Search results for: MRMC State unification Variable Prediction (MRSUP)

Authors: Rainer Schneider, Stephan Lau, Levin Kuhlmann, Simon Vogrin, Maciej Gratkowski, Mark Cook, Jens Haueisen

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Cardiac pulse-related artifacts in the EEG recorded simultaneously with fMRI are complex and highly variable. Their effective removal is an unsolved problem. Our aim is to develop an adaptive removal algorithm based on the matching pursuit (MP) technique and to compare it to established methods using a visual evoked potential (VEP). We recorded the VEP inside the static magnetic field of an MR scanner (with artifacts) as well as in an electrically shielded room (artifact free). The MP-based artifact removal outperformed average artifact subtraction (AAS) and optimal basis set removal (OBS) in terms of restoring the EEG field map topography of the VEP. Subsequently, a dipole model was fitted to the VEP under each condition using a realistic boundary element head model. The source location of the VEP recorded inside the MR scanner was closest to that of the artifact free VEP after cleaning with the MP-based algorithm as well as with AAS. While none of the tested algorithms offered complete removal, MP showed promising results due to its ability to adapt to variations of latency, frequency and amplitude of individual artifact occurrences while still utilizing a common template.

Keywords: matching pursuit, ballistocardiogram, artifactremoval, EEG/fMRI.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma, Savas Guzel

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Iron is physiologically essential. However, it also participates in the catalysis of free radical formation reactions. Its deficiency is associated with amplified health risks. This trace element establishes some links with another physiological process related to cell death, apoptosis. Both iron deficiency and iron overload are closely associated with apoptosis. Soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) has the ability to trigger apoptosis and plays a dual role in the physiological versus pathological inflammatory responses of tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the status of these parameters as well as the associations among them in children with obesity, a low-grade inflammatory state. The study was performed on groups of children with normal body mass index (N-BMI) and obesity. 43 children were included in each group. Based upon age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile tables prepared by the World Health Organization, children whose values varied between 85 and 15 were included in N-BMI group. Children, whose BMI percentile values were between 99 and 95, comprised obese (OB) group. Institutional ethical committee approval and informed consent forms were taken prior to the study. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, head circumference, neck circumference) and blood pressure values (systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure) were recorded. Routine biochemical analyses, including serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), transferrin saturation percent (Tf Sat %) and ferritin, were performed. sTWEAK levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. study data were evaluated using appropriate statistical tests performed by the statistical program SPSS. Serum iron levels were 91 ± 34 mcrg/dl and 75 ± 31 mcrg/dl in N-BMI and OB children, respectively. The corresponding values for TIBC, Tf Sat %, ferritin were 265 mcrg/dl vs. 299 mcrg/dl, 37.2 ± 19.1% vs. 26.7 ± 14.6%, and 41 ± 25 ng/ml vs 44 ± 26 ng/ml. In N-BMI and OB groups, sTWEAK concentrations were measured as 351 ng/L and 325 ng/L, respectively (p > 0.05). Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between sTWEAK levels and iron related parameters (p < 0.05) except ferritin. In conclusion, iron contributes to apoptosis. Children with iron deficiency have decreased apoptosis rate in comparison with that of healthy children. sTWEAK is an inducer of apoptosis. OB children had lower levels of both iron and sTWEAK. Low levels of sTWEAK are associated with several types of cancers and poor survival. Although iron deficiency state was not observed in this study, the correlations detected between decreased sTWEAK and decreased iron as well as Tf Sat % values were valuable findings, which point out decreased apoptosis. This may induce a proinflammatory state, potentially leading to malignancies in the future lives of OB children.

Keywords: Apoptosis, children, iron-related parameters, obesity, soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis.

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Authors: Jui P. Hung, Yuan L. Lai, Hui T. You

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Chatter vibration has been a troublesome problem for a machine tool toward the high precision and high speed machining. Essentially, the machining performance is determined by the dynamic characteristics of the machine tool structure and dynamics of cutting process, which can further be identified in terms of the stability lobe diagram. Therefore, realization on the machine tool dynamic behavior can help to enhance the cutting stability. To assess the dynamic characteristics and machining stability of a vertical milling system under the influence of a linear guide, this study developed a finite element model integrated the modeling of linear components with the implementation of contact stiffness at the rolling interface. Both the finite element simulations and experimental measurements reveal that the linear guide with different preload greatly affects the vibration behavior and milling stability of the vertical column spindle head system, which also clearly indicate that the predictions of the machining stability agree well with the cutting tests. It is believed that the proposed model can be successfully applied to evaluate the dynamics performance of machine tool systems of various configurations.

Keywords: Machining stability, Vertical milling machine, Linearguide, Contact stiffness.

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Authors: Ljubomir Nikolic, Larisa Trichtchenko

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The connection between solar activity and adverse phenomena in the Earth’s environment that can affect space and ground based technologies has spurred interest in Space Weather (SW) research. A great effort has been put on the development of suitable models that can provide advanced forecast of SW events. With the progress in computational technology, it is becoming possible to develop operational large scale physics based models which can incorporate the most important physical processes and domains of the Sun-Earth system. In order to enhance our SW prediction capabilities we are developing advanced numerical tools. With operational requirements in mind, our goal is to develop a modular simulation framework of propagation of the disturbances from the Sun through interplanetary space to the Earth. Here, we report and discuss on the development of coronal field and solar wind components for a large scale MHD code. The model for these components is based on a potential field source surface model and an empirical Wang-Sheeley-Arge solar wind relation. 

Keywords: Space weather, numerical modeling, coronal field, solar wind.

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Authors: Mohammed A. Elhaj, Jamal S. Yassin

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This paper presents the exergy analysis of a desalination unit using humidification-dehumidification process. Here, this unit is considered as a thermal system with three main components, which are the heating unit by using a solar collector, the evaporator or the humidifier, and the condenser or the dehumidifier. In these components the exergy is a measure of the quality or grade of energy and it can be destroyed in them. According to the second law of thermodynamics this destroyed part is due to irreversibilities which must be determined to obtain the exergetic efficiency of the system. In the current paper a computer program has been developed using visual basic to determine the exergy destruction and the exergetic efficiencies of the components of the desalination unit at variable operation conditions such as feed water temperature, outlet air temperature, air to feed water mass ratio and salinity, in addition to cooling water mass flow rate and inlet temperature, as well as quantity of solar irradiance. The results obtained indicate that the exergy efficiency of the humidifier increases by increasing the mass ratio and decreasing the outlet air temperature. In the other hand the exergy efficiency of the condenser increases with the increase of this ratio and also with the increase of the outlet air temperature.

Keywords: Exergy analysis, desalination, solar, humidifier, condenser.

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Authors: Azlina Binti Abu Bakar, Fahmi Zaidi Bin Abdul Razak, Wan Salihin Wong Abdullah

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Psychographic is a psychological study of values, attitudes, interests and it is used mostly in prediction, opinion research and social research. This study predicts the influence of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating condition on e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens. The survey responses of 543 e-government users have been validated and analyzed by means of covariance-based Structural Equation Modeling. The findings indicate that e-government acceptance among Malaysian citizens are mainly influenced by performance expectancy (β = 0.66, t = 11.53, p < 0.01) and social influence (β = 0.20, t = 4.23, p < 0.01). Surprisingly, there is no significant effect of facilitating condition and effort expectancy on e-government continuance intention (β = 0.01, t = 0.27, p > 0.05; β = -0.01, t = -0.40, p > 0.05). This study offers government and vendors a frame of reference to analyze citizen’s situation before initiating new innovations. In case of Malaysian e-government technology, adoption strategies should be built around fostering level of citizens’ technological expectation and social influence on e-government usage.

Keywords: Continuance intention, Malaysian citizens, media psychology, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: Noor H Jabarullah

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In the past many uneconomic solutions for limitation and interruption of short-circuit currents in low power applications have been introduced, especially polymer switch based on the positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PCTR) concept. However there are many limitations in the active material, which consists of conductive fillers. This paper presents a significantly improved and simplified approach that replaces the existing current limiters with faster switching elements. Its elegance lies in the remarkable simplicity and low-cost processes of producing the device using polyaniline (PANI) doped with methane-sulfonic acid (MSA). Samples characterized as lying in the metallic and critical regimes of metal insulator transition have been studied by means of electrical performance in the voltage range from 1V to 5 V under different environmental conditions. Moisture presence is shown to increase the resistivity and also improved its current limiting performance. Additionally, the device has also been studied for electrical resistivity in the temperature range 77 K-300 K. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity gives evidence for a transport mechanism based on variable range hopping in three dimensions.

Keywords: Conducting polymer, current limiter, intrinsic, moisture dependence, polyaniline, resettable, surge protection.

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Authors: Myint Myint Yi, Khin Sandar Linn, Marlar Kyaw

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This paper proposed a novel model for short term load forecast (STLF) in the electricity market. The prior electricity demand data are treated as time series. The model is composed of several neural networks whose data are processed using a wavelet technique. The model is created in the form of a simulation program written with MATLAB. The load data are treated as time series data. They are decomposed into several wavelet coefficient series using the wavelet transform technique known as Non-decimated Wavelet Transform (NWT). The reason for using this technique is the belief in the possibility of extracting hidden patterns from the time series data. The wavelet coefficient series are used to train the neural networks (NNs) and used as the inputs to the NNs for electricity load prediction. The Scale Conjugate Gradient (SCG) algorithm is used as the learning algorithm for the NNs. To get the final forecast data, the outputs from the NNs are recombined using the same wavelet technique. The model was evaluated with the electricity load data of Electronic Engineering Department in Mandalay Technological University in Myanmar. The simulation results showed that the model was capable of producing a reasonable forecasting accuracy in STLF.

Keywords: Neural network, Load forecast, Time series, wavelettransform.

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Authors: Stefan M. Goetz, Thomas Weyh, Hans-Georg Herzog

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The triumph of inductive neuro-stimulation since its rediscovery in the 1980s has been quite spectacular. In lots of branches ranging from clinical applications to basic research this system is absolutely indispensable. Nevertheless, the basic knowledge about the processes underlying the stimulation effect is still very rough and rarely refined in a quantitative way. This seems to be not only an inexcusable blank spot in biophysics and for stimulation prediction, but also a fundamental hindrance for technological progress. The already very sophisticated devices have reached a stage where further optimization requires better strategies than provided by simple linear membrane models of integrate-and-fire style. Addressing this problem for the first time, we suggest in the following text a way for virtual quantitative analysis of a stimulation system. Concomitantly, this ansatz seems to provide a route towards a better understanding by using nonlinear signal processing and taking the nerve as a filter that is adapted for neuronal magnetic stimulation. The model is compact and easy to adjust. The whole setup behaved very robustly during all performed tests. Exemplarily a recent innovative stimulator design known as cTMS is analyzed and dimensioned with this approach in the following. The results show hitherto unforeseen potentials.

Keywords: Theory of magnetic stimulation, inversion, optimization, high voltage oscillator, TMS, cTMS.

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Authors: Sina Fadaie, Seyed Abolhassan Naeini

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Coastal embankments play an important role in coastal structures by reducing the effect of the wave forces and controlling the movement of sediments. Many coastal areas are underlain by weak and compressible soils. Estimation of during construction settlement of coastal embankments is highly important in design and safety control of embankments and appurtenant structures. Accordingly, selecting and establishing of an appropriate model with a reasonable level of complication is one of the challenges for engineers. Although there are advanced models in the literature regarding design of embankments, there is not enough information on the prediction of their associated settlement, particularly in coastal areas having considerable soft soils. Marine engineering study in Iran is important due to the existence of two important coastal areas located in the northern and southern parts of the country. In the present study, the validity of Terzaghi’s consolidation theory has been investigated. In addition, the settlement of these coastal embankments during construction is predicted by using special methods in PLAXIS software by the help of appropriate boundary conditions and soil layers. The results indicate that, for the existing soil condition at the site, some parameters are important to be considered in analysis. Consequently, a model is introduced to estimate the settlement of the embankments in such geotechnical conditions.

Keywords: Consolidation, coastal embankments, settlement, numerical methods, finite elements method.

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Authors: Dionisios Panagiotaras, Dimitrios Papoulis, Elias Stathatos

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Microfibrous palygorskite and tubular halloysite clay mineral combined with nanocrystalline TiO₂ are incorporating in the preparation of nanocomposite films on glass substrates via sol-gel route at 450^oC. The synthesis is employing nonionic surfactant molecule as pore directing agent along with acetic acid-based sol-gel route without addition of water molecules. Drying and thermal treatment of composite films ensure elimination of organic material lead to the formation of TiO₂ nanoparticles homogeneously distributed on the palygorskite or halloysite surfaces. Nanocomposite films without cracks of active anatase crystal phase on palygorskite and halloysite surfaces are characterized by microscopy techniques, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and porosimetry methods in order to examine their structural properties.

The composite palygorskite-TiO₂ and halloysite-TiO₂ films with variable quantities of palygorskite and halloysite were tested as photocatalysts in the photo-oxidation of Basic Blue 41 azo dye in water. These nanocomposite films proved to be most promising photocatalysts and highly effective to dye’s decoloration in spite of small amount of palygorskite-TiO₂ or halloysite-TiO₂ catalyst immobilized onto glass substrates mainly due to the high surface area and uniform distribution of TiO₂ on clay minerals avoiding aggregation.

Keywords: Halloysite, Palygorskite, Photocatalysis, Titanium Dioxide.

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Authors: Zhang Tianci, Ding Meng, Zuo Hongfu, Zeng Lina, Sun Zejun

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Automation of airport operations can greatly improve ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage, speeds are allocated at control points, which ensure smooth speed profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method for the second-stage problem, since it only has a small set of discrete variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented methodology performs well on real world speed profile design problems.

Keywords: Airport ground movement, fuel consumption, particle swarm optimization, smoothness, speed profile design.

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Authors: A. Kablan

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The prediction of financial time series is a very complicated process. If the efficient market hypothesis holds, then the predictability of most financial time series would be a rather controversial issue, due to the fact that the current price contains already all available information in the market. This paper extends the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System for High Frequency Trading which is an expert system that is capable of using fuzzy reasoning combined with the pattern recognition capability of neural networks to be used in financial forecasting and trading in high frequency. However, in order to eliminate unnecessary input in the training phase a new event based volatility model was proposed. Taking volatility and the scaling laws of financial time series into consideration has brought about the development of the Intraday Seasonality Observation Model. This new model allows the observation of specific events and seasonalities in data and subsequently removes any unnecessary data. This new event based volatility model provides the ANFIS system with more accurate input and has increased the overall performance of the system.

Keywords: Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference system, High Frequency Trading, Intraday Seasonality Observation Model.

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Authors: Fares Laouacheria, Said Kechida, Moncef Chabi

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The objective of the study was based on the hydrological routing modelling for the continuous monitoring of the hydrological situation in the Moudjar river catchment, especially during floods with Hydrologic Engineering Center–Hydrologic Modelling Systems (HEC-HMS). The HEC-GeoHMS was used to transform data from geographic information system (GIS) to HEC-HMS for delineating and modelling the catchment river in order to estimate the runoff volume, which is used as inputs to the hydrological routing model. Two hydrological routing models were used, namely Muskingum and Muskingum routing models, for conducting this study. In this study, a comparison between the parameters of the Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge routing models in HEC-HMS was used for modelling flood routing in the Moudjar river catchment and determining the relationship between these parameters and the physical characteristics of the river. The results indicate that the effects of input parameters such as the weighting factor "X" and travel time "K" on the output results are more significant, where the Muskingum routing model was more sensitive to input parameters than the Muskingum-Cunge routing model. This study can contribute to understand and improve the knowledge of the mechanisms of river floods, especially in ungauged river catchments.

Keywords: HEC-HMS, hydrological modelling, Muskingum routing model, Muskingum-Cunge routing model.

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Authors: K. D. R. Jagath-Kumara, D. D. Dias

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The sea waves carry thousands of GWs of power globally. Although there are a number of different approaches to harness offshore energy, they are likely to be expensive, practically challenging, and vulnerable to storms. Therefore, this paper considers using the near shore waves for generating mechanical and electrical power. It introduces two new approaches, the wave manipulation and using a variable duct turbine, for intercepting very wide wave fronts and coping with the fluctuations of the wave height and the sea level, respectively. The first approach effectively allows capturing much more energy yet with a much narrower turbine rotor. The second approach allows using a rotor with a smaller radius but captures energy of higher wave fronts at higher sea levels yet preventing it from totally submerging. To illustrate the effectiveness of the first approach, the paper contains a description and the simulation results of a scale model of a wave manipulator. Then, it includes the results of testing a physical model of the manipulator and a single duct, axial flow turbine in a wave flume in the laboratory. The paper also includes comparisons of theoretical predictions, simulation results, and wave flume tests with respect to the incident energy, loss in wave manipulation, minimal loss, brake torque, and the angular velocity.

Keywords: Near-shore sea waves, Renewable energy, Wave energy conversion, Wave manipulation.

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Authors: Suresh Shirgave, Prakash Kulkarni, José Borges

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The continuous growth in the size of the World Wide Web has resulted in intricate Web sites, demanding enhanced user skills and more sophisticated tools to help the Web user to find the desired information. In order to make Web more user friendly, it is necessary to provide personalized services and recommendations to the Web user. For discovering interesting and frequent navigation patterns from Web server logs many Web usage mining techniques have been applied. The recommendation accuracy of usage based techniques can be improved by integrating Web site content and site structure in the personalization process.

Herein, we propose semantically enriched Web Usage Mining method for Personalization (SWUMP), an extension to solely usage based technique. This approach is a combination of the fields of Web Usage Mining and Semantic Web. In the proposed method, we envisage enriching the undirected graph derived from usage data with rich semantic information extracted from the Web pages and the Web site structure. The experimental results show that the SWUMP generates accurate recommendations and is able to achieve 10-20% better accuracy than the solely usage based model. The SWUMP addresses the new item problem inherent to solely usage based techniques.

Keywords: Prediction, Recommendation, Semantic Web Usage Mining, Web Usage Mining.

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Authors: Abolfazl Hosseinkhani, Sepehr Sanaye

Abstract:

Different approaches have been used to predict the performance of the vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT), such as experimental, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and analytical methods. Analytical methods, such as momentum models that use streamtubes, have low computational cost and sufficient accuracy. The double multiple streamtube (DMST) is one of the most commonly used of momentum models, which divide the rotor plane of VAWT into upwind and downwind. In fact, results from the DMST method have shown some discrepancy compared with experiment results; that is because the Darrieus turbine is a complex and aerodynamically unsteady configuration. In this study, analytical-experimental-based corrections, including dynamic stall, streamtube expansion, and finite blade length correction are used to improve the DMST method. Results indicated that using these corrections for a SANDIA 17-m VAWT will lead to improving the results of DMST.

Keywords: Vertical axis wind turbine, analytical, double multiple streamtube, streamtube expansion model, dynamic stall model, finite blade length correction.

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Authors: Dharni Vasudhevan Venkatesan, Shanjay K E, Sujith Kumar H, Abhilash N A, Aswin Ram D, V.R.Sanal Kumar

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Numerical studies on race car aerodynamics at wing in ground effect have been carried out using a steady 3d, double precision, pressure-based, and standard k-epsilon turbulence model. Through various parametric analytical studies we have observed that at a particular speed and ground clearance of the wings a favorable negative lift was found high at a particular angle of attack for all the physical models considered in this paper. The fact is that if the ground clearance height to chord length (h/c) is too small, the developing boundary layers from either side (the ground and the lower surface of the wing) can interact, leading to an altered variation of the aerodynamic characteristics at wing in ground effect. Therefore a suitable ground clearance must be predicted throughout the racing for a better performance of the race car, which obviously depends upon the coupled effects of the topography, wing orientation with respect to the ground, the incoming flow features and/or the race car speed. We have concluded that for the design of high performance and high speed race cars the adjustable wings capable to alter the ground clearance and the angles of attack is the best design option for any race car for racing safely with variable speeds.

Keywords: External aerodynamics, External Flow Choking, Race car aerodynamics, Wing in Ground Effect.

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Authors: S. Jursová, P. Pustějovská, S. Brožová, J. Bilík

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The paper deals with possibilities of interpretation of iron ore reducibility tests. It presents a mathematical model developed at Centre ENET, VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic for an evaluation of metallurgical material of blast furnace feedstock such as iron ore, sinter or pellets. According to the data from the test, the model predicts its usage in blast furnace technology and its effects on production parameters of shaft aggregate. At the beginning, the paper sums up the general concept and experience in mathematical modelling of iron ore reduction. It presents basic equation for the calculation and the main parts of the developed model. In the experimental part, there is an example of usage of the mathematical model. The paper describes the usage of data for some predictive calculation. There are presented material, method of carried test of iron ore reducibility. Then there are graphically interpreted effects of used material on carbon consumption, rate of direct reduction and the whole reduction process.

Keywords: Blast furnace technology, iron ore reduction, mathematical model, prediction of iron ore reduction.

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Authors: Debashree Guha, Debjani Chakraborty

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The aim of this paper is to adopt a compromise ratio (CR) methodology for fuzzy multi-attribute single-expert decision making proble. In this paper, the rating of each alternative has been described by linguistic terms, which can be expressed as triangular fuzzy numbers. The compromise ratio method for fuzzy multi-attribute single expert decision making has been considered here by taking the ranking index based on the concept that the chosen alternative should be as close as possible to the ideal solution and as far away as possible from the negative-ideal solution simultaneously. From logical point of view, the distance between two triangular fuzzy numbers also is a fuzzy number, not a crisp value. Therefore a fuzzy distance measure, which is itself a fuzzy number, has been used here to calculate the difference between two triangular fuzzy numbers. Now in this paper, with the help of this fuzzy distance measure, it has been shown that the compromise ratio is a fuzzy number and this eases the problem of the decision maker to take the decision. The computation principle and the procedure of the compromise ratio method have been described in detail in this paper. A comparative analysis of the compromise ratio method previously proposed [1] and the newly adopted method have been illustrated with two numerical examples.

Keywords: Compromise ratio method, Fuzzy multi-attributesingle-expert decision making, Fuzzy number, Linguistic variable

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Authors: Benjamin Gorry, Zezhi Chen, Kevin Hammond, Andy Wallace, Greg Michaelson

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This paper describes new computer vision algorithms that have been developed to track moving objects as part of a long-term study into the design of (semi-)autonomous vehicles. We present the results of a study to exploit variable kernels for tracking in video sequences. The basis of our work is the mean shift object-tracking algorithm; for a moving target, it is usual to define a rectangular target window in an initial frame, and then process the data within that window to separate the tracked object from the background by the mean shift segmentation algorithm. Rather than use the standard, Epanechnikov kernel, we have used a kernel weighted by the Chamfer distance transform to improve the accuracy of target representation and localization, minimising the distance between the two distributions in RGB color space using the Bhattacharyya coefficient. Experimental results show the improved tracking capability and versatility of the algorithm in comparison with results using the standard kernel. These algorithms are incorporated as part of a robot test-bed architecture which has been used to demonstrate their effectiveness.

Keywords: Hume, functional programming, autonomous vehicle, pioneer robot, vision.

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Authors: David G. Maxínez, Francisco Javier Sánchez Rangel, Guillermo Castillo Tapia, Petra Baldovinos Noyola, M. Antonieta García Galván, Moisés G Sierra

Abstract:

Describes the current situation of educational Robotics "the State of the art" its concept, its evolution their niches of opportunity, academic and business and the importance of education and academic outreach. It shows that the development of high-tech automated educational materials influence the teaching-learning process and that communication between machines and humans is a reality.

Keywords: Education, robotics, robots, technology, innovation, educational constructivism

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Authors: Omar Al Denali, Abdelaziz Badi

Abstract:

The ASTM A516 Grade 70 steel is a suitable material used for the fabrication of boiler pressure vessels working in moderate and lower temperature services, and it has good weldability and excellent notch toughness. The post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) or stress-relieving heat treatment has significant effects on avoiding the martensite transformation and resulting in high hardness, which can lead to cracking in the heat-affected zone (HAZ). An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was implemented to predict the material tensile strength of PWHT experiments. The ANFIS models presented excellent predictions, and the comparison was carried out based on the mean absolute percentage error between the predicted values and the experimental values. The ANFIS model gave a Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 0.556%, which confirms the high accuracy of the model.

Keywords: Prediction, post-weld heat treatment, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, ANFIS, mean absolute percentage error.

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Authors: Okezie A. Ihugba

Abstract:

The bounds testing ARDL (2, 2, 2, 2, 0) technique to cointegration was used in this study to investigate the effect of energy consumption and energy loss on Nigeria's manufacturing sector from 1981 to 2020. The model was created to determine the relationship between these three variables while also accounting for interactions with control variables such as inflation and commercial bank loans to the manufacturing sector. When the dependent variables are energy consumption and energy loss, the bound tests show that the variables of interest are bound together in the long run. Because electricity consumption is a critical factor in determining manufacturing value-added in Nigeria, some intriguing observations were made. According to the findings, the relationship between log of electricity consumption (LELC) and log of manufacturing value added (LMVA) is statistically significant. According to the findings, electricity consumption reduces manufacturing value-added. The target variable (energy loss) is statistically significant and has a positive sign. In Nigeria, a 1% reduction in energy loss increases manufacturing value-added by 36% in the first lag and 35% in the second. According to the study, the government should speed up the ongoing renovation of existing power plants across the country, as well as the construction of new gas-fired power plants. This will address a number of issues, including overpricing of electricity as a result of grid failure.

Keywords: ARDL, cointegration, Nigeria's manufacturing, electricity.

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Authors: N. Lokeshwari, G. Srinikethan, V. S. Hegde

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Monitoring is essential to assessing the effectiveness of air pollution control actions. The goal of the air quality information system is through monitoring, to keep authorities, major polluters and the public informed on the short and long-term changes in air quality, thereby helping to raise awareness. Mathematical models are the best tools available for the prediction of the air quality management. The main objective of the work was to apply a Model that predicts the concentration levels of different pollutants at any instant of time. In this study, distribution of air pollutants concentration such as nitrogen dioxides (NO₂), sulphur dioxides (SO₂) and total suspended particulates (TSP) of industries are determined by using Gaussian model. Besides that, the effect of wind speed and its direction on the pollutant concentration within the affected area were evaluated. In order to determine the efficiency and percentage of error in the modeling, validation process of data was done. Sampling of air quality was conducted in getting existing air quality around a factory and the concentrations of pollutants in a plume were inversely proportional to wind velocity. The resultant ground level concentrations were then compared to the quality standards to determine if there could be a negative impact on health. This study concludes that concentration of pollutants can be significantly predicted using Gaussian Model. The data base management is developed for the air data of Hubli-Dharwad region.

Keywords: DBMS, NO2, SO2, Wind rose plots.

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Authors: Palak J. Shukla, Atul K. Desai, Chentankumar D. Modhera

Abstract:

For any country in the world, it has become a priority to protect the critical infrastructure from looming risks of terrorism. In any infrastructure system, the structural elements like lower floors, exterior columns, walls etc. are key elements which are the most susceptible to damage due to blast load. The present study revisits the state of art review of the design and analysis of reinforced concrete panels subjected to blast loading. Various aspects in association with blast loading on structure, i.e. estimation of blast load, experimental works carried out previously, the numerical simulation tools, various material models, etc. are considered for exploring the current practices adopted worldwide. Discussion on various parametric studies to investigate the effect of reinforcement ratios, thickness of slab, different charge weight and standoff distance is also made. It was observed that for the simulation of blast load, CONWEP blast function or equivalent numerical equations were successfully employed by many researchers. The study of literature indicates that the researches were carried out using experimental works and numerical simulation using well known generalized finite element methods, i.e. LS-DYNA, ABAQUS, AUTODYN. Many researchers recommended to use concrete damage model to represent concrete and plastic kinematic material model to represent steel under action of blast loads for most of the numerical simulations. Most of the studies reveal that the increase reinforcement ratio, thickness of slab, standoff distance was resulted in better blast resistance performance of reinforced concrete panel. The study summarizes the various research results and appends the present state of knowledge for the structures exposed to blast loading.

Keywords: Blast phenomenon, experimental methods, material models, numerical methods.

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Authors: Wu Qinglong, Zhou Qicai, Xiong Xiaolei, Zhang Richeng

Abstract:

In order to achieve the layout and size optimization of the web members of tower crane boom, a truss topology and cross section size optimization method based on continuum is proposed considering three typical working conditions. Firstly, the optimization model is established by replacing web members with web plates. And the web plates are divided into several sub-domains so that periodic soft kill option (SKO) method can be carried out for topology optimization of the slender boom. After getting the optimized topology of web plates, the optimized layout of web members is formed through extracting the principal stress distribution. Finally, using the web member radius as design variable, the boom compliance as objective and the material volume of the boom as constraint, the cross section size optimization mathematical model is established. The size optimization criterion is deduced from the mathematical model by Lagrange multiplier method and Kuhn-Tucker condition. By comparing the original boom with the optimal boom, it is identified that this optimization method can effectively lighten the boom and improve its performance.

Keywords: Tower crane boom, topology optimization, size optimization, periodic, soft kill option, optimization criterion.

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Authors: Mohammad Abdallah

Abstract:

Due to the constant increase in terrorist attacks, the research and engineering communities have given significant attention to building performance under explosions. This paper presents a methodology for studying and simulating the dynamic responses of steel structures during external detonations, particularly for accurately investigating the impact of incrementing charge weight on the members total behavior, resistance and failure. Prediction damage method was introduced to evaluate the damage level of the steel members based on five scenarios of explosions. Johnson–Cook strength and failure model have been used as well as ABAQUS finite element code to simulate the explicit dynamic analysis, and antecedent field tests were used to verify the acceptance and accuracy of the proposed material strength and failure model. Based on the structural response, evaluation criteria such as deflection, vertical displacement, drift index, and damage level; the obtained results show the vulnerability of steel columns and un-braced steel frames which are designed and optimized to carry dead and live load to resist and endure blast loading.

Keywords: Steel structure, blast load, terrorist attacks, charge weight, damage level.

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Authors: Siddhartha Chauhan, Nitin Kumar Kotania

Abstract:

Traditional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) generally use static sinks to collect data from the sensor nodes via multiple forwarding. Therefore, network suffers with some problems like long message relay time, bottle neck problem which reduces the performance of the network.

Many approaches have been proposed to prevent this problem with the help of mobile sink to collect the data from the sensor nodes, but these approaches still suffer from the buffer overflow problem due to limited memory size of sensor nodes. This paper proposes an energy efficient scheme for data gathering which overcomes the buffer overflow problem. The proposed scheme creates virtual grid structure of heterogeneous nodes. Scheme has been designed for sensor nodes having variable sensing rate. Every node finds out its buffer overflow time and on the basis of this cluster heads are elected. A controlled traversing approach is used by the proposed scheme in order to transmit data to sink. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified by simulation.

Keywords: Buffer overflow problem, Mobile sink, Virtual grid, Wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: M. Sadoughi, R. Ehsani

Abstract:

The aim of the present study is examining the relationship between conceptual organizational culture and the level of tolerance in employees of Islamic Azad University of Shahre Ghods. This research is a correlational and analytic-descriptive one. The samples included 144 individuals. A 24-item standard questionnaire of organizational culture by Cameron and Queen was used in this study. This questionnaire has six criteria and each criterion includes four items that each item indicates one cultural dimension. Reliability coefficient of this questionnaire was normed using Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. Also, the 25-item questionnaire of tolerance by Conor and Davidson was used. This questionnaire is in a five-degree Likert scale form. It has seven criteria and is designed to measure the power of coping with pressure and threat. It has the needed content reliability and its reliability coefficient is normed using Cronbach's alpha of 0.87. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariable regression. The results showed among various dimensions of organizational culture, there is a positive significant relationship between three dimensions (family, adhocracy, bureaucracy) and tolerance, there is a negative significant relationship between dimension of market and tolerance and components of organizational culture have the power of prediction and explaining the tolerance. In this explanation, the component of family is the most effective and the best predictor of tolerance.

Keywords: Adhocracy, bureaucracy, organizational culture, tolerance.

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