Search results for: Building life cycle energy
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 5426

Search results for: Building life cycle energy

2966 Fingerprint Identification Keyless Entry System

Authors: Chih-Neng Liang, Huang-Bin Huang, Bo-Chiuan Chen

Abstract:

Nowadays, keyless entry systems are widely adopted for vehicle immobilizer systems due to both advantages of security and convenience. Keyless entry systems could overcome brute-force key guessing attack, statistics attack and masquerade attack, however, they can't prevent from thieves stealing behavior. In this paper, we proposed a new architecture try to improve the existent flaws. The integration of the keyless entry system and the fingerprint identification technology is more suitable to implement on the portable transponder to achieve higher security needs. We also adopt and modify AES security protocol for life expectancy and security of the portable transponder. In addition, the identification of a driver's fingerprint makes the service of automatic reinstatement of a driver's preferences become possible. Our design can satisfy not only the three kinds of previous illegal attacks, but also the stealing situation. Furthermore, many practical factors, such as costs, life expectancy and performance, have been well considered in the design of portable transponder.

Keywords: Keyless entry-system, fingerprint identification, AES security protocol, vehicle immobilizer system.

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2965 Influence of Active Packaging on the Shelf Life of Apple-Black Currant Marmalade Candies

Authors: Sandra Muizniece-Brasava, Lija Dukalska, Solvita Kampuse, Irisa Murniece, Martins Sabovics, IlonaDabina-Bicka, Emils Kozlinskis, Svetlana Sarvi

Abstract:

The research object was apple-black currant marmalade candies. Experiments were carried out at the Faculty of Food Technology of the Latvia University of Agriculture. An active packaging in combination with modified atmosphere (MAP, CO2 100%) was examined and compared with traditional packaging in air ambiance. Polymer Multibarrier 60 and paper bags were used. Influence of iron based oxygen absorber in sachets of 500 cc obtained from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Europe Ageless® was tested on the quality during the shelf of marmalade. Samples of 80±5 g were packaged in polymer pouches (110 mm x 110 mm), hermetically sealed by MULTIVAC C300 vacuum chamber machine, and stored in room temperature +20.0±1.0 °C. The physiochemical properties – weight losses, moisture content, hardness, aw, pH, colour, changes of atmosphere content (CO2 and O2) in headspace of packs, and microbial conditions were analysed before packaging and in the 1st, 3rd , 5th, 8th, 11th and 15th weeks of storage.

Keywords: Active packaging, marmalade candies, shelf life

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2964 Comparison of Zero Voltage Soft Switching and Hard Switching Boost Converter with Maximum Power Point Tracking

Authors: N. Ravi Kumar, R. Kamalakannan

Abstract:

The inherent nature of normal boost converter has more voltage stress across the power electronics switch and ripple. The presented formation of the front end rectifier stage for a photovoltaic (PV) organization is mainly used to give the supply. Further increasing of the solar efficiency is achieved by connecting the zero voltage soft switching boost converter. The zero voltage boost converter is used to convert the low level DC voltage to high level DC voltage. The inherent nature of zero voltage switching boost converter is used to shrink the voltage tension across the power electronics switch and ripple. The input stage allows the determined power point tracking to be used to extract supreme power from the sun when it is available. The hardware setup was implemented by using PIC Micro controller (16F877A).

Keywords: Boost converter, duty cycle, hard switching, MOSFET, maximum power point tracking, photovoltaic, soft switching, zero voltage switching.

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2963 Intelligent Face-Up CMP System Integrated with On-Line Optical Measurements

Authors: Sheng-Ming Huang, Nan-Chyuan Tsai, Chih-Che Lin, Chun-Chi Lin

Abstract:

An innovative design for intelligent Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) system is proposed and verified by experiments in this report. On-line measurement and real-time feedback are integrated to eliminate the shortcomings of traditional approaches, e.g., the batch-to-batch discrepancy of required polishing time, over consumption of chemical slurry, and non-uniformity across the wafer. The major advantage of the proposed method is that the finish of local surface roughness can be consistent, no matter where the inner-ring region or outer-ring region is concerned. Secondly, it is able to eliminate the Edge effect. Conventionally, the interfacial induced stress near the wafer edge is generally much higher than that near the wafer center. At last, by using the proposed intelligent chemical mechanical polishing strategy, the cost of the entire machining cycle can be much reduced while the quality of the finished goods certainly upgraded.

Keywords: Chemical Mechanical Polishing, Active Magnetic Actuator, On-Line Measurement.

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2962 Performance of Derna Steam Power Plant at Varying Super-Heater Operating Conditions Based on Exergy

Authors: Idris Elfeituri

Abstract:

In the current study, energy and exergy analysis of a 65 MW steam power plant was carried out. This study investigated the effect of variations of overall conductance of the super heater on the performance of an existing steam power plant located in Derna, Libya. The performance of the power plant was estimated by a mathematical modelling which considers the off-design operating conditions of each component. A fully interactive computer program based on the mass, energy and exergy balance equations has been developed. The maximum exergy destruction has been found in the steam generation unit. A 50% reduction in the design value of overall conductance of the super heater has been achieved, which accordingly decreases the amount of the net electrical power that would be generated by at least 13 MW, as well as the overall plant exergy efficiency by at least 6.4%, and at the same time that would cause an increase of the total exergy destruction by at least 14 MW. The achieved results showed that the super heater design and operating conditions play an important role on the thermodynamics performance and the fuel utilization of the power plant. Moreover, these considerations are very useful in the process of the decision that should be taken at the occasions of deciding whether to replace or renovate the super heater of the power plant.

Keywords: Exergy, super-heater, fouling, steam power plant, off-design.

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2961 Fast 2.5D Model Reconstruction of Assembled Parts with High Occlusion for Completeness Inspection

Authors: Matteo Munaro, Stefano Michieletto, Edmond So, Daniele Alberton, Emanuele Menegatti

Abstract:

In this work a dual laser triangulation system is presented for fast building of 2.5D textured models of objects within a production line. This scanner is designed to produce data suitable for 3D completeness inspection algorithms. For this purpose two laser projectors have been used in order to considerably reduce the problem of occlusions in the camera movement direction. Results of reconstruction of electronic boards are presented, together with a comparison with a commercial system.

Keywords: 3D quality inspection, 2.5D reconstruction, laser triangulation, occlusions.

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2960 Historical Development of Bagh-e Dasht in Herat, Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Field Survey of Physical and Social Aspects

Authors: Khojesta Kawish, Tetsuya Ando, Sayed Abdul Basir Samimi

Abstract:

Bagh-e Dasht area is situated in the northern part of Herat, an old city in western Afghanistan located on the Silk Road which has received a strong influence from Persian culture. Initially, the Bagh-e Dasht area was developed for gardens and palaces near Joy-e Injil canal during the Timurid Empire in the 15th century. It is assumed Bagh-e Dasht became a settlement in the 16th century during the Safavid Empire. The oldest area is the southern part around the canal bank which is characterized by Dalans, sun-dried brick arcades above which houses are often constructed. Traditional houses in this area are built with domical vault roofs constructed with sun-dried bricks. Bagh-e Dasht is one of the best-preserved settlements of traditional houses in Herat. This study examines the transformation of the Bagh-e Dasht area with a focus on Dalans, where traditional houses with domical vault roofs have been well-preserved until today. The aim of the study is to examine the extent of physical changes to the area as well as changes to houses and the community. This research paper contains original results which have previously not been published in architectural history. The roof types of houses in the area are investigated through examining high resolution satellite images. The boundary of each building and space is determined by both a field survey and aerial photographs of the study area. A comprehensive field survey was then conducted to examine each space and building in the area. In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to the residents of the Dalan houses and interviews were conducted with the Wakil (Chief) of the area, a local historian, residents and traditional builders. The study finds that the oldest part of Bagh-e Dasht area, the south, contains both Dalans and domical vault roof houses. The next oldest part, which is the north, only has domical vault roof houses. The rest of the area only has houses with modernized flat roofs. This observation provides an insight into the process of historical development in the Bagh-e Dasht area.

Keywords: Afghanistan, Bagh-e Dasht, Dalan, Domical vault, Herat, over path house, traditional house.

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2959 Heat Transfer Modeling in Multi-Layer Cookware using Finite Element Method

Authors: Mohammad Reza Sedighi, Behnam Nilforooshan Dardashti

Abstract:

The high temperature degree and uniform Temperature Distribution (TD) on surface of cookware which contact with food are effective factors for improving cookware application. Additionally, the ability of pan material in retaining the heat and nonreactivity with foods are other significant properties. It is difficult for single material to meet a wide variety of demands such as superior thermal and chemical properties. Multi-Layer Plate (MLP) makes more regular TD. In this study the main objectives are to find the best structure (single or multi-layer) and materials to provide maximum temperature degree and uniform TD up side surface of pan. And also heat retaining of used metals with goal of improving the thermal quality of pan to economize the energy. To achieve this aim were employed Finite Element Method (FEM) for analyzing transient thermal behavior of applied materials. The analysis has been extended for different metals, we achieved the best temperature profile and heat retaining in Copper/ Stainless Steel MLP.

Keywords: Cookware, Energy optimization, Heat retaining, Laminated plate, Temperature distribution

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2958 The Study of Cost Accounting in S Company Based On TDABC

Authors: Heng Ma

Abstract:

Third-party warehousing logistics has an important role in the development of external logistics. At present, the third-party logistics in our country is still a new industry, the accounting system has not yet been established, the current financial accounting system of third-party warehousing logistics is mainly in the traditional way of thinking, and only able to provide the total cost information of the entire enterprise during the accounting period, unable to reflect operating indirect cost information. In order to solve the problem of third-party logistics industry cost information distortion, improve the level of logistics cost management, the paper combines theoretical research and case analysis method to reflect cost allocation by building third-party logistics costing model using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing(TDABC), and takes S company as an example to account and control the warehousing logistics cost.Based on the idea of “Products consume activities and activities consume resources”, TDABC put time into the main cost driver and use time-consuming equation resources assigned to cost objects. In S company, the objects focuses on three warehouse, engaged with warehousing and transportation (the second warehouse, transport point) service. These three warehouse respectively including five departments, Business Unit, Production Unit, Settlement Center, Security Department and Equipment Division, the activities in these departments are classified by in-out of storage forecast, in-out of storage or transit and safekeeping work. By computing capacity cost rate, building the time-consuming equation, the paper calculates the final operation cost so as to reveal the real cost.The numerical analysis results show that the TDABC can accurately reflect the cost allocation of service customers and reveal the spare capacity cost of resource center, verifies the feasibility and validity of TDABC in third-party logistics industry cost accounting. It inspires enterprises focus on customer relationship management and reduces idle cost to strengthen the cost management of third-party logistics enterprises.

Keywords: Third-party logistics enterprises, TDABC, cost management, S company.

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2957 Critical Assessment of Scoring Schemes for Protein-Protein Docking Predictions

Authors: Dhananjay C. Joshi, Jung-Hsin Lin

Abstract:

Protein-protein interactions (PPI) play a crucial role in many biological processes such as cell signalling, transcription, translation, replication, signal transduction, and drug targeting, etc. Structural information about protein-protein interaction is essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms of these processes. Structures of protein-protein complexes are still difficult to obtain by biophysical methods such as NMR and X-ray crystallography, and therefore protein-protein docking computation is considered an important approach for understanding protein-protein interactions. However, reliable prediction of the protein-protein complexes is still under way. In the past decades, several grid-based docking algorithms based on the Katchalski-Katzir scoring scheme were developed, e.g., FTDock, ZDOCK, HADDOCK, RosettaDock, HEX, etc. However, the success rate of protein-protein docking prediction is still far from ideal. In this work, we first propose a more practical measure for evaluating the success of protein-protein docking predictions,the rate of first success (RFS), which is similar to the concept of mean first passage time (MFPT). Accordingly, we have assessed the ZDOCK bound and unbound benchmarks 2.0 and 3.0. We also createda new benchmark set for protein-protein docking predictions, in which the complexes have experimentally determined binding affinity data. We performed free energy calculation based on the solution of non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation (nlPBE) to improve the binding mode prediction. We used the well-studied thebarnase-barstarsystem to validate the parameters for free energy calculations. Besides,thenlPBE-based free energy calculations were conducted for the badly predicted cases by ZDOCK and ZRANK. We found that direct molecular mechanics energetics cannot be used to discriminate the native binding pose from the decoys.Our results indicate that nlPBE-based calculations appeared to be one of the promising approaches for improving the success rate of binding pose predictions.

Keywords: protein-protein docking, protein-protein interaction, molecular mechanics energetics, Poisson-Boltzmann calculations

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2956 Neuro-fuzzy Model and Regression Model a Comparison Study of MRR in Electrical Discharge Machining of D2 Tool Steel

Authors: M. K. Pradhan, C. K. Biswas,

Abstract:

In the current research, neuro-fuzzy model and regression model was developed to predict Material Removal Rate in Electrical Discharge Machining process for AISI D2 tool steel with copper electrode. Extensive experiments were conducted with various levels of discharge current, pulse duration and duty cycle. The experimental data are split into two sets, one for training and the other for validation of the model. The training data were used to develop the above models and the test data, which was not used earlier to develop these models were used for validation the models. Subsequently, the models are compared. It was found that the predicted and experimental results were in good agreement and the coefficients of correlation were found to be 0.999 and 0.974 for neuro fuzzy and regression model respectively

Keywords: Electrical discharge machining, material removal rate, neuro-fuzzy model, regression model, mountain clustering.

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2955 Investigation of Genetic Epidemiology of Metabolic Compromises in ß Thalassemia Minor Mutation: Phenotypic Pleiotropy

Authors: Surajit Debnath, Soma Addya

Abstract:

Human genome is not only the evolutionary summation of all advantageous events, but also houses lesions of deleterious foot prints. A single gene mutation sometimes may express multiple consequences in numerous tissues and a linear relationship of the genotype and the phenotype may often be obscure. ß Thalassemia minor, a transfusion independent mild anaemia, coupled with environment among other factors may articulate into phenotypic pleotropy with Hypocholesterolemia, Vitamin D deficiency, Tissue hypoxia, Hyper-parathyroidism and Psychological alterations. Occurrence of Pancreatic insufficiency, resultant steatorrhoea, Vitamin-D (25-OH) deficiency (13.86 ngm/ml) with Hypocholesterolemia (85mg/dl) in a 30 years old male ß Thal-minor patient (Hemoglobin 11mg/dl with Fetal Hemoglobin 2.10%, Hb A2 4.60% and Hb Adult 84.80% and altered Hemogram) with increased Para thyroid hormone (62 pg/ml) & moderate Serum Ca+2 (9.5mg/ml) indicate towards a cascade of phenotypic pleotropy where the ß Thalassemia mutation ,be it in the 5’ cap site of the mRNA , differential splicing etc in heterozygous state is effecting several metabolic pathways. Compensatory extramedulary hematopoiesis may not coped up well with the stressful life style of the young individual and increased erythropoietic stress with high demand for cholesterol for RBC membrane synthesis may have resulted in Hypocholesterolemia.Oxidative stress and tissue hypoxia may have caused the pancreatic insufficiency, leading to Vitamin D deficiency. This may in turn have caused the secondary hyperparathyroidism to sustain serum Calcium level. Irritability and stress intolerance of the patient was a cumulative effect of the vicious cycle of metabolic compromises. From these findings we propose that the metabolic deficiencies in the ß Thalassemia mutations may be considered as the phenotypic display of the pleotropy to explain the genetic epidemiology. According to the recommendations from the NIH Workshop on Gene-Environment Interplay in Common Complex Diseases: Forging an Integrative Model, study design of observations should be informed by gene-environment hypotheses and results of a study (genetic diseases) should be published to inform future hypotheses. Variety of approaches is needed to capture data on all possible aspects, each of which is likely to contribute to the etiology of disease. Speakers also agreed that there is a need for development of new statistical methods and measurement tools to appraise information that may be missed out by conventional method where large sample size is needed to segregate considerable effect. A meta analytic cohort study in future may bring about significant insight on to the title comment.

Keywords: Genetic disease, Genetic epidemiology, Heterozygous, Phenotype, Pleotropy, ß Thalassemia minor, Metabolic compromises.

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2954 Monte Carlo and Biophysics Analysis in a Criminal Trial

Authors: Luca Indovina, Carmela Coppola, Carlo Altucci, Riccardo Barberi, Rocco Romano

Abstract:

In this paper a real court case, held in Italy at the Court of Nola, in which a correct physical description, conducted with both a Monte Carlo and biophysical analysis, would have been sufficient to arrive at conclusions confirmed by documentary evidence, is considered. This will be an example of how forensic physics can be useful in confirming documentary evidence in order to reach hardly questionable conclusions. This was a libel trial in which the defendant, Mr. DS (Defendant for Slander), had falsely accused one of his neighbors, Mr. OP (Offended Person), of having caused him some damages. The damages would have been caused by an external plaster piece that would have detached from the neighbor’s property and would have hit Mr DS while he was in his garden, much more than a meter far away from the facade of the building from which the plaster piece would have detached. In the trial, Mr. DS claimed to have suffered a scratch on his forehead, but he never showed the plaster that had hit him, nor was able to tell from where the plaster would have arrived. Furthermore, Mr. DS presented a medical certificate with a diagnosis of contusion of the cerebral cortex. On the contrary, the images of Mr. OP’s security cameras do not show any movement in the garden of Mr. DS in a long interval of time (about 2 hours) around the time of the alleged accident, nor do they show any people entering or coming out from the house of Mr. DS in the same interval of time. Biophysical analysis shows that both the diagnosis of the medical certificate and the wound declared by the defendant, already in conflict with each other, are not compatible with the fall of external plaster pieces too small to be found. The wind was at a level 1 of the Beaufort scale, that is, unable to raise even dust (level 4 of the Beaufort scale). Therefore, the motion of the plaster pieces can be described as a projectile motion, whereas collisions with the building cornice can be treated using Newtons law of coefficients of restitution. Numerous numerical Monte Carlo simulations show that the pieces of plaster would not have been able to reach even the garden of Mr. DS, let alone a distance over 1.30 meters. Results agree with the documentary evidence (images of Mr. OP’s security cameras) that Mr. DS could not have been hit by plaster pieces coming from Mr. OP’s property.

Keywords: Biophysical analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, Newton’s law of restitution, projectile motion.

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2953 Studies on Lucrative Design of Waste Heat Recovery System for Air Conditioners

Authors: Ashwin Bala, K. Panthalaraja Kumaran, S. Prithviraj, R. Pradeep, J. Udhayakumar, S. Ajith

Abstract:

In this paper comprehensive studies have been carried out for the design optimization of a waste heat recovery system for effectively utilizing the domestic air conditioner heat energy for producing hot water. Numerical studies have been carried for the geometry optimization of a waste heat recovery system for domestic air conditioners. Numerical computations have been carried out using a validated 2d pressure based, unsteady, 2nd-order implicit, SST k-ω turbulence model. In the numerical study, a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the compressible, Reynolds-Averaged, Navier- Stokes equations is employed. At identical inflow and boundary conditions various geometries were tried and effort has been taken for proposing the best design criteria. Several combinations of pipe line shapes viz., straight and spiral with different number of coils for the radiator have been attempted and accordingly the design criteria has been proposed for the waste heat recovery system design. We have concluded that, within the given envelope, the geometry optimization is a meaningful objective for getting better performance of waste heat recovery system for air conditioners.

Keywords: Air-conditioning system, Energy conversion system, Hot water production from waste heat, Waste heat recovery system.

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2952 Integrated Grey Rational Analysis-Standard Deviation Method for Handover in Heterogeneous Networks

Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Naveed Nawaz, Mahmoud Al-Faris

Abstract:

The dense deployment of small cells is a promising solution to enhance the coverage and capacity of the heterogeneous networks (HetNets). However, the unplanned deployment could bring new challenges to the network ranging from interference, unnecessary handovers and handover failures. This will cause a degradation in the quality of service (QoS) delivered to the end user. In this paper, we propose an integrated Grey Rational Analysis Standard Deviation based handover method (GRA-SD) for HetNet. The proposed method integrates the Standard Deviation (SD) technique to acquire the weight of the handover metrics and the GRA method to select the best handover base station. The performance of the GRA-SD method is evaluated and compared with the traditional Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) methods including Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) and VIKOR methods. Results reveal that the proposed method has outperformed the other methods in terms of minimizing the number of frequent unnecessary handovers and handover failures, in addition to improving the energy efficiency.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, handover, HetNets, MADM, small cells.

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2951 Adaptive PID Controller based on Reinforcement Learning for Wind Turbine Control

Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh

Abstract:

A self tuning PID control strategy using reinforcement learning is proposed in this paper to deal with the control of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). Actor-Critic learning is used to tune PID parameters in an adaptive way by taking advantage of the model-free and on-line learning properties of reinforcement learning effectively. In order to reduce the demand of storage space and to improve the learning efficiency, a single RBF neural network is used to approximate the policy function of Actor and the value function of Critic simultaneously. The inputs of RBF network are the system error, as well as the first and the second-order differences of error. The Actor can realize the mapping from the system state to PID parameters, while the Critic evaluates the outputs of the Actor and produces TD error. Based on TD error performance index and gradient descent method, the updating rules of RBF kernel function and network weights were given. Simulation results show that the proposed controller is efficient for WECS and it is perfectly adaptable and strongly robust, which is better than that of a conventional PID controller.

Keywords: Wind energy conversion systems, reinforcementlearning; Actor-Critic learning; adaptive PID control; RBF network.

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2950 Human Security Providers in Fragile State under Asymmetric War Conditions

Authors: Luna Shamieh

Abstract:

Various players are part of the game in an asymmetric war, all making efforts to provide human security to their own adherents. Although a fragile state is not able to provide sufficient and comprehensive services, it still provides special services and security to the elite; the insurgents as well provide services and security to their associates. The humanitarian organisations, on the other hand, provide some fundamental elements of human security, but only in the regions, they are able to access when possible (if possible). The counterinsurgents (security forces of the state and intervention forces) operate within a narrow band defined by the vision of the responsibility to protect and the perspective of the resolution of the conflict through combat; hence, the possibility to provide human security is shaken at this end. This article examines how each player provides human security from the perspective of freedom from want in order to secure basic and strategic needs, freedom from fear through providing protection against all kinds of violence, and the freedom to live in dignity. It identifies a vicious cycle caused by the intervention of the different players causing a centrifugal force that may lead to disintegration of the nation under war.

Keywords: Human security, asymmetric war, counter insurgency, fragile state, insurgency.

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2949 A Conceptual Design of a Self-Centering Centre Plate

Authors: Jose A. Romero-Navarrete, Frank Otremba, Gerardo Hurtado-Hurtado

Abstract:

Turning maneuvers originate higher forces exerted on the rail and the loss of locomotive energy, at a rate that is function of several parameters that influence the magnitude of the developed horizontal wheel-rail forces, including the friction at the centre plate and the bogie´s yaw stiffness. However, such a friction at the contact surfaces of the centre plate is needed to mitigate the hunting phenomenon when the train moves on straight track segments. In this paper, a self-centering centre plate is proposed, consisting of a lubricated centre plate, equipped with a spring- and damper-based self-centering mechanism. Simulation results of the proposed mechanism suggest that the energy performance in turns of a train car equipped with such self-centering centre plate is comparatively better, as the peak friction forces linked to the dry friction at the contact surfaces of current centre plate designs, are avoided. The assessment of the hunting performance of the proposed device in straight track segments is proposed as the continuation of this work.

Keywords: Bogie´s yaw stiffness, bogie´s yaw friction, centre plate, self-centering mechanism, turning.

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2948 Performance Analysis of Proprietary and Non-Proprietary Tools for Regression Testing Using Genetic Algorithm

Authors: K. Hema Shankari, R. Thirumalaiselvi, N. V. Balasubramanian

Abstract:

The present paper addresses to the research in the area of regression testing with emphasis on automated tools as well as prioritization of test cases. The uniqueness of regression testing and its cyclic nature is pointed out. The difference in approach between industry, with business model as basis, and academia, with focus on data mining, is highlighted. Test Metrics are discussed as a prelude to our formula for prioritization; a case study is further discussed to illustrate this methodology. An industrial case study is also described in the paper, where the number of test cases is so large that they have to be grouped as Test Suites. In such situations, a genetic algorithm proposed by us can be used to reconfigure these Test Suites in each cycle of regression testing. The comparison is made between a proprietary tool and an open source tool using the above-mentioned metrics. Our approach is clarified through several tables.

Keywords: APFD metric, genetic algorithm, regression testing, RFT tool, test case prioritization, selenium tool.

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2947 Adapting the Chemical Reaction Optimization Algorithm to the Printed Circuit Board Drilling Problem

Authors: Taisir Eldos, Aws Kanan, Waleed Nazih, Ahmad Khatatbih

Abstract:

Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) is an optimization metaheuristic inspired by the nature of chemical reactions as a natural process of transforming the substances from unstable to stable states. Starting with some unstable molecules with excessive energy, a sequence of interactions takes the set to a state of minimum energy. Researchers reported successful application of the algorithm in solving some engineering problems, like the quadratic assignment problem, with superior performance when compared with other optimization algorithms. We adapted this optimization algorithm to the Printed Circuit Board Drilling Problem (PCBDP) towards reducing the drilling time and hence improving the PCB manufacturing throughput. Although the PCBDP can be viewed as instance of the popular Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), it has some characteristics that would require special attention to the transactions that explore the solution landscape. Experimental test results using the standard CROToolBox are not promising for practically sized problems, while it could find optimal solutions for artificial problems and small benchmarks as a proof of concept.

Keywords: Evolutionary Algorithms, Chemical Reaction Optimization, Traveling Salesman, Board Drilling.

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2946 Secure and Efficient Transmission of Aggregated Data for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: A. Krishna Veni, R.Geetha

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are suitable for many scenarios in the real world. The retrieval of data is made efficient by the data aggregation techniques. Many techniques for the data aggregation are offered and most of the existing schemes are not energy efficient and secure. However, the existing techniques use the traditional clustering approach where there is a delay during the packet transmission since there is no proper scheduling. The presented system uses the Velocity Energy-efficient and Link-aware Cluster-Tree (VELCT) scheme in which there is a Data Collection Tree (DCT) which improves the lifetime of the network. The VELCT scheme and the construction of DCT reduce the delay and traffic. The network lifetime can be increased by avoiding the frequent change in cluster topology. Secure and Efficient Transmission of Aggregated data (SETA) improves the security of the data transmission via the trust value of the nodes prior the aggregation of data. Since SETA considers the data only from the trustworthy nodes for aggregation, it is more secure in transmitting the data thereby improving the accuracy of aggregated data.

Keywords: Aggregation, lifetime, network security, wireless sensor network.

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2945 Critical Points of Prefabricated Reinforced Concrete Wall Systems of Multi-storey Buildings

Authors: J. Witzany, T. Čejka, R. Zigler

Abstract:

With respect to the dissipation of energy through plastic deformation of joints of prefabricated wall units, the paper points out the principal importance of efficient reinforcement of the prefabricated system at its joints. The method, quality and amount of reinforcement are essential for reaching the necessary degree of joint ductility. The paper presents partial results of experimental research of vertical joints of prefabricated units exposed to monotonously rising loading and repetitive shear force and formulates a conclusion that the limit state of the structure as a whole is preceded by the disintegration of joints, or that the structure tends to pass from linearly elastic behaviour to non-linearly elastic to plastic behaviour by exceeding the proportional elastic limit in joints.Experimental verification on a model of a 7-storey prefabricated structure revealed weak points in its load-bearing systems, mainly at places of critical points around openings situated in close proximity to vertical joints of mutually perpendicularly oriented walls.

Keywords: dissipative energy, dynamic and cycling load repetitive load, working diagrams of joints

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2944 Modeling and Analysis of the Effects of Temperature and Pressure on the Gas-Crossover in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Electrolyzer

Authors: A. H. Abdol Rahim, Alhassan Salami Tijani

Abstract:

Hydrogen produced by means of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer (PEME) is one of the most promising methods due to clean and renewable energy source. In the process, some energy loss due to mass transfer through a PEM is caused by diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and the pressure difference between the cathode channel and anode channel. In PEME, water molecules and ionic particles transferred between the electrodes from anode to cathode, Extensive mixing of the hydrogen and oxygen at anode channel due to gases cross-over must be avoided. In recent times the consciousness of safety issue in high pressure PEME where the oxygen mix with hydrogen at anode channel could create, explosive conditions have generated a lot of concern. In this paper, the steady state and simulation analysis of gases crossover in PEME on the temperature and pressure effect are presented. The simulations have been analysis in MATLAB based on the well-known Fick’s Law of molecular diffusion. The simulation results indicated that as temperature increases, there is a significant decrease in operating voltage.

Keywords: Diffusion, gases cross-over, steady state.

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2943 Kinematic Gait Analysis of Upper and Lower Limbs Joints in Hemiplegic Children

Authors: Zeinab A.Hussein, Manal S. Abd El-Wahab, Shorouk A. W. El-Shennawy

Abstract:

Children with hemiplgic cerebral palsy often walk with diminished reciprocal arm swing so the purpose of this study was to describe kinematic characteristics in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP) during the gait suphases, and find if there is a correlation between upper(shoulder and elbow) and lower(hip, knee, and ankle) limb joints either in involved or uninvolved.48 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (18boys, 30girls) with an average age of (5.1±0.87) years were selected randomly to evaluate joint angles during gait by 3D motion analysis system with 6 pro reflex cameras in a sagittal plane for both sides of the body. The results showed increased shoulder and elbow flexion, increased hip angular displacement, decreased knee and ankle arcs during gait cycle, also there is correlation between shoulder and elbow to hip, knee, and ankle joints during various subphases of gait.

Keywords: Cerebral palsy, Gait, Hemiplegia, Motion analysis.

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2942 Effects of the Sintering Process on Properties of Triaxial Electrical Porcelain from Ugandan Ceramic Minerals

Authors: Peter W. Olupot, Stefan Jonsson, Joseph K. Byaruhanga

Abstract:

Porcelain specimens were fired at 6C/min to 1250C (dwell time 0.5-3h) and cooled at 6C/min to room temperature. Additionally, three different slower firing/cooling cycles were tried. Sintering profile and effects on MOR, crystalline phase content and morphology were investigated using dilatometry, 4-point bending strength, XRD and FEG-SEM respectively. Industrial-sized specimens prepared using the promising cycle were tested basing on the ANSI standards. Increasing dwell time from 1h to 3h at peak temperature of 1250C resulted in neither a significant effect on the quartz and mullite content nor MOR. Reducing the firing/cooling rate to below 6C/min, for peak temperature of 1250C (dwell time of 1h) does not result in improvement of strength of porcelain. The industrial sized specimen exhibited flashover voltages of 20.3kV (dry) and 9.3kV (wet) respectively, transverse strength of 12.5kN and bulk density of 2.27g/cm3, which are satisfactory. There was however dye penetration during porosity test. KeywordsDwell time, Microstructure, Porcelain, Strength.

Keywords: Dwell time, Microstructure, Porcelain, Strength.

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2941 Instructional Design Using the Virtual Ecological Pond for Science Education in Elementary Schools

Authors: Wernhuar Tarng, Wen-Shin Tsai, Yu-Si Lin, Chen-Kai Shiu

Abstract:

Ecological ponds can be a good teaching tool for science teachers, but they must be built and maintained properly to provide students with a safe and suitable learning environment. Hence, many schools do not have the ability to build an ecological pond. This study used virtual reality technology to develop a webbased virtual ecological pond. Supported by situated learning theory and the instructional design of “Aquatic Life" learning unit, elementary school students can actively explore in the virtual ecological pond to observe aquatic animals and plants and learn about the concept of ecological conservation. A teaching experiment was conducted to investigate the learning effectiveness and practicability of this instructional design, and the results showed that students improved a great deal in learning about aquatic life. They found the virtual ecological pond interesting, easy to operate and helpful to understanding the aquatic ecological system. Therefore, it is useful in elementary science education.

Keywords: Virtual reality, virtual ecological ponds, situated learning, instructional design, science education.

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2940 Improved Feature Extraction Technique for Handling Occlusion in Automatic Facial Expression Recognition

Authors: Khadijat T. Bamigbade, Olufade F. W. Onifade

Abstract:

The field of automatic facial expression analysis has been an active research area in the last two decades. Its vast applicability in various domains has drawn so much attention into developing techniques and dataset that mirror real life scenarios. Many techniques such as Local Binary Patterns and its variants (CLBP, LBP-TOP) and lately, deep learning techniques, have been used for facial expression recognition. However, the problem of occlusion has not been sufficiently handled, making their results not applicable in real life situations. This paper develops a simple, yet highly efficient method tagged Local Binary Pattern-Histogram of Gradient (LBP-HOG) with occlusion detection in face image, using a multi-class SVM for Action Unit and in turn expression recognition. Our method was evaluated on three publicly available datasets which are JAFFE, CK, SFEW. Experimental results showed that our approach performed considerably well when compared with state-of-the-art algorithms and gave insight to occlusion detection as a key step to handling expression in wild.

Keywords: Automatic facial expression analysis, local binary pattern, LBP-HOG, occlusion detection.

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2939 Economics of Conflict: Core Economic Dimensions of the Georgian-South Ossetian Context

Authors: V. Charaia

Abstract:

This article presents SWOT analysis for Georgian - South Ossetian conflict. The research analyzes socio-economic aspects and considers future prospects for all sides including neighbor countries and regions. Also it includes the possibilities of positive intervention of neighbor countries to solve the conflict or to mitigate its negative results. The main question of the article is: What will it take to award Georgians and South Ossetians with a peace dividend?

Keywords: Conflict economics, Georgian economy, international organizations, peace building, S. Ossetian economy.

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2938 Productive Design and Calculation of Intermittent Mechanisms with Radial Parallel Cams

Authors: Pavel Dostrašil, Petr Jirásko

Abstract:

The paper deals with the kinematics and automated calculation of intermittent mechanisms with radial cams. Currently, electronic cams are increasingly applied in the drives of working link mechanisms. Despite a huge advantage of electronic cams in their reprogrammability or instantaneous change of displacement diagrams, conventional cam mechanisms have an irreplaceable role in production and handling machines. With high frequency of working cycle periods, the dynamic load of the proper servomotor rotor increases and efficiency of electronic cams strongly decreases. Though conventional intermittent mechanisms with radial cams are representatives of fixed automation, they have distinct advantages in their high speed (high dynamics), positional accuracy and relatively easy manufacture. We try to remove the disadvantage of firm displacement diagram by reducing costs for simple design and automated calculation that leads reliably to high-quality and inexpensive manufacture.

Keywords: Cam mechanism, displacement diagram, intermittentmechanism, radial parallel cam

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2937 CFD Investigation of Turbulent Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Closed Lid-Driven Cavity

Authors: A. Khaleel, S. Gao

Abstract:

Both steady and unsteady turbulent mixed convection heat transfer in a 3D lid-driven enclosure, which has constant heat flux on the middle of bottom wall and with isothermal moving sidewalls, is reported in this paper for working fluid with Prandtl number Pr = 0.71. The other walls are adiabatic and stationary. The dimensionless parameters used in this research are Reynolds number, Re = 5000, 10000 and 15000, and Richardson number, Ri = 1 and 10. The simulations have been done by using different turbulent methods such as RANS, URANS, and LES. The effects of using different k-ε models such as standard, RNG and Realizable k-ε model are investigated. Interesting behaviours of the thermal and flow fields with changing the Re or Ri numbers are observed. Isotherm and turbulent kinetic energy distributions and variation of local Nusselt number at the hot bottom wall are studied as well. The local Nusselt number is found increasing with increasing either Re or Ri number. In addition, the turbulent kinetic energy is discernibly affected by increasing Re number. Moreover, the LES results have shown good ability of this method in predicting more detailed flow structures in the cavity.

Keywords: Mixed convection, Lid-driven cavity, Turbulent flow, RANS model, URANS model, Large eddy simulation.

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