Search results for: performance of the water pumping system.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 13775

Search results for: performance of the water pumping system.

12065 A Novel Pilot Scheme for Frequency Offset and Channel Estimation in 2x2 MIMO-OFDM

Authors: N. Promsuwanna, P. Uthansakul, M. Uthansakul

Abstract:

The Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) due to timevarying fading channel is the main cause of the loss of orthogonality among OFDM subcarriers which is linked to inter-carrier interference (ICI). Hence, it is necessary to precisely estimate and compensate the CFO. Especially for mobile broadband communications, CFO and channel gain also have to be estimated and tracked to maintain the system performance. Thus, synchronization pilots are embedded in every OFDM symbol to track the variations. In this paper, we present the pilot scheme for both channel and CFO estimation where channel estimation process can be carried out with only one OFDM symbol. Additional, the proposed pilot scheme also provides better performance in CFO estimation comparing with the conventional orthogonal pilot scheme due to the increasing of signal-tointerference ratio.

Keywords: MIMO, OFDM, carrier frequency offset, channel, estimation.

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12064 In Cognitive Radio the Analysis of Bit-Error- Rate (BER) by using PSO Algorithm

Authors: Shrikrishan Yadav, Akhilesh Saini, Krishna Chandra Roy

Abstract:

The electromagnetic spectrum is a natural resource and hence well-organized usage of the limited natural resources is the necessities for better communication. The present static frequency allocation schemes cannot accommodate demands of the rapidly increasing number of higher data rate services. Therefore, dynamic usage of the spectrum must be distinguished from the static usage to increase the availability of frequency spectrum. Cognitive radio is not a single piece of apparatus but it is a technology that can incorporate components spread across a network. It offers great promise for improving system efficiency, spectrum utilization, more effective applications, reduction in interference and reduced complexity of usage for users. Cognitive radio is aware of its environmental, internal state, and location, and autonomously adjusts its operations to achieve designed objectives. It first senses its spectral environment over a wide frequency band, and then adapts the parameters to maximize spectrum efficiency with high performance. This paper only focuses on the analysis of Bit-Error-Rate in cognitive radio by using Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm. It is theoretically as well as practically analyzed and interpreted in the sense of advantages and drawbacks and how BER affects the efficiency and performance of the communication system.

Keywords: BER, Cognitive Radio, Environmental Parameters, PSO, Radio spectrum, Transmission Parameters

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12063 Knowledge and Attitude of Palliative Care Towards Work Performance of Nurses in Indonesia Private Hospital

Authors: Novita Verayanti Manalu, Alvin Salim, Esti Yunitasari

Abstract:

Background: Palliative care is caring holistically for patients and families to improve their quality of life. The approach by a multidisciplinary team requires integrated collaboration based on sufficient knowledge of the principles of palliative care as a whole, especially for nurses. Therefore, this study wants to find out the level of knowledge about palliative care of the nurses along the relationship with attitude and performance. Method: This study applies cross-sectional survey design and allows the respondents to fill two questionnaires to determine the level of knowledge and attitude toward palliative care, while one questionnaire is filled by the head nurse to evaluate nurses’ performance. The relationship was analyzed by Spearman rho’s correlation in alpha < 0.05 by SPSS. Results: The majority of respondents were females, age above 25 years old, and married. Most of the nurses are staff nurses and the ratio of education level is not significantly different. The knowledge level is poor, while the attitude and performance are in adequate level. Knowledge may affect attitude, but it does not happen toward performance. Conclusion: There is a need for increased knowledge about palliative care to improve attitude and work performance. Future researchers might use this finding as reference to conduct further study in improving knowledge of palliative care.

Keywords: Knowledge, attitude, work performance, palliative care.

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12062 Sustainable Urban Transport Management and Its Strategies

Authors: Touba Amirazodi

Abstract:

Rapid process of urbanism development has increased the demand for some infrastructures such as supplying potable water, electricity network and transportation facilities and etc. Nonefficiency of the existing system with parallel managements of urban traffic management has increased the gap between supply and demand of traffic facilities. A sustainable transport system requires some activities more important than air pollution control, traffic or fuel consumption reduction and the studies show that there is no unique solution for solving complicated transportation problems and solving such a problem needs a comprehensive, dynamic and reliable mechanism. Sustainable transport management considers the effects of transportation development on economic efficiency, environmental issues, resources consumption, land use and social justice and helps reduction of environmental effects, increase of transportation system efficiency as well as improvement of social life and aims to enhance efficiency, goods transportation, provide services with minimum access problems that cannot be realized without reorganization of strategies, policies and plans.

Keywords: Sustainable Urban Transport, Environment, Social Justice, Air Pollution

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12061 Investigating the Effects of Thermal and Surface Energy on the Two-Dimensional Flow Characteristics of Oil in Water Mixture between Two Parallel Plates: A Lattice Boltzmann Method Study

Authors: W. Hasan, H. Farhat

Abstract:

A hybrid quasi-steady thermal lattice Boltzmann model was used to study the combined effects of temperature and contact angle on the movement of slugs and droplets of oil in water (O/W) system flowing between two parallel plates. The model static contact angle due to the deposition of the O/W droplet on a flat surface with simulated hydrophilic characteristic at different fluid temperatures, matched very well the proposed theoretical calculation. Furthermore, the model was used to simulate the dynamic behavior of droplets and slugs deposited on the domain’s upper and lower surfaces, while subjected to parabolic flow conditions. The model accurately simulated the contact angle hysteresis for the dynamic droplets cases. It was also shown that at elevated temperatures the required power to transport the mixture diminished remarkably.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann method, Gunstensen model, thermal, contact angle, high viscosity ratio.

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12060 Packet Reserving and Clogging Control via Routing Aware Packet Reserving Framework in MANET

Authors: C. Sathiyakumar, K. Duraiswamy

Abstract:

In MANET, mobile nodes communicate with each other using the wireless channel where transmission takes place with significant interference. The wireless medium used in MANET is a shared resource used by all the nodes available in MANET. Packet reserving is one important resource management scheme which controls the allocation of bandwidth among multiple flows through node cooperation in MANET. This paper proposes packet reserving and clogging control via Routing Aware Packet Reserving (RAPR) framework in MANET. It mainly focuses the end-to-end routing condition with maximal throughput. RAPR is complimentary system where the packet reserving utilizes local routing information available in each node. Path setup in RAPR estimates the security level of the system, and symbolizes the end-to-end routing by controlling the clogging. RAPR reaches the packet to the destination with high probability ratio and minimal delay count. The standard performance measures such as network security level, communication overhead, end-to-end throughput, resource utilization efficiency and delay measure are considered in this work. The results reveals that the proposed packet reservation and clogging control via Routing Aware Packet Reserving (RAPR) framework performs well for the above said performance measures compare to the existing methods.

Keywords: Packet reserving, Clogging control, Packet reservation in MANET, RAPR.

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12059 Coupling Time-Domain Analysis for Dynamic Positioning during S-Lay Installation

Authors: Sun Li-ping, Zhu Jian-xun, Liu Sheng-nan

Abstract:

In order to study the performance of dynamic positioning system during S-lay operations, dynamic positioning system is simulated with the hull-stinger-pipe coupling effect. The roller of stinger is simulated by the generalized elastic contact theory. The stinger is composed of Morrison members. Force on pipe is calculated by lumped mass method. Time domain of fully coupled barge model is analyzed combining with PID controller, Kalman filter and allocation of thrust using Sequential Quadratic Programming method. It is also analyzed that the effect of hull wave frequency motion on pipe-stinger coupling force and dynamic positioning system. Besides, it is studied that how S-lay operations affect the dynamic positioning accuracy. The simulation results are proved to be available by checking pipe stress with API criterion. The effect of heave and yaw motion cannot be ignored on hull-stinger-pipe coupling force and dynamic positioning system. It is important to decrease the barge’s pitch motion and lay pipe in head sea in order to improve safety of the S-lay installation and dynamic positioning.

Keywords: S-lay operation, dynamic positioning, coupling motion; time domain, allocation of thrust.

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12058 Comparison of Irradiance Decomposition and Energy Production Methods in a Solar Photovoltaic System

Authors: Tisciane Perpetuo e Oliveira, Dante Inga Narvaez, Marcelo Gradella Villalva

Abstract:

Installations of solar photovoltaic systems have increased considerably in the last decade. Therefore, it has been noticed that monitoring of meteorological data (solar irradiance, air temperature, wind velocity, etc.) is important to predict the potential of a given geographical area in solar energy production. In this sense, the present work compares two computational tools that are capable of estimating the energy generation of a photovoltaic system through correlation analyzes of solar radiation data: PVsyst software and an algorithm based on the PVlib package implemented in MATLAB. In order to achieve the objective, it was necessary to obtain solar radiation data (measured and from a solarimetric database), analyze the decomposition of global solar irradiance in direct normal and horizontal diffuse components, as well as analyze the modeling of the devices of a photovoltaic system (solar modules and inverters) for energy production calculations. Simulated results were compared with experimental data in order to evaluate the performance of the studied methods. Errors in estimation of energy production were less than 30% for the MATLAB algorithm and less than 20% for the PVsyst software.

Keywords: Energy production, meteorological data, irradiance decomposition, solar photovoltaic system.

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12057 A Comparison Study of Inspector's Performance between Regular and Complex Tasks

Authors: Santirat Nansaarng, Sittichai Kaewkuekool, Supreeya Siripattanakunkajorn

Abstract:

This research was to study a comparison of inspector-s performance between regular and complex visual inspection task. Visual task was simulated on DVD read control circuit. Inspection task was performed by using computer. Subjects were 10 undergraduate randomly selected and test for 20/20. Then, subjects were divided into two groups, five for regular inspection (control group) and five for complex inspection (treatment group) tasks. Result was showed that performance on regular and complex inspectors was significantly difference at the level of 0.05. Inspector performance on regular inspection was showed high percentage on defects detected by using equal time to complex inspection. This would be indicated that inspector performance was affected by visual inspection task.

Keywords: Visual inspection task, regular and complex task.

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12056 A Novel SVM-Based OOK Detector in Low SNR Infrared Channels

Authors: J. P. Dubois, O. M. Abdul-Latif

Abstract:

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a recent class of statistical classification and regression techniques playing an increasing role in applications to detection problems in various engineering problems, notably in statistical signal processing, pattern recognition, image analysis, and communication systems. In this paper, SVM is applied to an infrared (IR) binary communication system with different types of channel models including Ricean multipath fading and partially developed scattering channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) at the receiver. The structure and performance of SVM in terms of the bit error rate (BER) metric is derived and simulated for these channel stochastic models and the computational complexity of the implementation, in terms of average computational time per bit, is also presented. The performance of SVM is then compared to classical binary signal maximum likelihood detection using a matched filter driven by On-Off keying (OOK) modulation. We found that the performance of SVM is superior to that of the traditional optimal detection schemes used in statistical communication, especially for very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges. For large SNR, the performance of the SVM is similar to that of the classical detectors. The implication of these results is that SVM can prove very beneficial to IR communication systems that notoriously suffer from low SNR at the cost of increased computational complexity.

Keywords: Least square-support vector machine, on-off keying, matched filter, maximum likelihood detector, wireless infrared communication.

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12055 Enhancing Cache Performance Based on Improved Average Access Time

Authors: Jasim. A. Ghaeb

Abstract:

A high performance computer includes a fast processor and millions bytes of memory. During the data processing, huge amount of information are shuffled between the memory and processor. Because of its small size and its effectiveness speed, cache has become a common feature of high performance computers. Enhancing cache performance proved to be essential in the speed up of cache-based computers. Most enhancement approaches can be classified as either software based or hardware controlled. The performance of the cache is quantified in terms of hit ratio or miss ratio. In this paper, we are optimizing the cache performance based on enhancing the cache hit ratio. The optimum cache performance is obtained by focusing on the cache hardware modification in the way to make a quick rejection to the missed line's tags from the hit-or miss comparison stage, and thus a low hit time for the wanted line in the cache is achieved. In the proposed technique which we called Even- Odd Tabulation (EOT), the cache lines come from the main memory into cache are classified in two types; even line's tags and odd line's tags depending on their Least Significant Bit (LSB). This division is exploited by EOT technique to reject the miss match line's tags in very low time compared to the time spent by the main comparator in the cache, giving an optimum hitting time for the wanted cache line. The high performance of EOT technique against the familiar mapping technique FAM is shown in the simulated results.

Keywords: Caches, Cache performance, Hit time, Cache hit ratio, Cache mapping, Cache memory.

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12054 Direct Numerical Simulation of Oxygen Transfer at the Air-Water Interface in a Convective Flow Environment and Comparison to Experiments

Authors: B. Kubrak J. Wissink H. Herlina

Abstract:

Two-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of high Schmidt number mass transfer in a convective flow environment (Rayleigh-B'enard) is carried out and results are compared to experimental data. A fourth-order accurate WENO-scheme has been used for scalar transport in order to aim for a high accuracy in areas of high concentration gradients. It was found that the typical spatial distance between downward plumes of cold high concentration water and the eddy size are in good agreement with experiments using a combined PIV-LIF technique for simultaneous and spatially synoptic measurements of 2D velocity and concentration fields.

Keywords: Air-Water Interface, DNS, Gas Transfer, LIF.

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12053 Performance of a Power Generator System Using Crude Plant Oil Blend with Diesel Fuel

Authors: Tsair-Wang Chung, Kuan-Ting Liu, Mai-Tzu Chen

Abstract:

Under the variation of crude oil price and the impact of greenhouse effect, it is urgent to find a potential alternative fuel. Among these alternative fuels, non edible plant oils are the most potential ones, because they don-t have the problem of food and cropland competitions. Among the non-edible plant oils, Jatropha oil is the most potential one. Jatropha oil is non-eatable oil and has good oil quality and low temperature performance. It has potential to become one of the most competitive biomass crude oils. The crude plant oil will be blended with diesel fuel to be tested in a power generator. The international collaboration between Taiwan and Indonesia on the production of Jatropha in Indonesia will also be presented in this study.

Keywords: Jatropha, plant oil, oil blend, diesel, power generator.

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12052 Studies on Various Parameters Involved in Conjugation of Starch with Lysine for Excellent Emulsification Properties Using Response Surface Methodology

Authors: Sourish Bhattacharya, Priyanka Singh

Abstract:

The process parameters, starch-water ratio (A, (w/v) %), pH of suspension (B), Temperature(C, °C) and Time (D, hrs.)., were optimized for the preparation of starch-lysine conjugate and studying their effect on stability of emulsions by calculating emulsion stability index using response surface methodology. The optimized conditions are pH 9.0, temperature 60oC, reaction time 6 hrs, starch:water ratio 1:2.5, having emulsion stability index was 0.72.

Keywords: Emulsion stability index, pH of suspension, Starch-water ratio, Temperature, Time.

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12051 A Review on the Development and Challenges of Green Roof Systems in Malaysia

Authors: M. F. Chow, M. F. Abu Bakar

Abstract:

Green roof system is considered a relatively new concept in Malaysia even though it has been implemented widely in the developed countries. Generally, green roofs provide many benefits such as enhancing aesthetical quality of the built environment, reduce urban heat island effect, reduce energy consumption, improve stormwater attenuation, and reduce noise pollution. A better understanding on the implementation of green roof system in Malaysia is crucial, as Malaysia’s climate is different if compared with the climate in temperate countries where most of the green roof studies have been conducted. This study has concentrated on the technical aspect of green roof system which focuses on i) types of plants and method of planting; ii) engineering design for green roof system; iii) its hydrological performance on reducing stormwater runoff; and iv) benefits of green roofs with respect to energy. Literature review has been conducted to identify the development and obstacles associated with green roofs systems in Malaysia. The study had identified the challenges and potentials of green roofs development in Malaysia. This study also provided the recommendations on standard design and strategies on the implementation of green roofs in Malaysia in the near future.

Keywords: Engineering design, green roof, sustainable development, tropical countries.

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12050 The Fire Performance of Exposed Timber Panels

Authors: Bernice V. Y. Wong, Kong Fah Tee

Abstract:

Cross-laminated timber is increasingly being used in the construction of high-rise buildings due to its simple manufacturing system. In term of fire resistance, cross-laminated timber panels are promoted as having excellent fire resistance, comparable to that of non-combustible materials and to heavy timber construction, due to the ability of thick wood assemblies to char slowly at a predictable rate while maintaining most of their strength during the fire exposure. This paper presents an overview of fire performance of cross-laminated timber and evaluation of its resistance to elevated temperature in comparison to homogeneous timber panels. Charring rates for cross-laminated timber panels of those obtained experimentally were compared with those provided by Eurocode simplified calculation methods.

Keywords: Timber structure, cross-laminated timber, charring rate, timber fire resistance.

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12049 Experimental Investigation of a Mixture of Methane, Carbon Dioxide and Nitrogen Gas Hydrate Formation in Water-Based Drilling Mud in the Presence or Absence of Thermodynamic Inhibitors

Authors: F. Esmaeilzadeh, Y. Fayazi, J. Fathikaljahi

Abstract:

Gas hydrates form when a number of factors co-exist: free water, hydrocarbon gas, cold temperatures and high pressures are typical of the near mud-line conditions in a deepwater drilling operation. Subsequently, when drilling with water based muds, particularly on exploration wells, the risk of hydrate formation associated with a gas influx is high. The consequences of gas hydrate formation while drilling are severe, and as such, every effort should be made to ensure the risk of hydrate formation is either eliminated or significantly reduced. Thermodynamic inhibitors are used to reduce the free water content of a drilling mud, and thus suppress the hydrate formation temperature. Very little experimental work has been performed by oil and gas research companies on the evaluation of gas hydrate formation in a water-based drilling mud. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the experimental gas hydrate formation for a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide & nitrogen in a water-based drilling mud with or without presence of different concentrations of thermodynamic inhibitors including pure salt and a combination of salt with methanol or ethylene glycol at different concentrations in a static loop apparatus. The experiments were performed using a static loop apparatus consisting of a 2.4307 cm inside diameter and 800 cm long pipe. All experiments were conducted at 2200 psia. The temperature in the loop was decreased at a rate of 3.33 °F/h from initial temperature of 80 °F.

Keywords: Hydrate formation, thermodynamic inhibitor, waterbaseddrilling mud, salt, static loop apparatus.

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12048 Comparison between Turbo Code and Convolutional Product Code (CPC) for Mobile WiMAX

Authors: Ahmed Ebian, Mona Shokair, Kamal Awadalla

Abstract:

Mobile WiMAX is a broadband wireless solution that enables convergence of mobile and fixed broadband networks through a common wide area broadband radio access technology and flexible network architecture. It adopts Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for improved multi-path performance in Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) environments. Scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA) is introduced in the IEEE 802e[1]. WIMAX system uses one of different types of channel coding but The mandatory channel coding scheme is based on binary nonrecursive Convolutional Coding (CC). There are other several optional channel coding schemes such as block turbo codes, convolutional turbo codes, and low density parity check (LDPC). In this paper a comparison between the performance of WIMAX using turbo code and using convolutional product code (CPC) [2] is made. Also a combination between them had been done. The CPC gives good results at different SNR values compared to both the turbo system, and the combination between them. For example, at BER equal to 10-2 for 128 subcarriers, the amount of improvement in SNR equals approximately 3 dB higher than turbo code and equals approximately 2dB higher than the combination respectively. Several results are obtained at different modulating schemes (16QAM and 64QAM) and different numbers of sub-carriers (128 and 512).

Keywords: Turbo Code, Convolutional Product Code (CPC), Convolutional Product Code (CPC).

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12047 A New Vector Quantization Front-End Process for Discrete HMM Speech Recognition System

Authors: M. Debyeche, J.P Haton, A. Houacine

Abstract:

The paper presents a complete discrete statistical framework, based on a novel vector quantization (VQ) front-end process. This new VQ approach performs an optimal distribution of VQ codebook components on HMM states. This technique that we named the distributed vector quantization (DVQ) of hidden Markov models, succeeds in unifying acoustic micro-structure and phonetic macro-structure, when the estimation of HMM parameters is performed. The DVQ technique is implemented through two variants. The first variant uses the K-means algorithm (K-means- DVQ) to optimize the VQ, while the second variant exploits the benefits of the classification behavior of neural networks (NN-DVQ) for the same purpose. The proposed variants are compared with the HMM-based baseline system by experiments of specific Arabic consonants recognition. The results show that the distributed vector quantization technique increase the performance of the discrete HMM system.

Keywords: Hidden Markov Model, Vector Quantization, Neural Network, Speech Recognition, Arabic Language

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12046 Low-complexity Integer Frequency Offset Synchronization for OFDMA System

Authors: Young-Jae Kim, Young-Hwan You

Abstract:

This paper presents a integer frequency offset (IFO) estimation scheme for the 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) downlink system. Firstly, the conventional joint detection method for IFO and sector cell index (CID) information is introduced. Secondly, an IFO estimation without explicit sector CID information is proposed, which can operate jointly with the proposed IFO estimation and reduce the time delay in comparison with the conventional joint method. Also, the proposed method is computationally efficient and has almost similar performance in comparison with the conventional method over the Pedestrian and Vehicular channel models.

Keywords: LTE, OFDMA, primary synchronization signal (PSS), IFO, CID

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12045 Cooperative CDD Scheme Based On Adaptive Modulation in Wireless Communication System

Authors: Seung-Jun Yu, Hwan-Jun Choi, Hyoung-Kyu Song

Abstract:

Among spatial diversity scheme, orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) and cyclic delay diversity (CDD) have been widely studied for the cooperative wireless relaying system. However, conventional OSTBC and CDD cannot cope with change in the number of relays owing to low throughput or error performance. In this paper, we propose a cooperative cyclic delay diversity (CDD) scheme that use hierarchical modulation at the source and adaptive modulation based on cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code at the relays.

Keywords: Adaptive modulation, Cooperative communication, CDD, OSTBC.

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12044 The Relationship between the Environmental and Financial Performance of Australian Electricity Producers

Authors: S. Forughi, A. De Zoysa, S. Bhati

Abstract:

The present study focuses on the environmental performance of the companies in the electricity-producing sector and its relationship with their financial performance. We will review the major studies that examined the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of firms in various industries. While the classical economic debates consider the environmental friendly activities costly and harmful to a firm’s profitability, it is claimed that firms will be rewarded with higher profitability in long run through the investments in environmental friendly activities. In this context, prior studies have examined the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of firms operating in different industry sectors. Our study will employ an environmental indicator to increase the accuracy of the results and be employed as an independent variable in our developed econometric model to evaluate the impact of the financial performance of the firms on their environmental friendly activities in the context of companies operating in the Australian electricity-producing sector. As a result, we expect our methodology to contribute to the literature and the findings of the study will help us to provide recommendations and policy implications to the electricity producers.

Keywords: Australian electricity sector, efficiency measurement, environmental-financial performance interaction, environmental index.

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12043 Low Power Digital System for Reconfigurable Neural Recording System

Authors: Peng Li, Jun Zhou, Xin Liu, Chee Keong Ho, Xiaodan Zou, Minkyu Je

Abstract:

A digital system is proposed for low power 100- channel neural recording system in this paper, which consists of 100 amplifiers, 100 analog-to-digital converters (ADC), digital controller and baseband, transceiver for data link and RF command link. The proposed system is designed in a 0.18 μm CMOS process and 65 nm CMOS process.

Keywords: multiplex, neural recording, synchronization, transceiver

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12042 Enhancing Supply Chain Agility by Deploying Competence Management and the Supply Chain Operations Model

Authors: N. Sefiani, L. Chraibi, K. Reklaoui, Y. Sefiani

Abstract:

Currently, business environment is characterized by pressure caused by stiff competition, constant changes (e.g., product/ technological innovations, decreasing product lifecycles, and product proliferation), and a high level of market uncertainty band unpredictability. The agility of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) is clearly identified as a key factor for success and a strategic essential lever. This paper explores the impact of deploying competence management and Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model on firm performance. Our approach is based on a systemic view by considering the SCOR reference model as the heart of competence management system.

Keywords: Competence, competence management, performance, SCOR model and agility.

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12041 Enhancement of Essential Oil from Agarwood by Subcritical Water Extraction and Pretreatments on Hydrodistillation

Authors: Nuttawan Yoswathana, M. N. Eshiaghi, K. Jaturapornpanich

Abstract:

The traditional method for essential oil extraction from agarwood (Aquilaria Crassna) is to soak it in water and follow with hydrodistillation. The effect of various agarwood pretreatments: ethanol, acid, alkaline, enzymes, and ultrasound, and the effect of subcritical water extraction(SWE) was studied to compare with the traditional method. The major compositions of agarwood oil from hydrodistillation were aroma compounds as follow: aristol-9-en-8- one (21.53%), selina-3, 7(11)-diene (12.96%), τ-himachalene (9.28%), β-guaiene (5.79%), hexadecanoic acid (4.90%) and guaia- 3,9-diene (4.21%). Whereas agarwood oil from pretreatments with ethanol and ultrasound, and SWE got fatty acid compounds. Extraction of agarwood oil using these pretreatments could improve the agarwood oil yields up to 2 times that of the traditional method. The components of the pretreated sample with diluted acid (H2SO4) at pH 4 gave quite similar results as the traditional method. Therefore, the enhancement of essential oil from agarwood depends on requirement of type of extracted oil that involved extraction methods.

Keywords: Agarwood, aquilaria crassna, hydrodistillation, subcritical water extraction.

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12040 Development a Recommendation Library System Based On Android Application

Authors: Kunyanuth Kularbphettong, Kunnika Tenprakhon, Pattarapan Roonrakwit

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a recommendation library application on Android system. The objective of this system is to support and advice user to use library resources based on mobile application. We describe the design approaches and functional components of this system. The system was developed based on under association rules, Apriori algorithm. In this project, it was divided the result by the research purposes into 2 parts: developing the Mobile application for online library service and testing and evaluating the system. Questionnaires were used to measure user satisfaction with system usability by specialists and users. The results were satisfactory both specialists and users.

Keywords: Online library, Apriori algorithm, android application, black box.

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12039 Participatory Patterns of Community in Water and Waste Management: A Case Study of Municipality in Amphawa District, Samut Songkram Province

Authors: Srisuwan Kasemsawat

Abstract:

This is a survey research using quantitative and qualitative methodology. There were three objectives: 1) To study participatory level of community in water and waste environment management. 2) To study the affecting factors for community participation in water and waste environment management in Ampawa District, Samut Songkram Province. 3) To search for the participatory patterns in water and waste management. The population sample for the quantitative research was 1,364 people living in Ampawa District. The methodology was simple random sampling. Research instrument was a questionnaire and the qualitative research used purposive sampling in 6 Sub Districts which are Ta Ka, Suanluang, Bangkae, Muangmai, Kwae-om, and Bangnanglee Sub District Administration Organization. Total population is 63. For data analysis, the study used content analysis from quantitative research to synthesize and build question frame from the content for interview and conducting focus group interview. The study found that the community participatory in the issue of level in water and waste management are moderate of planning, operation, and evaluation. The issue of being beneficial is at low level. Therefore, the overall participatory level of community in water and waste environment management is at a medium level. The factors affecting the participatory of community in water and waste management are age, the period dwelling in the community and membership in which the mean difference is statistic significant at 0.05 in area of operation, being beneficial, and evaluation. For patterns of community participation, there is the correlation with water and waste management in 4 concerns which are 1) Participation in planning 2) Participation in operation 3) Participation in being beneficial both directly and indirectly benefited 4) Participation in evaluation and monitoring. The recommendation from this study is the need to create conscious awareness in order to increase participation level of people by organizing activities that promote participation with volunteer spirit. Government should open opportunities for people to participate in sharing ideas and create the culture of living together with equality which would build more concrete participation.

Keywords: Participation, Participatory Patterns, Water and Waste Management, Environmental Management.

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12038 Performance Analysis of Three Absorption Heat Pump Cycles, Full and Partial Loads Operations

Authors: B. Dehghan, T. Toppi, M. Aprile, M. Motta

Abstract:

The environmental concerns related to global warming and ozone layer depletion along with the growing worldwide demand for heating and cooling have brought an increasing attention toward ecological and efficient Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. Furthermore, since space heating accounts for a considerable part of the European primary/final energy use, it has been identified as one of the sectors with the most challenging targets in energy use reduction. Heat pumps are commonly considered as a technology able to contribute to the achievement of the targets. Current research focuses on the full load operation and seasonal performance assessment of three gas-driven absorption heat pump cycles. To do this, investigations of the gas-driven air-source ammonia-water absorption heat pump systems for small-scale space heating applications are presented. For each of the presented cycles, both full-load under various temperature conditions and seasonal performances are predicted by means of numerical simulations. It has been considered that small capacity appliances are usually equipped with fixed geometry restrictors, meaning that the solution mass flow rate is driven by the pressure difference across the associated restrictor valve. Results show that gas utilization efficiency (GUE) of the cycles varies between 1.2 and 1.7 for both full and partial loads and vapor exchange (VX) cycle is found to achieve the highest efficiency. It is noticed that, for typical space heating applications, heat pumps operate over a wide range of capacities and thermal lifts. Thus, partially, the novelty introduced in the paper is the investigation based on a seasonal performance approach, following the method prescribed in a recent European standard (EN 12309). The overall result is a modest variation in the seasonal performance for analyzed cycles, from 1.427 (single-effect) to 1.493 (vapor-exchange).

Keywords: Absorption cycles, gas utilization efficiency, heat pump, seasonal performance, vapor exchange cycle.

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12037 Polishing Machine Based on High-Pressure Water Jet

Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

Abstract:

The design of high pressure water jet based polishing equipment and its fabrication conducted in this study is reported herein, together with some preliminary test results for assessing its applicability for HMA surface polishing. This study also provides preliminary findings concerning the test variables, such as the rotational speed, the water jet pressure, the abrasive agent used, and the impact angel that were experimentally investigated in this study. The preliminary findings based on four trial tests (two on large slab specimens and two on small size gyratory compacted specimens), however, indicate that both friction and texture values tend to increase with the polishing durations for two combinations of pressure and rotation speed of the rotary deck. It seems that the more polishing action the specimen is subjected to; the aggregate edges are created such that the surface texture values are increased with the accompanied increase in friction values. It may be of interest (but which is outside the scope of this study) to investigate if the similar trend exist for HMA prepared with aggregate source that is sand and gravel.

Keywords: High-pressure, water jet, Friction, Texture, Polishing, Statistical Analysis.

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12036 Development of Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) for Mobile Learning Implementation in Kolej Poly-Tech MARA (KPTM)

Authors: M. E. Marwan, A. R. Madar, N. Fuad

Abstract:

Mobile learning (m-learning) is a new method in teaching and learning process which combines technology of mobile device with learning materials. It can enhance student's engagement in learning activities and facilitate them to access the learning materials at anytime and anywhere. In Kolej Poly-Tech Mara (KPTM), this method is seen as an important effort in teaching practice and to improve student learning performance. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of m-learning application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) to be implemented for Electric and Electronic Fundamentals course using Flash, XML (Extensible Markup Language) and J2ME (Java 2 micro edition). System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) was used as an application development approach. It has three modules in this application such as notes or course material, exercises and video. MEELFS development is seen as a tool or a pilot test for m-learning in KPTM.

Keywords: Flash, mobile device, mobile learning, teaching and learning, SDLC, XML.

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