Search results for: Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy

Authors: Mohamed A. Hammad, Dzul Azri Mohamed Noor, Syed Azhar Syed Sulaiman, Ahmed A. Khamis, Abeer Kharshid, Nor Azizah Aziz

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The effect of statins dose intensity (SDI) on glycemic control in patients with existing diabetes is unclear. Also, there are many contradictory findings were reported in the literature; thus, it is limiting the possibility to draw conclusions. This project was designed to compare the effect of SDI on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c%) control in outpatients with Type 2 diabetes in the endocrine clinic at Hospital Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, between July 2015 and August 2016. A prospective cohort study was conducted, where records of 345 patients with Type 2 diabetes (Moderate-SDI group 289 patients and high-SDI cohort 56 patients) were reviewed to identify demographics and laboratory tests. The target of glycemic control (HbA1c < 7% for patient < 65 years, and < 8% for patient ≥ 65 years) was estimated, and the results were presented as descriptive statistics. From 289 moderate-SDI cohorts with a mean age of 57.3 ± 12.4 years, only 86 (29.8%) cases were shown to have controlled glycemia, while there were 203 (70.2%) cases with uncontrolled glycemia with confidence interval (CI) of 95% (6.2–10.8). On the other hand, the high-SDI group of 56 patients with Type 2 diabetes with a mean age 57.7±12.4 years is distributed among 11 (19.6%) patients with controlled diabetes, and 45 (80.4%) of them had uncontrolled glycemia, CI: 95% (7.1–11.9). The study has demonstrated that the relative risk (RR) of uncontrolled glycemia in patients with Type 2 diabetes that used high-SDI is 1.15, and the excessive relative risk (ERR) is 15%. The absolute risk (AR) is 10.2%, and the number needed to harm (NNH) is 10. Outpatients with Type 2 diabetes who use high-SDI of statin have a higher risk of uncontrolled glycemia than outpatients who had been treated with a moderate-SDI.

Keywords: Cohort study, diabetes control, dose intensity, HbA1c, Malaysia, statin, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, uncontrolled glycemia.

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Authors: Surendran M, Palani G. S, Nagesh R. Iyer

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Multi-site damage (MSD) has been a challenge to aircraft, civil and power plant structures. In real life components are subjected to cracking at many vulnerable locations such as the bolt holes. However, we do not consider for the presence of multiple cracks. Unlike components with a single crack, these components are difficult to predict. When two cracks approach one another, their stress fields influence each other and produce enhancing or shielding effect depending on the position of the cracks. In the present study, numerical studies on fracture analysis have been conducted by using the developed code based on the modified virtual crack closure integral (MVCCI) technique and finite element analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS for computing SIF of plates with multiple cracks. Various parametric studies have been carried out and the results have been compared with literature where ever available and also with the solution, obtained by using ABAQUS. By conducting extensive numerical studies expressions for SIF have been obtained for collinear cracks and non-aligned cracks.

Keywords: Crack interaction, Fracture mechanics, Multiple site damage, stress intensity factor, collinear cracks, non-aligned cracks.

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Authors: Shajaratuldur Ismail, Nurlidia Mansor, Zakaria Man

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Thermoplastic starch (TPS) plasticized by 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate [Emim][OAc] were obtained through gelatinization process. The gelatinization process occurred in the presence of water and [Emim][OAc] as plasticizer at high temperature (90˚C). The influence of [Emim][OAc] and water on the gelatinization and interactions with starch have been studied over a range of compositions. The homogenous mass was obtained for the samples containing 35, 40 and 43.5 % of water contents which showed that water plays important role in gelatinization process. Detailed IR spectroscopy analysis showed decrease in hydrogen bonding intensity and strong interaction between acetate anion in [Emim][OAc] and starch hydroxyl groups in the presence of [Emim][OAc]. Starch-[Emim][OAc]-water mixture at 10-3-8.7 presented homogenous mass, less hydrogen bonding intensity and strong interaction between acetate anion in [Emim][OAc] and starch hydroxyl groups.

Keywords: Starch, ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, plasticizer, gelatinization, IR spectroscopy.

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Authors: H. Sediki, S. Djennoune

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The switching lag-time and the voltage drop across the power devices cause serious waveform distortions and fundamental voltage drop in pulse width-modulated inverter output. These phenomenons are conspicuous when both the output frequency and voltage are low. To estimate the output voltage from the PWM reference signal it is essential to take account of these imperfections and to correct them. In this paper, on-line compensation method is presented. It needs three simple blocs to add at the ideal reference voltages. This method does not require any additional hardware circuit and off- line experimental measurement. The paper includes experimental results to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. It is applied, finally, in case of indirect vector controlled induction machine and implemented using dSpace card.

Keywords: Dead time, field-oriented control, Induction motor, PWM inverter, voltage drop.

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Authors: M. Sajjadnejad, H. Omidvar, M. Javanbakht, A. Mozafari

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Pure nickel coatings have been successfully electrodeposited on copper substrates by the pulse plating technique. The influence of current density, duty cycle and pulse frequency on the surface morphology, crystal orientation, and microhardness was determined. It was found that the crystallite size of the deposit increases with increasing current density and duty cycle. The crystal orientation progressively changed from a random texture at 1 A/dm2 to (200) texture at 10 A/dm2. Increasing pulse frequency resulted in increased texture coefficient and peak intensity of (111) reflection. An increase in duty cycle resulted in considerable increase in texture coefficient and peak intensity of (311) reflection. Coatings obtained at high current densities and duty cycle present a mixed morphology of small and large grains. Maximum microhardness of 193 Hv was achieved at 4 A/dm2, 10 Hz and duty cycle of 50%. Nickel coatings with (200) texture are ductile while (111) texture improves the microhardness of the coatings.

Keywords: Current density, Duty cycle, Microstructure, Nickel, Pulse frequency.

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Authors: H. Kaatuzian, M. Sedghi, S. Khatami

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In this paper, by exploiting a single semiconductor optical amplifier-Mach Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI), an integratable all-optical flip-flop (AOFF) is proposed. It is composed of a SOA-MZI with a bidirectional coupler at the output. Output signals of both bar and crossbar of the SOA-MZI is fed back to SOAs located in the arms of the Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI). The injected photon-rates to the SOAs are modulated by feedback signals in order to form optical flip-flop. According to numerical analysis, Gaussian optical pulses with the energy of 15.2 fJ and 20 ps duration with the full width at half-maximum criterion, can switch the states of the SR-AOFF. Also simulation results show that the SR-AOFF has the contrast ratio of 8.5 dB between two states with the transition time of nearly 20 ps.

Keywords: All Optical, Flip-Flop, Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI), Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA).

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Authors: Dan Ohev Zion, Alon Cohen

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In recent years, the presence of short-range millimeter-wave radar in civil application has increased significantly. Autonomous driving, security, 3D imaging and high data rate communication systems are a few examples. The next challenge is the integration inside small form-factor devices, such as smartphones (e.g. gesture recognition). The main challenge is implementation of a truly low-power, low-complexity high-resolution radar. The most popular approach is the Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar, with an analog multiplication front-end. In this paper, we present an approach for adaptive estimation and correction of impairments of such front-end, specifically implemented using the Six-Port Device (SPD) as the multiplier element. The proposed algorithm was simulated and implemented on a 60 GHz radar lab prototype.

Keywords: Radar, millimeter-wave, six-port, FMCW Radar, IQ mismatch.

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Authors: J. Mendoza-López, S. Sánchez-Solano, J. L. Huertas-Díaz

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An array of piezoelectric micro actuators can be used for radiation of an ultrasonic carrier signal modulated in amplitude with an acoustic signal, which yields audio frequency applications as the air acts as a self-demodulating medium. This application is known as the parametric array. We propose a parametric array with array elements based on existing piezoelectric micro ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) design techniques. In order to reach enough acoustic output power at a desired operating frequency, a proper ratio between number of array elements and array size needs to be used, with an array total area of the order of one cm square. The transducers presented are characterized via impedance, admittance, noise figure, transducer gain and frequency responses.

Keywords: Pizeoelectric, Microspeaker, MEMS, pMUT, Parametric Array

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Authors: Shamima Akhter, Siegfried Bauer

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The aim of this study is to analyze the migration  process of the rural population of Bangladesh. Heckman Probit model  with sample selection was applied in this paper to explore the  determinants of migration and intensity of migration at farm  household level. The farm survey was conducted in the central part of  Bangladesh on 160 farm households with migrant and on 154 farm  households without migrant including a total of 316 farm households.  The results from the applied model revealed that main determinants  of migration at farm household level are household age, economically  active males and females, number of young and old dependent  members in the household and agricultural land holding. On the other  hand the main determinants of intensity of migration are availability  of economically adult male in the household, number of young  dependents and agricultural land holding.

 

Keywords: Determinants, Heckman Probit Model, Migration, Rural- Urban.

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Authors: Jingjing Lan, Jun Zhou, Xin Liu

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In this paper, a low-power digital controller for DC-DC power conversion was presented. The controller generates the pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal from digital inputs provided by analog-to-digital converter (ADC). An efficient and simple design scheme to develop the control unit was discussed. This method allows minimization of the consumed resources of the chip and it is based on direct digital design approach. In this application, with the proposed scheme, nearly half area and two-third of the power consumption was saved compared to the conventional schemes. This work illustrates the possibility of implementing low-power and area-efficient power management circuit using direct digital design based approach. 

Keywords: Buck converter, DC-DC power conversion, digital control, proportional-integral (PI) controller.

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Authors: N. Q. Bau, N. V. Nghia

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The acoustomagnetoelectric (AME) field in a rectangular quantum wire with an infinite potential (RQWIP) is calculated in the presence of an external magnetic field (EMF) by using the quantum kinetic equation for the distribution function of electrons system interacting with external phonons and electrons scattering with internal acoustic phonon in a RQWIP. We obtained ananalytic expression for the AME field in the RQWIP in the presence of the EMF. The dependence of AME field on the frequency of external acoustic wave, the temperature T of system, the cyclotron frequency of the EMF and the intensity of the EMF is obtained. Theoretical results for the AME field are numerically evaluated, plotted and discussed for a specific RQWIP GaAs/GaAsAl. This result has shown that the dependence of the AME field on intensity of the EMF is nonlinearly and it is many distinct maxima in the quantized magnetic region. We also compared received fields with those for normal bulk semiconductors, quantum well and quantum wire to show the difference. The influence of an EMF on AME field in a RQWIP is newly developed.

Keywords: Rectangular quantum wire, acoustomagnetoelectric field, electron-phonon interaction, kinetic equation method.

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Authors: Tamer A. Tabet, Fauziah Abdul Aziz, Shahidan Radiman

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The spiral angle of the elementary cellulose fibril in the wood cell wall, often called microfibril angle, (MFA). Microfibril angle in hardwood is one of the key determinants of solid timber performance due to its strong influence on the stiffness, strength, shrinkage, swelling, thermal-dynamics mechanical properties and dimensional stability of wood. Variation of MFA (degree) in the S2 layer of the cell walls among Acacia mangium trees was determined using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The length and orientation of the microfibrils of the cell walls in the irradiated volume of the thin samples are measured using SAXS and optical microscope for 3D surface measurement. The undetermined parameters in the analysis are the MFA, (M) and the standard deviation (σФ) of the intensity distribution arising from the wandering of the fibril orientation about the mean value. Nine separate pairs of values are determined for nine different values of the angle of the incidence of the X-ray beam relative to the normal to the radial direction in the sample. The results show good agreement. The curve distribution of scattered intensity for the real cell wall structure is compared with that calculated with that assembly of rectangular cells with the same ratio of transverse to radial cell wall length. It is demonstrated that for β = 45°, the peaks in the curve intensity distribution for the real and the rectangular cells coincide. If this peak position is Ф45, then the MFA can be determined from the relation M = tan-1 (tan Ф45 / cos 45°), which is precise for rectangular cells. It was found that 92.93% of the variation of MFA can be attributed to the distance from pith to bark. Here we shall present our results of the MFA in the cell wall with respect to its shape, structure and the distance from pith to park as an important fast check and yet accurate towards the quality of wood, its uses and application.

Keywords: Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering, Microfibril Angle, MFA, rectangular cell wall and real cell wall, Acacia mangium.

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Authors: Feifei Lee, Qiu Chen, Koji Kotani, Tadahiro Ohmi

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In this paper, we present an improved fast and robust search algorithm for copy detection using histogram-based features for short MPEG video clips from large video database. There are two types of histogram features used to generate more robust features. The first one is based on the adjacent pixel intensity difference quantization (APIDQ) algorithm, which had been reliably applied to human face recognition previously. An APIDQ histogram is utilized as the feature vector of the frame image. Another one is ordinal histogram feature which is robust to color distortion. Furthermore, by Combining with a temporal division method, the spatial and temporal features of the video sequence are integrated to realize fast and robust video search for copy detection. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm can detect the similar video clip more accurately and robust than conventional fast video search algorithm.

Keywords: Fast search, Copy detection, Adjacent pixel intensity difference quantization (APIDQ), DC image, Histogram feature.

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Authors: John N. Ellinas

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In this paper, a new reversible watermarking method is presented that reduces the size of a stereoscopic image sequence while keeping its content visible. The proposed technique embeds the residuals of the right frames to the corresponding frames of the left sequence, halving the total capacity. The residual frames may result in after a disparity compensated procedure between the two video streams or by a joint motion and disparity compensation. The residuals are usually lossy compressed before embedding because of the limited embedding capacity of the left frames. The watermarked frames are visible at a high quality and at any instant the stereoscopic video may be recovered by an inverse process. In fact, the left frames may be exactly recovered whereas the right ones are slightly distorted as the residuals are not embedded intact. The employed embedding method reorders the left frame into an array of consecutive pixel pairs and embeds a number of bits according to their intensity difference. In this way, it hides a number of bits in intensity smooth areas and most of the data in textured areas where resulting distortions are less visible. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is quite effective.

Keywords: Stereoscopic video, Reversible watermarking, Disparity compensation, Joint compensation

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Authors: Konstantinos G. Kostinakis, Asimina M. Athanatopoulou

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A key issue in seismic risk analysis within the context of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering is the evaluation of the expected seismic damage of structures under a specific earthquake ground motion. The assessment of the seismic performance strongly depends on the choice of the seismic Intensity Measure (IM), which quantifies the characteristics of a ground motion that are important to the nonlinear structural response. Several conventional IMs of ground motion have been used to estimate their damage potential to structures. Yet, none of them has been proved to be able to predict adequately the seismic damage. Therefore, alternative, scalar intensity measures, which take into account not only ground motion characteristics but also structural information have been proposed. Some of these IMs are based on integration of spectral values over a range of periods, in an attempt to account for the information that the shape of the acceleration, velocity or displacement spectrum provides. The adequacy of a number of these IMs in predicting the structural damage of 3D R/C buildings is investigated in the present paper. The investigated IMs, some of which are structure specific and some are non structure-specific, are defined via integration of spectral values. To achieve this purpose three symmetric in plan R/C buildings are studied. The buildings are subjected to 59 bidirectional earthquake ground motions. The two horizontal accelerograms of each ground motion are applied along the structural axes. The response is determined by nonlinear time history analysis. The structural damage is expressed in terms of the maximum interstory drift as well as the overall structural damage index. The values of the aforementioned seismic damage measures are correlated with seven scalar ground motion IMs. The comparative assessment of the results revealed that the structure-specific IMs present higher correlation with the seismic damage of the three buildings. However, the adequacy of the IMs for estimation of the structural damage depends on the response parameter adopted. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the widely used spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure is a good indicator of the expected earthquake damage level.

Keywords: Damage measures, Bidirectional excitation, Spectral based IMs, R/C buildings.

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Authors: K. Khelil, H. Ammar, K. Saouchi

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Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) structure is an periodically modulated optical fiber. It acts as a selective filter of wavelength whose reflected peak is called Bragg wavelength and it depends on the period of the fiber and the refractive index. The simulation of FBG is based on solving the Coupled Mode Theory equation by using the Transfer Matrix Method which is carried out using MATLAB. It is found that spectral reflectivity is shifted when the change of temperature and strain is uniform. Under non-uniform temperature or strain perturbation, the spectrum is both shifted and destroyed. In case of transverse loading, reflectivity spectrum is split into two peaks, the first is specific to X axis, and the second belongs to Y axis. FBGs are used in civil engineering to detect perturbations applied to buildings.

Keywords: Bragg wavelength, coupled mode theory, optical fiber, temperature measurement.

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Authors: Li Zong-Cheng

Abstract:

It is by reason of the unified measure of varieties of resources and the unified processing of the disposal of varieties of resources, that these closely related three of new basic models called the resources assembled node and the disposition integrated node as well as the intelligent organizing node are put forth in this paper; the three closely related quantities of integrative analytical mechanics including the disposal intensity and disposal- weighted intensity as well as the charge of resource charge are set; and then the resources assembled space and the disposition integrated space as well as the intelligent organizing space are put forth. The system of fundamental equations and model of complete factor synergetics is preliminarily approached for the general situation in this paper, to form the analytical base of complete factor synergetics. By the essential variables constituting this system of equations we should set twenty variables respectively with relation to the essential dynamical effect, external synergetic action and internal synergetic action of the system.

Keywords: complex system, disposal of resources, completefactor synergetics, fundamental equation.

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Authors: Fariba Azizi, Firoozeh Haghighi, Viliam Makis

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In this paper, we propose a method to model the relationship between failure time and degradation for a simple step stress test where underlying degradation path is linear and different causes of failure are possible. It is assumed that the intensity function depends only on the degradation value. No assumptions are made about the distribution of the failure times. A simple step-stress test is used to shorten failure time of products and a tampered failure rate (TFR) model is proposed to describe the effect of the changing stress on the intensities. We assume that some of the products that fail during the test have a cause of failure that is only known to belong to a certain subset of all possible failures. This case is known as masking. In the presence of masking, the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the model parameters are obtained through an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm by treating the causes of failure as missing values. The effect of incomplete information on the estimation of parameters is studied through a Monte-Carlo simulation. Finally, a real example is analyzed to illustrate the application of the proposed methods.

Keywords: Expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, cause of failure, intensity, linear degradation path, masked data, reliability function.

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Authors: Feifei Lee, Qiu Chen, Koji Kotani, Tadahiro Ohmi

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose an improved fast search algorithm using combined histogram features and temporal division method for short MPEG video clips from large video database. There are two types of histogram features used to generate more robust features. The first one is based on the adjacent pixel intensity difference quantization (APIDQ) algorithm, which had been reliably applied to human face recognition previously. An APIDQ histogram is utilized as the feature vector of the frame image. Another one is ordinal feature which is robust to color distortion. Combined with active search [4], a temporal pruning algorithm, fast and robust video search can be realized. The proposed search algorithm has been evaluated by 6 hours of video to search for given 200 MPEG video clips which each length is 30 seconds. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm can detect the similar video clip in merely 120ms, and Equal Error Rate (ERR) of 1% is achieved, which is more accurately and robust than conventional fast video search algorithm.

Keywords: Fast search, Adjacent pixel intensity differencequantization (APIDQ), DC image, Histogram feature.

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Authors: J. Hrabovský, M. Chabičovský, J. Horský

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Water spray cooling is a technique typically used in heat treatment and other metallurgical processes where controlled temperature regimes are required. Water spray cooling is used in static (without movement) or dynamic (with movement of the steel plate) regimes. The static regime is notable for the fixed position of the hot steel plate and fixed spray nozzle. This regime is typical for quenching systems focused on heat treatment of the steel plate. The second application of spray cooling is the dynamic regime. The dynamic regime is notable for its static section cooling system and moving steel plate. This regime is used in rolling and finishing mills. The fixed position of cooling sections with nozzles and the movement of the steel plate produce nonhomogeneous water distribution on the steel plate. The length of cooling sections and placement of water nozzles in combination with the nonhomogeneity of water distribution lead to discontinued or interrupted cooling conditions. The impact of static and dynamic regimes on cooling intensity and the heat transfer coefficient during the cooling process of steel plates is an important issue. Heat treatment of steel is accompanied by oxide scale growth. The oxide scale layers can significantly modify the cooling properties and intensity during the cooling. The combination of static and dynamic (section) regimes with the variable thickness of the oxide scale layer on the steel surface impact the final cooling intensity. The study of the influence of the oxide scale layers with different cooling regimes was carried out using experimental measurements and numerical analysis. The experimental measurements compared both types of cooling regimes and the cooling of scale-free surfaces and oxidized surfaces. A numerical analysis was prepared to simulate the cooling process with different conditions of the section and samples with different oxide scale layers.

Keywords: Heat transfer coefficient, numerical analysis, oxide layer, spray cooling.

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Authors: M. Feliciano, F. Rodrigues, A. Gonçalves, J. M. R. C. A. Santos, V. Leite

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With the objective of characterizing the profile and performance of energy use by slaughterhouses, surveys and audits were performed in two different facilities located in the northeastern region of Portugal. Energy consumption from multiple energy sources was assessed monthly, along with production and costs, for the same reference year. Gathered data was analyzed to identify and quantify the main consuming processes and to estimate energy efficiency indicators for benchmarking purposes. Main results show differences between the two slaughterhouses concerning energy sources, consumption by source and sector, and global energy efficiency. Electricity is the most used source in both slaughterhouses with a contribution of around 50%, being essentially used for meat processing and refrigeration. Natural gas, in slaughterhouse A, and pellets, in slaughterhouse B, used for heating water take the second place, with a mean contribution of about 45%. On average, a 62 kgoe/t specific energy consumption (SEC) was found, although with differences between slaughterhouses. A prominent negative correlation between SEC and carcass production was found specially in slaughterhouse A. Estimated Specific Energy Cost and Greenhouse Gases Intensity (GHGI) show mean values of about 50 €/t and 1.8 tCO₂e/toe, respectively. Main results show that there is a significant margin for improving energy efficiency and therefore lowering costs in this type of non-energy intensive industries. 

Keywords: Meat industry, energy intensity, energy efficiency, GHG emissions.

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Authors: Moustafa Ahmed, Ahmed Bakry, Safwat W. Z. Mahmoud

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We model and simulate the combined effect of fiber dispersion and frequency chirp of a directly modulated high-speed laser diode on the figures of merit of a non-amplified 40-Gbps optical fiber link. We consider both the return to zero (RZ) and non-return to zero (NRZ) patterns of the pseudorandom modulation bits. The performance of the fiber communication system is assessed by the fiber-length limitation due to the fiber dispersion. We study the influence of replacing standard single-mode fibers by non-zero dispersion-shifted fibers on the maximum fiber length and evaluate the associated power penalty. We introduce new dispersion tolerances for 1-dB power penalty of the RZ and NRZ 40-Gbps optical fiber links.

Keywords: Bit error rate, dispersion, frequency chirp, fiber communications, semiconductor laser.

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Authors: Agus Harjoko, Sri Hartati, Henry Dwiyasa

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There have been numerous implementations of security system using biometric, especially for identification and verification cases. An example of pattern used in biometric is the iris pattern in human eye. The iris pattern is considered unique for each person. The use of iris pattern poses problems in encoding the human iris. In this research, an efficient iris recognition method is proposed. In the proposed method the iris segmentation is based on the observation that the pupil has lower intensity than the iris, and the iris has lower intensity than the sclera. By detecting the boundary between the pupil and the iris and the boundary between the iris and the sclera, the iris area can be separated from pupil and sclera. A step is taken to reduce the effect of eyelashes and specular reflection of pupil. Then the four levels Coiflet wavelet transform is applied to the extracted iris image. The modified Hamming distance is employed to measure the similarity between two irises. This research yields the identification success rate of 84.25% for the CASIA version 1.0 database. The method gives an accuracy of 77.78% for the left eyes of MMU 1 database and 86.67% for the right eyes. The time required for the encoding process, from the segmentation until the iris code is generated, is 0.7096 seconds. These results show that the accuracy and speed of the method is better than many other methods.

Keywords: Biometric, iris recognition, wavelet transform.

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Authors: Usha N. Murthy, Rekha H. B., Mahaveer Devoor

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The introduction of more stringent pollution regulations, in relation to financial and social pressures for sustainable development, has pressed toward limiting the volumes of industrial and domestic effluents discharged into the environment - as well as to increase the efforts within research and development of new or more efficient wastewater treatment technologies. Considering both discharge volume and effluent composition, wastewater generated by the textile industry is rated as the most polluting among all industrial sectors. The pollution load is mainly due to spent dye baths, which are composed of unreacted dyes, dispersing agents, surfactants, salts and organics. In the present investigation, the textile dye wastewater was characterized by high color, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS) and pH. Electrochemical oxidation process for four plate electrodes was carried out at five different current intensities, out of which 0.14A has achieved maximum percentage removal of COD with 75% and 83% of color. The COD removal rate in kg COD/h/m² decreases with increase in the current intensity. The energy consumption increases with increase in the current intensity. Hence, textile dye wastewater can be effectively pretreated by electrochemical oxidation method where the process limits objectionable color while leaving the COD associated with organics left for natural degradation thus causing a sustainable reduction in pollution load.

Keywords: Electrochemical treatment, COD, color.

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Authors: S. Santalunai, T. Thosdeekoraphat, C. Thongsopa

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This paper presents the effect of electric field distribution which is an electric field intensity analysis. Consideration of the dielectric heating of grains and insects, the rice and rice weevils are utilized for dielectric heating analysis. Furthermore, this analysis compares the effect of electric field distribution in rice and rice weevil. In this simulation, two copper plates are used to generate the electric field for dielectric heating system and put the rice materials between the copper plates. The simulation is classified in two cases, which are case I one rice weevil is placed in the rice and case II two rice weevils are placed at different position in the rice. Moreover, the probes are located in various different positions on plate. The power feeding on this plate is optimized by using CST EM studio program of 1000 watt electrical power at 39 MHz resonance frequency. The results of two cases are indicated that the most electric field distribution and intensity are occurred on the rice and rice weevils at the near point of the probes. Moreover, the heat is directed to the rice weevils more than the rice. When the temperature of rice and rice weevils are calculated and compared, the rice weevils has the temperature more than rice is about 41.62 Celsius degrees. These results can be applied for the dielectric heating applications to eliminate insect.

Keywords: Copper plates, Electric field distribution, Dielectric heating.

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Authors: Igor Miňo, Lenka Lešková

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Over the past 80 years, open-field method has evolved as a commonly used tool for the analysis of animal behaviour. The study was carried out using 50 kennel-reared purebred puppies of the German Shepherd dog breed. All dogs were tested in 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th week of age. For the purpose of behavioural analysis, an open-field evaluation report was designed prior to testing to ensure the most convenient, rapid, and suitable way to assess selected behavioural patterns in field conditions. Onset of vocalisation, intensity of vocalisation, level of physical activity, response to sound, and overall behaviour was monitored in the study. Correlations between measures of height, weight and chest circumference, and behavioural characteristics in the 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th week of age were not statistically significant. Onset of vocalisation, intensity of vocalisation, level of physical activity and response to sound differed on statistically significant level between 5^th, 7^th, and 9^th week of age. Results suggest that our practical assessment report may be used as an applicable method to evaluate the suitability of service dog puppies for future working roles.

Keywords: Dog, behaviour, open-field, testing.

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Authors: Vitalice K. Oduol, C. Ardil

Abstract:

The paper presents frame and burst acquisition in a satellite communication network based on time division multiple access (TDMA) in which the transmissions may be carried on different transponders. A unique word pattern is used for the acquisition process. The search for the frame is aided by soft-decision of QPSK modulated signals in an additive white Gaussian channel. Results show that when the false alarm rate is low the probability of detection is also low, and the acquisition time is long. Conversely when the false alarm rate is high, the probability of detection is also high and the acquisition time is short. Thus the system operators can trade high false alarm rates for high detection probabilities and shorter acquisition times.

Keywords: burst acquisition, burst time plan, frame acquisition, satellite access, satellite TDMA, unique word detection

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Authors: Yisheng Rong, Jian Sun, Weiqiang Liu, Renjun Zhan

Abstract:

A CFD study on heat flux reduction in hypersonic flow with opposing jet has been conducted. Flowfield parameters, reattachment point position, surface pressure distributions and heat flux distributions are obtained and validated with experiments. The physical mechanism of heat reduction has been analyzed. When the opposing jet blows, the freestream is blocked off, flows to the edges and not interacts with the surface to form aerodynamic heating. At the same time, the jet flows back to form cool recirculation region, which reduces the difference in temperature between the surface and the nearby gas, and then reduces the heat flux. As the pressure ratio increases, the interface between jet and freestream is gradually pushed away from the surface. Larger the total pressure ratio is, lower the heat flux is. To study the effect of the intensity of opposing jet more reasonably, a new parameter RPA has been introduced by combining the flux and the total pressure ratio. The study shows that the same shock wave position and total heat load can be obtained with the same RPA with different fluxes and the total pressures, which means the new parameter could stand for the intensity of opposing jet and could be used to analyze the influence of opposing jet on flow field and aerodynamic heating.

Keywords: opposing jet, aerodynamic heating, total pressure ratio, thermal protection system

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Authors: Chiung-Hui Chen

Abstract:

The Internet of Things (IoT) was designed for widespread convenience. With the smart tag and the sensing network, a large quantity of dynamic information is immediately presented in the IoT. Through the internal communication and interaction, meaningful objects provide real-time services for users. Therefore, the service with appropriate decision-making has become an essential issue. Based on the science of human behavior, this study employed the environment model to record the time sequences and locations of different behaviors and adopted the probability module of the hierarchical Hidden Markov Model for the inference. The statistical analysis was conducted to achieve the following objectives: First, define user behaviors and predict the user behavior routes with the environment model to analyze user purposes. Second, construct the hierarchical Hidden Markov Model according to the logic framework, and establish the sequential intensity among behaviors to get acquainted with the use and activity fabric of the intelligent environment. Third, establish the intensity of the relation between the probability of objects’ being used and the objects. The indicator can describe the possible limitations of the mechanism. As the process is recorded in the information of the system created in this study, these data can be reused to adjust the procedure of intelligent design services.

Keywords: Behavior, big data, hierarchical Hidden Markov Model, intelligent object.

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Authors: T. Tanitteerapan, E.Thanpo

Abstract:

This paper, a simple continuous conduction mode (CCM) pulse-width-modulated (PWM) controller for high power factor boost converters is introduced. The duty ratios were obtained by the comparison of a sensed signal from inductor current or switch current and a negative slope ramp carrier waveform in each switching period. Due to the proposed control requires only the inductor current or switch current sensor and the output voltage sensor, its circuit implementation was very simple. To verify the proposed control, the circuit experimentation of a 350 W boost converter with the proposed control was applied. From the results, the input current waveform was shaped to be closely sinusoidal, implying high power factor and low harmonics.

Keywords: High power factor converters, boost converters, low harmonic rectifiers, power factor correction, and current control.

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