the excitation source can be identified. Simulations show that a pulsed excitation with duration of ten milliseconds allows obtaining a substrate-independent thermal response. Based on this result, an experimental setup consisting of a near-infrared laser diode and an Infrared camera was next used to evaluate the variation of paint coating thickness between 60 μm and 130 μm on two samples. Results show that the parameters extracted for thermal images are correlated with the estimated thicknesses by the Eddy current methods. The laser pulsed thermography is thus an interesting alternative nondestructive method that can be moreover used for nonconductive substrates.

Keywords: Nondestructive, paint coating, thickness, infrared thermography, laser, heterogeneity.

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Authors: Ball J., Capanni N., Watt S.

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This paper argues that fostering mutual understanding in landscape planning is as much about the planners educating stakeholder groups as the stakeholders educating the planners. In other words it is an epistemological agreement as to the meaning and nature of place, especially where an effort is made to go beyond the quantitative aspects, which can be achieved by the phenomenological experience of the Virtual Reality (VR) environment. This education needs to be a bi-directional process in which distance can be both temporal as well as spatial separation of participants, that there needs to be a common framework of understanding in which neither 'side' is disadvantaged during the process of information exchange and it follows that a medium such as VR offers an effective way of overcoming some of the shortcomings of traditional media by taking advantage of continuing technological advances in Information, Technology and Communications (ITC). In this paper we make particular reference to this as an extension to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). VR as a two-way communication tool offers considerable potential particularly in the area of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS). Information rich virtual environments that can operate over broadband networks are now possible and thus allow for the representation of large amounts of qualitative and quantitative information 'side-by-side'. Therefore, with broadband access becoming standard for households and enterprises alike, distributed virtual reality environments have great potential to contribute to enabling stakeholder participation and mutual learning within the planning context.

Keywords: 3D, communication, geographical information systems, planning, public participation, virtual reality, visualisation.

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Authors: S. Mbatha, A. Mastamet-Mason

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This paper applied factor conditions from Porter’s Diamond Model (1990) to understand the various challenges facing the AMISA. Factor conditions highlighted in Porter’s model are grouped into two groups namely, basic and advance factors. Two AMISA associations representing over 10 000 employees were interviewed. The largest Clothing, Textiles and Leather (CTL) apparel retail group was also interviewed with a government department implementing the industrialization policy were interviewed. The paper points out that AMISA have basic factor conditions necessary for competitive advantage in the apparel industries. However advance factor creation has proven to be a challenge for AMISA, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and government. Poor infrastructural maintenance has contributed to high manufacturing costs and poor quick response technologies. The use of Porter’s Factor Conditions as a tool to analyze the sector’s competitive advantage challenges and opportunities has increased knowledge regarding factors that limit the AMISA’s competitiveness. It is therefore argued that other studies on Porter’s Diamond model factors like Demand conditions, Firm strategy, structure and rivalry and Related and supporting industries can be used to analyze the situation of the AMISA for the purposes of improving competitive advantage.

Keywords: Compliance rule, apparel manufacturing industry, factor conditions, advance skills.

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Authors: Shih-Yi Chao

Abstract:

The similarity comparison of RNA secondary structures is important in studying the functions of RNAs. In recent years, most existing tools represent the secondary structures by tree-based presentation and calculate the similarity by tree alignment distance. Different to previous approaches, we propose a new method based on maximum clique detection algorithm to extract the maximum common structural elements in compared RNA secondary structures. A new graph-based similarity measurement and maximum common subgraph detection procedures for comparing purely RNA secondary structures is introduced. Given two RNA secondary structures, the proposed algorithm consists of a process to determine the score of the structural similarity, followed by comparing vertices labelling, the labelled edges and the exact degree of each vertex. The proposed algorithm also consists of a process to extract the common structural elements between compared secondary structures based on a proposed maximum clique detection of the problem. This graph-based model also can work with NC-IUB code to perform the pattern-based searching. Therefore, it can be used to identify functional RNA motifs from database or to extract common substructures between complex RNA secondary structures. We have proved the performance of this proposed algorithm by experimental results. It provides a new idea of comparing RNA secondary structures. This tool is helpful to those who are interested in structural bioinformatics.

Keywords: Clique detection, labeled vertices, RNA secondary structures, subgraph, similarity.

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Authors: Fernando Alonso, Rafael Fernandez, Sonia Frutos, Javier Soriano

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CIM is the standard formalism for modeling management information developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) in the context of its WBEM proposal, designed to provide a conceptual view of the managed environment. In this paper, we propose the inclusion of formal knowledge representation techniques, based on Description Logics (DLs) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), in CIM-based conceptual modeling, and then we examine the benefits of such a decision. The proposal is specified as a CIM metamodel level mapping to a highly expressive subset of DLs capable of capturing all the semantics of the models. The paper shows how the proposed mapping provides CIM diagrams with precise semantics and can be used for automatic reasoning about the management information models, as a design aid, by means of newgeneration CASE tools, thanks to the use of state-of-the-art automatic reasoning systems that support the proposed logic and use algorithms that are sound and complete with respect to the semantics. Such a CASE tool framework has been developed by the authors and its architecture is also introduced. The proposed formalization is not only useful at design time, but also at run time through the use of rational autonomous agents, in response to a need recently recognized by the DMTF.

Keywords: CIM, Knowledge-based Information Models, OntologyLanguages, OWL, Description Logics, Integrated Network Management, Intelligent Agents, Automatic Reasoning Techniques.

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Authors: Tolga Gok, Kursad Sayin

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The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between expectation, satisfaction and loyalty of South Korean tourists visiting Turkey. In the research, a questionnaire was used as a data collecting tool. The questionnaires are filled by South Korean tourists coming to Turkey through package tours and individual. The survey was conducted in 2014 in Nevsehir (Cappadocia Region) and Istanbul. Tourist guides and agency staff have helped the implementation of surveys. The survey questions are composed of 4 parts, which are “demographic characteristics of tourists”, “travel behavior characteristics”, “perception of expectations on destination attributes” and “perception of destination loyalty”. 5-point Likert type scale including 28 destination attributes was used to measure the expectations of South Korean tourists coming to Turkey. Questions were directed to the tourists to measure the destination loyalty. The questions relating to destination loyalty are “Talking about Turkey to others”, “Recommendation Turkey to others” and “Tourists’ intentions to revisit Turkey”. The basic hypothesis of the research is that there is a statistically significant relationship among expectations, satisfactions and destination loyalty of South Korean tourists coming to Turkey. The results indicated that the expectation had a significant effect on overall satisfaction. In addition it was seen that between overall satisfaction of tourists and destination loyalty had a significant relationship. Based on findings, some suggestions for tour operators and travel agencies were made.

Keywords: Tourist expectation, tourist satisfaction, destination loyalty, destination attributes.

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Authors: M. N. Islam, B. Boswell, Y. R. Ginting

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The influence of canned cycles and cutting parameters on hole quality in cryogenic drilling has been investigated experimentally and analytically. A three-level, three-parameter experiment was conducted by using the design-of-experiment methodology. The three levels of independent input parameters were the following: for canned cycles—a chip-breaking canned cycle (G73), a spot drilling canned cycle (G81), and a deep hole canned cycle (G83); for feed rates—0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 mm/rev; and for cutting speeds—60, 75, and 100 m/min. The selected work and tool materials were aluminum 6061-6T and high-speed steel (HSS), respectively. For cryogenic cooling, liquid nitrogen (LN2) was used and was applied externally. The measured output parameters were the three widely used quality characteristics of drilled holes—diameter error, circularity, and surface roughness. Pareto ANOVA was applied for analyzing the results. The findings revealed that the canned cycle has a significant effect on diameter error (contribution ratio 44.09%) and small effects on circularity and surface finish (contribution ratio 7.25% and 6.60%, respectively). The best results for the dimensional accuracy and surface roughness were achieved by G81. G73 produced the best circularity results; however, for dimensional accuracy, it was the worst level.

Keywords: Circularity, diameter error, drilling canned cycle, Pareto ANOVA, surface roughness.

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Authors: Faramarz Khosravi, Gokhan Izbirak

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A weighted statistical stochastic based Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) model for modeling the potential barriers and enablers of sustainability for measuring and assessing the sustainability level is proposed. For context-dependent potential barriers and enablers, the proposed model takes the basis of the properties of the variables describing the sustainability functions and was developed into a realistic analytical model for the sustainable behavior of an organization. This thus serves as a means for measuring the sustainability of the organization. The main focus of this paper was the application of the AHP tool in a statistically-based model for measuring sustainability. Hence a strong weighted stochastic AHP based procedure was achieved. A case study scenario of a widely reported major Canadian electric utility was adopted to demonstrate the applicability of the developed model and comparatively examined its results with those of an equal-weighted model method. Variations in the sustainability of a company, as fluctuations, were figured out during the time. In the results obtained, sustainability index for successive years changed form 73.12%, 79.02%, 74.31%, 76.65%, 80.49%, 79.81%, 79.83% to more exact values 73.32%, 77.72%, 76.76%, 79.41%, 81.93%, 79.72%, and 80,45% according to priorities of factors that have found by expert views, respectively. By obtaining relatively necessary informative measurement indicators, the model can practically and effectively evaluate the sustainability extent of any organization and also to determine fluctuations in the organization over time.

Keywords: AHP, sustainability fluctuation, environmental indicators, performance measurement, environmental sustainability.

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Authors: A. Kourou, A. Ioakeimidou, V. Avramea

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Planning for natural disasters and emergencies is something every school or educational institution must consider, regardless of its size or location. Preparedness is the key to save lives if a disaster strikes. School disaster management mirrors individual and family disaster prevention, and wider community disaster prevention efforts. This paper presents the usage of E-PreS System as a helpful, managerial tool during the school earthquake drill, in order to support schools in developing effective disaster and emergency plans specific to their local needs. The project comes up with a holistic methodology using real-time evaluation involving different categories of actors, districts, steps and metrics. The main outcomes of E-PreS project are the development of E-PreS web platform that host the needed data of school emergency planning; the development of E-PreS System; the implementation of disaster drills using E-PreS System in educational premises and local schools; and the evaluation of E-PreS System. Taking into consideration that every disaster drill aims to test and valid school plan and procedures; clarify and train personnel in roles and responsibilities; improve interagency coordination; identify gaps in resources; improve individual performance; and identify opportunities for improvement, E-PreS Project was submitted and approved by the European Commission (EC).

Keywords: Disaster drills, earthquake preparedness, E-PreS system, school emergency plans.

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Authors: Shubat S. Ahmeda, Ashraf M. Ali Edwila

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Short Message Service (SMS) has grown in popularity over the years and it has become a common way of communication, it is a service provided through General System for Mobile Communications (GSM) that allows users to send text messages to others. SMS is usually used to transport unclassified information, but with the rise of mobile commerce it has become a popular tool for transmitting sensitive information between the business and its clients. By default SMS does not guarantee confidentiality and integrity to the message content. In the mobile communication systems, security (encryption) offered by the network operator only applies on the wireless link. Data delivered through the mobile core network may not be protected. Existing end-to-end security mechanisms are provided at application level and typically based on public key cryptosystem. The main concern in a public-key setting is the authenticity of the public key; this issue can be resolved by identity-based (IDbased) cryptography where the public key of a user can be derived from public information that uniquely identifies the user. This paper presents an encryption mechanism based on the IDbased scheme using Elliptic curves to provide end-to-end security for SMS. This mechanism has been implemented over the standard SMS network architecture and the encryption overhead has been estimated and compared with RSA scheme. This study indicates that the ID-based mechanism has advantages over the RSA mechanism in key distribution and scalability of increasing security level for mobile service.

Keywords: Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), End-to-end Security, Identity-based Cryptography, Public Key, RSA, SMS Protocol.

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Authors: Mohd Faridz Ahmad, Muhammad Amir Asyraf Rosli

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Aerobic dance has becoming a popular mode of exercise especially among women due to its fun nature. With a catchy music background and joyful dance steps, aerobic dancers would be able to have fun while sweating out. Depending on its level of aggressiveness, aerobic may also improve and maintain cardiorespiratory fitness other than being a great tool for weight loss. This study intends to prove that aerobic dance activity can bring the same, if not better impacts on health than other types of cardiovascular exercise such as jogging and cycling. The objective of this study was to evaluate and identify the effect of six weeks aerobic dance on cardiovascular fitness and weight loss among women. This study, which was held in Seremban Fit Challenge, used a quasiexperimental design. The subjects selected include a total of 14 women (n = 14) with age (32.4 years old ± 9.1), weight (65.93 kg ± 11.24) and height (165.36 ± 3.46) who joined the Seremban Fit Challenge Season 13. The subjects were asked to join an aerobic dance class with a duration of one hour for six weeks in a row. As for the outcome, cardiovascular fitness was measured with a 1-mile run test while any changes on weight were measured using the weighing scale. The result showed that there was a significant difference between pre and post-test for cardiovascular fitness when p = 0.02 < 0.05 and weight loss when p = 0.00 < 0.05. In conclusion, a six-week long aerobic dance program would have a positive effect on cardiovascular fitness and weight. Therefore, aerobic dance may be used as an alternative for people who wish to lead a healthy lifestyle in a fun way.

Keywords: Aerobic dance, cardiovascular fitness, weight loss, 1-mile run test.

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