Search results for: Intensive Exercise
209 ANN Models for Microstrip Line Synthesis and Analysis
Authors: Dr.K.Sri Rama Krishna, J.Lakshmi Narayana, Dr.L.Pratap Reddy
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Microstrip lines, widely used for good reason, are broadband in frequency and provide circuits that are compact and light in weight. They are generally economical to produce since they are readily adaptable to hybrid and monolithic integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technologies at RF and microwave frequencies. Although, the existing EM simulation models used for the synthesis and analysis of microstrip lines are reasonably accurate, they are computationally intensive and time consuming. Neural networks recently gained attention as fast and flexible vehicles to microwave modeling, simulation and optimization. After learning and abstracting from microwave data, through a process called training, neural network models are used during microwave design to provide instant answers to the task learned.This paper presents simple and accurate ANN models for the synthesis and analysis of Microstrip lines to more accurately compute the characteristic parameters and the physical dimensions respectively for the required design specifications.Keywords: Neural Models, Algorithms, Microstrip Lines, Analysis, Synthesis
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2149208 Pathway to Reduce Industrial Energy Intensity for Energy Conservation at Chinese Provincial Level
Authors: Shengman Zhao, Yang Yu, Shenghui Cui
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Using logarithmic mean Divisia decomposition technique, this paper analyzes the change in industrial energy intensity of Fujian Province in China, based on data sets of added value and energy consumption for 35 selected industrial sub-sectors from 1999 to 2009. The change in industrial energy intensity is decomposed into intensity effect and structure effect. Results show that the industrial energy intensity of Fujian Province has achieved a reduction of 51% over the past ten years. The structural change, a shift in the mix of industrial sub-sectors, made overwhelming contribution to the reduction. The impact of energy efficiency’s improvement was relatively small. However, the aggregate industrial energy intensity was very sensitive to both the changes in energy intensity and in production share of energy-intensive sub-sectors, such as production and supply of electric power, steam and hot water. Pathway to reduce industrial energy intensity for energy conservation in Fujian Province is proposed in the end.
Keywords: Decomposition analysis, energy intensity, Fujian Province, industry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1387207 Weight Functions for Signal Reconstruction Based On Level Crossings
Authors: Nagesha, G. Hemantha Kumar
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Although the level crossing concept has been the subject of intensive investigation over the last few years, certain problems of great interest remain unsolved. One of these concern is distribution of threshold levels. This paper presents a new threshold level allocation schemes for level crossing based on nonuniform sampling. Intuitively, it is more reasonable if the information rich regions of the signal are sampled finer and those with sparse information are sampled coarser. To achieve this objective, we propose non-linear quantization functions which dynamically assign the number of quantization levels depending on the importance of the given amplitude range. Two new approaches to determine the importance of the given amplitude segment are presented. The proposed methods are based on exponential and logarithmic functions. Various aspects of proposed techniques are discussed and experimentally validated. Its efficacy is investigated by comparison with uniform sampling.
Keywords: speech signals, sampling, signal reconstruction, asynchronousdelta modulation, non-linear quantization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1650206 Evaluating and Selecting Optimization Software Packages: A Framework for Business Applications
Authors: Waleed Abohamad, Amr Arisha
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Owing the fact that optimization of business process is a crucial requirement to navigate, survive and even thrive in today-s volatile business environment, this paper presents a framework for selecting a best-fit optimization package for solving complex business problems. Complexity level of the problem and/or using incorrect optimization software can lead to biased solutions of the optimization problem. Accordingly, the proposed framework identifies a number of relevant factors (e.g. decision variables, objective functions, and modeling approach) to be considered during the evaluation and selection process. Application domain, problem specifications, and available accredited optimization approaches are also to be regarded. A recommendation of one or two optimization software is the output of the framework which is believed to provide the best results of the underlying problem. In addition to a set of guidelines and recommendations on how managers can conduct an effective optimization exercise is discussed.Keywords: Complex Business Problems, Optimization, Selection Criteria, Software Evaluation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2908205 Assessment of Influence of Short-Lasting Whole-Body Vibration on Joint Position Sense and Body Balance–A Randomised Masked Study
Authors: Anna Słupik, Anna Mosiołek, Sebastian Wójtowicz, Dariusz Białoszewski
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Introduction: Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) uses high frequency mechanical stimuli generated by a vibration plate and transmitted through bone, muscle and connective tissues to the whole body. Research has shown that long-term vibration-plate training improves neuromuscular facilitation, especially in afferent neural pathways, responsible for the conduction of vibration and proprioceptive stimuli, muscle function, balance and proprioception. Some researchers suggest that the vibration stimulus briefly inhibits the conduction of afferent signals from proprioceptors and can interfere with the maintenance of body balance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of a single set of exercises associated with whole-body vibration on the joint position sense and body balance. Material and methods: The study enrolled 55 people aged 19-24 years. These individuals were randomly divided into a test group (30 persons) and a control group (25 persons). Both groups performed the same set of exercises on a vibration plate. The following vibration parameters: frequency of 20Hz and amplitude of 3mm, were used in the test group. The control group performed exercises on the vibration plate while it was off. All participants were instructed to perform six dynamic exercises lasting 30 seconds each with a 60-second period of rest between them. The exercises involved large muscle groups of the trunk, pelvis and lower limbs. Measurements were carried out before and immediately after exercise. Joint position sense (JPS) was measured in the knee joint for the starting position at 45° in an open kinematic chain. JPS error was measured using a digital inclinometer. Balance was assessed in a standing position with both feet on the ground with the eyes open and closed (each test lasting 30 sec). Balance was assessed using Matscan with FootMat 7.0 SAM software. The surface of the ellipse of confidence and front-back as well as right-left swing were measured to assess balance. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 10.0 PL software. Results: There were no significant differences between the groups, both before and after the exercise (p> 0.05). JPS did not change in both the test (10.7° vs. 8.4°) and control groups (9.0° vs. 8.4°). No significant differences were shown in any of the test parameters during balance tests with the eyes open or closed in both the test and control groups (p> 0.05). Conclusions: 1. Deterioration in proprioception or balance was not observed immediately after the vibration stimulus. This suggests that vibrationinduced blockage of proprioceptive stimuli conduction can have only a short-lasting effect that occurs only as long as a vibration stimulus is present. 2. Short-term use of vibration in treatment does not impair proprioception and seems to be safe for patients with proprioceptive impairment. 3. These results need to be supplemented with an assessment of proprioception during the application of vibration stimuli. Additionally, the impact of vibration parameters used in the exercises should be evaluated.Keywords: Balance, joint position sense, proprioception, whole body vibration.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1608204 Functional Decomposition Based Effort Estimation Model for Software-Intensive Systems
Authors: Nermin Sökmen
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An effort estimation model is needed for softwareintensive projects that consist of hardware, embedded software or some combination of the two, as well as high level software solutions. This paper first focuses on functional decomposition techniques to measure functional complexity of a computer system and investigates its impact on system development effort. Later, it examines effects of technical difficulty and design team capability factors in order to construct the best effort estimation model. With using traditional regression analysis technique, the study develops a system development effort estimation model which takes functional complexity, technical difficulty and design team capability factors as input parameters. Finally, the assumptions of the model are tested.
Keywords: Functional complexity, functional decomposition, development effort, technical difficulty, design team capability, regression analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2277203 The Current Awareness of Just-In-Time Techniques within the Libyan Textile Private Industry: A Case Study
Authors: Rajab Abdullah Hokoma
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Almost all Libyan industries (both private and public) have struggled with many difficulties during the past three decades due to many problems. These problems have created a strongly negative impact on the productivity and utilization of many companies within Libya. This paper studies the current awareness and implementation levels of Just-In-Time (JIT) within the Libyan Textile private industry. A survey has been applied in this study using an intensive detailed questionnaire. Based on the analysis of the survey responses, the results show that the management body within the surveyed companies has a modest strategy towards most of the areas that are considered as being very crucial in any successful implementation of JIT. The results also show a variation within the implementation levels of the JIT elements as these varies between Low and Acceptable levels. The paper has also identified limitations within the investigated areas within this industry, and has pointed to areas where senior managers within the Libyan textile industry should take immediate actions in order to achieve effective implementation of JIT within their companies.
Keywords: Industry, questionnaire, JIT, textile.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2043202 An Energy-Efficient Model of Integrating Telehealth IoT Devices with Fog and Cloud Computing-Based Platform
Authors: Yunyong Guo, Sudhakar Ganti, Bryan Guo
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The rapid growth of telehealth Internet of Things (IoT) devices has raised concerns about energy consumption and efficient data processing. This paper presents an energy-efficient model that integrates telehealth IoT devices with a fog and cloud computing-based platform, offering a sustainable and robust solution to overcome these challenges. Our model employs fog computing as a localized data processing layer while leveraging cloud computing for resource-intensive tasks, significantly reducing energy consumption. We incorporate adaptive energy-saving strategies. Simulation analysis validates our approach's effectiveness in enhancing energy efficiency for telehealth IoT systems integrated with localized fog nodes and both private and public cloud infrastructures. Future research will focus on further optimization of the energy-saving model, exploring additional functional enhancements, and assessing its broader applicability in other healthcare and industry sectors.
Keywords: Energy-efficient, fog computing, IoT, telehealth.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 146201 Fault Detection and Identification of COSMED K4b2 Based On PCA and Neural Network
Authors: Jing Zhou, Steven Su, Aihuang Guo
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COSMED K4b2 is a portable electrical device designed to test pulmonary functions. It is ideal for many applications that need the measurement of the cardio-respiratory response either in the field or in the lab is capable with the capability to delivery real time data to a sink node or a PC base station with storing data in the memory at the same time. But the actual sensor outputs and data received may contain some errors, such as impulsive noise which can be related to sensors, low batteries, environment or disturbance in data acquisition process. These abnormal outputs might cause misinterpretations of exercise or living activities to persons being monitored. In our paper we propose an effective and feasible method to detect and identify errors in applications by principal component analysis (PCA) and a back propagation (BP) neural network.
Keywords: BP Neural Network, Exercising Testing, Fault Detection and Identification, Principal Component Analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3074200 A Pattern Language for Software Debugging
Authors: Mehdi Amoui, Mohammad Zarafshan, Caro Lucas
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In spite of all advancement in software testing, debugging remains a labor-intensive, manual, time consuming, and error prone process. A candidate solution to enhance debugging process is to fuse it with testing process. To achieve this integration, a possible solution may be categorizing common software tests and errors followed by the effort on fixing the errors through general solutions for each test/error pair. Our approach to address this issue is based on Christopher Alexander-s pattern and pattern language concepts. The patterns in this language are grouped into three major sections and connect the three concepts of test, error, and debug. These patterns and their hierarchical relationship shape a pattern language that introduces a solution to solve software errors in a known testing context. Finally, we will introduce our developed framework ADE as a sample implementation to support a pattern of proposed language, which aims to automate the whole process of evolving software design via evolutionary methods.Keywords: Coding Errors, Software debugging, Testing, Patterns, Pattern Language
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1409199 Water Reallocation Policies – The Importance of Rural and Urban Differences in Alberta, Canada
Authors: Henning Bjornlund, Alec Zuo, Sarah Wheeler, Rob de Loë
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There is currently intensive debate in Alberta, Canada, regarding rural to urban water reallocation. This paper explores the demographic and attitudinal influences that are associated with the acceptance of water reallocation policies and whether such acceptance differs between urban and rural residents. We investigate three policy orientations in regards to water policies: i) government intervention; ii) environmental protection; and iii) protecting irrigators- water rights. We find that urban dwellers are more likely to favour government intervention while rural dwellers are more likely to support policies that aim at protecting irrigators- water rights. While urban dwellers are also more likely to favour environmental protection, the difference is not statistically significant. We also find that other factors have a significant impact on policy choice irrespective of residence such as demographic and socioeconomic factors as well as the values people hold toward water and the environment.Keywords: Canada, rural, urban, water transfers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1394198 Assessing Community Participation in Decision-Making Process under Co-Management: A Case Study on Hail Haor, Bangladesh
Authors: R. Ferdous
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Power, responsibility sharing, and democratic decision-making are the central ethos to co-management. It is assumed that involving local community in the decision-making process can create a sense of ownership and responsibility of that community and motivate the community towards collective action. But this paper demonstrated that the process to involve local community is not simple and straightforward as it is influenced by structural aspects, power relations among the actors, and social embedded institutions. These factors shape the process in that way who will participate, how they will participate and how the local community maneuvers their agency in the decision-making process. To grasp the complexities that materialize in the process of participation and to understand the inclusionary and exclusionary nature of participation, this paper examines the subjective understanding of different stakeholders concerning participation and furthermore observes the enabling or constraining factors that affect the community to exercise their agency.
Keywords: Participation, social embeddedness, power, structure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1686197 A Straightforward Approach for Determining the Weights of Decision Makers Based on Angle Cosine and Projection Method
Authors: Qiang Yang, Ping-An Du
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Group decision making with multiple attribute has attracted intensive concern in the decision analysis area. This paper assumes that the contributions of all the decision makers (DMs) are not equal to the decision process based on different knowledge and experience in group setting. The aim of this paper is to develop a novel approach to determine weights of DMs in the group decision making problems. In this paper, the weights of DMs are determined in the group decision environment via angle cosine and projection method. First of all, the average decision of all individual decisions is defined as the ideal decision. After that, we define the weight of each decision maker (DM) by aggregating the angle cosine and projection between individual decision and ideal decision with associated direction indicator μ. By using the weights of DMs, all individual decisions are aggregated into a collective decision. Further, the preference order of alternatives is ranked in accordance with the overall row value of collective decision. Finally, an example in a chemical company is provided to illustrate the developed approach.Keywords: Angel cosine, ideal decision, projection method, weights of decision makers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1857196 Averaging Model of a Three-Phase Controlled Rectifier Feeding an Uncontrolled Buck Converter
Authors: P. Ruttanee, K-N. Areerak, K-L. Areerak
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Dynamic models of power converters are normally time-varying because of their switching actions. Several approaches are applied to analyze the power converters to achieve the timeinvariant models suitable for system analysis and design via the classical control theory. The paper presents how to derive dynamic models of the power system consisting of a three-phase controlled rectifier feeding an uncontrolled buck converter by using the combination between the well known techniques called the DQ and the generalized state-space averaging methods. The intensive timedomain simulations of the exact topology model are used to support the accuracies of the reported model. The results show that the proposed model can provide good accuracies in both transient and steady-state responses.Keywords: DQ method, Generalized state-space averaging method, Three-phase controlled rectifier, Uncontrolled buck converter, Averaging model, Modeling, Simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3819195 Chemical Reaction Algorithm for Expectation Maximization Clustering
Authors: Li Ni, Pen ManMan, Li KenLi
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Clustering is an intensive research for some years because of its multifaceted applications, such as biology, information retrieval, medicine, business and so on. The expectation maximization (EM) is a kind of algorithm framework in clustering methods, one of the ten algorithms of machine learning. Traditionally, optimization of objective function has been the standard approach in EM. Hence, research has investigated the utility of evolutionary computing and related techniques in the regard. Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) is a recently established method. So the property embedded in CRO is used to solve optimization problems. This paper presents an algorithm framework (EM-CRO) with modified CRO operators based on EM cluster problems. The hybrid algorithm is mainly to solve the problem of initial value sensitivity of the objective function optimization clustering algorithm. Our experiments mainly take the EM classic algorithm:k-means and fuzzy k-means as an example, through the CRO algorithm to optimize its initial value, get K-means-CRO and FKM-CRO algorithm. The experimental results of them show that there is improved efficiency for solving objective function optimization clustering problems.Keywords: Chemical reaction optimization, expectation maximization, initial, objective function clustering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1292194 Development of a 3D Mathematical Model for a Doxorubicin Controlled Release System using Pluronic Gel for Breast Cancer Treatment
Authors: W. Kaowumpai, D. Koolpiruck, K. Viravaidya
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Female breast cancer is the second in frequency after cervical cancer. Surgery is the most common treatment for breast cancer, followed by chemotherapy as a treatment of choice. Although effective, it causes serious side effects. Controlled-release drug delivery is an alternative method to improve the efficacy and safety of the treatment. It can release the dosage of drug between the minimum effect concentration (MEC) and minimum toxic concentration (MTC) within tumor tissue and reduce the damage of normal tissue and the side effect. Because an in vivo experiment of this system can be time-consuming and labor-intensive, a mathematical model is desired to study the effects of important parameters before the experiments are performed. Here, we describe a 3D mathematical model to predict the release of doxorubicin from pluronic gel to treat human breast cancer. This model can, ultimately, be used to effectively design the in vivo experiments.
Keywords: Breast Cancer, Doxorubicin, Controlled ReleaseSystem, Diffusion and Convection Equation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1702193 Utility Assessment Model for Wireless Technology in Construction
Authors: Y. Abdelrazig, A. Ghanem
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Construction projects are information intensive in nature and involve many activities that are related to each other. Wireless technologies can be used to improve the accuracy and timeliness of data collected from construction sites and shares it with appropriate parties. Nonetheless, the construction industry tends to be conservative and shows hesitation to adopt new technologies. A main concern for owners, contractors or any person in charge on a job site is the cost of the technology in question. Wireless technologies are not cheap. There are a lot of expenses to be taken into consideration, and a study should be completed to make sure that the importance and savings resulting from the usage of this technology is worth the expenses. This research attempts to assess the effectiveness of using the appropriate wireless technologies based on criteria such as performance, reliability, and risk. The assessment is based on a utility function model that breaks down the selection issue into alternatives attribute. Then the attributes are assigned weights and single attributes are measured. Finally, single attribute are combined to develop one single aggregate utility index for each alternative.Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process, Utility Function, Wireless Technologies, construction management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1921192 Parallezation Protein Sequence Similarity Algorithms using Remote Method Interface
Authors: Mubarak Saif Mohsen, Zurinahni Zainol, Rosalina Abdul Salam, Wahidah Husain
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One of the major problems in genomic field is to perform sequence comparison on DNA and protein sequences. Executing sequence comparison on the DNA and protein data is a computationally intensive task. Sequence comparison is the basic step for all algorithms in protein sequences similarity. Parallel computing is an attractive solution to provide the computational power needed to speedup the lengthy process of the sequence comparison. Our main research is to enhance the protein sequence algorithm using dynamic programming method. In our approach, we parallelize the dynamic programming algorithm using multithreaded program to perform the sequence comparison and also developed a distributed protein database among many PCs using Remote Method Interface (RMI). As a result, we showed how different sizes of protein sequences data and computation of scoring matrix of these protein sequence on different number of processors affected the processing time and speed, as oppose to sequential processing.
Keywords: Protein sequence algorithm, dynamic programming algorithm, multithread
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1902191 Comparison between Haar and Daubechies Wavelet Transformions on FPGA Technology
Authors: Mohamed I. Mahmoud, Moawad I. M. Dessouky, Salah Deyab, Fatma H. Elfouly
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Recently, the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology offers the potential of designing high performance systems at low cost. The discrete wavelet transform has gained the reputation of being a very effective signal analysis tool for many practical applications. However, due to its computation-intensive nature, current implementation of the transform falls short of meeting real-time processing requirements of most application. The objectives of this paper are implement the Haar and Daubechies wavelets using FPGA technology. In addition, the comparison between the Haar and Daubechies wavelets is investigated. The Bit Error Rat (BER) between the input audio signal and the reconstructed output signal for each wavelet is calculated. It is seen that the BER using Daubechies wavelet techniques is less than Haar wavelet. The design procedure has been explained and designed using the stat-of-art Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools for system design on FPGA. Simulation, synthesis and implementation on the FPGA target technology has been carried out.
Keywords: Daubechies wavelet, discrete wavelet transform, Haar wavelet, Xilinx FPGA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4843190 Effect of Evaporator Temperature on the Performance of Water Desalination/Refrigeration Adsorption System Using AQSOA-ZO2
Authors: Peter G. Youssef, Saad M. Mahmoud, Raya K. Al-Dadah
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Many water desalination technologies have been developed but in general they are energy intensive and have high cost and adverse environmental impact. Recently, adsorption technology for water desalination has been investigated showing the potential of using low temperature waste heat (50-85oC) thus reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This work mathematically compares the performance of an adsorption cycle that produces two useful effects namely, fresh water and cooling using two different adsorbents, silica-gel and an advanced zeolite material AQSOA-ZO2, produced by Mitsubishi plastics. It was found that at low chilled water temperatures, typically below 20oC, the AQSOA-Z02 is more efficient than silica-gel as the cycle can produce 5.8 m3 of fresh water per day and 50.1 Rton of cooling per tonne of AQSOA-ZO2. Above 20oC silica-gel is still better as the cycle production reaches 8.4 m3 per day and 62.4 Rton per tonne of silica-gel. These results show the potential of using the AQSOA-Z02 at low chilled water temperature for water desalination and cooling applications.Keywords: Adsorption, desalination, refrigeration, seawater.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2479189 Implementation of Geo-Crowdsourcing Mobile Applications in e-Government of V4 Countries: A State-of-the-Art Survey
Authors: Barbora Haltofová
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In recent years, citizens have become an important source of geographic information and, therefore, geo-crowdsourcing, often known as volunteered geographic information, has provided an interesting alternative to traditional mapping practices which are becoming expensive, resource-intensive and unable to capture the dynamic nature of urban environments. In order to address a gap in research literature, this paper deals with a survey conducted to assess the current state of geo-crowdsourcing, a recent phenomenon popular with people who collect geographic information using their smartphones. This article points out that there is an increasing body of knowledge of geo-crowdsourcing mobile applications in the Visegrad countries marked by the ubiquitous Internet connection and the current massive proliferation of smartphones. This article shows how geo-crowdsourcing can be used as a complement, or in some cases a replacement, to traditionally generated sources of spatial data and information in public management. It discusses the new spaces of citizen participation constructed by these geo-crowdsourcing practices.
Keywords: Citizen participation, geo-crowdsourcing, e-government, participatory mapping, mobile applications.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1105188 Lifeworld Research of Teacher Leadership through Educational Interactions with Students in a Classroom: Three Levels
Authors: Vilma Zydziunaite, Vaida Jurgile
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The concept of teacher leadership refers to professional actors (employees and leaders) who can exercise control over or influence their work and its environment. The particular interest of the current research is gaining an understanding of how teachers experience leadership through educational interactions with students in a classroom. The aim of the research is to identify how teachers experience leadership in their everyday professional life through educational interactions with students in a classroom. Research questions are focused on essences of teacher leadership what are experienced by school teachers. The lifeworld research was performed in the study. 24 teachers participated in qualitative research. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed by using phenomenological analysis. Findings highlight aspects of teacher leadership through educational interactions with students in a classroom through the contribution to learning and teaching, authenticity, influence, empowerment, respect, equality, acknowledgement, resentment.
Keywords: Classroom, educational interaction, lifeworld research, teacher leadership.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 176187 Effectiveness of School Strategic Planning: The Case of Fijian Schools
Authors: G. Lingam, N. Lingam, K. Raghuwaiya
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In Fiji, notable among the recent spate of educational reforms has been the Ministry of Education’s (MoEs) requirement that all schools undertake a process of school strategic planning. This preliminary study explores perceptions of a sample of Fijian teachers on the way this exercise has been conducted in their schools. The analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data indicates that school leaders’ lack of knowledge and skills in school strategic planning is a major limitation. As an unsurprising consequence, the process(es) schools adopted did not conform to what the literature suggests as best planning practices. School leaders need more training to ensure they are better prepared to carry out this strategic planning effectively, especially in widening the opportunities for all who have a stake in education to contribute to the process. Implications of the findings are likely to be pertinent to other developing contexts within and beyond the Pacific region for the training of school leaders to ensure they are better equipped to orchestrate and benefit from educational reforms thrust upon them.
Keywords: School Strategic Planning, educational reforms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5624186 Investigation of Various PWM Techniques for Shunt Active Filter
Authors: J. Chelladurai, G. Saravana Ilango, C. Nagamani, S. Senthil Kumar
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Pulse width modulation (PWM) techniques have been the subject of intensive research for different industrial and power sector applications. A large variety of methods, different in concept and performance, have been newly developed and described. This paper analyzes the comparative merits of Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) and Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) techniques and the suitability of these techniques in a Shunt Active Filter (SAF). The objective is to select the scheme that offers effective utilization of DC bus voltage and also harmonic reduction at the input side. The effectiveness of the PWM techniques is tested in the SAF configuration with a non linear load. The performance of the SAF with the SPWM and (SVPWM) techniques are compared with respect to the THD in source current. The study reveals that in the context of closed loop SAF control with the SVPWM technique there is only a minor improvement in THD. The utilization of the DC bus with SVPWM is also not significant compared to that with SPWM because of the non sinusoidal modulating signal from the controller in SAF configuration.Keywords: Voltage source inverter, Shunt active filter, SPWM, SVPWM, Matlab/SIMULINK.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2798185 Sericulture for Employment Generation among the Tribal- A Study of Two Trible Block of Raigarh Dist. [C.G.] India
Authors: S. K. Dewangan, K. R. Sahu, S. K. Patnayak, S. Soni
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Among many agro- based cottage industries in India sericulture has been promoted as an agro-based, labor intensive, rural oriented cottage industry, providing gainful employment mainly to the weaker and marginalized section of the society specially tribal. Sericulture occupies the place of pride in the rural economy can be practiced even with very low land holding, low gestation, high returns make sericulture an ideal program, requiring little capital investment. In 2010-2011 the employment in sericulture sector was 72.5 lakh persons. The involvement of landless rural people in tasar sericulture is because they understood its potential for rural and tribal upliftment. This article demonstrates that certain developmental initiatives have been playing an important role in the socio-economic progress of tribal masses in Raigarh district and explains the increased returns from sericulture as a result of development programs. The study concludes with some suggestions to improve the long term feasibility of sericulture.
Keywords: Development, Employment, Income, Sericulture, Tribal, Tasar,
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3049184 Soil Compaction in Tropical Organic Farming Systems and Its Impact on Natural Soil-Borne Disease Suppression: Challenges for Management
Authors: Ishak, L., McHenry, M. T., Brown, P. H.
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Organic farming systems still depend on intensive, mechanical soil tillage. Frequent passes by machinery traffic cause substantial soil compaction that threatens soil health. Adopting practices as reduced tillage and organic matter retention on the soil surface are considered effective ways to control soil compaction. In tropical regions, however, the acceleration of soil organic matter decomposition and soil carbon turnover on the topsoil layer is influenced more rapidly by the oscillation process of drying and wetting. It is hypothesized therefore, that rapid reduction in soil organic matter hastens the potential for compaction to occur in organic farming systems. Compaction changes soil physical properties and as a consequence it has been implicated as a causal agent in the inhibition of natural disease suppression in soils. Here we describe relationships between soil management in organic vegetable systems, soil compaction, and declining soil capacity to suppress pathogenic microorganisms.
Keywords: Organic farming systems, soil compaction, soil disease suppression, tropical regions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2165183 Bandwidth Estimation Algorithms for the Dynamic Adaptation of Voice Codec
Authors: Davide Pierattoni, Ivan Macor, Pier Luca Montessoro
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In the recent years multimedia traffic and in particular VoIP services are growing dramatically. We present a new algorithm to control the resource utilization and to optimize the voice codec selection during SIP call setup on behalf of the traffic condition estimated on the network path. The most suitable methodologies and the tools that perform realtime evaluation of the available bandwidth on a network path have been integrated with our proposed algorithm: this selects the best codec for a VoIP call in function of the instantaneous available bandwidth on the path. The algorithm does not require any explicit feedback from the network, and this makes it easily deployable over the Internet. We have also performed intensive tests on real network scenarios with a software prototype, verifying the algorithm efficiency with different network topologies and traffic patterns between two SIP PBXs. The promising results obtained during the experimental validation of the algorithm are now the basis for the extension towards a larger set of multimedia services and the integration of our methodology with existing PBX appliances.Keywords: Integrated voice-data communication, computernetwork performance, resource optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1691182 Effect of Dietary Linseed Oil Soap on Lamb Meat
Authors: E. Zsédely, A. Király, Cs. Szabó., K. Németh, O. Dóka, J. Schmidt
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Theexperiment was carried out with 2x5 male Merino lambs raised under intensive conditions to investigate the effect of dietary calcium soap of linseed oil on the color and fatty acid composition of longissimusdorsi muscle. Control lambs fed a basal diet and the experimental lambs consumed a diet supplemented with 3% calcium soap of linseed oil. The color values (L*, a*, b* a*/b* and chroma) were not influenced by dietary treatment. The MUFA proportion reduced, SFA and PUFA content did not alter. As expected, the linolenic (C18:3 n3) and thusthe n-3 content significantly improved by linseed supplement (0.47 and 0.81; 0.78 and 1.16 in control and in experimental samples, respectively). Other n-3 and n-6 fatty acids had similar valuestocontrol samples. The n- 6/n-3 ratio was significantly narrower in the experimental group (6.31 vs. 9.38) but the P/S ratio did not differ betweenthe two groups.In conclusion calcium soap of linseed oil seems to be a suitable supplement form of n-3 fatty acids to improve the nutritive value of lamb meat.Keywords: calcium soap, fatty acid, lamb meat, linseed
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2109181 Development of NOx Emission Model for a Tangentially Fired Acid Incinerator
Authors: Elangeshwaran Pathmanathan, Rosdiazli Ibrahim, Vijanth Sagayan Asirvadam
Abstract:
This paper aims to develop a NOx emission model of an acid gas incinerator using Nelder-Mead least squares support vector regression (LS-SVR). Malaysia DOE is actively imposing the Clean Air Regulation to mandate the installation of analytical instrumentation known as Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) to report emission level online to DOE . As a hardware based analyzer, CEMS is expensive, maintenance intensive and often unreliable. Therefore, software predictive technique is often preferred and considered as a feasible alternative to replace the CEMS for regulatory compliance. The LS-SVR model is built based on the emissions from an acid gas incinerator that operates in a LNG Complex. Simulated Annealing (SA) is first used to determine the initial hyperparameters which are then further optimized based on the performance of the model using Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm. The LS-SVR model is shown to outperform a benchmark model based on backpropagation neural networks (BPNN) in both training and testing data.Keywords: artificial neural networks, industrial pollution, predictive algorithms, support vector machines
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1974180 Comparison between Haar and Daubechies Wavelet Transformations on FPGA Technology
Authors: Fatma H. Elfouly, Mohamed I. Mahmoud, Moawad I. M. Dessouky, Salah Deyab
Abstract:
Recently, the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology offers the potential of designing high performance systems at low cost. The discrete wavelet transform has gained the reputation of being a very effective signal analysis tool for many practical applications. However, due to its computation-intensive nature, current implementation of the transform falls short of meeting real-time processing requirements of most application. The objectives of this paper are implement the Haar and Daubechies wavelets using FPGA technology. In addition, the Bit Error Rate (BER) between the input audio signal and the reconstructed output signal for each wavelet is calculated. From the BER, it is seen that the implementations execute the operation of the wavelet transform correctly and satisfying the perfect reconstruction conditions. The design procedure has been explained and designed using the stat-ofart Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools for system design on FPGA. Simulation, synthesis and implementation on the FPGA target technology has been carried out.
Keywords: Daubechies wavelet, discrete wavelet transform, Haar wavelet, Xilinx FPGA.
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