Search results for: Activity modeling

Authors: Ivana T. Karabegović, Saša S. Stojičević, Dragan T. Veličković, Nada Č. Nikolić, Miodrag L. Lazić

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Optimization of a microwave-assisted extraction of cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) fruit using methanol was studied. The influence of process parameters (microwave power, plant material-to-solvent ratio and the extraction time) on the extraction efficiency were optimized by using response surface methodology. The predicted maximum yield of extractive substances (41.85 g/100 g fresh plant material) was obtained at microwave power of 600 W and plant material to solvent ratio of 0.2 g/cm3 after 26 minutes of extraction, while a mean value of 40.80±0.41 g/100 g fresh plant material was obtained from laboratory experiments. This proves applicability of the model in predicting optimal extraction conditions with minimal laborious and time consuming. The results indicated that all process parameters were effective on the extraction efficiency, while the most important factor was extraction time. In order to rationalize production the optimal economical condition which gave a large total extract yield with minimal energy and solvent consumption was found.

Keywords: Cherry laurel, Extraction, Multiple regression modeling, Microwave.

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Authors: Masoud Sadeghian, Alireza Fatehi

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One of the most important parts of a cement factory is the cement rotary kiln which plays a key role in quality and quantity of produced cement. In this part, the physical exertion and bilateral movement of air and materials, together with chemical reactions take place. Thus, this system has immensely complex and nonlinear dynamic equations. These equations have not worked out yet. Only in exceptional case; however, a large number of the involved parameter were crossed out and an approximation model was presented instead. This issue caused many problems for designing a cement rotary kiln controller. In this paper, we presented nonlinear predictor and simulator models for a real cement rotary kiln by using nonlinear identification technique on the Locally Linear Neuro- Fuzzy (LLNF) model. For the first time, a simulator model as well as a predictor one with a precise fifteen minute prediction horizon for a cement rotary kiln is presented. These models are trained by LOLIMOT algorithm which is an incremental tree-structure algorithm. At the end, the characteristics of these models are expressed. Furthermore, we presented the pros and cons of these models. The data collected from White Saveh Cement Company is used for modeling.

Keywords: Cement rotary kiln, nonlinear identification, Locally Linear Neuro-Fuzzy model.

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Authors: Sandipan Chakroborty, Anindya Roy, Goutam Saha

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A state of the art Speaker Identification (SI) system requires a robust feature extraction unit followed by a speaker modeling scheme for generalized representation of these features. Over the years, Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) modeled on the human auditory system has been used as a standard acoustic feature set for SI applications. However, due to the structure of its filter bank, it captures vocal tract characteristics more effectively in the lower frequency regions. This paper proposes a new set of features using a complementary filter bank structure which improves distinguishability of speaker specific cues present in the higher frequency zone. Unlike high level features that are difficult to extract, the proposed feature set involves little computational burden during the extraction process. When combined with MFCC via a parallel implementation of speaker models, the proposed feature set outperforms baseline MFCC significantly. This proposition is validated by experiments conducted on two different kinds of public databases namely YOHO (microphone speech) and POLYCOST (telephone speech) with Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) as a Classifier for various model orders.

Keywords: Complementary Information, Filter Bank, GMM, IMFCC, MFCC, Speaker Identification, Speaker Recognition.

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Authors: Mouna Benfssahi, Zoubir El Felsoufi

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For many enterprises, the delocalization of a part or the totality of their supply chain to low cost countries is the best way to reduce costs and remain competitive against the growing globalized market. This new tendency is driven by logistics advantages, as well as, financial and tax discount offered by the host countries. The objective of this article is to examine the new financial challenges introduced by the project of base erosion and profits shifting (BEPS), published in 2015, and also their impact on the decision of delocalization. In fact, the strategy adopted by multinational firms for determining the transfer price (TP) of goods and services, as well as the shared amount of revenues and expenses have a major impact upon group profit and may contribute to divergent results. In order to get more profit, a coherent decision of delocalization should be based on an evaluation of all the operational and financial characteristics associated with such movement. Therefore, it is interesting to model these new constraints and integrate them in a more global decision model. The established model will enable to measure how much these financial constraints impact the decision of delocalization and will give new helpful directives for enterprise managers.

Keywords: Delocalization, intragroup transaction, multinational firms, optimization model, supply chain management, transfer pricing.

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Authors: N. Massoum, B. Bouazza, H. Tahir, C. Sayah, A. Guen Bouazza

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to simulate the phenomenon of electronic transport in semiconductors, we try to adapt a numerical method, often and most frequently it’s that of Monte Carlo. In our work, we applied this method in the case of a ternary alloy semiconductor GaInP in its cubic form; The Calculations are made using a non-parabolic effective-mass energy band model. We consider a band of conduction to three valleys (ΓLX), major of the scattering mechanisms are taken into account in this modeling, as the interactions with the acoustic phonons (elastic collisions) and optics (inelastic collisions). The polar optical phonons cause anisotropic collisions, intra-valleys, very probable in the III-V semiconductors. Other optical phonons, no polar, allow transitions inter-valleys. Initially, we present the full results obtained by the simulation of Monte Carlo in GaInP in stationary regime. We consider thereafter the effects related to the application of an electric field varying according to time, we thus study the transient phenomenon which make their appearance in ternary material

Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation, steady-state electron transport, transient electron transport, alloy scattering.

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Authors: Mohamed A. Azab

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Over the early years of the 21st century, cities throughout the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf region have expanded more rapidly than ever before. Given the presence of a large volume of high-rise buildings allover the region, the local authority aims to set a new standard for sustainable development; with an integrated approach to maintain a balance between economy, quality, environmental protection and safety of life. In the very near future, as mandatory requirements, sustainability will be the criteria that should be included in all building projects. It is well known in the building sustainability topics that structural design engineers do not have a key role in this matter. In addition, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) has looked almost exclusively on the environmental components and materials specifications. The objective of this paper is to focus and establish groundwork for sustainability techniques and applications related to the RC high-rise buildings design, from the structural point of view. A set of recommendations related to local conditions, structural modeling and analysis is given, and some helpful suggestions for structural design team work are addressed. This paper attempts to help structural engineers in identifying the building sustainability design, in order to meet local needs and achieve alternative solutions at an early stage of project design.

Keywords: Building, Design, High-rise, Middle East, Structural, Sustainability.

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Authors: Ora Geiger

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This paper discusses the question whether a person diagnosed with dyslexia will necessarily have difficulty in reading musical notes. The author specifies the characteristics of alphabet reading in comparison to musical notation reading, and concludes that there should be no contra-indication for teaching standard music reading to children with dyslexia if an appropriate process is offered. This conclusion is based on a long term case study and relies on two main characteristics of music reading: (1) musical notation system is a systematic, logical, relative set of symbols written on a staff; and (2) music reading learning connected with playing a musical instrument is a multi-sensory activity that combines sight, hearing, touch, and movement. The paper describes music reading teaching procedures, using soprano recorders, and provides unique teaching methods that have been found to be effective for students who were diagnosed with dyslexia. It provides theoretical explanations in addition to guidelines for music education practices.

Keywords: Alphabet reading, music reading, multisensory teaching method, dyslexia, recorder playing.

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Authors: C. Ardil

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Being effective in every organizational activity has become necessary due to the escalating level of competition in all areas of corporate life. In the context of supply chain management, aircraft supplier selection is currently one of the most crucial activities. It is possible to choose the best aircraft supplier and deliver efficiency in terms of cost, quality, delivery time, economic status, and institutionalization if a systematic supplier selection approach is used. In this study, an effective multiple criteria decision-making methodology, proximity measure method (PMM), is used within a fuzzy environment based on the vague structure of the real working environment. The best appropriate aircraft suppliers are identified and ranked after the proposed multiple criteria decision making technique is used in a real-life scenario.

Keywords: Aircraft supplier selection, multiple criteria decision making, fuzzy sets, proximity measure method, Minkowski distance family function, Hausdorff distance function, PMM, MCDM

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Authors: S. M. Shah, N. J. Mistry

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This study was conducted to evaluate factors regulating groundwater quality in an area with agriculture as main use. Under this study twelve groundwater samples have been collected from Padra taluka, Dabhoi taluka and Savli taluka of Vadodara district. Groundwater samples were chemically analyzed for major physicochemical parameter in order to understand the different geochemical processes affecting the groundwater quality. The analytical results shows higher concentration of total dissolved solids (16.67%), electrical conductivity (25%) and magnesium (8.33%) for pre monsoon and total dissolved solids (16.67%), electrical conductivity (33.3%) and magnesium (8.33%) for post monsoon which indicates signs of deterioration as per WHO and BIS standards. On the other hand, 50% groundwater sample is unsuitable for irrigation purposes based on irrigation quality parameters. The study revealed that application of fertilizer for agricultural contributing the higher concentration of ions in aquifer of Vadodara district.

Keywords: Groundwater pollution, agricultural activity, irrigation water quality, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR).

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Authors: Towfeeq Fairooz, Salim Istyaq

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The passive electrical properties of a tissue depends on the intrinsic constituents and its structure, therefore by measuring the complex electrical impedance of the tissue it might be possible to obtain indicators of the tissue state or physiological activity [1]. Complete bio-impedance information relative to physiology and pathology of a human body and functional states of the body tissue or organs can be extracted by using a technique containing a fourelectrode measurement setup. This work presents the estimation measurement setup based on the four-electrode technique. First, the complex impedance is estimated by three different estimation techniques: Fourier, Sine Correlation and Digital De-convolution and then estimation errors for the magnitude, phase, reactance and resistance are calculated and analyzed for different levels of disturbances in the observations. The absolute values of relative errors are plotted and the graphical performance of each technique is compared.

Keywords: Electrical Impedance, Fast Fourier Transform, Additive White Gaussian Noise, Total Least Square, Digital De-Convolution, Sine-Correlation.

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Authors: Paola Lecca, Lorenzo Dematte, Corrado Priami

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The present models and simulation algorithms of intracellular stochastic kinetics are usually based on the premise that diffusion is so fast that the concentrations of all the involved species are homogeneous in space. However, recents experimental measurements of intracellular diffusion constants indicate that the assumption of a homogeneous well-stirred cytosol is not necessarily valid even for small prokaryotic cells. In this work a mathematical treatment of diffusion that can be incorporated in a stochastic algorithm simulating the dynamics of a reaction-diffusion system is presented. The movement of a molecule A from a region i to a region j of the space is represented as a first order reaction Ai k- ! Aj , where the rate constant k depends on the diffusion coefficient. The diffusion coefficients are modeled as function of the local concentration of the solutes, their intrinsic viscosities, their frictional coefficients and the temperature of the system. The stochastic time evolution of the system is given by the occurrence of diffusion events and chemical reaction events. At each time step an event (reaction or diffusion) is selected from a probability distribution of waiting times determined by the intrinsic reaction kinetics and diffusion dynamics. To demonstrate the method the simulation results of the reaction-diffusion system of chaperoneassisted protein folding in cytoplasm are shown.

Keywords: Reaction-diffusion systems, diffusion coefficient, stochastic simulation algorithm.

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Authors: D. E. Egirani, J. E. Andrews, A. R. Baker

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This study investigates sorption of Cu and Zn contained in natural mine wastewater, using mixed mineral systems in sulfidic-anoxic condition. The mine wastewater was obtained from disused mine workings at Cwmheidol in Wales, United Kingdom. These contaminants flow into water courses. These water courses include River Rheidol. In this River fishing activities exist. In an attempt to reduce Cu-Zn levels of fish intake in the watercourses, single mineral systems and 1:1 mixed mineral systems of clay and goethite were tested with the mine waste water for copper and zinc removal at variable pH. Modelling of hydroxyl complexes was carried out using phreeqc method. Reactions using batch mode technique was conducted at room temperature. There was significant differences in the behaviour of copper and zinc removal using mixed mineral systems when compared  to single mineral systems. All mixed mineral systems sorb more Cu than Zn when tested with mine wastewater.

Keywords: Cu- Zn, hydroxyl complexes, kinetics, mixed mineral systems, reactivity

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Authors: D. Kriebel, J. E. Mehner

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The paper introduces a method to efficiently simulate nonlinear changing electrostatic fields occurring in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Large deflections of the capacitor electrodes usually introduce nonlinear electromechanical forces on the mechanical system. Traditional finite element methods require a time-consuming remeshing process to capture exact results for this physical domain interaction. In order to accelerate the simulation process and eliminate the remeshing process, a formulation of a strongly coupled electromechanical transducer element will be introduced which uses a combination of finite-element with an advanced mesh morphing technique using radial basis functions (RBF). The RBF allows large geometrical changes of the electric field domain while retain high element quality of the deformed mesh. Coupling effects between mechanical and electrical domains are directly included within the element formulation. Fringing field effects are described accurate by using traditional arbitrary shape functions.

Keywords: electromechanical, electric field, transducer, simulation, modeling, finite-element, mesh morphing, radial basis function

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Authors: Achmad Zamroni, Masahiro Yamao

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Seaweed farming is emerging as a viable alternative activity in the Indonesian fisheries sector. This paper aims to investigate people-s perceptions of seaweed farming, to analyze its social and economic impacts and to identify the problems and obstacles hindering its continued development. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were prepared to obtain qualitative data, and interviews were conducted with fishermen who also plant seaweed. The findings showed that fishermen in the Laikang Bay were enthusiastic about cultivating seaweeds and that seaweed plays a major role in supporting the household economy of fishermen. However, current seaweed drying technologies cannot support increased seaweed production on a farm or plot, especially in the rainy season. Additionally, variable monsoon seasons and long marketing channels are still major constraints on the development of the industry. Finally, capture fisheries, the primary economic livelihood of fishermen of older generations, is being slowly replaced by seaweed farming.

Keywords: Coastal management, perception, seaweed development and livelihood diversification

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Authors: Hamed Najafi, Ghasem Nikjou

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Nowadays, there is an increasing attention to the resources scarcity issues. Because of failure in present patterns in the field of the allocation of exhaustible resources between generations and the challenges related to economic justice supply, it is supposed, to present a pattern from the Islamic perspective in this essay. By using content analysis of religious texts, we conclude that governments should remove the gap which is exists between the per capita income of the poor and their minimum consumption (necessary consumption). In order to preserve the exhaustible resources for poor people) not for all), between all generations, government should invest exhaustible resources on endless resources according to Hartwick’s criteria and should spend these benefits for poor people. But, if benefits did not cover the gap between minimum consumption and per capita income of poor levels in one generation, in this case, the government is responsible for covering this gap through the direct consumption of exhaustible resources. For an exact answer to this question, ‘how much of exhaustible resources should expense to maintain justice between generations?’ The theoretical and mathematical modeling has been used and proper function has been provided. The consumption pattern is presented for economic policy makers in Muslim countries, and non-Muslim even, it can be useful.

Keywords: Exhaustible resources, Islamic justice, intergenerational justice, distribution of resources, Hartwick Criteria.

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Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Urvashi Malhotra, E. Ardil

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There is lot of work done in prediction of the fault proneness of the software systems. But, it is the severity of the faults that is more important than number of faults existing in the developed system as the major faults matters most for a developer and those major faults needs immediate attention. In this paper, we tried to predict the level of impact of the existing faults in software systems. Neuro-Fuzzy based predictor models is applied NASA-s public domain defect dataset coded in C programming language. As Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS) evaluates the worth of a subset of attributes by considering the individual predictive ability of each feature along with the degree of redundancy between them. So, CFS is used for the selecting the best metrics that have highly correlated with level of severity of faults. The results are compared with the prediction results of Logistic Models (LMT) that was earlier quoted as the best technique in [17]. The results are recorded in terms of Accuracy, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). The results show that Neuro-fuzzy based model provide a relatively better prediction accuracy as compared to other models and hence, can be used for the modeling of the level of impact of faults in function based systems.

Keywords: Software Metrics, Fuzzy, Neuro-Fuzzy, Software Faults, Accuracy, MAE, RMSE.

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Authors: G. Kumaravelan, R. Sivakumar

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Modeling the behavior of the dialogue management in the design of a spoken dialogue system using statistical methodologies is currently a growing research area. This paper presents a work on developing an adaptive learning approach to optimize dialogue strategy. At the core of our system is a method formalizing dialogue management as a sequential decision making under uncertainty whose underlying probabilistic structure has a Markov Chain. Researchers have mostly focused on model-free algorithms for automating the design of dialogue management using machine learning techniques such as reinforcement learning. But in model-free algorithms there exist a dilemma in engaging the type of exploration versus exploitation. Hence we present a model-based online policy learning algorithm using interconnected learning automata for optimizing dialogue strategy. The proposed algorithm is capable of deriving an optimal policy that prescribes what action should be taken in various states of conversation so as to maximize the expected total reward to attain the goal and incorporates good exploration and exploitation in its updates to improve the naturalness of humancomputer interaction. We test the proposed approach using the most sophisticated evaluation framework PARADISE for accessing to the railway information system.

Keywords: Dialogue management, Learning automata, Reinforcement learning, Spoken dialogue system

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Authors: Javier Ordorica Villalvazo, Claudia Camargo Wilson, Jesus Everardo Olguin Tiznado

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This paper presents an experimental case using sensory thermography to describe temperatures behavior on median nerve once an activity of repetitive motion was done. Thermography is a noninvasive technique without biological hazard and not harm at all times and has been applied in many experiments to seek for temperature patterns that help to understand diseases like cancer and cumulative trauma disorders (CTD’s). An infrared sensory thermography technology was developed to execute this study. Three women in good shape were selected for the repetitive motion tests for 4 days, two right-handed women and 1 left handed woman, two sensory thermographers were put on both median nerve wrists to get measures. The evaluation time was of 3 hours 30 minutes in a controlled temperature, 20 minutes of stabilization time at the beginning and end of the operation. Temperatures distributions are statistically evaluated and showed similar temperature patterns behavior.

Keywords: Median nerve, temperature, sensory thermography, wrists, CTD’s.

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Authors: A. Ahmadi Nadooshan, S. Daneshmand, C. Aghanajafi

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Traditionally, wind tunnel models are made of metal and are very expensive. In these years, everyone is looking for ways to do more with less. Under the right test conditions, a rapid prototype part could be tested in a wind tunnel. Using rapid prototype manufacturing techniques and materials in this way significantly reduces time and cost of production of wind tunnel models. This study was done of fused deposition modeling (FDM) and their ability to make components for wind tunnel models in a timely and cost effective manner. This paper discusses the application of wind tunnel model configuration constructed using FDM for transonic wind tunnel testing. A study was undertaken comparing a rapid prototyping model constructed of FDM Technologies using polycarbonate to that of a standard machined steel model. Testing covered the Mach range of Mach 0.3 to Mach 0.75 at an angle-ofattack range of - 2° to +12°. Results from this study show relatively good agreement between the two models and rapid prototyping Method reduces time and cost of production of wind tunnel models. It can be concluded from this study that wind tunnel models constructed using rapid prototyping method and materials can be used in wind tunnel testing for initial baseline aerodynamic database development.

Keywords: Polycarbonate, Fabrication, FDM, Model, RapidPrototyping, Wind Tunnel.

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Authors: Bhekisipho Twala, Mantepu Masetshaba, Ramapulana Nkoana

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Multiple classifier systems combine several individual classifiers to deliver a final classification decision. However, an increasingly controversial question is whether such systems can outperform the single best classifier, and if so, what form of multiple classifiers system yields the most significant benefit. Also, multi-target tracking detection using multiple sensors is an important research field in mobile techniques and military applications. In this paper, several multiple classifiers systems are evaluated in terms of their ability to predict a system’s failure or success for multi-sensor target tracking tasks. The Bristol Eden project dataset is utilised for this task. Experimental and simulation results show that the human activity identification system can fulfil requirements of target tracking due to improved sensors classification performances with multiple classifier systems constructed using boosting achieving higher accuracy rates.

Keywords: Single classifier, machine learning, ensemble learning, multi-sensor target tracking.

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Authors: Ishani Pruthi, William Burch Jr

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The concept of sacred and nature have long been interlinked. Various cultural aspects such as religion, faith, traditions bring people closer to nature and the natural environment. Memorial Parks and Sacred Groves are examples of two such cultural landscapes that exist today. The project mainly deals with the significance of such sites to the environment and the deep rooted significance it has to the people. These parks and groves play an important role in biodiversity conservation and environmental protection. There are many differences between the establishment of memorial parks and sacred groves, but the underlying significance is the same. Sentiments, emotions play an important role in landscape planning and management. Hence the people and communities living at these sites need to be involved in any planning activity or decisions. The conservation of the environment should appeal to the sentiments of the people; the need to be 'with nature' should be used in the setting up of memorial forests and in the preservation of sacred groves.

Keywords: Sacred groves, memorial forests, community based natural resource management.

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Authors: H. Mohammadiun, A. Kianifar, A. Kargar

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Nowadays, there is little information, concerning the heat shield systems, and this information is not completely reliable to use in so many cases. for example, the precise calculation cannot be done for various materials. In addition, the real scale test has two disadvantages: high cost and low flexibility, and for each case we must perform a new test. Hence, using numerical modeling program that calculates the surface recession rate and interior temperature distribution is necessary. Also, numerical solution of governing equation for non-charring material ablation is presented in order to anticipate the recession rate and the heat response of non-charring heat shields. the governing equation is nonlinear and the Newton- Rafson method along with TDMA algorithm is used to solve this nonlinear equation system. Using Newton- Rafson method for solving the governing equation is one of the advantages of the solving method because this method is simple and it can be easily generalized to more difficult problems. The obtained results compared with reliable sources in order to examine the accuracy of compiling code.

Keywords: Ablation rate, surface recession, interior temperaturedistribution, non charring material ablation, Newton Rafson method.

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Authors: V. Agrawal, A. Sharma

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High Strength Concrete (HSC) is defined as concrete that meets special combination of performance and uniformity requirements that cannot be achieved routinely using conventional constituents and normal mixing, placing, and curing procedures. It is a highly complex material, which makes modeling its behavior a very difficult task. This paper aimed to show possible applicability of Neural Networks (NN) to predict the slump in High Strength Concrete (HSC). Neural Network models is constructed, trained and tested using the available test data of 349 different concrete mix designs of High Strength Concrete (HSC) gathered from a particular Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) batching plant. The most versatile Neural Network model is selected to predict the slump in concrete. The data used in the Neural Network models are arranged in a format of eight input parameters that cover the Cement, Fly Ash, Sand, Coarse Aggregate (10 mm), Coarse Aggregate (20 mm), Water, Super-Plasticizer and Water/Binder ratio. Furthermore, to test the accuracy for predicting slump in concrete, the final selected model is further used to test the data of 40 different concrete mix designs of High Strength Concrete (HSC) taken from the other batching plant. The results are compared on the basis of error function (or performance function).

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Concrete, prediction ofslump, slump in concrete

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Authors: S. Karabulut, A. Güllü, A. Güldas, R. Gürbüz

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This study investigates the effects of the lead angle and chip thickness variation on surface roughness during the machining of compacted graphite iron using ceramic cutting tools under dry cutting conditions. Analytical models were developed for predicting the surface roughness values of the specimens after the face milling process. Experimental data was collected and imported to the artificial neural network model. A multilayer perceptron model was used with the back propagation algorithm employing the input parameters of lead angle, cutting speed and feed rate in connection with chip thickness. Furthermore, analysis of variance was employed to determine the effects of the cutting parameters on surface roughness. Artificial neural network and regression analysis were used to predict surface roughness. The values thus predicted were compared with the collected experimental data, and the corresponding percentage error was computed. Analysis results revealed that the lead angle is the dominant factor affecting surface roughness. Experimental results indicated an improvement in the surface roughness value with decreasing lead angle value from 88° to 45°.

Keywords: CGI, milling, surface roughness, ANN, regression, modeling, analysis.

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Authors: Hesam Sedaghat Nejad, Navid Hosseini, Arash Nikvar Hassani

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Determination of the optimum block size with high profitability is one of the significant parameters in designation of the building stone mines. The aim of this study was to determine the optimum dimensions of building stone blocks in Delichai travertine mine of Damavand in Tehran province through combining the effective parameters proven in determination of the optimum dimensions in building stones such as the spacing of joints and gaps, extraction tools constraints with the help of modeling by Gemcom software. To this end, following simulation of the topography of the mine, the block model was prepared and then in order to use spacing joints and discontinuities as a limiting factor, the existing joints set was added to the model. Since only one almost horizontal joint set with a slope of 5 degrees was available, this factor was effective only in determining the optimum height of the block, and thus to determine the longitudinal and transverse optimum dimensions of the extracted block, the power of available loader in the mine was considered as the secondary limiting factor. According to the aforementioned factors, the optimal block size in this mine was measured as 3.4×4×7 meter.

Keywords: Building stone, optimum block size, Delichai Travertine Mine, loader power.

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Authors: Atisthan Wuttimanop, Suchada Rianmora, Mahint Mahattanakorn

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Feet and ankles are parts of human body that receive high-pressure in every day. Feet disorders such as ankle sprain, achilles tendonitis, heel pain, and plantar fasciitis are very common. There are many causes for these feet disorders such as wearing high heels, obesity, sports activity, and standing for a long time. There are many reliefs for feet disorders such as heel insert. However, they come in various shapes and use different materials. There are no specifications in which type is suitable for specific user. This has led to the proposed research to provide guidelines for selecting the appropriate heel insert for ladies who face with long-standing carriers. This research uses contact-measuring techniques to test forces, contact area, and pressure acting on a person’s feet in various standing positions with different insert materials and shapes. The proper material for making insert will be presented and discussed.

Keywords: Heel inserts, Long-standing person, Contact-data acquisition, Finite element analysis, Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA).

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

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The construction industry plays an important role in environmental and carbon emissions as it consumes a huge amount of natural resources and energy. Sustainable engineering involves the process of planning, design, procurement, construction and delivery in which the whole building and construction process resulting from building and construction can be effectively and sustainability managed to achieve the use of natural resources. Implementation of sustainable technology development and innovation, adoption of the advanced construction process and facilitate the facilities management to implement the energy and waste control more accurately and effectively. Study and research in the relationship of BIM and environment assessment tools lack a clear discussion. In this paper, we will focus on the synergy of BIM technology and sustainable engineering in the AEC industry and outline the key factors which enhance the use of advanced innovation, technology and method and define the role of stakeholders to achieve zero-carbon emission toward the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. A case study of the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and environmental assessment tools in Hong Kong will be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable engineering, BIM, LEED

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Authors: M. Z. Alsawalha

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The main objective of this study is to investigate basic properties of different natural clays, by two methods. The first method is a gas phase conversion of methylbutynol (MBOH). The second method is the application of Pyrrole-tpd. Based on the product distribution from the first method, the acidic, basic and coordinately unsaturated sites were differentiated. It was shown that both the conversion and the selectivity for basic products did not change with reaction time. Nevertheless, a deviation from the stoichiometric ratio R of formed acetylene to acetone was observed (R=0.8…0.97). The conversion normalized to the surface area was used for establishing the activity sequence: White kaolinite > red kaolinite > bentonite > zeolite > di­ato­mite. In addition, the results were compared with synthetic amorphous alumosilicates and typical basic materials like MgO and ZnO. The basic properties were characterized using the Pyrrole-tpd.  The Pyrrole-tpd results showed the same basicity sequence as the MBOH gas phase reaction.

Keywords: Alumosilicates, basic surface properties, natural clays, normalized conversions with acetylene and acetone, pyrrole-TPD adsorption.

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Authors: S. S. Mahlangu, R. K. K. Mbaya, D. D. Delport, H. Van. Zyl

Abstract:

The degrading effect due to bacterial growth on the structural integrity of concrete floor surfaces is predictable; this consequently cause development of surface micro cracks in which organisms penetrate through resulting in surface spalling. Hence, the need to develop mix design meeting the requirement of floor surfaces exposed to aggressive agent to improve certain material properties with good workability, extended lifespan and low cost is essential. In this work, tests were performed to examine the microbial activity on kitchen floor surfaces and the effect of adding admixtures. The biochemical test shows the existence of microorganisms (E.coli, Streptococcus) on newly casted structure. Of up to 6% porosity was reduced and improvement on structural integrity was observed upon adding mineral admixtures from the concrete mortar. The SEM result after 84 days of curing specimens, shows that chemical admixtures have significant role to enable retard bacterial penetration and good quality structure is achieved.

Keywords: Admixture, organisms, porosity and strength.

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Authors: Ahmed A.D. Sarhan, Lim Siew Fen, Mum Wai Yip, M. Sayuti

Abstract:

Ti6Al4V alloy is highly used in the automotive and aerospace industry due to its good machining characteristics. Micro EDM drilling is commonly used to drill micro hole on extremely hard material with very high depth to diameter ratio. In this study, the parameters of micro-electrical discharge machining (EDM) in drilling of Ti6Al4V alloy is optimized for higher machining accuracy with less hole-dilation and hole taper ratio. The micro-EDM machining parameters includes, peak current and pulse on time. Fuzzy analysis was developed to evaluate the machining accuracy. The analysis shows that hole-dilation and hole-taper ratio are increased with the increasing of peak current and pulse on time. However, the surface quality deteriorates as the peak current and pulse on time increase. The combination that gives the optimum result for hole dilation is medium peak current and short pulse on time. Meanwhile, the optimum result for hole taper ratio is low peak current and short pulse on time.

Keywords: Micro EDM, Ti-6Al-4V alloy, fuzzy logic based analysis, optimization, machining accuracy.

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