Search results for: Second moment of area
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2745

Search results for: Second moment of area

1395 Critical Properties of Charged Filter Membranes for Their Applications in Filtration

Authors: S. Bokka

Abstract:

Fiber filter membranes have a high surface area-to-volume ratio and high porosity making them ideal for various filtration and separation applications. Using the conventional filter membrane, a filtration efficiency of > 95% can be achieved. Specific applications such as air and fuel filtration require nearly 100% filtration efficiency, which is harder to achieve using conventional filter membranes. To achieve high filtration efficiencies additional costs are incurred due to increasing the cost of membrane and operating cost. Due to the simultaneous electrostatic attraction and mechanical capture, the electret filters have shown nearly 100% filtration efficiency. This article presents an overview of the charged filter membrane, its applications, and a discussion on factors contributing to increasing charge.

Keywords: Charged fiber membrane, piezoelectric materials, filtration, polymeric materials.

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1394 Enhanced Traffic Light Detection Method Using Geometry Information

Authors: Changhwan Choi, Yongwan Park

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a method that allows faster and more accurate detection of traffic lights by a vision sensor during driving, DGPS is used to obtain physical location of a traffic light, extract from the image information of the vision sensor only the traffic light area at this location and ascertain if the sign is in operation and determine its form. This method can solve the problem in existing research where low visibility at night or reflection under bright light makes it difficult to recognize the form of traffic light, thus making driving unstable. We compared our success rate of traffic light recognition in day and night road environments. Compared to previous researches, it showed similar performance during the day but 50% improvement at night.

Keywords: Traffic light, Intelligent vehicle, Night, Detection, DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System).

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1393 Motivation among the Managers in Construction Companies

Authors: A.Marisa, Nor'Aini Yusof

Abstract:

Managers as the key employees have a very important role in maintaining the workforce performance which is critical to the construction companies- success in the future. If motivated employees start with motivated managers probably it would seem plausible if the de-motivated ones start with de-motivated managers. This study aims to analyze the importance of motivated managers to their successes and construction companies- successes. In this study, a quantitative method was used and the study area was in Medan, North Sumatera. Questionnaire survey was distributed directly to construction companies in Medan which are listed in the Construction Services Development Board. A total of 60 managers responded and the completed questionnaires were analyzed using the descriptive analysis. The results indicated that the respondents acknowledge the importance of motivation among themselves to the projects and construction companies- success, implying that it is vital to maintain the motivation and good performance of the workforce.

Keywords: construction companies, managers, motivation

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1392 Characterization and Modeling of Piezoelectric Integrated Micro Speakers for Audio Acoustic Actuation

Authors: J. Mendoza-López, S. Sánchez-Solano, J. L. Huertas-Díaz

Abstract:

An array of piezoelectric micro actuators can be used for radiation of an ultrasonic carrier signal modulated in amplitude with an acoustic signal, which yields audio frequency applications as the air acts as a self-demodulating medium. This application is known as the parametric array. We propose a parametric array with array elements based on existing piezoelectric micro ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) design techniques. In order to reach enough acoustic output power at a desired operating frequency, a proper ratio between number of array elements and array size needs to be used, with an array total area of the order of one cm square. The transducers presented are characterized via impedance, admittance, noise figure, transducer gain and frequency responses.

Keywords: Pizeoelectric, Microspeaker, MEMS, pMUT, Parametric Array

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1391 Predicting Mortality among Acute Burn Patients Using BOBI Score vs. FLAMES Score

Authors: S. Moustafa El Shanawany, I. Labib Salem, F. Mohamed Magdy Badr El Dine, H. Tag El Deen Abd Allah

Abstract:

Thermal injuries remain a global health problem and a common issue encountered in forensic pathology. They are a devastating cause of morbidity and mortality in children and adults especially in developing countries, causing permanent disfigurement, scarring and grievous hurt. Burns have always been a matter of legal concern in cases of suicidal burns, self-inflicted burns for false accusation and homicidal attempts. Assessment of burn injuries as well as rating permanent disabilities and disfigurement following thermal injuries for the benefit of compensation claims represents a challenging problem. This necessitates the development of reliable scoring systems to yield an expected likelihood of permanent disability or fatal outcome following burn injuries. The study was designed to identify the risk factors of mortality in acute burn patients and to evaluate the applicability of FLAMES (Fatality by Longevity, APACHE II score, Measured Extent of burn, and Sex) and BOBI (Belgian Outcome in Burn Injury) model scores in predicting the outcome. The study was conducted on 100 adult patients with acute burn injuries admitted to the Burn Unit of Alexandria Main University Hospital, Egypt from October 2014 to October 2015. Victims were examined after obtaining informed consent and the data were collected in specially designed sheets including demographic data, burn details and any associated inhalation injury. Each burn patient was assessed using both BOBI and FLAMES scoring systems. The results of the study show the mean age of patients was 35.54±12.32 years. Males outnumbered females (55% and 45%, respectively). Most patients were accidently burnt (95%), whereas suicidal burns accounted for the remaining 5%. Flame burn was recorded in 82% of cases. As well, 8% of patients sustained more than 60% of total burn surface area (TBSA) burns, 19% of patients needed mechanical ventilation, and 19% of burnt patients died either from wound sepsis, multi-organ failure or pulmonary embolism. The mean length of hospital stay was 24.91±25.08 days. The mean BOBI score was 1.07±1.27 and that of the FLAMES score was -4.76±2.92. The FLAMES score demonstrated an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.95 which was significantly higher than that of the BOBI score (0.883). A statistically significant association was revealed between both predictive models and the outcome. The study concluded that both scoring systems were beneficial in predicting mortality in acutely burnt patients. However, the FLAMES score could be applied with a higher level of accuracy.

Keywords: BOBI, Burns, FLAMES, scoring systems, outcome.

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1390 Streamflow Modeling for a Small Watershed Using Limited Hydrological Data

Authors: S. Chuenchooklin

Abstract:

This research was conducted in the Pua Watershed whereas located in the Upper Nan River Basin in Nan province, Thailand. Nan River basin originated in Nan province that comprises of many tributary streams to produce as inflow to the Sirikit dam provided huge reservoir with the storage capacity of 9510 million cubic meters. The common problems of most watersheds were found i.e. shortage water supply for consumption and agriculture utilizations, deteriorate of water quality, flood and landslide including debris flow, and unstable of riverbank. The Pua Watershed is one of several small river basins that flow through the Nan River Basin. The watershed includes 404 km2 representing the Pua District, the Upper Nan Basin, or the whole Nan River Basin, of 61.5%, 18.2% or 1.2% respectively. The Pua River is a main stream producing all year streamflow supplying the Pua District and an inflow to the Upper Nan Basin. Its length approximately 56.3 kilometers with an average slope of the channel by 1.9% measured. A diversion weir namely Pua weir bound the plain and mountainous areas with a very steep slope of the riverbed to 2.9% and drainage area of 149 km2 as upstream watershed while a mild slope of the riverbed to 0.2% found in a river reach of 20.3 km downstream of this weir, which considered as a gauged basin. However, the major branch streams of the Pua River are ungauged catchments namely: Nam Kwang and Nam Koon with the drainage area of 86 and 35 km2 respectively. These upstream watersheds produce runoff through the 3-streams downstream of Pua weir, Jao weir, and Kang weir, with an averaged annual runoff of 578 million cubic meters. They were analyzed using both statistical data at Pua weir and simulated data resulted from the hydrologic modeling system (HEC–HMS) which applied for the remaining ungauged basins. Since the Kwang and Koon catchments were limited with lack of hydrological data included streamflow and rainfall. Therefore, the mathematical modeling: HEC-HMS with the Snyder-s hydrograph synthesized and transposed methods were applied for those areas using calibrated hydrological parameters from the upstream of Pua weir with continuously daily recorded of streamflow and rainfall data during 2008-2011. The results showed that the simulated daily streamflow and sum up as annual runoff in 2008, 2010, and 2011 were fitted with observed annual runoff at Pua weir using the simple linear regression with the satisfied correlation R2 of 0.64, 062, and 0.59, respectively. The sensitivity of simulation results were come from difficulty using calibrated parameters i.e. lag-time, coefficient of peak flow, initial losses, uniform loss rates, and missing some daily observed data. These calibrated parameters were used to apply for the other 2-ungauged catchments and downstream catchments simulated.

Keywords: Streamflow, hydrological model, ungauged catchments.

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1389 RBF Based Face Recognition and Expression Analysis

Authors: Praseeda Lekshmi.V, Dr.M.Sasikumar

Abstract:

Facial recognition and expression analysis is rapidly becoming an area of intense interest in computer science and humancomputer interaction design communities. The most expressive way humans display emotions is through facial expressions. In this paper skin and non-skin pixels were separated. Face regions were extracted from the detected skin regions. Facial expressions are analyzed from facial images by applying Gabor wavelet transform (GWT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on face images. Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network is used to identify the person and to classify the facial expressions. Our method reliably works even with faces, which carry heavy expressions.

Keywords: Face Recognition, Radial Basis Function, Gabor Wavelet Transform, Discrete Cosine Transform

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1388 ELD79-LGD2006 Transformation Techniques Implementation and Accuracy Comparison in Tripoli Area, Libya

Authors: Jamal A. Gledan, Othman A. Azzeidani

Abstract:

During the last decade, Libya established a new Geodetic Datum called Libyan Geodetic Datum 2006 (LGD 2006) by using GPS, whereas the ground traversing method was used to establish the last Libyan datum which was called the Europe Libyan Datum 79 (ELD79). The current research paper introduces ELD79 to LGD2006 coordinate transformation technique, the accurate comparison of transformation between multiple regression equations and the three – parameters model (Bursa-Wolf). The results had been obtained show that the overall accuracy of stepwise multi regression equations is better than that can be determined by using Bursa-Wolf transformation model.

Keywords: Geodetic datum, horizontal control points, traditional similarity transformation model, unconventional transformation techniques.

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1387 Finding Viable Pollution Routes in an Urban Network under a Predefined Cost

Authors: Dimitra Alexiou, Stefanos Katsavounis, Ria Kalfakakou

Abstract:

In an urban area the determination of transportation routes should be planned so as to minimize the provoked pollution taking into account the cost of such routes. In the sequel these routes are cited as pollution routes.

The transportation network is expressed by a weighted graph G=(V,E,D,P) where every vertex represents a location to be served and contains unordered pairs (edges) of elements in V that indicate a simple road. The distances / cost and a weight that depict the provoked air pollution by a vehicle transition at every road are assigned to each road as well. These are the items of set D andrespectively.

Furthermore the investigated pollution routes must not exceed predefined corresponding values concerning the route cost and the route pollution level during the vehicle transition.

In this paper we present an algorithm that generates such routes in order that the decision maker selects the most appropriate one. 

Keywords: bi-criteria, pollution, shortest paths.

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1386 Stepwise Refinement in Executable-UML for Embedded System Design: A Preliminary Study

Authors: Nurul Azma Zakaria, Masahiro Kimura, Noriko Matsumoto, Norihiko Yoshida

Abstract:

The fast growth in complexity coupled with requests for shorter development periods for embedded systems are bringing demands towards a more effective, i.e. higher-abstract, design process for hardaware/software integrated design. In Software Engineering area, Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Executable UML (xUML) has been accepted to bring further improvement in software design. This paper constructs MDA and xUML stepwise transformations from an abstract specification model to a more concrete implementation model using the refactoring technique for hardaware/software integrated design. This approach provides clear and structured models which enables quick exploration and synthesis, and early stage verification.

Keywords: Hardware/software integrated design, model driven architecture, executable UML, refactoring.

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1385 Secondary Organic Contribution to Particles Formed on the Ice Melted Arctic Ocean

Authors: Petri Vaattovaara, Zoran D. Ristovski, Martin Graus, Marcus Müller, EijaAsmi, Luca Di Liberto, StaffanSjögren, Douglas Orsini, Caroline Leck, Ari Laaksonen

Abstract:

Due to climate warming and consequently due to ice and snow melting of the Arctic Ocean, the highly biologically active ocean surface area has been expanding quickly making possible longer marine biota growth seasons during polar summers. That increase the probability of the remote marine environment secondary contribution, especially secondary organic contribution, to the particle production and particle growth events and particle properties, consequently effecting on the open ocean, pack ice and ground based regions radiation budget and thus on the feedbacks between arctic biota, particles, clouds, and climate.

Keywords: Arctic Ocean, ice melting, nucleation, secondary organics, clouds, climate.

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1384 Pakistan Sign Language Recognition Using Statistical Template Matching

Authors: Aleem Khalid Alvi, M. Yousuf Bin Azhar, Mehmood Usman, Suleman Mumtaz, Sameer Rafiq, RaziUr Rehman, Israr Ahmed

Abstract:

Sign language recognition has been a topic of research since the first data glove was developed. Many researchers have attempted to recognize sign language through various techniques. However none of them have ventured into the area of Pakistan Sign Language (PSL). The Boltay Haath project aims at recognizing PSL gestures using Statistical Template Matching. The primary input device is the DataGlove5 developed by 5DT. Alternative approaches use camera-based recognition which, being sensitive to environmental changes are not always a good choice.This paper explains the use of Statistical Template Matching for gesture recognition in Boltay Haath. The system recognizes one handed alphabet signs from PSL.

Keywords: Gesture Recognition, Pakistan Sign Language, DataGlove, Human Computer Interaction, Template Matching, BoltayHaath

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1383 Categorical Data Modeling: Logistic Regression Software

Authors: Abdellatif Tchantchane

Abstract:

A Matlab based software for logistic regression is developed to enhance the process of teaching quantitative topics and assist researchers with analyzing wide area of applications where categorical data is involved. The software offers an option of performing stepwise logistic regression to select the most significant predictors. The software includes a feature to detect influential observations in data, and investigates the effect of dropping or misclassifying an observation on a predictor variable. The input data may consist either as a set of individual responses (yes/no) with the predictor variables or as grouped records summarizing various categories for each unique set of predictor variables' values. Graphical displays are used to output various statistical results and to assess the goodness of fit of the logistic regression model. The software recognizes possible convergence constraints when present in data, and the user is notified accordingly.

Keywords: Logistic regression, Matlab, Categorical data, Influential observation.

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1382 Effect of Particle Size on Alkali-Activation of Slag

Authors: E. Petrakis, V. Karmali, K. Komnitsas

Abstract:

In this study grinding experiments were performed in a laboratory ball mill using Polish ferronickel slag in order to study the effect of the particle size on alkali activation and the properties of the produced alkali activated materials (AAMs). In this regard, the particle size distribution and the specific surface area of the grinding products in relation to grinding time were assessed. The experimental results show that products with high compressive strength, e.g. higher than 60 MPa, can be produced when the slag median size decreased from 39.9 μm to 11.9 μm. Also, finer fractions are characterized by higher reactivity and result in the production of AAMs with lower porosity and better mechanical properties.

Keywords: Alkali activated materials, compressive strength, particle size distribution, slag.

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1381 An Amalgam Approach for DICOM Image Classification and Recognition

Authors: J. Umamaheswari, G. Radhamani

Abstract:

This paper describes about the process of recognition and classification of brain images such as normal and abnormal based on PSO-SVM. Image Classification is becoming more important for medical diagnosis process. In medical area especially for diagnosis the abnormality of the patient is classified, which plays a great role for the doctors to diagnosis the patient according to the severeness of the diseases. In case of DICOM images it is very tough for optimal recognition and early detection of diseases. Our work focuses on recognition and classification of DICOM image based on collective approach of digital image processing. For optimal recognition and classification Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used. The collective approach by using PSO-SVM gives high approximation capability and much faster convergence.

Keywords: Recognition, classification, Relaxed Median Filter, Adaptive thresholding, clustering and Neural Networks

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1380 Channels Splitting Strategy for Optical Local Area Networks of Passive Star Topology

Authors: Peristera Baziana

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a network configuration for a WDM LANs of passive star topology that assume that the set of data WDM channels is split into two separate sets of channels, with different access rights over them. Especially, a synchronous transmission WDMA access algorithm is adopted in order to increase the probability of successful transmission over the data channels and consequently to reduce the probability of data packets transmission cancellation in order to avoid the data channels collisions. Thus, a control pre-transmission access scheme is followed over a separate control channel. An analytical Markovian model is studied and the average throughput is mathematically derived. The performance is studied for several numbers of data channels and various values of control phase duration.

Keywords: Access algorithm, channels division, collisions avoidance, wavelength division multiplexing.

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1379 FPGA Based Implementation of Simplified Space Vector PWM Algorithm for Multilevel Inverter Fed Induction Motor Drives

Authors: Tapan Trivedi, Pramod Agarwal, Rajendrasinh Jadeja, Pragnesh Bhatt

Abstract:

Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation is popular for variable frequency drives. The method has several advantages over carried based PWM and is computation intensive. The implementation of SVPWM for multilevel inverter requires special attention and at the same time consumes considerable resources. Due to faster processing power and reduced over all computational burden, FPGAs are being investigated as an alternative for other controllers. In this paper, a space vector PWM algorithm is implemented using FPGA which requires less computational area and is modular in structure. The algorithm is verified experimentally for Neutral Point Clamped inverter using FPGA development board xc3s5000-4fg900.

Keywords: Modular structure, Multilevel inverter, Space Vector PWM, Switching States.

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1378 A Novel Nano-Scaled SRAM Cell

Authors: Arash Azizi Mazreah, Mohammad Reza Sahebi, Mohammad T. Manzuri Shalmani

Abstract:

To help overcome limits to the density of conventional SRAMs and leakage current of SRAM cell in nanoscaled CMOS technology, we have developed a four-transistor SRAM cell. The newly developed CMOS four-transistor SRAM cell uses one word-line and one bit-line during read/write operation. This cell retains its data with leakage current and positive feedback without refresh cycle. The new cell size is 19% smaller than a conventional six-transistor cell using same design rules. Also the leakage current of new cell is 60% smaller than a conventional sixtransistor SRAM cell. Simulation result in 65nm CMOS technology shows new cell has correct operation during read/write operation and idle mode.

Keywords: SRAM Cell, leakage current, cell area.

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1377 SVM Based Model as an Optimal Classifier for the Classification of Sonar Signals

Authors: Suresh S. Salankar, Balasaheb M. Patre

Abstract:

Research into the problem of classification of sonar signals has been taken up as a challenging task for the neural networks. This paper investigates the design of an optimal classifier using a Multi layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP NN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Results obtained using sonar data sets suggest that SVM classifier perform well in comparison with well-known MLP NN classifier. An average classification accuracy of 91.974% is achieved with SVM classifier and 90.3609% with MLP NN classifier, on the test instances. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve for the proposed SVM classifier on test data set is found as 0.981183, which is very close to unity and this clearly confirms the excellent quality of the proposed classifier. The SVM classifier employed in this paper is implemented using kernel Adatron algorithm is seen to be robust and relatively insensitive to the parameter initialization in comparison to MLP NN.

Keywords: Classification, MLP NN, backpropagation algorithm, SVM, Receiver Operating Characteristics.

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1376 Preparing the Curve Number (CN) and Surface Runoff Coefficient (C) Map of the Basin in the Aghche Watershed, Iran

Authors: Ali Gholami, Ebrahim Panahpour, Amir Hossein Davami

Abstract:

In this research, a part of Aghche basin in Isfahan province with an area about 2000 hectars, was chosen to be obtain curve number coefficient runoff and W indicator in second Cook method By using aerial photos 1968 and 1995, the satellite data of the IRS in 2008. Then the process of land use changes in the period of study and its effect on the changes of curve number (CN), W indicator and surface runoff coefficient (C) of the basin was investigated. These results showed that on the track of these land use changes the weight averages curve number (CN), surface runoff coefficient (C) and W indicator of the basin were increased to 0.92, 0.02 and 0.78 unit in the first period of study and 1.18, 0.03, 0.99 Unit in the second period of study respectively.

Keywords: Aghche Watershed, Curve Numbers (CV), Land UseChanges, Surface Runoff Coefficient(C) Map, W indicator

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1375 Heavy Metals in PM2.5 Aerosols in Urban Sites of Győr, Hungary

Authors: Zs. Csanádi, A. Szabó Nagy, J. Szabó, J. Erdős

Abstract:

Atmospheric concentrations of some heavy metal compounds (Pb, Cd, Ni) and the metalloid As were identified and determined in airborne PM2.5 particles in urban sites of Győr, northwest area of Hungary. PM2.5 aerosol samples were collected in two different sampling sites and the trace metal(loid) (Pb, Ni, Cd and As) content were analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The concentration of PM2.5 fraction was varied between 12.22 and 36.92 μg/m3 at the two sampling sites. The trend of heavy metal mean concentrations regarding the mean value of the two urban sites of Győr was found in decreasing order of Pb > Ni > Cd. The mean values were 7.59 ng/m3 for Pb, 0.34 ng/m3 for Ni and 0.11 ng/m3 for Cd, respectively. The metalloid As could be detected only in 3.57% of the total collected samples. The levels of PM2.5 bounded heavy metals were determined and compared with other cities located in Hungary.

Keywords: Aerosol, air quality, heavy metals, PM2.5.

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1374 Current Status of Nitrogen Saturation in the Upper Reaches of the Kanna River, Japan

Authors: Sakura Yoshii, Masakazu Abe, Akihiro Iijima

Abstract:

Nitrogen saturation has become one of the serious issues in the field of forest environment. The watershed protection forests located in the downwind hinterland of Tokyo Metropolitan Area are believed to be facing nitrogen saturation. In this study, we carefully focus on the balance of nitrogen between load and runoff. Annual nitrogen load via atmospheric deposition was estimated to 461.1 t-N/year in the upper reaches of the Kanna River. Annual nitrogen runoff to the forested headwater stream of the Kanna River was determined to 184.9 t-N/year, corresponding to 40.1% of the total nitrogen load. Clear seasonal change in NO3-N concentration was still observed. Therefore, watershed protection forest of the Kanna River is most likely to be in Stage-1 on the status of nitrogen saturation.

Keywords: Atmospheric deposition, Nitrogen accumulation, Denitrification, Forest ecosystems.

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1373 Proposal for Cost Calculation of Warehouse Processes and Its Usage for Setting Standards for Performance Evaluation

Authors: Tomas Cechura, Michal Simon

Abstract:

This paper describes a proposal for cost calculation of warehouse processes and its usage for setting standards for performance evaluation. One of the most common options of monitoring process performance is benchmarking. The typical outcome is whether the monitored object is better or worse than an average or standard. Traditional approaches, however, cannot find any specific opportunities to improve performance or eliminate inefficiencies in processes. Higher process efficiency can be achieved for example by cost reduction assuming that the same output is generated. However, costs can be reduced only if we know their structure and we are able to calculate them accurately. In the warehouse process area it is rather difficult because in most cases we have available only aggregated values with low explanatory ability. The aim of this paper is to create a suitable method for calculating the storage costs. At the end is shown a practical example of process calculation.

Keywords: Calculation, Costs, Performance, Process, Warehouse.

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1372 SEM-EBSD Observation for Microtubes by Using Dieless Drawing Process

Authors: Takashi Sakai, Itaru Kumisawa

Abstract:

Because die drawing requires insertion of a die, a plug, or a mandrel, higher precision and efficiency are demanded for drawing equipment for a tube having smaller diameter. Manufacturing of such tubes is also accompanied by problems such as cracking and fracture. We specifically examine dieless drawing, which is less affected by these drawing-related difficulties. This deformation process is governed by a similar principle to that of reduction in diameter when pulling a heated glass tube. We conducted dieless drawing of SUS304 stainless steel microtubes under various conditions with three factor parameters of heating temperature, area reduction, and drawing speed. We used SEM-EBSD to observe the processing condition effects on microstructural elements. As the result of this study, crystallographic orientation of microtube is clear by using SEM-EBSD analysis.

Keywords: Microtube, dieless drawing, IPF, inverse pole figure, GOS, grain orientation spread, crystallographic analysis.

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1371 Some Physical and Mechanical Properties of Russian Olive Fruit

Authors: D. Zare, F. Salmanizade, H. Safiyari

Abstract:

Physical and mechanical properties of Russian olive fruits were measured at moisture content of 14.43% w.b. The results revealed that the mean length, width and thickness of Russian olive fruits were 20.72, 15.73 and 14.69mm, respectively. Mean mass and volume of Russian olive fruits were measured as 1.45 g and 2.55 cm3, respectively. The sphericity, aspect ratio and surface area were calculated as 0.81, 0.72 and 8.96 cm2, respectively, while arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter and equivalent diameter of Russian olive fruits were 17.05, 16.83 and 16.84 mm, respectively. Whole fruit density, bulk density and porosity of jujube fruits were measured and found to be 1.01 g/cm3, 0.29 g/cm3 and 69.5%, respectively. The values of static coefficient of friction on three surfaces of glass, galvanized iron and plywood were 0.35, 0.36 and 0.43, respectively. The skin color (L*, a*, b*) varied from 9.92 to 16.08; 2.04 to 3.91 and 1.12 to 3.83, respectively. The values of rupture force, deformation, energy absorbed and hardness were found to be between 12.14-16.85 N, 2.16-4.25 mm, 3.42-6.99 N mm and 17.1-23.85 N/mm.

Keywords: Mechanical and Physical properties, Russian olive fruits, friction coefficient

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1370 Performance Evaluation of Single Basin Solar Still

Authors: Prem Singh, Jagdeep Singh

Abstract:

In an attempt to investigate the performance of single basin solar still for climate conditions of Ludhiana a single basin solar still was designed, fabricated and tested. The energy balance equations for various parts of the still are solved by Gauss-Seidel iteration method. Computer model was made and experimentally validated. The validated computer model was used to estimate the annual distillation yield and performance ratio of the still for Ludhiana. The Theoretical and experimental distillation yield were 4318.79 ml and 3850 ml respectively for the typical day. The predicted distillation yield was 12.5% higher than the experimental yield. The annual distillation yield per square metre aperture area and annual performance ratio for single basin solar still is 1095 litres and 0.43 respectively. The payback period for micro-stepped solar still is 2.5 years.

Keywords: Solar distillation, solar still, single basin, still.

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1369 A Neural Network Based Facial Expression Analysis using Gabor Wavelets

Authors: Praseeda Lekshmi.V, Dr.M.Sasikumar

Abstract:

Facial expression analysis is rapidly becoming an area of intense interest in computer science and human-computer interaction design communities. The most expressive way humans display emotions is through facial expressions. In this paper we present a method to analyze facial expression from images by applying Gabor wavelet transform (GWT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on face images. Radial Basis Function (RBF) Network is used to classify the facial expressions. As a second stage, the images are preprocessed to enhance the edge details and non uniform down sampling is done to reduce the computational complexity and processing time. Our method reliably works even with faces, which carry heavy expressions.

Keywords: Face Expression, Radial Basis Function, GaborWavelet Transform, Human Computer Interaction.

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1368 Optimized Multiplier Based upon 6-Input Luts and Vedic Mathematics

Authors: Zulhelmi Zakaria, Shuja A. Abbasi

Abstract:

A new approach has been used for optimized design of multipliers based upon the concepts of Vedic mathematics. The design has been targeted to state-of-the art field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The multiplier generates partial products using Vedic mathematics method by employing basic 4x4 multipliers designed by exploiting 6-input LUTs and multiplexers in the same slices resulting in drastic reduction in area. The multiplier is realized on Xilinx FPGAs using devices Virtex-5 and Virtex-6.Carry Chain Adder was employed to obtain final products. The performance of the proposed multiplier was examined and compared to well-known multipliers such as Booth, Carry Save, Carry ripple, and array multipliers. It is demonstrated that the proposed multiplier is superior in terms of speed as well as power consumption.

Keywords: Multiplier, Vedic Mathematics, LUTs, FPGAs.

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1367 Improving the Dissolution Rate of Folic Acid via the Antisolvent Vapour Precipitation

Authors: J. Y. Tan, L. C. Lum, M. G. Lee, S. Mansouri, K. Hapgood, X. D. Chen, M. W. Woo

Abstract:

Folic acid (FA) is known to be an important supplement to prevent neural tube defect (NTD) in pregnant women. Similar to some commercial formulations, sodium bicarbonate solution is used as a solvent for FA. This work uses the antisolvent vapour precipitation (AVP), incorporating ethanol vapour as the convective drying medium in place of air to produce branch-like micro-structure FA particles. Interestingly, the dissolution rate of the resultant particle is 2-3 times better than the particle produce from conventional air drying due to the higher surface area of particles produced. The higher dissolution rate could possibly improve the delivery and absorption of FA in human body. This application could potentially be extended to other commercial products, particularly in less soluble drugs to improve its solubility.

Keywords: Absorption, antisolvent vapour precipitation, dissolution rate, folic acid.

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1366 The Influence of Meteorological Properties on the Power of Night Radiation Cooling

Authors: Othmane Fahim, Naoual Belouaggadia. Charifa David, Mohamed Ezzine

Abstract:

To make better use of cooling resources, systems have been derived on the basis of the use of night radiator systems for heat pumping. Using the TRNSYS tool we determined the influence of the climatic characteristics of the two zones in Morocco on the temperature of the outer surface of a Photovoltaic Thermal Panel “PVT” made of aluminum. The proposal to improve the performance of the panel allowed us to have little heat absorption during the day and give the same performance of a panel made of aluminum at night. The variation in the granite-based panel temperature recorded a deviation from the other materials of 0.5 °C, 2.5 °C on the first day respectively in Marrakech and Casablanca, and 0.2 °C and 3.2 °C on the second night. Power varied between 110.16 and 32.01 W/m² marked in Marrakech, to be the most suitable area to practice night cooling by night radiation.

Keywords: Morocco, TRANSYS, radiative cooling.

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