Search results for: stabilization time.

Authors: Marshal D. Kafle, Jun H. Kim, Hyun W. Been, Kyoung M. Min, Sung H. Kim

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Fluid viscous damping systems are well suited for many air vehicles subjected to shock and vibration. These damping system work with the principle of viscous fluid throttling through the orifice to create huge pressure difference between compression and rebound chamber and obtain the required damping force. One application of such systems is its use in aircraft door system to counteract the door’s velocity and safely stop it. In exigency situations like crash or emergency landing where the door doesn’t open easily, possibly due to unusually tilting of fuselage or some obstacles or intrusion of debris obstruction to move the parts of the door, such system can be combined with other systems to provide needed force to forcefully open the door and also securely stop it simultaneously within the required time i.e. less than 8 seconds. In the present study, a hydraulic system called snubber along with other systems like actuator, gas bottle assembly which together known as emergency power assist system (EPAS) is designed, built and experimentally studied to check the magnitude of angular velocity, damping force and time required to effectively open the door. Whenever needed, the gas pressure from the bottle is released to actuate the actuator and at the same time pull the snubber’s piston to operate the emergency opening of the door. Such EPAS installed in the suspension arm of the aircraft door is studied explicitly changing parameters like orifice size, oil level, oil viscosity and bypass valve gap and its spring of the snubber at varying temperature to generate the optimum design case. Comparative analysis of the EPAS at several cases is done and conclusions are made. It is found that during emergency condition, the system opening time and angular velocity, when snubber with 0.3mm piston and shaft orifice and bypass valve gap of 0.5 mm with its original spring is used, shows significant improvement over the old ones.

Keywords: Aircraft Door Damper, Bypass Valve, Emergency Power Assist System, Hydraulic Damper, Oil viscosity.

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Authors: Anastasia Rita Widiarti

Abstract:

This paper compares Hilditch, Rosenfeld, Zhang- Suen, dan Nagendraprasad Wang Gupta (NWG) thinning algorithms for Javanese character image recognition. Thinning is an effective process when the focus in not on the size of the pattern, but rather on the relative position of the strokes in the pattern. The research analyzes the thinning of 60 Javanese characters. Time-wise, Zhang-Suen algorithm gives the best results with the average process time being 0.00455188 seconds. But if we look at the percentage of pixels that meet one-pixel thickness, Rosenfelt algorithm gives the best results, with a 99.98% success rate. From the number of pixels that are erased, NWG algorithm gives the best results with the average number of pixels erased being 84.12%. It can be concluded that the Hilditch algorithm performs least successfully compared to the other three algorithms.

Keywords: Hilditch algorithm, Nagendraprasad-Wang-Guptaalgorithm, Rosenfeld algorithm, Thinning, Zhang-suen algorithm

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Authors: Mingyu Xie, Mietek Brdys

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The paper develops a Non-Linear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) of water quality in Drinking Water Distribution Systems (DWDS) based on the advanced non-linear quality dynamics model including disinfections by-products (DBPs). A special attention is paid to the analysis of an impact of the flow trajectories prescribed by an upper control level of the recently developed two-time scale architecture of an integrated quality and quantity control in DWDS. The new quality controller is to operate within this architecture in the fast time scale as the lower level quality controller. The controller performance is validated by a comprehensive simulation study based on an example case study DWDS.

Keywords: Model predictive control, hierarchical control structure, genetic algorithm, water quality with DBPs objectives.

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Authors: Jorge A. Ruiz-Vanoye, Ocotlán Díaz-Parra, Alejandro Fuentes-Penna, Daniel Vélez-Díaz, Edith Olaco García

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In this paper, we present the use of the discriminant analysis to select evolutionary algorithms that better solve instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows. We use indicators as independent variables to obtain the classification criteria, and the best algorithm from the generic genetic algorithm (GA), random search (RS), steady-state genetic algorithm (SSGA), and sexual genetic algorithm (SXGA) as the dependent variable for the classification. The discriminant classification was trained with classic instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows obtained from the Solomon benchmark. We obtained a classification of the discriminant analysis of 66.7%.

Keywords: Intelligent transportation systems, data-mining techniques, evolutionary algorithms, discriminant analysis, machine learning.

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Authors: Elizabeth M. Hodge, M.H.N. Tabrizi, Mary A. Farwell, Karl L. Wuensch

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Delivering course material via a virtual environment is beneficial to today-s students because it offers the interactivity, real-time interaction and social presence that students of all ages have come to accept in our gaming rich community. It is essential that the Net Generation also known as Generation Why, have exposure to learning communities that encompass interactivity to form social and educational connections. As student and professor become interconnected through collaboration and interaction in a virtual learning space, relationships develop and students begin to take on an individual identity. With this in mind the research project was developed to investigate the use of virtual environments on student satisfaction and the effectiveness of course delivery. Furthermore, the project was designed to integrate both interactive (real-time) classes conducted in the Virtual Reality (VR) environment while also creating archived VR sessions for student use in retaining and reviewing course content.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Social Presence, Virtual Environments, Course Delivery Methods.

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Authors: Durgesh Kumar Ojha, Monica Subashini

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The proposed method is to study and analyze Electrocardiograph (ECG) waveform to detect abnormalities present with reference to P, Q, R and S peaks. The first phase includes the acquisition of real time ECG data. In the next phase, generation of signals followed by pre-processing. Thirdly, the procured ECG signal is subjected to feature extraction. The extracted features detect abnormal peaks present in the waveform Thus the normal and abnormal ECG signal could be differentiated based on the features extracted. The work is implemented in the most familiar multipurpose tool, MATLAB. This software efficiently uses algorithms and techniques for detection of any abnormalities present in the ECG signal. Proper utilization of MATLAB functions (both built-in and user defined) can lead us to work with ECG signals for processing and analysis in real time applications. The simulation would help in improving the accuracy and the hardware could be built conveniently.

Keywords: ECG Waveform, Peak Detection, Arrhythmia, Matlab.

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Authors: Anam Rafique, Syed Sohail Ahmed

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One of the essential components of much of DSP application is noise cancellation. Changes in real time signals are quite rapid and swift. In noise cancellation, a reference signal which is an approximation of noise signal (that corrupts the original information signal) is obtained and then subtracted from the noise bearing signal to obtain a noise free signal. This approximation of noise signal is obtained through adaptive filters which are self adjusting. As the changes in real time signals are abrupt, this needs adaptive algorithm that converges fast and is stable. Least mean square (LMS) and normalized LMS (NLMS) are two widely used algorithms because of their plainness in calculations and implementation. But their convergence rates are small. Adaptive averaging filters (AFA) are also used because they have high convergence, but they are less stable. This paper provides the comparative study of LMS and Normalized NLMS, AFA and new enhanced average adaptive (Average NLMS-ANLMS) filters for noise cancelling application using speech signals.

Keywords: AFA, ANLMS, LMS, NLMS.

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Authors: Manfred Hartmann, Andreas Graef, Hannes Perko, Christoph Baumgartner, Tilmann Kluge

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In this paper we introduce a novel method for the characterization of synchronziation and coupling effects in multivariate time series that can be used for the analysis of EEG or ECoG signals recorded during epileptic seizures. The method allows to visualize the spatio-temporal evolution of synchronization and coupling effects that are characteristic for epileptic seizures. Similar to other methods proposed for this purpose our method is based on a regression analysis. However, a more general definition of the regression together with an effective channel selection procedure allows to use the method even for time series that are highly correlated, which is commonly the case in EEG/ECoG recordings with large numbers of electrodes. The method was experimentally tested on ECoG recordings of epileptic seizures from patients with temporal lobe epilepsies. A comparision with the results from a independent visual inspection by clinical experts showed an excellent agreement with the patterns obtained with the proposed method.

Keywords: EEG, epilepsy, regression analysis, seizurepropagation.

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Authors: Madjid Meriem-Benziane, Hamou Zahloul

Abstract:

The rheological properties of light crude oil and its mixture with water were investigated experimentally. These rheological properties include steady flow behavior, yield stress, transient flow behavior, and viscoelastic behavior. A RheoStress RS600 rheometer was employed in all of the rheological examination tests. The light crude oil exhibits a Newtonian and for emulsion exhibits a non-Newtonian shear thinning behavior over the examined shear rate range of 0.1–120 s-1. In first time, a series of samples of crude oil from the Algerian Sahara has been tested and the results expressed in terms of τ=f(γ) have demonstrated their Newtonian character for the temperature included in [20°C, 70°C]. In second time and at T=20°C, the oil-water emulsions (30%, 50% and 70%) by volume of water), thermodynamically stable, have demonstrated a non-Newtonian rheological behavior that is to say, Herschel-Bulkley and Bingham types. For each type of crude oil-water emulsion, the rheological parameters are calculated by numerical treatment of results.

Keywords: Crude oil Algerian, Emulsion, Newtonian, Non- Newtonian, viscosity.

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Authors: Payam Nabhani, Sima Radmanesh

Abstract:

Opportunistic network is a kind of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) where the nodes in this network come into contact with each other opportunistically and communicate wirelessly and, an end-to-end path between source and destination may have never existed, and disconnection and reconnection is common in the network. In such a network, because of the nature of opportunistic network, perhaps there is no a complete path from source to destination for most of the time and even if there is a path; the path can be very unstable and may change or break quickly. Therefore, routing is one of the main challenges in this environment and, in order to make communication possible in an opportunistic network, the intermediate nodes have to play important role in the opportunistic routing protocols. In this paper we proposed an Adaptive Fuzzy Routing in opportunistic network (AFRON). This protocol is using the simple parameters as input parameters to find the path to the destination node. Using Message Transmission Count, Message Size and Time To Live parameters as input fuzzy to increase delivery ratio and decrease the buffer consumption in the all nodes of network.

Keywords: Opportunistic Routing, Fuzzy Routing, Opportunistic Network, Message Routing.

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Authors: Iman Atighi, Jalal Soleimannejad, Ahmad Akbarinasab, Saeid Moradpour

Abstract:

In the past, we could increase profit by increasing product prices. But in the new decade, a competitive market does not let us to increase profit with increase prices. Therefore, the only way to increase profit will be reduce costs. A significant percentage of production costs are the maintenance costs, and analysis of these costs could achieve more profit. Most maintenance strategies such as RCM (Reliability-Center-Maintenance), TPM (Total Productivity Maintenance), PM (Preventive Maintenance) etc., are trying to reduce maintenance costs. In this paper, decreasing the maintenance costs of Concentration Plant of Golgohar Company (GEG) was examined by using of MTBF (Mean Time between Failures) and MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) analyses. These analyses showed that instead of buying new machines and increasing costs in order to promote capacity, the improving of MTBF and MTTR indexes would solve capacity problems in the best way and decrease costs.

Keywords: Golgohar Iron Ore Mining & Industrial Company, maintainability, maintenance costs, reliability-center-maintenance.

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Authors: R. K. Apalowo, D. Chronopoulos

Abstract:

A Finite Element (FE) based scheme is presented for quantifying guided wave interaction with Localised Nonlinear Structural Damage (LNSD) within structures of arbitrary layering and geometric complexity. The through-thickness mode-shape of the structure is obtained through a wave and finite element method. This is applied in a time domain FE simulation in order to generate time harmonic excitation for a specific wave mode. Interaction of the wave with LNSD within the system is computed through an element activation and deactivation iteration. The scheme is validated against experimental measurements and a WFE-FE methodology for calculating wave interaction with damage. Case studies for guided wave interaction with crack and delamination are presented to verify the robustness of the proposed method in classifying and identifying damage.

Keywords: Layered Structures, nonlinear ultrasound, wave interaction with nonlinear damage, wave finite element, finite element.

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Authors: Darren Zou

Abstract:

Forecasting the stock market is a very challenging task. Various economic indicators such as GDP, exchange rates, interest rates, and unemployment have a substantial impact on the stock market. Time series models are the traditional methods used to predict stock market changes. In this paper, a machine learning method, Bayesian Additive Regression Tree (BART) is used in predicting stock market indexes based on multiple economic indicators. BART can be used to model heterogeneous treatment effects, and thereby works well when models are misspecified. It also has the capability to handle non-linear main effects and multi-way interactions without much input from financial analysts. In this research, BART is proposed to provide a reliable prediction on day-to-day stock market activities. By comparing the analysis results from BART and with time series method, BART can perform well and has better prediction capability than the traditional methods.

Keywords: Bayesian, Forecast, Stock, BART.

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Authors: M. Mohemmed Sha, T. Manesh, A. Mohamed Mustaq Ahmed

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In this corporate world, the technology of Web services has grown rapidly and its significance for the development of web based applications gradually rises over time. The success of Business to Business integration rely on finding novel partners and their services in a global business environment. However, the selection of the most suitable Web service from the list of services with the identical functionality is more vital. The satisfaction level of the customer and the provider’s reputation of the Web service are primarily depending on the range it reaches the customer’s requirements. In most cases, the customer of the Web service feels that he is spending for the service which is undelivered. This is because the customer always thinks that the real functionality of the web service is not reached. This will lead to change of the service frequently. In this paper, a framework is proposed to evaluate the Quality of Service (QoS) and its cost that makes the optimal correlation between each other. In addition, this research work proposes some management decision against the functional deviancy of the web service that is guaranteed at time of selection.

Keywords: Web service, service level agreement, quality of a service, cost of a service, QoS, CoS, SOA, WSLA, WsRF.

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Authors: N.H. Abdurahman, Y. M. Rosli, N. H. Azhari, S. F. Tam

Abstract:

The direct discharge of palm oil mill effluent (POME) wastewater causes serious environmental pollution due to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Traditional ways for POME treatment have both economical and environmental disadvantages. In this study, a membrane anaerobic system (MAS) was used as an alternative, cost effective method for treating POME. Six steady states were attained as a part of a kinetic study that considered concentration ranges of 8,220 to 15,400 mg/l for mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) and 6,329 to 13,244 mg/l for mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS). Kinetic equations from Monod, Contois and Chen & Hashimoto were employed to describe the kinetics of POME treatment at organic loading rates ranging from 2 to 13 kg COD/m3/d. throughout the experiment, the removal efficiency of COD was from 94.8 to 96.5% with hydraulic retention time, HRT from 400.6 to 5.7 days. The growth yield coefficient, Y was found to be 0.62gVSS/g COD the specific microorganism decay rate was 0.21 d-1 and the methane gas yield production rate was between 0.25 l/g COD/d and 0.58 l/g COD/d. Steady state influent COD concentrations increased from 18,302 mg/l in the first steady state to 43,500 mg/l in the sixth steady state. The minimum solids retention time, which was obtained from the three kinetic models ranged from 5 to 12.3 days. The k values were in the range of 0.35 – 0.519 g COD/ g VSS • d and values were between 0.26 and 0.379 d-1. The solids retention time (SRT) decreased from 800 days to 11.6 days. The complete treatment reduced the COD content to 2279 mg/l equivalent to a reduction of 94.8% reduction from the original.

Keywords: COD reduction, POME, kinetics, membrane, anaerobic, monod, contois equation.

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Authors: Chun-Yuan Huang, Chiao-Yang Cheng, Chun-Yem Huang, Yan-Kuin Su, James Chin-Lung Fang

Abstract:

ZnO nanostructures including nanowires, nanorods, and nanoneedles were successfully deposited on GaAs substrates, respectively, by simple two-step chemical method for the first time. A ZnO seed layer was firstly pre-coated on the O2-plasma treated substrate by sol-gel process, followed by the nucleation of ZnO nanostructures through hydrothermal synthesis. Nanostructures with different average diameter (15-250 nm), length (0.9-1.8 μm), density (0.9-16×109 cm-2) were obtained via adjusting the growth time and concentration of precursors. From the reflectivity spectra, we concluded ordered and taper nanostructures were preferential for photovoltaic applications. ZnO nanoneedles with an average diameter of 106 nm, a moderate length of 2.4 μm, and the density of 7.2×109 cm-2 could be synthesized in the concentration of 0.04 M for 18 h. Integrated with the nanoneedle array, the power conversion efficiency of single junction solar cell was increased from 7.3 to 12.2%, corresponding to a 67% improvement.

Keywords: Anti-reflection, Chemical synthesis, Solar cells, ZnO nanostructures.

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Authors: Rabah Haoui

Abstract:

This work presents a numerical simulation of the interaction of an incident shock wave propagates from the left to the right with a cone placed in a tube at shock. The Mathematical model is based on a non stationary, viscous and axisymmetric flow. The Discretization of the Navier-stokes equations is carried out by the finite volume method in the integral form along with the Flux Vector Splitting method of Van Leer. Here, adequate combination of time stepping parameter, CFL coefficient and mesh size level is selected to ensure numerical convergence. The numerical simulation considers a shock tube filled with air. The incident shock wave propagates to the right with a determined Mach number and crosses the cone by leaving behind it a stationary detached shock wave in front of the nose cone. This type of interaction is observed according to the time of flow.

Keywords: Supersonic flow, viscous flow, finite volume, cone body

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver

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Facility location is one of the important problems affecting the relief operations. The location model in this paper is motivated by arranging the flow of relief materials from the main warehouse to continent warehouse and further to regional warehouse and from these to the disaster area. This flow makes the relief organization always ready to deal with the disaster situation during shortest possible time. The main purpose of this paper is merge the concept of just in time and the campaign system in emergency supply chain,so that when the disaster happens the affected country can request help from the nearest regional warehouse, which will supply the relief material and the required stuff to support and assist the victims in the disaster area. Furthermore, the regional warehouse places an order to the continent warehouse to replenish the material that is distributed to the disaster area. This way they will always be ready to respond to any type of disaster.

Keywords: Facility location, Center-of-Gravity Technique, Humanitarian relief, emergency supply chain.

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Authors: Nor Asrina Binti Ramlee

Abstract:

Voltage sag, voltage swell, high-frequency noise and voltage transients are kinds of disturbances in power quality. They are also known as power quality events. Equipment used in the industry nowadays has become more sensitive to these events with the increasing complexity of equipment. This leads to the importance of distributing clean power quality to the consumer. To provide better service, the best analysis on power quality is very vital. Thus, this paper presents the events detection focusing on voltage sag and swell. The method is developed by applying time domain signal analysis using wavelet transform approach in MATLAB. Four types of mother wavelet namely Haar, Dmey, Daubechies, and Symlet are used to detect the events. This project analyzed real interrupted signal obtained from 22 kV transmission line in Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The signals will be decomposed through the wavelet mothers. The best mother is the one that is capable to detect the time location of the event accurately.

Keywords: Power quality, voltage sag, voltage swell, wavelet transform.

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Authors: Sadaf Nawaz, Adnan Ahmed Khan, Asad Mahmood, Chaudhary Farrukh Javed

Abstract:

Classically, an energy detector is implemented in time domain (TD). However, frequency domain (FD) based energy detector has demonstrated an improved performance. This paper presents a comparison between the two approaches as to analyze their pros and cons. A detailed performance analysis of the classical TD energy-detector and the periodogram based detector is performed. Exact and approximate mathematical expressions for probability of false alarm (Pf) and probability of detection (Pd) are derived for both approaches. The derived expressions naturally lead to an analytical as well as intuitive reasoning for the improved performance of (Pf) and (Pd) in different scenarios. Our analysis suggests the dependence improvement on buffer sizes. Pf is improved in FD, whereas Pd is enhanced in TD based energy detectors. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations results demonstrate the analysis reached by the derived expressions.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, energy detector, periodogram, spectrum sensing.

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Authors: C. C. Okafor, E. E. Ugwu

Abstract:

A comparative study on the feasibility of producing instant high fibre plantain flour for diabetic fufu by blending soy residence with different plantain (Musa spp) varieties (Horn, false Horn and French), all sieved at 60 mesh, mixed in ratio of 60:40 was analyzed for their passing properties using standard analytical method. Results show that VIIIS60 had the highest peak viscosity (303.75 RVU), Trough value (182.08 RVU), final viscosity (284.50 RVU), and lowest in breakdown viscosity (79.58 RVU), set back value (88.17 RVU), peak time (4.36min), pasting temperature (81.18°C) and differed significantly (p <0.05) from other samples. VIS60 had the lowest in peak viscosity (192.25 RVU), Trough value (112.67 RVU), final viscosity (211.92 RVU), but highest in breakdown viscosity (121.61 RVU), peak time (4.66min) pasting temperature (82.35°C), and differed significantly (p <0.05), from other samples. VIIS60 had the medium peak viscosity (236.67 RVU), Trough value (116.58 RVU), Break down viscosity (120:08 RVU), set back viscosity (167.92 RVU), peak time (4.39min), pasting temp (81.44°C) and differed significantly (p <0.05) from other samples. High final viscosity and low set back values of the French variety with soy residue blended at 60 mesh particle size recommends this french variety and fibre composition as optimum for production of instant plantain soy residue flour blend for production of diabetic fufu. 

Keywords: Plantain, soy residue pasting properties particle size.

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Authors: Khenfer-Koummich Fatima, Mesbahi Larbi, Hendel Fatiha

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This paper presents a recognition system for isolated words like robot commands. It’s carried out by Time Delay Neural Networks; TDNN. To teleoperate a robot for specific tasks as turn, close, etc… In industrial environment and taking into account the noise coming from the machine. The choice of TDNN is based on its generalization in terms of accuracy, in more it acts as a filter that allows the passage of certain desirable frequency characteristics of speech; the goal is to determine the parameters of this filter for making an adaptable system to the variability of speech signal and to noise especially, for this the back propagation technique was used in learning phase. The approach was applied on commands pronounced in two languages separately: The French and Arabic. The results for two test bases of 300 spoken words for each one are 87%, 97.6% in neutral environment and 77.67%, 92.67% when the white Gaussian noisy was added with a SNR of 35 dB.

Keywords: Neural networks, Noise, Speech Recognition.

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Authors: Kok, M.O., Omar-Fauzee, M.S., Rosli, M.H.

Abstract:

This study investigated the relationship between exercise imagery use and level of physical activity within a wide range of exercisers in Klang valley, Malaysia. One hundred and twenty four respondents (Mage = 28.92, SD = 9.34) completed two sets of questionnaires (Exercise Imagery Inventory and Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire) that measure the use of imagery and exercise frequency of participants. From the result obtained, exercise imagery is found to be significantly correlated to level of physical activity. Besides that, variables such as gender, age and ethnicity that may affect the use of imagery and exercise frequency were also being assessed in this study. Among all variables, only ethnicity showed significant difference in level of physical activity (p < 0.05). Findings in this study suggest that further investigation should be done on other variables such as socioeconomic, educational level, and selfefficacy that may affect the imagery use and frequency of physical activity among exercisers.

Keywords: Physical activity, exercise imagery, ExerciseImagery Inventory, Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire

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Authors: Heng Ma

Abstract:

Third-party warehousing logistics has an important role in the development of external logistics. At present, the third-party logistics in our country is still a new industry, the accounting system has not yet been established, the current financial accounting system of third-party warehousing logistics is mainly in the traditional way of thinking, and only able to provide the total cost information of the entire enterprise during the accounting period, unable to reflect operating indirect cost information. In order to solve the problem of third-party logistics industry cost information distortion, improve the level of logistics cost management, the paper combines theoretical research and case analysis method to reflect cost allocation by building third-party logistics costing model using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing(TDABC), and takes S company as an example to account and control the warehousing logistics cost.Based on the idea of “Products consume activities and activities consume resources”, TDABC put time into the main cost driver and use time-consuming equation resources assigned to cost objects. In S company, the objects focuses on three warehouse, engaged with warehousing and transportation (the second warehouse, transport point) service. These three warehouse respectively including five departments, Business Unit, Production Unit, Settlement Center, Security Department and Equipment Division, the activities in these departments are classified by in-out of storage forecast, in-out of storage or transit and safekeeping work. By computing capacity cost rate, building the time-consuming equation, the paper calculates the final operation cost so as to reveal the real cost.The numerical analysis results show that the TDABC can accurately reflect the cost allocation of service customers and reveal the spare capacity cost of resource center, verifies the feasibility and validity of TDABC in third-party logistics industry cost accounting. It inspires enterprises focus on customer relationship management and reduces idle cost to strengthen the cost management of third-party logistics enterprises.

Keywords: Third-party logistics enterprises, TDABC, cost management, S company.

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Authors: Bekim Avdiaj

Abstract:

Everyday life is and will be influenced depending on the developments that society undergoes throughout the history. Particularly, countries undergoing transition from one system to another sustain the greatest impact in trying to embrace the modern system. Kosovo society had the fortune to experience a change, which began in late 1999 to continue up to date. One of the 'developments' of the time with the evolution in Kosovo society was the transition from the traditional education system into the modern one. This transformation began immediately after the war, to continue even today. It was started by internationals, which governed and administered Kosovo society, including education. There was a great 'evolution', because almost the entire system was 'changed'. Among other things, for the first time it was enabled the opening of private schools from the lowest level up to the colleges and universities. This paper will address: how much was ready the society to embrace such a 'cultural' change in education, respectively, how much were prepared teachers for such changes; as it was actually thought to be a modern education system, how much was it according to international standards; what are the results and current situation in Kosovo education.

Keywords: Education, evolution, reform, transformation.

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Authors: Kechida Ahmed, Drai Redouane, Khelil Mohamed

Abstract:

In this paper we present a new approach to detecting a flaw in T.O.F.D (Time Of Flight Diffraction) type ultrasonic image based on texture features. Texture is one of the most important features used in recognizing patterns in an image. The paper describes texture features based on 2D Gabor functions, i.e., Gaussian shaped band-pass filters, with dyadic treatment of the radial spatial frequency range and multiple orientations, which represent an appropriate choice for tasks requiring simultaneous measurement in both space and frequency domains. The most relevant features are used as input data on a Fuzzy c-mean clustering classifier. The classes that exist are only two: 'defects' or 'no defects'. The proposed approach is tested on the T.O.F.D image achieved at the laboratory and on the industrial field.

Keywords: 2D Gabor Functions, flaw detection, fuzzy c-mean clustering, non destructive testing, texture analysis, T.O.F.D Image (Time of Flight Diffraction).

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Authors: Letizia Marchetti, Federica Annunzi, Federico Fiorini, Cristiano Nicolella

Abstract:

Automotive shredder residue (ASR) is a mixture of waste that makes up 20-25% of end-of-life vehicles. For many years, ASR was commonly disposed of in landfills or incinerated, causing serious environmental problems. Nowadays, thermochemical treatments are a promising alternative, although the heterogeneity of ASR still poses some challenges. One of the emerging thermochemical treatments for ASR is pyrolysis, which promotes the decomposition of long polymeric chains by providing heat in the absence of an oxidizing agent. In this way, pyrolysis promotes the conversion of ASR into solid, liquid, and gaseous phases. This work aims to improve the performance of a two-step pyrolysis process. After the characterization of the analysed ASR, the focus is on determining the effects of residence time on product yields and gas composition. A batch experimental setup that reproduces the entire process was used. The setup consists of three sections: the pyrolysis section (made of two reactors), the separation section, and the analysis section. Two different residence times were investigated to find suitable conditions for the first sample of ASR. These first tests showed that the products obtained were more sensitive to residence time in the second reactor. Indeed, slightly increasing residence time in the second reactor managed to raise the yield of gas and carbon residue and decrease the yield of liquid fraction. Then, to test the versatility of the setup, the same conditions were applied to a different sample of ASR coming from a different chemical plant. The comparison between the two ASR samples shows that similar product yields and compositions are obtained using the same setup.

Keywords: Automotive shredder residue, experimental tests, heterogeneity, product yields, two-step pyrolysis.

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Authors: S. Mehran, S. Rouhi, F.Rouzbahani, E. Haghgoo

Abstract:

In this paper dynamics of a vapour bubble generated due to a local energy input inside a vertical rigid cylinder and in the absence of buoyancy forces is investigated. Different ratios of the diameter of the rigid cylinder to the maximum radius of the bubble are considered. The Boundary Integral Equation Method is employed for numerical simulation of the problem. Results show that during the collapse phase of the bubble inside a vertical rigid cylinder, two liquid micro jets are developed on the top and bottom sides of the vapour bubble and are directed inward. Results also show that existence of a deposit rib inside the vertical rigid cylinder slightly increases the life time of the bubble. It is found that by increasing the ratio of the cylinder diameter to the maximum radius of the bubble, the rate of the growth and collapse phases of the bubble increases and the life time of the bubble decreases.

Keywords: Vapour bubble, Vertical rigid cylinder, Boundaryelement method.

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Authors: Jianjun Yuan, Changjun Jiang

Abstract:

Pairwise testing, which requires that every combination of valid values of each pair of system factors be covered by at lease one test case, plays an important role in software testing since many faults are caused by unexpected 2-way interactions among system factors. Although meta-heuristic strategies like simulated annealing can generally discover smaller pairwise test suite, they may cost more time to perform search, compared with greedy algorithms. We propose a new method, improved Extremal Optimization (EO) based on the Bak-Sneppen (BS) model of biological evolution, for constructing pairwise test suites and define fitness function according to the requirement of improved EO. Experimental results show that improved EO gives similar size of resulting pairwise test suite and yields an 85% reduction in solution time over SA.

Keywords: Covering Arrays, Extremal Optimization, Simulated Annealing, Software Testing.

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Authors: Bubaker M. F. Bushofa, Abdel Hafez A. Azab

Abstract:

This article is based on the technique which is called Discrete Parameter Tracking (DPT). First introduced by A. A. Azab [8] which is applicable for less order reference model. The order of the reference model is (n-l) and n is the number of the adjustable parameters in the physical plant. The technique utilizes a modified gradient method [9] where the knowledge of the exact order of the nonadaptive system is not required, so, as to eliminate the identification problem. The applicability of the mentioned technique (DPT) was examined through the solution of several problems. This article introduces the solution of a third order system with three adjustable parameters, controlled according to second order reference model. The adjustable parameters have great initial error which represent condition. Computer simulations for the solution and analysis are provided to demonstrate the simplicity and feasibility of the technique.

Keywords: Adaptive Control System, Discrete Parameter Tracking, Discrete Time Model.

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