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1750 Simultaneous Optimization of Design and Maintenance through a Hybrid Process Using Genetic Algorithms
Authors: O. Adjoul, A. Feugier, K. Benfriha, A. Aoussat
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In general, issues related to design and maintenance are considered in an independent manner. However, the decisions made in these two sets influence each other. The design for maintenance is considered an opportunity to optimize the life cycle cost of a product, particularly in the nuclear or aeronautical field, where maintenance expenses represent more than 60% of life cycle costs. The design of large-scale systems starts with product architecture, a choice of components in terms of cost, reliability, weight and other attributes, corresponding to the specifications. On the other hand, the design must take into account maintenance by improving, in particular, real-time monitoring of equipment through the integration of new technologies such as connected sensors and intelligent actuators. We noticed that different approaches used in the Design For Maintenance (DFM) methods are limited to the simultaneous characterization of the reliability and maintainability of a multi-component system. This article proposes a method of DFM that assists designers to propose dynamic maintenance for multi-component industrial systems. The term "dynamic" refers to the ability to integrate available monitoring data to adapt the maintenance decision in real time. The goal is to maximize the availability of the system at a given life cycle cost. This paper presents an approach for simultaneous optimization of the design and maintenance of multi-component systems. Here the design is characterized by four decision variables for each component (reliability level, maintainability level, redundancy level, and level of monitoring data). The maintenance is characterized by two decision variables (the dates of the maintenance stops and the maintenance operations to be performed on the system during these stops). The DFM model helps the designers choose technical solutions for the large-scale industrial products. Large-scale refers to the complex multi-component industrial systems and long life-cycle, such as trains, aircraft, etc. The method is based on a two-level hybrid algorithm for simultaneous optimization of design and maintenance, using genetic algorithms. The first level is to select a design solution for a given system that considers the life cycle cost and the reliability. The second level consists of determining a dynamic and optimal maintenance plan to be deployed for a design solution. This level is based on the Maintenance Free Operating Period (MFOP) concept, which takes into account the decision criteria such as, total reliability, maintenance cost and maintenance time. Depending on the life cycle duration, the desired availability, and the desired business model (sales or rental), this tool provides visibility of overall costs and optimal product architecture.
Keywords: Availability, design for maintenance, DFM, dynamic maintenance, life cycle cost, LCC, maintenance free operating period, MFOP, simultaneous optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5991749 Intuition Operator: Providing Genomes with Reason
Authors: Grigorios N. Beligiannis, Georgios A. Tsirogiannis, Panayotis E. Pintelas
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In this contribution, the use of a new genetic operator is proposed. The main advantage of using this operator is that it is able to assist the evolution procedure to converge faster towards the optimal solution of a problem. This new genetic operator is called ''intuition'' operator. Generally speaking, one can claim that this operator is a way to include any heuristic or any other local knowledge, concerning the problem, that cannot be embedded in the fitness function. Simulation results show that the use of this operator increases significantly the performance of the classic Genetic Algorithm by increasing the convergence speed of its population.
Keywords: Genetic algorithms, intuition operator, reasonable genomes, complex search space, nonlinear fitness functions
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15811748 Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tools: A Conceptual Framework for Their Use in Building Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change
Authors: Sally Naji, Julie Gwilliam
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Climate change remains a challenging matter for the human and the built environment in the 21st century, where the need to consider adaptation to climate change in the development process is paramount. However, there remains a lack of information regarding how we should prepare responses to this issue, such as through developing organized and sophisticated tools enabling the adaptation process. This study aims to build a systematic framework approach to investigate the potentials that Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment tools (NSA) might offer in enabling both the analysis of the emerging adaptive capacity to climate change. The analysis of the framework presented in this paper aims to discuss this issue in three main phases. The first part attempts to link sustainability and climate change, in the context of adaptive capacity. It is argued that in deciding to promote sustainability in the context of climate change, both the resilience and vulnerability processes become central. However, there is still a gap in the current literature regarding how the sustainable development process can respond to climate change. As well as how the resilience of practical strategies might be evaluated. It is suggested that the integration of the sustainability assessment processes with both the resilience thinking process, and vulnerability might provide important components for addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. A critical review of existing literature is presented illustrating the current lack of work in this field, integrating these three concepts in the context of addressing the adaptive capacity to climate change. The second part aims to identify the most appropriate scale at which to address the built environment for the climate change adaptation. It is suggested that the neighborhood scale can be considered as more suitable than either the building or urban scales. It then presents the example of NSAs, and discusses the need to explore their potential role in promoting the adaptive capacity to climate change. The third part of the framework presents a comparison among three example NSAs, BREEAM Communities, LEED-ND, and CASBEE-UD. These three tools have been selected as the most developed and comprehensive assessment tools that are currently available for the neighborhood scale. This study concludes that NSAs are likely to present the basis for an organized framework to address the practical process for analyzing and yet promoting Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change. It is further argued that vulnerability (exposure & sensitivity) and resilience (Interdependence & Recovery) form essential aspects to be addressed in the future assessment of NSA’s capability to adapt to both short and long term climate change impacts. Finally, it is acknowledged that further work is now required to understand impact assessment in terms of the range of physical sectors (Water, Energy, Transportation, Building, Land Use and Ecosystems), Actor and stakeholder engagement as well as a detailed evaluation of the NSA indicators, together with a barriers diagnosis process.Keywords: Adaptive capacity, climate change, NSA tools, resilience, vulnerability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21761747 Historical Development of Bagh-e Dasht in Herat, Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Field Survey of Physical and Social Aspects
Authors: Khojesta Kawish, Tetsuya Ando, Sayed Abdul Basir Samimi
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Bagh-e Dasht area is situated in the northern part of Herat, an old city in western Afghanistan located on the Silk Road which has received a strong influence from Persian culture. Initially, the Bagh-e Dasht area was developed for gardens and palaces near Joy-e Injil canal during the Timurid Empire in the 15th century. It is assumed Bagh-e Dasht became a settlement in the 16th century during the Safavid Empire. The oldest area is the southern part around the canal bank which is characterized by Dalans, sun-dried brick arcades above which houses are often constructed. Traditional houses in this area are built with domical vault roofs constructed with sun-dried bricks. Bagh-e Dasht is one of the best-preserved settlements of traditional houses in Herat. This study examines the transformation of the Bagh-e Dasht area with a focus on Dalans, where traditional houses with domical vault roofs have been well-preserved until today. The aim of the study is to examine the extent of physical changes to the area as well as changes to houses and the community. This research paper contains original results which have previously not been published in architectural history. The roof types of houses in the area are investigated through examining high resolution satellite images. The boundary of each building and space is determined by both a field survey and aerial photographs of the study area. A comprehensive field survey was then conducted to examine each space and building in the area. In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to the residents of the Dalan houses and interviews were conducted with the Wakil (Chief) of the area, a local historian, residents and traditional builders. The study finds that the oldest part of Bagh-e Dasht area, the south, contains both Dalans and domical vault roof houses. The next oldest part, which is the north, only has domical vault roof houses. The rest of the area only has houses with modernized flat roofs. This observation provides an insight into the process of historical development in the Bagh-e Dasht area.
Keywords: Afghanistan, Bagh-e Dasht, Dalan, Domical vault, Herat, over path house, traditional house.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9301746 Web Traffic Mining using Neural Networks
Authors: Farhad F. Yusifov
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With the explosive growth of data available on the Internet, personalization of this information space become a necessity. At present time with the rapid increasing popularity of the WWW, Websites are playing a crucial role to convey knowledge and information to the end users. Discovering hidden and meaningful information about Web users usage patterns is critical to determine effective marketing strategies to optimize the Web server usage for accommodating future growth. The task of mining useful information becomes more challenging when the Web traffic volume is enormous and keeps on growing. In this paper, we propose a intelligent model to discover and analyze useful knowledge from the available Web log data.Keywords: Clustering, Self organizing map, Web log files, Web traffic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16071745 Extracting Road Signs using the Color Information
Authors: Wen-Yen Wu, Tsung-Cheng Hsieh, Ching-Sung Lai
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In this paper, we propose a method to extract the road signs. Firstly, the grabbed image is converted into the HSV color space to detect the road signs. Secondly, the morphological operations are used to reduce noise. Finally, extract the road sign using the geometric property. The feature extraction of road sign is done by using the color information. The proposed method has been tested for the real situations. From the experimental results, it is seen that the proposed method can extract the road sign features effectively.Keywords: Color information, image processing, road sign.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22461744 Physical Parameters for Reliability Evaluation
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This paper presents ageing experiments controlled by the evolution of junction parameters. The deterioration of the device is related to high injection effects which modified the transport mechanisms in the space charge region of the junction. Physical phenomena linked to the degradation of junction parameters that affect the devices reliability are reported and discussed. We have used the method based on numerical analysis of experimental current-voltage characteristic of the junction, in order to extract the electrical parameters. The simultaneous follow-up of the evolutions of the series resistance and of the transition voltage allow us to introduce a new parameter for reliability evaluation.
Keywords: High injection, junction, parameters, reliability
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13841743 Exploring Solutions in Extended Horava-Lifshitz Gravity
Authors: Aziza Altaibayeva, Ertan Gudekli, Ratbay Myrzakulov
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In this letter, we explore exact solutions for the Horava-Lifshitz gravity. We use of an extension of this theory with first order dynamical lapse function. The equations of motion have been derived in a fully consistent scenario. We assume that there are some spherically symmetric families of exact solutions of this extended theory of gravity. We obtain exact solutions and investigate the singularity structures of these solutions. Specially, an exact solution with the regular horizon is found.
Keywords: Quantum gravity, Horava-Lifshitz gravity, black hole, spherically symmetric space times.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22521742 Efficient Solution for a Class of Markov Chain Models of Tandem Queueing Networks
Authors: Chun Wen, Tingzhu Huang
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We present a new numerical method for the computation of the steady-state solution of Markov chains. Theoretical analyses show that the proposed method, with a contraction factor α, converges to the one-dimensional null space of singular linear systems of the form Ax = 0. Numerical experiments are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, with applications to a class of interesting models in the domain of tandem queueing networks.
Keywords: Markov chains, tandem queueing networks, convergence, effectiveness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13311741 Validation on 3D Surface Roughness Algorithm for Measuring Roughness of Psoriasis Lesion
Authors: M.H. Ahmad Fadzil, Esa Prakasa, Hurriyatul Fitriyah, Hermawan Nugroho, Azura Mohd Affandi, S.H. Hussein
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Psoriasis is a widespread skin disease affecting up to 2% population with plaque psoriasis accounting to about 80%. It can be identified as a red lesion and for the higher severity the lesion is usually covered with rough scale. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) scoring is the gold standard method for measuring psoriasis severity. Scaliness is one of PASI parameter that needs to be quantified in PASI scoring. Surface roughness of lesion can be used as a scaliness feature, since existing scale on lesion surface makes the lesion rougher. The dermatologist usually assesses the severity through their tactile sense, therefore direct contact between doctor and patient is required. The problem is the doctor may not assess the lesion objectively. In this paper, a digital image analysis technique is developed to objectively determine the scaliness of the psoriasis lesion and provide the PASI scaliness score. Psoriasis lesion is modelled by a rough surface. The rough surface is created by superimposing a smooth average (curve) surface with a triangular waveform. For roughness determination, a polynomial surface fitting is used to estimate average surface followed by a subtraction between rough and average surface to give elevation surface (surface deviations). Roughness index is calculated by using average roughness equation to the height map matrix. The roughness algorithm has been tested to 444 lesion models. From roughness validation result, only 6 models can not be accepted (percentage error is greater than 10%). These errors occur due the scanned image quality. Roughness algorithm is validated for roughness measurement on abrasive papers at flat surface. The Pearson-s correlation coefficient of grade value (G) of abrasive paper and Ra is -0.9488, its shows there is a strong relation between G and Ra. The algorithm needs to be improved by surface filtering, especially to overcome a problem with noisy data.
Keywords: psoriasis, roughness algorithm, polynomial surfacefitting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24941740 Development of Star Tracker for Satellite
Authors: S. Yelubayev, V. Ten, B. Albazarov, E. Sarsenbayev, К. Аlipbayev, A. Shamro, Т. Bopeyev, А. Sukhenko
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Much attention is paid to the development of space branch in Kazakhstan at present. Two Earth remote sensing satellites of Kazakhstan have been launched successfully. Many projects related to the development of components for satellite are carried in Kazakhstan, in particular the project related to the development of star tracker experimental model. It is planned to use the results of this project for development of star tracker prototype in the future. This article describes the main stages of development of star tracker experimental model.
Keywords: Development, prototype, satellite, star tracker.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29381739 PAPR Reduction of FBMC Using Sliding Window Tone Reservation Active Constellation Extension Technique
Authors: V. Sandeep Kumar, S. Anuradha
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The high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAR) in Filter Bank Multicarrier with Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (FBMC-OQAM) can significantly reduce power efficiency and performance. In this paper, we address the problem of PAPR reduction for FBMC-OQAM systems using Tone Reservation (TR) technique. Due to the overlapping structure of FBMCOQAM signals, directly applying TR schemes of OFDM systems to FBMC-OQAM systems is not effective. We improve the tone reservation (TR) technique by employing sliding window with Active Constellation Extension for the PAPR reduction of FBMC-OQAM signals, called sliding window tone reservation Active Constellation Extension (SW-TRACE) technique. The proposed SW-TRACE technique uses the peak reduction tones (PRTs) of several consecutive data blocks to cancel the peaks of the FBMC-OQAM signal inside a window, with dynamically extending outer constellation points in active(data-carrying) channels, within margin-preserving constraints, in order to minimize the peak magnitude. Analysis and simulation results compared to the existing Tone Reservation (TR) technique for FBMC/OQAM system. The proposed method SW-TRACE has better PAPR performance and lower computational complexity.
Keywords: FBMC-OQAM, peak-to-average power ratio, sliding window, tone reservation Active Constellation Extension.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28421738 Genetic-Based Planning with Recursive Subgoals
Authors: Han Yu, Dan C. Marinescu, Annie S. Wu, Howard Jay Siegel
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In this paper, we introduce an effective strategy for subgoal division and ordering based upon recursive subgoals and combine this strategy with a genetic-based planning approach. This strategy can be applied to domains with conjunctive goals. The main idea is to recursively decompose a goal into a set of serializable subgoals and to specify a strict ordering among the subgoals. Empirical results show that the recursive subgoal strategy reduces the size of the search space and improves the quality of solutions to planning problems.Keywords: Planning, recursive subgoals, Sliding-tile puzzle, subgoal interaction, genetic algorithms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15111737 In situ Real-Time Multivariate Analysis of Methanolysis Monitoring of Sunflower Oil Using FTIR
Authors: Pascal Mwenge, Tumisang Seodigeng
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The combination of world population and the third industrial revolution led to high demand for fuels. On the other hand, the decrease of global fossil 8fuels deposits and the environmental air pollution caused by these fuels has compounded the challenges the world faces due to its need for energy. Therefore, new forms of environmentally friendly and renewable fuels such as biodiesel are needed. The primary analytical techniques for methanolysis yield monitoring have been chromatography and spectroscopy, these methods have been proven reliable but are more demanding, costly and do not provide real-time monitoring. In this work, the in situ monitoring of biodiesel from sunflower oil using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared) has been studied; the study was performed using EasyMax Mettler Toledo reactor equipped with a DiComp (Diamond) probe. The quantitative monitoring of methanolysis was performed by building a quantitative model with multivariate calibration using iC Quant module from iC IR 7.0 software. 15 samples of known concentrations were used for the modelling which were taken in duplicate for model calibration and cross-validation, data were pre-processed using mean centering and variance scale, spectrum math square root and solvent subtraction. These pre-processing methods improved the performance indexes from 7.98 to 0.0096, 11.2 to 3.41, 6.32 to 2.72, 0.9416 to 0.9999, RMSEC, RMSECV, RMSEP and R2Cum, respectively. The R2 value of 1 (training), 0.9918 (test), 0.9946 (cross-validation) indicated the fitness of the model built. The model was tested against univariate model; small discrepancies were observed at low concentration due to unmodelled intermediates but were quite close at concentrations above 18%. The software eliminated the complexity of the Partial Least Square (PLS) chemometrics. It was concluded that the model obtained could be used to monitor methanol of sunflower oil at industrial and lab scale.
Keywords: Biodiesel, calibration, chemometrics, FTIR, methanolysis, multivariate analysis, transesterification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9461736 Modeling and Simulation of a Serial Production Line with Constant Work-In-Process
Authors: Mehmet Savsar
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This paper presents a model for an unreliable production line, which is operated according to demand with constant work-in-process (CONWIP). A simulation model is developed based on the discrete model and several case problems are analyzed using the model. The model is utilized to optimize storage space capacities at intermediate stages and the number of kanbans at the last stage, which is used to trigger the production at the first stage. Furthermore, effects of several line parameters on production rate are analyzed using design of experiments.Keywords: Production line simulator, Push-pull system, JIT system, Constant WIP, Machine failures.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20131735 Planning the Building Evacuation Routes by a Spatial Network
Authors: Hsin-Yun Lee
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The previous proposed evacuation routing approaches usually divide the space into multiple interlinked zones. However, it may be harder to clearly and objectively define the margins of each zone. This paper proposes an approach that connects locations of necessary guidance into a spatial network. In doing so, evacuation routes can be constructed based on the links between starting points, turning nodes, and terminal points. This approach more conforms to the real-life evacuation behavior. The feasibility of the proposed approach is evaluated through a case of one floor in a hospital building. Results indicate that the proposed approach provides valuable suggestions for evacuation planning.
Keywords: Evacuation, spatial network, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14311734 The Masquerade of Life, Our Many Selves and Issues of Privacy
Authors: Karen Armstrong
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This paper explores the importance of privacy in a contemporary online world. Crucial to the discussion is the idea of the Lacanian postmodern fragmented self and the problem of how to ensure that we have room to fully explore various aspects of our personalities in an environment which is–or at least feels--safe and free from observation by others. The paper begins with an exploration of the idea of the self with particular regard to the ways in which contemporary life and technology seems to have multiplied the various faces or masks which we present in different contexts. A brief history of privacy and surveillance follows. Finally, the paper ends with an affirmation of the importance of private space as an essential component of our spiritual and emotional well-being in today-s wired world.Keywords: Lacan, panopticon, postmodern, privacy, surveillance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18761733 Big Bang – Big Crunch Optimization Method in Optimum Design of Complex Composite Laminates
Authors: Pavel Y. Tabakov
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An accurate optimal design of laminated composite structures may present considerable difficulties due to the complexity and multi-modality of the functional design space. The Big Bang – Big Crunch (BB-BC) optimization method is a relatively new technique and has already proved to be a valuable tool for structural optimization. In the present study the exceptional efficiency of the method is demonstrated by an example of the lay-up optimization of multilayered anisotropic cylinders based on a three-dimensional elasticity solution. It is shown that, due to its simplicity and speed, the BB-BC is much more efficient for this class of problems when compared to the genetic algorithms.Keywords: Big Bang – Big Crunch method, optimization, composite laminates, pressure vessel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22621732 Accurate Positioning Method of Indoor Plastering Robot Based on Line Laser
Authors: Guanqiao Wang, Hongyang Yu
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There is a lot of repetitive work in the traditional construction industry. These repetitive tasks can significantly improve production efficiency by replacing manual tasks with robots. Therefore, robots appear more and more frequently in the construction industry. Navigation and positioning is a very important task for construction robots, and the requirements for accuracy of positioning are very high. Traditional indoor robots mainly use radio frequency or vision methods for positioning. Compared with ordinary robots, the indoor plastering robot needs to be positioned closer to the wall for wall plastering, so the requirements for construction positioning accuracy are higher, and the traditional navigation positioning method has a large error, which will cause the robot to move. Without the exact position, the wall cannot be plastered or the error of plastering the wall is large. A positioning method is proposed, which is assisted by line lasers and uses image processing-based positioning to perform more accurate positioning on the traditional positioning work. In actual work, filter, edge detection, Hough transform and other operations are performed on the images captured by the camera. Each time the position of the laser line is found, it is compared with the standard value, and the position of the robot is moved or rotated to complete the positioning work. The experimental results show that the actual positioning error is reduced to less than 0.5 mm by this accurate positioning method.
Keywords: Indoor plastering robot, navigation, precise positioning, line laser, image processing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5521731 Financing Decision and Productivity Growth for the Venture Capital Industry Using High-Order Fuzzy Time Series
Authors: Shang-En Yu
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Human society, there are many uncertainties, such as economic growth rate forecast of the financial crisis, many scholars have, since the the Song Chissom two scholars in 1993 the concept of the so-called fuzzy time series (Fuzzy Time Series)different mode to deal with these problems, a previous study, however, usually does not consider the relevant variables selected and fuzzy process based solely on subjective opinions the fuzzy semantic discrete, so can not objectively reflect the characteristics of the data set, in addition to carrying outforecasts are often fuzzy rules as equally important, failed to consider the importance of each fuzzy rule. For these reasons, the variable selection (Factor Selection) through self-organizing map (Self-Organizing Map, SOM) and proposed high-end weighted multivariate fuzzy time series model based on fuzzy neural network (Fuzzy-BPN), and using the the sequential weighted average operator (Ordered Weighted Averaging operator, OWA) weighted prediction. Therefore, in order to verify the proposed method, the Taiwan stock exchange (Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation) Taiwan Weighted Stock Index (Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index, TAIEX) as experimental forecast target, in order to filter the appropriate variables in the experiment Finally, included in other studies in recent years mode in conjunction with this study, the results showed that the predictive ability of this study further improve.
Keywords: Heterogeneity, residential mortgage loans, foreclosure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13901730 Factors that Contribute to the Improvement of the Sense of Self-Efficacy of Special Educators in Inclusive Settings in Greece
Authors: Sotiria Tzivinikou, Dimitra Kagkara
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Teacher’s sense of self-efficacy can affect significantly both teacher’s and student’s performance. More specific, self-efficacy is associated with the learning outcomes as well as student’s motivation and self-efficacy. For example, teachers with high sense of self-efficacy are more open to innovations and invest more effort in teaching. In addition to this, effective inclusive education is associated with higher levels of teacher’s self-efficacy. Pre-service teachers with high levels of self-efficacy could handle student’s behavior better and more effectively assist students with special educational needs. Teacher preparation programs are also important, because teacher’s efficacy beliefs are shaped early in learning, as a result the quality of teacher’s education programs can affect the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service teachers. Usually, a number of pre-service teachers do not consider themselves well prepared to work with students with special educational needs and do not have the appropriate sense of self-efficacy. This study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to the improvement of the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service special educators by using an academic practicum training program. The sample of this study is 159 pre-service special educators, who also participated in the academic practicum training program. For the purpose of this study were used quantitative methods for data collection and analysis. Teacher’s self-efficacy was assessed by the teachers themselves with the completion of a questionnaire which was based on the scale of Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale. Pre and post measurements of teacher’s self-efficacy were taken. The results of the survey are consistent with those of the international literature. The results indicate that a significant number of pre-service special educators do not hold the appropriate sense of self-efficacy regarding teaching students with special educational needs. Moreover, a quality academic training program constitutes a crucial factor for the improvement of the sense of self-efficacy of pre-service special educators, as additional for the provision of high quality inclusive education.
Keywords: Inclusive education, pre-service, self-efficacy, training program.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9041729 On the Reliability of Low Voltage Network with Small Scale Distributed Generators
Authors: Rade M. Ciric, Nikola Lj.Rajakovic
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Since the 80s huge efforts have been made to utilize renewable energy sources to generate electric power. This paper reports some aspects of integration of the distributed generators into the low voltage distribution networks. An assessment of impact of the distributed generators on the reliability indices of low voltage network is performed. Results obtained from case study using low voltage network, are presented and discussed.Keywords: low voltage network, distributed generation, reliability indices
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18031728 Multi-Sensor Image Fusion for Visible and Infrared Thermal Images
Authors: Amit Kr. Happy
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This paper is motivated by the importance of multi-sensor image fusion with specific focus on Infrared (IR) and Visible image (VI) fusion for various applications including military reconnaissance. Image fusion can be defined as the process of combining two or more source images into a single composite image with extended information content that improves visual perception or feature extraction. These images can be from different modalities like Visible camera & IR Thermal Imager. While visible images are captured by reflected radiations in the visible spectrum, the thermal images are formed from thermal radiation (IR) that may be reflected or self-emitted. A digital color camera captures the visible source image and a thermal IR camera acquires the thermal source image. In this paper, some image fusion algorithms based upon Multi-Scale Transform (MST) and region-based selection rule with consistency verification have been proposed and presented. This research includes implementation of the proposed image fusion algorithm in MATLAB along with a comparative analysis to decide the optimum number of levels for MST and the coefficient fusion rule. The results are presented, and several commonly used evaluation metrics are used to assess the suggested method's validity. Experiments show that the proposed approach is capable of producing good fusion results. While deploying our image fusion algorithm approaches, we observe several challenges from the popular image fusion methods. While high computational cost and complex processing steps of image fusion algorithms provide accurate fused results, but they also make it hard to become deployed in system and applications that require real-time operation, high flexibility and low computation ability. So, the methods presented in this paper offer good results with minimum time complexity.
Keywords: Image fusion, IR thermal imager, multi-sensor, Multi-Scale Transform.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4351727 Method of Moments Applied to a Cuboidal Cavity Resonator: Effect of Gravitational Field Produced by a Black Hole
Authors: Arti Vaish, Harish Parthasarathy
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This paper deals with the formulation of Maxwell-s equations in a cavity resonator in the presence of the gravitational field produced by a blackhole. The metric of space-time due to the blackhole is the Schwarzchild metric. Conventionally, this is expressed in spherical polar coordinates. In order to adapt this metric to our problem, we have considered this metric in a small region close to the blackhole and expressed this metric in a cartesian system locally.
Keywords: Method of moments, General theory of relativity, Electromagnetism, Metric tensor, schwarzchild metric, Wave Equation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16831726 Megalopolisation: An Effect of Large Scale Urbanisation in Post-Reform China
Authors: Siqing Chen
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Megalopolis is a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. Since China introduced the economic reforms in late 1970s, the Chinese urban system has experienced unprecedented growth. The process of urbanisation prevailed in the 1980s, and the process of predominantly large city growth appeared to continue through 1990s and 2000s. In this study, the magnitude and pattern of urbanisation in China during 1990s were examined using remotely sensed imagery acquired by TM/ETM+ sensor onboard the Landsat satellites. The development of megalopolis areas in China was also studied based on the GIS analysis of the increases of urban and built-up area from 1990 to 2000. The analysis suggests that in the traditional agricultural zones in China, e.g., Huang-Huai-Hai Plains, Changjiang River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Sichuan Basin, the urban and built-up areas increased by 1.76 million hectares, of which 0.82 million hectares are expansion of urban areas, an increase of 24.78% compared with 1990 at the national scale. The Yellow River Delta, Changjiang River Delta and Pearl River Delta also saw an increase of urban and built-up area by 63.9%, 66.2% and 83.0% respectively. As a result, three major megalopolises were developed in China: the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong- Macau (Pearl River Delta: PRD) megalopolis area, the Shanghai- Nanjing-Hangzhou (Changjiang River Delta: CRD) megalopolis area and the Beijing-Tianjing-Tangshan-Qinhuangdao (Yellow River Delta-Bohai Sea Ring: YRD) megalopolis area. The relationship between the processed of megalopolisation and the inter-provincial population flow was also explored in the context of social-economic and transport infrastructure development in Post-reform China.
Keywords: Megalopolisation, Land use change, Spatial analysis, Post-reform China
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15581725 Optimal Algorithm for Constructing the Delaunay Triangulation in Ed
Authors: V. Tereshchenko, D. Taran
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In this paper we propose a new approach to constructing the Delaunay Triangulation and the optimum algorithm for the case of multidimensional spaces (d ≥ 2). Analysing the modern state, it is possible to draw a conclusion, that the ideas for the existing effective algorithms developed for the case of d ≥ 2 are not simple to generalize on a multidimensional case, without the loss of efficiency. We offer for the solving this problem an effective algorithm that satisfies all the given requirements. But theoretical complexity of the problem it is impossible to improve as the Worst - Case Optimality for algorithms of solving such a problem is proved.
Keywords: Delaunay triangulation, multidimensional space, Voronoi Diagram, optimal algorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19851724 Propagation of Nonlinear Surface Waves in Relativistically Degenerate Quantum Plasma Half-Space
Authors: Swarniv Chandra, Parthasona Maji, Basudev Ghosh
Abstract:
The nonlinear self-interaction of an electrostatic surface wave on a semibounded quantum plasma with relativistic degeneracy is investigated by using quantum hydrodynamic (QHD) model and the Poisson’s equation with appropriate boundary conditions. It is shown that a part of the second harmonic generated through self-interaction does not have a true surface wave character but propagates obliquely away from the plasma-vacuum interface into the bulk of plasma.
Keywords: Harmonic Generation, Quantum Plasma, Quantum Hydrodynamic Model, Relativistic Degeneracy, Surface waves.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22711723 MIMO-OFDM Coded for Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Systems
Authors: El Miloud A.R. Reyouchi, Kamal Ghoumid, Koutaiba Amezian, Otman Mrabet
Abstract:
This paper proposes and analyses the wireless telecommunication system with multiple antennas to the emission and reception MIMO (multiple input multiple output) with space diversity in a OFDM context. In particular it analyses the performance of a DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) broadcasting system that includes MIMO-OFDM techniques. Different propagation channel models and configurations are considered for each diversity scheme. This study has been carried out in the context of development of the next generation DVB-T/H and WRAN.Keywords: MIMO, MISO, OFDM, DVB-/H/T2, WRAN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27101722 Speaker Identification by Atomic Decomposition of Learned Features Using Computational Auditory Scene Analysis Principals in Noisy Environments
Authors: Thomas Bryan, Veton Kepuska, Ivica Kostanic
Abstract:
Speaker recognition is performed in high Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) environments using principals of Computational Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA). CASA methods often classify sounds from images in the time-frequency (T-F) plane using spectrograms or cochleargrams as the image. In this paper atomic decomposition implemented by matching pursuit performs a transform from time series speech signals to the T-F plane. The atomic decomposition creates a sparsely populated T-F vector in “weight space” where each populated T-F position contains an amplitude weight. The weight space vector along with the atomic dictionary represents a denoised, compressed version of the original signal. The arraignment or of the atomic indices in the T-F vector are used for classification. Unsupervised feature learning implemented by a sparse autoencoder learns a single dictionary of basis features from a collection of envelope samples from all speakers. The approach is demonstrated using pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. Pairs of speakers are selected randomly from a single district. Each speak has 10 sentences. Two are used for training and 8 for testing. Atomic index probabilities are created for each training sentence and also for each test sentence. Classification is performed by finding the lowest Euclidean distance between then probabilities from the training sentences and the test sentences. Training is done at a 30dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Testing is performed at SNR’s of 0 dB, 5 dB, 10 dB and 30dB. The algorithm has a baseline classification accuracy of ~93% averaged over 10 pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. The baseline accuracy is attributable to short sequences of training and test data as well as the overall simplicity of the classification algorithm. The accuracy is not affected by AWGN and produces ~93% accuracy at 0dB SNR.
Keywords: Time-frequency plane, atomic decomposition, envelope sampling, Gabor atoms, matching pursuit, sparse dictionary learning, sparse autoencoder.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15731721 Compensation–Based Current Decomposition
Authors: Mihaela Popescu, Alexandru Bitoleanu, Mircea Dobriceanu
Abstract:
This paper deals with the current space-vector decomposition in three-phase, three-wire systems on the basis of some case studies. We propose four components of the current spacevector in terms of DC and AC components of the instantaneous active and reactive powers. The term of supplementary useless current vector is also pointed out. The analysis shows that the current decomposition which respects the definition of the instantaneous apparent power vector is useful for compensation reasons only if the supply voltages are sinusoidal. A modified definition of the components of the current is proposed for the operation under nonsinusoidal voltage conditions.Keywords: Active current, Active filtering, p–q theory, Reactive current.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1520