Search results for: collector efficiency factor

Authors: Hany Osman, M. F. Baki

Abstract:

We address the balancing problem of transfer lines in this paper to find the optimal line balancing that minimizes the nonproductive time. We focus on the tool change time and face orientation change time both of which influence the makespane. We consider machine capacity limitations and technological constraints associated with the manufacturing process of auto cylinder heads. The problem is represented by a mixed integer programming model that aims at distributing the design features to workstations and sequencing the machining processes at a minimum non-productive time. The proposed model is solved by an algorithm established using linearization schemes and Benders- decomposition approach. The experiments show the efficiency of the algorithm in reaching the exact solution of small and medium problem instances at reasonable time.

Keywords: Transfer line balancing, Benders' decomposition, Linearization.

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Authors: Rajlaxmi Chouhan, Pritee Khanna

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In this manuscript, a wavelet-based blind watermarking scheme has been proposed as a means to provide security to authenticity of a fingerprint. The information used for identification or verification of a fingerprint mainly lies in its minutiae. By robust watermarking of the minutiae in the fingerprint image itself, the useful information can be extracted accurately even if the fingerprint is severely degraded. The minutiae are converted in a binary watermark and embedding these watermarks in the detail regions increases the robustness of watermarking, at little to no additional impact on image quality. It has been experimentally shown that when the minutiae is embedded into wavelet detail coefficients of a fingerprint image in spread spectrum fashion using a pseudorandom sequence, the robustness is observed to have a proportional response while perceptual invisibility has an inversely proportional response to amplification factor “K". The DWT-based technique has been found to be very robust against noises, geometrical distortions filtering and JPEG compression attacks and is also found to give remarkably better performance than DCT-based technique in terms of correlation coefficient and number of erroneous minutiae.

Keywords: Fingerprint watermarking, minutiae, discrete wavelet transform, PN sequence

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Authors: R. Geetha, G. Umarani Srikanth, S. Prabhu

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Wireless sensor networks are resource constrained networks, where energy is the major resource in such networks. Therefore, energy conservation is major aspect in the deployment of Wireless Sensor Network. This work makes use of an extended Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (eGPSR) protocol that mainly focuses on energy efficient data transmission. This data transmission is based on the fact that the message that is sent to a distant node consumes more energy than the message that is sent to a short range transmission. Every cluster contains a head set that consists of many virtual cluster heads. Routing is decided by head set members. The energy level of the received signal is the major constraint to choose head set from its members. The experimental result shows that the use of eGPSR in routing has improved throughput with comparatively less delay.

Keywords: eGPSR, energy efficiency, routing, wireless sensor networks, WSN.

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Authors: Aaron Aboshio, Jianqioa Ye

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In this study, static and dynamic responses of a typical reinforced concrete solid slab, designed to British Standard (BS 8110: 1997) and under self and live loadings for dance halls are reported. Linear perturbation analysis using finite element method was employed for modal, impulse loading and frequency response analyses of the slab under the aforementioned loading condition. Results from the static and dynamic analyses, comprising of the slab fundamental frequencies and mode shapes, dynamic amplification factor, maximum deflection, stress distributions among other valuable outcomes are presented and discussed. These were gauged with the limiting provisions in the design code with a view of justifying valid optimization objective function for the structure that can ensure both adequate strength and economical section for large clear span slabs. This is necessary owing to the continued increase in cost of erecting building structures and the squeeze on public finance globally.

Keywords: Economical design, Finite element method, Modal dynamics, Reinforced concrete, Slab.

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Authors: Faranak Rabiei, Fudziah Ismail, S. Norazak, Saeid Emadi

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In this paper we developed the Improved Runge-Kutta Nystrom (IRKN) method for solving second order ordinary differential equations. The methods are two step in nature and require lower number of function evaluations per step compared with the existing Runge-Kutta Nystrom (RKN) methods. Therefore, the methods are computationally more efficient at achieving the higher order of local accuracy. Algebraic order conditions of the method are obtained and the third and fourth order method are derived with two and three stages respectively. The numerical results are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method compared to the existing RKN methods.

Keywords: Improved Runge-Kutta Nystrom method, Two step method, Second-order ordinary differential equations, Order conditions

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Authors: A. Guechi, M. Chegaar

Abstract:

This study investigates how AlGaAs/GaAs thin film solar cells perform under varying global solar spectrum due to the changes of environmental parameters such as the air mass and the atmospheric turbidity. The solar irradiance striking the solar cell is simulated using the spectral irradiance model SMARTS2 (Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine) for clear skies on the site of Setif (Algeria). The results show a reduction in the short circuit current due to increasing atmospheric turbidity, it is 63.09% under global radiation. However increasing air mass leads to a reduction in the short circuit current of 81.73%. The efficiency decreases with increasing atmospheric turbidity and air mass.

Keywords: AlGaAs/GaAs, Solar Cells, Environmental parameters, Spectral Variation, SMARTS.

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Authors: Nagmani Lnu

Abstract:

Often, quality engineering refers to testing the applications that either have a User Interface (UI) or an Application Programming Interface (API). We often find mature test practices, standards, and automation regarding UI or API testing. However, another kind is present in almost all types of industries that deal with data in bulk and often get handled through something called a batch application. This is primarily an offline application companies develop to process large data sets that often deal with multiple business rules. The challenge gets more prominent when we try to automate batch testing. This paper describes the approaches taken to test a batch application from a financial industry to test the payment settlement process (a critical use case in all kinds of FinTech companies), resulting in 100% test automation in test creation and test execution. One can follow this approach for any other batch use cases to achieve a higher efficiency in their testing process.

Keywords: Batch testing, batch test automation, batch test strategy, payments testing, payments settlement testing.

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Authors: Djalal Hamed

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to perform an analytic solution of steady state natural convection in a narrow rectangular channel between two vertical parallel MTR-type fuel plates, imposed under a cosine shape heat flux to determine the margin of the nuclear core power at which the natural convection cooling mode can ensure a safe core cooling, where the cladding temperature should not be reach the specific safety limits (90 °C). For this purpose, a simple computer program is developed to determine the principal parameter related to the nuclear core safety such as the temperature distribution in the fuel plate and in the coolant (light water) as a function of the reactor power. Our results are validated throughout a comparison against the results of another published work, which is considered like a reference of this study.

Keywords: Buoyancy force, friction force, friction factor, MTR-type fuel, natural convection, vertical heated rectangular channel.

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Authors: S. Pazi, C. Chatwin

Abstract:

ICT services are a key element of communications and important for socio-economic development. In recognition of the importance of this, the Tanzanian Government started to implement a National ICT Broadband Infrastructure Fibre Optic Backbone (NICTBB) in 2009; this development was planned to be implemented in four phases using an optical dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network technology in collaboration with the Chinese Government through the Chinese International Telecommunications Construction Corporation (CITCC) under a bilateral agreement. This paper briefly explores the NICTBB network technologies implementation, operations and Internet bandwidth costs. It also provides an in depth assessment of the delivery of ICT services such as e-services and m-services in both urban and rural areas following commissioning of the NICTBB system. Following quantitative and qualitative approaches, the study shows that there have been significant improvements in utilization efficiency, effectiveness and the reliability of the ICT service such as e-services and m-services the NICTCBB was commissioned.

Keywords: NICTBB, DWDM, Optic Fibre, Internet, ICT services, e-services, m-services.

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Authors: Robert Prucek, Aleš Panáček, Jan Filip, Libor Kvítek, Radek Zbořil

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The preparation of Cu nanoparticles (NPs) through the reduction of copper ions by sodium borohydride in the presence of sodium polyacrylate with a molecular weight of 1200 is reported. Cu NPs were synthesized at a concentration of copper salt equal to 2.5, 5, and 10 mM, and at a molar ratio of copper ions and monomeric unit of polyacrylate equal to 1:2. The as-prepared Cu NPs have diameters of about 2.5–3 nm for copper concentrations of 2.5 and 5 mM, and 6 nm for copper concentration of 10 mM. Depending on the copper salt concentration and concentration of additionally added polyacrylate to Cu particle dispersion, primarily formed NPs grow through the process of aggregation and/or coalescence into clusters and/or particles with a diameter between 20–100 nm. The amount of additionally added sodium polyacrylate influences the stability of Cu particles against air oxidation. The catalytic efficiency of the prepared Cu particles for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol is discussed.

Keywords: Copper, nanoparticles, sodium polyacrylate, catalyst, 4-nitrophenol.

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Authors: Ellips Masehian, Yalda Katebi

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This paper presents a new sensor-based online method for generating collision-free near-optimal paths for mobile robots pursuing a moving target amidst dynamic and static obstacles. At each iteration, first the set of all collision-free directions are calculated using velocity vectors of the robot relative to each obstacle and target, forming the Directive Circle (DC), which is a novel concept. Then, a direction close to the shortest path to the target is selected from feasible directions in DC. The DC prevents the robot from being trapped in deadlocks or local minima. It is assumed that the target's velocity is known, while the speeds of dynamic obstacles, as well as the locations of static obstacles, are to be calculated online. Extensive simulations and experimental results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method and its success in coping with complex environments and obstacles.

Keywords: Dynamic Environment, Moving Target, RobotMotion Planning.

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Authors: N. Ghatwary, A. Ahmed, H. Jalab

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In this paper, an approach for the liver tumor detection in computed tomography (CT) images is represented. The detection process is based on classifying the features of target liver cell to either tumor or non-tumor. Fractional differential (FD) is applied for enhancement of Liver CT images, with the aim of enhancing texture and edge features. Later on, a fusion method is applied to merge between the various enhanced images and produce a variety of feature improvement, which will increase the accuracy of classification. Each image is divided into NxN non-overlapping blocks, to extract the desired features. Support vector machines (SVM) classifier is trained later on a supplied dataset different from the tested one. Finally, the block cells are identified whether they are classified as tumor or not. Our approach is validated on a group of patients’ CT liver tumor datasets. The experiment results demonstrated the efficiency of detection in the proposed technique.

Keywords: Fractional differential (FD), Computed Tomography (CT), fusion.

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Authors: Gábor Szládek, Balázs Héder, János Bitó

Abstract:

In a BFWA (Broadband Fixed Wireless Access Network) the evolved SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) is relevant influenced by the applied duplex method. The TDD (Time Division Duplex), especially adaptive TDD method has some advantage contrary to FDD (Frequency Division Duplex), for example the spectrum efficiency and flexibility. However these methods are suffering several new interference situations that can-t occur in a FDD system. This leads to reduced SINR in the covered area what could cause some connection outages. Therefore, countermeasure techniques against interference are necessary to apply in TDD systems. Synchronization is one way to handling the interference. In this paper the TDD systems – applying different system synchronization degree - will be compared by the evolved SINR at different locations of the BFWA service area and the percentage of the covered area by the system.

Keywords: Adaptive TDD, BFWA networks, duplex methods, intra system interferences.

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Authors: Kanlaya Kong-ngern, Tossapol Buaphan, Duangsamorn Tulaphitak, Naug Phuvongpha, Sirirut Wongpakonkul, Piyada Threerakulpisut

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Pearson-s correlation coefficient and sequential path analysis has been used for determining the interrelationship among yield, yield components, soil minerals and aroma of Khao Dawk Mali (KDML) 105 rice grown in the area of Tungkularonghai in Roi-Et province, located in the northeast of Thailand. Pearson-s correlation coefficient in this study showed that the number of panicles was the only factor that had positive significant (0.790**) effect on grain yield. Sequential path analysis revealed that the number of panicles followed by the number of fertile spikelets and 100-grain weight were the first-order factors which had positive direct effects on grain yield. Whereas, other factors analyzed had indirect effects influencing grain yield. This study also indicated that no significant relationship was found between the aroma level and any of the factors analyzed.

Keywords: 2-Acetyl-1-Pyrroline, rice aroma

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Authors: Masaharu Isshiki, Kenji Murakami, Shun Ido

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This paper describes a proposed support system which enables applications designers to effectively create VR applications using multiple haptic APIs. When the VR designers create applications, it is often difficult to handle and understand many parameters and functions that have to be set in the application program using documentation manuals only. This complication may disrupt creative imagination and result in inefficient coding. So, we proposed the support application which improved the efficiency of VR applications development and provided the interactive components of confirmation of operations with haptic sense previously. In this paper, we describe improvements of our former proposed support application, which was applicable to multiple APIs and haptic devices, and evaluate the new application by having participants complete VR program. Results from a preliminary experiment suggest that our application facilitates creation of VR applications.

Keywords: VR application, Support system, Haptic devices, Haptic APIs.

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Authors: Ioannis P. Panapakidis, Marios N. Moschakis

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The Greek Energy Market is structured as a mandatory pool where the producers make their bid offers in day-ahead basis. The System Operator solves an optimization routine aiming at the minimization of the cost of produced electricity. The solution of the optimization problem leads to the calculation of the System Marginal Price (SMP). Accurate forecasts of the SMP can lead to increased profits and more efficient portfolio management from the producer`s perspective. Aim of this study is to provide a comparative analysis of various machine learning models such as artificial neural networks and neuro-fuzzy models for the prediction of the SMP of the Greek market. Machine learning algorithms are favored in predictions problems since they can capture and simulate the volatilities of complex time series.

Keywords: Deregulated energy market, forecasting, machine learning, system marginal price, energy efficiency and quality.

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Authors: Aurobi Das, V. Balakrishnan

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This paper focuses on the integration of hybrid renewable energy resources available in remote isolated islands of Sundarban-24 Parganas-South of Eastern part of India to National Grid of conventional power supply to give a Smart-Grid scenario. Before grid-integration, feasibility of optimization of hybrid renewable energy system is monitored through an Intelligent Controller proposed to be installed at Moushuni Island of Sundarban. The objective is to ensure the reliability and efficiency of the system to optimize the utilization of the hybrid renewable energy sources and also a proposition of how theses isolated Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems at remote islands can be grid-connected is analyzed towards vision of green smart-grid.

Keywords: Intelligent controller, hybrid renewable, solar photo voltaic, smart-grid.

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Authors: Lenka Ševelová, Aleš Florian

Abstract:

To improve the efficiency of parametric studies or tests planning the method is proposed, that takes into account all input parameters, but only a few simulation runs are performed to assess the relative importance of each input parameter. For K input parameters with N input values the total number of possible combinations of input values equals NK. To limit the number of runs, only some (totally N) of possible combinations are taken into account. The sampling procedure Updated Latin Hypercube Sampling is used to choose the optimal combinations. To measure the relative importance of each input parameter, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient is proposed. The sensitivity and the influence of all parameters are analyzed within one procedure and the key parameters with the largest influence are immediately identified.

Keywords: Concrete, pavement, simulation, reliability, Latin Hypercube Sampling, parametric studies.

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Authors: Hudli Mohd. Rameez, K.H.Inamdar

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Many organisations are nowadays interested to adopt lean manufacturing strategy that would enable them to compete in this competitive globalisation market. In this respect, it is necessary to assess the implementation of lean manufacturing in different organisations so that the important best practices can be identified. This paper describes the development of key areas which will be used to assess the adoption and implementation of lean manufacturing practices. There are some key areas developed to evaluate and reduce the most optimal projects so as to enhance their production efficiency and increase the purpose of the economic benefits of the manufacturing unit. Lean manufacturing is becoming lean enterprise by treating its customers and suppliers as partners. This gives the extra edge in today-s cost and time competitive markets. The organisation is becoming strong in all the conventional competition points. They are Price, Quality and Delivery. Lean enterprise owners can deliver high quality products quickly, with low price.

Keywords: Competitive points, implementation, Leanmanufacturing, tools and techniques

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Authors: Insah Bhurtah, P. Clarel Catherine, K. M. Sunjiv Soyjaudah

Abstract:

When using modern Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) in mobile communications, the user must be able to vary the transmission rate of users to allocate bandwidth efficiently. In this work, Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes are used with the same principles applied in a low-rate superorthogonal turbo code due to their variable-length properties. The introduced system is the Variable Rate Superorthogonal Turbo Code (VRSTC) where puncturing is not performed on the encoder’s final output but rather before selecting the output to achieve higher rates. Due to bandwidth expansion, the codes outperform an ordinary turbo code in the AWGN channel. Simulations results show decreased performance compared to those obtained with the employment of Walsh-Hadamard codes. However, with OVSF codes, the VRSTC system keeps the orthogonality of codewords whilst producing variable rate codes contrary to Walsh-Hadamard codes where puncturing is usually performed on the final output.

Keywords: CDMA, MAP Decoding, OVSF, Superorthogonal Turbo Code.

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Authors: Tsutomu Ichikawa

Abstract:

The Kumamoto area, Kyushu, Japan has 1,041km2 in area and about 1milion in population. This area is a greatest area in Japan which depends on groundwater for all of drinking water. Quantity of this local groundwater use is about 200MCM during the year. It is understood that the main recharging area of groundwater exist in the rice field zone which have high infiltrate height ahead of 100mm/ day of the irrigated water located in the middle area of the Shira-River Basin. However, by decrease of the paddy-rice planting area by urbanization and an acreage reduction policy, the groundwater income and expenditure turned worse. Then Kumamoto city and four companies expended financial support to increase recharging water to underground by ponded water in the field from 2004. In this paper, the author reported the situation of recovery of groundwater by recharge and estimates the efficiency of recharge by statistical method.

Keywords: Groundwater recharge, groundwater level, spring water, paddy field.

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Authors: K. M. Shahot. I. A. Ekhmaj

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The research study is carried out to determine the efficiency of the Biofilm sewage treatment plant which is located at the Engineering Complex-s. Wastewater analyses have been carried out at the Environmental Engineering laboratory to study the six parameters: Biochemical Oxygen Demand BOD, Chemical Oxygen Demand COD l, and Total Suspended Solids TSS, Ammoniac Nitrogen NH3-N and Phosphorous P which have been selected to determine the wastewater quality. The plant was designed to treat 750 Pe (population equivalent) at hydraulic retention time of 5 hours in the aerobic zone. The results show that Biofilm wastewater treatment plant was able to treat sewage successfully at different flow condition. The discharge has fulfilled the Malaysia Environmental of Standard A water quality. The achieved BOD removal is more than 85%, COD is more than 80%, TSS is more than 80%, NH3-N is more than 70%, and P was more than 70%. The Biofilm system provides a very efficient process for sewage treatment and it is compact in structure thus minimizes the required land area.

Keywords: Sewage, Bio film, Cosmo-Ball, Activated sludge

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Authors: W. S. Mohamed, A. A. Hammam

Abstract:

Sandy soils under arid and semi-arid conditions are characterized by poor physical and biochemical properties such as low water retention, rapid organic matter decomposition, low nutrients use efficiency, and limited crop productivity. Addition of organic amendments is crucial to develop soil properties and consequently enhance nutrients use efficiency and lessen organic carbon decomposition. Two years field experiments were developed to investigate the feasibility of using poultry manure and its derived biochar integrated with different levels of N fertilizer as a soil amendment for newly reclaimed sandy soils in Western Desert of El-Minia Governorate, Egypt. Results of this research revealed that poultry manure and its derived biochar addition induced pronounced effects on soil moisture content at saturation point, field capacity (FC) and consequently available water. Data showed that application of poultry manure (PM) or PM-derived biochar (PMB) in combination with inorganic N levels had caused significant changes on a range of the investigated sandy soil biochemical properties including pH, EC, mineral N, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic N (DON) and quotient DOC/DON. Overall, the impact of PMB on soil physical properties was detected to be superior than the impact of PM, regardless the inorganic N levels. In addition, the obtained results showed that PM and PM application had the capacity to stimulate vigorous growth, nutritional status, production levels of wheat and sorghum, and to increase soil organic matter content and N uptake and recovery compared to control. By contrast, comparing between PM and PMB at different levels of inorganic N, the obtained results showed higher relative increases in both grain and straw yields of wheat in plots treated with PM than in those treated with PMB. The interesting feature of this research is that the biochar derived from PM increased treated sandy soil organic carbon (SOC) 1.75 times more than soil treated with PM itself at the end of cropping seasons albeit double-applied amount of PM. This was attributed to the higher carbon stability of biochar treated sandy soils increasing soil persistence for carbon decomposition in comparison with PM labile carbon. It could be concluded that organic manures applied to sandy soils under arid and semi-arid conditions are subjected to high decomposition and mineralization rates through crop seasons. Biochar derived from organic wastes considers as a source of stable carbon and could be very hopeful choice for substituting easily decomposable organic manures under arid conditions. Therefore, sustainable agriculture and productivity in newly reclaimed sandy soils desire one high rate addition of biochar derived from organic manures instead of frequent addition of such organic amendments.

Keywords: Biochar, dissolved organic carbon, N-uptake, poultry, sandy soil.

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Authors: Ali Cheraghian, Farshid Hajati, Soheila Gheisari, Yongsheng Gao

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In this paper, we present a novel 2.5D face recognition method based on Gabor Discrete Cosine Transform (GDCT). In the proposed method, the Gabor filter is applied to extract feature vectors from the texture and the depth information. Then, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is used for dimensionality and redundancy reduction to improve computational efficiency. The system is combined texture and depth information in the decision level, which presents higher performance compared to methods, which use texture and depth information, separately. The proposed algorithm is examined on publically available Bosphorus database including models with pose variation. The experimental results show that the proposed method has a higher performance compared to the benchmark.

Keywords: Gabor filter, discrete cosine transform, 2.5D face recognition, pose.

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Authors: Katarzyna Strzała-Osuch

Abstract:

Environmental investments, including ecological projects, relating to the protection of atmosphere are today a need. However, investing in the environment should be based on rational management rules. This comes across a problem of selecting a method to assess substances reduced during projects. Therefore, a method allowing for the assessment of decision rationality has to be found. The purpose of this article is to present and systematise pollution reduction assessment methods and illustrate theoretical analyses with empirical data. Empirical results confirm theoretical considerations, which proved that the only method for judging pollution reduction, free of apparent disadvantages, is the Eco 99-ratio method. To make decisions on environmental projects, financing institutions should take into account a rationality rule. Therefore the Eco 99-ratio method could be applied to make decisions relating to environmental investments in the area of air protection.

Keywords: Assessment of pollution reduction, costs of environmental protection, efficiency of environmental investments.

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Authors: Martin Kendra, Tomas Skrucany, Jozef Gnap, Jan Ponicky

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Paper deals with the modeling and simulation of energy consumption and GHG production of two different modes of regional passenger transport – road and railway. These two transport modes use the same type of fuel – diesel. Modeling and simulation of the energy consumption in transport is often used due to calculation satisfactory accuracy and cost efficiency. Paper deals with the calculation based on EN standards and information collected from technical information from vehicle producers and characteristics of tracks. Calculation included maximal theoretical capacity of bus and train and real passenger’s measurement from operation. Final energy consumption and GHG production is calculated by using software simulation. In evaluation of the simulation is used system “well to wheel”.

Keywords: Bus, energy consumption, GHG, production, simulation, train.

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Authors: O. Hasançebi, S. Kazemzadeh Azad

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In the present study the efficiency of Big Bang-Big Crunch (BB-BC) algorithm is investigated in discrete structural design optimization. It is shown that a standard version of the BB-BC algorithm is sometimes unable to produce reasonable solutions to problems from discrete structural design optimization. Two reformulations of the algorithm, which are referred to as modified BB-BC (MBB-BC) and exponential BB-BC (EBB-BC), are introduced to enhance the capability of the standard algorithm in locating good solutions for steel truss and frame type structures, respectively. The performances of the proposed algorithms are experimented and compared to its standard version as well as some other algorithms over several practical design examples. In these examples, steel structures are sized for minimum weight subject to stress, stability and displacement limitations according to the provisions of AISC-ASD.

Keywords: Structural optimization, discrete optimization, metaheuristics, big bang-big crunch (BB-BC) algorithm, design optimization of steel trusses and frames.

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Authors: Yalong Jiang, Zheru Chi

Abstract:

In this paper, we study the factors which determine the capacity of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model and propose the ways to evaluate and adjust the capacity of a CNN model for best matching to a specific pattern recognition task. Firstly, a scheme is proposed to adjust the number of independent functional units within a CNN model to make it be better fitted to a task. Secondly, the number of independent functional units in the capsule network is adjusted to fit it to the training dataset. Thirdly, a method based on Bayesian GAN is proposed to enrich the variances in the current dataset to increase its complexity. Experimental results on the PASCAL VOC 2010 Person Part dataset and the MNIST dataset show that, in both conventional CNN models and capsule networks, the number of independent functional units is an important factor that determines the capacity of a network model. By adjusting the number of functional units, the capacity of a model can better match the complexity of a dataset.

Keywords: CNN, capsule network, capacity optimization, character recognition, data augmentation; semantic segmentation.

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Authors: John Kabuba, Hilary Rutto

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Ion exchange is one of the methods used to remove heavy metal such as copper and cobalt from wastewaters. Parameters affecting the ion-exchange of copper and cobalt aqueous solutions using clinoptilolite are the objectives of this study. Synthetic solutions were prepared with the concentration of 0.02M, 0.06M and 0.1M. The cobalt solution was maintained to 0.02M while varying the copper solution to the above stated concentrations. The clinoptilolite was activated with HCl and H₂SO₄ for removal efficiency. The pHs of the solutions were found to be acidic hence enhancing the copper and cobalt removal. The natural clinoptilolite performance was also found to be lower compared to the HCl and H₂SO₄ activated one for the copper removal ranging from 68% to 78% of Cu²⁺ uptake with the natural clinoptilolite to 66% to 51% with HCl and H₂SO₄ respectively. It was found that the activated clinoptilolite removed more copper and cobalt than the natural one and found that the electronegativity of the metal plays a role in the metal removal and the clinoptilolite selectivity.

Keywords: Clinoptilolite, cobalt and copper, Ion-exchange, mass dosage, pH.

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Authors: Y. Rathiranee, D. M. Semasinghe

Abstract:

This study attempts to identify the factors influencing on women empowerment of rural area in Sri Lanka through micro finance services. Data were collected from one hundred (100) rural women involving self-employment activities through a questionnaire using direct personal interviews. Judgment and Convenience Random sampling technique was used to select the sample size from three Divisional Secretariat divisions of Kandawalai, Poonakari and Karachchi in Kilinochchi District. The factor analysis was performed on fourteen (14) variables for screening and reducing the variables to identify the influencing factors on empowerment. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between the three empowerment factors and the impact of micro finance on overall empowerment of rural women. The result of this study summarized the variables into three factors namely decision making, freedom to mobility and family support and which are positively associated with empowerment. In addition to this the value of adjusted R2 is 0.248 indicates that all the variables extracted can be explained 24.8% of the variation in the women empowerment through microfinance. Independent variables of these three factors have positive correlation with women empowerment as well as significant values at 5 percent level.

Keywords: Influencing factors, Micro finance, rural women and women empowerment.

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