Search results for: Urban Environment
1531 Understanding and Measuring Trust Evolution Effectiveness in Peer-to-Peer Computing Systems
Authors: Farag Azzedin, Ali Rizvi
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In any trust model, the two information sources that a peer relies on to predict trustworthiness of another peer are direct experience as well as reputation. These two vital components evolve over time. Trust evolution is an important issue, where the objective is to observe a sequence of past values of a trust parameter and determine the future estimates. Unfortunately, trust evolution algorithms received little attention and the proposed algorithms in the literature do not comply with the conditions and the nature of trust. This paper contributes to this important problem in the following ways: (a) presents an algorithm that manages and models trust evolution in a P2P environment, (b) devises new mechanisms for effectively maintaining trust values based on the conditions that influence trust evolution , and (c) introduces a new methodology for incorporating trust-nurture incentives into the trust evolution algorithm. Simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate our trust evolution algorithm.Keywords: P2P, Trust, Reputation, Incentives.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12661530 Powering Pacemakers from Heart Pressure Variation with Piezoelectric Energy Harvesters
Authors: A. Mathieu, B. Aubry, E. Chhim, M. Jobe, M. Arnaud
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Present project consists in a study and a development of piezoelectric devices for supplying power to new generation pacemakers. They are miniaturized leadless implants without battery placed directly in right ventricle. Amongst different acceptable energy sources in cardiac environment, we choose the solution of a device based on conversion of the energy produced by pressure variation inside the heart into electrical energy. The proposed energy harvesters can meet the power requirements of pacemakers, and can be a good solution to solve the problem of regular surgical operation. With further development, proposed device should provide enough energy to allow pacemakers autonomy, and could be good candidate for next pacemaker generation.Keywords: Energy harvester, heart, leadless pacemaker, piezoelectric cells, pressure variation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14361529 Spatial Planning as an Approach to Achieve Sustainable Development in Historic Cities
Authors: Mohammad Ali Abdi, Sima Mehdizadegan Namin
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Sustainable development is a concept which was originated in Burtland commission in 1978. Although this concept was born with environmental aspects, it is penetrated in all areas rapidly, turning into a dominate view of planning. Concentrating on future generation issue, especially when talking about heritage has a long story. Each approach with all of its characteristics illustrates differences in planning, hence planning always reflects the dominate idea of its age. This paper studies sustainable development in planning for historical cities with the aim of finding ways to deal with heritage in planning for historical cities in Iran. Through this, it will be illustrated how challenges between sustainable concept and heritage could be concluded in planning. Consequently, the paper will emphasize on: Sustainable development in city planning Trends regarding heritage Challenges due to planning for historical cities in Iran For the first two issues, documentary method regarding the sustainable development and heritage literature is considered. As the next step focusing on Iranian historical cities require considering the urban planning and management structure and identifying the main challenges related to heritage, so analyzing challenges regarding heritage is considered. As the result it would be illustrated that key issue in such planning is active conservation to improve and use the potential of heritage while it's continues conservation is guaranteed. By emphasizing on the planning system in Iran it will be obvious that some reforms are needed in this system and its way of relating with heritage. The main weakness in planning for historical cities in Iran is the lack of independent city management. Without this factor achieving active conservation as the main factor of sustainable development would not be possible.Keywords: Active conservation, city planning, heritage, sustainable development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14941528 Parallel Explicit Group Domain Decomposition Methods for the Telegraph Equation
Authors: Kew Lee Ming, Norhashidah Hj. Mohd. Ali
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In a previous work, we presented the numerical solution of the two dimensional second order telegraph partial differential equation discretized by the centred and rotated five-point finite difference discretizations, namely the explicit group (EG) and explicit decoupled group (EDG) iterative methods, respectively. In this paper, we utilize a domain decomposition algorithm on these group schemes to divide the tasks involved in solving the same equation. The objective of this study is to describe the development of the parallel group iterative schemes under OpenMP programming environment as a way to reduce the computational costs of the solution processes using multicore technologies. A detailed performance analysis of the parallel implementations of points and group iterative schemes will be reported and discussed.Keywords: Telegraph equation, explicit group iterative scheme, domain decomposition algorithm, parallelization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15261527 Modular Workflow System for HPC Applications
Authors: Y. Yudin, T. Krasikova, Y. Dorozhko, N. Currle-Linde
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Nowadays, HPC, Grid and Cloud systems are evolving very rapidly. However, the development of infrastructure solutions related to HPC is lagging behind. While the existing infrastructure is sufficient for simple cases, many computational problems have more complex requirements.Such computational experiments use different resources simultaneously to start a large number of computational jobs.These resources are heterogeneous. They have different purposes, architectures, performance and used software.Users need a convenient tool that allows to describe and to run complex computational experiments under conditions of HPC environment. This paper introduces a modularworkflow system called SEGL which makes it possible to run complex computational experiments under conditions of a real HPC organization. The system can be used in a great number of organizations, which provide HPC power. Significant requirements to this system are high efficiency and interoperability with the existing HPC infrastructure of the organization without any changes.Keywords: HPC, Molecular Dynamics, Workflow Languages, Workflow Management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17301526 Estimation of the Park-Ang Damage Index for Floating Column Building with Infill Wall
Authors: Susanta Banerjee, Sanjaya Kumar Patro
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Buildings with floating column are highly undesirable built in seismically active areas. Many urban multi-storey buildings today have floating column buildings which are adopted to accommodate parking at ground floor or reception lobbies in the first storey. The earthquake forces developed at different floor levels in a building need to be brought down along the height to the ground by the shortest path; any deviation or discontinuity in this load transfer path results in poor performance of the building. Floating column buildings are severely damaged during earthquake. Damage on this structure can be reduce by taking the effect of infill wall. This paper presents the effect of stiffness of infill wall to the damage occurred in floating column building when ground shakes. Modelling and analysis are carried out by non linear analysis programme IDARC-2D. Damage occurred in beams, columns, storey are studied by formulating modified Park & Ang model to evaluate damage indices. Overall structural damage indices in buildings due to shaking of ground are also obtained. Dynamic response parameters i.e. lateral floor displacement, storey drift, time period, base shear of buildings are obtained and results are compared with the ordinary moment resisting frame buildings. Formation of cracks, yield, plastic hinge, are also observed during analysis.
Keywords: Floating column, Infill Wall, Park-Ang Damage Index, Damage State.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31171525 Day Type Identification for Algerian Electricity Load using Kohonen Maps
Authors: Mohamed Tarek Khadir, Damien Fay, Ahmed Boughrira
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Short term electricity demand forecasts are required by power utilities for efficient operation of the power grid. In a competitive market environment, suppliers and large consumers also require short term forecasts in order to estimate their energy requirements in advance. Electricity demand is influenced (among other things) by the day of the week, the time of year and special periods and/or days such as Ramadhan, all of which must be identified prior to modelling. This identification, known as day-type identification, must be included in the modelling stage either by segmenting the data and modelling each day-type separately or by including the day-type as an input. Day-type identification is the main focus of this paper. A Kohonen map is employed to identify the separate day-types in Algerian data.Keywords: Day type identification, electricity Load, Kohonenmaps, load forecasting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17891524 Using Critical Systems Thinking to Improve Student Performance in Networking
Authors: Albertus G. Joubert, Roelien Goede
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This paper explores how Critical Systems Thinking and Action Research can be used to improve student performance in Networking. When describing a system from a systems thinking perspective, the following aspects can be identified: the total system performance, the systems environment, the resources, the components and the management of the system. Following the history of system thinking we observe three emerged methodologies namely, hard systems, soft systems, and critical systems. This paper uses Critical Systems Thinking (CST) which describes systems in terms of contradictions and conflict. It demonstrates how CST can be used in an Action Research (AR) project to improve the performance of students. Intervention in terms of student assessment is discussed and the impact of the intervention is discussed.
Keywords: Action research, computer networks, critical systems thinking, higher education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27051523 Landfill Failure Mobility Analysis: A Probabilistic Approach
Authors: Ali Jahanfar, Brajesh Dubey, Bahram Gharabaghi, Saber Bayat Movahed
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Ever increasing population growth of major urban centers and environmental challenges in siting new landfills have resulted in a growing trend in design of mega-landfills some with extraordinary heights and dangerously steep slopes. Landfill failure mobility risk analysis is one of the most uncertain types of dynamic rheology models due to very large inherent variabilities in the heterogeneous solid waste material shear strength properties. The waste flow of three historic dumpsite and two landfill failures were back-analyzed using run-out modeling with DAN-W model. The travel distances of the waste flow during landfill failures were calculated approach by taking into account variability in material shear strength properties. The probability distribution function for shear strength properties of the waste material were grouped into four major classed based on waste material compaction (landfills versus dumpsites) and composition (high versus low quantity) of high shear strength waste materials such as wood, metal, plastic, paper and cardboard in the waste. This paper presents a probabilistic method for estimation of the spatial extent of waste avalanches, after a potential landfill failure, to create maps of vulnerability scores to inform property owners and residents of the level of the risk.Keywords: Landfill failure, waste flow, Voellmy rheology, friction coefficient, waste compaction and type.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22871522 Municipal Solid Waste Management Problems in Nigeria: Evolving Knowledge Management Solution
Authors: Beatrice Abila, Jussi Kantola
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The paper attempts a synthesis of problems relating to municipal waste management in Nigeria and proposes a conceptual knowledge management approach for tackling municipal waste problems in cities across Nigeria. The application of knowledge management approach and strategy is crucial for inculcating a change of attitude towards improving the management of waste. The paper is a review of existing literatures, information, policies and data on municipal waste management in Nigeria. The inefficient management of waste by individuals, households, consumers and waste management companies can be attributed to inadequate information on waste management benefits, lack of producers- involvement in waste management as well as poor implementation of government policies. The paper presents an alternative approach providing solutions promoting efficient municipal waste management.Keywords: Environment, Knowledge management, Municipal waste management, Nigeria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 144411521 Spatial Optimization of Riverfront Street Based on Inclusive Design: Case Study of Wansheng District, China
Authors: Lianxue Shi
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Riverfront streets have the dual characteristics of street space and waterfront space, which is not only a vital place for residents to travel and communicate, but also a high-frequency space for people's leisure and entertainment. However, under the development of cities and towns pursuing efficiency, riverfront streets appear to have a variety of problems, such as a lack of multifunctionality, insufficient facilities, and loss of characteristics, which fail to meet the needs of various groups of people, and their inclusiveness is facing a great challenge. It is, therefore, evident that the optimization of riverfront street space from an inclusivity perspective is important to the establishment of a human-centered, high-quality urban space. Therefore, this article starts by exploring the interactive relationship between inclusive design and street space. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of the riverfront street space and people's needs, it proposes the four inclusive design orientations of natural inclusion, group inclusion, spatial inclusion, and social inclusion. It then constructs a design framework for the inclusive optimization of riverfront street space, aiming to create streets that are “safe and accessible, diverse and shared, distinctive and friendly, green and sustainable”. Riverfront streets in Wansheng District, Chongqing, are selected as a practice case, and specific strategies are put forward in four aspects: the creation of an accessible slow-traffic system, the provision of diversified functional services, the reshaping of emotional bonds, and the integration of ecological spaces.
Keywords: Inclusive design, riverfront street, spatial optimization, street spaces.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 181520 Further Development in Predicting Post-Earthquake Fire Ignition Hazard
Authors: Pegah Farshadmanesh, Jamshid Mohammadi, Mehdi Modares
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In nearly all earthquakes of the past century that resulted in moderate to significant damage, the occurrence of postearthquake fire ignition (PEFI) has imposed a serious hazard and caused severe damage, especially in urban areas. In order to reduce the loss of life and property caused by post-earthquake fires, there is a crucial need for predictive models to estimate the PEFI risk. The parameters affecting PEFI risk can be categorized as: 1) factors influencing fire ignition in normal (non-earthquake) condition, including floor area, building category, ignitability, type of appliance, and prevention devices, and 2) earthquake related factors contributing to the PEFI risk, including building vulnerability and earthquake characteristics such as intensity, peak ground acceleration, and peak ground velocity. State-of-the-art statistical PEFI risk models are solely based on limited available earthquake data, and therefore they cannot predict the PEFI risk for areas with insufficient earthquake records since such records are needed in estimating the PEFI model parameters. In this paper, the correlation between normal condition ignition risk, peak ground acceleration, and PEFI risk is examined in an effort to offer a means for predicting post-earthquake ignition events. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate how such correlation can be employed in a seismic area to predict PEFI hazard.Keywords: Fire risk, post-earthquake fire ignition (PEFI), risk management, seismicity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13621519 Secure Image Retrieval Based On Orthogonal Decomposition under Cloud Environment
Authors: Yanyan Xu, Lizhi Xiong, Zhengquan Xu, Li Jiang
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In order to protect data privacy, image with sensitive or private information needs to be encrypted before being outsourced to the cloud. However, this causes difficulties in image retrieval and data management. A secure image retrieval method based on orthogonal decomposition is proposed in the paper. The image is divided into two different components, for which encryption and feature extraction are executed separately. As a result, cloud server can extract features from an encrypted image directly and compare them with the features of the queried images, so that the user can thus obtain the image. Different from other methods, the proposed method has no special requirements to encryption algorithms. Experimental results prove that the proposed method can achieve better security and better retrieval precision.
Keywords: Secure image retrieval, secure search, orthogonal decomposition, secure cloud computing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21141518 Experimental Observation on Air-Conditioning Using Radiant Chilled Ceiling in Hot Humid Climate
Authors: Ashmin Aryal, Pipat Chaiwiwatworakul, Surapong Chirarattananon
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Radiant chilled ceiling (RCC) has been perceived to save more energy and provide better thermal comfort than the traditional air conditioning system. However, its application has been rather limited by some reasons e.g., the scarce information about the thermal characteristic in the radiant room and the local climate influence on the system performance, etc. To bridge such gap, an office-like experiment room with a RCC was constructed in the hot and humid climate of Thailand. This paper presents exemplarily results from the RCC experiments to give an insight into the thermal environment in a radiant room and the cooling load associated to maintain the room's comfort condition. It gave a demonstration of the RCC system operation for its application to achieve thermal comfort in offices in a hot humid climate, as well.
Keywords: Radiant chilled ceiling, thermal comfort, cooling load, outdoor air unit.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5011517 Seismic Retrofitting of RC Buildings with Soft Storey and Floating Columns
Authors: Vinay Agrawal, Suyash Garg, Ravindra Nagar, Vinay Chandwani
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Open ground storey with floating columns is a typical feature in the modern multistory constructions in urban India. Such features are very much undesirable in buildings built in seismically active areas. The present study proposes a feasible solution to mitigate the effects caused due to non-uniformity of stiffness and discontinuity in load path and to simultaneously hold the functional use of the open storey particularly under the floating column, through a combination of various lateral strengthening systems. An investigation is performed on an example building with nine different analytical models to bring out the importance of recognising the presence of open ground storey and floating columns. Two separate analyses on various models of the building namely, the equivalent static analysis and the response spectrum analysis as per IS: 1893-2002 were performed. Various measures such as incorporation of Chevron bracings and shear walls, strengthening the columns in the open ground storey, and their different combinations were examined. The analysis shows that, in comparison to two short ones separated by interconnecting beams, the structural walls are most effective when placed at the periphery of the buildings and used as one long structural wall. Further, it can be shown that the force transfer from floating columns becomes less horizontal when the Chevron Bracings are placed just below them, thereby reducing the shear forces in the beams on which the floating column rests.
Keywords: Equivalent static analysis, floating column, open ground storey, response spectrum analysis, shear wall, stiffness irregularity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15351516 Spectrum Sensing Based On the Cyclostationarity of PU Signals in High Traffic Environments
Authors: Keunhong Chae, Youngpo Lee, Seokho Yoon
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In cognitive radio (CR) systems, the primary user (PU) signal would randomly depart or arrive during the sensing period of a CR user, which is referred to as the high traffic environment. In this paper, we propose a novel spectrum sensing scheme based on the cyclostationarity of PU signals in high traffic environments. Specifically, we obtain a test statistic by applying an estimate of spectral autocoherence function of the PU signal to the generalized- likelihood ratio. From numerical results, it is confirmed that the proposed scheme provides a better spectrum sensing performance compared with the conventional spectrum sensing scheme based on the energy of the PU signals in high traffic environments.
Keywords: Spectrum sensing, cyclostationarity, high traffic environments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18551515 Nanotechnology Innovations for the Sustainable Buildings of the Future
Authors: Aysin Sev, Meltem Ezel
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Sustainability, being the urgent issue of our time, is closely related with the innovations in technology. Nanotechnology (NT), although not a new science, can be regarded relatively a new science for buildings with brand new materials and applications. This paper tends to give a research review of current and near future applications of nanotechnology (NT) for achieving high-performance and healthy buildings for a sustainable future. In the introduction, the driving forces for the sustainability of construction industry are explained. Then, the term NT is defined, and significance of innovations in NT for a sustainable construction industry is revealed. After presenting the application areas of NT and nanomaterials for buildings with a number of cases, challenges in the adoption of this technology are put forward, and finally the impacts of nanoparticles and nanomaterials on human health and environment are discussed.
Keywords: Nanomaterial, self-healing concrete, self-cleaning sensor, nano sensor, steel, wood, aerogel, flexible solar panel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 60611514 A Thirteen-Level Asymmetrical Cascaded H-Bridge Single Phase Inverter
Authors: P. Varalaxmi, A. Kirubakaran
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This paper presents a thirteen-level asymmetrical cascaded H-bridge single phase inverter. In this configuration, the desired output voltage level is achieved by connecting the DC sources in different combinations by triggering the switches. The modes of operation are explained well for positive level generations. Moreover, a comparison is made with conventional topologies of diode clamped, flying capacitors and cascaded-H-bridge and some recently proposed topologies to show the significance of the proposed topology in terms of reduced part counts. The simulation work has been carried out in MATLAB/Simulink environment. The experimental work is also carried out for lower rating to verify the performance and feasibility of the proposed topology. Further the results are presented for different loading conditions.Keywords: Multilevel inverter, pulse width modulation, total harmonic distortion, THD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6721513 Social Media and Tacit Knowledge Sharing: Developing a Conceptual Model
Authors: Sirous Panahi , Jason Watson , Helen Partridge
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With the advent of social web initiatives, some argued that these new emerging tools might be useful in tacit knowledge sharing through providing interactive and collaborative technologies. However, there is still a poverty of literature to understand how and what might be the contributions of social media in facilitating tacit knowledge sharing. Therefore, this paper is intended to theoretically investigate and map social media concepts and characteristics with tacit knowledge creation and sharing requirements. By conducting a systematic literature review, five major requirements found that need to be present in an environment that involves tacit knowledge sharing. These requirements have been analyzed against social media concepts and characteristics to see how they map together. The results showed that social media have abilities to comply some of the main requirements of tacit knowledge sharing. The relationships have been illustrated in a conceptual framework, suggesting further empirical studies to acknowledge findings of this study.Keywords: Knowledge sharing, Tacit knowledge, Social media, Web 2.0
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32221512 Application and Limitation of Parallel Modelingin Multidimensional Sequential Pattern
Authors: Mahdi Esmaeili, Mansour Tarafdar
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The goal of data mining algorithms is to discover useful information embedded in large databases. One of the most important data mining problems is discovery of frequently occurring patterns in sequential data. In a multidimensional sequence each event depends on more than one dimension. The search space is quite large and the serial algorithms are not scalable for very large datasets. To address this, it is necessary to study scalable parallel implementations of sequence mining algorithms. In this paper, we present a model for multidimensional sequence and describe a parallel algorithm based on data parallelism. Simulation experiments show good load balancing and scalable and acceptable speedup over different processors and problem sizes and demonstrate that our approach can works efficiently in a real parallel computing environment.Keywords: Sequential Patterns, Data Mining, ParallelAlgorithm, Multidimensional Sequence Data
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14761511 SeCloudBPMN: A Lightweight Extension for BPMN Considering Security Threats in the Cloud
Authors: Somayeh Sobati Moghadam
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Business processes are crucial for organizations and help businesses to evaluate and optimize their performance and processes against current and future-state business goals. Outsourcing business processes to the cloud becomes popular due to a wide varsity of benefits and cost-saving. However, cloud outsourcing raises enterprise data security concerns, which must be incorporated in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). This paper, presents SeCloudBPMN, a lightweight extension for BPMN which extends the BPMN to explicitly support the security threats in the cloud as an outsourcing environment. SeCloudBPMN helps business’s security experts to outsource business processes to the cloud considering different threats from inside and outside the cloud. In this way, appropriate security countermeasures could be considered to preserve data security in business processes outsourcing to the cloud.Keywords: BPMN, security threats, cloud computing, graphical representation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7791510 Climate Change and Poverty Nexus
Authors: O. Babalola Oladapo, A. Igbatayo Samuel
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Climate change and poverty are global issues which cannot be waved aside in welfare of the ever increasing population. The causes / consequences are far more elaborate in developing countries, including Nigeria, which poses threats to the existence of man and his environment. The dominant role of agriculture makes it obvious that even minor climate deteriorations can cause devastating socio-economic consequences. Policies to curb the climate change by reducing the consumption of fossil fuels like oil, gas or carbon compounds have significant economical impacts on the producers/suppliers of these fuels. Thus a unified political narrative that advances both agendas is needed, because their components of an environmental coin that needs to be addressed. The developed world should maintain a low-carbon growth & real commitment of 0.7% of gross national income, as aid to developing countries & renewable energy approach should be emphasized, hence global poverty combated.
Keywords: Climate Change, Greenhouse gases, Nigeria, Poverty.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26441509 Ecotoxicological Studies of Soil Using Analytical and Biological Methods: A Review
Authors: V. Chahal, A. Nagpal, Y. B. Pakade, J. K. Katnoria
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Soil is a complex physical and biological system that provides support, water, nutrients and oxygen to the plants. Apart from these, it acts as a connecting link between inorganic, organic and living components of the ecosystem. In recent years, presence of xenobiotics, alterations in the natural soil environment, application of pesticides/inorganic fertilizers, percolation of contaminated surface water as well as leachates from landfills to subsurface strata and direct discharge of industrial wastes to the land have resulted in soil pollution which in turn has posed severe threats to human health especially in terms of causing carcinogenicity by direct DNA damage. The present review is an attempt to summarize literature on sources of soil pollution, characterization of pollutants and their consequences in different living systems.
Keywords: Soil Pollution, Contaminants, Heavy metals, Pesticides, Bioassays.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35641508 The CommonSense Platform for Conducting Multiple Participant Field-Experiments Using Mobile-Phones
Authors: Y. Hoffner, Y. Rusho, S. Rubach, S. Abargil
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This paper presents CommonSense, a platform that provides researchers with the infrastructure and tools that enable the efficient and smooth creation, execution and processing of multiple participant experiments taking place outside the laboratory environment. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools to accompany the researchers throughout the life cycle of an experiment – from its inception, through its execution, to its processing and termination. The approach of our platform is based on providing a comprehensive solution, which puts emphasis on the support for the entire life-cycle of an experiment, starting from its definition, the setting up and the configuration of the platform, through the management of the experiment itself and its post processing. Some of the components that support those processes are constructed and configured automatically from the experiment definition.
Keywords: Mobile applications, mobile experiments, web experiments, software system architecture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4311507 Toward a Model for Knowledge Development in Virtual Environments: Strategies for Student Ownership
Authors: N.B. Adams
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This article discusses the concept of student ownership of knowledge and seeks to determine how to move students from knowledge acquisition to knowledge application and ultimately to knowledge generation in a virtual setting. Instructional strategies for fostering student engagement in a virtual environment are critical to the learner-s strategic ownership of the knowledge. A number of relevant theories that focus on learning, affect, needs and adult concerns are presented to provide a basis for exploring the transfer of knowledge from teacher to learner. A model under development is presented that combines the dimensions of knowledge approach, the teacher-student relationship with regards to knowledge authority and teaching approach to demonstrate the recursive and scaffolded design for creation of virtual learning environments.
Keywords: Virtual learning environments, learning theory, teaching model, online learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18681506 Secondary Organic Contribution to Particles Formed on the Ice Melted Arctic Ocean
Authors: Petri Vaattovaara, Zoran D. Ristovski, Martin Graus, Marcus Müller, EijaAsmi, Luca Di Liberto, StaffanSjögren, Douglas Orsini, Caroline Leck, Ari Laaksonen
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Due to climate warming and consequently due to ice and snow melting of the Arctic Ocean, the highly biologically active ocean surface area has been expanding quickly making possible longer marine biota growth seasons during polar summers. That increase the probability of the remote marine environment secondary contribution, especially secondary organic contribution, to the particle production and particle growth events and particle properties, consequently effecting on the open ocean, pack ice and ground based regions radiation budget and thus on the feedbacks between arctic biota, particles, clouds, and climate.
Keywords: Arctic Ocean, ice melting, nucleation, secondary organics, clouds, climate.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14921505 Slice Bispectrogram Analysis-Based Classification of Environmental Sounds Using Convolutional Neural Network
Authors: Katsumi Hirata
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Certain systems can function well only if they recognize the sound environment as humans do. In this research, we focus on sound classification by adopting a convolutional neural network and aim to develop a method that automatically classifies various environmental sounds. Although the neural network is a powerful technique, the performance depends on the type of input data. Therefore, we propose an approach via a slice bispectrogram, which is a third-order spectrogram and is a slice version of the amplitude for the short-time bispectrum. This paper explains the slice bispectrogram and discusses the effectiveness of the derived method by evaluating the experimental results using the ESC‑50 sound dataset. As a result, the proposed scheme gives high accuracy and stability. Furthermore, some relationship between the accuracy and non-Gaussianity of sound signals was confirmed.
Keywords: Bispectrum, convolutional neural network, environmental sound, slice bispectrogram, spectrogram.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6181504 A Study of Relationship between WBGT and Relative Humidity to Worker Performance
Authors: A.R. Ismail, M. R. A. Rani, Z. K. M. Makhbul, M. J. M. Nor, M. N. A. Rahman
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The environmental factors such as temperature and relative humidity are very contribute to the effect of comfort, health, performance and worker productivity. To ensure an ergonomics work environment, it is possible to require a specific attention especially in industries. The aim of this study is to show the effect of temperature and relative humidity on worker productivity in automotive industry by taking a workstation in an automotive plant as the location to conduct the study. From the analysis of the data, there were relationship between temperature and relative humidity on worker productivity. Mathematical equation to represent the relationship between temperatures and relative humidity on the production rate is modelled. From the equation model, the production rate for the workstation can be predicted base on the value of temperature and relative humidity.Keywords: WBGT, Relative Humidity, Comfort, Productivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24561503 Optimal Diesel Engine Technology Analysis Matching the Platform of the Helicopter
Authors: M. Wendeker, K. Siadkowska, P. Magryta, Z. Czyz, K. Skiba
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In the paper environmental impact analysis the optimal Diesel engine for a light helicopter was performed. The paper consist an answer to the question of what the optimal Diesel engine for a light helicopter is, taking into consideration its expected performance and design capacity. The use of turbocharged engine with self-ignition and an electronic control system can substantially reduce the negative impact on the environment by decreasing toxic substance emission, fuel consumption and therefore carbon dioxide emission. In order to establish the environmental benefits of the diesel engine technologies, mathematical models were created, providing additional insight on the environmental impact and performance of a classic turboshaft and an advanced diesel engine light helicopter, incorporating technology developments.
Keywords: Diesel engine, helicopter, simulation, environmental impact.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22471502 Heat Transfer Analysis of Rectangular Channel Plate Heat Sink
Authors: Zhang Lei, Liu Min, Liu Botao
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In order to improve the simulation effects of space cold black environment, this paper described a rectangular channel plate heat sink. By using fluid mechanics theory and finite element method, the internal fluid flow and heat transfer in heat sink was numerically simulated to analyze the impact of channel structural on fluid flow and heat transfer. The result showed that heat sink temperature uniformity is well, and the impact of channel structural on the heat sink temperature uniformity is not significant. The channel depth and spacing are important factors which affect the fluid flow and heat transfer in the heat sink. The two factors of heat transfer and resistance need to be considered comprehensively to determine the optimal flow structure parameters.Keywords: heat transfer, heat sink, numerical simulation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1840