Search results for: hydraulic form loss coefficient
2135 Enhancement of Pulsed Eddy Current Response Based on Power Spectral Density after Continuous Wavelet Transform Decomposition
Authors: A. Benyahia, M. Zergoug, M. Amir, M. Fodil
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The main objective of this work is to enhance the Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) response from the aluminum structure using signal processing. Cracks and metal loss in different structures cause changes in PEC response measurements. In this paper, time-frequency analysis is used to represent PEC response, which generates a large quantity of data and reduce the noise due to measurement. Power Spectral Density (PSD) after Wavelet Decomposition (PSD-WD) is proposed for defect detection. The experimental results demonstrate that the cracks in the surface can be extracted satisfactorily by the proposed methods. The validity of the proposed method is discussed.
Keywords: NDT, pulsed eddy current, continuous wavelet transform, Mexican hat wavelet mother, defect detection, power spectral density.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7652134 Estimating the Absorption of Volatile Organic Compounds in Four Biodiesels Using the UNIFAC Procedure
Authors: Corina M Mateescu, Edison Muzenda, Mohamed Belaid, Saka Abdulkareem, Ayo S Afolabi
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This work considered the thermodynamic feasibility of scrubbing volatile organic compounds into biodiesel in view of designing a gas treatment process with this absorbent. A detailed vapour – liquid equilibrium investigation was performed using the original UNIFAC group contribution method. The four biodiesels studied in this work are methyl oleate, methyl palmitate, methyl linolenate and ethyl stearate. The original UNIFAC procedure was used to estimate the infinite dilution activity coefficients of 13 selected volatile organic compounds in the biodiesels. The calculations were done at the VOC mole fraction of 9.213x10-8. Ethyl stearate gave the most favourable phase equilibrium. A close agreement was found between the infinite dilution activity coefficient of toluene found in this work and those reported in literature. Thermodynamic models can efficiently be used to calculate vast amount of phase equilibrium behaviour using limited number of experimental data.Keywords: Biodiesel, Equilibrium, Gas treatment, Infinitedilution, Thermodynamic
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18822133 Influence of a Pulsatile Electroosmotic Flow on the Dispersivity of a Non-Reactive Solute through a Microcapillary
Authors: Jaime Muñoz, José Arcos, Oscar Bautista Federico Méndez
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The influence of a pulsatile electroosmotic flow (PEOF) at the rate of spread, or dispersivity, for a non-reactive solute released in a microcapillary with slippage at the boundary wall (modeled by the Navier-slip condition) is theoretically analyzed. Based on the flow velocity field developed under such conditions, the present study implements an analytical scheme of scaling known as the Theory of Homogenization, in order to obtain a mathematical expression for the dispersivity, valid at a large time scale where the initial transients have vanished and the solute spreads under the Taylor dispersion influence. Our results show the dispersivity is a function of a slip coefficient, the amplitude of the imposed electric field, the Debye length and the angular Reynolds number, highlighting the importance of the latter as an enhancement/detrimental factor on the dispersivity, which allows to promote the PEOF as a strong candidate for chemical species separation at lab-on-a-chip devices.Keywords: Dispersivity, microcapillary, Navier-slip condition, pulsatile electroosmotic flow, Taylor dispersion, Theory of Homogenization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6442132 Nutritional Composition of Iranian Desi and Kabuli Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum L.) Cultivars in Autumn Sowing
Authors: Khosro Mohammadi
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The grain quality of chickpea in Iran is low and instable, which may be attributed to the evolution of cultivars with a narrow genetic base making them vulnerable to biotic stresses. Four chickpea varieties from diverse geographic origins were chosen and arranged in a randomized complete block design. Mesorhizobium sp. cicer strain SW7 was added to all the chickpea seeds. Chickpea seeds were planted on October 9, 2013. Each genotype was sown 5 m in length, with 35 cm inter-row spacing, in 3 rows. Weeds were removed manually in all plots. Results showed that Analysis of variance on the studied traits showed significant differences among genotypes for N, P, K and Fe contents of chickpea, but there is not a significant difference among Ca, Zn and Mg continents of chickpea. The experimental coefficient of variation (CV) varied from 7.3 to 15.8. In general, the CV value lower than 20% is considered to be good, indicating the accuracy of conducted experiments. The highest grain N was observed in Hashem and Jam cultivars. The highest grain P was observed in Jam cultivar. Phosphorus content (mg/100g) ranged from 142.3 to 302.3 with a mean value of 221.3. The negative correlation (-0.126) was observed between the N and P of chickpea cultivars. The highest K and Fe contents were observed in Jam cultivar.Keywords: Cultivar, genotype, nitrogen, nutrient, yield.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22202131 Measurement of CES Production Functions Considering Energy as an Input
Authors: Donglan Zha, Jiansong Si
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Because of its flexibility, CES attracts much interest in economic growth and programming models, and the macroeconomics or micro-macro models. This paper focuses on the development, estimating methods of CES production function considering energy as an input. We leave for future research work of relaxing the assumption of constant returns to scale, the introduction of potential input factors, and the generalization method of the optimal nested form of multi-factor production functions.
Keywords: Bias of technical change, CES production function, elasticity of substitution, energy input.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9602130 Motor Imagery Based Brain-Computer Interface for Cerebellar Impaired Patients
Authors: Young-Seok Choi
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Cerebellar ataxia is a steadily progressive neurodegenerative disease associated with loss of motor control, leaving patients unable to walk, talk, or perform activities of daily living. Direct motor instruction in cerebella ataxia patients has limited effectiveness, presumably because an inappropriate closed-loop cerebellar response to the inevitable observed error confounds motor learning mechanisms. Could the use of EEG based BCI provide advanced biofeedback to improve motor imagery and provide a “backdoor” to improving motor performance in ataxia patients? In order to determine the feasibility of using EEG-based BCI control in this population, we compare the ability to modulate mu-band power (8-12 Hz) by performing a cued motor imagery task in an ataxia patient and healthy control.Keywords: Cerebellar ataxia, Electroencephalogram, brain-computer interface, motor imagery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17512129 Enhanced Ant Colony Based Algorithm for Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Network
Authors: Cauvery N. K., K. V. Viswanatha
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Mobile Ad hoc network consists of a set of mobile nodes. It is a dynamic network which does not have fixed topology. This network does not have any infrastructure or central administration, hence it is called infrastructure-less network. The change in topology makes the route from source to destination as dynamic fixed and changes with respect to time. The nature of network requires the algorithm to perform route discovery, maintain route and detect failure along the path between two nodes [1]. This paper presents the enhancements of ARA [2] to improve the performance of routing algorithm. ARA [2] finds route between nodes in mobile ad-hoc network. The algorithm is on-demand source initiated routing algorithm. This is based on the principles of swarm intelligence. The algorithm is adaptive, scalable and favors load balancing. The improvements suggested in this paper are handling of loss ants and resource reservation.Keywords: Ad hoc networks, On-demand routing, Swarmintelligence.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18342128 An Improved Prediction Model of Ozone Concentration Time Series Based On Chaotic Approach
Authors: N. Z. A. Hamid, M. S. M. Noorani
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This study is focused on the development of prediction models of the Ozone concentration time series. Prediction model is built based on chaotic approach. Firstly, the chaotic nature of the time series is detected by means of phase space plot and the Cao method. Then, the prediction model is built and the local linear approximation method is used for the forecasting purposes. Traditional prediction of autoregressive linear model is also built. Moreover, an improvement in local linear approximation method is also performed. Prediction models are applied to the hourly Ozone time series observed at the benchmark station in Malaysia. Comparison of all models through the calculation of mean absolute error, root mean squared error and correlation coefficient shows that the one with improved prediction method is the best. Thus, chaotic approach is a good approach to be used to develop a prediction model for the Ozone concentration time series.
Keywords: Chaotic approach, phase space, Cao method, local linear approximation method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17832127 Automated Algorithm for Removing Continuous Flame Spectrum Based On Sampled Linear Bases
Authors: Luis Arias, Jorge E. Pezoa, Daniel Sbárbaro
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In this paper, an automated algorithm to estimate and remove the continuous baseline from measured spectra containing both continuous and discontinuous bands is proposed. The algorithm uses previous information contained in a Continuous Database Spectra (CDBS) to obtain a linear basis, with minimum number of sampled vectors, capable of representing a continuous baseline. The proposed algorithm was tested by using a CDBS of flame spectra where Principal Components Analysis and Non-negative Matrix Factorization were used to obtain linear bases. Thus, the radical emissions of natural gas, oil and bio-oil flames spectra at different combustion conditions were obtained. In order to validate the performance in the baseline estimation process, the Goodness-of-fit Coefficient and the Root Mean-squared Error quality metrics were evaluated between the estimated and the real spectra in absence of discontinuous emission. The achieved results make the proposed method a key element in the development of automatic monitoring processes strategies involving discontinuous spectral bands.
Keywords: Flame spectra, removing baseline, recovering spectrum.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17522126 A Computational Study of Very High Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Circular Duct with Hemispherical Inline Baffles
Authors: Dipak Sen, Rajdeep Ghosh
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This paper presents a computational study of steady state three dimensional very high turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics in a constant temperature-surfaced circular duct fitted with 900 hemispherical inline baffles. The computations are based on realizable k-ɛ model with standard wall function considering the finite volume method, and the SIMPLE algorithm has been implemented. Computational Study are carried out for Reynolds number, Re ranging from 80000 to 120000, Prandtl Number, Pr of 0.73, Pitch Ratios, PR of 1,2,3,4,5 based on the hydraulic diameter of the channel, hydrodynamic entry length, thermal entry length and the test section. Ansys Fluent 15.0 software has been used to solve the flow field. Study reveals that circular pipe having baffles has a higher Nusselt number and friction factor compared to the smooth circular pipe without baffles. Maximum Nusselt number and friction factor are obtained for the PR=5 and PR=1 respectively. Nusselt number increases while pitch ratio increases in the range of study; however, friction factor also decreases up to PR 3 and after which it becomes almost constant up to PR 5. Thermal enhancement factor increases with increasing pitch ratio but with slightly decreasing Reynolds number in the range of study and becomes almost constant at higher Reynolds number. The computational results reveal that optimum thermal enhancement factor of 900 inline hemispherical baffle is about 1.23 for pitch ratio 5 at Reynolds number 120000.It also shows that the optimum pitch ratio for which the baffles can be installed in such very high turbulent flows should be 5. Results show that pitch ratio and Reynolds number play an important role on both fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics.Keywords: Friction factor, heat transfer, turbulent flow, circular duct, baffle, pitch ratio.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21292125 Political Information Exposures, Politicians- Perceptions, Political Attitudes and Political Participations among People in Bangkok Metropolitan Area
Authors: Pratoom Rekklang
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The purposes of this study are to study political information exposure, politicians- perceptions, political attitudes and political participations among people in Bangkok Metropolitan Area. The sample consisted of 420 which were selected by using accidental sampling method. Questionnaires were administered to all of the respondents to obtain the data for this research. T-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson-s correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The findings are as follows: The difference in gender, education, income and occupation has significantly effect upon political information exposures. The difference in age, income has significantly effect upon politicians- perceptions. The difference in income has significantly effect upon political attitudes. The difference in gender, income and occupation has significantly effect upon political participations. There were a significantly relations between political information exposures, political attitudes, political participations and between politicians- perceptions, political attitudes and political participations.Keywords: Political Information Exposures, Politicians' Perceptions, Political Attitudes, Political Participations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15532124 Design, Implementation and Analysis of Composite Material Dampers for Turning Operations
Authors: Lorenzo Daghini, Andreas Archenti, Cornel Mihai Nicolescu
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This paper introduces a novel design for boring bar with enhanced damping capability. The principle followed in the design phase was to enhance the damping capability minimizing the loss in static stiffness through implementation of composite material interfaces. The newly designed tool has been compared to a conventional tool. The evaluation criteria were the dynamic characteristics, frequency and damping ratio, of the machining system, as well as the surface roughness of the machined workpieces. The use of composite material in the design of damped tool has been demonstrated effective. Furthermore, the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) models presented in this paper take into consideration the interaction between the elastic structure of the machine tool and the cutting process and can therefore be used to characterize the machining system in operational conditions.
Keywords: ARMA, cutting stability, damped tool, machining.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28822123 Investigation of Water Vapour Transport Properties of Gypsum Using Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Z. Pavlík, J. Žumár, M. Pavlíková, J. Kočí, R. Černý
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Water vapour transport properties of gypsum block are studied in dependence on relative humidity using inverse analysis based on genetic algorithm. The computational inverse analysis is performed for the relative humidity profiles measured along the longitudinal axis of a rod sample. Within the performed transient experiment, the studied sample is exposed to two environments with different relative humidity, whereas the temperature is kept constant. For the basic gypsum characterisation and for the assessment of input material parameters necessary for computational application of genetic algorithm, the basic material properties of gypsum are measured as well as its thermal and water vapour storage parameters. On the basis of application of genetic algorithm, the relative humidity dependent water vapour diffusion coefficient and water vapour diffusion resistance factor are calculated.Keywords: Water vapour transport, gypsum block, transient experiment, genetic algorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16592122 Analysis of Normal Penetration of Ogive -Nose Projectiles into Thin Metallic Plates
Authors: M. H. Pol, A. Bidi, A.V. Hoseini, G.H. Liaghat
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In this note, a theoretical model for analyzing of normal penetration of the ogive – nose projectile into metallic targets is presented .The failure is assumed to be asymmetry petalling and the analysis is performed by using the energy balance and work done .The work done consist of the work required for plastic deformation Wp, the work for transferring the matter to new position Wd and the work for bending of the petals Wb. In several studies, it has been shown that we can neglect the loss of energy by temperature. In this present study, in first, by assuming the crater formation after perforation, the value of work done is calculated during the normal penetration of conical projectiles into thin metallic targets. Then the value of residual velocity and ballistic limit of the projectile is predicated by using the energy balance. In final, theoretical and experimental results is compared.Keywords: Ogive Projectile, normal impact, penetration, thinmetallic target.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25102121 A Power-Gating Scheme to Reduce Leakage Power for P-type Adiabatic Logic Circuits
Authors: Hong Li, Linfeng Li, Jianping Hu
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With rapid technology scaling, the proportion of the static power consumption catches up with dynamic power consumption gradually. To decrease leakage consumption is becoming more and more important in low-power design. This paper presents a power-gating scheme for P-DTGAL (p-type dual transmission gate adiabatic logic) circuits to reduce leakage power dissipations under deep submicron process. The energy dissipations of P-DTGAL circuits with power-gating scheme are investigated in different processes, frequencies and active ratios. BSIM4 model is adopted to reflect the characteristics of the leakage currents. HSPICE simulations show that the leakage loss is greatly reduced by using the P-DTGAL with power-gating techniques.Keywords: Leakage reduction, low power, deep submicronCMOS circuits, P-type adiabatic circuits.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19342120 Mechanism of Damping in Welded Structures using Finite Element Approach
Authors: B. Singh, B. K. Nanda
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The characterization and modeling of the dynamic behavior of many built-up structures under vibration conditions is still a subject of current research. The present study emphasizes the theoretical investigation of slip damping in layered and jointed welded cantilever structures using finite element approach. Application of finite element method in damping analysis is relatively recent, as such, some problems particularly slip damping analysis has not received enough attention. To validate the finite element model developed, experiments have been conducted on a number of mild steel specimens under different initial conditions of vibration. Finite element model developed affirms that the damping capacity of such structures is influenced by a number of vital parameters such as; pressure distribution, kinematic coefficient of friction and micro-slip at the interfaces, amplitude, frequency of vibration, length and thickness of the specimen. Finite element model developed can be utilized effectively in the design of machine tools, automobiles, aerodynamic and space structures, frames and machine members for enhancing their damping capacity.Keywords: Amplitude, finite element method, slip damping, tack welding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19222119 Closed-Form Solutions for Nanobeams Based On the Nonlocal Euler-Bernoulli Theory
Authors: Francesco Marotti de Sciarra, Raffaele Barretta
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Starting from nonlocal continuum mechanics, a thermodynamically new nonlocal model of Euler-Bernoulli nanobeams is provided. The nonlocal variational formulation is consistently provided and the governing differential equation for transverse displacement is presented. Higher-order boundary conditions are then consistently derived. An example is contributed in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed model.
Keywords: Bernoulli-Euler beams, Nanobeams, nonlocal elasticity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23342118 MHD Natural Convection Flow of Tangent Hyperbolic Nanofluid Past a Vertical Permeable Cone
Authors: A. Mahdy
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In this paper, a non-similraity analysis has been presented to exhibit the two-dimensional boundary layer flow of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection of tangent hyperbolic nanofluid nearby a vertical permeable cone in the presence of variable wall temperature impact. The mutated boundary layer nonlinear governing equations are solved numerically by the an efficient implicit finite difference procedure. For both nanofluid effective viscosity and nanofluid thermal conductivity, a number of experimental relations have been recognized. For characterizing the nanofluid, the compatible nanoparticle volume fraction model has been used. Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient are calculated for some values of Weissenberg number W, surface temperature exponent n, magnetic field parameter Mg, power law index m and Prandtl number Pr as functions of suction parameter. The rate of heat transfer from a vertical permeable cone in a regular fluid is less than that in nanofluids. A best convection has been presented by Copper nanoparticle among all the used nanoparticles.Keywords: Tangent hyperbolic nanofluid, finite difference, non-similarity, isothermal cone.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7842117 An Analysis of Compression Methods and Implementation of Medical Images in Wireless Network
Authors: C. Rajan, K. Geetha, S. Geetha
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The motivation of image compression technique is to reduce the irrelevance and redundancy of the image data in order to store or pass data in an efficient way from one place to another place. There are several types of compression methods available. Without the help of compression technique, the file size is knowingly larger, usually several megabytes, but by doing the compression technique, it is possible to reduce file size up to 10% as of the original without noticeable loss in quality. Image compression can be lossless or lossy. The compression technique can be applied to images, audio, video and text data. This research work mainly concentrates on methods of encoding, DCT, compression methods, security, etc. Different methodologies and network simulations have been analyzed here. Various methods of compression methodologies and its performance metrics has been investigated and presented in a table manner.Keywords: Image compression techniques, encoding, DCT, lossy compression, lossless compression, JPEG.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11882116 Traction Behavior of Linear Piezo-Viscous Lubricants in Rough Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication Contacts
Authors: Punit Kumar, Niraj Kumar
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The traction behavior of lubricants with the linear pressure-viscosity response in EHL line contacts is investigated numerically for smooth as well as rough surfaces. The analysis involves the simultaneous solution of Reynolds, elasticity and energy equations along with the computation of lubricant properties and surface temperatures. The temperature modified Doolittle-Tait equations are used to calculate viscosity and density as functions of fluid pressure and temperature, while Carreau model is used to describe the lubricant rheology. The surface roughness is assumed to be sinusoidal and it is present on the nearly stationary surface in near-pure sliding EHL conjunction. The linear P-V oil is found to yield much lower traction coefficients and slightly thicker EHL films as compared to the synthetic oil for a given set of dimensionless speed and load parameters. Besides, the increase in traction coefficient attributed to surface roughness is much lower for the former case. The present analysis emphasizes the importance of employing realistic pressure-viscosity response for accurate prediction of EHL traction.Keywords: EHL, linear pressure-viscosity, surface roughness, traction, water/glycol.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12592115 Classification of Soil Aptness to Establish of Panicum virgatum in Mississippi using Sensitivity Analysis and GIS
Authors: Eduardo F. Arias, William Cooke III, Zhaofei Fan, William Kingery
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During the last decade Panicum virgatum, known as Switchgrass, has been broadly studied because of its remarkable attributes as a substitute pasture and as a functional biofuel source. The objective of this investigation was to establish soil suitability for Switchgrass in the State of Mississippi. A linear weighted additive model was developed to forecast soil suitability. Multicriteria analysis and Sensitivity analysis were utilized to adjust and optimize the model. The model was fit using seven years of field data associated with soils characteristics collected from Natural Resources Conservation System - United States Department of Agriculture (NRCS-USDA). The best model was selected by correlating calculated biomass yield with each model's soils-based output for Switchgrass suitability. Coefficient of determination (r2) was the decisive factor used to establish the 'best' soil suitability model. Coefficients associated with the 'best' model were implemented within a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create a map of relative soil suitability for Switchgrass in Mississippi. A Geodatabase associated with soil parameters was built and is available for future Geographic Information System use.Keywords: Aptness, GIS, sensitivity analysis, switchgrass, soil.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15352114 Application of Generalized NAUT B-Spline Curveon Circular Domain to Generate Circle Involute
Authors: Ashok Ganguly, Pranjali Arondekar
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In the present paper, we use generalized B-Spline curve in trigonometric form on circular domain, to capture the transcendental nature of circle involute curve and uncertainty characteristic of design. The required involute curve get generated within the given tolerance limit and is useful in gear design.
Keywords: Bézier, Circle Involute, NAUT B-Spline, Spur Gear.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17922113 The Architectural and Imaginary Spaces of the Anime Models
Authors: Kussain Marden
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Architecture as a form of art, whilst actively developing, finds new methods and conceptions. Currently, architectural animation is actively developing as a step, successive to architectural visualization. Interesting vistas of architectural ideas were discovered by artists of Japanese animation, in which there are traditional spirits, kami, and imaginary spaces relating to them. Anime art should be considered abstract painting, another kind of an architectural workshop, where new architectural ideas are generated.Keywords: Anime, architecture, imaginary spaces.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25962112 Statistical and Land Planning Study of Tourist Arrivals in Greece during 2005-2016
Authors: Dimitra Alexiou
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During the last 10 years, in spite of the economic crisis, the number of tourists arriving in Greece has increased, particularly during the tourist season from April to October. In this paper, the number of annual tourist arrivals is studied to explore their preferences with regard to the month of travel, the selected destinations, as well the amount of money spent. The collected data are processed with statistical methods, yielding numerical and graphical results. From the computation of statistical parameters and the forecasting with exponential smoothing, useful conclusions are arrived at that can be used by the Greek tourism authorities, as well as by tourist organizations, for planning purposes for the coming years. The results of this paper and the computed forecast can also be used for decision making by private tourist enterprises that are investing in Greece. With regard to the statistical methods, the method of Simple Exponential Smoothing of time series of data is employed. The search for a best forecast for 2017 and 2018 provides the value of the smoothing coefficient. For all statistical computations and graphics Microsoft Excel is used.
Keywords: Tourism, statistical methods, exponential smoothing, land spatial planning, economy, Microsoft Excel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7072111 Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Lutein Esters from Marigold Flowers and their Hydrolysis by Improved Saponification and Enzyme Biocatalysis
Authors: A. Peter Amala Sujith, T.V. Hymavathi, P. Yasoda Devi
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Lutein is a dietary oxycarotenoid which is found to reduce the risks of Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Supercritical fluid extraction of lutein esters from marigold petals was carried out and was found to be much effective than conventional solvent extraction. The saponification of pre-concentrated lutein esters to produce free lutein was studied which showed a composition of about 88% total carotenoids (UV-VIS spectrophotometry) and 90.7% lutein (HPLC). The lipase catalyzed hydrolysis of lutein esters in conventional medium was investigated. The optimal temperature, pH, enzyme concentration and water activity were found to be 50°C, 7, 15% and 0.33 respectively and the activity loss of lipase was about 25% after 8 times re-use in at 50°C for 12 days. However, the lipase catalyzed hydrolysis of lutein esters in conventional media resulted in poor conversions (16.4%).Keywords: lutein, preconcentration, saponification, lipase
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38812110 A 3D Numerical Environmental Modeling Approach for Assessing Transport of Spilled Oil in Porous Beach Conditions under a Meso-Scale Tank Design
Authors: J. X. Dong, C. J. An, Z. Chen, E. H. Owens, M. C. Boufadel, E. Taylor, K. Lee
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Shorelines are vulnerable to significant environmental impacts from oil spills. Stranded oil can cause potential short- to long-term detrimental effects along beaches that include injuries to ecosystem, socio-economic and cultural resources. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical modeling approach is developed to evaluate the fate and transport of spilled oil for hypothetical oiled shoreline cases under various combinations of beach geomorphology and environmental conditions. The developed model estimates the spatial and temporal distribution of spilled oil for the various test conditions, using the finite volume method and considering the physical transport (dispersion and advection), sinks, and sorption processes. The model includes a user-friendly interface for data input on variables such as beach properties, environmental conditions, and physical-chemical properties of spilled oil. An experimental meso-scale tank design was used to test the developed model for dissolved petroleum hydrocarbon within shorelines. The simulated results for effects of different sediment substrates, oil types, and shoreline features for the transport of spilled oil are comparable to that obtained with a commercially available model. Results show that the properties of substrates and the oil removal by shoreline effects have significant impacts on oil transport in the beach area. Sensitivity analysis, through the application of the one-step-at-a-time method (OAT), for the 3D model identified hydraulic conductivity as the most sensitive parameter. The 3D numerical model allows users to examine the behavior of oil on and within beaches, assess potential environmental impacts, and provide technical support for decisions related to shoreline clean-up operations.
Keywords: dissolved petroleum hydrocarbons, environmental multimedia model, finite volume method, FVM, sensitivity analysis, total petroleum hydrocarbons, TPH
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5242109 Level of Concentration in Banking Markets and Length of EU Membership
Authors: Ivan Pavic, Fran Galetic, Tomislava Pavic Kramaric
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The purpose of this article is to analyze the degree of concentration in the banking market in EU member states as well as to determine the impact of the length of EU membership on the degree of concentration. In that sense several analysis were conducted, specifically, panel analysis, calculation of correlation coefficient and regression analysis of the impact of the length of EU membership on the degree of concentration. Panel analysis was conducted to determine whether there is a similar trend of concentration in three groups of countries - countries with a low, moderate and high level of concentration. The conducted panel analysis showed that in EU countries with a moderate level of concentration, the level of concentration decreases. The calculation of correlation showed that, to some extent, with other influential factors, the length of EU membership negatively affects the market concentration of the banking market. Using the regression analysis for investigation of the influence of the length of EU membership on the level of concentration in the banking sector in a particular country, the results reveal that there is a negative effect of the length in EU membership on market concentration, although it is not significantly influential variable.Keywords: Banking sector, concentration, EU
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18632108 Periodic Solutions for a Third-order p-Laplacian Functional Differential Equation
Authors: Yanling Zhu, Kai Wang
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By means of Mawhin’s continuation theorem, we study a kind of third-order p-Laplacian functional differential equation with distributed delay in the form: ϕp(x (t)) = g t, 0 −τ x(t + s) dα(s) + e(t), some criteria to guarantee the existence of periodic solutions are obtained.
Keywords: p–Laplacian, distributed delay, periodic solution, Mawhin's continuation theorem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12892107 Learning to Recommend with Negative Ratings Based on Factorization Machine
Authors: Caihong Sun, Xizi Zhang
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Rating prediction is an important problem for recommender systems. The task is to predict the rating for an item that a user would give. Most of the existing algorithms for the task ignore the effect of negative ratings rated by users on items, but the negative ratings have a significant impact on users’ purchasing decisions in practice. In this paper, we present a rating prediction algorithm based on factorization machines that consider the effect of negative ratings inspired by Loss Aversion theory. The aim of this paper is to develop a concave and a convex negative disgust function to evaluate the negative ratings respectively. Experiments are conducted on MovieLens dataset. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods by comparing with other four the state-of-the-art approaches. The negative ratings showed much importance in the accuracy of ratings predictions.
Keywords: Factorization machines, feature engineering, negative ratings, recommendation systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9412106 A Survey on MAC Protocols for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks
Authors: B. Cynthia Sherin, E. A. Mary Anita
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Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is an emerging and very promising technology that has great demand on the access capability of the existing wireless technology. VANETs help improve traffic safety and efficiency. Each vehicle can exchange their information to inform the other vehicles about the current status of the traffic flow or a dangerous situation such as an accident. To achieve these, a reliable and efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol with minimal transmission collisions is required. High speed nodes, absence of infrastructure, variations in topology and their QoS requirements makes it difficult for designing a MAC protocol in vehicular networks. There are several MAC protocols proposed for VANETs to ensure that all the vehicles could send safety messages without collisions by reducing the end-to-end delay and packet loss ratio. This paper gives an overview of the several proposed MAC protocols for VANETs along with their benefits and limitations and presents an overall classification based on their characteristics.
Keywords: MAC Protocols, QoS, VANET, V2V, V2I.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 946