Search results for: Reliability evaluation
1008 Effect of Tillage Technology on Species Composition of Weeds in Monoculture of Maize
Authors: S. Chovancova, F. Illek, J. Winkler
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The effect of tillage technology of maize on intensity of weed infestation and weed species composition was observed at experimental field. Maize is grown consecutively since 2001. The experimental site is situated at an altitude of 230 m above sea level in the Czech Republic. Variants of tillage technology are CT: plowing – conventional tillage 0.22 m, MT: loosening – disc tillage on the depth of 0.1 – 0.12 m, NT: direct sowing – without tillage. The evaluation of weed infestation was carried out by numerical method in years 2012 and 2013. Within the monitoring were found 20 various species of weeds. Conventional tillage (CT) primarily supports the occurrence of perennial weeds (Cirsium arvense, Convolvulus arvensis). Late spring species (Chenopodium album, Echinochloa crus-galli) were more frequently noticed on variants of loosening (MT) and direct sowing (NT). Different tillage causes a significant change of weed species spectrum in maize.
Keywords: Weeds, maize, tillage, loosening, direct sowing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20281007 Thermal Expansion Coefficient and Young’s Modulus of Silica-Reinforced Epoxy Composite
Authors: Hyu Sang Jo, Gyo Woo Lee
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In this study, the evaluation of thermal stability of the micrometer-sized silica particle reinforced epoxy composite was carried out through the measurement of thermal expansion coefficient and Young’s modulus of the specimens. For all the specimens in this study from the baseline to those containing 50 wt% silica filler, the thermal expansion coefficients and the Young’s moduli were gradually decreased down to 20% and increased up to 41%, respectively. The experimental results were compared with fillervolume- based simple empirical relations. The experimental results of thermal expansion coefficients correspond with those of Thomas’s model which is modified from the rule of mixture. However, the measured result for Young’s modulus tends to be increased slightly. The differences in increments of the moduli between experimental and numerical model data are quite large.
Keywords: Thermal Stability, Silica-Reinforced, Epoxy Composite, Coefficient of Thermal Expansion, Empirical Model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 48291006 Mass Transfer of Palm Kernel Oil under Supercritical Conditions
Authors: I. Norhuda, A. K. Mohd Omar
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The purpose of the study was to determine the amount of Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) extracted from a packed bed of palm kernels in a supercritical fluid extractor using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) as an environmental friendly solvent. Further, the study sought to ascertain the values of the overall mass transfer coefficient (K) of PKO evaluation through a mass transfer model, at constant temperature of 50 °C, 60 °C, and 70 °C and pressures range from 27.6 MPa, 34.5 MPa, 41.4 MPa and 48.3 MPa respectively. Finally, the study also seeks to demonstrate the application of the overall mass transfer coefficient values in relation to temperature and pressure. The overall mass transfer coefficient was found to be dependent pressure at each constant temperature of 50 °C, 60 °C and 70 °C. The overall mass transfer coefficient for PKO in a packed bed of palm kernels was found to be in the range of 1.21X 10-4 m min-1 to 1.72 X 10-4 m min-1 for a constant temperature of 50 °C and in the range of 2.02 X 10-4 m min-1 to 2.43 X 10-4 m min-1 for a constant temperature of 60 °C. Similar increasing trend of the overall mass transfer coefficient from 1.77 X 10-4 m min-1 to 3.64 X 10-4 m min-1 was also observed at constant temperature of 70 °C within the same pressure range from 27.6 MPa to 48.3 MPa.
Keywords: Overall Mass Transfer Coefficient (D), Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SC-CO2), Palm Kernel Oil (PKO).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17491005 Effect of Hormonal Manipulations on the Pattern of the Vaginal Tissue Structure
Authors: Fatahian Dehkordi RF., Parchami A.
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Design of experiments made for correlated the hormonal activity of steroids and their effect on the vaginal structure properties. Vaginal wall consists of distinct layers of cells which strongly differ regarding growth in answer to steroid hormones. The presence study carried out for functional evaluation and sustained replacement effect of the reproductive hormones on the vaginal morphometry in the rabbit. Rabbits were maintained control (Co) or ovariectomized (Ovz) and continuously treated with estradiol (Ovz E) and estradiol mixture with testosterone (Ovz ET). Relative to control rabbits with the distinct tissue distribution pattern, ovariectomized animals displayed declined epithelial thickness and atrophy of the muscularis layer that cause the vaginal wall thinning. Estradiol treatment of Orz rabbits inverted these changes to status of the preovariectomy. Histometric measurements in Ovz ET group completely including of thickness of the epithelial and muscular layers was greater in comparison to that of control animals.
Keywords: Vagina, Ovariectomy, Rabbit, Morphometry
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17311004 Assessing the Impact of Contour Strips of Perennial Grass with Bio-fuel Potentials on Aquatic Environment
Authors: Roy R. Gu, Mahesh Sahu
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The use of contour strips of perennial vegetation with bio-fuel potential can improve surface water quality by reducing NO3-N and sediment outflow from cropland to surface water-bodies. It also has economic benefits of producing ethanol. In this study, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to a watershed in Iowa, USA to examine the effectiveness of contour strips of switch grass in reducing the NO3-N outflows from crop fields to rivers or lakes. Numerical experiments were conducted to identify potential subbasins in the watershed that have high water quality impact, and to examine the effects of strip size on NO3-N reduction under various meteorological conditions, i.e. dry, average and wet years. Useful information was obtained for the evaluation of economic feasibility of growing switch grass for bio-fuel in contour strips. The results can assist in cost-benefit analysis and decisionmaking in best management practices for environmental protection.Keywords: ethanol, modeling, water quality, NO3-N, watershed.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15331003 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a HAWK Signal on Compliance in Las Vegas Nevada
Authors: A. Paz, M. Khadka, N. Veeramisti, B. Morris
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There is a continuous large number of crashes involving pedestrians in Nevada despite the numerous safety mechanisms currently used at roadway crossings. Hence, additional as well as more effective mechanisms are required to reduce crashes in Las Vegas, in particular, and Nevada in general. A potential mechanism to reduce conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles is a High-intensity Activated crossWalK (HAWK) signal. This study evaluates the effects of such signals at a particular site in Las Vegas. Video data were collected using two cameras, facing the eastbound and westbound traffic. One week of video data before and after the deployment of the signal were collected to capture the behavior of both pedestrians and drivers. T-test analyses of pedestrian waiting time at the curb, curb-to-curb crossing time, total crossing time, jaywalking events, and near-crash events show that the HAWK system provides significant benefits.
Keywords: Pedestrian crashes, HAWK signal, traffic safety, pedestrian danger index.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23081002 Investigating the Nail Walls Performance in Jointed Rock Medium
Authors: Ibrahim Naeimifar, Omid Naeemifar
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Evaluation of the excavation-induced ground movements is an important design aspect of support systems in urban areas. Geological and geotechnical conditions of an excavation area have significant effects on excavation-induced ground movements and the related damage. This paper is aimed at studying the performance of excavation walls supported by nails in jointed rock medium. The performance of nailed walls is investigated based on evaluating the excavation-induced ground movements. For this purpose, a set of calibrated 2D finite element models are developed by taking into account the nail-rock-structure interactions, the anisotropic properties of jointed rock, and the staged construction process. The results of this paper highlight effects of different parameters such as joint inclinations, anisotropy of rocks and nail inclinations on deformation parameters of excavation wall supported by nails.Keywords: Finite element, jointed rock, nailing, performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17101001 The Utility of Wavelet Transform in Surface Electromyography Feature Extraction -A Comparative Study of Different Mother Wavelets
Authors: Farzaneh Akhavan Mahdavi, Siti Anom Ahmad, Mohd Hamiruce Marhaban, Mohammad-R. Akbarzadeh-T
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Electromyography (EMG) signal processing has been investigated remarkably regarding various applications such as in rehabilitation systems. Specifically, wavelet transform has served as a powerful technique to scrutinize EMG signals since wavelet transform is consistent with the nature of EMG as a non-stationary signal. In this paper, the efficiency of wavelet transform in surface EMG feature extraction is investigated from four levels of wavelet decomposition and a comparative study between different mother wavelets had been done. To recognize the best function and level of wavelet analysis, two evaluation criteria, scatter plot and RES index are recruited. Hereupon, four wavelet families, namely, Daubechies, Coiflets, Symlets and Biorthogonal are studied in wavelet decomposition stage. Consequently, the results show that only features from first and second level of wavelet decomposition yields good performance and some functions of various wavelet families can lead to an improvement in separability class of different hand movements.
Keywords: Electromyography signal, feature extraction, wavelettransform, means absolute value.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28411000 Evaluation of the FWD Moduli of a Flexible Pavement Using Finite Element Model
Authors: Md Rashadul Islam, Mesbah U. Ahmed, Rafiqul A. Tarefder
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This study evaluates the back calculation of stiffness of a pavement section on Interstate 40 (I-40)in New Mexico through numerical analysis. Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) test has been conducted on a section on I-40. Layer stiffness of the pavement has been backcalculated by a backcalculation software, ELMOD, using the FWD test data. Commercial finite element software, ABAQUS, has been used to develop the Finite Element Model (FEM) of this pavement section. Geometry and layer thickness are collected from field coring. Input parameters i.e. stiffnesses of different layers of the pavement are used as the backcalculated ones. Resulting surface deflections at different radial distances from the FEM analysis are compared with field FWD deflection values. It shows close agreement between the FEM and FWD outputs. Therefore, the FWD test method can be considered to be a reliable test procedure for evaluating the in situ stiffness of pavement material.
Keywords: Falling weight deflectometer test, Finite element model, Flexible pavement, moduli, surface deflection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2815999 An Improved Face Recognition Algorithm Using Histogram-Based Features in Spatial and Frequency Domains
Authors: Qiu Chen, Koji Kotani, Feifei Lee, Tadahiro Ohmi
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In this paper, we propose an improved face recognition algorithm using histogram-based features in spatial and frequency domains. For adding spatial information of the face to improve recognition performance, a region-division (RD) method is utilized. The facial area is firstly divided into several regions, then feature vectors of each facial part are generated by Binary Vector Quantization (BVQ) histogram using DCT coefficients in low frequency domains, as well as Local Binary Pattern (LBP) histogram in spatial domain. Recognition results with different regions are first obtained separately and then fused by weighted averaging. Publicly available ORL database is used for the evaluation of our proposed algorithm, which is consisted of 40 subjects with 10 images per subject containing variations in lighting, posing, and expressions. It is demonstrated that face recognition using RD method can achieve much higher recognition rate.
Keywords: Face recognition, Binary vector quantization (BVQ), Local Binary Patterns (LBP), DCT coefficients.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1620998 MCDM Spectrum Handover Models for Cognitive Wireless Networks
Authors: Cesar Hernández, Diego Giral, Fernando Santa
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Spectrum handover is a significant topic in the cognitive radio networks to assure an efficient data transmission in the cognitive radio user’s communications. This paper proposes a comparison between three spectrum handover models: VIKOR, SAW and MEW. Four evaluation metrics are used. These metrics are, accumulative average of failed handover, accumulative average of handover performed, accumulative average of transmission bandwidth and, accumulative average of the transmission delay. As a difference with related work, the performance of the three spectrum handover models was validated with captured data of spectrum occupancy in experiments performed at the GSM frequency band (824 MHz - 849 MHz). These data represent the actual behavior of the licensed users for this wireless frequency band. The results of the comparison show that VIKOR Algorithm provides a 15.8% performance improvement compared to SAW Algorithm and, it is 12.1% better than the MEW Algorithm.Keywords: Cognitive radio, decision making, MEW, SAW, spectrum handover, VIKOR.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2156997 Performance Evaluation of Powder Metallurgy Electrode in Electrical Discharge Machining of AISI D2 Steel Using Taguchi Method
Authors: Naveen Beri, S. Maheshwari, C. Sharma, Anil Kumar
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In this paper an attempt has been made to correlate the usefulness of electrodes made through powder metallurgy (PM) in comparison with conventional copper electrode during electric discharge machining. Experimental results are presented on electric discharge machining of AISI D2 steel in kerosene with copper tungsten (30% Cu and 70% W) tool electrode made through powder metallurgy (PM) technique and Cu electrode. An L18 (21 37) orthogonal array of Taguchi methodology was used to identify the effect of process input factors (viz. current, duty cycle and flushing pressure) on the output factors {viz. material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (SR)}. It was found that CuW electrode (made through PM) gives high surface finish where as the Cu electrode is better for higher material removal rate.
Keywords: Electrical discharge machining (EDM), Powder Metallurgy (PM), Taguchi method, Material Removal Rate (MRR), Surface Roughness (SR).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4318996 Evaluation of the Accuracy of Time of Arrival Source Location Algorithm of Acoustic Emission in Concrete-Mortar Structure
Authors: Hisham A. Elfergani, Ayad A. Abdalla, Ahmed R. Ballil
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Acoustic Emission (AE) is one of the most effective non-destructive tests that can be used to detect the defect process as it is occurring. AE techniques can be used to monitor a wide range of structures and materials such as metals, non-metals and combinations of these when load is applied. The current work investigates the effectiveness and accuracy of TOA method in AE tests involving reinforced composite concrete-mortar structures. A series of experimental tests were performed using the Hsu-Neilson (H-N) source to study 2-D location accuracy using this method on concrete-mortar (400×400 mm) specimens. Four AE sensors (R3I – resonant frequency 30 kHz) were mounted to the mortar surface and six sources were performed at each point of preselected locations on the upper surface of the mortar. Results show that the TOA method can be used effectively to locate signals on composite concrete/mortar specimen and has high accuracy.
Keywords: Acoustic emission, time of arrival, composite materials, reinforced concrete.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 638995 The Energy Impacts of Using Top-Light Daylighting Systems for Academic Buildings in Tropical Climate
Authors: M. S. Alrubaih, M. F. M. Zain, N. L. N. Ibrahim, M.A. Alghoul, K. I. Ben Sauod
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Careful design and selection of daylighting systems can greatly help in reducing not only artificial lighting use, but also decrease cooling energy consumption and, therefore, potential for downsizing air-conditioning systems. This paper aims to evaluate the energy performance of two types of top-light daylighting systems due to the integration of daylight together with artificial lighting in an existing examinaton hall in University Kebangsaan Malaysia, based on a hot and humid climate. Computer simulation models have been created for building case study (base case) and the two types of toplight daylighting designs for building energy performance evaluation using the VisualDOE 4.0 building energy simulation program. The finding revealed that daylighting through top-light systems is a very beneficial design strategy in reducing annual lighting energy consumption and the overall total annual energy consumption.
Keywords: Academic buildings, Daylighting, Top-lighting, Energy savings, Tropical Climate
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1946994 Evaluation of Minimization of Moment Ratio Method by Physical Modeling
Authors: Amin Eslami, Jafar Bolouri Bazaz
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Under active stress conditions, a rigid cantilever retaining wall tends to rotate about a pivot point located within the embedded depth of the wall. For purely granular and cohesive soils, a methodology was previously reported called minimization of moment ratio to determine the location of the pivot point of rotation. The usage of this new methodology is to estimate the rotational stability safety factor. Moreover, the degree of improvement required in a backfill to get a desired safety factor can be estimated by the concept of the shear strength demand. In this article, the accuracy of this method for another type of cantilever walls called Contiguous Bored Pile (CBP) retaining wall is evaluated by using physical modeling technique. Based on observations, the results of moment ratio minimization method are in good agreement with the results of the carried out physical modeling.Keywords: Cantilever Retaining Wall, Physical Modeling, Minimization of Moment Ratio Method, Pivot Point.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1584993 Sparse Unmixing of Hyperspectral Data by Exploiting Joint-Sparsity and Rank-Deficiency
Authors: Fanqiang Kong, Chending Bian
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In this work, we exploit two assumed properties of the abundances of the observed signatures (endmembers) in order to reconstruct the abundances from hyperspectral data. Joint-sparsity is the first property of the abundances, which assumes the adjacent pixels can be expressed as different linear combinations of same materials. The second property is rank-deficiency where the number of endmembers participating in hyperspectral data is very small compared with the dimensionality of spectral library, which means that the abundances matrix of the endmembers is a low-rank matrix. These assumptions lead to an optimization problem for the sparse unmixing model that requires minimizing a combined l2,p-norm and nuclear norm. We propose a variable splitting and augmented Lagrangian algorithm to solve the optimization problem. Experimental evaluation carried out on synthetic and real hyperspectral data shows that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms with a better spectral unmixing accuracy.Keywords: Hyperspectral unmixing, joint-sparse, low-rank representation, abundance estimation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 770992 Kinetic Parameter Estimation from Thermogravimetry and Microscale Combustion Calorimetry
Authors: Rhoda Afriyie Mensah, Lin Jiang, Solomon Asante-Okyere, Xu Qiang, Cong Jin
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Flammability analysis of extruded polystyrene (XPS) has become crucial due to its utilization as insulation material for energy efficient buildings. Using the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa methods, the degradation kinetics of two pure XPS from the local market, red and grey ones, were obtained from the results of thermogravity analysis (TG) and microscale combustion calorimetry (MCC) experiments performed under the same heating rates. From the experiments, it was discovered that red XPS released more heat than grey XPS and both materials showed two mass loss stages. Consequently, the kinetic parameters for red XPS were higher than grey XPS. A comparative evaluation of activation energies from MCC and TG showed an insignificant degree of deviation signifying an equivalent apparent activation energy from both methods. However, different activation energy profiles as a result of the different chemical pathways were presented when the dependencies of the activation energies on extent of conversion for TG and MCC were compared.
Keywords: Flammability, microscale combustion calorimetry, thermogravity analysis, thermal degradation, kinetic analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 884991 Object Motion Tracking Based On Color Detection for Android Devices
Authors: Zacharenia I. Garofalaki, John T. Amorginos, John N. Ellinas
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This paper presents the development of a robot car that can track the motion of an object by detecting its color through an Android device. The employed computer vision algorithm uses the OpenCV library, which is embedded into an Android application of a smartphone, for manipulating the captured image of the object. The captured image of the object is subjected to color conversion and is transformed to a binary image for further processing after color filtering. The desired object is clearly determined after removing pixel noise by applying image morphology operations and contour definition. Finally, the area and the center of the object are determined so that object’s motion to be tracked. The smartphone application has been placed on a robot car and transmits by Bluetooth to an Arduino assembly the motion directives so that to follow objects of a specified color. The experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm shows reliable color detection and smooth tracking characteristics.Keywords: Android, Arduino Uno, Image processing, Object motion detection, OpenCV library.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4564990 The Evaluation of Electricity Generation and Consumption from Solar Generator: A Case Study at Rajabhat Suan Sunandha’s Learning Center in Samutsongkram
Authors: Chonmapat Torasa
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This paper presents the performance of electricity generation and consumption from solar generator installed at Rajabhat Suan Sunandha’s learning center in Samutsongkram. The result from the experiment showed that solar cell began to work and distribute the current into the system when the solar energy intensity was 340 w/m2, starting from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm (duration of 8 hours). The highest intensity read during the experiment was 1,051.64w/m2. The solar power was 38.74kWh/day. The electromotive force from solar cell averagely was 93.6V. However, when connecting solar cell with the battery charge controller system, the voltage was dropped to 69.07V. After evaluating the power distribution ability and electricity load of tested solar cell, the result showed that it could generate power to 11 units of 36-watt fluorescent lamp bulbs, which was altogether 396W. In the meantime, the AC to DC power converter generated 3.55A to the load, and gave 781VA.
Keywords: Solar Cell, Solar-cell power generating system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2065989 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Dynamics Modeling and Performance Evaluation
Authors: K. M. Tan, A. Anvar, T.F. Lu
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A sophisticated simulator provides a cost-effective measure to carry out preliminary mission testing and diagnostic while reducing potential failures for real life at sea trials. The presented simulation framework covers three key areas: AUV modeling, sensor modeling, and environment modeling. AUV modeling mainly covers the area of AUV dynamics. Sensor modeling deals with physics and mathematical models that govern each sensor installed onto the AUV. Environment model incorporates the hydrostatic, hydrodynamics, and ocean currents that will affect the AUV in a real-time mission. Based on this designed simulation framework, custom scenarios provided by the user can be modeled and its corresponding behaviors can be observed. This paper focuses on the accuracy of the simulated data from AUV model and environmental model derived from a developed AUV test-bed which was jointly upgraded by DSTO and the University of Adelaide. The main contribution of this paper is to experimentally verify the accuracy of the proposed simulation framework.
Keywords: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), simulator, framework, robotics, maritime robot, modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4733988 A Study on the Removal of Trace Organic Matter in Water Treatment Procedures Using Powder-activated Carbon Biofilm
Authors: Rou-Han Lee, Jie, Chung Lou, Huang-Ming Fang
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This study uses natural water and the surface properties of powdered activated carbon to acclimatize organics, forming biofilms on the surface of powdered activated carbon. To investigate the influence of different hydraulic retention times on the removal efficacy of trace organics in raw water, and to determine the optimal hydraulic retention time of a biological powdered activated carbon system, this study selects ozone-treated water processed by Feng-shan Advanced Water Purification Plant in southern Taiwan for the experiment. The evaluation indicators include assimilable organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, and total organic carbon. The results of this study can improve the quality of drinking water treated using advanced water purification procedures.
Keywords: Water Purification Procedures, Biological Powdered Activated Carbon System, Assimilable Organic Carbon
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1625987 Differences in IT Effectiveness among Firms: An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Crystal X. Jiang, Tess Han, George J. Titus, Matthew J. Liberatore
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Information is a critical asset and an important source for gaining competitive advantage in firms. The effective maintenance of IT becomes an important task. In order to better understand the determinants of IT effectiveness, this study employs the Industrial Organization (I/O) and Resource Based View (RBV) theories and investigates the industry effect and several major firmspecific factors in relation to their impact on firms- IT effectiveness. The data consist of a panel data of ten-year observations of firms whose IT excellence had been recognized by the CIO Magazine. The non-profit organizations were deliberately excluded, as explained later. The results showed that the effectiveness of IT management varied significantly across industries. Industry also moderated the effects of firm demographic factors such as size and age on IT effectiveness. Surprisingly, R & D investment intensity had negative correlation to IT effectiveness. For managers and practitioners, this study offers some insights for evaluation criteria and expectation for IT project success. Finally, the empirical results indicate that the sustainability of IT effectiveness appears to be short in duration.
Keywords: Firm effect, industry effect, IT effectiveness, sustained IT effectiveness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1319986 Segmenting Ultrasound B-Mode Images Using RiIG Distributions and Stochastic Optimization
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In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for delineating the endocardial wall from a human heart ultrasound scan. We assume that the gray levels in the ultrasound images are independent and identically distributed random variables with different Rician Inverse Gaussian (RiIG) distributions. Both synthetic and real clinical data will be used for testing the algorithm. Algorithm performance will be evaluated using the expert radiologist evaluation of a soft copy of an ultrasound scan during the scanning process and secondly, doctor’s conclusion after going through a printed copy of the same scan. Successful implementation of this algorithm should make it possible to differentiate normal from abnormal soft tissue and help disease identification, what stage the disease is in and how best to treat the patient. We hope that an automated system that uses this algorithm will be useful in public hospitals especially in Third World countries where problems such as shortage of skilled radiologists and shortage of ultrasound machines are common. These public hospitals are usually the first and last stop for most patients in these countries.
Keywords: Endorcardial Wall, Rician Inverse Distributions, Segmentation, Ultrasound Images.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1573985 Methods for Distinction of Cattle Using Supervised Learning
Authors: Radoslav Židek, Veronika Šidlová, Radovan Kasarda, Birgit Fuerst-Waltl
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Machine learning represents a set of topics dealing with the creation and evaluation of algorithms that facilitate pattern recognition, classification, and prediction, based on models derived from existing data. The data can present identification patterns which are used to classify into groups. The result of the analysis is the pattern which can be used for identification of data set without the need to obtain input data used for creation of this pattern. An important requirement in this process is careful data preparation validation of model used and its suitable interpretation. For breeders, it is important to know the origin of animals from the point of the genetic diversity. In case of missing pedigree information, other methods can be used for traceability of animal´s origin. Genetic diversity written in genetic data is holding relatively useful information to identify animals originated from individual countries. We can conclude that the application of data mining for molecular genetic data using supervised learning is an appropriate tool for hypothesis testing and identifying an individual.
Keywords: Genetic data, Pinzgau cattle, supervised learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2318984 The Effect of User Comments on Traffic Application Usage
Authors: I. Gokasar, G. Bakioglu
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With the unprecedented rates of technological improvements, people start to solve their problems with the help of technological tools. According to application stores and websites in which people evaluate and comment on the traffic apps, there are more than 100 traffic applications which have different features with respect to their purpose of usage ranging from the features of traffic apps for public transit modes to the features of traffic apps for private cars. This study focuses on the top 30 traffic applications which were chosen with respect to their download counts. All data about the traffic applications were obtained from related websites. The purpose of this study is to analyze traffic applications in terms of their categorical attributes with the help of developing a regression model. The analysis results suggest that negative interpretations (e.g., being deficient) does not lead to lower star ratings of the applications. However, those negative interpretations result in a smaller increase in star rate. In addition, women use higher star rates than men for the evaluation of traffic applications.
Keywords: Traffic App, real–time information, traffic congestion, regression analysis, dummy variables.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1179983 Designing of a Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted Fiber with Ultra-High Birefringence and High Non-Linearity
Authors: Shabbir Chowdhury, Japatosh Mondal
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Photonic Crystal Fiber (PCF) uses are no longer limited to telecommunication only rather it is now used for many sensors-based fiber optics application, medical science, space application and so on. In this paper, the authors have proposed a microstructure PCF that is designed by using Finite Element Method (FEM) based software. Besides designing, authors have discussed the necessity of the characteristics that it poses for some specified applications because it is not possible to have all good characteristics from a single PCF. Proposed PCF shows the property of ultra-high birefringence (0.0262 at 1550 nm) which is more useful for sensor based on fiber optics. The non-linearity of this fiber is 50.86 w-1km-1 at 1550 nm wavelength which is very high to guide the light through the core tightly. For Perfectly Matched Boundary Layer (PML), 0.6 μm diameter is taken. This design will offer the characteristics of Nonzero-Dispersion-Shifted Fiber (NZ-DSF) for 450 nm waveband. Since it is a software-based design and no practical evaluation has made, 2% tolerance is checked and the authors have found very small variation of the characteristics.
Keywords: Chromatic dispersion, birefringence, NZ-DSF, FEM, non-linear coefficient, DCF, waveband.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 487982 Evaluation of the Microbiological, Chemical and Sensory Quality of Carp Processed by the Sous Vide Method
Authors: Özlem Pelin Can
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This study evaluated the microbiological quality and the sensory characteristics of carp fillets processed by the sousvide method when stored at 2 and 10 °C. Four different combinations of sauced–storage were studied then stored at 2 or 10 °C was evaluate periodically sensory, microbiological and chemical quality. Batches stored at 2 °C had lower growth rates of mesophiles and psychrotrophs. Moreover, these counts decreased by increasing the heating temperature and time. Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens and Listeria monocytogenes were not found in any of the samples. The heat treatment of 90 °C for 15 min and sauced was the most effective to ensure the safety and extend the shelf-life of sousvide carp preserving its sensory characteristics. This study establishes the microbiological quality of sous vide carp and emphasizes the relevance of the raw materials, heat treatment and storage temperature to ensure the safety of the product.Keywords: Sous- vide methods, carp, sauce, microbiological, chemical and sensory quality
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2638981 Simulation of Loss-of-Flow Transient in a Radiant Steam Boiler with Relap5/Mod3.2
Authors: A.L.Deghal.Cheridi, A.Chaker, A.Loubar
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loss of feedwater accident is one of the frequently sever accidents in steam boiler facilities. It threatens the system structural integrity and generates serious hazards and economic loses. The safety analysis of the thermal installations, based extensively on the numeric simulation. The simulation analysis using realistic computer codes like Relap5/Mod3.2 will help understand steam boiler thermal-hydraulic behavior during normal and abnormal conditions. In this study, we are interested on the evaluation of the radiant steam boiler assessment and response to loss-of-feedwater accident. Pressure, temperature and flow rate profiles are presented in various steam boiler system components. The obtained results demonstrate the importance and capability of the Relap5/Mod3.2 code in the thermal-hydraulic analysis of the steam boiler facilities.
Keywords: Radiant steam boiler, Relap5/Mod3.2 code system, Steady-state simulation, Transient simulation, Loss of feedwateraccident
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2222980 Rural Connectivity Technologies Cost Analysis
Authors: F. Simba, L. Trojer, N.H. Mvungi, B.M. Mwinyiwiwa, E.M. Mjema
Abstract:
Rural areas of Tanzania are still disadvantaged in terms of diffusion of IP-based services; this is due to lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures, especially lack of connectivity. One of the limitations for connectivity problems in rural areas of Tanzania is the high cost to establish infrastructures for IP-based services [1-2]. However the cost of connectivity varies from one technology to the other and at the same time, the cost is also different from one operator (service provider) to another within the country. This paper presents development of software system to calculate cost of connectivity to rural areas of Tanzania. The system is developed to make an easy access of connectivity cost from different technologies and different operators. The development of the calculator follows the V-model software development lifecycle. The calculator is used to evaluate the economic viability of different technologies considered as being potential candidates to provide rural connectivity. In this paper, the evaluation is based on the techno-economic analysis approach.
Keywords: rural, connectivity, cost, V-model, techno economic analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1899979 Performance Evaluation of Task Scheduling Algorithm on LCQ Network
Authors: Zaki Ahmad Khan, Jamshed Siddiqui, Abdus Samad
Abstract:
The Scheduling and mapping of tasks on a set of processors is considered as a critical problem in parallel and distributed computing system. This paper deals with the problem of dynamic scheduling on a special type of multiprocessor architecture known as Linear Crossed Cube (LCQ) network. This proposed multiprocessor is a hybrid network which combines the features of both linear types of architectures as well as cube based architectures. Two standard dynamic scheduling schemes namely Minimum Distance Scheduling (MDS) and Two Round Scheduling (TRS) schemes are implemented on the LCQ network. Parallel tasks are mapped and the imbalance of load is evaluated on different set of processors in LCQ network. The simulations results are evaluated and effort is made by means of through analysis of the results to obtain the best solution for the given network in term of load imbalance left and execution time. The other performance matrices like speedup and efficiency are also evaluated with the given dynamic algorithms.Keywords: Dynamic algorithm, Load imbalance, Mapping, Task scheduling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2021