Search results for: scatterer density estimation

Authors: Antonio Carlos Marques Alvim, Fernando Carvalho da Silva, Aquilino Senra Martinez

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For a quick and accurate calculation of spatial neutron distribution in nuclear power reactors 3D nodal codes are usually used aiming at solving the neutron diffusion equation for a given reactor core geometry and material composition. These codes use a second order polynomial to represent the transverse leakage term. In this work, a nodal method based on the well known nodal expansion method (NEM), developed at COPPE, making use of this polynomial expansion was modified to treat the transverse leakage term for the external surfaces of peripheral reflector nodes. The proposed method was implemented into a computational system which, besides solving the diffusion equation, also solves the burnup equations governing the gradual changes in material compositions of the core due to fuel depletion. Results confirm the effectiveness of this modified treatment of peripheral nodes for practical purposes in PWR reactors.

Keywords: Transverse leakage, nodal expansion method, power density, PWR reactors

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Authors: Siddegowda, Y. A. Sathish, G. Krishnegowda, T. M. Mohan Kumar

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Road accidents are a human tragedy. They involve high human suffering and monetary costs in terms of untimely death, injuries and social problems. India had earned the dubious distinction of having more number of fatalities due to road accidents in the world. Road safety is emerging as a major social concern around the world especially in India because of infrastructure project works. A case study was taken on NH – 07 which connects to various major cities and industries. The study shows that major cases of fatalities are due to bus, trucks and high speed vehicles. The main causes of accidents are due to high density, non-restriction of speed, use of mobile phones, lack of board signs on road parking, visibility restriction, improper geometric design, road use characteristics, environmental aspects, social aspects etc. Data analysis and preventive measures are enlightened in this paper.

Keywords: Accidents, environmental aspects, fatalities, geometric design, road user characteristics.

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Authors: V. Sulakatko, F. U. Vogdt, I. Lill

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Construction technology and on-site construction activities have a direct influence on the life cycle costs of energy efficiently renovated apartment buildings. The systematic inadequacies of the External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) which occur during the construction phase increase the risk for all stakeholders, reduce mechanical durability and increase the life cycle costs of the building. The economic effect of these shortcomings can be minimised if the risk of the most significant on-site activities is recognised. The objective of the presented ETICS economic assessment concept is to evaluate the economic influence of on-site shortcomings and reveal their significance to the foreseeable future repair costs. The model assembles repair techniques, discusses their direct cost calculation methods, argues over the proper usage of net present value over the life cycle of the building, and proposes a simulation tool to evaluate the risk of on-site activities. As the technique is dependent on the selected real interest rate, a sensitivity analysis is anticipated to determine the validity of the recommendations. After the verification of the model on the sample buildings by the industry, it is expected to increase economic rationality of resource allocation and reduce high-risk systematic shortcomings during the construction process of ETICS.

Keywords: Activity-based cost estimating, Cost estimation, ETICS, Life cycle costing.

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Authors: Débora C. G. Oliveira, Julio D. Salles, Bruna A. Moriy, João A. Rossignolo, Holmer Savastano JR.

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The objective of this study was to identify the optimal level of partial replacement of Portland cement by the ashes originating from burning straw and bagasse from sugar cane (ASB). Order to this end, were made five series of flat plates and cylindrical bodies: control and others with the partial replacement in 20, 30, 40 and 50% of ASB in relation to the mass of the Ordinary Portland cement, and conducted a mechanical testing of simple axial compression (cylindrical bodies) and the four-point bending (flat plates) and determined water absorption (WA), bulk density (BD) and apparent void volume (AVV) on both types of specimens. Based on the data obtained, it may be noted that the control treatment containing only Portland cement, obtained the best results. However, the cylindrical bodies with 20% ashes showed better results compared to the other treatments. And in the formulations plates, the treatment which showed the best results was 30% cement replacement by ashes.

Keywords: Modulus of rupture, simple axial compression, waste.

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Authors: Kleiner Marques Marra, Tércio Pedrosa

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This paper reports the production of uranium-molybdenum alloys, which have been considered promising fuel for test and research nuclear reactors. U-Mo alloys were produced in three molybdenum contents: 5 wt.%, 7 wt.%, and 10 wt.%, using an electric vacuum induction furnace. A boron nitride-coated graphite crucible was employed in the production of the alloys and, after melting, the material was immediately poured into a boron nitride-coated graphite mold. The incorporation of carbon was observed, but it happened in a lower intensity than in the case of the non-coated crucible/mold. It is observed that the carbon incorporation increased and alloys density decreased with Mo addition. It was also noticed that the increase in the carbon or molybdenum content did not seem to change the as-cast structure in terms of granulation. The three alloys presented body-centered cubic crystal structure (g phase), after solidification, besides a seeming negative microsegregation of molybdenum, from the center to the periphery of the grains. There were signs of macrosegregation, from the base to the top of the ingots.

Keywords: Incorporation of carbon, macrosegregation and microsegregation, solidification, uranium-molybdenum alloys.

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Authors: A. Traidia, F. Roger, A. Chidley, J. Schroeder, T. Marlaud

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A transient finite element model has been developed to study the heat transfer and fluid flow during spot Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) on stainless steel. Temperature field, fluid velocity and electromagnetic fields are computed inside the cathode, arc-plasma and anode using a unified MHD formulation. The developed model is then used to study the influence of different helium-argon gas mixtures on both the energy transferred to the workpiece and the time evolution of the weld pool dimensions. It is found that the addition of helium to argon increases the heat flux density on the weld axis by a factor that can reach 6.5. This induces an increase in the weld pool depth by a factor of 3. It is also found that the addition of only 10% of argon to helium decreases considerably the weld pool depth, which is due to the electrical conductivity of the mixture that increases significantly when argon is added to helium.

Keywords: GTAW, Thermal plasmas, Fluid flow, Marangoni effect, Shielding Gases.

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Authors: Abdelouahab Moussaoui, Nabila Ferahta, Victor Chen

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The development of aid's systems for the medical diagnosis is not easy thing because of presence of inhomogeneities in the MRI, the variability of the data from a sequence to the other as well as of other different source distortions that accentuate this difficulty. A new automatic, contextual, adaptive and robust segmentation procedure by MRI brain tissue classification is described in this article. A first phase consists in estimating the density of probability of the data by the Parzen-Rozenblatt method. The classification procedure is completely automatic and doesn't make any assumptions nor on the clusters number nor on the prototypes of these clusters since these last are detected in an automatic manner by an operator of mathematical morphology called skeleton by influence zones detection (SKIZ). The problem of initialization of the prototypes as well as their number is transformed in an optimization problem; in more the procedure is adaptive since it takes in consideration the contextual information presents in every voxel by an adaptive and robust non parametric model by the Markov fields (MF). The number of bad classifications is reduced by the use of the criteria of MPM minimization (Maximum Posterior Marginal).

Keywords: Clustering, Automatic Classification, SKIZ, MarkovFields, Image segmentation, Maximum Posterior Marginal (MPM).

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Authors: Bin Su

Abstract:

The draft Auckland Unitary Plan outlines the future land used for new housing and businesses with Auckland population growth over the next thirty years. According to Auckland Unitary Plan, over the next 30 years, the population of Auckland is projected to increase by one million, and up to 70% of total new dwellings occur within the existing urban area. Intensification will not only increase the number of median or higher density houses such as terrace house, apartment building, etc. within the existing urban area but also change mean housing design data that can impact building thermal performance under the local climate. Based on mean energy consumption and building design data, and their relationships of a number of Auckland sample houses, this study is to estimate the future mean housing energy consumption associated with the change of mean housing design data and evaluate housing energy efficiency with the Auckland Unitary Plan.

Keywords: Auckland Unitary Plan, Building thermal design, Housing design, Housing energy efficiency.

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Authors: Jeffrey L. Duffany

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Graph coloring is an important problem in computer science and many algorithms are known for obtaining reasonably good solutions in polynomial time. One method of comparing different algorithms is to test them on a set of standard graphs where the optimal solution is already known. This investigation analyzes a set of 50 well known graph coloring instances according to a set of complexity measures. These instances come from a variety of sources some representing actual applications of graph coloring (register allocation) and others (mycieleski and leighton graphs) that are theoretically designed to be difficult to solve. The size of the graphs ranged from ranged from a low of 11 variables to a high of 864 variables. The method used to solve the coloring problem was the square of the adjacency (i.e., correlation) matrix. The results show that the most difficult graphs to solve were the leighton and the queen graphs. Complexity measures such as density, mobility, deviation from uniform color class size and number of block diagonal zeros are calculated for each graph. The results showed that the most difficult problems have low mobility (in the range of .2-.5) and relatively little deviation from uniform color class size.

Keywords: graph coloring, complexity, algorithm.

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Authors: Attapong T., Hong-Ming Ku, Nakarin M., Narin L., Alisa L, Jirut W.

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The quantum mechanics simulation was applied for calculating the interaction force between 2 molecules based on atomic level. For the simple extractive distillation system, it is ternary components consisting of 2 closed boiling point components (A,lower boiling point and B, higher boiling point) and solvent (S). The quantum mechanics simulation was used to calculate the intermolecular force (interaction force) between the closed boiling point components and solvents consisting of intermolecular between A-S and B-S. The requirement of the promising solvent for extractive distillation is that solvent (S) has to form stronger intermolecular force with only one component than the other component (A or B). In this study, the systems of aromatic-aromatic, aromatic-cycloparaffin, and paraffindiolefin systems were selected as the demonstration for solvent selection. This study defined new term using for screening the solvents called relative interaction force which is calculated from the quantum mechanics simulation. The results showed that relative interaction force gave the good agreement with the literature data (relative volatilities from the experiment). The reasons are discussed. Finally, this study suggests that quantum mechanics results can improve the relative volatility estimation for screening the solvents leading to reduce time and money consuming

Keywords: Extractive distillation, Interaction force, Quamtum mechanic, Relative volatility, Solvent extraction.

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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: L. Menaa, A. Cherifi, K. Tigouirat, M. Choura

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Analyse of locally manufactured Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) durability, used within lining systems at bottom of Municipal Solid Waste (landfill), is done in the present work. For this end, short and middle time creep behavior under tension of the analyzed material is carried out. The locally manufactured material is tested and compared to the European one (LDPE-CE). Both materials was tested in 03 various mediums: ambient and two aggressive (salty water and foam water), using three specimens in each case. A testing campaign is carried out using an especially designed and achieved testing bench. Moreover, characterisation tests were carried out to evaluate the medium effect on the mechanical properties of the tested material (LDPE). Furthermore, experimental results have been used to establish a law regression which can be used to predict creep behaviour of the analyzed material. As a result, the analyzed LDPE material has showed a good stability in different ambient and aggressive mediums; as well, locally manufactured LDPE seems more flexible, compared with the European one. This makes it more useful to the desired application.

Keywords: LDPE membrane, solid waste, aggressive mediums, durability

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Authors: Liping Yang, Curran Crawford, Jr. Ren, Zhengyi Ren

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Considering the cost evaluation and the stress analysis, a fuzzy satisfactory optimization (FSO) method has been developed for a hybrid composite flywheel. To evaluate the cost, the cost coefficients of the flywheel components are obtained through calculating the weighted sum of the scores of the material manufacturability, the structure character, and the material price. To express the satisfactory degree of the energy, the cost, and the mass, the satisfactory functions are proposed by using the decline function and introducing a satisfactory coefficient. To imply the different significance of the objectives, the object weight coefficients are defined. Based on the stress analysis of composite material, the circumferential and radial stresses are considered into the optimization formulation. The simulations of the FSO method with different weight coefficients and storage energy density optimization (SEDO) method of a flywheel are contrasted. The analysis results show that the FSO method can satisfy different requirements of the designer and the FSO method with suitable weight coefficients can replace the SEDO method.

Keywords: Flywheel energy storage, fuzzy, optimization, stress analysis.

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Authors: Ali Ghiaseddin , Akram Nemati

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In a pilot plant scale of a fluidized bed reactor, a reduction reaction of sodium sulfate by natural gas has been investigated. Natural gas is applied in this study as a reductant. Feed density, feed mass flow rate, natural gas and air flow rate (independent parameters)and temperature of bed and CO concentration in inlet and outlet of reactor (dependent parameters) were monitored and recorded at steady state. The residence time was adjusted close to value of traditional reaction [1]. An artificial neural network (ANN) was established to study dependency of yield and carbon gradient on operating parameters. Resultant 97% accuracy of applied ANN is a good prove that natural gas can be used as a reducing agent. Predicted ANN model for relation between other sources carbon gradient (accuracy 74%) indicates there is not a meaningful relation between other sources carbon variation and reduction process which means carbon in granule does not have significant effect on the reaction yield.

Keywords: reduction by natural gas, fluidized bed, sulfate, sulfide, artificial neural network

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Authors: Mesbaholdin Salami, Farzad Movahedi Sobhani, Mohammad Sadegh Ghazizadeh

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Evaluation of organizational performance is among the most important measures that help organizations and entities continuously improve their efficiency. Organizations can use the existing data and results from the comparison of units under investigation to obtain an estimation of their performance. The Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) is an important index in the evaluation of overall productivity, which considers technological developments and technical efficiency at the same time. This article proposed a model based on the multistage MPI, considering limited data (Grey’s theory). This model can evaluate the performance of units using limited and uncertain data in a multistage process. It was applied by the electricity market manager to Iran’s electric power supply chain (EPSC), which contains uncertain data, to evaluate the performance of its actors. Results from solving the model showed an improvement in the accuracy of future performance of the units under investigation, using the Grey’s system theory. This model can be used in all case studies, in which MPI is used and there are limited or uncertain data.

Keywords: Malmquist Index, Grey's Theory, Charnes Cooper & Rhodes (CCR) Model, network data envelopment analysis, Iran electricity power chain.

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Authors: A. Kurşun, M. Tunay Çetin, E. Çetin, H. Aykul

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In this investigation an elastic stress analysis is carried out a woven steel fiber reinforced thermoplastic cantilever beam loaded uniformly at the upper surface. The composite beam material consists of low density polyethylene as a thermoplastic (LDFE, f.2.12) and woven steel fibers. Granules of the polyethylene are put into the moulds and they are heated up to 160°C by using electrical resistance. Subsequently, the material is held for 5min under 2.5 MPa at this temperature. The temperature is decreased to 30°C under 15 MPa pressure in 3min. Closed form solution is found satisfying both the governing differential equation and boundary conditions. We investigated orientation angle effect on stress distribution of composite cantilever beams. The results show that orientation angle play an important role in determining the responses of a woven steel fiber reinforced thermoplastic cantilever beams and an optimal design of these structures.

Keywords: Cantilever beam, elastic stress analysis, orientation angle, thermoplastic.

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Authors: Othman Belgassim, Krzysztof Jemielniak

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The analysis of Acoustic Emission (AE) signal generated from metal cutting processes has often approached statistically. This is due to the stochastic nature of the emission signal as a result of factors effecting the signal from its generation through transmission and sensing. Different techniques are applied in this manner, each of which is suitable for certain processes. In metal cutting where the emission generated by the deformation process is rather continuous, an appropriate method for analysing the AE signal based on the root mean square (RMS) of the signal is often used and is suitable for use with the conventional signal processing systems. The aim of this paper is to set a strategy in tool failure detection in turning processes via the statistic analysis of the AE generated from the cutting zone. The strategy is based on the investigation of the distribution moments of the AE signal at predetermined sampling. The skews and kurtosis of these distributions are the key elements in the detection. A normal (Gaussian) distribution has first been suggested then this was eliminated due to insufficiency. The so called Beta distribution was then considered, this has been used with an assumed β density function and has given promising results with regard to chipping and tool breakage detection.

Keywords: AE signal, skew, kurtosis, tool failure

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Authors: Muhammad Zeeshan UlHaque, Peng Du, Leo K. Cheng, Marc D. Jacobs

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Sensory nerves in the foot play an important part in the diagnosis of various neuropathydisorders, especially in diabetes mellitus.However, a detailed description of the anatomical distribution of the nerves is currently lacking. A computationalmodel of the afferent nerves inthe foot may bea useful tool for the study of diabetic neuropathy. In this study, we present the development of an anatomically-based model of various major sensory nerves of the sole and dorsal sidesof the foot. In addition, we presentan algorithm for generating synthetic somatosensory nerve networks in the big-toe region of a right foot model. The algorithm was based on a modified version of the Monte Carlo algorithm, with the capability of being able to vary the intra-epidermal nerve fiber density in differentregionsof the foot model. Preliminary results from the combinedmodel show the realistic anatomical structure of the major nerves as well as the smaller somatosensory nerves of the foot. The model may now be developed to investigate the functional outcomes of structural neuropathyindiabetic patients.

Keywords: Diabetic neuropathy, Finite element modeling, Monte Carlo Algorithm, Somatosensory nerve networks

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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: Ananya Das, Arun Kumar, Gazala Habib, Vivekanandan Perumal

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Regulatory bodies has proposed limits on Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in air; however, it does not explicitly indicate the incorporation of effects of toxicities of constituents of PM in developing regulatory limits. This study aimed to provide a structured approach to incorporate toxic effects of components in developing regulatory limits on PM. A four-step human health risk assessment framework consists of - (1) hazard identification (parameters: PM and its constituents and their associated toxic effects on health), (2) exposure assessment (parameters: concentrations of PM and constituents, information on size and shape of PM; fate and transport of PM and constituents in respiratory system), (3) dose-response assessment (parameters: reference dose or target toxicity dose of PM and its constituents), and (4) risk estimation (metric: hazard quotient and/or lifetime incremental risk of cancer as applicable). Then parameters required at every step were obtained from literature. Using this information, an attempt has been made to determine limits on PM using component-specific information. An example calculation was conducted for exposures of PM_2.5 and its metal constituents from Indian ambient environment to determine limit on PM values. Identified data gaps were: (1) concentrations of PM and its constituents and their relationship with sampling regions, (2) relationship of toxicity of PM with its components.

Keywords: Air, component-specific toxicity, human health risks, particulate matter.

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Authors: Ayat E. Ali, Christeen R. Aziz, Merna A. Helmy, Mohammed M. Malek, Sherif H. El-Gohary

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Goal: Purpose of the project was to make a plastic surgery prediction by using pre-operative images for the plastic surgeries’ patients and to show this prediction on a screen to compare between the current case and the appearance after the surgery. Methods: To this aim, we implemented a software which used data from the internet for facial skin diseases, skin burns, pre-and post-images for plastic surgeries then the post- surgical prediction is done by using K-nearest neighbor (KNN). So we designed and fabricated a smart mirror divided into two parts a screen and a reflective mirror so patient's pre- and post-appearance will be showed at the same time. Results: We worked on some skin diseases like vitiligo, skin burns and wrinkles. We classified the three degrees of burns using KNN classifier with accuracy 60%. We also succeeded in segmenting the area of vitiligo. Our future work will include working on more skin diseases, classify them and give a prediction for the look after the surgery. Also we will go deeper into facial deformities and plastic surgeries like nose reshaping and face slim down. Conclusion: Our project will give a prediction relates strongly to the real look after surgery and decrease different diagnoses among doctors. Significance: The mirror may have broad societal appeal as it will make the distance between patient's satisfaction and the medical standards smaller.

Keywords: K-nearest neighbor, face detection, vitiligo, bone deformity.

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Authors: Sarka Keprdova, Jiri Bydzovsky

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This article describes to what extent the addition of energy by-products into the structures of the technical hemp filling materials influence their properties. The article focuses on the changes in physical-mechanical and thermal technical properties of materials after the addition of ash or FBC ash or slag in the binding component of material. Technical hemp filling materials are made of technical hemp shives bonded by the mixture of cement and dry hydrate lime. They are applicable as fillers of vertical or horizontal structures or roofs. The research used eight types of energy by-products of power or heating plants in the Czech Republic. Secondary energy products were dispensed in three different percentage ratios as a replacement of cement in the binding component. Density, compressive strength and determination of the coefficient of thermal conductivity after 28, 60 and 90 days of curing in a laboratory environment were determined and subsequently evaluated on the specimens produced.

Keywords: Ash, binder, cement, energy by-product, FBC ash (fluidized bed combustion ash), filling materials, shives, slag, technical hemp.

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Authors: Kolay, P.K., Sii, H. Y., Taib, S.N.L.

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This paper presents the stabilization potential of Class F pond ash (PA) from a coal fired thermal power station on tropical peat soil. Peat or highly organic soils are well known for their high compressibility, natural moisture content, low shear strength and long-term settlement. This study investigates the effect of different amount (i.e., 5, 10, 15 and 20%) of PA on peat soil, collected from Sarawak, Malaysia, mainly compaction and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) properties. The amounts of PA added to the peat soil sample as percentage of the dry peat soil mass. With the increase in PA content, the maximum dry density (MDD) of peat soil increases, while the optimum moisture content (OMC) decreases. The UCS value of the peat soils increases significantly with the increase of PA content and also with curing periods. This improvement on compressive strength of tropical peat soils indicates that PA has the potential to be used as a stabilizer for tropical peat soil. Also, the use of PA in soil stabilization helps in reducing the pond volume and achieving environment friendly as well as a sustainable development of natural resources.

Keywords: Compaction, Peat soil, Pond ash, Stabilization.

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Authors: Berkay Ergene, Çağın Bolat

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In this study, we mainly focused on a simulation study regarding composite footbed in order to contribute to shoe industry. As a footbed, e-glass fiber reinforced polyurethane was determined since polyurethane based materials are already used for footbed in shoe manufacturing frequently. Flat, elliptical and rectangular grooved shoe soles were modeled and analyzed separately as TPU, 10% glass fiber reinforced, 30% glass fiber reinforced and 50% glass fiber reinforced materials according to their properties under three point bending and compression situations to determine the relationship between model, material type and mechanical behaviours of composite model. ANSYS 14.0 APDL mechanical structural module is utilized in all simulations and analyzed stress and strain distributions for different footbed models and materials. Furthermore, materials constants like young modulus, shear modulus, Poisson ratio and density of the composites were calculated theoretically by using composite mixture rule and interpreted for mechanical aspects.

Keywords: Composite, elastic behaviour, footbed, simulation.

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Authors: Peerapong Uthansakul, Monthippa Uthansakul

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The rapid growth of e-Commerce services is significantly observed in the past decade. However, the method to verify the authenticated users still widely depends on numeric approaches. A new search on other verification methods suitable for online e-Commerce is an interesting issue. In this paper, a new online signature-verification method using angular transformation is presented. Delay shifts existing in online signatures are estimated by the estimation method relying on angle representation. In the proposed signature-verification algorithm, all components of input signature are extracted by considering the discontinuous break points on the stream of angular values. Then the estimated delay shift is captured by comparing with the selected reference signature and the error matching can be computed as a main feature used for verifying process. The threshold offsets are calculated by two types of error characteristics of the signature verification problem, False Rejection Rate (FRR) and False Acceptance Rate (FAR). The level of these two error rates depends on the decision threshold chosen whose value is such as to realize the Equal Error Rate (EER; FAR = FRR). The experimental results show that through the simple programming, employed on Internet for demonstrating e-Commerce services, the proposed method can provide 95.39% correct verifications and 7% better than DP matching based signature-verification method. In addition, the signature verification with extracting components provides more reliable results than using a whole decision making.

Keywords: Online signature verification, e-Commerce services, Angular transformation.

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Authors: Hicham Gourgue, Ahmed Aharoune, Ahmed Ihlal

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We present in this work our model of road traffic emissions (line sources) and dispersion of these emissions, named DISPOLSPEM (Dispersion of Poly Sources and Pollutants Emission Model). In its emission part, this model was designed to keep the consistent bottom-up and top-down approaches. It also allows to generate emission inventories from reduced input parameters being adapted to existing conditions in Morocco and in the other developing countries. While several simplifications are made, all the performance of the model results are kept. A further important advantage of the model is that it allows the uncertainty calculation and emission rate uncertainty according to each of the input parameters. In the dispersion part of the model, an improved line source model has been developed, implemented and tested against a reference solution. It provides improvement in accuracy over previous formulas of line source Gaussian plume model, without being too demanding in terms of computational resources. In the case study presented here, the biggest errors were associated with the ends of line source sections; these errors will be canceled by adjacent sections of line sources during the simulation of a road network. In cases where the wind is parallel to the source line, the use of the combination discretized source and analytical line source formulas minimizes remarkably the error. Because this combination is applied only for a small number of wind directions, it should not excessively increase the calculation time.

Keywords: Air pollution, dispersion, emissions, line sources, road traffic, urban transport.

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Authors: Anne C. Okwedadi, Samson Ng’ambi, Ian Jefferson

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Collapsible soils go through radical rearrangement of their particles when triggered by water, stress or/and vibration, causing loss of volume. This loss of volume in soil as seen in foundation failures has caused millions of dollars’ worth of damages to public facilities and infrastructure and so has an adverse effect on the society and people. Despite these consequences and the several studies that are available, more research is still required in the study of soil collapsibility. Discerning the pedogenesis (formation) of soils and investigating the combined effects of the different geological soil properties is key to elucidating and quantifying soils collapsibility. This study presents a novel laboratory testing regime that would be undertaken on soil samples where the effects of soil type, compactive variables (moisture content, density, void ratio, degree of saturation) and loading are analyzed. It is anticipated that results obtained would be useful in mapping the trend of the combined effect thus the basis for evaluating soil collapsibility or collapse potentials encountered in construction with volume loss problems attributed to collapse.

Keywords: Collapsible soil, Geomorphological process, Soil Collapsibility properties, Soil test.

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Authors: K. Govender, M. Sinclair

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This paper demonstrates a proof of concept whereby shorter trips and land use densification can be promoted through an alternative approach to planning and implementation of road infrastructure in the South African context. It briefly discusses how the development of the Compact City concept relies on a combination of promoting shorter trips and densification through a change in focus in road infrastructure provision. The methodology developed in this paper uses a traffic model to test the impact of synthesized deterrence functions on congestion locations in the road network through the assignment of traffic on the study network. The results from this study demonstrate that intelligent planning of road infrastructure can indeed promote reduced urban sprawl, increased residential density and mixed-use areas which are supported by an efficient public transport system; and reduced dependence on the freeway network with a fixed road infrastructure budget. The study has resonance for all cities where urban sprawl is seemingly unstoppable.

Keywords: Compact cities, densification, road infrastructure planning, transportation modeling.

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Authors: Olga Tkacheva, Pavel Arkhipov, Alexey Rudenko, Yurii Zaikov

Abstract:

The aluminum electrolysis process in the conventional cryolite-alumina electrolyte with cryolite ratio of 2.7 was carried out at an initial temperature of 970 °C and the anode current density of 0.5 A/cm² in a 15A lab-scale cell in order to study the formation of the side ledge during electrolysis and the alumina distribution between electrolyte and side ledge. The alumina contained 35.97% α-phase and 64.03% γ-phase with the particles size in the range of 10-120 μm. The cryolite ratio and the alumina concentration were determined in molten electrolyte during electrolysis and in frozen bath after electrolysis. The side ledge in the electrolysis cell was formed only by the 13^th hour of electrolysis. With a slight temperature decrease a significant increase in the side ledge thickness was observed. The basic components of the side ledge obtained by the XRD phase analysis were Na₃AlF₆, Na₅Al₃F₁₄, Al₂O₃, and NaF^.5CaF₂^.AlF₃. As in the industrial cell, the increased alumina concentration in the side ledge formed on the cell walls and at the ledge-electrolyte-aluminum three-phase boundary during aluminum electrolysis in the lab cell was found (FTP No 05.604.21.0239, IN RFMEFI60419X0239).

Keywords: Alumina, alumina distribution, aluminum electrolyzer, cryolite-alumina electrolyte, side ledge.

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Authors: Maya S. Rathod, Bahadur Singh Hathan

Abstract:

Mustard leaves are rich in folates, vitamin A, K and B-complex. Mustard greens are low in calories and fats and rich in dietary fiber. They are rich in potassium, manganese, iron, copper, calcium, magnesium and low in sodium. It is very rich in antioxidants and Phytonutrients. For the optimization of process variables (moisture content and mustard leave powder), the experiments were conducted according to central composite Face Centered Composite design of RSM. The mustard leaves powder was replaced with composite flour (a combination of rice, chickpea and corn in the ratio of 70:15:15). The extrudate was extruded in a twin screw extruder at a barrel temperature of 120°C. The independent variables were mustard leaves powder (2-10 %) and moisture content (12-20 %). Responses analyzed were bulk density, water solubility index, water absorption index, lateral expansion, antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, and overall acceptability. The optimum conditions obtained were 7.19 g mustard leaves powder in 100g premix having 16.8% moisture content (w.b).

Keywords: Extrusion, mustard leaves powder, optimization, response surface methodology.

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