Search results for: Evaluation pattern
725 Assessment of Water Pollution of Kowsar Dam Reservoir
Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Jabbari, Fardin Boustani
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The reservoir of Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as aquaculture farms , drinking, agricultural and industrial usages for some provinces in south of Iran. The Kowsar dam is located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated twons in this area, which can to be sources of pollution for water reservoir of the Kowsar dam . This study was done to determine of water pollution of the Kowsar dam reservoir which is one of the most important water resources of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad and Bushehr provinces in south-west Iran. In this study , water samples during 12 months were collected to examine Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Dissolved Oxygen(DO) as a criterion for evaluation of water pollution of the reservoir. In summary ,the study has shown Maximum, average and minimum levels of BOD have observed 25.9 ,9.15 and 2.3 mg/L respectively and statistical parameters of data such as standard deviation , variance and skewness have calculated 7.88, 62 and 1.54 respectively. Finally the results were compared with Iranian national standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of BOD (25.9 mg/L) was observed at the May 2010 , was within the maximum admissible limits by the Iranian standards.Keywords: Kowsar dam, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, water pollution
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2177724 The Effectiveness of University’s Strategic Plan for Sustainability through Collaborative Platform’s Deliberation Matrix
Authors: Ashiquer Rahman
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The paper focuses on the significance of the university's sustainability strategic plan and emphasizes the usefulness of the collaborative platform-based deliberation matrix. It will equip the university's leadership to handle impending tactics and challenges with the sustainability of the university’s strategic plan. The study addresses the significance of a set of reference points that will precede operational activities for multi-stakeholder multi-criteria evaluation on the optimal standards of Sustainable University, as well as potential action for the strategic blueprint of Sustainable University. It makes reference to the university’s sustainability strategy plan’s effectiveness through a collaborative platform and deliberation matrix. The paper outlines the conceptual framing of a sustainable university by implementing a strategic plan over the collaborative platform and deliberation matrix. Optimistically, these will be a milestone in higher education; a pathway to prepare for the University’s upcoming implementation of its sustainability strategy. In fact, the collaborative platform and deliberation matrix both are enhancement needles for institutional cooperation to the completive world.
Keywords: Sustainable strategies, institutional cooperation, multi-stakeholder multi-criteria assessment, collaborative platform, innovative method and tools.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 82723 Hydrologic Balance and Surface Water Resources of the Cheliff-Zahrez Basin
Authors: Mehaiguene Madjid, Touhari Fadhila, Meddi Mohamed
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The Cheliff basin offers a good hydrological example for the possibility of studying the problem which elucidated in the future, because of the unclearity in several aspects and hydraulic installation. Thus, our study of the Cheliff basin is divided into two principal parts: The spatial evaluation of the precipitation: also, the understanding of the modes of the reconstitution of the resource in water supposes a good knowledge of the structuring of the precipitation fields in the studied space. In the goal of a good knowledge of revitalizes them in water and their management integrated one judged necessary to establish a precipitation card of the Cheliff basin for a good understanding of the evolution of the resource in water in the basin and that goes will serve as basis for all study of hydraulic planning in the Cheliff basin. Then, the establishment of the precipitation card of the Cheliff basin answered a direct need of setting to the disposition of the researchers for the region and a document of reference that will be completed therefore and actualized. The hydrological study, based on the statistical hydrometric data processing will lead us to specify the hydrological terms of the assessment hydrological and to clarify the fundamental aspects of the annual flow, seasonal, extreme and thus of their variability and resources surface water.
Keywords: Hydrological assessment, surface water resources, Cheliff, Algeria.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1048722 A Comprehensive Evaluation of IGBTs Performance under Zero Current Switching
Authors: Ly. Benbahouche
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Currently, several soft switching topologies have been studied to achieve high power switching efficiency, reduced cost, improved reliability and reduced parasites. It is well known that improvement in power electronics systems always depend on advanced in power devices. The IGBT has been successfully used in a variety of switching applications such as motor drives and appliance control because of its superior characteristics.
The aim of this paper is focuses on simulation and explication of the internal dynamics of IGBTs behaviour under the most popular soft switching schemas that is Zero Current Switching (ZCS) environments.
The main purpose of this paper is to point out some mechanisms relating to current tail during the turn-off and examination of the response at turn-off with variation of temperature, inductance L, snubber capacitors Cs, and bus voltage in order to achieve an improved understanding of internal carrier dynamics. It is shown that the snubber capacitor, the inductance and even the temperature controls the magnitude and extent of the tail current, hence the turn-off time (switching speed of the device).
Moreover, it has also been demonstrated that the ZCS switching can be utilized efficiently to improve and reduce the power losses as well as the turn-off time. Furthermore, the turn-off loss in ZCS was found to depend on the time of switching of the device.
Keywords: PT-IGBT, ZCS, turn-off losses, dV/dt.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2587721 The Study of the Variability of Anticipatory Postural Adjustments in Recurrent Non-specific LBP Patients
Authors: Rosita Hedayati , Sedighe Kahrizi , Mohammad Parnianpour , Fariba Bahrami , Anoshirvan Kazemnejad
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The study of the variability of the postural strategies in low back pain patients, as a criterion in evaluation of the adaptability of this system to the environmental demands is the purpose of this study. A cross-sectional case-control study was performed on 21 recurrent non-specific low back pain patients and 21 healthy volunteers. The electromyography activity of Deltoid, External Oblique (EO), Transverse Abdominis/Internal Oblique (TrA/IO) and Erector Spine (ES) muscles of each person was recorded in 75 rapid arm flexion with maximum acceleration. Standard deviation of trunk muscles onset relative to deltoid muscle onset were statistically analyzed by MANOVA . The results show that chronic low back pain patients exhibit less variability in their anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in comparison with the control group. There is a decrease in variability of postural control system of recurrent non-specific low back pain patients that can result in the persistence of pain and chronicity by decreasing the adaptability to environmental demands.Keywords: EMG Onset Latency, Variability, Posture, Non - specific Low Back Pain
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1999720 Feature Extraction from Aerial Photos
Authors: Mesut Gündüz, Ferruh Yildiz, Ayşe Onat
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In Geographic Information System, one of the sources of obtaining needed geographic data is digitizing analog maps and evaluation of aerial and satellite photos. In this study, a method will be discussed which can be used to extract vectorial features and creating vectorized drawing files for aerial photos. At the same time a software developed for these purpose. Converting from raster to vector is also known as vectorization and it is the most important step when creating vectorized drawing files. In the developed algorithm, first of all preprocessing on the aerial photo is done. These are; converting to grayscale if necessary, reducing noise, applying some filters and determining the edge of the objects etc. After these steps, every pixel which constitutes the photo are followed from upper left to right bottom by examining its neighborhood relationship and one pixel wide lines or polylines obtained. The obtained lines have to be erased for preventing confusion while continuing vectorization because if not erased they can be perceived as new line, but if erased it can cause discontinuity in vector drawing so the image converted from 2 bit to 8 bit and the detected pixels are expressed as a different bit. In conclusion, the aerial photo can be converted to vector form which includes lines and polylines and can be opened in any CAD application.Keywords: Vectorization, Aerial Photos, Vectorized DrawingFile.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1608719 Computing Continuous Skyline Queries without Discriminating between Static and Dynamic Attributes
Authors: Ibrahim Gomaa, Hoda M. O. Mokhtar
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Although most of the existing skyline queries algorithms focused basically on querying static points through static databases; with the expanding number of sensors, wireless communications and mobile applications, the demand for continuous skyline queries has increased. Unlike traditional skyline queries which only consider static attributes, continuous skyline queries include dynamic attributes, as well as the static ones. However, as skyline queries computation is based on checking the domination of skyline points over all dimensions, considering both the static and dynamic attributes without separation is required. In this paper, we present an efficient algorithm for computing continuous skyline queries without discriminating between static and dynamic attributes. Our algorithm in brief proceeds as follows: First, it excludes the points which will not be in the initial skyline result; this pruning phase reduces the required number of comparisons. Second, the association between the spatial positions of data points is examined; this phase gives an idea of where changes in the result might occur and consequently enables us to efficiently update the skyline result (continuous update) rather than computing the skyline from scratch. Finally, experimental evaluation is provided which demonstrates the accuracy, performance and efficiency of our algorithm over other existing approaches.
Keywords: Continuous query processing, dynamic database, moving object, skyline queries.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1243718 Competitiveness and Value Creation of Tourism Sector: In the Case of 10 ASEAN Economies
Authors: Apirada Chinprateep
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The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is the goal of regional economic integration by 2015. In the region, tourism is an activity that is important, especially as a source of foreign currency, a source of employment creation and a source of income bringing to the region. Given the complexity of the issues entailing the concept of sustainable tourism, this paper tries to assess tourism sustainability with the ASEAN, based on a number of quantitative indicators for all the ten economies, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Brunei. The methodological framework will provide a number of benchmarks of tourism activities in these countries. They include identification of the dimensions; for example, economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation on Asian countries. This specification shows that a similar level of tourism activity might introduce different implementation in the tourism activity and might have different consequences for the socioecological environment and sustainability. The heterogeneity of developing countries exposed briefly here would be useful to detect and prepare for coping with the main problems of each country in their tourism activities, as well as competitiveness and value creation of tourism for ASEAN economic community, and will compare with other parts of the world.Keywords: AEC, ASEAN, sustainable, tourism, competitiveness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1762717 Physical Evaluation of Selected Malaysian National Rugby Players
Authors: LC Chong , A Yaacob, MH Rosli, Y Adam, A Yusuf , MS Omar-Fauzee, N Sutresna, Berliana, HH Pramono, M Nazrul-Hakim
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Currently, there is no database or local norms for the physical performance of Malaysian rugby players. This database or norms are vital for Malaysian-s sports development as programs can be setup to improve the current status. This pilot study was conducted to evaluate the status of our semi professional rugby players. The rugby players were randomly selected from the Malaysian National team and several clubs in the Klang valley, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. 54 male rugby players (Age: 24.41 ± 4.06 years) were selected for this pilot study. Height, bodyweight, percentage body fat and body mass index (BMI) and several other physical tests were performed. Results from the BLEEP test revealed an average of level 9, shuttle 2 for the players. Interestingly, forwards were taller, heavier, and had lower maximal aerobic power than backs in the same team. In conclusion, the physical characteristics of the rugby players were much lower when compared to international players from other countries. From this pilot study, the physical performance of the Malaysian team must be improved in order to further develop the sports.Keywords: Rugby, Malaysia, Fitness, Collision sports
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3566716 Survey of Curriculum Quality of Postgraduate Studies of Insurance Management Field Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee
Authors: F. Havas Beigi, E. Mohammadi, M.Vafaee Yeganeh
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Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.
Keywords: Quality, curriculum, insurance management, higher education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1329715 Formulation and in vitro Evaluation of Sustained Release Matrix Tablets of Levetiracetam for Better Epileptic Treatment
Authors: Nagasamy Venkatesh Dhandapani
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The objective of the present study was to develop sustained release oral matrix tablets of anti epileptic drug levetiracetam. The sustained release matrix tablets of levetiracetam were prepared using hydrophilic matrix hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) as a release retarding polymer by wet granulation method. Prior to compression, FTIR studies were performed to understand the compatibility between the drug and excipients. The study revealed that there was no chemical interaction between drug and excipients used in the study. The tablets were characterized by physical and chemical parameters and results were found in acceptable limits. In vitro release study was carried out for the tablets using 0.1 N HCl for 2 hours and in phosphate buffer pH 7.4 for remaining time up to 12 hours. The effect of polymer concentration was studied. Different dissolution models were applied to drug release data in order to evaluate release mechanisms and kinetics. The drug release data fit well to zero order kinetics. Drug release mechanism was found as a complex mixture of diffusion, swelling and erosion.
Keywords: Levetiracetam, sustained-release, hydrophilic matrix tablet, HPMC grade K 100 MCR, wet granulation, zero order release kinetics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1617714 Study on Practice of Improving Water Quality in Urban Rivers by Diverting Clean Water
Authors: Manjie Li, Xiangju Cheng, Yongcan Chen
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With rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, water environmental deterioration is widespread in majority of urban rivers, which seriously affects city image and life satisfaction of residents. As an emergency measure to improve water quality, clean water diversion is introduced for water environmental management. Lubao River and Southwest River, two urban rivers in typical plain tidal river network, are identified as technically and economically feasible for the application of clean water diversion. One-dimensional hydrodynamic-water quality model is developed to simulate temporal and spatial variations of water level and water quality, with satisfactory accuracy. The mathematical model after calibration is applied to investigate hydrodynamic and water quality variations in rivers as well as determine the optimum operation scheme of water diversion. Assessment system is developed for evaluation of positive and negative effects of water diversion, demonstrating the effectiveness of clean water diversion and the necessity of pollution reduction.
Keywords: Assessment system, clean water diversion, hydrodynamic-water quality model, tidal river network, urban rivers, water environment improvement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 787713 On Developing an Automatic Speech Recognition System for Standard Arabic Language
Authors: R. Walha, F. Drira, H. El-Abed, A. M. Alimi
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The Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applied to Arabic language is a challenging task. This is mainly related to the language specificities which make the researchers facing multiple difficulties such as the insufficient linguistic resources and the very limited number of available transcribed Arabic speech corpora. In this paper, we are interested in the development of a HMM-based ASR system for Standard Arabic (SA) language. Our fundamental research goal is to select the most appropriate acoustic parameters describing each audio frame, acoustic models and speech recognition unit. To achieve this purpose, we analyze the effect of varying frame windowing (size and period), acoustic parameter number resulting from features extraction methods traditionally used in ASR, speech recognition unit, Gaussian number per HMM state and number of embedded re-estimations of the Baum-Welch Algorithm. To evaluate the proposed ASR system, a multi-speaker SA connected-digits corpus is collected, transcribed and used throughout all experiments. A further evaluation is conducted on a speaker-independent continue SA speech corpus. The phonemes recognition rate is 94.02% which is relatively high when comparing it with another ASR system evaluated on the same corpus.Keywords: ASR, HMM, acoustical analysis, acoustic modeling, Standard Arabic language
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1778712 Formation and Evaluation of Lahar/HDPE Hybrid Composite as a Structural Material for Household Biogas Digester
Authors: Lady Marianne E. Polinga, Candy C. Mercado, Camilo A. Polinga
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This study was an investigation on the suitability of Lahar/HDPE composite as a primary material for low-cost smallscale biogas digesters. While sources of raw materials for biogas are abundant in the Philippines, cost of the technology has made the widespread utilization of this resource an indefinite proposition. Aside from capital economics, another problem arises with space requirements of current digester designs. These problems may be simultaneously addressed by fabricating digesters on a smaller, household scale to reach a wider market, and to use materials that may accommodate optimization of overall design and fabrication cost without sacrificing operational efficiency. This study involved actual fabrication of the Lahar/HDPE composite at varying composition and geometry, subsequent mechanical and thermal characterization, and implementation of Statistical Analysis to find intrinsic relationships between variables. From the results, Lahar/HDPE composite was found to be feasible for use as digester material from both mechanical and economic standpoints.
Keywords: Biogas digester, Composite, High density polyethylene, Lahar.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2252711 Performance Evaluation of a ‘Priority-Controlled’ Intersection Converted to Signal-Controlled Intersection
Authors: Ezenwa Chinenye Amanamba
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There is a call to ensure that the issues of safety and efficient throughput are considered during design; the solutions to these issues can also be retrofitted at locations where they were not captured during design, but have become problems to road users over time. This paper adopts several methods to analyze the performance of an intersection which was formerly a ‘priority-controlled’ intersection, but has now been converted to a ‘signal-controlled’ intersection. Extensive review of literature helped form the basis for result analysis and discussion. The Ikot-Ekpene/Anagha-Ezikpe intersection, located at the heart of Umuahia was adopted as case study; considering the high traffic volume on the route. Anecdotal evidence revealed that traffic signals imposed enormous delays at the intersection, especially for traffic on the major road. The major road has arrival flow which surpasses the saturation flow obtained from modelling of the isolated signalized intersection. Similarly, there were several geometric elements that did not agree with the specific function of the road. A roundabout, particularly flower roundabout was recommended as a better traffic control measure.Keywords: Highway function, level of service, roundabout, traffic delays, Umuahia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1108710 A Simplified Approach for Load Flow Analysis of Radial Distribution Network
Authors: K. Vinoth Kumar, M.P. Selvan
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This paper presents a simple approach for load flow analysis of a radial distribution network. The proposed approach utilizes forward and backward sweep algorithm based on Kirchoff-s current law (KCL) and Kirchoff-s voltage law (KVL) for evaluating the node voltages iteratively. In this approach, computation of branch current depends only on the current injected at the neighbouring node and the current in the adjacent branch. This approach starts from the end nodes of sub lateral line, lateral line and main line and moves towards the root node during branch current computation. The node voltage evaluation begins from the root node and moves towards the nodes located at the far end of the main, lateral and sub lateral lines. The proposed approach has been tested using four radial distribution systems of different size and configuration and found to be computationally efficient.Keywords: constant current load, constant impedance load, constant power load, forward–backward sweep, load flow analysis, radial distribution system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2674709 Novel NMR-Technology to Assess Food Quality and Safety
Authors: Markus Link, Manfred Spraul, Hartmut Schaefer, Fang Fang, Birk Schuetz
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High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy offers unique screening capabilities for food quality and safety by combining non-targeted and targeted screening in one analysis.
The objective is to demonstrate, that due to its extreme reproducibility NMR can detect smallest changes in concentrations of many components in a mixture, which is best monitored by statistical evaluation however also delivers reliable quantification results.
The methodology typically uses a 400 MHz high resolution instrument under full automation after minimized sample preparation.
For example one fruit juice analysis in a push button operation takes at maximum 15 minutes and delivers a multitude of results, which are automatically summarized in a PDF report.
The method has been proven on fruit juices, where so far unknown frauds could be detected. In addition conventional targeted parameters are obtained in the same analysis. This technology has the advantage that NMR is completely quantitative and concentration calibration only has to be done once for all compounds. Since NMR is so reproducible, it is also transferable between different instruments (with same field strength) and laboratories. Based on strict SOP`s, statistical models developed once can be used on multiple instruments and strategies for compound identification and quantification are applicable as well across labs.
Keywords: Automated solution, NMR, non-targeted screening, targeted screening.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2247708 Plate Waste as an Indicator of Portions Inadequacy at School Lunch
Authors: D. Dinis, M. Liz Martins, A. Rocha
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Quality of school meals is one of the major concerns of governments and international organizations worldwide. This study aims to evaluate nutritional compliance of meals served at a Portuguese primary school considering the portions stated by Portuguese Education Ministry. To evaluate adequacy of portions served, weighing of all meal components offered to students and leftovers was performed during ten consecutive days at two different moments. Plate waste (%) was calculated by the ratio of food discarded and food served to the children. Nutritional evaluation of menus was made using the Portuguese Food Composition Table. Meals evaluated showed a percent contribution to energetic daily intake higher than recommendations. Meals served to children were considered high energy and protein dense. No significant waste of soup was accounted and the main meal components wasted were fish and vegetables. It will be necessary to adjust portions indicated by Ministry of Education in order to comply with recommendations and reduce food waste.
Keywords: Portions, waste, nutritional adequacy, school meals.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2829707 Design and Analysis of Annular Combustion Chamber for a Micro Turbojet Engine
Authors: Rashid Slaheldinn Elhaj Mohammed
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The design of high performance combustion chambers for turbojet engines is considered as one of the most challenges that face gas turbine designers, since the design approach depends on empirical correlations of data derived from the previous design experiences. The objective of this paper is to design a combustion chamber that suits the requirements of a micro-turbojet engine with 400 N output thrust and operates with kerosene as fuel. In this paper, only preliminary calculations related to the annular type of combustion chamber are explained in details. These calculations will cover the evaluation of reference quantities, calculation of required dimensions, calculation of air distribution and pressure drop, estimation of number and diameters for air admission holes, as well as aerodynamic considerations. The design process is then accompanied by analytical procedure using commercial CFD ANALYSIS tool; ANSYS 16 CFX software. After conducting CFD analysis, the design process will be then iterated in order to gain satisfactory results. It should be noted that the design of the fuel preparation and installation systems is beyond the scope of this work, and it will be discussed separately in another work.Keywords: Annular combustion chamber, micro-turbojet engine, CFD ANALYSIS, pressure drop.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2095706 Dynamic Model Conception of Improving Services Quality in Railway Transport
Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Jaroslav Masek, Juraj Camaj
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This article describes the results of research focused on quality of railway freight transport services. Improvement of these services has a crucial importance in customer considering on the future use of railway transport. Processes filling the customer demands and output quality assessment were defined as a part of the research. In this contribution is introduced the map of quality planning and the algorithm of applied methodology. It characterizes a model which takes into account characters of transportation with linking a perception services quality in ordinary and extraordinary operation. Despite the fact that rail freight transport has its solid position in the transport market, lots of carriers worldwide have been experiencing a stagnation for a couple of years. Therefore, specific results of the research have a significant importance and belong to numerous initiatives aimed to develop and support railway transport not only by creating a single railway area or reducing noise but also by promoting railway services. This contribution is focused also on the application of dynamic quality models which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected, and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process can be taken into account.Keywords: Quality, railway, transport, service.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1702705 Design and Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Corrugated-GFRP Infill Panels
Authors: WooYoung Jung, HoYoung Son
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This study presented to reduce earthquake damage and emergency rehabilitation of critical structures such as schools, hightech factories, and hospitals due to strong ground motions associated with climate changes. Regarding recent trend, a strong earthquake causes serious damage to critical structures and then the critical structure might be influenced by sequence aftershocks (or tsunami) due to fault plane adjustments. Therefore, in order to improve seismic performance of critical structures, retrofitted or strengthening study of the structures under aftershocks sequence after emergency rehabilitation of the structures subjected to strong earthquakes is widely carried out. Consequently, this study used composite material for emergency rehabilitation of the structure rather than concrete and steel materials because of high strength and stiffness, lightweight, rapid manufacturing, and dynamic performance. Also, this study was to develop or improve the seismic performance or seismic retrofit of critical structures subjected to strong ground motions and earthquake aftershocks, by utilizing GFRP-Corrugated Infill Panels (GCIP).Keywords: Composite material, GFRP, Infill Panel, Aftershock, Seismic Retrofitting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2286704 Experimental Investigation on the Effects of Electroless Nickel Phosphorus Deposition, pH and Temperature with the Varying Coating Bath Parameters on Impact Energy by Taguchi Method
Authors: D. Kari Basavaraja, M. G. Skanda, C. Soumya, V. Ramesh
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This paper discusses the effects of sodium hypophosphite concentration, pH, and temperature on deposition rate. This paper also discusses the evaluation of coating strength, surface, and subsurface by varying the bath parameters, percentage of phosphate, plating temperature, and pH of the plating solution. Taguchi technique has been used for the analysis. In the experiment, nickel chloride which is a source of nickel when mixed with sodium hypophosphite has been used as the reducing agent and the source of phosphate and sodium hydroxide has been used to vary the pH of the coating bath. The coated samples are tested for impact energy by conducting impact test. Finally, the effects of coating bath parameters on the impact energy absorbed have been plotted, and analysis has been carried out. Further, percentage contribution of coating bath parameters using Design of Experiments approach (DOE) has been analysed. Finally, it can be concluded that the bath parameters of the Ni-P coating will certainly influence on the strength of the specimen.
Keywords: Bath parameters, coatings, design of experiment, fracture toughness, impact strength.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1301703 Real Time Lidar and Radar High-Level Fusion for Obstacle Detection and Tracking with Evaluation on a Ground Truth
Authors: Hatem Hajri, Mohamed-Cherif Rahal
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Both Lidars and Radars are sensors for obstacle detection. While Lidars are very accurate on obstacles positions and less accurate on their velocities, Radars are more precise on obstacles velocities and less precise on their positions. Sensor fusion between Lidar and Radar aims at improving obstacle detection using advantages of the two sensors. The present paper proposes a real-time Lidar/Radar data fusion algorithm for obstacle detection and tracking based on the global nearest neighbour standard filter (GNN). This algorithm is implemented and embedded in an automative vehicle as a component generated by a real-time multisensor software. The benefits of data fusion comparing with the use of a single sensor are illustrated through several tracking scenarios (on a highway and on a bend) and using real-time kinematic sensors mounted on the ego and tracked vehicles as a ground truth.Keywords: Ground truth, Hungarian algorithm, lidar Radar data fusion, global nearest neighbor filter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 961702 Identification and Classification of Gliadin Genes in Iranian Diploid Wheat
Authors: Jafar Ahmadi, Alireza Pour-Aboughadareh
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Wheat is the first and the most important grain of the world and its bakery property is due to glutenin and gliadin qualities. Wheat seed proteins were divided into four groups according to solubility including albumin, globulin, glutenin and prolamin or gliadin. Gliadins are major components of the storage proteins in wheat endosperm. It seems that little information is available about gliadin genes in Iranian wild relatives of wheat. Thus, the aim of this study was the evaluation of the wheat wild relatives collected from different origins of Zagros Mountains in Iran, in terms of coding gliadin genes using specific primers. For this, forty accessions of Triticum boeoticum and Triticum urartu were selected for this study. For each accession, genomic DNA was extracted and PCRs were performed in total volumes of 15 μl. The amplification products were separated on 1.5% agarose gels. In results, for Gli-2A locus three allelic variants were detected by Gli-2As primer pairs. The sizes of PCR products for these alleles were 210, 490 and 700 bp. Only five (13%) and two accessions (5%) produced 700 and 490 bp fragments when their DNA was amplified with the Gli.As.2 primer pairs. However, 93% of the accessions carried allele 210 bp, and only 8% did not any product for this marker. Therefore, these germplasm could be used as rich gene pool to broaden the genetic base of bread wheat.Keywords: Diploied wheat, gliadin, Triticum boeoticum, Triticum urartu.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1951701 A Knowledge-Based E-mail System Using Semantic Categorization and Rating Mechanisms
Authors: Azleena Mohd Kassim, Muhamad Rashidi A. Rahman, Yu-N. Cheah
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Knowledge-based e-mail systems focus on incorporating knowledge management approach in order to enhance the traditional e-mail systems. In this paper, we present a knowledgebased e-mail system called KS-Mail where people do not only send and receive e-mail conventionally but are also able to create a sense of knowledge flow. We introduce semantic processing on the e-mail contents by automatically assigning categories and providing links to semantically related e-mails. This is done to enrich the knowledge value of each e-mail as well as to ease the organization of the e-mails and their contents. At the application level, we have also built components like the service manager, evaluation engine and search engine to handle the e-mail processes efficiently by providing the means to share and reuse knowledge. For this purpose, we present the KS-Mail architecture, and elaborate on the details of the e-mail server and the application server. We present the ontology mapping technique used to achieve the e-mail content-s categorization as well as the protocols that we have developed to handle the transactions in the e-mail system. Finally, we discuss further on the implementation of the modules presented in the KS-Mail architecture.Keywords: E-mail rating, knowledge-based system, ontology mapping, text categorization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1448700 Mannequin Evaluation of 3D-Printed Intermittent Oro-Esophageal Tube Guide for Dysphagia
Authors: Yujin Jeong, Youkyung Son, Myounghwan Choi, Sanghyub Lee, Sangyeol Lee, Changho Hwang, Kyo-in Koo
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Dysphasia is difficulty in swallowing food because of oral cavity impairments induced by stroke, muscle damage, tumor. Intermittent oro-esophageal (IOE) tube feeding is one of the well-known feeding methods for the dysphasia patients. However, it is hard to insert at the proper position in esophagus. In this study, we design and fabricate the IOE tube guide using 3-dimensional (3D) printer. The printed IOE tube is tested in a mannequin (Airway Management Trainer, Co., Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark) mimicking human’s esophagus. The gag reflex point is measured as the design point in the mannequin. To avoid the gag reflex, we design various shapes of IOE tube guide. One structure is separated into three parts; biting part, part through oral cavity, connecting part to oro-esophageal. We designed 6 types of IOE tube guide adjusting length and angle of these three parts. To evaluate the IOE tube guide, it is inserted in the mannequin, and through the inserted guide, an endoscopic camera successfully arrived at the oro-esophageal. We had planned to apply this mannequin-based design experience to patients in near future.
Keywords: Dysphagia, feeding method, IOE tube guide, 3-D printer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1559699 An Analysis of the Performances of Various Buoys as the Floats of Wave Energy Converters
Authors: İlkay Özer Erselcan, Abdi Kükner, Gökhan Ceylan
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The power generated by eight point absorber type wave energy converters each having a different buoy are calculated in order to investigate the performances of buoys in this study. The calculations are carried out by modeling three different sea states observed in two different locations in the Black Sea. The floats analyzed in this study have two basic geometries and four different draft/radius (d/r) ratios. The buoys possess the shapes of a semi-ellipsoid and a semi-elliptic paraboloid. Additionally, the draft/radius ratios range from 0.25 to 1 by an increment of 0.25. The radiation forces acting on the buoys due to the oscillatory motions of these bodies are evaluated by employing a 3D panel method along with a distribution of 3D pulsating sources in frequency domain. On the other hand, the wave forces acting on the buoys which are taken as the sum of Froude-Krylov forces and diffraction forces are calculated by using linear wave theory. Furthermore, the wave energy converters are assumed to be taut-moored to the seabed so that the secondary body which houses a power take-off system oscillates with much smaller amplitudes compared to the buoy. As a result, it is assumed that there is not any significant contribution to the power generation from the motions of the housing body and the only contribution to power generation comes from the buoy. The power take-off systems of the wave energy converters are high pressure oil hydraulic systems which are identical in terms of their characteristic parameters. The results show that the power generated by wave energy converters which have semi-ellipsoid floats is higher than that of those which have semi elliptic paraboloid floats in both locations and in all sea states. It is also determined that the power generated by the wave energy converters follow an unsteady pattern such that they do not decrease or increase with changing draft/radius ratios of the floats. Although the highest power level is obtained with a semi-ellipsoid float which has a draft/radius ratio equal to 1, other floats of which the draft/radius ratio is 0.25 delivered higher power that the floats with a draft/radius ratio equal to 1 in some cases.Keywords: Black Sea, Buoys, Hydraulic Power Take-Off System, Wave Energy Converters.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1724698 Performance Evaluation of Minimum Quantity Lubrication on EN3 Mild Steel Turning
Authors: Swapnil Rajan Jadhav, Ajay Vasantrao Kashikar
Abstract:
Lubrication, cooling and chip removal are the desired functions of any cutting fluid. Conventional or flood lubrication requires high volume flow rate and cost associated with this is higher. In addition, flood lubrication possesses health risks to machine operator. To avoid these consequences, dry machining and minimum quantity are two alternatives. Dry machining cannot be a suited alternative as it can generate greater heat and poor surface finish. Here, turning work is carried out on a Lathe machine using EN3 Mild steel. Variable cutting speeds and depth of cuts are provided and corresponding temperatures and surface roughness values were recorded. Experimental results are analyzed by Minitab software. Regression analysis, main effect plot, and interaction plot conclusion are drawn by using ANOVA. There is a 95.83% reduction in the use of cutting fluid. MQL gives a 9.88% reduction in tool temperature, this will improve tool life. MQL produced a 17.64% improved surface finish. MQL appears to be an economical and environmentally compatible lubrication technique for sustainable manufacturing.
Keywords: ANOVA, MQL, regression analysis, surface roughness
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 485697 Performance Evaluation of Minimum Quantity Lubrication on EN3 Mild Steel Turning
Authors: Swapnil Rajan Jadhav, Ajay Vasantrao Kashikar
Abstract:
Lubrication, cooling and chip removal are the desired functions of any cutting fluid. Conventional or flood lubrication requires high volume flow rate and cost associated with this is higher. In addition, flood lubrication possesses health risks to machine operator. To avoid these consequences, dry machining and minimum quantity are two alternatives. Dry machining cannot be a suited alternative as it can generate greater heat and poor surface finish. Here, turning work is carried out on a Lathe machine using EN3 Mild steel. Variable cutting speeds and depth of cuts are provided and corresponding temperatures and surface roughness values were recorded. Experimental results are analyzed by Minitab software. Regression analysis, main effect plot, and interaction plot conclusion are drawn by using ANOVA. There is a 95.83% reduction in the use of cutting fluid. MQL gives a 9.88% reduction in tool temperature, this will improve tool life. MQL produced a 17.64% improved surface finish. MQL appears to be an economical and environmentally compatible lubrication technique for sustainable manufacturing.
Keywords: ANOVA, MQL, regression analysis, surface roughness
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 373696 Statistical Optimization of Medium Components for Biomass Production of Chlorella pyrenoidosa under Autotrophic Conditions and Evaluation of Its Biochemical Composition under Stress Conditions
Authors: N. P. Dhull, K. Gupta, R. Soni, D. K. Rahi, S. K. Soni
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The aim of the present work was to statistically design an autotrophic medium for maximum biomass production by Chlorella pyrenoidosa using response surface methodology. After evaluating one factor at a time approach, K2HPO4, KNO3, MgSO4.7H2O and NaHCO3 were preferred over the other components of the fog’s medium as most critical autotrophic medium components. The study showed that the maximum biomass yield was achieved while the concentrations of MgSO4.7H2O, K2HPO4, KNO3 and NaHCO3 were 0.409 g/L, 0.24 g/L, 1.033 g/L, and 3.265 g/L, respectively. The study reported that the biomass productivity of C. pyrenoidosa improved from 0.14 g/L in defined fog’s medium to 1.40 g/L in modified fog’s medium resulting 10 fold increase. The biochemical composition biosynthesis of C. pyrenoidosa was altered using nitrogen limiting stress bringing about 5.23 fold increase in lipid content than control (cell without stress), as analyzed by FTIR integration method.
Keywords: Autotrophic condition, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, FTIR, Response Surface Methodology, Optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2440