Search results for: Discontinuous cost function
1914 An Optimal Bayesian Maintenance Policy for a Partially Observable System Subject to Two Failure Modes
Authors: Akram Khaleghei Ghosheh Balagh, Viliam Makis, Leila Jafari
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In this paper, we present a new maintenance model for a partially observable system subject to two failure modes, namely a catastrophic failure and a failure due to the system degradation. The system is subject to condition monitoring and the degradation process is described by a hidden Markov model. A cost-optimal Bayesian control policy is developed for maintaining the system. The control problem is formulated in the semi-Markov decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm is developed, illustrated by a numerical example.
Keywords: Partially observable system, hidden Markov model, competing risks, multivariate Bayesian control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21871913 Key Strategies for a Competitive Supply Chain
Authors: Ajay Verma, Nitin Seth
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In this era of competitiveness, there is a growing need for supply chains also to become competitive enough to handle pressures like varying customer’s expectations, low cost high quality products to be delivered at the minimum time and the most important is throat cutting competition at world wide scale. In the recent years, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature and researchers have tried to identify variables of supply chain competitiveness. This paper highlights some of the concepts of supply chain competitiveness and tries to identify select variables on the basis of literature review. Further, the paper tries to highlight the importance of the identified variables in the achievement of supply chain competitiveness. The aim is to explore the concept and to motivate researchers to further investigate the unexplored areas of this important subject domain.
Keywords: Supply Chain Competitiveness, Demand Management, Integration, Inventory Management, Flexibility, Information Technology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34611912 Analysis of the Theoretical Values of Several Characteristic Parameters of Surface Topography in Rotational Turning
Authors: J. Kundrák, I. Sztankovics, K. Gyáni
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In addition to the increase of the material removal rate or surface rate, or the improvement of the surface quality, which are the main aims of the development of manufacturing technology, a growing number of other manufacturing requirements have appeared in the machining of workpiece surfaces. Among these it is becoming increasingly dominant to generate a surface topography in finishing operations which meets more closely the needs of operational requirements.
These include the examination of the surface periodicity and/or ensuring that the twist-structure values are within the limits (or even preventing its occurrence) in specified cases such as on the sealing surfaces of rotating shafts or on the inside working surfaces of needle roller bearings. In the view of the measurement the twist has different parameters from surface roughness, which must be determined for the machining procedures. Therefore in this paper the alteration of the theoretical values of the parameters determining twist structure are studied as a function of the kinematic properties.
Keywords: Kinematic parameters, rotational turning, surface topography, twist structure
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17921911 Particle Swarm Optimization for Design of Water Distribution Systems
Authors: A. Vasan
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Particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to design the water distribution pipeline network. A simulation-optimization model is formulated with the objective of minimizing cost and is applied to a benchmark water distribution system optimization problem. The benchmark problem taken for the application of PSO technique to optimize the pipe size of the water distribution network is New York City water supply system problem. The results from the analysis infer that PSO is a potential alternative optimization technique when compared to other heuristic techniques for optimal sizing of water distribution systems.
Keywords: Water distribution systems, Optimization, Particle swarm optimization, Swarm intelligence, New York water supply system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15371910 Preliminary Survey on MATLAB Learning among Power Electronics Students in Technical Education: A Case Study
Authors: Muhammad Mujtaba Asad, Razali Bin Hassan, Fahad Sherwani, Insaf Ali Siming
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This paper discusses about the findings of preliminary survey on MATLAB software learning among power electronics students. One of the main focuses of power electronics course is on DC to DC boost convertors, because boost convertors are generally used in different industrial and non industrial applications. Population samples of this study were randomly selected final year bachelor of electronics and electrical engineering students from University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM).As per the results from the survey questioner analysis, almost eighty percent students are facing problem and difficulties in Dc to Dc boost convertors experimental understanding without using MATLAB simulink package. As per finding of this study it is clear that MATLAB play an effective and efficient function for better understanding of boost convertors experimental work among power electronics learners.
Keywords: MATLAB, Simulation, Power Electronics, Experimental Work.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22141909 Multiple Sequence Alignment Using Optimization Algorithms
Authors: M. F. Omar, R. A. Salam, R. Abdullah, N. A. Rashid
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Proteins or genes that have similar sequences are likely to perform the same function. One of the most widely used techniques for sequence comparison is sequence alignment. Sequence alignment allows mismatches and insertion/deletion, which represents biological mutations. Sequence alignment is usually performed only on two sequences. Multiple sequence alignment, is a natural extension of two-sequence alignment. In multiple sequence alignment, the emphasis is to find optimal alignment for a group of sequences. Several applicable techniques were observed in this research, from traditional method such as dynamic programming to the extend of widely used stochastic optimization method such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and Simulated Annealing. A framework with combination of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing is presented to solve Multiple Sequence Alignment problem. The Genetic Algorithm phase will try to find new region of solution while Simulated Annealing can be considered as an alignment improver for any near optimal solution produced by GAs.
Keywords: Simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, sequence alignment, multiple sequence alignment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24091908 A Hybrid P2P Storage Scheme Based on Erasure Coding and Replication
Authors: Usman Mahmood, Khawaja M. U. Suleman
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A peer-to-peer storage system has challenges like; peer availability, data protection, churn rate. To address these challenges different redundancy, replacement and repair schemes are used. This paper presents a hybrid scheme of redundancy using replication and erasure coding. We calculate and compare the storage, access, and maintenance costs of our proposed scheme with existing redundancy schemes. For realistic behaviour of peers a trace of live peer-to-peer system is used. The effect of different replication, and repair schemes are also shown. The proposed hybrid scheme performs better than existing double coding hybrid scheme in all metrics and have an improved maintenance cost than hierarchical codes.
Keywords: Erasure Coding, P2P, Redundancy, Replication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17431907 Performance Analysis of MUSIC, Root-MUSIC and ESPRIT DOA Estimation Algorithm
Authors: N. P. Waweru, D. B. O. Konditi, P. K. Langat
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Direction of Arrival estimation refers to defining a mathematical function called a pseudospectrum that gives an indication of the angle a signal is impinging on the antenna array. This estimation is an efficient method of improving the quality of service in a communication system by focusing the reception and transmission only in the estimated direction thereby increasing fidelity with a provision to suppress interferers. This improvement is largely dependent on the performance of the algorithm employed in the estimation. Many DOA algorithms exists amongst which are MUSIC, Root-MUSIC and ESPRIT. In this paper, performance of these three algorithms is analyzed in terms of complexity, accuracy as assessed and characterized by the CRLB and memory requirements in various environments and array sizes. It is found that the three algorithms are high resolution and dependent on the operating environment and the array size.
Keywords: Direction of Arrival, Autocorrelation matrix, Eigenvalue decomposition, MUSIC, ESPRIT, CRLB.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 87621906 Absorption of CO2 in EAF Reducing Slag from Stainless Steel Making Process by Wet Grinding
Authors: B.M.N. Nik Hisyamudin, S. Yokoyama, M. Umemoto
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In the current study, we have conducted an experimental investigation on the utilization of electronic arc furnace (EAF) reducing slag for the absorption of CO2 via wet grinding method. It was carried out by various grinding conditions. The slag was ground in the vibrating ball mill in the presence of CO2 and pure water under ambient temperature. The reaction behavior was monitored with constant pressure method, and the changes of experimental systems volume as a function of grinding time were measured. It was found that the CO2 absorption occurred as soon as the grinding started. The CO2 absorption was significantly increased in the case of wet grinding compare to the dry grinding. Generally, the amount of CO2 absorption increased as the amount of water, weight of slag and initial pressure increased. However, it was decreased when the amount of water exceeds 200ml and when smaller balls were used. The absorption of CO2 occurred simultaneously with the start of the grinding and it stopped when the grinding was stopped. According to this research, the CO2 reacted with the CaO inside the slag, forming CaCO3.Keywords: CO2 absorption, EAF reducing slag, vibration ball mill, wet grinding.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17851905 Impact of Behavioral Aspects of Autism on Cognitive Abilities in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Rana M. Zeina, Laila AL-Ayadhi, Shahid Bashir
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Cognitive symptoms and behavioral symptoms may, in fact, overlap and be related to the level of the general cognitive function. We have measured the behavioral aspects of autism and its correlation to the cognitive ability in 30 children with ASD. We used a neuropsychological Battery CANTAB eclipse to evaluate the ASD children's cognitive ability. Individuals with ASD and challenging behaviors showed significant correlation between some cognitive abilities and Motor aspects. Based on these findings, we can conclude that the motor behavioral problems in autism affect specific cognitive abilities in ASDs such as comprehension, learning, reversal, acquisition, attention set shifting, and speed of reaction to one stimulus. Future researches should also focus on the relationship between motor stereotypes and other subtypes of repetitive behaviors, such as verbal stereotypes, ritual routine adherence, and the use of different types of CANTAB tests.
Keywords: Autism, Cognitive ability, Motor Behavior, and Neuropsychological battery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21361904 Towards a Systematic, Cost-Effective Approach for ERP Selection
Authors: Hassan Haghighi, Omid Mafi
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Existing experiences indicate that one of the most prominent reasons that some ERP implementations fail is related to selecting an improper ERP package. Among those important factors resulting in inappropriate ERP selections, one is to ignore preliminary activities that should be done before the evaluation of ERP packages. Another factor yielding these unsuitable selections is that usually organizations employ prolonged and costly selection processes in such extent that sometimes the process would never be finalized or sometimes the evaluation team might perform many key final activities in an incomplete or inaccurate way due to exhaustion, lack of interest or out-of-date data. In this paper, a systematic approach that recommends some activities to be done before and after the main selection phase is introduced for choosing an ERP package. On the other hand, the proposed approach has utilized some ideas that accelerates the selection process at the same time that reduces the probability of an erroneous final selection.Keywords: enterprise resource planning, evaluation and selectionof ERP packages, organizational readiness for employing ERP, evaluationlists.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15501903 Environmental Impact of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in Modern Construction: A Case Study from the New Egyptian Administrative Capital
Authors: Esraa A. Khalil, Mohamed N. AbouZeid
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Building materials selection is critical for the sustainability of any project. The choice of building materials has a huge impact on the built environment and cost of projects. Building materials emit huge amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to the use of cement as a basic component in the manufacturing process and as a binder, which harms our environment. Energy consumption from buildings has increased in the last few years; a huge amount of energy is being wasted from using unsustainable building and finishing materials, as well as from the process of heating and cooling of buildings. In addition, the construction sector in Egypt is taking a good portion of the economy; however, there is a lack of awareness of buildings environmental impacts on the built environment. Using advanced building materials and different wall systems can help in reducing heat consumption, the project’s initial and long-term costs, and minimizing the environmental impacts. Red Bricks is one of the materials that are being used widely in Egypt. There are many other types of bricks such as Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC); however, the use of Red Bricks is dominating the construction industry due to its affordability and availability. This research focuses on the New Egyptian Administrative Capital as a case study to investigate the potential of the influence of using different wall systems such as AAC on the project’s cost and the environment. The aim of this research is to conduct a comparative analysis between the traditional and most commonly used bricks in Egypt, which is Red Bricks, and AAC wall systems. Through an economic and environmental study, the difference between the two wall systems will be justified to encourage the utilization of uncommon techniques in the construction industry to build more affordable, energy efficient and sustainable buildings. The significance of this research is to show the potential of using AAC in the construction industry and its positive influences. The study analyzes the factors associated with choosing suitable building materials for different projects according to the need and criteria of each project and its nature without harming the environment and wasting materials that could be saved or recycled. The New Egyptian Administrative Capital is considered as the country’s new heart, where ideas regarding energy savings and environmental benefits are taken into consideration. Meaning that, Egypt is taking good steps to move towards more sustainable construction. According to the analysis and site visits, there is a potential in reducing the initial costs of buildings by 12.1% and saving energy by using different techniques up to 25%. Interviews with the mega structures project engineers and managers reveal that they are more open to introducing sustainable building materials that will help in saving the environment and moving towards green construction as well as to studying more effective techniques for energy conservation.
Keywords: AAC blocks, building material, environmental impact, modern construction, New Egyptian Administrative Capital.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19301902 Optimization of Transmitter Aperture by Genetic Algorithm in Optical Satellite
Authors: Karim Kemih, Yacine Yaiche, Malek Benslama
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To establish optical communication between any two satellites, the transmitter satellite must track the beacon of the receiver satellite and point the information optical beam in its direction. Optical tracking and pointing systems for free space suffer during tracking from high-amplitude vibration because of background radiation from interstellar objects such as the Sun, Moon, Earth, and stars in the tracking field of view or the mechanical impact from satellite internal and external sources. The vibrations of beam pointing increase the bit error rate and jam communication between the two satellites. One way to overcome this problem is the use of very small transmitter beam divergence angles of too narrow divergence angle is that the transmitter beam may sometimes miss the receiver satellite, due to pointing vibrations. In this paper we propose the use of genetic algorithm to optimize the BER as function of transmitter optics aperture.Keywords: Optical Satellite Communication, Genetic Algorithm, Transmitter Optics Aperture
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19911901 Nanostructured Pt/MnO2 Catalysts and Their Performance for Oxygen Reduction Reaction in Air Cathode Microbial Fuel Cell
Authors: Maksudur Rahman Khan, Kar Min Chan, Huei Ruey Ong, Chin Kui Cheng, Wasikur Rahman
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Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) represent a promising technology for simultaneous bioelectricity generation and wastewater treatment. Catalysts are significant portions of the cost of microbial fuel cell cathodes. Many materials have been tested as aqueous cathodes, but air-cathodes are needed to avoid energy demands for water aeration. The sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) rate at air cathode necessitates efficient electrocatalyst such as carbon supported platinum catalyst (Pt/C) which is very costly. Manganese oxide (MnO2) was a representative metal oxide which has been studied as a promising alternative electrocatalyst for ORR and has been tested in air-cathode MFCs. However the single MnO2 has poor electric conductivity and low stability. In the present work, the MnO2 catalyst has been modified by doping Pt nanoparticle. The goal of the work was to improve the performance of the MFC with minimum Pt loading. MnO2 and Pt nanoparticles were prepared by hydrothermal and sol gel methods, respectively. Wet impregnation method was used to synthesize Pt/MnO2 catalyst. The catalysts were further used as cathode catalysts in air-cathode cubic MFCs, in which anaerobic sludge was inoculated as biocatalysts and palm oil mill effluent (POME) was used as the substrate in the anode chamber. The asprepared Pt/MnO2 was characterized comprehensively through field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) where its surface morphology, crystallinity, oxidation state and electrochemical activity were examined, respectively. XPS revealed Mn (IV) oxidation state and Pt (0) nanoparticle metal, indicating the presence of MnO2 and Pt. Morphology of Pt/MnO2 observed from FESEM shows that the doping of Pt did not cause change in needle-like shape of MnO2 which provides large contacting surface area. The electrochemical active area of the Pt/MnO2 catalysts has been increased from 276 to 617 m2/g with the increase in Pt loading from 0.2 to 0.8 wt%. The CV results in O2 saturated neutral Na2SO4 solution showed that MnO2 and Pt/MnO2 catalysts could catalyze ORR with different catalytic activities. MFC with Pt/MnO2 (0.4 wt% Pt) as air cathode catalyst generates a maximum power density of 165 mW/m3, which is higher than that of MFC with MnO2 catalyst (95 mW/m3). The open circuit voltage (OCV) of the MFC operated with MnO2 cathode gradually decreased during 14 days of operation, whereas the MFC with Pt/MnO2 cathode remained almost constant throughout the operation suggesting the higher stability of the Pt/MnO2 catalyst. Therefore, Pt/MnO2 with 0.4 wt% Pt successfully demonstrated as an efficient and low cost electrocatalyst for ORR in air cathode MFC with higher electrochemical activity, stability and hence enhanced performance.
Keywords: Microbial fuel cell, oxygen reduction reaction, Pt/MnO2, palm oil mill effluent, polarization curve.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35061900 A New Analytical Approach to Reconstruct Residual Stresses Due to Turning Process
Authors: G.H. Farrahi, S.A. Faghidian, D.J. Smith
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A thin layer on the component surface can be found with high tensile residual stresses, due to turning operations, which can dangerously affect the fatigue performance of the component. In this paper an analytical approach is presented to reconstruct the residual stress field from a limited incomplete set of measurements. Airy stress function is used as the primary unknown to directly solve the equilibrium equations and satisfying the boundary conditions. In this new method there exists the flexibility to impose the physical conditions that govern the behavior of residual stress to achieve a meaningful complete stress field. The analysis is also coupled to a least squares approximation and a regularization method to provide stability of the inverse problem. The power of this new method is then demonstrated by analyzing some experimental measurements and achieving a good agreement between the model prediction and the results obtained from residual stress measurement.Keywords: Residual stress, Limited measurements, Inverse problems, Turning process.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14311899 Transient Thermal Stresses of Functionally Graded Thick Hollow Cylinder under the Green-Lindsay Model
Authors: Tariq T. Darabseh
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The transient thermoelastic response of thick hollow cylinder made of functionally graded material under thermal loading is studied. The generalized coupled thermoelasticity based on the Green-Lindsay model is used. The thermal and mechanical properties of the functionally graded material are assumed to be varied in the radial direction according to a power law variation as a function of the volume fractions of the constituents. The thermal and elastic governing equations are solved by using Galerkin finite element method. All the finite element calculations were done by using commercial finite element program FlexPDE. The transient temperature, radial displacement, and thermal stresses distribution through the radial direction of the cylinder are plotted.
Keywords: Finite element method, thermal stresses, Green-Lindsay theory, functionally graded material.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20051898 Energy Models for Analyzing the Economic Wide Impact of the Environmental Policies
Authors: Majdi M. Alomari, Nafesah I. Alshdaifat, Mohammad S. Widyan
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Different countries have introduced different schemes and policies to counter global warming. The rationale behind the proposed policies and the potential barriers to successful implementation of the policies adopted by the countries were analyzed and estimated based on different models. It is argued that these models enhance the transparency and provide a better understanding to the policy makers. However, these models are underpinned with several structural and baseline assumptions. These assumptions, modeling features and future prediction of emission reductions and other implication such as cost and benefits of a transition to a low-carbon economy and its economy wide impacts were discussed. On the other hand, there are potential barriers in the form political, financial, and cultural and many others that pose a threat to the mitigation options.Keywords: Economic wide impact, energy models, environmental policy instruments, mitigating CO2 emission.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15561897 Optimum Design of Launching Nose during Incremental Launching Construction of Same-Span Continuous Bridge
Authors: Weifeng Wang, Hengbin Zheng, Xianwei Zeng
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The launching nose plays an important role in the incremental launching construction. The parameters of the launching nose essentially affect the internal forces of the girder during the construction. The appropriate parameters can decrease the internal forces in the girder and save the material and reduce the cost. The simplified structural model, which is made with displacement method according to the characteristic of incremental launching construction and the variation rule of the internal forces, calculates and analyzes the effect of the length, the rigidity and weight of launch nose on the internal forces of girder during the incremental launching construction. The method, which can calculate the launching nose parameters for the optimum incremental launching construction, is achieved. This method is simple, reliable and easy for practical use.Keywords: incremental launching, launching nose, optimumanalysis, displacement method
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36361896 Analysis of Diverse Cluster Ensemble Techniques
Authors: S. Sarumathi, N. Shanthi, P. Ranjetha
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Data mining is the procedure of determining interesting patterns from the huge amount of data. With the intention of accessing the data faster the most supporting processes needed is clustering. Clustering is the process of identifying similarity between data according to the individuality present in the data and grouping associated data objects into clusters. Cluster ensemble is the technique to combine various runs of different clustering algorithms to obtain a general partition of the original dataset, aiming for consolidation of outcomes from a collection of individual clustering outcomes. The performances of clustering ensembles are mainly affecting by two principal factors such as diversity and quality. This paper presents the overview about the different cluster ensemble algorithm along with their methods used in cluster ensemble to improve the diversity and quality in the several cluster ensemble related papers and shows the comparative analysis of different cluster ensemble also summarize various cluster ensemble methods. Henceforth this clear analysis will be very useful for the world of clustering experts and also helps in deciding the most appropriate one to determine the problem in hand.Keywords: Cluster Ensemble, Consensus Function, CSPA, Diversity, HGPA, MCLA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18411895 Forecasting Models for Steel Demand Uncertainty Using Bayesian Methods
Authors: Watcharin Sangma, Onsiri Chanmuang, Pitsanu Tongkhow
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A forecasting model for steel demand uncertainty in Thailand is proposed. It consists of trend, autocorrelation, and outliers in a hierarchical Bayesian frame work. The proposed model uses a cumulative Weibull distribution function, latent first-order autocorrelation, and binary selection, to account for trend, time-varying autocorrelation, and outliers, respectively. The Gibbs sampling Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is used for parameter estimation. The proposed model is applied to steel demand index data in Thailand. The root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and mean absolute error (MAE) criteria are used for model comparison. The study reveals that the proposed model is more appropriate than the exponential smoothing method.
Keywords: Forecasting model, Steel demand uncertainty, Hierarchical Bayesian framework, Exponential smoothing method.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25351894 Energy Savings in Pumps
Authors: N. Dizadji, P. Entezar, A. Shabani
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This study presents energy saving in general-purpose pumps widely used in industrial applications. Such pumps are normally driven by a constant-speed electrical motor which in most applications must support varying load conditions. This is equivalent to saying the loading conditions mismatch the designed optimal energy consumption requirements of the intended application thus resulting in substantial energy losses. In the held experiments it was indicated that combination of mechanical and electrical speed drives can contribute to lower energy consumption in the pump without negatively distorting the required performance indices of a typical centrifugal pump at substantially lower energy consumption. The registered energy savings were recorded to be within the 15-40% margin. It was also indicated that although VSDs are installed at a cost, the financial burden is balanced against the earnings resulting from the associated energy savings.Keywords: Industrial motors, Pumps, Energy consumption, Energy savings, Variable speed drive.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20941893 An Approach to Manage and Evaluate Asset Performance
Authors: Mohammed S. ALSaidi, John P. Mo
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Modern engineering assets are complex and very high in value. They are expected to function for years to come, with ability to handle the change in technology and ageing modification. The aging of an engineering asset and continues increase of vendors and contractors numbers forces the asset operation management (or Owner) to design an asset system which can capture these changes. Furthermore, an accurate performance measurement and risk evaluation processes are highly needed. Therefore, this paper explores the nature of the asset management system performance evaluation for an engineering asset based on the System Support Engineering (SSE) principles. The research work explores the asset support system from a range of perspectives, interviewing managers from across a refinery organization. The factors contributing to complexity of an asset management system are described in context which clusters them into several key areas. It is proposed that SSE framework may then be used as a tool for analysis and management of asset. The paper will conclude with discussion of potential application of the framework and opportunities for future research.
Keywords: Asset management, performance, evaluation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23581892 Computationally Efficient Adaptive Rate Sampling and Adaptive Resolution Analysis
Authors: Saeed Mian Qaisar, Laurent Fesquet, Marc Renaudin
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Mostly the real life signals are time varying in nature. For proper characterization of such signals, time-frequency representation is required. The STFT (short-time Fourier transform) is a classical tool used for this purpose. The limitation of the STFT is its fixed time-frequency resolution. Thus, an enhanced version of the STFT, which is based on the cross-level sampling, is devised. It can adapt the sampling frequency and the window function length by following the input signal local variations. Therefore, it provides an adaptive resolution time-frequency representation of the input. The computational complexity of the proposed STFT is deduced and compared to the classical one. The results show a significant gain of the computational efficiency and hence of the processing power. The processing error of the proposed technique is also discussed.
Keywords: Level Crossing Sampling, Activity Selection, Adaptive Resolution Analysis, Computational Complexity
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12611891 Unsupervised Feature Selection Using Feature Density Functions
Authors: Mina Alibeigi, Sattar Hashemi, Ali Hamzeh
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Since dealing with high dimensional data is computationally complex and sometimes even intractable, recently several feature reductions methods have been developed to reduce the dimensionality of the data in order to simplify the calculation analysis in various applications such as text categorization, signal processing, image retrieval, gene expressions and etc. Among feature reduction techniques, feature selection is one the most popular methods due to the preservation of the original features. In this paper, we propose a new unsupervised feature selection method which will remove redundant features from the original feature space by the use of probability density functions of various features. To show the effectiveness of the proposed method, popular feature selection methods have been implemented and compared. Experimental results on the several datasets derived from UCI repository database, illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed methods in comparison with the other compared methods in terms of both classification accuracy and the number of selected features.Keywords: Feature, Feature Selection, Filter, Probability Density Function
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20771890 Demographics Are Not Enough: Targeting and Segmentation of Anti-Obesity Campaigns in Mexico
Authors: D. Wrzecionkowska
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Mass media campaigns against obesity are often designed to impact large audiences. This usually means that their audience is defined based on general demographic characteristics like age, gender, occupation etc., not taking into account psychographics like behavior, motivations, wants, etc. Using psychographics, as the base for the audience segmentation, is a common practice in case of successful campaigns, as it allows developing more relevant messages. It also serves a purpose of identifying key segments, those that generate the best return on investment. For a health campaign, that would be segments that have the best chance of being converted into healthy lifestyle at the lowest cost. This paper presents the limitations of the demographic targeting, based on the findings from the reception study of IMSS (Mexican Social Security Institute) antiobesity TV commercials and proposes mothers as the first level of segmentation, in the process of identifying the key segment for these campaigns.Keywords: Anti-obesity campaigns, mothers, segmentation, targeting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20711889 Patents Analysis and Design Suggestions for the Mandibular Advancement Devices
Authors: Tsung-yin Lin, Yi-yu Lee
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Snoring is prevalent and is the most significant feature of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Ignore the therapies of SDB will lead to serious problems in health. Based on the research of mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatments of snoring, oral appliances are ensured in therapeutic effect and compliance, especially the mandibular advancement devices (MADs). Market survey includes commercial product reviews and patent analyses. Due to pay more attention to the sleep medicine, the oral appliances are considered as a standard treatment of snoring that promoted by American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). There are more and more adjustable MADs developed since 1995. According to the patent analyses, there are many drawbacks existed in the present design, such as uncomfortable, high cost, bulky volume, and complex adjustment. In this study, several new designs of the MAD are proposed.Keywords: mandibular advancement device, mechanism design, patent review
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15711888 SeCloudBPMN: A Lightweight Extension for BPMN Considering Security Threats in the Cloud
Authors: Somayeh Sobati Moghadam
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Business processes are crucial for organizations and help businesses to evaluate and optimize their performance and processes against current and future-state business goals. Outsourcing business processes to the cloud becomes popular due to a wide varsity of benefits and cost-saving. However, cloud outsourcing raises enterprise data security concerns, which must be incorporated in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). This paper, presents SeCloudBPMN, a lightweight extension for BPMN which extends the BPMN to explicitly support the security threats in the cloud as an outsourcing environment. SeCloudBPMN helps business’s security experts to outsource business processes to the cloud considering different threats from inside and outside the cloud. In this way, appropriate security countermeasures could be considered to preserve data security in business processes outsourcing to the cloud.Keywords: BPMN, security threats, cloud computing, graphical representation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7801887 Using Artificial Neural Network Algorithm for Voltage Stability Improvement
Authors: Omid Borazjani, Mahmoud Roosta, Khodakhast Isapour, Ali Reza Rajabi
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This paper presents an application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm for improving power system voltage stability. The training data is obtained by solving several normal and abnormal conditions using the Linear Programming technique. The selected objective function gives minimum deviation of the reactive power control variables, which leads to the maximization of minimum Eigen value of load flow Jacobian. The considered reactive power control variables are switchable VAR compensators, OLTC transformers and excitation of generators. The method has been implemented on a modified IEEE 30-bus test system. The results obtain from the test clearly show that the trained neural network is capable of improving the voltage stability in power system with a high level of precision and speed.Keywords: Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Load Flow, Voltage Stability, Power Systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19701886 Computing a Time Based Effective Radius-of-Curvature for Roadways
Authors: Gary D. Cantrell, E. Alex Baylot
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The radius-of-curvature (ROC) defines the degree of curvature along the centerline of a roadway whereby a travelling vehicle must follow. Roadway designs must encompass ROC in mitigating the cost of earthwork associated with construction while also allowing vehicles to travel at maximum allowable design speeds. Thus, a road will tend to follow natural topography where possible, but curvature must also be optimized to permit fast, but safe vehicle speeds. The more severe the curvature of the road, the slower the permissible vehicle speed. For route planning, whether for urban settings, emergency operations, or even parcel delivery, ROC is a necessary attribute of road arcs for computing travel time. It is extremely rare for a geo-spatial database to contain ROC. This paper will present a procedure and mathematical algorithm to calculate and assign ROC to a segment pair and/or polyline.Keywords: linear features, radius-of-curvature, roads, routing, traffic, turning
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15941885 Metal-Semiconductor-Metal Photodetector Based On Porous In0.08Ga0.92N
Authors: Saleh H. Abud, Z. Hassan, F. K. Yam
Abstract:
Characteristics of MSM photodetector based on a porous In0.08Ga0.92N thin film were reported. Nanoporous structures of n-type In0.08Ga0.92N/AlN/Si thin films were synthesized by photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching at a ratio of 1:4 of HF:C2H5OH solution for 15min. The structural and optical properties of pre- and post-etched thin films were investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope images showed that the pre-etched thin film has a sufficiently smooth surface over a large region and the roughness increased for porous film. Blue shift has been observed in photoluminescence emission peak at 300 K for porous sample. The photoluminescence intensity of the porous film indicated that the optical properties have been enhanced. A high work function metals (Pt and Ni) were deposited as a metal contact on the porous films. The rise and recovery times of the devices were investigated at 390nm chopped light. Finally, the sensitivity and quantum efficiency were also studied.
Keywords: Porous InGaN, photoluminescence, SMS photodetector.
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