Search results for: Capacity Constrained Resource (CCR)

Authors: Sultan Daud, John P. Forth, Nikolaos Nikitas

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The current study aims to highlight the loading characteristics impact on the time evolution (focusing particularly on long term effects) of the deformation of realized reinforced concrete beams. Namely the tension stiffening code provisions (i.e. within Eurocode 2) are reviewed with a clear intention to reassess their operational value and predicting capacity. In what follows the experimental programme adopted along with some preliminary findings and numerical modeling attempts are presented. For a range of long slender reinforced concrete simply supported beams (4200 mm) constant static sustained and repeated cyclic loadings were applied mapping the time evolution of deformation. All experiments were carried out at the Heavy Structures Lab of the University of Leeds. During tests the mid-span deflection, creep coefficient and shrinkage strains were monitored for duration of 90 days. The obtained results are set against the values predicted by Eurocode 2 and the tools within an FE commercial package (i.e. Midas FEA) to yield that existing knowledge and practise is at times over-conservative.

Keywords: Eurocode2, midas fea, repeated, sustained loading.

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Authors: Naghmeh Moradpoor Sheykhkanloo

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Thousands of organisations store important and confidential information related to them, their customers, and their business partners in databases all across the world. The stored data ranges from less sensitive (e.g. first name, last name, date of birth) to more sensitive data (e.g. password, pin code, and credit card information). Losing data, disclosing confidential information or even changing the value of data are the severe damages that Structured Query Language injection (SQLi) attack can cause on a given database. It is a code injection technique where malicious SQL statements are inserted into a given SQL database by simply using a web browser. In this paper, we propose an effective pattern recognition neural network model for detection and classification of SQLi attacks. The proposed model is built from three main elements of: a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) generator in order to generate thousands of malicious and benign URLs, a URL classifier in order to: 1) classify each generated URL to either a benign URL or a malicious URL and 2) classify the malicious URLs into different SQLi attack categories, and a NN model in order to: 1) detect either a given URL is a malicious URL or a benign URL and 2) identify the type of SQLi attack for each malicious URL. The model is first trained and then evaluated by employing thousands of benign and malicious URLs. The results of the experiments are presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Neural Networks, pattern recognition, SQL injection attacks, SQL injection attack classification, SQL injection attack detection.

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Authors: Nor-Edine Abriak, Mahfoud Benzerzour, Mouhamadou Amar, Abdeljalil Zri

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In this work, firstly we have studied the potential of raw sediments and sediments treated with lime or cement for use in a foundation layer and the base layer of a roadway. Secondly, we have examined mineral changes caused by the addition of lime or cement in order to explain the mechanical performance of stabilized sediments. After determining the amount of lime and cement required stabilizing the sediments, the compaction characteristics and Immediate Bearing Capacity (IBI) were studied using the Modified Proctor method. Then, the evolution of the three parameters, which are optimum water content, maximum dry density and IBI, were determined. Mechanical performances can be evaluated through resistance to compression, resistance under traction and the elasticity modulus. The resistances of the formulations treated with ROLAC®645 increase with the amount of ROLAC®645. Traction resistance and the elastic modulus were used to evaluate the potential of the formulations as road construction materials using the classification diagram. The results show that all the other formulations with ROLAC®645 can be used in subgrades and foundation layers for roads.

Keywords: Sediment, lime, cement, roadway.

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Authors: Ahmed S. Al-Abdulwahab

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Generation system reliability assessment is an important task which can be performed using deterministic or probabilistic techniques. The probabilistic approaches have significant advantages over the deterministic methods. However, more complicated modeling is required by the probabilistic approaches. Power generation model is a basic requirement for this assessment. One form of the generation models is the well known capacity outage probability table (COPT). Different analytical techniques have been used to construct the COPT. These approaches require considerable mathematical modeling of the generating units. The unit-s models are combined to build the COPT which will add more burdens on the process of creating the COPT. Decimal to Binary Conversion (DBC) technique is widely and commonly applied in electronic systems and computing This paper proposes a novel utilization of the DBC to create the COPT without engaging in analytical modeling or time consuming simulations. The simple binary representation , “0 " and “1 " is used to model the states o f generating units. The proposed technique is proven to be an effective approach to build the generation model.

Keywords: Decimal to Binary, generation, reliability.

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Authors: S. C. Santos, S. R. Dionísio, A. L. D. De Andrade, L. R. Roque, A. C. Da Costa, J. L. Ienczak

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In this work, two fermentations at different temperatures (25 and 30ºC), with cell recycling, were accomplished to produce ethanol, using a mix of commercial substrates, xylose (70%) and glucose (30%), as organic source for Scheffersomyces stipitis. Five consecutive fermentations of 80 g L-1 (1º, 2º and 3º recycles), 96 g L-1 (4º recycle) and 120 g L-1 (5º recycle)reduced sugars led to a final maximum ethanol concentration of 17.2 and 34.5 g L-1, at 25 and 30ºC, respectively. Glucose was the preferred substrate; moreover xylose startup degradation was initiated after a remaining glucose presence in the medium. Results showed that yeast acid treatment, performed before each cycle, provided improvements on cell viability, accompanied by ethanol productivity of 2.16 g L-1 h- 1 at 30ºC. A maximum 36% of xylose was retained in the fermentation medium and after five-cycle fermentation an ethanol yield of 0.43 g ethanol/g sugars was observed. S. stipitis fermentation capacity and tolerance showed better results at 30ºC with 83.4% of theoretical yield referenced on initial biomass.

Keywords: 5-carbon sugar, cell recycling fermenter, mixed sugars, xylose-fermenting yeast.

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Authors: Y. Laidani, G. Henini, S. Hanini, A. Labbaci, F. Souahi

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In this study, pomegranate skin, a material suitable for the conditions in Algeria, was chosen as adsorbent material for removal of lead in an aqueous solution. Biosorption studies were carried out under various parameters such as mass adsorbent particle, pH, contact time, the initial concentration of metal, and temperature. The experimental results show that the percentage of biosorption increases with an increase in the biosorbent mass (0.25 g, 0.035 mg/g; 1.25 g, 0.096 mg/g). The maximum biosorption occurred at pH value of 8 for the lead. The equilibrium uptake was increased with an increase in the initial concentration of metal in solution (Co = 4 mg/L, q_t = 1.2 mg/g). Biosorption kinetic data were properly fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The best fit was obtained by the Langmuir model with high correlation coefficients (R² > 0.995) and a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of 0.85 mg/g for lead. The adsorption of the lead was exothermic in nature (ΔH° = -17.833 kJ/mol for Pb (II). The reaction was accompanied by a decrease in entropy (ΔS° = -0.056 kJ/K. mol). The Gibbs energy (ΔG°) increased from -1.458 to -0.305 kJ/mol, respectively for Pb (II) when the temperature was increased from 293 to 313 K.

Keywords: Biosorption, Pb(II), pomegranate skin, wastewater.

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Authors: Mohammed Erritali

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The growth in the volume of text data such as books and articles in libraries for centuries has imposed to establish effective mechanisms to locate them. Early techniques such as abstraction, indexing and the use of classification categories have marked the birth of a new field of research called "Information Retrieval". Information Retrieval (IR) can be defined as the task of defining models and systems whose purpose is to facilitate access to a set of documents in electronic form (corpus) to allow a user to find the relevant ones for him, that is to say, the contents which matches with the information needs of the user. Most of the models of information retrieval use a specific data structure to index a corpus which is called "inverted file" or "reverse index". This inverted file collects information on all terms over the corpus documents specifying the identifiers of documents that contain the term in question, the frequency of each term in the documents of the corpus, the positions of the occurrences of the word... In this paper we use an oriented object database (db4o) instead of the inverted file, that is to say, instead to search a term in the inverted file, we will search it in the db4o database. The purpose of this work is to make a comparative study to see if the oriented object databases may be competing for the inverse index in terms of access speed and resource consumption using a large volume of data.

Keywords: Information Retrieval, indexation, oriented object database (db4o), inverted file.

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Authors: Silvina Caíno-Lores, Jesús Carretero

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Large scale computing infrastructures have been widely developed with the core objective of providing a suitable platform for high-performance and high-throughput computing. These systems are designed to support resource-intensive and complex applications, which can be found in many scientific and industrial areas. Currently, large scale data-intensive applications are hindered by the high latencies that result from the access to vastly distributed data. Recent works have suggested that improving data locality is key to move towards exascale infrastructures efficiently, as solutions to this problem aim to reduce the bandwidth consumed in data transfers, and the overheads that arise from them. There are several techniques that attempt to move computations closer to the data. In this survey we analyse the different mechanisms that have been proposed to provide data locality for large scale high-performance and high-throughput systems. This survey intends to assist scientific computing community in understanding the various technical aspects and strategies that have been reported in recent literature regarding data locality. As a result, we present an overview of locality-oriented techniques, which are grouped in four main categories: application development, task scheduling, in-memory computing and storage platforms. Finally, the authors include a discussion on future research lines and synergies among the former techniques.

Keywords: Co-scheduling, data-centric, data-intensive, data locality, in-memory storage, large scale.

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Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Keshavarz Hedayati

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Over recent years, due to increased population and increased waste production, groundwater protection has become more important, therefore, designing engineered barrier systems such as landfill liners to prevent the entry of leachate into groundwater should be done with greater accuracy. These measures generally involve the application of low permeability soils such as clays. Bentonite is a natural clay with low permeability which makes it a suitable soil for using in liners. Also zeolite with high cation exchange capacity can help to reduce of hazardous materials risk. Bentonite expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. This property may effect on some structural properties of soil such as shear strength. In present study, shear strength parameters are determined by both leachates polluted and not polluted bentonite-amended zeolite soil with mixing rates (B/Z) of 5%-10% and 20% with unconfined compression test to obtain the differences. It is shown that leachate presence causes reduction in resistance in general.

Keywords: Bentonite, zeolite, leachate, shear strength parameters, unconfined compression tests.

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Authors: Munnujahan Ara

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In this paper, we investigate the effect of friendly jamming power allocation strategies on the achievable average secrecy rate over a bank of parallel fading wiretap channels. We investigate the achievable average secrecy rate in parallel fading wiretap channels subject to Rayleigh and Rician fading. The achievable average secrecy rate, due to the presence of a line-of-sight component in the jammer channel is also evaluated. Moreover, we study the detrimental effect of correlation across the parallel sub-channels, and evaluate the corresponding decrease in the achievable average secrecy rate for the various fading configurations. We also investigate the tradeoff between the transmission power and the jamming power for a fixed total power budget. Our results, which are applicable to current orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communications systems, shed further light on the achievable average secrecy rates over a bank of parallel fading channels in the presence of friendly jammers.

Keywords: Fading parallel channels, Wire-tap channel, OFDM, Secrecy capacity, Power allocation.

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Authors: M. Rezvani, F. Zaefarian, M. Aghaalikhani, H. Rahimian Mashhadi, E. Zand

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The spatial variation in plant species associated with intercropping is intended to reduce resource competition between species and increase yield potential. A field experiment was carried out on corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) intercropping in a replacement series experiment with weed contamination consist of: weed free, infestation of redroot pigweed, infestation of jimsonweed and simultaneous infestation of redroot pigweed and jimsonweed in Karaj, Iran during 2007 growing season. The experimental design was a randomized complete block in factorial experiment with replicated thrice. Significant (P≤0.05) differences were observed in yield in intercropping. Corn yield was higher in intercropping, but soybean yield was significantly reduced by corn when intercropped. However, total productivity and land use efficiency were high under the intercropping system even in contamination of either species of weeds. Aggressivity of corn relative to soybean revealed the greater competitive ability of corn than soybean. Land equivalent ratio (LER) more than 1 in all treatments attributed to intercropping advantages and was highest in 50: 50 (corn/soybean) in weed free. These findings suggest that intercropping corn and soybean increase total productivity per unit area and improve land use efficiency. Considering the experimental findings, corn-soybean intercropping (50:50) may be recommended for yield advantage, more efficient utilization of resources, and weed suppression as a biological control.

Keywords: Corn, soybean, intercropping, redroot pigweed, jimsonweed.

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Authors: G. Ramesh, S. Sundara Vadivelu

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For several high speed networks, providing resilience against failures is an essential requirement. The main feature for designing next generation optical networks is protecting and restoring high capacity WDM networks from the failures. Quick detection, identification and restoration make networks more strong and consistent even though the failures cannot be avoided. Hence, it is necessary to develop fast, efficient and dependable fault localization or detection mechanisms. In this paper we propose a new fault localization algorithm for WDM networks which can identify the location of a failure on a failed lightpath. Our algorithm detects the failed connection and then attempts to reroute data stream through an alternate path. In addition to this, we develop an algorithm to analyze the information of the alarms generated by the components of an optical network, in the presence of a fault. It uses the alarm correlation in order to reduce the list of suspected components shown to the network operators. By our simulation results, we show that our proposed algorithms achieve less blocking probability and delay while getting higher throughput.

Keywords: Alarm correlation, blocking probability, delay, fault localization, WDM networks.

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Authors: Bharat Raj Singh, Onkar Singh

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This paper deals with new concept of using compressed atmospheric air as a zero pollution power source for running motorbikes. The motorbike is equipped with an air turbine in place of an internal combustion engine, and transforms the energy of the compressed air into shaft work. The mathematical modeling and performance evaluation of a small capacity compressed air driven vaned type novel air turbine is presented in this paper. The effect of isobaric admission and adiabatic expansion of high pressure air for different rotor to casing diameter ratios with respect to different vane angles (number of vanes) have been considered and analyzed. It is found that the shaft work output is optimum for some typical values of rotor / casing diameter ratios at a particular value of vane angle (no. of vanes). In this study, the maximum power is obtained as 4.5kW - 5.3kW (5.5-6.25 HP) when casing diameter is taken 100 mm, and rotor to casing diameter ratios are kept from 0.65 to 0.55. This value of output is sufficient to run motorbike.

Keywords: zero pollution, compressed air, air turbine, vane angle, rotor / casing diameter ratio

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Authors: Muqdad Al-Juboori, Bithin Datta

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Hydraulic structures such as gravity dams are classified as essential structures, and have the vital role in providing strong and safe water resource management. Three major aspects must be considered to achieve an effective design of such a structure: 1) The building cost, 2) safety, and 3) accurate analysis of seepage characteristics. Due to the complexity and non-linearity relationships of the seepage process, many approximation theories have been developed; however, the application of these theories results in noticeable errors. The analytical solution, which includes the difficult conformal mapping procedure, could be applied for a simple and symmetrical problem only. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to: 1) develop a surrogate model based on numerical simulated data using SEEPW software to approximately simulate seepage process related to a hydraulic structure, 2) develop and solve a linked simulation-optimization model based on the developed surrogate model to describe the seepage occurring under a concrete gravity dam, in order to obtain optimum and safe design at minimum cost. The result shows that the linked simulation-optimization model provides an efficient and optimum design of concrete gravity dams.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, concrete gravity dam, genetic algorithm, seepage analysis.

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Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides

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The purpose of this study is to examine the possible link between employee and customer satisfaction. The service provided by employees, help to build a good relationship with customers and can help at increasing their loyalty. Published data for job satisfaction and indicators of customer services of banks were gathered from relevant published works which included data from five different countries. The scores of customers and employees satisfaction of the different published works were transformed and normalized to the scale of 1 to 100. The data were analyzed and a regression analysis of the two parameters was used to describe the link between employee’s satisfaction and customer’s satisfaction. Assuming that employee satisfaction has a significant influence on customer’s service and the resulting customer satisfaction, the reviewed data indicate that employee’s satisfaction contributes significantly on the level of customer satisfaction in the Banking sector. There was a significant correlation between the two parameters (Pearson correlation R2=0.52 P<0.05). The reviewed data indicate that published data support the hypothesis that practical evidence link these two parameters. During the recent global economic crisis, the financial services sector was affected severely and job security, remuneration and recruitment of personnel of banks was in many countries, including Greece, significantly reduced. Nevertheless, modern organizations should always consider their personnel as a capital, which is the driving force for success in the future. Appropriate human resource management policies can increase the level of job satisfaction of the personnel with positive consequences for the level of customer’s satisfaction.

Keywords: Job satisfaction, job performance, customer service, banks, human resources management.

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Mads Dyrmann, Robert Poulsen

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For the past three years, the Danish project, RoboWeedSupport, has sought to bridge the gap between the potential herbicide savings using a decision support system and the required weed inspections. In order to automate the weed inspections it is desired to generate a map of the weed species present within the field, to generate the map images must be captured with samples covering the field. This paper investigates the economical cost of performing this data collection based on a camera system mounted on a all-terain vehicle (ATV) able to drive and collect data at up to 50 km/h while still maintaining a image quality sufficient for identifying newly emerged grass weeds. The economical estimates are based on approximately 100 hectares recorded at three different locations in Denmark. With an average image density of 99 images per hectare the ATV had an capacity of 28 ha per hour, which is estimated to cost 6.6 EUR/ha. Alternatively relying on a boom solution for an existing tracktor it was estimated that a cost of 2.4 EUR/ha is obtainable under equal conditions.

Keywords: Weed mapping, integrated weed management, weed recognition.

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Authors: Joshua N. Edokpayi, John O. Odiyo, Patience P. Shikwambana

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Water is a very rare natural resource in South Africa. Ga-Selati River is used for both domestic and industrial purposes. This study was carried out in order to assess the quality of Ga-Selati River in a mining area of Limpopo Province-Phalaborwa. The pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were determined using a Crinson multimeter while turbidity was measured using a Labcon Turbidimeter. The concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Pb were analysed in triplicate using a Varian 520 flame atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) supplied by PerkinElmer, after acid digestion with nitric acid in a fume cupboard. The average pH of the river from eight different sampling sites was 8.00 and 9.38 in wet and dry season respectively. Higher EC values were determined in the dry season (138.7 mS/m) than in the wet season (96.93 mS/m). Similarly, TDS values were higher in dry (929.29 mg/L) than in the wet season (640.72 mg/L) season. These values exceeded the recommended guideline of South Africa Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) for domestic water use (70 mS/m) and that of the World Health Organization (WHO) (600 mS/m), respectively. Turbidity varied between 1.78-5.20 and 0.95-2.37 NTU in both wet and dry seasons. Total hardness of 312.50 mg/L and 297.75 mg/L as the concentration of CaCO₃ was computed for the river in both the wet and the dry seasons and the river water was categorised as very hard. Mean concentration of the metals studied in both the wet and the dry seasons are: Na (94.06 mg/L and 196.3 mg/L), K (11.79 mg/L and 13.62 mg/L), Ca (45.60 mg/L and 41.30 mg/L), Mg (48.41 mg/L and 44.71 mg/L), Al (0.31 mg/L and 0.38 mg/L), Cd (0.01 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L), Cr (0.02 mg/L and 0.09 mg/L), Pb (0.05 mg/L and 0.06 mg/L), Mn (0.31 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L) and Fe (0.76 mg/L and 0.69 mg/L). Results from this study reveal that most of the metals were present in concentrations higher than the recommended guidelines of DWAF and WHO for domestic use and the protection of aquatic life.

Keywords: Contamination, mining activities, surface water, trace metals.

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Authors: Anita, Sari Septiani Tangke, Rusdina Bte Ladju, Nasrum Massi

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New diagnostic tools are urgently needed to interrupt the transmission of tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility (MODS) assay is a rapid, accurate and simple liquid culture method to detect multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). MODS were evaluated to determine a lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin for detection of MDR-TB. Direct drug-susceptibility testing was performed with the use of the MODS assay. Drug-sensitive control strains were tested daily. The drug concentrations that used for both isoniazid and rifampin were at the same concentration: 0.16, 0.08 and 0.04μg per milliliter. We tested 56 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates and the control strains M. tuberculosis H37RV. All concentration showed same result. Of 53 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, 14 were MDR-TB, 38 were susceptible with isoniazid and rifampin, 1 was resistant with isoniazid only. Drug-susceptibility testing was performed with the use of the proportion method using Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) system as reference. The result of MODS assay using lower concentration was significance (P<0.001) compare with the reference methods.

A lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin can be used to detect MDR-TB. Operational cost and application can be more efficient and easier in resource-limited environments. However, additional studies evaluating the MODS using lower and same concentration of isoniazid and rifampin must be conducted with a larger number of clinical isolates.

Keywords: Isoniazid, MODS assay, MDR-TB, Rifampin.

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Authors: W. Koranuntachai, T. Chantrasmi, U. Nontakaew

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Medical latex gloves are made from the latex compound in production lines. Latex dipping is considered one of the most important processes that directly affect the final product quality. In a continuous production line, a chain conveyor carries the formers through the process and partially submerges them into an open channel flow in a latex dipping tank. In general, the conveyor speed is determined by the desired production capacity, and the latex-dipping tank can then be designed accordingly. It is important to understand the flow behavior in the dipping tank in order to achieve high quality in the process. In this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the flow past an array of formers in a simplified latex dipping process. The computational results showed both the flow structure and the vortex generation between two formers. The maximum shear stress over the surface of the formers was used as the quality metric of the latex-dipping process when adjusting operation parameters.

Keywords: medical latex gloves, latex dipping, dipping tank, computational fluid dynamics

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Authors: Waldemiro Francisco Sorte Junior

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The Japanese integrative approach to social systems can be observed in supply chain management as well as in the relationship between public and private sectors. Both the Lean Production System and the Developmental State Model are characterized by efforts towards the achievement of mutual goals, resulting in initiatives for capacity building which emphasize the system level. In Brazil, although organizations undertake efforts to build capabilities at the individual and organizational levels, the system level is being neglected. Fieldwork data confirmed the findings of other studies in terms of the lack of integration in supply chain management in the Brazilian automobile industry. Moreover, due to the absence of an active role of the Brazilian state in its relationship with the private sector, automakers are not fully exploiting the opportunities in the domestic and regional markets. For promoting a higher level of economic growth as well as to increase the degree of spill-over of technologies and techniques, a more integrative approach is needed.

Keywords: Integration, Lean Production System, DevelopmentalState Model, Brazilian automobile industry.

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Authors: J. Gu, W.B. Lee, C.F. Cheung, E. Tsui, W.M. Wang

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Knowledge of an organization does not merely reside in structured form of information and data; it is also embedded in unstructured form. The discovery of such knowledge is particularly difficult as the characteristic is dynamic, scattered, massive and multiplying at high speed. Conventional methods of managing unstructured information are considered too resource demanding and time consuming to cope with the rapid information growth. In this paper, a Multi-faceted and Automatic Knowledge Elicitation System (MAKES) is introduced for the purpose of discovery and capture of organizational knowledge. A trial implementation has been conducted in a public organization to achieve the objective of decision capture and navigation from a number of meeting minutes which are autonomously organized, classified and presented in a multi-faceted taxonomy map in both document and content level. Key concepts such as critical decision made, key knowledge workers, knowledge flow and the relationship among them are elicited and displayed in predefined knowledge model and maps. Hence, the structured knowledge can be retained, shared and reused. Conducting Knowledge Management with MAKES reduces work in searching and retrieving the target decision, saves a great deal of time and manpower, and also enables an organization to keep pace with the knowledge life cycle. This is particularly important when the amount of unstructured information and data grows extremely quickly. This system approach of knowledge management can accelerate value extraction and creation cycles of organizations.

Keywords: Knowledge-Based System, Knowledge Elicitation, Knowledge Management, Taxonomy, Unstructured Information Management

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Authors: Chunguang Wang, Krishna Shankar, Evgeny V. Morozov

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The use of composite materials in offshore engineering for deep sea oil production riser systems has drawn considerable interest due to the potential weight savings and improvement in durability. The design of composite risers consists of two stages: (1) local design based on critical local load cases, and (2) global analysis of the full length composite riser under global loads and assessment of critical locations. In the first stage, eight different material combinations were selected and their laminate configurations optimised under local load considerations. Stage two includes a final local stress analysis of the critical sections of the riser under the combined loads determined in the global analysis. This paper describes two design methodologies of the composite riser to provide minimum structural weight and shows that the use of off angle fibre orientations in addition to axial and hoop reinforcements offer substantial weight savings and ensure the structural capacity.

Keywords: Composite Riser, Composite Tubular, Finite Element Modelling, Global Design, Local Design, Offshore Engineering.

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Authors: R. Shivarudraswamy, D. N. Gaonkar

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The continued interest in the use of distributed generation in recent years is leading to the growth in number of distributed generators connected to distribution networks. Steady state voltage rise resulting from the connection of these generators can be a major obstacle to their connection at lower voltage levels. The present electric distribution network is designed to keep the customer voltage within tolerance limit. This may require a reduction in connectable generation capacity, under utilization of appropriate generation sites. Thus distribution network operators need a proper voltage regulation method to allow the significant integration of distributed generation systems to existing network. In this work a voltage rise problem in a typical distribution system has been studied. A method for voltage regulation of distribution system with multiple DG system by coordinated operation distributed generator, capacitor and OLTC has been developed. A sensitivity based analysis has been carried out to determine the priority for individual generators in multiple DG environment. The effectiveness of the developed method has been evaluated under various cases through simulation results.

Keywords: Distributed generation, voltage control, sensitivity factor.

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Authors: B. A. Lawal, A. G. Ojanuga, P. A. Tsado, A. Mohammed

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This work assessed some properties of three pedons on a toposequence in Ijah-Gbagyi district in Niger State, Nigeria. The pedons were designated as JG1, JG2 and JG3 representing the upper, middle and lower slopes respectively. The surface soil was characterized by dark yellowish brown (10YR3/4) color at the JG1 and JG2 and very dark grayish brown (10YR3/2) color at JG3. Sand dominated the mineral fraction and its content in the surface horizon decreased down the slope, whereas silt content increased down the slope due to sorting by geological and pedogenic processes. Although organic carbon (OC), total nitrogen (TN) and available phosphorus (P) were rated high, TN and available P decreased down the slope. High cation exchange capacity (CEC) was an indication that the soils have high potential for plant nutrients retention. The pedons were classified as Typic Haplustepts/ Haplic Cambisols (Eutric), Plinthic Petraquepts/ Petric Plinthosols (Abruptic) and Typic Endoaquepts/ Endogleyic Cambisols (Endoclayic).

Keywords: Ecological region, landscape positions, soil characterization, soil classification.

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Authors: Pavel Shcherban, Viktoria Ivanova, Alexander Neprokin, Vladislav Golovanov

Abstract:

Currently, LLC «Lukoil-Kaliningradmorneft» is implementing a comprehensive program for the development of offshore fields of the Kaliningrad region. This is largely associated with the depletion of the resource base of land in the region, as well as the positive results of geological investigation surrounding the Baltic Sea area and the data on the volume of hydrocarbon recovery from a single offshore field are working on the Kaliningrad region – D-6 «Kravtsovskoye».The article analyzes the main stages of the LLC «Lukoil-Kaliningradmorneft»’s development program for the development of the hydrocarbon resources of the region's shelf and suggests an optimization algorithm that allows managing a multi-criteria process of development of shelf deposits. The algorithm is formed on the basis of the problem of sequential decision making, which is a section of dynamic programming. Application of the algorithm during the consolidation of the initial data, the elaboration of project documentation, the further exploration and development of offshore fields will allow to optimize the complex of technical and technological solutions and increase the economic efficiency of the field development project implemented by LLC «Lukoil-Kaliningradmorneft».

Keywords: Offshore fields of hydrocarbons of the Baltic Sea, Development of offshore oil and gas fields, Optimization of the field development scheme, Solution of multi-criteria tasks in the oil and gas complex, Quality management of technical and technological processes.

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Authors: Konstantinos C. Giotopoulos, Christos E. Alexakos, Grigorios N. Beligiannis, Spiridon D.Likothanassis

Abstract:

In this contribution an innovative platform is being presented that integrates intelligent agents and evolutionary computation techniques in legacy e-learning environments. It introduces the design and development of a scalable and interoperable integration platform supporting: I) various assessment agents for e-learning environments, II) a specific resource retrieval agent for the provision of additional information from Internet sources matching the needs and profile of the specific user and III) a genetic algorithm designed to extract efficient information (classifying rules) based on the students- answering input data. The agents are implemented in order to provide intelligent assessment services based on computational intelligence techniques such as Bayesian Networks and Genetic Algorithms. The proposed Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used in order to extract efficient information (classifying rules) based on the students- answering input data. The idea of using a GA in order to fulfil this difficult task came from the fact that GAs have been widely used in applications including classification of unknown data. The utilization of new and emerging technologies like web services allows integrating the provided services to any web based legacy e-learning environment.

Keywords: Bayesian Networks, Computational Intelligencetechniques, E-learning legacy systems, Service Oriented Integration, Intelligent Agents, Genetic Algorithms.

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Authors: Mahmud Fotuhi-Firuzabad, Ali Abbaspour, Mohsen Mazidi, Mohamamd Rastegar

Abstract:

To tackle the air pollution issues, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are proposed as an appropriate solution. Charging a large amount of PHEV batteries, if not controlled, would have negative impacts on the distribution system. The control process of charging of these vehicles can be centralized in parking lots that may provide a chance for better coordination than the individual charging in houses. In this paper, an optimization-based approach is proposed to determine the optimum PHEV parking capacities in candidate nodes of the distribution system. In so doing, a profile for charging and discharging of PHEVs is developed in order to flatten the network load profile. Then, this profile is used in solving an optimization problem to minimize the distribution system losses. The outputs of the proposed method are the proper place for PHEV parking lots and optimum capacity for each parking. The application of the proposed method on the IEEE-34 node test feeder verifies the effectiveness of the method.

Keywords: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), PHEV parking lot, V2G.

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Authors: Abeer Samy, Oliver C. Saavedra Valeriano, Abdelazim Negm

Abstract:

The Blue Nile Basin is the most important tributary of the Nile River. Egypt and Sudan are almost dependent on water originated from the Blue Nile. This multi-dependency creates conflicts among the three countries Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia making the management of these conflicts as an international issue. Good assessment of the water resources of the Blue Nile is an important to help in managing such conflicts. Hydrological models are good tool for such assessment. This paper presents a critical review of the nature and variability of the climate and hydrology of the Blue Nile Basin as a first step of using hydrological modeling to assess the water resources of the Blue Nile. Many several attempts are done to develop basin-scale hydrological modeling on the Blue Nile. Lumped and semi distributed models used averages of meteorological inputs and watershed characteristics in hydrological simulation, to analyze runoff for flood control and water resource management. Distributed models include the temporal and spatial variability of catchment conditions and meteorological inputs to allow better representation of the hydrological process. The main challenge of all used models was to assess the water resources of the basin is the shortage of the data needed for models calibration and validation. It is recommended to use distributed model for their higher accuracy to cope with the great variability and complexity of the Blue Nile basin and to collect sufficient data to have more sophisticated and accurate hydrological modeling.

Keywords: Blue Nile Basin, Climate Change, Hydrological Modeling, Watershed.

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Authors: M. Kasusse, M. Rosette, E. Burke, C. Mwangi, R. Batamwita, N. Tumwesigye, S. Aisu

Abstract:

A cross-sectional survey to ascertain the capacity of laboratory persons in using ICTs was conducted in 15 Ugandan districts (July-August 2013). A self-administered questionnaire served as data collection tool, interview guide and observation checklist. 69 questionnaires were filled, 12 interviews conducted, 45 HC observed. SPSS statistics 17.0 and SAS 9.2 software were used for entry and analyses. 69.35% of participants find it difficult to access a computer at work. Of the 30.65% who find it easy to access a computer at work, a significant 21.05% spend 0 hours on a computer daily. 60% of the participants cannot access internet at work. Of the 40% who have internet at work, a significant 20% lack email address but 20% weekly read emails weekly and 48% daily. It is viable/feasible to pilot informatics projects as strategies to build bridges develop skills for e-health landscape in laboratory services with a bigger financial muscle.

Keywords: ICT Behavior, Clinical Laboratory persons, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda.

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Authors: Seshi Reddy Kasu, Florian Misoc

Abstract:

The use of hydroelectric pump-storage system at large scale, MW-size systems, is already widespread around the world. Designed for large scale applications, pump-storage station can be scaled-down for small, remote residential applications. Given the cost and complexity associated with installing a substation further than 100 miles from the main transmission lines, a remote, independent and self-sufficient system is by far the most feasible solution. This article is aiming at the design of wind and solar power generating system, by means of pumped-storage to replace the wind and /or solar power systems with a battery bank energy storage. Wind and solar pumped-storage power generating system can reduce the cost of power generation system, according to the user's electricity load and resource condition and also can ensure system reliability of power supply. Wind and solar pumped-storage power generation system is well suited for remote residential applications with intermittent wind and/or solar energy. This type of power systems, installed in these locations, could be a very good alternative, with economic benefits and positive social effects. The advantage of pumped storage power system, where wind power regulation is calculated, shows that a significant smoothing of the produced power is obtained, resulting in a power-on-demand system’s capability, concomitant to extra economic benefits.

Keywords: Battery bank, photo-voltaic, pump-storage, wind energy.

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