Search results for: sampling size and location

Authors: Rita SahaRay, Ganesh Dutta

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In this article, experimental situations are considered where a main effects plan is to be used to study m two-level factors using n runs which are partitioned into b blocks, not necessarily of same size. Assuming the block sizes to be even for all blocks, for the case n ≡ 2 (mod 4), optimal designs are obtained with respect to type 1 and type 2 optimality criteria in the class of designs providing estimation of all main effects orthogonal to the block effects. In practice, such orthogonal estimation of main effects is often a desirable condition. In the wider class of all available m two level even sized blocked main effects plans, where the factors do not occur at high and low levels equally often in each block, E-optimal designs are also characterized. Simple construction methods based on Hadamard matrices and Kronecker product for these optimal designs are presented.

Keywords: Design matrix, Hadamard matrix, Kronecker product, type 1 criteria, type 2 criteria.

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Authors: Seung-Yeon Kim

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The square-lattice Ising model is the simplest system showing phase transitions (the transition between the paramagnetic phase and the ferromagnetic phase and the transition between the paramagnetic phase and the antiferromagnetic phase) and critical phenomena at finite temperatures. The exact solution of the squarelattice Ising model with free boundary conditions is not known for systems of arbitrary size. For the first time, the exact solution of the Ising model on the square lattice with free boundary conditions is obtained after classifying all ) spin configurations with the microcanonical transfer matrix. Also, the phase transitions and critical phenomena of the square-lattice Ising model are discussed using the exact solution on the square lattice with free boundary conditions.

Keywords: Phase transition, Ising magnet, Square lattice, Freeboundary conditions, Exact solution.

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Authors: Amir Eghbal Khajeh Rahimi, Fardin Boustani, Omid Tabiee, Masoud Hashemi

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The Beshar River is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems in the upstream of the Karun watershed in south of Iran which is affected by point and non point pollutant sources . This study was done in order to evaluate the effects of pollutants activities on the water quality of the Beshar river and its aquatic ecosystems. This river is approximately 190 km in length and situated at the geographical positions of 51° 20´ to 51° 48´ E and 30° 18´ to 30° 52´ N it is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad province in south-west Iran. In this research project, five study stations were selected to examine water pollution in the Beshar River systems. Human activity is now one of the most important factors affecting on hydrology and water quality of the Beshar river. Humans use large amounts of resources to sustain various standards of living, although measures of sustainability are highly variable depending on how sustainability is defined. The Beshar river ecosystems are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to human activities. Therefore, to determine the impact of human activities on the Beshar River, the most important water quality parameters such as pH, dissolve oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Total Dissolve Solids (TDS), Nitrates (NO3-N) and Phosphates (PO4) were estimated at the five stations. As the results show, the most important pollution index parameters such as BOD5, NO3 and PO4 increase and DO and pH decrease according to human activities (P<0.05). However, due to pollutant degradation and dilution, pollution index parameters improve downstream sampling stations.

Keywords: Human activities, Water pollution, Beshar River, Iran.

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Authors: Rabah Haoui

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This work presents a numerical simulation of the interaction of an incident shock wave propagates from the left to the right with a cone placed in a tube at shock. The Mathematical model is based on a non stationary, viscous and axisymmetric flow. The Discretization of the Navier-stokes equations is carried out by the finite volume method in the integral form along with the Flux Vector Splitting method of Van Leer. Here, adequate combination of time stepping parameter, CFL coefficient and mesh size level is selected to ensure numerical convergence. The numerical simulation considers a shock tube filled with air. The incident shock wave propagates to the right with a determined Mach number and crosses the cone by leaving behind it a stationary detached shock wave in front of the nose cone. This type of interaction is observed according to the time of flow.

Keywords: Supersonic flow, viscous flow, finite volume, cone body

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Authors: Olga Orynycz, Andrzej Wasiak

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Mathematical model describing energetic efficiency (defined as a ratio of energy obtained in the form of biofuel to the sum of energy inputs necessary to facilitate production) of agricultural subsystem as a function of technological parameters was developed. Production technology is characterized by parameters of machinery, topological characteristics of the plantation as well as transportation routes inside and outside of plantation. The relationship between the energetic efficiency of agricultural and industrial subsystems is also derived. Due to the assumed large area of the individual field, the operations last for several days increasing inter-fields routes because of several returns. The total distance driven outside of the fields is, however, small as compared to the distance driven inside of the fields. This results in small energy consumption during inter-fields transport that, however, causes a substantial decrease of the energetic effectiveness of the whole system.

Keywords: Biofuel, energetic efficiency, EROEI, mathematical modelling, production system.

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Authors: Saleem Z. Ramadan, Gürsel A. Süer

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In this paper a genetic algorithm (GA) with dual-fitness function is proposed and applied to solve the deterministic identical machine scheduling problem. The mating fitness function value was used to determine the mating for chromosomes, while the selection fitness function value was used to determine their survivals. The performance of this algorithm was tested on deterministic identical machine scheduling using simulated data. The results obtained from the proposed GA were compared with classical GA and integer programming (IP). Results showed that dual-fitness function GA outperformed the classical single-fitness function GA with statistical significance for large problems and was competitive to IP, particularly when large size problems were used.

Keywords: Machine scheduling, Genetic algorithms, Due dates, Number of tardy jobs, Number of early jobs, Integer programming, Dual Fitness functions.

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Authors: Biplab Bag

Abstract:

In this paper, the design of a coaxial feed single layer rectangular microstrip patch antenna for three different wireless communication band applications is presented. The proposed antenna is designed by using substrate Roger RT/duroid 5880 having permittivity of about 2.2 and tangent loss of 0.0009. The characteristics of the substrate are designed and to evaluate the performance of modeled antenna using HFSS v.11 EM simulator, from Ansoft. The proposed antenna has small in size and operates at 2.25GHz, 3.76GHz and 5.23GHz suitable for mobile satellite service (MSS) network, WiMAX and WLAN applications. The dimension of the patch and slots are optimized to obtain these desired functional frequency ranges. The simulation results with frequency response, radiation pattern and return loss, VSWR, Input Impedance are presented with appropriate table and graph.

Keywords: Microstrip, Tangent Loss, MSS, WiMAX, WLAN, Radiation Pattern, Return Loss, VSWR.

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Authors: Javadi Alimohammad, Javadi Maryam

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The purpose of this study attempts to emphasize the factors relating to intra-family relationships (order point of view) on violence against the women, For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 100 women of married of city of Ilam in country of Iran were considered. For measurement of violence against the women , the CTS scaled has been used .violence against the women be measured in four dimension ( emotional violence, psycho violence, physical violence, neglect violence). highest violence was related to emotional violence and after are as follow respectively : physical violence and neglect violence. The results showed that women have experienced the violence more than once during the last year, degree of order in family is high. Explanation result indicated that the order variables in family including collective thinking, empathy and communal co-circumstance have significant effects on violence against the women. Via multiple regression analysis variables of empathy, religious tenet and education of husband had significant effect on violence against women. In other words relationships among family effect on violence in family.

Keywords: violence, domestic violence, violence against women, family.

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Authors: Mai. M. Toughan, Ahmed A. A. Sallam, Ashraf O. Abd El-Latif

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Termites are eusocial insects that are found on all continents except Antarctica. Termites have serious destructive impact, damaging local huts and crops of poor subsistence. The annual cost of termite damage and its control is determined in the billions globally. In Egypt, most of these damages are due to the subterranean termite species especially the sand termite, P. hypostoma. Pyrethroids became the primary weapon for subterranean termite control, after the use of chlorpyrifos as a soil termiticide was banned. Despite the important role of pyrethroids in termite control, its extensive use in pest control led to the eventual rise of insecticide resistance which may make many of the pyrethroids ineffective. The ability to diagnose the precise mechanism of pyrethroid resistance in any insect species would be the key component of its management at specified location for a specific population. In the present study, detailed toxicological and biochemical studies was conducted on the mechanism of pyrethroid resistance in P. hypostoma. The susceptibility of field populations of P. hypostoma against deltamethrin, α-cypermethrin and ƛ-cyhalothrin was evaluated. The obtained results revealed that the workers of P. hypostoma have developed high resistance level against the tested pyrethroids. Studies carried out through estimation of detoxification enzyme activity indicated that enhanced esterase and cytochrome P450 activities were probably important mechanisms for pyrethroid resistance in field populations. Elevated esterase activity and also additional esterase isozyme were observed in the pyrethroid-resistant populations compared to the susceptible populations. Strong positive correlation between cytochrome P450 activity and pyrethroid resistance was also reported. |Deltamethrin could be recommended as a resistance-breaking pyrethroid that is active against resistant populations of P. hypostoma.

Keywords: Psammotermes hypostoma, pyrethroid resistance, esterase, cytochrome P450.

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Authors: M. Shahrokhi, F. Rostami, M.A. Md Said, S. Syafalni

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It is essential to have a uniform and calm flow field for a settling tank to have high performance. In general, the recirculation zones always occurred in sedimentation tanks. The presence of these regions may have different effects. The nonuniformity of the velocity field, the short-circuiting at the surface and the motion of the jet at the bed of the tank that occurs because of the recirculation in the sedimentation layer, are affected by the geometry of the tank. There are some ways to decrease the size of these dead zones, which would increase the performance. One of the ways is to use a suitable baffle configuration. In this study, the presence of baffle with different position has been investigated by a finite volume method, with VOF (Volume of Fluid) model. Besides, the k-ε turbulence model is used in the numerical calculations. The results indicate that the best position of the baffle is obtained when the volume of the recirculation region is minimized or is divided to smaller part and the flow field trend to be uniform in the settling zone.

Keywords: Sedimentation tanks, Baffle, Numerical Modeling, VOF, Circulation Zone

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Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J., Michael J. Bendewald

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Addis Ababa is a seat of African Union (AU), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) and hundreds of embassies and consular representatives. Addis Ababa is one of the highest capitals in the world with an average 2400 meters above sea level. It is dichotomous city with a blend of modern high-rise and deteriorating slum quarters. Water supply and sanitation, waste management and housing are continuing to be serious problems. Forest wood based domestic energy use as well as uncontrolled emissions from mobile and fixed sources has endangered the state of the urban environment. Analysis based on satellite imagery has revealed the deteriorating urban environment within the last three decades. The recently restructured city administration has brought improvements in the condition of the urban environment. However, the overwhelming size of the challenges faced by the city dwarfed their fairly good results.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, Urban environment, Slum, Housing, Relocation

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Authors: M. Volpini, D. Alves, A. Horta, M. Borges, P. Reis

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The gait pattern in people that present motor limitations foment the demand for auxiliary locomotion devices. These artifacts for movement assistance vary according to its shape, size and functional features, following the clinical applications desired. Among the ortheses of lower limbs, the ankle-foot orthesis aims to improve the ability to walk in people with different neuromuscular limitations, although they do not always answer patients' expectations for their aesthetic and functional characteristics. The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of using new design in additive manufacturer to reproduce the shape and functional features of a ankle-foot orthesis in an efficient and modern way. Therefore, this work presents a study about the performance of the mechanical forces through the analysis of finite elements in an ankle-foot orthesis. It will be demonstrated a study of distribution of the stress on the orthopedic device in orthostatism and during the movement in the course of patient's walk.

Keywords: Additive manufacture, new designs, orthoses, finite elements.

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Authors: Mayowa A. Sofowora, Seraphim D. Eyono Obono

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The use of information and communication technologies such as computers, mobile phones and the Internet is becoming prevalent in today’s world; and it is facilitating access to a vast amount of data, services and applications for the improvement of people’s lives. However, this prevalence of ICTs is hampered by the problem of low income levels in developing countries to the point where people cannot timeously replace or repair their ICT devices when damaged or lost; and this problem serves as a motivation for this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of teachers on the reliability of cellphones when used for teaching and learning purposes. The research objectives unfolding this aim are of two types: Objectives on the selection and design of theories and models, and objectives on the empirical testing of these theories and models. The first type of objectives is achieved using content analysis in an extensive literature survey: and the second type of objectives is achieved through a survey of high school teachers from the ILembe and UMgungundlovu districts in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Data collected from this questionnaire based survey is analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations after checking the reliability and validity of the questionnaires. The main hypothesis driving this study is that there is a relationship between the demographics and the attribution identity of teachers on one hand, and their perceptions on the reliability of cellphones on the other hand, as suggested by existing literature; except that attribution identities are considered in this study under three angles: intention, knowledge and ability, and action. The results of this study confirm that the perceptions of teachers on the reliability of cellphones for teaching and learning are affected by the school location of these teachers, and by their perceptions on learners’ cellphones usage intentions and actual use.

Keywords: Attribution, Cellphones, E-learning, Reliability

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Authors: Juliana Amaka Ugwu

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Trapping efficiency of methyl eugenol and three locally made food-based lures were evaluated in three locations for trapping of B. dorsalis on mango homestead trees in Ibadan South west Nigeria. The treatments were methyl eugenol, brewery waste, pineapple juice, orange juice, and control (water). The experiment was laid in a Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD) and replicated three times in each location. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and significant means were separated by Turkey’s test. The results showed that B. dorsalis was recorded in all locations of study. Methyl eugenol significantly (P < 0.05) trapped higher population of B. dorsalis in all the study area. The population density of B. dorsalis was highest during the ripening period of mango in all locations. The percentage trapped flies after 7 weeks were 77.85%-82.38% (methyl eugenol), 7.29%-8.64% (pineapple juice), 5.62-7.62% (brewery waste), 4.41%-5.95% (orange juice), and 0.24-0.47% (control). There were no significance differences (p > 0.05) on the population of B. dorsalis trapped in all locations. Similarly, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) on the population of flies trapped among the food attractants. However, the three food attractants significantly (p < 0.05) trapped higher flies than control. Methyl eugenol trapped only male flies while brewery waste and other food based attractants trapped both male and female flies. The food baits tested were promising attractants for trapping B. dorsalis on mango homestead tress, hence increased dosage could be considered for monitoring and mass trapping as management strategies against fruit fly infestation.

Keywords: Attractants, trapping, mango, Bactrocera dorsalis.

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Authors: Mohd. A. M. Rahim, Yahaya Hassan, Mathumalar L. Fahrni

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Second line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen is used when patients fail their first line regimen. There are many factors such as non-adherence, drug resistance as well as virological and immunological failure that lead to second line highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen treatment failure. This study was aimed at determining predictor factors to treatment failure with second line HAART and analyzing median survival time. An observational, retrospective study was conducted in Sungai Buloh Hospital (HSB) to assess current status of HIV patients treated with second line HAART regimen. Convenience sampling was used and 104 patients were included based on the study’s inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected for six months i.e. from July until December 2013. Data was then analysed using SPSS version 18. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to measure median survival times and predictor factors for treatment failure. The study population consisted mainly of male subjects, aged 30- 45 years, who were heterosexual, and had HIV infection for less than 6 years. The most common second line HAART regimen given was lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r)-based combination. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients on LPV/r demonstrated longer median survival times than patients on indinavir/ritonavir (IDV/r) based combination (p<0.001). The commonest reason for a treatment to fail with second line HAART was non-adherence. Based on Cox regression analysis, other predictor factors for treatment failure with second line HAART regimen were age and mode of HIV transmission.

Keywords: Adherence, antiretroviral therapy, second line, treatment failure.

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Authors: Suhartini M. Jainury, Rizauddin Ramli, Mohd Nizam A. Rahman

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Lean, which was initially developed by Toyota, is widely implemented in other companies to improve competitiveness. This research is an attempt to identify the adoption of lean in the production system of Malaysian car manufacturer, Proton using case study approach. To gain the in-depth information regarding lean implementation, an activity on the assembly line called Set Parts Supply (SPS) was studied. The result indicates that by using lean principles, tools and techniques in the implementation of SPS enabled to achieve the goals on safety, quality, cost, delivery and morale. The implementation increased the size of the workspace, improved the quality of assembly and the delivery of parts supply, reduced the manpower, achieved cost savings on electricity and also increased the motivation of manpower in respect of attendance at work. A framework of SPS implementation is suggested as a contribution for lean practices in production system.

Keywords: Assembly line, lean manufacturing, production, parts supply.

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Authors: K. Mohammed, M. Agarwal, J. Mewman, Y. Ren

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An optimum technic has been developed for extracting volatile organic compounds which contribute to the aroma of lime fruit (Citrus aurantifolia). The volatile organic compounds of healthy and infested lime fruit with California red scale Aonidiella aurantii were characterized using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography (GC) coupled flame ionization detection (FID) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as a very simple, efficient and nondestructive extraction method. A three-phase 50/30 μm PDV/DVB/CAR fibre was used for the extraction process. The optimal sealing and fibre exposure time for volatiles reaching equilibrium from whole lime fruit in the headspace of the chamber was 16 and 4 hours respectively. 5 min was selected as desorption time of the three-phase fibre. Herbivorous activity induces indirect plant defenses, as the emission of herbivorous-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), which could be used by natural enemies for host location. GC-MS analysis showed qualitative differences among volatiles emitted by infested and healthy lime fruit. The GC-MS analysis allowed the initial identification of 18 compounds, with similarities higher than 85%, in accordance with the NIST mass spectral library. One of these were increased by A. aurantii infestation, D-limonene, and three were decreased, Undecane, α-Farnesene and 7-epi-α-selinene. From an applied point of view, the application of the above-mentioned VOCs may help boost the efficiency of biocontrol programs and natural enemies’ production techniques.

Keywords: Lime fruit, Citrus aurantifolia, California red scale, Aonidiella aurantii, VOCs, HS-SPME/GC-FID-MS.

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Authors: M. Amelsakhi, A. Sohrabi-Bidar, A. Shareghi

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One of the most important issues about the structural damages caused by earthquake is the evaluating of the spectral response of the site on which the construction is built. This fact has demonstrated during many earlier earthquakes and many researchers’ reports have concerned with it. According to these reports, features of the site materials and geometry of the ground surface are considered the main factors. This study concentrates on the specific form of topographies like hills. Assessing of spectral responses of different points on the hills and beside demonstrates considerable differences between 1D and 2D methods of geotechnical analyses. A general trend of amplifications on the top of the hills and de-amplifications near the toe of the hills has been appeared within the acceleration, velocity and displacement response spectrums of horizontal motion. Evaluating of spectral responses of different sizes of the hills revealed that as much as the hill-size enlarges differences between spectral responses of 1D and 2D analyses transfers to longer range of periods and becomes wider.

Keywords: Topography effect, Amplification ratio, Response spectrum.

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Authors: Jianjun Yuan, Changjun Jiang

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Pairwise testing, which requires that every combination of valid values of each pair of system factors be covered by at lease one test case, plays an important role in software testing since many faults are caused by unexpected 2-way interactions among system factors. Although meta-heuristic strategies like simulated annealing can generally discover smaller pairwise test suite, they may cost more time to perform search, compared with greedy algorithms. We propose a new method, improved Extremal Optimization (EO) based on the Bak-Sneppen (BS) model of biological evolution, for constructing pairwise test suites and define fitness function according to the requirement of improved EO. Experimental results show that improved EO gives similar size of resulting pairwise test suite and yields an 85% reduction in solution time over SA.

Keywords: Covering Arrays, Extremal Optimization, Simulated Annealing, Software Testing.

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Authors: Shahrazed Medeghri, Saad Hamzaoui, Mokhtar Zerdali

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The metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) is obtained from the reduction of silica (SiO₂) in an induction furnace or an electric arc furnace. Impurities inherent in reduction process also depend on the quality of the raw material used. Among the applications of the silicon, it is used as a substrate for the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy and this conversion is wider as the purity of the substrate is important. Research is being done where the purpose is looking for new methods of manufacturing and purification of silicon, as well as new materials that can be used as substrates for the photovoltaic conversion of light energy. In this research, the technique of production of silicon in an induction furnace, using a high vacuum for fusion. Diatomaceous Silica (SiO2) used is 99 mass% initial purities, the carbon used is 6N of purity and the particle size of 63μm as starting materials. The final achieved purity of the material was above 50% by mass. These results demonstrate that this method is a technically reliable, and allows obtaining a better return on the amount 50% of silicon.

Keywords: Induction, amorphous silica, carbon microstructure, silicon.

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Authors: Boualem Chetti

Abstract:

In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of a threelobe journal bearing lubricated with micropolar fluids are determined by the linear stability theory. Lubricating oil containing additives and contaminants is modelled as micropolar fluid. The modified Reynolds equation is obtained using the micropolar lubrication theory .The finite difference technique has been used to determine the solution of the modified Reynolds equation. The dynamic characteristics in terms of stiffness, damping coefficients, the critical mass and whirl ratio are determined for various values of size of material characteristic length and the coupling number. The computed results show that the three-lobe bearing lubricated with micropolar fluid exhibits better stability compared with that lubricated with Newtonian fluid. According to the results obtained, the effect of the parameter micropolar fluid is remarkable on the dynamic characteristics and stability of the three-lobe bearing.

Keywords: Three-lobe bearings, Micropolar fluid, Dynamic characteristics, Stability analysis.

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Authors: Ali Nadi, Ali Edrissi

Abstract:

Relief demand and transportation links availability is the essential information that is needed for every natural disaster operation. This information is not in hand once a disaster strikes. Relief demand and network condition has been evaluated based on prediction method in related works. Nevertheless, prediction seems to be over or under estimated due to uncertainties and may lead to a failure operation. Therefore, in this paper a stochastic programming model is proposed to evaluate real-time relief demand and network condition at the onset of a natural disaster. To address the time sensitivity of the emergency response, the proposed model uses reinforcement learning for optimization of the total relief assessment time. The proposed model is tested on a real size network problem. The simulation results indicate that the proposed model performs well in the case of collecting real-time information.

Keywords: Disaster management, real-time demand, reinforcement learning, relief demand.

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Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

Abstract:

It is suggested to evaluate environmental performance of energy sector using Data Envelopment Analysis with nondiscretionary factors (DEA-ND) with relative indicators as inputs and outputs. The latter allows for comparison of the objects essentially different in size. Inclusion of non-discretionary factors serves separation of the indicators that are beyond the control of the objects. A virtual perfect object comprised of maximal outputs and minimal inputs was added to the group of actual ones. In this setting, explicit solution of the DEA-ND problem was obtained. Energy sector of the United States was analyzed using suggested approach for the period of 1980 – 2006 with expected values of economic indicators for 2030 used for forming the perfect object. It was obtained that environmental performance has been increasing steadily for the period from 7.7% through 50.0% but still remains well below the prospected level

Keywords: DEA with Non Discretionary Factors, Environmental Performance, Energy Sector, Explicit Solution, Perfect Object.

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Authors: M. Saravanan, J. Raja Murugadoss, V. Jayanthi

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Optimal design of structure has a main role in reduction of material usage which leads to deduction in the final cost of construction projects. Evolutionary approaches are found to be more successful techniques for solving size and shape structural optimization problem since it uses a stochastic random search instead of a gradient search. By reviewing the recent literature works the problem found was the optimization of weight. A new meta-heuristic algorithm called as Cuckoo Search (CS) Algorithm has used for the optimization of the total weight of the truss structures. This paper has used set of 10 bars and 25 bars trusses for the testing purpose. The main objective of this work is to reduce the number of iterations, weight and the total time consumption. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present method, minimum weight design of truss structures is performed and the results of the CS are compared with other algorithms.

Keywords: Cuckoo search algorithm, levy’s flight, meta-heuristic, optimal weight.

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Authors: A.Gandomkar, K. Fouladi

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Water is the key of national development. Wherever a spring has been dried out or a river has changed its course, the area-s people have migrated and have been scattered and the area-s civilization has lost its brilliance. Today, air pollution, global warming and ozone layer damage are as the problems of countries, but certainly in the next decade the shortage and pollution of waters will be important issues of the world. The polluted waters are more dangerous in when they are used in agriculture. Because they infect plants and these plants are used in human and livestock consumption in food chain. With the increasing population growth and after that, the increase need to facilities and raw materials, human beings has started to do haste actions and wanted or unwanted destroyed his life basin. They try to overuse and capture his environment extremely, instead of having futurism approach in sustainable use of nature. This process includes Zayanderood recession, and caused its pollution after the transition from industrial and urban areas. Zayandehrood River in Isfahan is a vital artery of a living ecosystem. Now is the location of disposal waste water of many cities, villages and existing industries. The central area of the province is an important industrial place, and its environmental situation has reached a critical stage. Not only a large number of pollution-generating industries are active in the city limits, but outside of the city and adjacent districts Zayandehrood River, heavy industries like steel, Mobarakeh Steel and other tens great units pollute wild life. This article tries to study contaminant sources of Zayanderood and their severity, and determine and discuss the share of each of these resources by major industrial centers located in areas. At the end, we represent suitable strategy.

Keywords: Environmental, industrial pollution, Zayandehrood Basin

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Authors: H. F. A. Abdul Ghani, R. R. Porle

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Speech to text in Malay language is a system that converts Malay speech into text. The Malay language recognition system is still limited, thus, this paper aims to investigate the performance of ten Malay words obtained from the online Malay news. The methodology consists of three stages, which are preprocessing, feature extraction, and speech classification. In preprocessing stage, the speech samples are filtered using pre emphasis. After that, feature extraction method is applied to the samples using Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient (MFCC). Lastly, speech classification is performed using Feedforward Neural Network (FFNN). The accuracy of the classification is further investigated based on the hidden layer size. From experimentation, the classifier with 40 hidden neurons shows the highest classification rate which is 94%.  

Keywords: Feed-Forward Neural Network, FFNN, Malay speech recognition, Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficient, MFCC, speech-to-text.

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Authors: Laura X. Martinez, Andrés F. Rodríguez, Ruth A. Catacoli

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One of the most important factors for air pollution is that the concentrations of PM₁₀ maintain a constant trend, with the exception of some places where that frequently surpasses the allowed ranges established by Colombian legislation. The community that surrounds the Universidad Libre Bogotá is inhabited by a considerable number of students and workers, all of whom are possibly being exposed to PM₁₀ for long periods of time while on campus. Thus, the chemical characterization of PM₁₀ found in the ambient air at the Universidad Libre Bogotá was identified as a problem. A Hi-Vol sampler and EPA Test Method 5 were used to determine if the quality of air is adequate for the human respiratory system. Additionally, quartz fiber filters were utilized during sampling. Samples were taken three days a week during a dry period throughout the months of November and December 2015. The gravimetric analysis method was used to determine PM₁₀ concentrations. The chemical characterization includes non-conventional carcinogenic pollutants. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) was used for the determination of metals and VOCs were analyzed using the FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) method. In this way, concentrations of PM₁₀, ranging from values of 13 µg/m³ to 66 µg/m³, were obtained; these values were below standard conditions. This evidence concludes that the PM₁₀ concentrations during an exposure period of 24 hours are lower than the values established by Colombian law, Resolution 610 of 2010; however, when comparing these with the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO), these concentrations could possibly exceed permissible levels.

Keywords: Air quality, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, particulate matter.

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Authors: Shidvash Vakilipour, Scott Ormiston, Masoud Mohammadi, Rouzbeh Riazi, Kimia Amiri, Sahar Barati

Abstract:

Two-phase and multi-phase flows are common flow types in fluid mechanics engineering. Among the basic and applied problems of these flow types, two-phase parallel flow is the one that two immiscible fluids flow in the vicinity of each other. In this type of flow, fluid properties (e.g. density, viscosity, and temperature) are different at the two sides of the interface of the two fluids. The most challenging part of the numerical simulation of two-phase flow is to determine the location of interface accurately. In the present work, a coupled interface tracking algorithm is developed based on Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach using a cell-centered, pressure-based, coupled solver. To validate this algorithm, an analytical solution for fully developed two-phase flow in presence of gravity is derived, and then, the results of the numerical simulation of this flow are compared with analytical solution at various flow conditions. The results of the simulations show good accuracy of the algorithm despite using a nearly coarse and uniform grid. Temporal variations of interface profile toward the steady-state solution show that a greater difference between fluids properties (especially dynamic viscosity) will result in larger traveling waves. Gravity effect studies also show that favorable gravity will result in a reduction of heavier fluid thickness and adverse gravity leads to increasing it with respect to the zero gravity condition. However, the magnitude of variation in favorable gravity is much more than adverse gravity.

Keywords: Coupled solver, gravitational force, interface tracking, Reynolds number to Froude number, two-phase flow.

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Authors: Haider A Ramadhan, Khalil Shihab

Abstract:

Clustering techniques have been used by many intelligent software agents to group similar access patterns of the Web users into high level themes which express users intentions and interests. However, such techniques have been mostly focusing on one salient feature of the Web document visited by the user, namely the extracted keywords. The major aim of these techniques is to come up with an optimal threshold for the number of keywords needed to produce more focused themes. In this paper we focus on both keyword and similarity thresholds to generate themes with concentrated themes, and hence build a more sound model of the user behavior. The purpose of this paper is two fold: use distance based clustering methods to recognize overall themes from the Proxy log file, and suggest an efficient cut off levels for the keyword and similarity thresholds which tend to produce more optimal clusters with better focus and efficient size.

Keywords: Data mining, knowledge discovery, clustering, dataanalysis, Web log analysis, theme based searching.

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Authors: C. Elavarasi, T. Shanmuganantham

Abstract:

A coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed is presented, and comprising a split ring resonator (SRR) loaded fractal with water lily shape is used for multi band applications. The impedance matching of the antenna is determined by the number of Koch curve fractal unit cells. The antenna is designed on a FR4 substrate with a permittivity of ε_{r =} 4.4 and size of 14 x 16 x 1.6 mm³ to generate multi resonant mode at 3.8 GHz covering S band, 8.68 GHz at X band, 13.96 GHz at Ku band, and 19.74 GHz at K band with reflection coefficient better than -10 dB. Simulation results show that the antenna exhibits the desired voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) level and radiation patterns across the wide frequency range. The fundamental parameters of the antenna such as return loss, VSWR, good radiation pattern with reasonable gain across the operating bands are obtained.

Keywords: Monopole antenna, fractal, metamaterial, waterlily shape, split ring resonator, multiband.

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