Search results for: time series classification

Authors: Rosina C. Chia, Elmer Poe, Karl L. Wuensch

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A virtual collaborative classroom was created at East Carolina University, using videoconference technology via regular internet to bring students from 18 different countries, 2 at a time, to the ECU classroom in real time to learn about each other-s culture. Students from two countries are partnered one on one, they meet for 4-5 weeks, and submit a joint paper. Then the same process is repeated for two other countries. Lectures and student discussions are managed with pre-determined topics and questions. Classes are conducted in English and reading assignments are placed on the website. Administratively all partners are independent, students pay fees and get credits at their home institution. Familiarity with technology, knowledge in cultural understanding and attitude change were assessed, only attitude changes are reported in this paper. After taking this course, all students stated their comfort level in working with, and their desire to interact with, culturally different others grew stronger and their xenophobia and isolationist attitudes decreased.

Keywords: Attitude change, interactive cultural learning, multicultural education, real time virtual learning.

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Authors: Rekik Rima, Aouachria Mekki

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We study the movement of a two-level atom in interaction with time dependent nonuniform magnetic filed using the path integral formalism. The propagator is first written in the standard form by replacing the spin by a unit vector aligned along the polar and azimuthal directions. Then it is determined exactly using perturbation methods. Thus the Rabi formula of the system are deduced.

Keywords: Path integral, Formalism, Propagator, Transition probability.

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Authors: Jeffrey A. Dunne, Kevin Ligozio

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In many applications there is a broad variety of information relevant to a focal “object" of interest, and the fusion of such heterogeneous data types is desirable for classification and categorization. While these various data types can sometimes be treated as orthogonal (such as the hull number, superstructure color, and speed of an oil tanker), there are instances where the inference and the correlation between quantities can provide improved fusion capabilities (such as the height, weight, and gender of a person). A service-oriented architecture has been designed and prototyped to support the fusion of information for such “object-centric" situations. It is modular, scalable, and flexible, and designed to support new data sources, fusion algorithms, and computational resources without affecting existing services. The architecture is designed to simplify the incorporation of legacy systems, support exact and probabilistic entity disambiguation, recognize and utilize multiple types of uncertainties, and minimize network bandwidth requirements.

Keywords: Data fusion, distributed computing, service-oriented architecture, SOA

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Authors: Mourtou Efstratia, Abdel-Badeeh M. Salem, Pavlidis George

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Hierarchical high-level PNs (HHPNs) with time versions are a useful tool to model systems in a variety of application domains, ranging from logistics to complex workflows. This paper addresses an application domain which is receiving more and more attention: procedure that arranges the final inpatient charge in payment-s office and their management. We shall prove that Petri net based analysis is able to improve the delays during the procedure, in order that inpatient charges could be more reliable and on time.

Keywords: eHealth, Petri-Nets, Hospital Services, InpatientCharges, Workflow Modeling.

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Authors: A. Melouah, H. Merouani

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A new Markovianity approach is introduced in this paper. This approach reduces the response time of classic Markov Random Fields approach. First, one region is determinated by a clustering technique. Then, this region is excluded from the study. The remaining pixel form the study zone and they are selected for a Markovianity segmentation task. With Selective Markovianity approach, segmentation process is faster than classic one.

Keywords: Markovianity, response time, segmentation, study zone.

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Authors: Abdelazim Makki Ibrahim, Esamaldeen Ali

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This study aims at analysing the load settlement behavior and predict the bearing capacity of piled raft foundation a series of finite element models with different foundation configurations and stiffness were established. Numerical modeling is used to study the behavior of the piled raft foundation due to the complexity of piles, raft, and soil interaction and also due to the lack of reliable analytical method that can predict the behavior of the piled raft foundation system. Simple analytical models are developed to predict the average settlement and the load sharing between the piles and the raft in piled raft foundation system. A simple example to demonstrate the applications of these charts is included.

Keywords: Finite element, pile-raft foundation, method, PLAXIS software, settlement.

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Authors: YongXian, JIN

Abstract:

Introducing survivability into embedded real-time system (ERTS) can improve the survivability power of the system. This paper mainly discusses about the survivability of ERTS. The first is the survivability origin of ERTS. The second is survivability analysis. According to the definition of survivability based on survivability specification and division of the entire survivability analysis process for ERTS, a survivability analysis profile is presented. The quantitative analysis model of this profile is emphasized and illuminated in detail, the quantifying analysis of system was showed helpful to evaluate system survivability more accurate. The third is platform design of survivability analysis. In terms of the profile, the analysis process is encapsulated and assembled into one platform, on which quantification, standardization and simplification of survivability analysis are all achieved. The fourth is survivability design. According to character of ERTS, strengthened design method is selected to realize system survivability design. Through the analysis of embedded mobile video-on-demand system, intrusion tolerant technology is introduced in whole survivability design.

Keywords: ERTS (embedded real-time system), survivability, quantitative analysis, survivability specification, intrusion tolerant

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Authors: Zhiguo Ren, Lilong Cai

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This paper present an effective method to accurately reconstruct and measure the 3D curve edges of small industrial parts based on stereo vision. To effectively fit the curve of the measured parts using a series of line segments in the images, a strategy from coarse to fine is employed based on multi-scale curve fitting. After reconstructing the 3D curve of a hole through a curved surface, its axis is adjusted so that it is parallel to the Z axis with least squares error and the dimensions of the hole can be calculated on the XY plane easily. Experimental results show that the presented method can accurately measure the dimensions of round holes through a curved surface.

Keywords: Stereo Vision, 3D Round Hole Measurement, Curve Fitting, 3D Curve Reconstruction, Least Squares Error.

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Authors: M. Mlhem

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Geotechnical engineers face many problematic soils upon construction and they have the choice for replacing these soils with more appropriate soils or attempting to improve the engineering properties of the soil through a suitable soil stabilization technique. Mostly, improving soils is environmental, easier and more economical than other solutions. Stabilization soils technique is applied by introducing a cementing agent or by injecting a substance to fill the pore volume. Chemical stabilizers are divided into two groups: traditional agents such as cement or lime and non-traditional agents such as polymers. This paper studies the effect of epoxy additives on the compression strength of four types of soil and then compares with the effect of cement on the compression strength for the same soils. Overall, the epoxy additives are more effective in increasing the strength for different types of soils regardless its classification. On the other hand, there was no clear relation between studied parameters liquid limit, passing No.200, unit weight and between the strength of samples for different types of soils.

Keywords: Additives, clay, compression strength, epoxy, stabilization.

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Authors: Luis Gracia, Carlos Perez-Vidal, Carlos Gracia

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This paper presents the theoretical background and the real implementation of an automated computer system to introduce machine vision in flower, fruit and vegetable processing for recollection, cutting, packaging, classification, or fumigation tasks. The considerations and implementation issues presented in this work can be applied to a wide range of varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables, although some of them are especially relevant due to the great amount of units that are manipulated and processed each year over the world. The computer vision algorithms developed in this work are shown in detail, and can be easily extended to other applications. A special attention is given to the electromagnetic compatibility in order to avoid noisy images. Furthermore, real experimentation has been carried out in order to validate the developed application. In particular, the tests show that the method has good robustness and high success percentage in the object characterization.

Keywords: Image processing, Vision system, Automation

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Authors: King Kuok Kuok, Po Chan Chiu

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Floods are natural phenomena, which may turn into disasters causing widespread damage, health problems and even deaths. Nowadays, floods had become more serious and more frequent due to climatic changes. During flooding, discharge measurement still can be taken by standing on the bridge across the river using portable measurement instrument. However, it is too dangerous to get near to the river especially during high flood. Therefore, this study employs Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) as a tool to measure the surface flow velocity. PIV is a image processing technique to track the movement of water from one point to another. The PIV codes are developed using Matlab. In this study, 18 ping pong balls were scattered over the surface of the drain and images were taken with a digital SLR camera. The images obtained were analyzed using the PIV code. Results show that PIV is able to produce the flow velocity through analyzing the series of images captured.

Keywords: Particle Image Velocimetry, flow velocity, surface flow.

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Authors: Natalia A. Salazar, Erika K. Méndez, Catalina Álvarez, Carlos E. Orrego

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Lyophilization, also called freeze-drying, is an important dehydration technique mainly used for pharmaceuticals. Food industry also uses lyophilization when it is important to retain most of the nutritional quality, taste, shape and size of dried products and to extend their shelf life. Vacuum-Induced during freezing cycle (VI) has been used in order to control ice nucleation and, consequently, to reduce the time of primary drying cycle of pharmaceuticals preserving quality properties of the final product. This procedure has not been applied in freeze drying of foods. The present work aims to investigate the effect of VI on the lyophilization drying time, final moisture content, density and reconstitutional properties of mango (Mangifera indica L.) slices (MS) and mango pulp-maltodextrin dispersions (MPM) (30% concentration of total solids). Control samples were run at each freezing rate without using induced vacuum. The lyophilization endpoint was the same for all treatments (constant difference between capacitance and Pirani vacuum gauges). From the experimental results it can be concluded that at the high freezing rate (0.4°C/min) reduced the overall process time up to 30% comparing process time required for the control and VI of the lower freeze rate (0.1°C/min) without affecting the quality characteristics of the dried product, which yields a reduction in costs and energy consumption for MS and MPM freeze drying. Controls and samples treated with VI at freezing rate of 0.4°C/min in MS showed similar results in moisture and density parameters. Furthermore, results from MPM dispersion showed favorable values when VI was applied because dried product with low moisture content and low density was obtained at shorter process time compared with the control. There were not found significant differences between reconstitutional properties (rehydration for MS and solubility for MPM) of freeze dried mango resulting from controls, and VI treatments.

Keywords: Drying time, lyophilization, mango, vacuum induced freezing.

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Authors: Hany Alashwal, Safaai Deris, Razib M. Othman

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The protein domain structure has been widely used as the most informative sequence feature to computationally predict protein-protein interactions. However, in a recent study, a research group has reported a very high accuracy of 94% using hydrophobicity feature. Therefore, in this study we compare and verify the usefulness of protein domain structure and hydrophobicity properties as the sequence features. Using the Support Vector Machines (SVM) as the learning system, our results indicate that both features achieved accuracy of nearly 80%. Furthermore, domains structure had receiver operating characteristic (ROC) score of 0.8480 with running time of 34 seconds, while hydrophobicity had ROC score of 0.8159 with running time of 20,571 seconds (5.7 hours). These results indicate that protein-protein interaction can be predicted from domain structure with reliable accuracy and acceptable running time.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, protein-protein interactions, support vector machines, protein features.

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Authors: Maxence Queyrel, Edi Prifti, Alexandre Templier, Jean-Daniel Zucker

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Analysis of the human microbiome using metagenomic sequencing data has demonstrated high ability in discriminating various human diseases. Raw metagenomic sequencing data require multiple complex and computationally heavy bioinformatics steps prior to data analysis. Such data contain millions of short sequences read from the fragmented DNA sequences and stored as fastq files. Conventional processing pipelines consist in multiple steps including quality control, filtering, alignment of sequences against genomic catalogs (genes, species, taxonomic levels, functional pathways, etc.). These pipelines are complex to use, time consuming and rely on a large number of parameters that often provide variability and impact the estimation of the microbiome elements. Training Deep Neural Networks directly from raw sequencing data is a promising approach to bypass some of the challenges associated with mainstream bioinformatics pipelines. Most of these methods use the concept of word and sentence embeddings that create a meaningful and numerical representation of DNA sequences, while extracting features and reducing the dimensionality of the data. In this paper we present an end-to-end approach that classifies patients into disease groups directly from raw metagenomic reads: metagenome2vec. This approach is composed of four steps (i) generating a vocabulary of k-mers and learning their numerical embeddings; (ii) learning DNA sequence (read) embeddings; (iii) identifying the genome from which the sequence is most likely to come and (iv) training a multiple instance learning classifier which predicts the phenotype based on the vector representation of the raw data. An attention mechanism is applied in the network so that the model can be interpreted, assigning a weight to the influence of the prediction for each genome. Using two public real-life data-sets as well a simulated one, we demonstrated that this original approach reaches high performance, comparable with the state-of-the-art methods applied directly on processed data though mainstream bioinformatics workflows. These results are encouraging for this proof of concept work. We believe that with further dedication, the DNN models have the potential to surpass mainstream bioinformatics workflows in disease classification tasks.

Keywords: Metagenomics, phenotype prediction, deep learning, embeddings, multiple instance learning.

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Authors: Neslihan Yuca, Nilgün Karatepe

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The aim of this study was to synthesize the single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and determine their hydrogen storage capacities. SWCNTs were firstly synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetylene (C2H2) on a magnesium oxide (MgO) powder impregnated with an iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)3·9H2O) solution. The synthesis parameters were selected as: the synthesis temperature of 800°C, the iron content in the precursor of 5% and the synthesis time of 30 min. Purification process of SWCNTs was fulfilled by microwave digestion at three different temperatures (120, 150 and 200 °C), three different acid concentrations (0.5, 1 and 1.5 M) and for three different time intervals (15, 30 and 60 min). Nitric acid (HNO3) was used in the removal of the metal catalysts. The hydrogen storage capacities of the purified materials were measured using volumetric method at the liquid nitrogen temperature and gas pressure up to 100 bar. The effects of the purification conditions such as temperature, time and acid concentration on hydrogen adsorption were investigated.

Keywords: Carbon nanotubes, purification, microwavedigestion, hydrogen storage

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Authors: F. I. Belheouane, M. Bensaibi

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The seismic feedback experiences in Algeria have shown higher percentage of damages for non-code conforming reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. Furthermore, the vulnerability of these buildings was further aggravated due to presence of many factors (e.g. weak the seismic capacity of these buildings, shorts columns, Pounding effect, etc.). Consequently Seismic risk assessments were carried out on populations of buildings to identify the buildings most likely to undergo losses during an earthquake. The results of such studies are important in the mitigation of losses under future seismic events as they allow strengthening intervention and disaster management plans to be drawn up. Within this paper, the state of the existing structures is assessed using "the vulnerability index" method. This method allows the classification of RC constructions taking into account both, structural and non structural parameters, considered to be ones of the main parameters governing the vulnerability of the structure. Based on seismic feedback from past earthquakes DPM (damage probability matrices) were developed too.

Keywords: Seismic vulnerability, Reinforced concrete buildings, Earthquake, DPM, Algeria.

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Authors: M. Naresh Kumar, Abhijit Mitra, C. Ardil

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A fast adaptive Tomlinson Harashima (T-H) precoder structure is presented for indoor wireless communications, where the channel may vary due to rotation and small movement of the mobile terminal. A frequency-selective slow fading channel which is time-invariant over a frame is assumed. In this adaptive T-H precoder, feedback coefficients are updated at the end of every uplink frame by using system identification technique for channel estimation in contrary with the conventional T-H precoding concept where the channel is estimated during the starting of the uplink frame via Wiener solution. In conventional T-H precoder it is assumed the channel is time-invariant in both uplink and downlink frames. However assuming the channel is time-invariant over only one frame instead of two, the proposed adaptive T-H precoder yields better performance than conventional T-H precoder if the channel is varied in uplink after receiving the training sequence.

Keywords: Tomlinson-Harashima precoder, Adaptive channel estimation, Indoor wireless communication, Bit error rate.

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Authors: Qian Liu, Steve Furber

Abstract:

To explore how the brain may recognise objects in its general,accurate and energy-efficient manner, this paper proposes the use of a neuromorphic hardware system formed from a Dynamic Video Sensor (DVS) silicon retina in concert with the SpiNNaker real-time Spiking Neural Network (SNN) simulator. As a first step in the exploration on this platform a recognition system for dynamic hand postures is developed, enabling the study of the methods used in the visual pathways of the brain. Inspired by the behaviours of the primary visual cortex, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are modelled using both linear perceptrons and spiking Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) neurons. In this study’s largest configuration using these approaches, a network of 74,210 neurons and 15,216,512 synapses is created and operated in real-time using 290 SpiNNaker processor cores in parallel and with 93.0% accuracy. A smaller network using only 1/10th of the resources is also created, again operating in real-time, and it is able to recognise the postures with an accuracy of around 86.4% - only 6.6% lower than the much larger system. The recognition rate of the smaller network developed on this neuromorphic system is sufficient for a successful hand posture recognition system, and demonstrates a much improved cost to performance trade-off in its approach.

Keywords: Spiking neural network (SNN), convolutional neural network (CNN), posture recognition, neuromorphic system.

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Authors: M. Bouguerra, I. Habi

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The continuity in the electric supply of the electric installations is becoming one of the main requirements of the electric supply network (generation, transmission, and distribution of the electric energy). The achievement of this requirement depends from one side on the structure of the electric network and on the other side on the avaibility of the reserve source provided to maintain the supply in case of failure of the principal one. The avaibility of supply does not only depends on the reliability parameters of the both sources (principal and reserve) but it also depends on the reliability of the circuit breaker which plays the role of interlocking the reserve source in case of failure of the principal one. In addition, the principal source being under operation, its control can be ideal and sure, however, for the reserve source being in stop, a preventive maintenances which proceed on time intervals (periodicity) and for well defined lengths of time are envisaged, so that this source will always available in case of the principal source failure. The choice of the periodicity of preventive maintenance of the source of reserve influences directly the reliability of the electric feeder system In this work and on the basis of the semi- markovian's processes, the influence of the time of interlocking the reserve source upon the reliability of an industrial electric network is studied and is given the optimal time of interlocking the reserve source in case of failure the principal one, also the influence of the periodicity of the preventive maintenance of the source of reserve is studied and is given the optimal periodicity.

Keywords: Semi-Markovians processes, reliability, optimization, industrial electric network.

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Authors: Mina Alibeigi, Sattar Hashemi, Ali Hamzeh

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Since dealing with high dimensional data is computationally complex and sometimes even intractable, recently several feature reductions methods have been developed to reduce the dimensionality of the data in order to simplify the calculation analysis in various applications such as text categorization, signal processing, image retrieval, gene expressions and etc. Among feature reduction techniques, feature selection is one the most popular methods due to the preservation of the original features. In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised feature selection method which will remove redundant features from the original feature space by the use of probability density functions of various features. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, popular feature selection methods have been implemented and compared. Experimental results on the several datasets derived from UCI repository database, illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods in comparison with the other compared methods in terms of both classification accuracy and the number of selected features.

Keywords: Feature, Feature Selection, Filter, Probability Density Function

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Authors: E. Dabbour, S. M. Easa

Abstract:

Most of the collision warning systems currently available in the automotive market are mainly designed to warn against imminent rear-end and lane-changing collisions. No collision warning system is commercially available to warn against imminent turning collisions at intersections, especially for left-turn collisions when a driver attempts to make a left-turn at either a signalized or non-signalized intersection, conflicting with the path of other approaching vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream. One of the major factors that lead to left-turn collisions is the human error and misjudgment of the driver of the turning vehicle when perceiving the speed and acceleration of other vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream; therefore, using a properly-designed collision warning system will likely reduce, or even eliminate, this type of collisions by reducing human error. This paper introduces perceptual framework for a proposed collision warning system that can detect imminent left-turn collisions at intersections. The system utilizes a commercially-available detection sensor (either a radar sensor or a laser detector) to detect approaching vehicles traveling on the opposite-direction traffic stream and calculate their speeds and acceleration rates to estimate the time-tocollision and compare that time to the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection. When calculating the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection, consideration is given to the perception-reaction time of the driver of the turning vehicle, which is the time required by the driver to perceive the message given by the warning system and react to it by engaging the throttle. A regression model was developed to estimate perception-reaction time based on age and gender of the driver of the host vehicle. Desired acceleration rate selected by the driver of the turning vehicle, when making the left-turn movement, is another human factor that is considered by the system. Another regression model was developed to estimate the acceleration rate selected by the driver of the turning vehicle based on driver-s age and gender as well as on the location and speed of the nearest approaching vehicle along with the maximum acceleration rate provided by the mechanical characteristics of the turning vehicle. By comparing time-to-collision with the time required for the turning vehicle to clear the intersection, the system displays a message to the driver of the turning vehicle when departure is safe. An application example is provided to illustrate the logic algorithm of the proposed system.

Keywords: Collision warning systems, intelligent transportationsystems, vehicle safety.

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Authors: Min Kyu Kim, Eun Young Lee, Dong Woo Son, Yoon Seok Chang

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In this paper, we introduce a flexible box erecting machine (BEM) that swiftly and automatically transforms cardboard into a three dimensional box. Recently, the parcel service and home-shopping industries have grown rapidly, and there is an increasing need for various box types to ship various products. However, workers cannot fold thousands of boxes manually in a day. As such, automatic BEMs are garnering greater attention. This study takes equipment operation into consideration as well as mechanical improvements in order to design a BEM that is able to outperform its conventional counterparts. We analyzed six dispatching rules – First In First Out (FIFO), Shortest Processing Time (SPT), Earliest Due Date (EDD), Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, and EDD + Setup Avoidance – to determine which one was most suitable for BEM operation. Consequently, SPT and Setup Avoidance were found to be the most critical rules, followed by EDD + Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, EDD, and FIFO. This hierarchy was valid for both our conventional BEM and our new flexible BEM from the viewpoint of processing time. We believe that this research can contribute to flexible BEM management, which has the potential to increase productivity and convenience.

Keywords: Automation, box erecting machine, dispatching rule, setup time.

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Authors: Taiki Baba, Tomoaki Hashimoto

Abstract:

The random dither quantization method enables us to achieve much better performance than the simple uniform quantization method for the design of quantized control systems. Motivated by this fact, the stochastic model predictive control method in which a performance index is minimized subject to probabilistic constraints imposed on the state variables of systems has been proposed for linear feedback control systems with random dither quantization. In other words, a method for solving optimal control problems subject to probabilistic state constraints for linear discrete-time control systems with random dither quantization has been already established. To our best knowledge, however, the feasibility of such a kind of optimal control problems has not yet been studied. Our objective in this paper is to investigate the feasibility of stochastic model predictive control problems for linear discrete-time control systems with random dither quantization. To this end, we provide the results of numerical simulations that verify the feasibility of stochastic model predictive control problems for linear discrete-time control systems with random dither quantization.

Keywords: Model predictive control, stochastic systems, probabilistic constraints, random dither quantization.

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Authors: Juliana da Silva Cardoso, Cláudia Correia, Rita Gomes, Carolina Fraga, Inês Cascais, Sara Monteiro, Beatriz Teixeira, Sandra Ribeiro, Carolina Andrade, Cláudia Oliveira, Diana Gonzaga, Catarina Prior, Inês Vaz Matos

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The average daily screen time (ST) has been increasing in children, even at young ages. This seems to be associated with a higher incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders, and as the time of exposure increases, the greater is the functional impact. This study aims to compare the daily ST of toddlers and preschoolers previously and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was applied by telephone to parents/caregivers of children between 1 and 5 years old, followed up at four primary care units belonging to the Group of Primary Health Care Centers of Western Porto, Portugal. A total of 520 children were included: 52.9% male, mean age 39.4 ± 13.9 months. The mean age of first exposure to screens was 13.9 ± 8.0 months, and most of the children were exposed to more than one screen daily. Considering the WHO recommendations, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 385 (74.0%) and 408 (78.5%) children had excessive ST during the week and the weekend, respectively; during the lockdown, these values increased to 495 (95.2%) and 482 (92.7%). Maternal education and both the child's median age and the median age of first exposure to screens had a statistically significant association with excessive ST, with OR 0.2 (p = 0.03, CI 95% 0.07-0.86), OR 1.1 (p = 0.01, 95% CI 1.05-1.14) and OR 0.9 (p = 0.05, 95% CI 0. 87-0.98), respectively. Most children in this sample had a higher than recommended ST, which increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results are worrisome and point to the need for urgent intervention.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, preschoolers, screen time, toddlers

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Authors: Ghazwan Al-Haji

Abstract:

Most accidents occur in urban areas, and the most related casualties are vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists). The traffic calming measures (TCMs) are widely used and considered to be successful in reducing speed and traffic volume. However, TCMs create unwanted effects include: noise, emissions, energy consumption, vehicle delays and emergency response time (ERT). Different vertical and horizontal TCMs have been already applied nationally (Sweden) and internationally with different impacts. It is a big challenge among traffic engineers, planners, and policy-makers to choose and priorities the best TCMs to be implemented. This study will assess the existing guidelines for TCMs in relation to safety and ERT with focus on data from Norrkoping city in Sweden. The expected results will save lives, time, and money on particularly Swedish Roads. The study will also review newly technologies and how they can improve safety and reduce ERT.

Keywords: Traffic safety, traffic calming measures, speeding, emergency response time.

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Authors: Masafumi Kondo, Yoichiro Sato, Kazuyuki Tashiro, Tomoyuki Yokogawa, Michiyoshi Hayase

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Recently, most digital systems are designed as GALS (Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous) systems. Several architectures have been proposed as bus architectures for a GALS system : shared bus, segmented bus, ring bus, and so on. In this study, we propose a ring segmented bus architecture which is a combination of segmented bus and ring bus architecture with the aim of throughput enhancement. In a segmented bus architecture, segments are connected in series. By connecting the segments at the end of the bus and constructing the ring bus, it becomes possible to allocate a channel of the bus bidirectionally. The bus channel is allocated to the shortest path between segments. We consider a metastable operation caused by asynchronous communication between segments and a burst transfer between segments. According to the result of simulation, it is shown that the GALS system designed by the proposed method has the desired operations.

Keywords: GALS systems bus architecture, segmented bus, ring bus.

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Authors: E. Keramaris, V. Kanakoudis

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In this study the water flow in an open channel over a sharp-crested weir is investigated experimentally. For this reason a series of laboratory experiments were performed in an open channel with a sharp-crested weir. The maximum head expected over the weir, the total upstream water height and the downstream water height of the impact in the constant bed of the open channel were measured. The discharge was measured using a tank put right after the open channel. In addition, the discharge and the upstream velocity were also calculated using already known equations. The main finding is that the relative error percentage for the majority of the experimental measurements is ± 4%, meaning that the calculation of the discharge with a sharp-crested weir gives very good results compared to the numerical results from known equations.

Keywords: Sharp-crested weir, weir height, flow measurement, open channel flow.

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Authors: A. Alzeyadi, E. Loffill, R. Alkhaddar

Abstract:

Continuous upflow filters can combine the nutrient (nitrogen and phosphate) and suspended solid removal in one unit process. The contaminant removal could be achieved chemically or biologically; in both processes the filter removal efficiency depends on the interaction between the packed filter media and the influent. In this paper a residence time distribution (RTD) study was carried out to understand and compare the transfer behaviour of contaminants through a selected filter media packed in a laboratory-scale continuous up flow filter; the selected filter media are limestone and white dolomite. The experimental work was conducted by injecting a tracer (red drain dye tracer –RDD) into the filtration system and then measuring the tracer concentration at the outflow as a function of time; the tracer injection was applied at hydraulic loading rates (HLRs) (3.8 to 15.2 m h-1). The results were analysed according to the cumulative distribution function F(t) to estimate the residence time of the tracer molecules inside the filter media. The mean residence time (MRT) and variance σ2 are two moments of RTD that were calculated to compare the RTD characteristics of limestone with white dolomite. The results showed that the exit-age distribution of the tracer looks better at HLRs (3.8 to 7.6 m h-1) and (3.8 m h-1) for limestone and white dolomite respectively. At these HLRs the cumulative distribution function F(t) revealed that the residence time of the tracer inside the limestone was longer than in the white dolomite; whereas all the tracer took 8 minutes to leave the white dolomite at 3.8 m h-1. On the other hand, the same amount of the tracer took 10 minutes to leave the limestone at the same HLR. In conclusion, the determination of the optimal level of hydraulic loading rate, which achieved the better influent distribution over the filtration system, helps to identify the applicability of the material as filter media. Further work will be applied to examine the efficiency of the limestone and white dolomite for phosphate removal by pumping a phosphate solution into the filter at HLRs (3.8 to 7.6 m h-1).

Keywords: Filter media, hydraulic loading rate, residence time distribution, tracer.

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Authors: Alena Zemanová, Jan Zeman, Michal Šejnoha

Abstract:

The polymer foil used for manufacturing of laminated glass members behaves in a viscoelastic manner with temperature dependance. This contribution aims at incorporating the time/temperature-dependent behavior of interlayer to our earlier elastic finite element model for laminated glass beams. The model is based on a refined beam theory: each layer behaves according to the finite-strain shear deformable formulation by Reissner and the adjacent layers are connected via the Lagrange multipliers ensuring the inter-layer compatibility of a laminated unit. The time/temperature-dependent behavior of the interlayer is accounted for by the generalized Maxwell model and by the time-temperature superposition principle due to the Williams, Landel, and Ferry. The resulting system is solved by the Newton method with consistent linearization and the viscoelastic response is determined incrementally by the exponential algorithm. By comparing the model predictions against available experimental data, we demonstrate that the proposed formulation is reliable and accurately reproduces the behavior of the laminated glass units.

Keywords: Laminated glass, finite element method, finite-strain Reissner model, Lagrange multipliers, generalized Maxwell model, Williams-Landel-Ferry equation, Newton method.

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Authors: Hosni, N., Shinozaki, M.

Abstract:

Cameron Highlands is known for upland tourism area with vast natural wealth, mountainous landscape endowed with rich diverse species as well as people traditions and cultures. With these various resources, CH possesses an interesting visual and panorama that can be offered to the tourist. However this benefit may not be utilized without obtaining the understanding of existing landscape structure and visual. Given a limited data, this paper attempts to classify landscape visual of Cameron Highlands using land use and contour data. Visual points of view were determined from the given tourist attraction points in the CH Local Plan 2003-2015. The result shows landscape visual and structure categories offered in the study area. The result can be used for further analysis to determine the best alternative tourist trails for tourism planning and decision making using readily available data.

Keywords: Visibility, landscape visual, urban planning, GIS

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