Search results for: profitability estimation focused on benefits

Authors: Shailendra Kumar Patidar

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Eutrophication of surface water is one of the most widespread environmental problems at present. Large number of pilgrims and tourists visit sacred artificial tank known as “Brahma Sarover” located at Kurukshetra, India to take holy dip and perform religious ceremonies. The sources of pollutants include impurities in feed water, mass bathing, religious offerings and windblown particulate matter. Studies so far have focused mainly on assessing water quality for bathing purpose by using physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters. No effort has been made to assess nutrient concentration and trophic status of the tank to take more appropriate measures for improving water quality on long term basis. In the present study, total nitrogen, total phosphorous and chlorophyll a measurements have been done to assess the nutrient level and trophic status of the tank. The results show presence of high concentration of nutrients and Chlorophyll a indicating mesotrophic and eutrophic state of the tank. Phosphorous has been observed as limiting nutrient in the tank water.

Keywords: Brahma Sarover, eutrophication, nutrients, trophic status.

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Authors: Maryam Alimardani, Kazuo Hiraki

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This study presents a framework for development of a new generation of therapy robots that can interact with users by monitoring their physiological and mental states. Here, we focused on one of the controversial methods of therapy, hypnotherapy. Hypnosis has shown to be useful in treatment of many clinical conditions. But, even for healthy people, it can be used as an effective technique for relaxation or enhancement of memory and concentration. Our aim is to develop a robot that collects information about user’s mental and physical states using electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) signals and performs costeffective hypnosis at the comfort of user’s house. The presented framework consists of three main steps: (1) Find the EEG-correlates of mind state before, during, and after hypnosis and establish a cognitive model for state changes, (2) Develop a system that can track the changes in EEG and EMG activities in real time and determines if the user is ready for suggestion, and (3) Implement our system in a humanoid robot that will talk and conduct hypnosis on users based on their mental states. This paper presents a pilot study in regard to the first stage, detection of EEG and EMG features during hypnosis.

Keywords: Hypnosis, EEG, robotherapy, brain-computer interface.

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for the classification of an unstructured format description for identification of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support file format selection with just the unstructured text description that comprises the most important format features for a particular organisation. Subsequently, the file format indentification method employs file format classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with an estimation of required file format. Our goal is to make use of a format specification knowledge base aggregated from a different Web sources in order to select file format for a particular institution. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert, the file format for his institution. The proposed methods facilitate the selection of file format and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is meant to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and specifications of file formats. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the file formats is presented as a file format vocabulary that comprises most common terms that are characteristic for all researched formats. The goal is to suggest a particular file format based on this vocabulary for analysis by an expert. The sample file format calculation and the calculation results including probabilities are presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: Data mining, digital libraries, digital preservation, file format.

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Authors: Siti Nor Hafizah bt Mohd Zaid, Mohamed Abdel Maguid, Abdel Hamid Soliman

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Road traffic accidents are a major cause of death worldwide. In an attempt to reduce accidents, some research efforts have focused on creating Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) able to detect vehicle, driver and environmental conditions and to use this information to identify cues for potential accidents. This paper presents continued work on a novel Non-intrusive Intelligent Driver Assistance and Safety System (Ni-DASS) for assessing driver point of regard within vehicles. It uses an on-board CCD camera to observe the driver-s face. A template matching approach is used to compare the driver-s eye-gaze pattern with a set of eye-gesture templates of the driver looking at different focal points within the vehicle. The windscreen is divided into cells and comparison of the driver-s eye-gaze pattern with templates of a driver-s eyes looking at each cell is used to determine the driver-s point of regard on the windscreen. Results indicate that the proposed technique could be useful in situations where low resolution estimates of driver point of regard are adequate. For instance, To allow ADAS systems to alert the driver if he/she has positively failed to observe a hazard.

Keywords: Head rotation, Eye-gestures, Windscreen, Template matching.

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Authors: Mahdi Hayatdavudi, Ali Reza Rajabi, Mohammad Hassan Raouf, Mojtaba Saeedimoghadam, Amir Habibi

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Generally, distributed generation units refer to small-scale electric power generators that produce electricity at a site close to the customer or an electric distribution system (in parallel mode). From the customers’ point of view, a potentially lower cost, higher service reliability, high power quality, increased energy efficiency, and energy independence can be the key points of a proper DG unit. Moreover, the use of renewable types of distributed generations such as wind, photovoltaic, geothermal or hydroelectric power can also provide significant environmental benefits. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to study their impacts on the distribution networks. A marked increase in Distributed Generation (DG), associated with medium voltage distribution networks, may be expected. Nowadays, distribution networks are planned for unidirectional power flows that are peculiar to passive systems, and voltage control is carried out exclusively by varying the tap position of the HV/MV transformer. This paper will compare different DG control methods and possible network reconfiguration aimed at assessing their effect on voltage profiles.

Keywords: Distribution Feeder Reconfiguration (DFR), Distributed Generator (DG), Voltage Profile, Control.

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Authors: C. S. Caires, A. Barbosa, W. Hanyou

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In this paper, we present the main results achieved during a five-week international workshop on Interactive Furniture for the Classroom, with 22 Chinese design students, in Jiangmen city (Guangdong province, China), and five teachers from Portugal, France, Iran, Macao SAR, and China. The main goal was to engage design students from China with new skills and practice methodologies towards interactive design research for furniture and product design for the classroom. The final results demonstrate students' concerns on improving Chinese furniture design for the classrooms, including solutions related to collaborative learning and human-interaction design for interactive furniture products. The findings of the research led students to the fabrication of five original prototypes: two for kindergartens ('Candy' and 'Tilt-tilt'), two for primary schools ('Closer' and 'Eks(x)'), and one for art/creative schools ('Wave'). From the findings, it was also clear that collaboration, personalization, and project-based teaching are still neglected when designing furniture products for the classroom in China. Students focused on these issues and came up with creative solutions that could transform this educational field in China.

Keywords: Product design, interface design, interactive design, collaborative education and design research, design prototyping.

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Authors: M. Rahimnejad, B. Vahidi, B. Ebrahimi Hoseinzadeh, F. Yazdian, P. Motamed Fath, R. Jamjah

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In this study, we developed and simulated nano-drug delivery systems efficacy in compare to free drug prescription. Computational models can be utilized to accelerate experimental steps and control the experiments high cost. Molecular dynamics simulation (MDS), in particular NAMD was utilized to better understand the anti-cancer drug interaction with cell membrane model. Paclitaxel (PTX) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) were selected for the drug molecule and as a natural phospholipid nanocarrier, respectively. This work focused on two important interaction parameters between molecules in terms of center of mass (COM) and van der Waals interaction energy. Furthermore, we compared the simulation results of the PTX interaction with the cell membrane and the interaction of DPPC as a nanocarrier loaded by the drug with the cell membrane. The molecular dynamic analysis resulted in low energy between the nanocarrier and the cell membrane as well as significant decrease of COM amount in the nanocarrier and the cell membrane system during the interaction. Thus, the drug vehicle showed notably better interaction with the cell membrane in compared to free drug interaction with the cell membrane.

Keywords: Anti-cancer drug, center of Mass, interaction energy, molecular dynamics simulation, nanocarrier.

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Authors: N. L. S. Ahmad, Y. L. Thong, P. Nambiar

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An in vitro study was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of small field of view (FOV) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in determining endodontic working length. The objectives were to determine the accuracy of CBCT in measuring the estimated preoperative working lengths (EPWL), endodontic working lengths (EWL) and file lengths. Access cavities were prepared in 27 molars. For each root canal, the baseline electronic working length was determined using an EAL (Raypex 5). The teeth were then divided into overextended, non-modified and underextended groups and the lengths were adjusted accordingly. Imaging and measurements were made using the respective software of the RVG (Kodak RVG 6100) and CBCT units (Kodak 9000 3D). Root apices were then shaved and the apical constrictions viewed under magnification to measure the control working lengths. The paired t-test showed a statistically significant difference between CBCT EPWL and control length but the difference was too small to be clinically significant. From the Bland Altman analysis, the CBCT method had the widest range of 95% limits of agreement, reflecting its greater potential of error. In measuring file lengths, RVG had a bigger window of 95% limits of agreement compared to CBCT. Conclusions: (1) The clinically insignificant underestimation of the preoperative working length using small FOV CBCT showed that it is acceptable for use in the estimation of preoperative working length. (2) Small FOV CBCT may be used in working length determination but it is not as accurate as the currently practiced method of using the EAL. (3) It is also more accurate than RVG in measuring file lengths.

Keywords: Accuracy, CBCT, endodontic, measurement.

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Authors: Zaza Tabagari, Zaza Sanikidze, George Giorgobiani

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Abovepresented work deals with the new scope of application of information and communication technologies for the improvement of the election process in the biased environment. We are introducing a new concept of construction of the information-communication system for the election participant. It consists of four main components: Software, Physical Infrastructure, Structured Information and the Trained Stuff. The Structured Information is the bases of the whole system and is the collection of all possible events (irregularities among them) at the polling stations, which are structured in special templates, forms and integrated in mobile devices.The software represents a package of analytic modules, which operates with the dynamic database. The application of modern communication technologies facilities the immediate exchange of information and of relevant documents between the polling stations and the Server of the participant. No less important is the training of the staff for the proper functioning of the system. The e-training system with various modules should be applied in this respect. The presented methodology is primarily focused on the election processes in the countries of emerging democracies.It can be regarded as the tool for the monitoring of elections process by the political organization(s) and as one of the instruments to foster the spread of democracy in these countries.

Keywords: ICT, elections, structured information, dynamic databases, e-training.

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Authors: Wafa Labib

Abstract:

Teaching methods include lectures, workshops and tutorials for the presentation and discussion of ideas have become out of date; were developed outside the discipline of architecture from the college of engineering and do not satisfy the architectural students’ needs and causes them many difficulties in integrating structure into their design. In an attempt to improve structure teaching methods, this paper focused upon proposing a supportive teaching/learning tool using multi-media applications which seeks to better meet the architecture student’s needs and capabilities and improve the understanding and application of basic and intermediate structural engineering and technology principles. Before introducing the use of multi-media as a supportive teaching tool, a questionnaire was distributed to third year students of a structural design course who were selected as a sample to be surveyed forming a sample of 90 cases. The primary aim of the questionnaire was to identify the students’ learning style and to investigate whether the selected method of teaching could make the teaching and learning process more efficient. Students’ reaction on the use of this method was measured using three key elements indicating that this method is an appropriate teaching method for the nature of the students and the course as well.

Keywords: Teaching Method, Architecture, Learning style, Multi-Media.

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Authors: Emir H. Pernet, Jeimy J. Cano

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Maturity models, used descriptively to explain changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are based on the principles of statistical quality control and PDCA continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Some frameworks developed over the concept of maturity models include COBIT, CMM, and ITIL. This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity models, most of them related to the mechanistic and reductionist principles over which those models are built. As systems theory helps the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model can help to overcome some of those limitations. This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the organization, which arises as a result of the degree of alignment and integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through a systemic function that measures the maturity of organizations, and finally validated by the measuring of maturity in some organizations. For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) processes.

Keywords: GRC, Maturity Model, Systems Theory, Viable System Model.

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Authors: M. Osmani, A. O'Reilly

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Housebuilders in England have been the target of numerous government policies in recent years promoting increased productivity and affordability. As a result, the housebuilding industry is currently faced with objectives to improve the affordability and sustainability of new homes whilst also increasing production rates to 240,000 per year by 2016.Yet amidst a faltering economic climate, the UK Government is forging ahead with the 'Code for Sustainable Homes', which includes stringent sustainable standards for all new homes and sets ambitious targets for the housebuilding industry, the culmination of which is the production of zero carbon homes by 2016.Great uncertainty exists amongst housebuilders as to the costs, benefits and risks of building zero carbon homes. This paper examines the key barriers to zero carbon homes from housebuilders- perspective. A comprehensive opinion on the challenges to deliver zero carbon homes is gathered through a questionnaire survey issued to the major housing developers in England. The study found that a number of cultural, legislative, and financial barriers stand in the way of the widespread construction of zero carbon homes. The study concludes with several recommendations to both the Government and the housebuilding industry to address the barriers that hinder a successful delivery of zero carbon homes in England.

Keywords: Zero carbon homes, Code for Sustainable Homes, housebuilders, England

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Authors: Mahmoud A. Rabah

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The present study shows a method to recover lead metal from wastewater of wet scrubber in secondary lead smelter. The wastewater is loaded with 42,000 ppm of insoluble lead compounds (TSP) submicron in diameter. The technical background benefits the use of cationic polyfloc solution to flocculate these colloidal solids before press filtration. The polymer solution is injected in the wastewater stream in a countercurrent flow design. The study demonstrates the effect of polymer dose, temperature, pH, flow velocity of the wastewater and different filtration media on the filtration extent. Results indicated that filtration rate (¦_r), quality of purified water, purifying efficiency (¦_e) and floc diameter decrease regularly with increase in mass flow rate and velocity up to turbulence of 0.5 m.sec^-1. Laminar flow is in favor of flocculation. Polyfloc concentration of 0.75 – 1.25 g/m³ wastewater is convenient. Increasing temperature of the wastewater and pneumatic pressure of filtration enhances ¦_r. High pH value deforms floc formation and assists degradation of the filtration fabric. The overall efficiency of the method amounts to 93.2 %. Lead metal was recovered from the filtrate cake using carbon as a reducing agent at 900°C.

Keywords: Wastewater, wet scrubbers, filtration, secondary lead.

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Authors: L. Nevrivova, K. Lang, M. Kotoucek, D. Vsiansky

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This entry concerned with dense silica bricks microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral composition of silica brick. The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity, density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.

Keywords: Silica bricks, Fe-mineraliser, mineralogical composition, new developed silica bricks.

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Authors: Shadi Alghaffari, Hong-Oanh Nguyen, Peggy Chen, Hossein Enshaei

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The main purpose of this study was to explore the role of organisational effectiveness (OE) in seaports. OE is an important managerial concept, one that is necessary for leaders and directors in any organisation to understand the output of their work. OE has been applied in many organisations; however, it is a vital concept in the port business. This paper examines various approaches and applications of the OE concept to business management, and describes benefits that are important and applicable to seaport management. This research reviews and classifies articles published in relevant journals and books between 1950 and 2016; from the general literature on OE to the narrower field of OE in seaports. Based on the extensive literature review, this study identifies and discusses several issues relevant to both practices and theories of this concept. The review concludes by presenting a gap in the literature, as it found only a limited amount of research that endeavours to clarify OE in the seaport sector. As a result of this gap, seaports suffer from a lack of empirical study and are largely neglected in this subject area. The implementation of OE in this research has led to the maritime sector interfacing with different disciplines in order to acquire the advantage of enhancing managerial knowledge and competing successfully in the international marketplace.

Keywords: Maritime, organisational effectiveness, seaport management.

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Authors: Julio Manuel de Luis Ruiz, Javier Sedano Cibrián, Rubén Pérez Álvarez, Raúl Pereda García, Cristina Diego Soroa

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Nowadays, the use of drones has been extended to practically any human activity. One of the main applications is focused on the surveying field. In this regard, software programs that process the images captured by the sensor from the drone in an almost automatic way have been developed and commercialized, but they only allow contrasting the results through control points. This work proposes the contrast of a 3D model obtained from a flight developed by a drone and a non-metric camera (due to its low cost), with a second model that is obtained by means of the historically-endorsed classical methods. In addition to this, the contrast is developed over a certain territory with a significant unevenness, so as to test the model generated with photogrammetry, and considering that photogrammetry with drones finds more difficulties in terms of accuracy in this kind of situations. Distances, heights, surfaces and volumes are measured on the basis of the 3D models generated, and the results are contrasted. The differences are about 0.2% for the measurement of distances and heights, 0.3% for surfaces and 0.6% when measuring volumes. Although they are not important, they do not meet the order of magnitude that is presented by salespeople.

Keywords: Accuracy, classical topographic, 3D model, photogrammetry, UAV.

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Authors: Yang Xu, Felix Bruns, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Shadi Traboulsi, Klaus Mott, Attila Bilgic

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Emergence of smartphones brings to live the concept of converged devices with the availability of web amenities. Such trend also challenges the mobile devices manufactures and service providers in many aspects, such as security on mobile phones, complex and long time design flow, as well as higher development cost. Among these aspects, security on mobile phones is getting more and more attention. Microkernel based virtualization technology will play a critical role in addressing these challenges and meeting mobile market needs and preferences, since virtualization provides essential isolation for security reasons and it allows multiple operating systems to run on one processor accelerating development and cutting development cost. However, virtualization benefits do not come for free. As an additional software layer, it adds some inevitable virtualization overhead to the system, which may decrease the system performance. In this paper we evaluate and analyze the virtualization performance cost of L4 microkernel based virtualization on a competitive mobile phone by comparing the L4Linux, a para-virtualized Linux on top of L4 microkernel, with the native Linux performance using lmbench and a set of typical mobile phone applications.

Keywords: L4 microkernel, virtualization overhead, mobilephone.

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Authors: Adeniyi G. Adeogun, Bolaji F. Sule, Adebayo W. Salami, Michael O. Daramola

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Estimation of water yield and water balance in a river catchment is critical to the sustainable management of water resources at watershed level in any country. Therefore, in the present study, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) interfaced with Geographical Information System (GIS) was applied as a tool to predict water balance and water yield of a catchment area in Nigeria. The catchment area, which was 12,992km², is located upstream Jebba hydropower dam in North central part of Nigeria. In this study, data on the observed flow were collected and compared with simulated flow using SWAT. The correlation between the two data sets was evaluated using statistical measures, such as, Nasch-Sucliffe Efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R²). The model output shows a good agreement between the observed flow and simulated flow as indicated by NSE and R², which were greater than 0.7 for both calibration and validation period. A total of 42,733 mm of water was predicted by the calibrated model as the water yield potential of the basin for a simulation period between 1985 to 2010. This interesting performance obtained with SWAT model suggests that SWAT model could be a promising tool to predict water balance and water yield in sustainable management of water resources. In addition, SWAT could be applied to other water resources in other basins in Nigeria as a decision support tool for sustainable water management in Nigeria.

Keywords: GIS, Modeling, Sensitivity Analysis, SWAT, Water Yield, Watershed level.

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Authors: Mohammad A. Khasawneh

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Asphalt concrete pavements gradually lose their skid resistance causing safety problems especially under wet conditions and high driving speeds. In order to enact the actual field polishing and wearing process of asphalt pavement surfaces in a laboratory setting, several laboratory-scale accelerated polishing devices were developed by different agencies. To mimic the actual process, friction and texture measuring devices are needed to quantify surface deterioration at different polishing intervals that reflect different stages of the pavement life. The test could still be considered lengthy and to some extent labor-intensive. Therefore, there is a need to come up with another method that can assist in investigating the bituminous pavement surface characteristics in a practical and time-efficient test procedure.

The purpose of this paper is to utilize a well-developed image analysis technique to characterize asphalt pavement surfaces without the need to use conventional friction and texture measuring devices in an attempt to shorten and simplify the polishing procedure in the lab.

Promising findings showed the possibility of using image analysis in lieu of the labor-sensitive-variable-in-nature friction and texture measurements. It was found that the exposed aggregate surface area of asphalt specimens made from limestone and gravel aggregates produced solid evidence of the validity of this method in describing asphalt pavement surfaces. Image analysis results correlated well with the British Pendulum Numbers (BPN), Polish Values (PV) and Mean Texture Depth (MTD) values.

Keywords: Friction, Image Analysis, Polishing, Statistical Analysis, Texture.

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Authors: Xiaoyuan Yan, Min Xu

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Truck platooning refers to a convoy of digitally connected automated trucks traveling safely with a small inter-vehicle gap. It has been identified as one of the most promising and applicable technologies towards automated and sustainable freight transportation. Although truck platooning delivers significant energy-saving benefits, it cannot be realized without good coordination of drivers’ shifts to lead the platoons subject to their mandatory breaks. Therefore, this study aims to route a fleet of trucks to their destinations using the least amount of fuel by maximizing platoon opportunities under the regulations of drivers’ mandatory breaks. We formulate this platoon coordination problem as a mixed-integer linear programming problem and solve it by CPLEX. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our proposed model. In addition, we also explore the impacts of drivers’ compulsory breaks on the fuel-savings performance. The results show a slight increase in the total fuel costs in the presence of drivers’ compulsory breaks, thanks to driving-while-resting benefit provided for the trailing trucks. This study may serve as a guide for the operators of automated freight transportation.

Keywords: Truck platooning, route optimization, compulsory breaks, energy saving.

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Authors: G. Sokhansefat, M. Delavar, M. Banedj-Schafii

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Recently research on human wayfinding has focused mainly on mental representations rather than processes of wayfinding. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the rationality behind applying multi-agent simulation paradigm to the modeling of rescuer team wayfinding in order to develop computational theory of perceptual wayfinding in crisis situations using image schemata and affordances, which explains how people find a specific destination in an unfamiliar building such as a hospital. The hypothesis of this paper is that successful navigation is possible if the agents are able to make the correct decision through well-defined cues in critical cases, so the design of the building signage is evaluated through the multi-agent-based simulation. In addition, a special case of wayfinding in a building, finding one-s way through three hospitals, is used to demonstrate the model. Thereby, total rescue time for rescue operation during building fire is computed. This paper discuses the computed rescue time for various signage localization and provides experimental result for optimization of building signage design. Therefore the most appropriate signage design resulted in the shortest total rescue time in various situations.

Keywords: Multi-Agent system (MAS), Spatial Cognition, Wayfinding, Indoor Environment, Geospatial Information System (GIS).

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Authors: B. Kahouadji, L. Guerbous, L. Lamiri, A. Mendoud

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Recently, nanomaterials are developed in the form of nano-films, nano-crystals and nano-pores. Lanthanide phosphates as a material find extensive application as laser, ceramic, sensor, phosphor, and also in optoelectronics, medical and biological labels, solar cells and light sources. Among the different kinds of rare-earth orthophosphates, yttrium orthophosphate has been shown to be an efficient host lattice for rare earth activator ions, which have become a research focus because of their important role in the field of light display systems, lasers, and optoelectronic devices. It is in this context that the 4fⁿ- « 4f^n-1 5d transitions of rare earth in insulating materials, lying in the UV and VUV, are the aim of large number of studies .Though there has been a few reports on Eu³⁺, Nd³⁺, Pr³⁺,Er³⁺, Ce³⁺, Tm³⁺ doped YPO₄. The 4fⁿ- « 4f^n-1 5d transitions of the rare earth dependent to the host-matrix, several matrices ions were used to study these transitions, in this work we are suggesting to study on a very specific class of inorganic material that are orthophosphate doped with rare earth ions. This study focused on the effect of Ce³⁺ concentration on the structural and optical properties of Ce³⁺ doped YPO₄ yttrium orthophosphate with powder form prepared by the Sol Gel method.

Keywords: YPO4, Ce3+, 4fn- <->4fn-1 5d transitions, scintillator.

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Authors: Varun Singh, Mainak Bandyopadhyay, Maharana Pratap Singh

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The shortest path (SP) problem concerns with finding the shortest path from a specific origin to a specified destination in a given network while minimizing the total cost associated with the path. This problem has widespread applications. Important applications of the SP problem include vehicle routing in transportation systems particularly in the field of in-vehicle Route Guidance System (RGS) and traffic assignment problem (in transportation planning). Well known applications of evolutionary methods like Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have come up to solve complex optimization problems to overcome the shortcomings of existing shortest path analysis methods. It has been reported by various researchers that PSO performs better than other evolutionary optimization algorithms in terms of success rate and solution quality. Further Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have emerged as key information systems for geospatial data analysis and visualization. This research paper is focused towards the application of PSO for solving the shortest path problem between multiple points of interest (POI) based on spatial data of Allahabad City and traffic speed data collected using GPS. Geovisualization of results of analysis is carried out in GIS.

Keywords: GIS, Outliers, PSO, Traffic Data.

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Authors: Pierre Kancir, Jean-Philippe Diguet, Marc Sevaux

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One of the main difficulties in developing multi-robot systems (MRS) is related to the simulation and testing tools available. Indeed, if the differences between simulations and real robots are too significant, the transition from the simulation to the robot won’t be possible without another long development phase and won’t permit to validate the simulation. Moreover, the testing of different algorithmic solutions or modifications of robots requires a strong knowledge of current tools and a significant development time. Therefore, the availability of tools for MRS, mainly with flying drones, is crucial to enable the industrial emergence of these systems. This research aims to present the most commonly used tools for MRS simulations and their main shortcomings and presents complementary tools to improve the productivity of designers in the development of multi-vehicle solutions focused on a fast learning curve and rapid transition from simulations to real usage. The proposed contributions are based on existing open source tools as Gazebo simulator combined with ROS (Robot Operating System) and the open-source multi-platform autopilot ArduPilot to bring them to a broad audience.

Keywords: ROS, ArduPilot, MRS, simulation, drones, Gazebo.

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Authors: F. O. Omoya

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Food borne illnesses have been reported to be a global health challenge. Annual incidences of food–related diseases involve 76 million cases, of which only 14 million can be traced to known pathogens. Poor hygienic practices have contributed greatly to this. It has been reported that in the year 2000 about 2.1 million people died from diarrheal diseases, hence, there is a need to ensure food safety at all level. This study focused on the sterility examination and inhibitory effect of honey samples on selected gram negative and gram positive food borne pathogen from South West Nigeria. The laboratory examinations revealed the presence of some bacterial and fungal contaminations of honey samples and that inhibitory activity of the honey sample was more pronounced on the gram negative bacteria than the gram positive bacterial isolates. Antibiotic sensitivity test conducted on the different bacterial isolates also showed that honey was able to inhibit the proliferation of the tested bacteria than the employed antibiotics.

Keywords: Food borne illness, gram positive and gram negative bacteria, honey, and inhibitory activity.

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Authors: Ayesha S. Rahman, Khaled Haddad, Ataur Rahman

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At-site flood frequency analysis is used to estimate flood quantiles when at-site record length is reasonably long. In Australia, FLIKE software has been introduced for at-site flood frequency analysis. The advantage of FLIKE is that, for a given application, the user can compare a number of most commonly adopted probability distributions and parameter estimation methods relatively quickly using a windows interface. The new version of FLIKE has been incorporated with the multiple Grubbs and Beck test which can identify multiple numbers of potentially influential low flows. This paper presents a case study considering six catchments in eastern Australia which compares two outlier identification tests (original Grubbs and Beck test and multiple Grubbs and Beck test) and two commonly applied probability distributions (Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) and Log Pearson type 3 (LP3)) using FLIKE software. It has been found that the multiple Grubbs and Beck test when used with LP3 distribution provides more accurate flood quantile estimates than when LP3 distribution is used with the original Grubbs and Beck test. Between these two methods, the differences in flood quantile estimates have been found to be up to 61% for the six study catchments. It has also been found that GEV distribution (with L moments) and LP3 distribution with the multiple Grubbs and Beck test provide quite similar results in most of the cases; however, a difference up to 38% has been noted for flood quantiles for annual exceedance probability (AEP) of 1 in 100 for one catchment. This finding needs to be confirmed with a greater number of stations across other Australian states.

Keywords: Floods, FLIKE, probability distributions, flood frequency, outlier.

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Authors: Meftah O. Bashir, Fatma A. Karkory

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Rapid prototyping is a new group of manufacturing processes, which allows fabrication of physical of any complexity using a layer by layer deposition technique directly from a computer system. The rapid prototyping process greatly reduces the time and cost necessary to bring a new product to market. The prototypes made by these systems are used in a range of industrial application including design evaluation, verification, testing, and as patterns for casting processes. These processes employ a variety of materials and mechanisms to build up the layers to build the part. The present work was to build a FDM prototyping machine that could control the X-Y motion and material deposition, to generate two-dimensional and three-dimensional complex shapes. This study focused on the deposition of wax material. This work was to find out the properties of the wax materials used in this work in order to enable better control of the FDM process. This study will look at the integration of a computer controlled electro-mechanical system with the traditional FDM additive prototyping process. The characteristics of the wax were also analysed in order to optimise the model production process. These included wax phase change temperature, wax viscosity and wax droplet shape during processing.

Keywords: Rapid prototyping, wax, manufacturing processes, additive prototyping.

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Authors: Hazlina Hamdan, Fatimah Yusof, Dasimah Omar, Faizul Abdullah, Naasah Nasrudin, Ishak Che Abullah

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In the globalization context and competitiveness, the role of a university is further enhanced. University is no longer confined to traditional roles. Universities need to interact with others in order to be relevant and progressive. Symbiosis relationships between the university and industry are very significant because the relationship between those two can foster economic development of a nation. In a world of fast changing technology and competition, it is necessary for the university to collaborate with industry to combine efforts fostering the diffusion of knowledge, increasing research and development, patenting innovation and commercializing products. It has become increasingly accepted that the necessity of close university-industry interactions as a mean of national economic prosperity. Therefore, this paper is aim to examine the level of linkages in university-industry interactions to which promotes the regional economic growth and development. This paper will explore the formation of linkages between the Higher Education Institution (University Technology MARA) and industries located in the Klang Valley region of Malaysia. It will present the university-industry linkages with emphasis on the type of linkages existed, the benefits of having such linkages to promote regional economic development and finally the constraints that might impede the linkages and potentials to enhance the linkages towards economic growth and development.

Keywords: Industry, Interaction, Linkages, Regional development, University

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Authors: S. Studente, S. Ellis, S. F. Garivaldis

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We report upon a study introducing a chatbot to develop learning communities at a London University, with a largely international student base. The focus of the chatbot was twofold; to ease the transition for students into their first year of university study, and to increase study engagement. Four learning communities were created using the chatbot; level 3 foundation, level 4 undergraduate, level 6 undergraduate and level 7 post-graduate. Students and programme leaders were provided with access to the chat bot via mobile app prior to their study induction and throughout the autumn term of 2019. At the end of the term, data were collected via questionnaires and focus groups with students and teaching staff to allow for identification of benefits and challenges. Findings indicated a positive correlation between study engagement and engagement with peers. Students reported that the chatbot enabled them to obtain support and connect to their programme leader. Both staff and students also made recommendation on how engagement could be further enhanced using the bot in terms of; clearly specified purpose, integration with existing university systems, leading by example and connectivity. Extending upon these recommendations, a second pilot study is planned for September 2020, for which the focus will be upon improving attendance rates, student satisfaction and module pass rates.

Keywords: Chatbot, e-learning, learning communities, student engagement.

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Authors: Nafe Moradkhani, Frederick Benaben, Benoit Montreuil, Ali Vatankhah Barenji, Dima Nazzal

Abstract:

In the context of the global pandemic, the practical management of the 2020 presidential election in the USA was a strong concern. To anticipate and prepare for this election accurately, one of the main challenges was to confront: (i) forecasts of voter turnout, (ii) capacities of the facilities and, (iii) potential configuration options of resources. The approach chosen to conduct this anticipative study consists of collecting data about forecasts and using simulation models to work simultaneously on resource allocation and facility configuration of polling places in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest county. This article presents the results of the simulations of such places facing pre-identified potential risks. These results are oriented towards the efficiency of these places according to different criteria (health, trust, comfort). Then a dynamic framework is introduced to describe risks as physical forces perturbing the efficiency of the observed system. Finally, the main benefits and contributions resulting from this simulation campaign are presented.

Keywords: performance, decision support, simulation, artificial intelligence, risk management, election, pandemics, information system

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