Search results for: Scale Efficiency

Authors: T. Tambovceva, A. Tambovcevs

Abstract:

The activities which are mostly related to the environmental performance need to be pointed, especially how logistics systems influence on environmental performance. This paper analyses how company could lead the initiative in this area by incorporating environmental management principles into their daily activities. The analysis is based on literature review about logistics and environment, the information from company R website as well as face-to-face interviews. A case study is given to show how they can turn practices into green while simultaneously meet the efficiency objectives. The research results show that the adoption of EMS and ISO 14001 certification is an effective tool for the logistics management. Such practices simultaneously reduce the negative contribute to better company performance. The results also show that the emissions to air and water, and energy consumption are the main logistics impacts to the environment.

Keywords: environmental management system, green logistics, information technology, information systems.

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Authors: Saeed Vahidifar, Mohammad Nakhaee Sharif, Mohammad Ghaffari

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Few people would dispute the fact that one of the most common applications of energy is creating comfort in buildings, so it is probably true to say that management of energy consumption is required due to the environmental issues and increasing the efficiency of mechanical systems. From the geographical point of view, Iran is located in a warm and semi-arid region; therefore, air-cooled chillers are usually used for cooling residential buildings, commercial buildings, medical buildings, etc. In this study, a heat exchanger was designed for providing laundry hot water by utilizing condenser heat lost base on analytical results of a 540-bed hospital in the city of Mashhad in Iran. In this paper, by using the analytical method, energy consumption reduces about 13%, and coefficient of performance increases a bit. Results show that this method can help in the management of energy consumption a lot.

Keywords: Energy management, air-cooled chiller, heat exchanger, hospital laundry system.

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Authors: Andrew R.H. Rigit, Patrick T.K. Low

Abstract:

Majority of pepper farmers in Malaysia are using the open-sun method for drying the pepper berries. This method is time consuming and exposed the berries to rain and contamination. A maintenance-friendly and properly enclosed dryer is therefore desired. A dryer design with a solar collector and a chimney was studied and adapted to suit the needs of small-scale pepper farmers in Malaysia. The dryer will provide an environment with an optimum operating temperature meant for drying pepper berries. The dryer model was evaluated by using commercially available computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software in order to understand the heat and mass transfer inside the dryer. Natural convection was the only mode of heat transportation considered in this study as in accordance to the idea of having a simple and maintenance-friendly design. To accommodate the effect of low buoyancy found in natural convection driers, a biomass burner was integrated into the solar dryer design.

Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, heat and masstransfer, solar dryer.

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Authors: K. Arunachalam, P. Mannar Jawahar

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Presently, engine cooling pump is driven by toothed belt. Therefore, the pump speed is dependent on engine speed which varies their output. At normal engine operating conditions (Higher RPM and low load, Higher RPM and high load), mechanical water pumps in existing engines are inevitably oversized and so the use of an electric water pump together with state-of-the-art thermal management of the combustion engine has measurable advantages. Demand-driven cooling, particularly in the cold-start phase, saves fuel (approx 3 percent) and leads to a corresponding reduction in emissions. The lack of dependence on a mechanical drive also results in considerable flexibility in component packaging within the engine compartment. This paper describes the testing and comparison of existing mechanical water pump with that of the electric water pump. When the existing mechanical water pump is replaced with the new electric water pump the percentage gain in system efficiency is also discussed.

Keywords: Cooling system, Electric water pump, Mechanical water pump.

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Authors: Swadhin Ku. Mishra, Sidhartha Panda, Simanchala Padhy, C. Ardil

Abstract:

In this paper, real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) optimization technique has been applied for large-scale linear dynamic multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system. The method is based on error minimization technique where the integral square error between the transient responses of original and reduced order models has been minimized by RCGA. The reduction procedure is simple computer oriented and the approach is comparable in quality with the other well-known reduction techniques. Also, the proposed method guarantees stability of the reduced model if the original high-order MIMO system is stable. The proposed approach of MIMO system order reduction is illustrated with the help of an example and the results are compared with the recently published other well-known reduction techniques to show its superiority.

Keywords: Multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) system.Modelorder reduction. Integral squared error (ISE). Real-coded geneticalgorithm

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Authors: N. Manavizadeh , M. Rabbani , H. Sotudian , F. Jolai

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Mixed Model Production is the practice of assembling several distinct and different models of a product on the same assembly line without changeovers and then sequencing those models in a way that smoothes the demand for upstream components. In this paper, we consider an objective function which minimizes total stoppage time and total idle time and it is presented sequence dependent set up time. Many studies have been done on the mixed model assembly lines. But in this paper we specifically focused on reducing the idle times. This is possible through various help policies. For improving the solutions, some cases developed and about 40 tests problem was considered. We use scatter search for optimization and for showing the efficiency of our algorithm, experimental results shows behavior of method. Scatter search and help policies can produce high quality answers, so it has been used in this paper.

Keywords: mixed model assembly lines, Scatter search, help policies, idle time, Stoppage time

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Authors: A. K. Bhandari, A. Kumar, P. K. Padhy

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In this paper, a novel contrast enhancement technique for contrast enhancement of a low-contrast satellite image has been proposed based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) and discrete cosine transform (DCT). The singular value matrix represents the intensity information of the given image and any change on the singular values change the intensity of the input image. The proposed technique converts the image into the SVD-DCT domain and after normalizing the singular value matrix; the enhanced image is reconstructed by using inverse DCT. The visual and quantitative results suggest that the proposed SVD-DCT method clearly shows the increased efficiency and flexibility of the proposed method over the exiting methods such as Linear Contrast Stretching technique, GHE technique, DWT-SVD technique, DWT technique, Decorrelation Stretching technique, Gamma Correction method based techniques.

Keywords: Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), discretecosine transforms (DCT), image equalization and satellite imagecontrast enhancement.

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Authors: Ajay Verma, Nitin Seth

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In present days market environment, supply chains has to be 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. Recently, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature. Various researchers and practitioners have tried to identify and implement enablers in supply chains which can bring competitiveness in the supply chains i.e. supply chain competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to suggest select enablers for supply chain competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector using an integrated approach of literature review and exploratory interviews with eminent professionals from the supply chain area in various industries, academia and research. The aim of the paper is to highlight the important enablers in the area of supply chain competitiveness and suggest recommendations to the industry and managers of manufacturing supply chains with a view to encourage more efforts in this wider domain area.

Keywords: Supply Chain Competitiveness, Supply Chain Collaboration, Coordination, Quality Management, Cost.

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Authors: Jihye Jeon

Abstract:

This paper analyzes the political and economic issues that people with disabilities face related to globalization; how people with disabilities have been adapting globalization and surviving under worldwide competition system. It explains that economic globalization exacerbates inequality and deprivation of people with disabilities. The rising tide of neo-liberal welfare policies emphasized efficiency, downsized social expenditure for people with disabilities, excluded people with disabilities against labor market, and shifted them from welfare system to nothing. However, there have been people with disabilities' political responses to globalization, which are characterized by a global network of people with disabilities as well as participation to global governance. Their resistance can be seen as an attempt to tackle the problems that economic globalization has produced. It is necessary paradigm shift of disability policy from dependency represented by disability benefits to independency represented by labor market policies for people with disabilities.

Keywords: Economic Globalization, People with Disability, Deprivation, Welfare Cut, Disability Right Movement, Resistance.

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Authors: Surita Maini

Abstract:

There are many perceived advantages of microwave ablation have driven researchers to develop innovative antennas to effectively treat deep-seated, non-resectable hepatic tumors. In this paper a coaxial antenna with a miniaturized sleeve choke has been discussed for microwave interstitial ablation therapy, in order to reduce backward heating effects irrespective of the insertion depth into the tissue. Two dimensional Finite Element Method (FEM) is used to simulate and measure the results of miniaturized sleeve choke antenna. This paper emphasizes the importance of factors that can affect simulation accuracy, which include mesh resolution, surface heating and reflection coefficient. Quarter wavelength choke effectiveness has been discussed by comparing it with the unchoked antenna with same dimensions.

Keywords: Microwave ablation, tumor, Finite Element Method, Coaxial slot antenna, Coaxial dipole antenna.

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Authors: M.Hosseinghadiry, H. Mohammadi, M.Nadisenejani

Abstract:

with increasing circuits- complexity and demand to use portable devices, power consumption is one of the most important parameters these days. Full adders are the basic block of many circuits. Therefore reducing power consumption in full adders is very important in low power circuits. One of the most powerconsuming modules in full adders is XOR/XNOR circuit. This paper presents two new full adders based on two new logic approaches. The proposed logic approaches use one XOR or XNOR gate to implement a full adder cell. Therefore, delay and power will be decreased. Using two new approaches and two XOR and XNOR gates, two new full adders have been implemented in this paper. Simulations are carried out by HSPICE in 0.18μm bulk technology with 1.8V supply voltage. The results show that the ten-transistors proposed full adder has 12% less power consumption and is 5% faster in comparison to MB12T full adder. 9T is more efficient in area and is 24% better than similar 10T full adder in term of power consumption. The main drawback of the proposed circuits is output threshold loss problem.

Keywords: Full adder, XNOR, Low power, High performance, Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit.

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Authors: Michał Glet, Kamil Kaczyński

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Counterfeit goods and documents are a global problem, which needs more and more sophisticated methods of resolving it. Existing techniques using watermarking or embedding symbols on objects are not suitable for all use cases. To address those special needs, we created complete system allowing authentication of paper documents and physical objects with flat surface. Objects are marked using orientation independent and resistant to camera noise 2D graphic codes, named DotAuth. Based on the identifier stored in 2D code, the system is able to perform basic authentication and allows to conduct more sophisticated analysis methods, e.g., relying on augmented reality and physical properties of the object. In this paper, we present the complete architecture, algorithms and applications of the proposed system. Results of the features comparison of the proposed solution and other products are presented as well, pointing to the existence of many advantages that increase usability and efficiency in the means of protecting physical objects.

Keywords: Authentication, paper documents, security, anti-forgery.

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Authors: Koo-Yeon Kim, Eun-Hye Kim, Tae-Il Son

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Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF, Mw=6,045) has been reported to have high efficiency of wound repair and anti-wrinkle effect. However, the half-life of EGF in the body is too short to exert the biological activity effectively when applied in free form. Growth Factors can be stabilized by immobilization with carbohydrates from thermal and proteolytic degradation. Low molecular weight chitosan (LMCS) and its derivate prepared by hydrogen peroxide has high solubility. LM6A6DC was successfully prepared as a reactive carbohydrate for the stabilization of EGF by the reactions of LMCS with alkalization, tosylation, azidation and reduction. The structure of LM6A6DC was confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR and elementary analysis. For enhancing the stability of free EGF, EGF was attached with LM6A6DC by using water-soluble carbodiimide. EGF-LM6A6DC conjugates did not show any cytotoxicity on the Normal Human Dermal Fibroblast (NHDF) 3T3 proliferation at least under 100 μg/ml. In the result, it was considered that LM6A6DC is suitable to immobilize of growth factor.

Keywords: Epidermal growth factor (EGF), low-molecular-weight chitosan, immobilization.

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Authors: Choeng-Ryul Choi, Chang-Nyung Kim, Tae-Hyub Hong

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A numerical method is developed for simulating the motion of particles with arbitrary shapes in an effectively infinite or bounded viscous flow. The particle translational and angular motions are numerically investigated using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method based on the Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach and the dynamic mesh method (smoothing and remeshing) in FLUENT ( ANSYS Inc., USA). Also, the effects of arbitrary shapes on the dynamics are studied using the FSI method which could be applied to the motions and deformations of a single blood cell and multiple blood cells, and the primary thrombogenesis caused by platelet aggregation. It is expected that, combined with a sophisticated large-scale computational technique, the simulation method will be useful for understanding the overall properties of blood flow from blood cellular level (microscopic) to the resulting rheological properties of blood as a mass (macroscopic).

Keywords: Blood Flow, Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI), Micro-Channels, Arbitrary Shapes, Red Blood Cells (RBCs)

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Authors: R. A. Salam, M.A. Rodrigues

Abstract:

The number of features required to represent an image can be very huge. Using all available features to recognize objects can suffer from curse dimensionality. Feature selection and extraction is the pre-processing step of image mining. Main issues in analyzing images is the effective identification of features and another one is extracting them. The mining problem that has been focused is the grouping of features for different shapes. Experiments have been conducted by using shape outline as the features. Shape outline readings are put through normalization and dimensionality reduction process using an eigenvector based method to produce a new set of readings. After this pre-processing step data will be grouped through their shapes. Through statistical analysis, these readings together with peak measures a robust classification and recognition process is achieved. Tests showed that the suggested methods are able to automatically recognize objects through their shapes. Finally, experiments also demonstrate the system invariance to rotation, translation, scale, reflection and to a small degree of distortion.

Keywords: Image mining, feature selection, shape recognition, peak measures.

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Authors: H. A. Taner, V. Önen

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In the thermal power plants established to meet the energy need, lignite with low calorie and high ash content is used. Burning of these coals results in wastes such as fly ash, slag and flue gas. This constitutes a significant economic and environmental problems. However, fly ash can find evaluation opportunities in various sectors. In this study, the effectiveness of fly ash on suspended solid removal from marble processing wastewater containing high concentration of suspended solids was examined. Experiments were carried out for two different suspensions, marble and travertine. In the experiments, FeCl₃, Al₂(SO₄)₃ and anionic polymer A130 were used also to compare with fly ash. Coagulant/flocculant type/dosage, mixing time/speed and pH were the experimental parameters. The performances in the experimental studies were assessed with the change in the interface height during sedimentation resultant and turbidity values of treated water. The highest sedimentation efficiency was achieved with anionic flocculant. However, it was determined that fly ash can be used instead of FeCl₃ and Al₂(SO₄)₃ in the travertine plant as a coagulant.

Keywords: Dewatering, flocculant, fly ash, marble plant waste water.

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Authors: Ling Shi Cai, Leau Yu Beng, Charlie Albert Lasuin, Tan Soo Fun, Chin Pei Yee

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This paper explains the development of Multifunctional Barcode Inventory Management System (MBIMS) to manage inventory and stock ordering. Today, most of the retailing market is still manually record their stocks and its effectiveness is quite low. By providing MBIMS, it will bring effectiveness to retailing market in inventory management. MBIMS will not only save time in recording input, output and refilling the inventory stock, but also in calculating remaining stock and provide auto-ordering function. This system is developed through System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and the flow and structure of the system is fully built based on requirements of a retailing market. Furthermore, this system has been developed from methodical research and study where each part of the system is vigilantly designed. Thus, MBIMS will offer a good solution to the retailing market in achieving effectiveness and efficiency in inventory management.

Keywords: Inventory, Retailing Market, Barcode, Automated Alerting and Ordering

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Authors: M.Y. Pua, M.C. Tan, L.W. Tan, N. Ab.Aziz, F.S. Taip

Abstract:

The most common type of controller being used in the industry is PI(D) controller which has been used since 1945 and is still being widely used due to its efficiency and simplicity. In most cases, the PI(D) controller was tuned without taking into consideration of the effect of actuator saturation. In real processes, the most common actuator which is valve will act as constraint and restrict the controller output. Since the controller is not designed to encounter saturation, the process may windup and consequently resulted in large oscillation or may become unstable. Usually, an antiwindup compensator is added to the feedback control loop to reduce the deterioration effect of integral windup. This research aims to specifically control processes with constraints. The proposed method was applied to two different types of food processes, which are blending and spray drying. Simulations were done using MATLAB and the performances of the proposed method were compared with other conventional methods. The proposed technique was able to control the processes and avoid saturation such that no anti windup compensator is needed.

Keywords: constraints, food process control, first order plusdead time process, PI

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Authors: W. K. Hiromi Ariyaratne, Morten C. Melaaen, Lars-André Tokheim

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A mathematical model based on a mass and energy balance for the combustion in a cement rotary kiln was developed. The model was used to investigate the impact of replacing about 45 % of the primary coal energy by different alternative fuels. Refuse derived fuel, waste wood, solid hazardous waste and liquid hazardous waste were used in the modeling. The results showed that in order to keep the kiln temperature unchanged, and thereby maintain the required clinker quality, the production capacity had to be reduced by 1-15 %, depending on the fuel type. The reason for the reduction is increased exhaust gas flow rates caused by the fuel characteristics. The model, which has been successfully validated in a full-scale experiment, was also used to show that the negative impact on the production capacity can be avoided if a relatively small part of the combustion air is replaced by pure oxygen.

Keywords: Alternative fuels, Cement kiln main burner, Oxygen enrichment, Production capacity.

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Authors: Micheli Anna Paola, Intrisano Carmelo, Calce Anna Maria

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This research focused on the capability of health tourism to improve the economic and financial performance of healthcare companies. It is assumed that health tourism companies have better profitability and financial efficiency because they can also count on cross-border demand differently from no health tourism companies. A three-level gap analysis was conducted: the first concerns health tourism companies located in Italy and in the other EU28 states; in the second Italian and EU28, no health tourism companies were compared; the third level is about the Italian system with a comparison between health tourism and no health tourism companies. Findings highlighted that Italian healthcare companies have better profitability performance if compared to European ones, but they present weaknesses in the financial position given the illiquidity and excessive leverage. Furthermore, studying the Italian system, we found that health tourism companies are more profitable than no health tourism companies.

Keywords: Financial performance, gap analysis, health tourism, profitability performance, value creation.

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Authors: Gwang-Soon Lim, Jae-One Jung, Dae-HeeKim, Hong-SeokKim

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The purpose of this study was to suggest some optimal waterfront scales around small rivers by reviewing domestic and foreign survey reports about concept and relevant systems of the ecological cities, analyzing the data collected from a survey about scales and facilities of waterfront green zones around small rivers. The questionnaire survey was conducted by sampling professional designers, developers, the citizens living in the GunpoSanbon district covered by no river system and the citizens living in such districts covered by a river system. The question items were about need, uses, scale and facilities of waterfront in common, and about satisfaction with waterfront in case of citizen groups. In short, most of the subjects in 5 groups preferred 10~20 wide waterfront green zone. And it is judged that the results of this study about uses and facilities of the waterfront green zone and its scales would provide for some basic data useful to future waterfront green zone and urban development plans.

Keywords: Ecological city, Small river, Waterfront zone, Urban development plan

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Authors: P.P. Diale, S.S.L. Mkhize, E. Muzenda, J. Zimba

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For more than 120 years, gold mining formed the backbone the South Africa-s economy. The consequence of mine closure was observed in large-scale land degradation and widespread pollution of surface water and groundwater. This paper investigates the feasibility of using natural zeolite in removing heavy metals contaminating the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment Area (WCA), a water stream with high levels of heavy metals and radionuclide pollution. Batch experiments were conducted to study the adsorption behavior of natural zeolite with respect to Fe2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+. The data was analysed using the Langmuir and Freudlich isotherms. Langmuir was found to correlate the adsorption of Fe2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, and Zn2+ better, with the adsorption capacity of 11.9 mg/g, 1.2 mg/g, 1.3 mg/g, and 14.7 mg/g, respectively. Two kinetic models namely, pseudo-first order and pseudo second order were also tested to fit the data. Pseudo-second order equation was found to be the best fit for the adsorption of heavy metals by natural zeolite. Zeolite functionalization with humic acid increased its uptake ability.

Keywords: gold-mining, natural zeolites, water pollution, WestRand.

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Authors: Vahid Zeighami, Mohsen Ghasemi, Reza Akbari

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In this work, a Multi-Level Artificial Bee Colony (called MLABC) for optimizing numerical test functions is presented. In MLABC, two species are used. The first species employs n colonies where each of them optimizes the complete solution vector. The cooperation between these colonies is carried out by exchanging information through a leader colony, which contains a set of elite bees. The second species uses a cooperative approach in which the complete solution vector is divided to k sub-vectors, and each of these sub-vectors is optimized by a colony. The cooperation between these colonies is carried out by compiling sub-vectors into the complete solution vector. Finally, the cooperation between two species is obtained by exchanging information. The proposed algorithm is tested on a set of well-known test functions. The results show that MLABC algorithm provides efficiency and robustness to solve numerical functions.

Keywords: Artificial bee colony, cooperative artificial bee colony, multilevel cooperation.

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Authors: Vrince Vimal, Madhav J. Nigam

Abstract:

Wireless sensor networks have enticed much of the spotlight from researchers all around the world, owing to its extensive applicability in agricultural, industrial and military fields. Energy conservation node deployment stratagems play a notable role for active implementation of Wireless Sensor Networks. Clustering is the approach in wireless sensor networks which improves energy efficiency in the network. The clustering algorithm needs to have an optimum size and number of clusters, as clustering, if not implemented properly, cannot effectively increase the life of the network. In this paper, an algorithm has been proposed to address connectivity issues with the aim of ensuring the uniform energy consumption of nodes in every part of the network. The results obtained after simulation showed that the proposed algorithm has an edge over existing algorithms in terms of throughput and networks lifetime.

Keywords: WSN, random deployment, clustering, isolated nodes, network lifetime.

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Authors: Xueqin Shan, Chuanming Wu, Wenhua Hou, Xiaosu Ye

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Successful public-private-partnership (PPP) implementation can not be achieved without the active participation of private sector companies. This paper examines the decision-making of private sector companies in public works delivered by the PPP model on the basis of social responsibility theory. It proposes that private sector companies should indentify objectives of entering into PPP projects, and shoulder relevant social responsibilities, while a minimum return should also be guaranteed in their favor, so as to compensate for their assumed risk and support them to take on responsibilities in the future. The paper also gives a calculation regarding the appropriate scale and reasonable degree of private sector involvement in PPP projects through the cost-benefit analysis in a specific case study, with the purpose to guide the private sector companies to create a cooperation environment resembling “symbiosis" and facilitate the smooth implementation of public works delivered by the PPP model.

Keywords: Social Responsibility Theory, Cost-benefit Analysis, PPP Projects, Private Sector Companies, Decision-making Modell

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Authors: Nikhil Ramaswamy, S.N.Omkar, Kashyap.H.Nathwani, Anil.M.Vanjare

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In this present work, the development of an avionics system for flight data collection of a Raptor 30 V2 is carried out. For the data acquisition both onground and onboard avionics systems are developed for testing of a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) helicopter. The onboard avionics record the helicopter state outputs namely accelerations, angular rates and Euler angles, in real time, and the on ground avionics system record the inputs given to the radio controlled helicopter through a transmitter, in real time. The avionic systems are designed and developed taking into consideration low weight, small size, anti-vibration, low power consumption, and easy interfacing. To mitigate the medium frequency vibrations embedded on the UAV helicopter during flight, a damper is designed and its performance is evaluated. A number of flight tests are carried out and the data obtained is then analyzed for accuracy and repeatability and conclusions are inferred.

Keywords: Data collection, Flight Testing, Onground and Onboard Avionics, UAV helicopter

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Authors: R. Mahjoub, K. Maghsoudi Mehraban

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Since the heart of the hybrid system is the fuel cell and it has vital impact on efficiency and performance of cycle, in this study, the major modeling of electrochemical reaction within the fuel cell is analyzed. Also, solid oxide fuel cell is integrated with the gas turbine and thermodynamic analysis on different elements of hybrid system is applied. Next, in predefined operational points of hybrid cycle, the simulation results are obtained. Then, different source of irreversibility in fuel cell is modeled and influence of different major parameters on different irreversibility is computed and applied. Then, the effect of important parameters such as thickness and surface of electrolyte fuel cell are simulated in fuel cell and its dependency to these parameters is explained. At the end of the paper, different impact of parameters on fuel cell with a gas turbine and current density and voltage of fuel cell are simulated.

Keywords: Electrochemical analysis, Gas turbine, Hybrid system, Irreversibility analysis.

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Authors: Sam, Ng, Lewis Leighton, Sam Atkinson, Carson Yan, Landan Hu, Leslie Cheung, Brian Yap, Kent Lung, Ketat Sarakune

Abstract:

This paper presents a method for verifying cryptocurrency reserves that balances the need for both transparency and data confidentiality. Our methodology employs cryptographic techniques, including Merkle Trees, Bulletproof, and zkSnark, to verify that total assets equal or exceed total liabilities, represented by customer funds. Notably, this verification is achieved without disclosing sensitive information such as the total asset value, customer count, or cold wallet addresses. We delve into the construction and implementation of this methodology. While the system is robust and scalable, we also identify areas for potential enhancements to improve its efficiency and versatility. As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve, our approach provides a solid foundation for ensuring continued trust and security in digital asset platforms.

Keywords: Cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, proof-of-reserve, por, zero-knowledge, zkpor.

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Authors: Meichen Lee, Michael K. H. Leung

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In recent years, visible-light activated photocatalysis has become a major field of intense researches for the higher efficiency of solar energy utilizations. Many attempts have been made on the modification of wide band gap semiconductors, while more and more efforts emphasize on cost-effective synthesis of visible-light activated catalysts. In this work, BiOBr nanoplates with band gap of visible-light range are synthesized through a promising microwave solvothermal method. The treatment time period and temperature dependent BiOBr nanosheets of various particle sizes are investigated through SEM. BiOBr synthesized under the condition of 160°C for 60 mins shows the most uniform particle sizes around 311 nm and the highest surface-to-volume ratio on account of its smallest average particle sizes compared with others. It exhibits the best photocatalytic behavior among all samples in RhB degradation.

Keywords: Microwave solvothermal process, nanoplates, solar energy, visible-light photocatalysis.

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Authors: John N. Ellinas, Panagiotis Kenterlis

Abstract:

The efficiency of an image watermarking technique depends on the preservation of visually significant information. This is attained by embedding the watermark transparently with the maximum possible strength. The current paper presents an approach for still image digital watermarking in which the watermark embedding process employs the wavelet transform and incorporates Human Visual System (HVS) characteristics. The sensitivity of a human observer to contrast with respect to spatial frequency is described by the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). The strength of the watermark within the decomposition subbands, which occupy an interval on the spatial frequencies, is adjusted according to this sensitivity. Moreover, the watermark embedding process is carried over the subband coefficients that lie on edges where distortions are less noticeable. The experimental evaluation of the proposed method shows very good results in terms of robustness and transparency.

Keywords: Image watermarking, wavelet transform, human visual system, contrast sensitivity function.

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