Search results for: structural form
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2883

Search results for: structural form

1413 Biogas Yield Potential Research of Tithonia diversifolia in Mesophilic Anaerobic Fermentation in China

Authors: Duan Huanyun, Xu Rui, Li Jianchang, Yuan Yage, Wang Qiuxia, Nomana Intekhab Hadi

Abstract:

BioEnergy is an archetypal appropriate technology and alternate source of energy in rural areas of China, and can meet the basic need for cooking fuel in rural areas. The paper introduces with an alternate mean of research that can accelerate the biogas energy production. Tithonia diversifolia or the Tree marigold can be hailed as mesophillic anaerobic digestion to increase the production of more Bioenergy. Tithonia diversifolia is very native to Mexico and Central America, which can be served as ornamental plants- green manure and can prevent soil erosion. Tithonia diversifolia is widely grown and known to Asia, Africa, America and Australia as well. Nowadays, Considering China’s geographical condition it is found that Tithonia diversifolia is widely growing plant in the many tropical and subtropical regions of southern Yunnan- which can have great usage in accelerating and increasing the Bioenergy production technology. The paper discussed aiming at proving possibility that Tithonia diversifolia can be applied in biogas fermentation and its biogas production potential, the research carried experiment on Tithonia diversifolia biogas fermentation under the mesophilic condition (35 Celsius Degree). The result revealed that Tithonia diversifolia can be used as biogas fermentative material, and 6% concentration can get the best biogas production, with the TS biogas production rate 656mL/g and VS biogas production rate 801mL/g. It is well addressed that Tithonia diversifolia grows wildly in 53 Counties and 9 cities of Yunnan Province, which mainly grows in form of the road side plants, the edge of the field, countryside, forest edge, open space; of which demersum-natures can form dense monospecific beds -causing serious harm to agricultural production landforms threatening the ecological system as a potentially harmful exotic plant. There are also found the three types of invasive daisy alien plants -Eupatorium adenophorum, Eupatorium Odorata and Tithonia diversifolia in Yunnan Province of China-among them the Tithonia diversifolia is responsible for causing serious harm to agricultural production. In this paper we have designed the experimental explanation of Biogas energy production that requires anaerobic environment and some microbes; Tithonia diversifolia plant has been taken into consideration while carrying experiments and with successful resulting of generating more BioEnergy emphasizing on the practical applications of Tithonia diversifolia. This paper aims at- to find a new mechanism to provide a more scientific basis for the development of this plant herbicides in Biogas energy and to improve the utilization throughout the world as well.

Keywords: Biogas Energy Production, Tithonia diversifolia, Energy Development, Ecological Agriculture, Eupatorium adenophorum, Eupatorium odorata, Anaerobic Fermentation, Biogas Production Potential, Mesopilic Fermentation.

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1412 Synthesis and Evaluation of Photovoltaic Properties of an Organic Dye for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Authors: M. Hosseinnejad, K. Gharanjig

Abstract:

In the present study, metal free organic dyes were prepared and used as photo-sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells. Double rhodanine was utilized as the fundamental electron acceptor group to which electron donor aldehyde with varying substituents was attached to produce new organic dye. This dye was first purified and then characterized by analytical techniques. Spectrophotometric evaluations of the prepared dye in solution and on a nano anatase TiO2 substrate were carried out in order to assess possible changes in the status of the dyes in different environments. The results show that the dye form j-type aggregates on the nano TiO2. Additionally, oxidation potential measurements were also carried out. Finally, dye sensitized solar cell based on synthesized dye was fabricated in order to determine the photovoltaic behavior and conversion efficiency of individual dye.

Keywords: Conversion efficiency, dye-sensitized solar cell, photovoltaic behavior, sensitizer.

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1411 Design Exploration on Mixed-Use Development of Island House: Take the Southeast Coastal Area of Chinese as an Example

Authors: Fu Jiayan, Wang Zhu, Sun Jiaojiao

Abstract:

Mixed-use development is one of the most important trends in new island house transformation along southeast coastal area in China. Unique island geographical environment and profound fishing village culture coexist for a long time in this. With artistic creation for the purpose of the "live-work" houses are in a large number of emergence, however, still lack of systematic strategy. Based on space effect from marine resources to regional human settlements, this article teases out the evolution regularity of island settlement context and architectural form, then, puts forward the formation mechanism and construction model of art island houses. Thereby, to further explore space design method and site creation strategy of mixed-use development.

Keywords: Mixed-use, Island House, Art Creation, Southeast Coastal Area of Chinese.

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1410 Conventional and Fuzzy Logic Controllers at Generator Location for Low Frequency Oscillation Damping

Authors: K. Prasertwong, N. Mithulananthan

Abstract:

This paper investigates and compares performance of various conventional and fuzzy logic based controllers at generator locations for oscillation damping. Performance of combination of conventional and fuzzy logic based controllers also studied by comparing overshoot on the active power deviation response for a small disturbance and damping ratio of the critical mode. Fuzzy logic based controllers can not be modeled in the state space form to get the eigenvalues and corresponding damping ratios of various modes of generators and controllers. Hence, a new method based on tracing envelop of time domain waveform is also presented and used in the paper for comparing performance of controllers. The paper also shows that if the fuzzy based controllers designed separately combining them could not lead to a better performance.

Keywords: Automatic voltage regulator, damping ratio, fuzzylogic controller, power system stabilizer.

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1409 Machine Learning Approach for Identifying Dementia from MRI Images

Authors: S. K. Aruna, S. Chitra

Abstract:

This research paper presents a framework for classifying Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images for Dementia. Dementia, an age-related cognitive decline is indicated by degeneration of cortical and sub-cortical structures. Characterizing morphological changes helps understand disease development and contributes to early prediction and prevention of the disease. Modelling, that captures the brain’s structural variability and which is valid in disease classification and interpretation is very challenging. Features are extracted using Gabor filter with 0, 30, 60, 90 orientations and Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). It is proposed to normalize and fuse the features. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) selects features. Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier with different kernels is evaluated, for efficiency to classify dementia. This study evaluates the presented framework using MRI images from OASIS dataset for identifying dementia. Results showed that the proposed feature fusion classifier achieves higher classification accuracy.

Keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging, dementia, Gabor filter, gray level co-occurrence matrix, support vector machine.

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1408 Optical and Structural Properties of a ZnS Buffer Layer Fabricated with Deposition Temperature of RF Magnetron Sputtering System

Authors: Won Song, Bo-Ra Koo, Seok Eui Choi, Yong-Taeg Oh, Dong-Chan Shin

Abstract:

Optical properties of sputter-deposited ZnS thin films were investigated as potential replacements for CBD(chemical bath deposition) CdS buffer layers in the application of CIGS solar cells. ZnS thin films were fabricated on glass substrates at RT, 150oC, 200oC, and 250oC with 50 sccm Ar gas using an RF magnetron sputtering system. The crystal structure of the thin film is found to be zinc blende (cubic) structure. Lattice parameter of ZnS is slightly larger than CdS on the plane and thus better matched with that of CIGS. Within a 400-800 nm wavelength region, the average transmittance was larger than 75%. When the deposition temperature of the thin film was increased, the blue shift phenomenon was enhanced. Band gap energy of the ZnS thin film tended to increase as the deposition temperature increased. ZnS thin film is a promising material system for the CIGS buffer layer, in terms of ease of processing, low cost, environmental friendliness, higher transparency, and electrical properties

Keywords: ZnS thin film, Buffer layer, CIGS, Solar cell.

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1407 Contribution to Active and Passive Control of Flow around a Cylinder

Authors: M. Tahar Bouzaher

Abstract:

This numerical study aims to develop a coupled, passive and active control strategy of the flow around a cylinder of diameter D, and Re=4000. The strategy consists to put a cylindrical rod in front of a deforming cylinder. The quasi- elliptical deformation of cylinder follow a sinusoidal law in order to reduce the drag force. To analyze the evolution of unsteady vortices, the Large Eddy Simulation approach is used in this 2D simulation, carried out using ANSYS – Fluent. The movement of deformation is reproduced using an internal subroutine, introduced in the form of a User Defined Function UDF. Two diameters of the rod were tested for a rod placed at a distance L = 3 ×d, with an amplitudes of deformation A = 5%, A = 25% and A = 50% of the cylinder diameter, the frequency of deformation take the values fd = 1fn, 5fn and 8fn, which fn represents the naturel vortex shedding frequency. The results show substantial changes in the flow behavior and for a rod of 6mm (1% D) with amplitude A = 25%, and with a 2fn frequency, drag reduction of 60% was recorded.

Keywords: CFD, Flow separation, control, Boundary layer, rod, Cylinder.

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1406 Seismic Behavior of Three-Dimensional Steel Buildings with Post-Tensioned Connections

Authors: M. E. Soto-López, I. Gaxiola-Avendaño, A. Reyes-Salazar, E. Bojórquez, S. E. Ruiz

Abstract:

The seismic responses of steel buildings with semirigid post-tensioned connections (PC) are estimated and compared with those of steel buildings with typical rigid (welded) connections (RC). The comparison is made in terms of global and local response parameters. The results indicate that the seismic responses in terms of interstory shears, roof displacements, axial load and bending moments are smaller for the buildings with PC connection. The difference is larger for global than for local parameters, which in turn varies from one column location to another. The reason for this improved behavior is that the buildings with PC dissipate more hysteretic energy than those with RC. In addition, unlike the case of buildings with WC, for the PC structures the hysteretic energy is mostly dissipated at the connections, which implies that structural damage in beams and columns is not significant. According to these results, steel buildings with PC are a viable option in high seismicity areas because of their smaller response and self-centering connection capacity as well as the fact that brittle failure is avoided.

Keywords: Inter-story drift, Nonlinear time-history analysis, Post-tensioned connections, Steel buildings.

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1405 Modeling Thermo-Photo-Voltaic Selective Emitter Based on a Semi-Transparent Emitter with Integrated Narrow Band-Pass Pre-Filter

Authors: F. Stake

Abstract:

This work is a parametric study combining simple and well known optical theories. These simple theories are arranged to form part of one answer to the question: “Can a semi-transparent Thermo-Photo-Voltaic (TPV) emitter have an optical extinction spectrum so much greater than its optical absorption spectrum that it becomes its own band-pass pre-filter, and if so, how well might it be expected to suppress light of undesired wavelengths?” In the report, hypothetical materials and operating temperatures will be used for comparative analyses only. Thermal emission properties of these hypothetical materials were created using two openly available FORTRAN programs. Results indicate that if using highly transparent materials it may be possible to create a thermal emitter that is its own band-pass pre-filter.

Keywords: Christensen effect, DISORT, index of refraction, scattering.

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1404 Statistical Analysis of Stresses in Rigid Pavement

Authors: Aleš Florian, Lenka Ševelová, Rudolf Hela

Abstract:

Complex statistical analysis of stresses in concrete slab of the real type of rigid pavement is performed. The computational model of the pavement is designed as a spatial (3D) model, is based on a nonlinear variant of the finite element method that respects the structural nonlinearity, enables to model different arrangement of joints, and the entire model can be loaded by the thermal load. Interaction of adjacent slabs in joints and contact of the slab and the subsequent layer are modeled with help of special contact elements. Four concrete slabs separated by transverse and longitudinal joints and the additional subgrade layers and soil to the depth of about 3m are modeled. The thickness of individual layers, physical and mechanical properties of materials, characteristics of joints, and the temperature of the upper and lower surface of slabs are supposed to be random variables. The modern simulation technique Updated Latin Hypercube Sampling with 20 simulations is used for statistical analysis. As results, the estimates of basic statistics of the principal stresses s1 and s3 in 53 points on the upper and lower surface of the slabs are obtained.

Keywords: concrete, FEM, pavement, simulation.

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1403 Evaluations of 3D Concrete Printing Produced in the Environment of United Arab Emirates

Authors: Adil K. Tamimi, Tarig Ali, Rawan Anoohi, Ahmed Rajput, Kaltham Alkamali

Abstract:

3D concrete printing is one of the most innovative and modern techniques in the field of construction that achieved several milestones in that field for the following advantages: saving project’s time, ability to execute complicated shapes, reduce waste and low cost. However, the concept of 3D printing in UAE is relatively new where construction teams, including clients, consultants, and contractors, do not have the required knowledge and experience in the field. This is the most significant obstacle for the construction parties, which make them refrained from using 3D concrete printing compared to conventional concreting methods. This study shows the historical development of the 3D concrete printing, its advantages, and the challenges facing this innovation. Concrete mixes and materials have been proposed and evaluated to select the best combination for successful 3D concrete printing. The main characteristics of the 3D concrete printing in the fresh and hardened states are considered, such as slump test, flow table, compressive strength, tensile, and flexural strengths. There is need to assess the structural stability of the 3D concrete by testing the bond between interlayers of the concrete.  

Keywords: 3D printing, concrete mixes, workability, compressive strength, slump test, tensile strength, flexural strength.

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1402 Crack Width Evaluation for Flexural RC Members with Axial Tension

Authors: Sukrit Ghorai

Abstract:

Proof of controlling crack width is a basic condition for securing suitable performance in serviceability limit state. The cracking in concrete can occur at any time from the casting of time to the years after the concrete has been set in place. Most codes struggle with offering procedure for crack width calculation. There is lack in availability of design charts for designers to compute crack width with ease. The focus of the study is to utilize design charts and parametric equations in calculating crack width with minimum error. The paper contains a simplified procedure to calculate crack width for reinforced concrete (RC) sections subjected to bending with axial tensile force following the guidelines of Euro code [DS EN-1992-1-1 & DS EN-1992-1-2]. Numerical examples demonstrate the application of the suggested procedure. Comparison with parallel analytical tools supports the validity of result and show the percentage deviation of crack width in both the procedures. The technique is simple, user friendly and ready to evolve for a greater spectrum of section sizes and materials.

Keywords: Concrete structures, crack width calculation, serviceability limit state, structural design, bridge engineering.

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1401 Formation of (Ga,Mn)N Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor by Manganese Ion Implantation

Authors: N.S. Pradhan, S.K. Dubey, A. D.Yadav, Arvind Singh, D.C. Kothari

Abstract:

Un-doped GaN film of thickness 1.90 mm, grown on sapphire substrate were uniformly implanted with 325 keV Mn+ ions for various fluences varying from 1.75 x 1015 - 2.0 x 1016 ions cm-2 at 3500 C substrate temperature. The structural, morphological and magnetic properties of Mn ion implanted gallium nitride samples were studied using XRD, AFM and SQUID techniques. XRD of the sample implanted with various ion fluences showed the presence of different magnetic phases of Ga3Mn, Ga0.6Mn0.4 and Mn4N. However, the compositions of these phases were found to be depended on the ion fluence. AFM images of non-implanted sample showed micrograph with rms surface roughness 2.17 nm. Whereas samples implanted with the various fluences showed the presence of nano clusters on the surface of GaN. The shape, size and density of the clusters were found to vary with respect to ion fluence. Magnetic moment versus applied field curves of the samples implanted with various fluences exhibit the hysteresis loops. The Curie temperature estimated from zero field cooled and field cooled curves for the samples implanted with the fluence of 1.75 x 1015, 1.5 x 1016 and 2.0 x 1016 ions cm-2 was found to be 309 K, 342 K and 350 K respectively.

Keywords: GaN, Ion implantation, XRD, AFM, SQUID

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1400 Syntactic Recognition of Distorted Patterns

Authors: Marek Skomorowski

Abstract:

In syntactic pattern recognition a pattern can be represented by a graph. Given an unknown pattern represented by a graph g, the problem of recognition is to determine if the graph g belongs to a language L(G) generated by a graph grammar G. The so-called IE graphs have been defined in [1] for a description of patterns. The IE graphs are generated by so-called ETPL(k) graph grammars defined in [1]. An efficient, parsing algorithm for ETPL(k) graph grammars for syntactic recognition of patterns represented by IE graphs has been presented in [1]. In practice, structural descriptions may contain pattern distortions, so that the assignment of a graph g, representing an unknown pattern, to a graph language L(G) generated by an ETPL(k) graph grammar G is rejected by the ETPL(k) type parsing. Therefore, there is a need for constructing effective parsing algorithms for recognition of distorted patterns. The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to syntactic recognition of distorted patterns. To take into account all variations of a distorted pattern under study, a probabilistic description of the pattern is needed. A random IE graph approach is proposed here for such a description ([2]).

Keywords: Syntactic pattern recognition, Distorted patterns, Random graphs, Graph grammars.

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1399 Scintigraphic Image Coding of Region of Interest Based On SPIHT Algorithm Using Global Thresholding and Huffman Coding

Authors: A. Seddiki, M. Djebbouri, D. Guerchi

Abstract:

Medical imaging produces human body pictures in digital form. Since these imaging techniques produce prohibitive amounts of data, compression is necessary for storage and communication purposes. Many current compression schemes provide a very high compression rate but with considerable loss of quality. On the other hand, in some areas in medicine, it may be sufficient to maintain high image quality only in region of interest (ROI). This paper discusses a contribution to the lossless compression in the region of interest of Scintigraphic images based on SPIHT algorithm and global transform thresholding using Huffman coding.

Keywords: Global Thresholding Transform, Huffman Coding, Region of Interest, SPIHT Coding, Scintigraphic images.

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1398 A Case Study of an Online Assignment Submission System at UOM

Authors: V. Ramnarain-Seetohul, J. Abdool Karim, A. Amir

Abstract:

Almost all universities include some form of assignment in their courses. The assignments are either carried out in either in groups or individually. To effectively manage these submitted assignments, a well-designed assignment submission system is needed, hence the need for an online assignment submission system to facilitate the distribution, and collection of assignments on due dates. The objective of such system is to facilitate interaction of lecturers and students for assessment and grading purposes. The aim of this study was to create a web based online assignment submission system for University of Mauritius. The system was created to eliminate the traditional process of giving an assignment and collecting the answers for the assignment. Lecturers can also create automated assessment to assess the students online. Moreover, the online submission system consists of an automatic mailing system which acts as a reminder for students about the deadlines of the posted assignments. System was tested to measure its acceptance rate among both student and lecturers.

Keywords: Assignment, assessment, online, submission

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1397 Human Resources and Business Result: An Empirical Approach Based On RBV Theory

Authors: XhevrieMamaqi

Abstract:

Organization capacity learning is a process referring to the sum total of individual and collective learning through training programs, experience and experimentation, among others. Today, in-business ongoing training is one of the most important strategies for human capital development and it is crucial to sustain and improve workers’ knowledge and skills. Many organizations, firms and business are adopting a strategy of continuous learning, encouraging employees to learn new skills continually to be innovative and to try new processes and work in order to achieve a competitive advantage and superior business results. This paper uses the Resource Based View and Capacities (RBV) approach to construct a hypothetical relationships model between training and business results. The test of the model is applied on transversal data. A sample of 266 business of Spanish sector service has been selected. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to estimate the relationship between ongoing training, represented by two latent dimension denominated Human and Social Capital resources and economic business results. The coefficients estimated have shown the efficient of some training aspectsexplaining the variation in business results.

Keywords: Business results, Human and Social Capital resources, training, RBV Theory, SEM.

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1396 Soil Resistivity Structure and Its Implication on the Pole Grid Resistance for Transmission Lines

Authors: M. Nassereddine, J. Rizk, G. Nasserddine

Abstract:

High Voltage (HV) transmission lines are widely spread around residential places. They take all forms of shapes: concrete, steel, and timber poles. Earth grid always form part of the HV transmission structure, whereat soil resistivity value is one of the main inputs when it comes to determining the earth grid requirements. In this paper, the soil structure and its implication on the electrode resistance of HV transmission poles will be explored. In Addition, this paper will present simulation for various soil structures using IEEE and Australian standards to verify the computation with CDEGS software. Furthermore, the split factor behavior under different soil resistivity structure will be presented using CDEGS simulations.

Keywords: Earth Grid, EPR, High Voltage, Soil Resistivity Structure, Split Factor, Step Voltage, Touch Voltage.

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1395 ANN Modeling for Cadmium Biosorption from Potable Water Using a Packed-Bed Column Process

Authors: Dariush Jafari, Seyed Ali Jafari

Abstract:

The recommended limit for cadmium concentration in potable water is less than 0.005 mg/L. A continuous biosorption process using indigenous red seaweed, Gracilaria corticata, was performed to remove cadmium from the potable water. The process was conducted under fixed conditions and the breakthrough curves were achieved for three consecutive sorption-desorption cycles. A modeling based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was employed to fit the experimental breakthrough data. In addition, a simplified semi empirical model, Thomas, was employed for this purpose. It was found that ANN well described the experimental data (R2>0.99) while the Thomas prediction were a bit less successful with R2>0.97. The adjusted design parameters using the nonlinear form of Thomas model was in a good agreement with the experimentally obtained ones. The results approve the capability of ANN to predict the cadmium concentration in potable water.

Keywords: ANN, biosorption, cadmium, packed-bed, potable water.

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1394 Architectural Building Safety and Health Performance Model for Stratified Low-Cost Housing: Education and Management Tool for Building Managers

Authors: Zainal Abidin Akasah, Maizam Alias, Azuin Ramli

Abstract:

The safety and health performances aspects of a building are the most challenging aspect of facility management. It requires a deep understanding by the building managers on the factors that contribute to health and safety performances. This study attempted to develop an explanatory architectural safety performance model for stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The proposed Building Safety and Health Performance (BSHP) model was tested empirically through a survey on 308 construction practitioners using partial least squares (PLS) and structural equation modelling (SEM) tool. Statistical analysis results supports the conclusion that architecture, building services, external environment, management approaches and maintenance management have positive influence on safety and health performance of stratified low-cost housing in Malaysia. The findings provide valuable insights for construction industry to introduce BSHP model in the future where the model could be used as a guideline for training purposes of managers and better planning and implementation of building management.

Keywords: Building management, stratified low-cost housing, Safety and health model

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1393 Augmented Reality and Storytelling in Cities: An Application to Lisbon Street Art

Authors: Francisco Guimarães, Mauro Figueiredo, José Rodrigues

Abstract:

Cities are spaces of memory with several zones (parts of cities) with their own history and cultural events. Today, cities are also marked by a form of intangible cultural heritage like street art, which creates a visual culture based on the process of reflection about the city and the world. To link these realities and create a personal user interaction with this cultural heritage it is important to capture the story and aesthetics, and find alternatives to immerse the user in these spaces of memory. To that end, this article presents a project which combines Augmented Reality technologies and concepts of Transmedia Storytelling applied to Lisbon City, using Street Art artifacts as markers in a framework of digital media-art.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, urban art, street art, augmented reality, transmedia storytelling, digital media-art, socio-museology.

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1392 Seismic Behavior Evaluation of Semi-Rigid Steel Frames with Knee Bracing by Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA)

Authors: Farzan Namvari, Panam Zarfam

Abstract:

Nowadays use of a new structural bracing system called 'Knee Bracing System' have taken the specialists attention too much. On the other hand nonlinear static analysis procedures in estimate structures performance in earthquake time have taken attention too much. One of these procedure is modal pushover analysis (MPA) procedure. The accuracy of MPA procedure for simple steel moment resisting frame has been verified and considered in Chintanapakdee and Chopra-s article in 2003. Since the accuracy of MPA procedure has not verified for semi-rigid steel frames with knee bracing, we are going to get through with this matter in this study. For this purpose, the selected structures are four frames with different heights, 5 to 20 stories, will be designed according to AISC criteria. Then MPA procedure is used for the same frames with different rigidity percentiles of connections. The results of seismic responses are compared with dynamic nonlinear response history analysis as exact procedure and accuracy of MPA procedure is evaluated. It seems that MPA procedure accuracy will come down by reduction of the rigidity percentiles of semi-rigid connections.

Keywords: Knee Bracing, Modal Pushover Analysis, SeismicBehavior, Semi-Rigid Connections.

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1391 Bond Graph and Bayesian Networks for Reliable Diagnosis

Authors: Abdelaziz Zaidi, Belkacem Ould Bouamama, Moncef Tagina

Abstract:

Bond Graph as a unified multidisciplinary tool is widely used not only for dynamic modelling but also for Fault Detection and Isolation because of its structural and causal proprieties. A binary Fault Signature Matrix is systematically generated but to make the final binary decision is not always feasible because of the problems revealed by such method. The purpose of this paper is introducing a methodology for the improvement of the classical binary method of decision-making, so that the unknown and identical failure signatures can be treated to improve the robustness. This approach consists of associating the evaluated residuals and the components reliability data to build a Hybrid Bayesian Network. This network is used in two distinct inference procedures: one for the continuous part and the other for the discrete part. The continuous nodes of the network are the prior probabilities of the components failures, which are used by the inference procedure on the discrete part to compute the posterior probabilities of the failures. The developed methodology is applied to a real steam generator pilot process.

Keywords: Redundancy relations, decision-making, Bond Graph, reliability, Bayesian Networks.

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1390 Origins of Chicago Common Brick: Examining a Masonry Shell Encasing a New Ando Museum

Authors: Daniel Joseph Whittaker

Abstract:

This paper examines the broad array of historic sites from which Chicago common brick has emerged, and the methods this brick has been utilized within and around a new hybrid structure recently completed-and periodically opened to the public, as a private art, architecture, design, and social activism gallery space. Various technical aspects regarding the structural and aesthetic reuse methods of salvaged brick within the interior and exterior of this new Tadao Ando-designed building in Lincoln Park, Chicago, are explored. This paper expands specifically upon the multiple possible origins of Chicago common brick, as well as the extant brick currently composing the surrounding alley which is integral to demarcating the southern site boundary of the old apartment building now gallery. Themes encompassing Chicago’s archeological and architectural history, local resource extraction, and labor practices permeate this paper’s investigation into urban, social and architectural history and building construction technology advancements through time.

Keywords: Masonry construction, history brickmaking, private museums, Chicago Illinois, Tadao Ando.

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1389 Review of Surface Electromyogram Signals: Its Analysis and Applications

Authors: Anjana Goen, D. C. Tiwari

Abstract:

Electromyography (EMG) is the study of muscles function through analysis of electrical activity produced from muscles. This electrical activity which is displayed in the form of signal is the result of neuromuscular activation associated with muscle contraction. The most common techniques of EMG signal recording are by using surface and needle/wire electrode where the latter is usually used for interest in deep muscle. This paper will focus on surface electromyogram (SEMG) signal. During SEMG recording, several problems had to been countered such as noise, motion artifact and signal instability. Thus, various signal processing techniques had been implemented to produce a reliable signal for analysis. SEMG signal finds broad application particularly in biomedical field. It had been analyzed and studied for various interests such as neuromuscular disease, enhancement of muscular function and human-computer interface.

Keywords: Evolvable hardware (EHW), Functional Electrical Simulation (FES), Hidden Markov Model (HMM), Hjorth Time Domain (HTD).

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1388 Solution of S3 Problem of Deformation Mechanics for a Definite Condition and Resulting Modifications of Important Failure Theories

Authors: Ranajay Bhowmick

Abstract:

Analysis of stresses for an infinitesimal tetrahedron leads to a situation where we obtain a cubic equation consisting of three stress invariants. This cubic equation, when solved for a definite condition, gives the principal stresses directly without requiring any cumbersome and time-consuming trial and error methods or iterative numerical procedures. Since the failure criterion of different materials are generally expressed as functions of principal stresses, an attempt has been made in this study to incorporate the solutions of the cubic equation in the form of principal stresses, obtained for a definite condition, into some of the established failure theories to determine their modified descriptions. It has been observed that the failure theories can be represented using the quadratic stress invariant and the orientation of the principal plane.

Keywords: Cubic equation, stress invariant, trigonometric, explicit solution, principal stress, failure criterion.

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1387 Performance Analysis of M-Ary Pulse Position Modulation in Multihop Multiple Input Multiple Output-Free Space Optical System over Uncorrelated Gamma-Gamma Atmospheric Turbulence Channels

Authors: Hechmi Saidi, Noureddine Hamdi

Abstract:

The performance of Decode and Forward (DF) multihop Free Space Optical ( FSO) scheme deploying Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) configuration under Gamma-Gamma (GG) statistical distribution, that adopts M-ary Pulse Position Modulation (MPPM) coding, is investigated. We have extracted exact and estimated values of Symbol-Error Rates (SERs) respectively. A closed form formula related to the Probability Density Function (PDF) is expressed for our designed system. Thanks to the use of DF multihop MIMO FSO configuration and MPPM signaling, atmospheric turbulence is combatted; hence the transmitted signal quality is improved.

Keywords: FSO, MIMO, MIMO, multihop, DF, SER, GG channel.

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1386 Segmentation Problems and Solutions in Printed Degraded Gurmukhi Script

Authors: M. K. Jindal, G. S. Lehal, R. K. Sharma

Abstract:

Character segmentation is an important preprocessing step for text recognition. In degraded documents, existence of touching characters decreases recognition rate drastically, for any optical character recognition (OCR) system. In this paper we have proposed a complete solution for segmenting touching characters in all the three zones of printed Gurmukhi script. A study of touching Gurmukhi characters is carried out and these characters have been divided into various categories after a careful analysis. Structural properties of the Gurmukhi characters are used for defining the categories. New algorithms have been proposed to segment the touching characters in middle zone, upper zone and lower zone. These algorithms have shown a reasonable improvement in segmenting the touching characters in degraded printed Gurmukhi script. The algorithms proposed in this paper are applicable only to machine printed text. We have also discussed a new and useful technique to segment the horizontally overlapping lines.

Keywords: Character Segmentation, Middle Zone, Upper Zone, Lower Zone, Touching Characters, Horizontally Overlapping Lines.

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1385 An Algorithm of Regulation of Glucose-Insulin Concentration in the Blood

Authors: B. Selma, S. Chouraqui

Abstract:

The pancreas is an elongated organ that extends across the abdomen, below the stomach. In addition, it secretes certain enzymes that aid in food digestion. The pancreas also manufactures hormones responsible for regulating blood glucose levels. In the present paper, we propose a mathematical model to study the homeostasis of glucose and insulin in healthy human, and a simulation of this model, which depicts the physiological events after a meal, will be represented in ordinary humans. The aim of this paper is to design an algorithm which regulates the level of glucose in the blood. The algorithm applied the concept of expert system for performing an algorithm control in the form of an "active" used to prescribe the rate of insulin infusion. By decomposing the system into subsystems, we have developed parametric models of each subsystem by using a forcing function strategy. The results showed a performance of the control system.

Keywords: Modeling, algorithm, regulation, glucose-insulin, blood, control system.

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1384 A Normalization-based Robust Watermarking Scheme Using Zernike Moments

Authors: Say Wei Foo, Qi Dong

Abstract:

Digital watermarking has become an important technique for copyright protection but its robustness against attacks remains a major problem. In this paper, we propose a normalizationbased robust image watermarking scheme. In the proposed scheme, original host image is first normalized to a standard form. Zernike transform is then applied to the normalized image to calculate Zernike moments. Dither modulation is adopted to quantize the magnitudes of Zernike moments according to the watermark bit stream. The watermark extracting method is a blind method. Security analysis and false alarm analysis are then performed. The quality degradation of watermarked image caused by the embedded watermark is visually transparent. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme has very high robustness against various image processing operations and geometric attacks.

Keywords: Image watermarking, Image normalization, Zernike moments, Robustness.

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