Search results for: efficient market hypothesis
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3145

Search results for: efficient market hypothesis

1165 Robust Coordinated Design of Multiple Power System Stabilizers Using Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

Authors: Sidhartha Panda, C. Ardil

Abstract:

Power system stabilizers (PSS) are now routinely used in the industry to damp out power system oscillations. In this paper, particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to coordinately design multiple power system stabilizers (PSS) in a multi-machine power system. The design problem of the proposed controllers is formulated as an optimization problem and PSO is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The non-linear simulation results are presented for various severe disturbances and small disturbance at different locations as well as for various fault clearing sequences to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations.

Keywords: Low frequency oscillations, Particle swarm optimization, power system stability, power system stabilizer, multimachine power system.

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1164 Old Age Home Organizer

Authors: Vicky Suri, Monika Suri Grover, Raghav Gupta, Shipra Asija, Sulabh Arya, Sushant Jain

Abstract:

With today's fast lifestyles and busy schedule, nuclear families are becoming popular. Thus, the elderly members of these families are often neglected. This has lead to the popularity of the concept of Community living for the aged. The elders reside at a centre, which is controlled by the MANAGER. The manager takes responsibility of the functioning of the centre which includes taking care of 'residents' at the centre along with managing the daily chores of the centre, which he accomplishes with the help of a number of staff members and volunteers Often the Manager is not an employee but a volunteer. In such cases especially, time is an important constraint. A system, which provides an easy and efficient manner of managing the working of an old age home in detail, will prove to be of great benefit. We have developed a P.C. based organizer used to monitor the various activities of an old age home. It is an effective and easy-to-use system which will enable the manager to keep an account of all the residents, their accounts, staff members, volunteers, the centre-s logistic requirements etc. It is thus, a comprehensive 'Organizer' for Old Age Homes.

Keywords: Old Age Home Organizer, HelpAge India.

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1163 The Profitability Management Mechanism of Leather Industry-Based on the Activity-Based Benefit Approach

Authors: Mei-Fang Wu, Shu-Li Wang, Tsung-Yueh Lu, Feng-Tsung Cheng

Abstract:

Strengthening core competitiveness is the main goal of enterprises in a fierce competitive environment. Accurate cost information is a great help for managers in dealing with operation strategies. This paper establishes a profitability management mechanism that applies the Activity-Based Benefit approach (ABBA) to solve the profitability for each customer from the market. ABBA provides financial and non-financial information for the operation, but also indicates what resources have expired in the operational process. The customer profit management model shows the level of profitability of each customer for the company. The empirical data were gathered from a case company operating in the leather industry in Taiwan. The research findings indicate that 30% of customers create little profit for the company as a result of asking for over 5% of sales discounts. Those customers ask for sales discount because of color differences of leather products. This paper provides a customer’s profitability evaluation mechanism to help enterprises to greatly improve operating effectiveness and promote operational activity efficiency and overall operation profitability.

Keywords: Activity-based benefit approach, customer profit analysis, leather industry, profitability management mechanism.

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1162 An Investigation of the Determinants of Knowledge Management Systems Success in Banking Industry

Authors: Nantapanuwat Nattapol, Ractham Peter, Kaewkittipong Laddawan

Abstract:

The efficient knowledge management system (KMS) is one of the important strategies to help firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages, but little research has been conducted to understand what contributes to the KMS success. This study thus set to investigate the determinants of KMS success in the context of Thai banking industry. A questionnaire survey was conducted in four major Thai Banks to test the proposed KMS Success model. The result of this study shows that KMS use and user satisfaction relate significantly to the success of KMS, and knowledge quality, service quality and trust lead to system use, and knowledge quality, system quality and trust lead to user satisfaction. However, this research focuses only on system and user-related factors. Future research thus can extend to study factors such as management support and organization readiness.

Keywords: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management system, Knowledge Management System Success, Banking Industry, Thailand

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1161 A New Heuristic Approach to Solving U-shape Assembly Line Balancing Problems Type-1

Authors: M. Fathi, M. J. Alvarez, V. Rodríguez

Abstract:

Assembly line balancing is a very important issue in mass production systems due to production cost. Although many studies have been done on this topic, but because assembly line balancing problems are so complex they are categorized as NP-hard problems and researchers strongly recommend using heuristic methods. This paper presents a new heuristic approach called the critical task method (CTM) for solving U-shape assembly line balancing problems. The performance of the proposed heuristic method is tested by solving a number of test problems and comparing them with 12 other heuristics available in the literature to confirm the superior performance of the proposed heuristic. Furthermore, to prove the efficiency of the proposed CTM, the objectives are increased to minimize the number of workstation (or equivalently maximize line efficiency), and minimizing the smoothness index. Finally, it is proven that the proposed heuristic is more efficient than the others to solve the U-shape assembly line balancing problem.

Keywords: Critical task method, Heuristic, Line balancingproblem, U-shape

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1160 Extraction of Phenol, o-Cresol, and p-Cresol from Coal Tar: Effect of Temperature and Mixing

Authors: Dewi S. Fardhyanti, Panut Mulyono, Wahyudi B. Sediawan, Muslikhin Hidayat

Abstract:

Coal tar is a liquid by-product of the process of coal gasification and carbonation. This liquid oil mixture contains various kinds of useful compounds such as phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol. These compounds are widely used as raw material for insecticides, dyes, medicines, perfumes, coloring matters, and many others. This research needed to be done that given the optimum conditions for the separation of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from the coal tar by solvent extraction process. The aim of the present work was to study the effect of two kinds of aqueous were used as solvents: methanol and acetone solutions, the effect of temperature (298, 306, and 313K) and mixing (30, 35, and 40rpm) for the separation of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar by solvent extraction. Results indicated that phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol in coal tar were selectivity extracted into the solvent phase and these components could be separated by solvent extraction. The aqueous solution of methanol, mass ratio of solvent to feed, Eo/Ro=1, extraction temperature 306K and mixing 35 rpm were the most efficient for extraction of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar.

Keywords: Coal tar, Distribution coefficient, Extraction, Yield.

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1159 The Role of Business Process Management in Driving Digital Transformation: Insurance Company Case Study

Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec, Ana-Marija Stjepić, Darija Ivandić Vidović

Abstract:

Digital transformation is one of the latest trends on the global market. In order to maintain the competitive advantage and sustainability, increasing number of organizations are conducting digital transformation processes. Those organizations are changing their business processes and creating new business models with the help of digital technologies. In that sense, one should also observe the role of business process management (BPM) and its maturity in driving digital transformation. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to investigate the role of BPM in digital transformation process within one organization. Since experiences from practice show that organizations from financial sector could be observed as leaders in digital transformation, an insurance company has been selected to participate in the study. That company has been selected due to the high level of its BPM maturity and the fact that it has previously been through a digital transformation process. In order to fulfill the goals of the paper, several interviews, as well as questionnaires, have been conducted within the selected company. The results are presented in a form of a case study. Results indicate that digital transformation process within the observed company has been successful, with special focus on the development of digital strategy, BPM and change management. The role of BPM in the digital transformation of the observed company is further discussed in the paper.

Keywords: Business process management, case study, Croatia, digital transformation, insurance company.

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1158 Hardware Error Analysis and Severity Characterization in Linux-Based Server Systems

Authors: N. Georgoulopoulos, A. Hatzopoulos, K. Karamitsios, K. Kotrotsios, A. I. Metsai

Abstract:

Current server systems are responsible for critical applications that run in different infrastructures, such as the cloud, physical machines, and virtual machines. A common challenge that these systems face are the various hardware faults that may occur due to the high load, among other reasons, which translates to errors resulting in malfunctions or even server downtime. The most important hardware parts, that are causing most of the errors, are the CPU, RAM, and the hard drive - HDD. In this work, we investigate selected CPU, RAM, and HDD errors, observed or simulated in kernel ring buffer log files from GNU/Linux servers. Moreover, a severity characterization is given for each error type. Understanding these errors is crucial for the efficient analysis of kernel logs that are usually utilized for monitoring servers and diagnosing faults. In addition, to support the previous analysis, we present possible ways of simulating hardware errors in RAM and HDD, aiming to facilitate the testing of methods for detecting and tackling the above issues in a server running on GNU/Linux.

Keywords: hardware errors, Kernel logs, GNU/Linux servers, RAM, HDD, CPU

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1157 A Gnutella-based P2P System Using Cross-Layer Design for MANET

Authors: Ho-Hyun Park, Woosik Kim, Miae Woo

Abstract:

It is expected that ubiquitous era will come soon. A ubiquitous environment has features like peer-to-peer and nomadic environments. Such features can be represented by peer-to-peer systems and mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). The features of P2P systems and MANETs are similar, appealing for implementing P2P systems in MANET environment. It has been shown that, however, the performance of the P2P systems designed for wired networks do not perform satisfactorily in mobile ad-hoc environment. Subsequently, this paper proposes a method to improve P2P performance using cross-layer design and the goodness of a node as a peer. The proposed method uses routing metric as well as P2P metric to choose favorable peers to connect. It also utilizes proactive approach for distributing peer information. According to the simulation results, the proposed method provides higher query success rate, shorter query response time and less energy consumption by constructing an efficient overlay network.

Keywords: Ad-hoc Networks, Cross-layer, Peer-to-Peer, Performance Analysis.

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1156 Bin Bloom Filter Using Heuristic Optimization Techniques for Spam Detection

Authors: N. Arulanand, K. Premalatha

Abstract:

Bloom filter is a probabilistic and memory efficient data structure designed to answer rapidly whether an element is present in a set. It tells that the element is definitely not in the set but its presence is with certain probability. The trade-off to use Bloom filter is a certain configurable risk of false positives. The odds of a false positive can be made very low if the number of hash function is sufficiently large. For spam detection, weight is attached to each set of elements. The spam weight for a word is a measure used to rate the e-mail. Each word is assigned to a Bloom filter based on its weight. The proposed work introduces an enhanced concept in Bloom filter called Bin Bloom Filter (BBF). The performance of BBF over conventional Bloom filter is evaluated under various optimization techniques. Real time data set and synthetic data sets are used for experimental analysis and the results are demonstrated for bin sizes 4, 5, 6 and 7. Finally analyzing the results, it is found that the BBF which uses heuristic techniques performs better than the traditional Bloom filter in spam detection.

Keywords: Cuckoo search algorithm, levy’s flight, metaheuristic, optimal weight.

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1155 Formal Specification of Web Services Applications for Digital Reference Services of Library Information System

Authors: Zainab M. Musa, Nordin M. A. Rahman, Julaily A. Jusoh

Abstract:

Digital reference service is when a traditional library reference service is provided electronically. In most cases users do not get full satisfaction from using digital reference service due to variety of reasons. This paper discusses the formal specification of web services applications for digital reference services (WSDRS). WSDRS is an informal model that claims to reduce the problems of digital reference services in libraries. It uses web services technology to provide efficient digital way of satisfying users’ need in the reference section of libraries. Informal model is in natural language which is inconsistent and ambiguous that may cause difficulties to the developers of the system. In order to solve this problem we decided to convert the informal specifications into formal specifications. This is supposed to reduce the overall development time and cost. We use Z language to develop the formal model and verify it with Z/EVES theorem prover tool.

Keywords: Formal, specifications, web services, digital reference services.

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1154 Breast Cancer Prediction Using Score-Level Fusion of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models

Authors: [email protected]

Abstract:

Breast cancer is one of the most common types in women. Early prediction of breast cancer helps physicians detect cancer in its early stages. Big cancer data need a very powerful tool to analyze and extract predictions. Machine learning and deep learning are two of the most efficient tools for predicting cancer based on textual data. In this study, we developed a fusion model of two machine learning and deep learning models. To obtain the final prediction, Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM), ensemble learning with hyper parameters optimization, and score-level fusion is used. Experiments are done on the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) dataset after balancing and grouping the class categories. Five different training scenarios are used, and the tests show that the designed fusion model improved the performance by 3.3% compared to the individual models.

Keywords: Machine learning, Deep learning, cancer prediction, breast cancer, LSTM, Score-Level Fusion.

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1153 Development of Web-Based Remote Desktop to Provide Adaptive User Interfaces in Cloud Platform

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

Cloud virtualization technologies are becoming more and more prevalent, cloud users usually encounter the problem of how to access to the virtualized remote desktops easily over the web without requiring the installation of special clients. To resolve this issue, we took advantage of the HTML5 technology and developed web-based remote desktop. It permits users to access the terminal which running in our cloud platform from anywhere. We implemented a sketch of web interface following the cloud computing concept that seeks to enable collaboration and communication among users for high performance computing. Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, it allows to shift the user’s desktop from the traditional PC environment to the cloud platform, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. This is also made possible by the low administrative costs as well as relatively inexpensive end-user terminals and reduced energy expenses.

Keywords: Virtualization, Remote Desktop, HTML5, Cloud Computing.

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1152 Streamwise Vorticity in the Wake of a Sliding Bubble

Authors: R. O’Reilly Meehan, D. B. Murray

Abstract:

In many practical situations, bubbles are dispersed in a liquid phase. Understanding these complex bubbly flows is therefore a key issue for applications such as shell and tube heat exchangers, mineral flotation and oxidation in water treatment. Although a large body of work exists for bubbles rising in an unbounded medium, that of bubbles rising in constricted geometries has received less attention. The particular case of a bubble sliding underneath an inclined surface is common to two-phase flow systems. The current study intends to expand this knowledge by performing experiments to quantify the streamwise flow structures associated with a single sliding air bubble under an inclined surface in quiescent water. This is achieved by means of two-dimensional, two-component particle image velocimetry (PIV), performed with a continuous wave laser and high-speed camera. PIV vorticity fields obtained in a plane perpendicular to the sliding surface show that there is significant bulk fluid motion away from the surface. The associated momentum of the bubble means that this wake motion persists for a significant time before viscous dissipation. The magnitude and direction of the flow structures in the streamwise measurement plane are found to depend on the point on its path through which the bubble enters the plane. This entry point, represented by a phase angle, affects the nature and strength of the vortical structures. This study reconstructs the vorticity field in the wake of the bubble, converting the field at different instances in time to slices of a large-scale wake structure. This is, in essence, Taylor’s ”frozen turbulence” hypothesis. Applying this to the vorticity fields provides a pseudo three-dimensional representation from 2-D data, allowing for a more intuitive understanding of the bubble wake. This study provides insights into the complex dynamics of a situation common to many engineering applications, particularly shell and tube heat exchangers in the nucleate boiling regime.

Keywords: Bubbly flow, particle image velocimetry, two-phase flow, wake structures.

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1151 Time Series Forecasting Using a Hybrid RBF Neural Network and AR Model Based On Binomial Smoothing

Authors: Fengxia Zheng, Shouming Zhong

Abstract:

ANNARIMA that combines both autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and artificial neural network (ANN) model is a valuable tool for modeling and forecasting nonlinear time series, yet the over-fitting problem is more likely to occur in neural network models. This paper provides a hybrid methodology that combines both radial basis function (RBF) neural network and auto regression (AR) model based on binomial smoothing (BS) technique which is efficient in data processing, which is called BSRBFAR. This method is examined by using the data of Canadian Lynx data. Empirical results indicate that the over-fitting problem can be eased using RBF neural network based on binomial smoothing which is called BS-RBF, and the hybrid model–BS-RBFAR can be an effective way to improve forecasting accuracy achieved by BSRBF used separately.

Keywords: Binomial smoothing (BS), hybrid, Canadian Lynx data, forecasting accuracy.

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1150 Soft Computing Based Cluster Head Selection in Wireless Sensor Network Using Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm

Authors: A. Rajagopal, S. Somasundaram, B. Sowmya, T. Suguna

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) enable new applications and need non-conventional paradigms for the protocol because of energy and bandwidth constraints, In WSN, sensor node’s life is a critical parameter. Research on life extension is based on Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) scheme, which rotates Cluster Head (CH) among sensor nodes to distribute energy consumption over all network nodes. CH selection in WSN affects network energy efficiency greatly. This study proposes an improved CH selection for efficient data aggregation in sensor networks. This new algorithm is based on Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) incorporated in LEACH.

Keywords: Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO), Cluster Head (CH), Data-aggregation protocols, Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH).

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1149 A Lean Manufacturing Profile of Practices in the Metallurgical Industry: A Methodology for Multivariate Analysis

Authors: Jonathan D. Morales M., Ramón Silva R.

Abstract:

The purpose of this project is to carry out an analysis and determine the profile of actual lean manufacturing processes in the Metropolitan Area of Bucaramanga. Through the analysis of qualitative and quantitative variables it was possible to establish how these manufacturers develop production practices that ensure their competitiveness and productivity in the market. In this study, a random sample of metallurgic and wrought iron companies was applied, following which a quantitative focus and analysis was used to formulate a qualitative methodology for measuring the level of lean manufacturing procedures in the industry. A qualitative evaluation was also carried out through a multivariate analysis using the Numerical Taxonomy System (NTSYS) program which should allow for the determination of Lean Manufacturing profiles. Through the results it was possible to observe how the companies in the sector are doing with respect to Lean Manufacturing Practices, as well as identify the level of management that these companies practice with respect to this topic. In addition, it was possible to ascertain that there is no one dominant profile in the sector when it comes to Lean Manufacturing. It was established that the companies in the metallurgic and wrought iron industry show low levels of Lean Manufacturing implementation. Each one carries out diverse actions that are insufficient to consolidate a sectoral strategy for developing a competitive advantage which enables them to tie together a production strategy.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, metallurgic industry, production line management, productivity.

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1148 Fairness in Tech-Driven Assessment: Strategies to Safeguard Academic Integrity and Security in Virtual Environment

Authors: B. Ferdousi, J. Bari

Abstract:

Advanced technology can provide vital tools to promote authentic, meaningful, and efficient assessments that measure students' achievement of learning objectives in higher education. However, it also brings several challenges in the learning process. This literature review-based paper describes the challenges in ensuring academic integrity and cybersecurity when students' knowledge and performance are assessed in a digital environment. The paper also reviews the strategies that can be implemented to address these challenges. Using students' authentication and authorship verification of their classwork, designing and developing e-assessments, technology accessibility and instructor training are probable solutions to address these challenges. Given the increasing adoption of digital technology in assessing students' effective learning achievement, this paper will help enhance knowledge and in-depth understanding of measures needed in using technology in academic assessment.

Keywords: Fairness, cybersecurity, e-authentication, academic integrity, e-assessment.

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1147 Comparative Study of Fault Identification and Classification on EHV Lines Using Discrete Wavelet Transform and Fourier Transform Based ANN

Authors: K.Gayathri, N. Kumarappan

Abstract:

An appropriate method for fault identification and classification on extra high voltage transmission line using discrete wavelet transform is proposed in this paper. The sharp variations of the generated short circuit transient signals which are recorded at the sending end of the transmission line are adopted to identify the fault. The threshold values involve fault classification and these are done on the basis of the multiresolution analysis. A comparative study of the performance is also presented for Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) based Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The results prove that the proposed method is an effective and efficient one in obtaining the accurate result within short duration of time by using Daubechies 4 and 9. Simulation of the power system is done using MATLAB.

Keywords: EHV transmission line, Fault identification and classification, Discrete wavelet transform, Multiresolution analysis, Artificial neural network

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1146 Comparison of Real-Time PCR and FTIR with Chemometrics Technique in Analysing Halal Supplement Capsules

Authors: Mohd Sukri Hassan, Ahlam Inayatullah Badrul Munir, M. Husaini A. Rahman

Abstract:

Halal authentication and verification in supplement capsules are highly required as the gelatine available in the market can be from halal or non-halal sources. It is an obligation for Muslim to consume and use the halal consumer goods. At present, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the most common technique being used for the detection of porcine and bovine DNA in gelatine due to high sensitivity of the technique and higher stability of DNA compared to protein. In this study, twenty samples of supplements capsules from different products with different Halal logos were analyzed for porcine and bovine DNA using RT-PCR. Standard bovine and porcine gelatine from eurofins at a range of concentration from 10-1 to 10-5 ng/µl were used to determine the linearity range, limit of detection and specificity on RT-PCR (SYBR Green method). RT-PCR detected porcine (two samples), bovine (four samples) and mixture of porcine and bovine (six samples). The samples were also tested using FT-IR technique where normalized peak of IR spectra were pre-processed using Savitsky Golay method before Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was performed on the database. Scores plot of PCA shows three clusters of samples; bovine, porcine and mixture (bovine and porcine). The RT-PCR and FT-IR with chemometrics technique were found to give same results for porcine gelatine samples which can be used for Halal authentication.

Keywords: Halal, real-time PCR, gelatin, FTIR and chemometrics.

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1145 Creative Teaching of New Product Development to Operations Managers

Authors: Marco Leite, J. M. Vilas-Boas da Silva, Isabel Duarte de Almeida

Abstract:

New Product Development (NPD) has got its roots on an Engineering background. Thus, one might wonder about the interest, opportunity, contents and delivery process, if students from soft sciences were involved. This paper addressed «What to teach?» and «How to do it?», as the preliminary research questions that originated the introduced propositions. The curriculum-developer model that was purposefully chosen to adapt the coursebook by pursuing macro/micro strategies was found significant by an exploratory qualitative case study. Moreover, learning was developed and value created by implementing the institutional curriculum through a creative, hands-on, experiencing, problem-solving, problem-based but organized teamwork approach. Product design of an orange squeezer complying with ill-defined requirements, including drafts, sketches, prototypes, CAD simulations and a business plan, plus a website, written reports and presentations were the deliverables that confirmed an innovative contribution towards research and practice of teaching and learning of engineering subjects to non-specialist operations managers candidates.

Keywords: Teaching Engineering to Non-specialists, Operations Managers Education, Teamwork, Product Design and Development, Market- driven NPD, Curriculum development.

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1144 BLDC Motor Driven for Solar Photo Voltaic Powered Air Cooling System

Authors: D. Shobha Rani, M. Muralidhar

Abstract:

Solar photovoltaic (SPV) power systems can be employed as electrical power sources to meet the daily residential energy needs of rural areas that have no access to grid systems. In view of this, a standalone SPV powered air cooling system is proposed in this paper, which constitutes a dc-dc boost converter, two voltage source inverters (VSI) connected to two brushless dc (BLDC) motors which are coupled to a centrifugal water pump and a fan blower. A simple and efficient Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technique based on Silver Mean Method (SMM) is utilized in this paper. The air cooling system is developed and simulated using the MATLAB / Simulink environment considering the dynamic and steady state variation in the solar irradiance.

Keywords: Boost converter, solar photovoltaic array, voltage source inverter, brushless DC motor, solar irradiance, Maximum Power Point Tracking, Silver Mean Method.

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1143 Effect of Turbulence Models on Simulated Iced Aircraft Airfoil

Authors: Muhammad Afzal, Cao Yihua, Zhao Ming

Abstract:

The present work describes a computational study of aerodynamic characteristics of GLC305 airfoil clean and with 16.7 min ice shape (rime 212) and 22.5 min ice shape (glaze 944).The performance of turbulence models SA, Kε, Kω Std, and Kω SST model are observed against experimental flow fields at different Mach numbers 0.12, 0.21, 0.28 in a range of Reynolds numbers 3x106, 6x106, and 10.5x106 on clean and iced aircraft airfoil GLC305. Numerical predictions include lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients at different Mach numbers and at different angle of attacks were done. Accuracy of solutions with respect to the effects of turbulence models, variation of Mach number, initial conditions, grid resolution and grid spacing near the wall made the study much sensitive. Navier Stokes equation based computational technique is used. Results are very close to the experimental results. It has seen that SA and SST models are more efficient than Kε and Kω standard in under study problem.

Keywords: Aerodynamics, Airfoil GLC305, Iced Airfoil, Turbulence Model

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1142 Application of a New Hybrid Optimization Algorithm on Cluster Analysis

Authors: T. Niknam, M. Nayeripour, B.Bahmani Firouzi

Abstract:

Clustering techniques have received attention in many areas including engineering, medicine, biology and data mining. The purpose of clustering is to group together data points, which are close to one another. The K-means algorithm is one of the most widely used techniques for clustering. However, K-means has two shortcomings: dependency on the initial state and convergence to local optima and global solutions of large problems cannot found with reasonable amount of computation effort. In order to overcome local optima problem lots of studies done in clustering. This paper is presented an efficient hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm based on combining Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), called PSO-ACO, for optimally clustering N object into K clusters. The new PSO-ACO algorithm is tested on several data sets, and its performance is compared with those of ACO, PSO and K-means clustering. The simulation results show that the proposed evolutionary optimization algorithm is robust and suitable for handing data clustering.

Keywords: Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Data clustering, Hybrid evolutionary optimization algorithm, K-means clustering, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO).

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1141 Theory and Reality on Working Life of People with Disability: The Case in Poland

Authors: Dorota Kobus-Ostrowska

Abstract:

Work for everyone, especially for person with disability is a condition in independence; it secures basic needs and develops manual and intellectual capabilities. The work is a source of income, and it builds and strengthens of self-esteem and competence. The purpose of this article is to identify work as an important factor in everyone’s life, despite Polish disabled persons rarely having the chance to undertake a job. In order to achieve this purpose, two methods were used: comparative and qualitative. The theoretical part of this article is based on studies of a wide range of Polish and foreign literature devoted to the issue of the occupational development of people with disabilities. The article was also enriched with the institutional and legal analysis types of support for people with disabilities in Poland. Currently, a Polish person with disability who wants to enter or return to the labor market is under a special protection. Those entities employing workers with disabilities may obtain a subsidy for the salary of a person with disabilities. Unfortunately, people with disability in Poland rarely participate in the workforce. The factors that contribute to this include the difficulty in obtaining work, the uncertainty of keeping it, and the low salary offered. Despite that domestic and foreign literature highlight the important role of disabled people as a workforce, very few people with disability in Poland are economically active.

Keywords: Disabled person, work, employer, rehabilitation.

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1140 Improvement on a CNC Gantry Machine Structure Design for Higher Machining Speed Capability

Authors: Ahmed A. D. Sarhan, S. R. Besharaty, Javad Akbaria, M. Hamdi

Abstract:

The capability of CNC gantry milling machines in manufacturing long components has caused the expanded use of such machines. On the other hand, the machines’ gantry rigidity can reduce under severe loads or vibration during operation. Indeed, the quality of machining is dependent on the machine’s dynamic behavior throughout the operating process. For this reason, these types of machines have always been used widely and are not efficient. Therefore, they can usually be employed for rough machining and may not produce adequate surface finishing. In this paper, a CNC gantry milling machine with the potential to produce good surface finish has been designed and analyzed. The lowest natural frequency of this machine is 202 Hz corresponding to 12000 rpm at all motion amplitudes with a full range of suitable frequency responses. Meanwhile, the maximum deformation under dead loads for the gantry machine is 0.565*m, indicating that this machine tool is capable of producing higher product quality.

Keywords: Finite element, frequency response, gantry design, gantry machine, static and dynamic analysis.

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1139 Unsteady Simulation of Burning Off Carbon Deposition in a Coke Oven

Authors: Uzu-Kuei Hsu, Keh-Chin Chang, Joo-Guan Hang

Abstract:

Carbon Deposits are often occurred inside the industrial coke oven during coking process. Accumulation of carbon deposits may cause a big issue, which seriously influences the coking operation. The carbon is burning off by injecting fresh air through pipes into coke oven which is an efficient way practically operated in industries. The burning off carbon deposition in coke oven performed by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method has provided an evaluation of the feasibility study. A three dimensional, transient, turbulent reacting flow simulation has performed with three different injecting air flow rate and another kind of injecting configuration. The result shows that injection higher air flow rate would effectively reduce the carbon deposits. In the meantime, the opened charging holes would suck extra oxygen from atmosphere to participate in reactions. In term of coke oven operating limits, the wall temperatures are monitored to prevent over-heating of the adiabatic walls during burn-off process.

Keywords: Coke oven, burning off, carbon deposits, carbon combustion, CFD.

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1138 Robust Image Registration Based on an Adaptive Normalized Mutual Information Metric

Authors: Huda Algharib, Amal Algharib, Hanan Algharib, Ali Mohammad Alqudah

Abstract:

Image registration is an important topic for many imaging systems and computer vision applications. The standard image registration techniques such as Mutual information/ Normalized mutual information -based methods have a limited performance because they do not consider the spatial information or the relationships between the neighbouring pixels or voxels. In addition, the amount of image noise may significantly affect the registration accuracy. Therefore, this paper proposes an efficient method that explicitly considers the relationships between the adjacent pixels, where the gradient information of the reference and scene images is extracted first, and then the cosine similarity of the extracted gradient information is computed and used to improve the accuracy of the standard normalized mutual information measure. Our experimental results on different data types (i.e. CT, MRI and thermal images) show that the proposed method outperforms a number of image registration techniques in terms of the accuracy.

Keywords: Image registration, mutual information, image gradients, Image transformations.

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1137 Neutralization of Alkaline Waste-Waters using a Blend of Microorganisms

Authors: Rita Kumar, Alka Sharma, Purnima Dhall, Niha M. Kulshreshtha, Anil Kumar

Abstract:

The efficient operation of any biological treatment process requires pre-treatment of incompatible pollutants such as acids, bases, oil, toxic substances, etc. which hamper the treatment of other major components which are otherwise degradable. The pre-treatment of alkaline waste-waters, generated from various industries like textile, paper & pulp, potato-processing industries, etc., having a pH of 10 or higher, is essential. The pre-treatment, i.e., neutralization of such alkaline waste-waters can be achieved by chemical as well as biological means. However, the biological pretreatment offers better package over the chemical means by being safe and economical. The biological pre-treatment can be accomplished by using a blend of microorganisms able to withstand such harsh alkaline conditions. In the present study, for the proper pre-treatment of alkaline waste-waters, a package of alkalophilic bacteria is formulated to neutralise the alkaline pH of the industrial waste-waters. The developed microbial package is cost-effective as well as environmental friendly.

Keywords: alkaline, alkalophilic bacteria, biological, pollutants, textile.

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1136 Optimal Water Allocation: Sustainable Management of Dam Reservoir

Authors: Afshin Jahangirzadeh, Shatirah Akib, Babak Kamali, Sadia Rahman

Abstract:

Scarcity of water resources and huge costs of establishing new hydraulic installations necessitate optimal exploitation from existing reservoirs. Sustainable management and efficient exploitation from existing finite water resources are important factors in water resource management, particularly in the periods of water insufficiency and in dry regions, and on account of competitive allocations in the view of exploitation management. This study aims to minimize reservoir water release from a determined rate of demand. A numerical model for water optimal exploitation has been developed using GAMS introduced by the World Bank and applied to the case of Meijaran dam, northern Iran. The results indicate that this model can optimize the function of reservoir exploitation while required water for lower parts of the region will be supplied. Further, allocating optimal water from reservoir, the optimal rate of water allocated to any group of the users were specified to increase benefits in curve dam exploitation.

Keywords: Water resource management, water reservoirs, water allocation, GAMS, Meijaran dam

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