Search results for: cost reduction.

Authors: Amit Kumar, Himanshu Singal, Arnav Bhavsar

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In this modern era of automation, most of the academic exams and competitive exams are Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ). The responses of these MCQ based exams are recorded in the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) sheet. Evaluation of the OMR sheet requires separate specialized machines for scanning and marking. The sheets used by these machines are special and costs more than a normal sheet. Available process is non-economical and dependent on paper thickness, scanning quality, paper orientation, special hardware and customized software. This study tries to tackle the problem of evaluating the OMR sheet without any special hardware and making the whole process economical. We propose an image processing based algorithm which can be used to read and evaluate the scanned OMR sheets with no special hardware required. It will eliminate the use of special OMR sheet. Responses recorded in normal sheet is enough for evaluation. The proposed system takes care of color, brightness, rotation, little imperfections in the OMR sheet images.

Keywords: OMR, image processing, hough circle transform, interpolation, detection, Binary Thresholding.

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Authors: Yen-Cheng Chen, Fu-Chen Yang

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IETF defines mobility support in IPv6, i.e. MIPv6, to allow nodes to remain reachable while moving around in the IPv6 internet. When a node moves and visits a foreign network, it is still reachable through the indirect packet forwarding from its home network. This triangular routing feature provides node mobility but increases the communication latency between nodes. This deficiency can be overcome by using a Binding Update (BU) scheme, which let nodes keep up-to-date IP addresses and communicate with each other through direct IP routing. To further protect the security of BU, a Return Routability (RR) procedure was developed. However, it has been found that RR procedure is vulnerable to many attacks. In this paper, we will propose a lightweight RR procedure based on geometric computing. In consideration of the inherent limitation of computing resources in mobile node, the proposed scheme is developed to minimize the cost of computations and to eliminate the overhead of state maintenance during binding updates. Compared with other CGA-based BU schemes, our scheme is more efficient and doesn-t need nonce tables in nodes.

Keywords: Mobile IPv6, Binding update, Geometric computing.

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Authors: Watchara Songserm, Teeradej Wuttipornpun

Abstract:

This paper presents a genetic algorithm based permutation and non-permutation scheduling heuristics (GAPNP) to solve a multi-stage finite capacity material requirement planning (FCMRP) problem in automotive assembly flow shop with unrelated parallel machines. In the algorithm, the sequences of orders are iteratively improved by the GA characteristics, whereas the required operations are scheduled based on the presented permutation and non-permutation heuristics. Finally, a linear programming is applied to minimize the total cost. The presented GAPNP algorithm is evaluated by using real datasets from automotive companies. The required parameters for GAPNP are intently tuned to obtain a common parameter setting for all case studies. The results show that GAPNP significantly outperforms the benchmark algorithm about 30% on average.

Keywords: Finite capacity MRP, genetic algorithm, linear programming, flow shop, unrelated parallel machines, application in industries.

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Authors: Paula Ferreira, Filipa Vieira

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The use of wind energy for electricity generation is growing rapidly across the world and in Portugal. However, the geographical characteristics of the country along with the average wind regime and with the environmental restrictions imposed to these projects create limitations to the exploit of the onshore wind resource. The best onshore wind spots are already committed and the possibility of offshore wind farms in the Portuguese cost is now being considered. This paper aims to make a contribution to the evaluation of offshore wind power projects in Portugal. The technical restrictions are addressed and the strategic, environmental and financial interest of the project is analysed from the private company and public points of view. The results suggest that additional support schemes are required to ensure private investors interest for these projects. Assuming an approach of direct substitution of energy sources for electricity generation, the avoided CO2 equivalent emissions for an offshore wind power project were quantified. Based on the conclusions, future research is proposed to address the environmental and social impacts of these projects.

Keywords: Feed-in tariff, offshore wind power, project evaluation.

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Authors: Asmat Ismail, Muna Hanim Abdul Samad, Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman

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The phenomenon of global warming or climate change has led to many environmental issues including higher atmospheric temperatures, intense precipitation, increased greenhouse gaseous emissions and increased indoor discomfort. Studies have shown that bringing nature to the roof such as constructing green roof and implementing high-reflective roof may give positive impact in mitigating the effects of global warming and in increasing thermal comfort sensation inside buildings. However, no study has been conducted to compare both types of passive roof treatments in Malaysia in order to increase thermal comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the effect of green roof and white painted roof as passive roof treatment in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes. This study uses an experimental approach in which the measurements of temperatures are conducted on the case study building. The measurements of outdoor and indoor environments were conducted on the flat roof with two different types of roof treatment that are green roof and white roof. The measurement of existing black bare roof was also conducted to act as a control for this study.

Keywords: global warming, green roof, white painted roof, indoor temperature reduction.

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Authors: Xin Bai, Kresimir Sivoncik, Damla Turgut, Ladislau Bölöni

Abstract:

Market based models are frequently used in the resource allocation on the computational grid. However, as the size of the grid grows, it becomes difficult for the customer to negotiate directly with all the providers. Middle agents are introduced to mediate between the providers and customers and facilitate the resource allocation process. The most frequently deployed middle agents are the matchmakers and the brokers. The matchmaking agent finds possible candidate providers who can satisfy the requirements of the consumers, after which the customer directly negotiates with the candidates. The broker agents are mediating the negotiation with the providers in real time. In this paper we present a new type of middle agent, the marketmaker. Its operation is based on two parallel operations - through the investment process the marketmaker is acquiring resources and resource reservations in large quantities, while through the resale process it sells them to the customers. The operation of the marketmaker is based on the fact that through its global view of the grid it can perform a more efficient resource allocation than the one possible in one-to-one negotiations between the customers and providers. We present the operation and algorithms governing the operation of the marketmaker agent, contrasting it with the matchmaker and broker agents. Through a series of simulations in the task oriented domain we compare the operation of the three agents types. We find that the use of marketmaker agent leads to a better performance in the allocation of large tasks and a significant reduction of the messaging overhead.

Keywords: grid computing, autonomous agents, market-basedgrid

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Authors: Yoong H. Chan, Brenda C. T. Lee, Jin C. Lee

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As Malaysia aims to be a developed country by year 2020; the construction industry has since been identified as a major catalyst for the country to attain the status. It is one of the sectors that contribute to most environmental pollutions. It is, therefore, important for the industry to implement sustainable construction practices to reduce the negative impacts that it has on the environment. However, most Malaysian developers have placed much focus on market demand and economic factors; neglecting the need for attention on environmental issues. The practice of sustainable construction is deemed to be an obstacle to achieve short-term economic goals due to the higher cost incurred in the operations. Hence, choices need to be made and a balance needs to be struck in weighing the long-term environmental benefits against immediate economic factors. This paper discusses the challenges faced by Malaysian developers in adopting sustainable practices in the construction industry and the cause of these challenges. It also looks into the achievements and breakthroughs that developers in Malaysia have achieved so far. The paper aims explores the long-term benefits of sustainable practices that would potentially raise awareness on the feasibility and economic potential of sustainable construction.

Keywords: Construction industry, construction method, sustainability.

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Authors: A. D. Parekh, P. R. Tailor

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Capacity and efficiency of any refrigerating system diminish rapidly as the difference between the evaporating and condensing temperature is increased by reduction in the evaporator temperature. The single stage vapour compression refrigeration system is limited to an evaporator temperature of -40 0C. Below temperature of -40 0C the either cascade refrigeration system or multi stage vapour compression system is employed. Present work describes thermal design of main three heat exchangers namely condenser (HTS), cascade condenser and evaporator (LTS) of R404A-R508B and R410A-R23 cascade refrigeration system. Heat transfer area of condenser (HTS), cascade condenser and evaporator (LTS) for both systems have been compared and the effect of condensing and evaporating temperature on heat-transfer area for both systems have been studied under same operating condition. The results shows that the required heat-transfer area of condenser and cascade condenser for R410A-R23 cascade system is lower than the R404A-R508B cascade system but heat transfer area of evaporator is similar for both the system. The heat transfer area of condenser and cascade condenser decreases with increase in condensing temperature (Tc), whereas the heat transfer area of cascade condenser and evaporator increases with increase in evaporating temperature (Te).

Keywords: Heat-transfer area, R410A, R404A, R508B, R23, Refrigeration system, Thermal design

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Authors: Seyed Sadegh Naseralavi, Sadegh Balaghi, Ehsan Khojastehfar

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Time history dynamic analysis of structures is considered as an exact method while being computationally intensive. Filtration of earthquake strong ground motions applying wavelet transform is an approach towards reduction of computational efforts, particularly in optimization of structures against seismic effects. Wavelet transforms are categorized into continuum and discrete transforms. Since earthquake strong ground motion is a discrete function, the discrete wavelet transform is applied in the present paper. Wavelet transform reduces analysis time by filtration of non-effective frequencies of strong ground motion. Filtration process may be repeated several times while the approximation induces more errors. In this paper, strong ground motion of earthquake has been filtered once applying each wavelet. Strong ground motion of Northridge earthquake is filtered applying various wavelets and dynamic analysis of sampled shear and moment frames is implemented. The error, regarding application of each wavelet, is computed based on comparison of dynamic response of sampled structures with exact responses. Exact responses are computed by dynamic analysis of structures applying non-filtered strong ground motion.

Keywords: Wavelet transform, computational error, computational duration, strong ground motion data.

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Authors: A. A. Embaby, A. Abu Halawa, M. Ramadan

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In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, there are several areas where expansive soil exists in the form of variable-thicknesses layers in the developed regions. Severe distress to infrastructures can be caused by the development of heave and swelling pressure in this kind of expansive shale. Among the various techniques for expansive soil mitigation, the removal and replacement technique is very popular for lightly loaded structures and shallow foundations. This paper presents the result of an experimental study conducted for evaluating the effect of type and thickness of the cushion soils on mitigation of swelling characteristics of expanded shale. Seven undisturbed shale samples collected from Al Qadsiyah district, which is located in the Tabuk town north Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are treated with two types of cushion coarse-grained sediments (CCS); sand and gravel. Each type is represented with three thicknesses, 22%, 33% and 44% in relation to the depth of the active zone. The test results indicated that the replacement of expansive shale by CCS reduces the swelling potential and pressure. It is found that the reduction in swelling depends on the type and thickness of CCS. The treatment by removing the original expansive shale and replacing it by cushion sand with 44% thickness reduced the swelling potential and pressure of about 53.29% and 62.78 %, respectively.

Keywords: Cushion coarse-grained sediments, expansive soil, Saudi Arabia, swelling pressure, Tabuk Shale.

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Authors: Jae Kyung Ha, Yong-Hak Kim

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The Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives. Witnessing recent web-based mass collaboration, e.g. Wikipedia, people are questioning whether the Internet has made fundamental changes to the society or whether it is merely a hyperbolic fad. It has long been assumed that collective action for a certain goal yields the problem of free-riding, due to its non-exclusive and non-rival characteristics. Then, thanks to recent technological advances, the on-line space experienced the following changes that enabled it to produce public goods: 1) decrease in the cost of production or coordination 2) externality from networked structure 3) production function which integrates both self-interest and altruism. However, this research doubts the homogeneity of on-line mass collaboration and argues that a more sophisticated and systematical approach is required. The alternative that we suggest is to connect the characteristics of the goal to the motivation. Despite various approaches, previous literature fails to recognize that motivation can be structurally restricted by the characteristic of the goal. First we draw a typology of on-line mass collaboration with 'the extent of expected beneficiary' and 'the existence of externality', and then we examine each combination of motivation using Benkler-s framework. Finally, we explore and connect such typology with its possible dominant participating motivation.

Keywords: On-line cooperation, typology, mass collaboration, motivation, wikinomics.

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Authors: Komeil Valipourian

Abstract:

Urban advances and the growing need for developing infrastructures has increased the importance of deep excavations. In this study, after the introducing probability analysis as an important issue, an attempt has been made to apply it for the deep excavation project of Bangkok’s Metro as a case study. For this, the numerical probability model has been developed based on the Finite Difference Method and Monte Carlo sampling approach. The results indicate that disregarding the issue of probability in this project will result in an inappropriate design of the retaining structure. Therefore, probabilistic redesign of the support is proposed and carried out as one of the applications of probability analysis. A 50% reduction in the flexural strength of the structure increases the failure probability just by 8% in the allowable range and helps improve economic conditions, while maintaining mechanical efficiency. With regard to the lack of efficient design in most deep excavations, by considering geometrical and geotechnical variability, an attempt was made to develop an optimum practical design standard for deep excavations based on failure probability. On this basis, a practical relationship is presented for estimating the maximum allowable horizontal displacement, which can help improve design conditions without developing the probability analysis.

Keywords: Numerical probability modeling, deep excavation, allowable maximum displacement, finite difference method, FDM.

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Authors: Kaustubh Chakradeo, Michael Delves, Sofya Titarenko

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Malaria is a serious disease which affects hundreds of millions of people around the world, each year. If not treated in time, it can be fatal. Despite recent developments in malaria diagnostics, the microscopy method to detect malaria remains the most common. Unfortunately, the accuracy of microscopic diagnostics is dependent on the skill of the microscopist and limits the throughput of malaria diagnosis. With the development of Artificial Intelligence tools and Deep Learning techniques in particular, it is possible to lower the cost, while achieving an overall higher accuracy. In this paper, we present a VGG-based model and compare it with previously developed models for identifying infected cells. Our model surpasses most previously developed models in a range of the accuracy metrics. The model has an advantage of being constructed from a relatively small number of layers. This reduces the computer resources and computational time. Moreover, we test our model on two types of datasets and argue that the currently developed deep-learning-based methods cannot efficiently distinguish between infected and contaminated cells. A more precise study of suspicious regions is required.

Keywords: Malaria, deep learning, DL, convolution neural network, CNN, thin blood smears.

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Authors: K. L. Wong, I. N. Umar

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Online forum is part of a Learning Management System (LMS) environment in which students share their opinions. This study attempts to investigate the perceptions of students towards online forum and their patterns of listening behavior during the forum interaction. The students’ perceptions were measured using a questionnaire, in which seven dimensions were used involving online experience, benefits of forum participation, cost of participation, perceived ease of use, usefulness, attitude, and intention. Meanwhile, their patterns of listening behaviors were obtained using the log file extracted from the LMS. A total of 25 postgraduate students undertaking a course were involved in this study, and their activities in the forum session were recorded by the LMS and used as a log file. The results from the questionnaire analysis indicated that the students perceived that the forum is easy to use, useful, and bring benefits to them. Also, they showed positive attitude towards online forum, and they have the intention to use it in future. Based on the log data, the participants were also divided into six clusters of listening behavior, in which they are different in terms of temporality, breadth, depth and speaking level. The findings were compared to previous clusters grouping and future recommendations are also discussed.

Keywords: e-learning, learning management system, listening behavior, online forum.

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Authors: Fatima Zohra Ibn Majdoub Hassani, Ivan Lavandera, Joseph Kreit

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This study explored the effects of different organic solvents, temperature, and the amount of glycerol on the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH)-catalysed stereoselective reduction of different ketones. These conversions were then analyzed by gas chromatography. It was found that when the amount of deep eutectic solvents (DES) increases, it can improve the stereoselectivity of the enzyme although reducing its ability to convert the substrate into the corresponding alcohol. Moreover, glycerol was found to have a strong stabilizing effect on the ADH from Ralstonia sp. (E. coli/ RasADH). In the case of organic solvents, it was observed that the best conversions into the alcohols were achieved with DMSO and hexane. It was also observed that temperature decreased the ability of the enzyme to convert the substrates into the products and also affected the selectivity. In addition to that, the recycling of DES up to three times gave good conversions and enantiomeric excess results and glycerol showed a positive effect in the stability of various ADHs. Using RasADH, a good conversion and enantiomeric excess into the S-alcohol were obtained. It was found that an enhancement of the temperature disabled the stabilizing effect of glycerol and decreased the stereoselectivity of the enzyme. However, for other ADHs a temperature increase had an opposite positive effect, especially with ADH-T from Thermoanaerobium sp. One of the objectives of this study was to see the effect of cofactors such as NAD(P) on the biocatlysis activities of ADHs.

Keywords: Alcohol dehydrogenases, DES, gas chromatography, RasADH.

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Authors: Hamed Homaei, Iraj Mahdavi, Ali Tajdin

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One of the main concerns of miners is to increase the quality level of their products because the mining metals price depends on their quality level; however, increasing the quality level of these products has different costs at different levels of the supply chain. These costs usually increase after extractor level. This paper studies the coordination issue of a decentralized three-level supply chain with one supplier (extractor), one mineral processor and one manufacturer in which the increasing product quality level cost at the processor level is higher than the supplier and at the level of the manufacturer is more than the processor. We identify the optimal product quality level for each supply chain member by designing a revenue sharing contract. Finally, numerical examples show that the designed contract not only increases the final product quality level but also provides a win-win condition for all supply chain members and increases the whole supply chain profit.

Keywords: Three-stage supply chain, product quality improvement, channel coordination, revenue sharing.

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Authors: Atena Sajedin, Shokoufeh Zakernejad, Soheil Faridi, Mehrdad Javadi, Reza Ebrahimpour

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This paper illustrates the use of a combined neural network model for classification of electrocardiogram (ECG) beats. We present a trainable neural network ensemble approach to develop customized electrocardiogram beat classifier in an effort to further improve the performance of ECG processing and to offer individualized health care. We process a three stage technique for detection of premature ventricular contraction (PVC) from normal beats and other heart diseases. This method includes a denoising, a feature extraction and a classification. At first we investigate the application of stationary wavelet transform (SWT) for noise reduction of the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. Then feature extraction module extracts 10 ECG morphological features and one timing interval feature. Then a number of multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) neural networks with different topologies are designed. The performance of the different combination methods as well as the efficiency of the whole system is presented. Among them, Stacked Generalization as a proposed trainable combined neural network model possesses the highest recognition rate of around 95%. Therefore, this network proves to be a suitable candidate in ECG signal diagnosis systems. ECG samples attributing to the different ECG beat types were extracted from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database for the study.

Keywords: ECG beat Classification; Combining Classifiers;Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC); Multi Layer Perceptrons;Wavelet Transform

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Authors: Jeni A. Popescu, Ionut Porumbel, Valeriu A. Vilag, Cleopatra F. Cuciumita

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The paper presents a thermodynamic cycle analysis for three turboshaft engines. The first cycle is a Brayton cycle, describing the evolution of a classical turboshaft, based on the Klimov TV2 engine. The other four cycles aim at approaching an Ericsson cycle, by replacing the Brayton cycle adiabatic expansion in the turbine by quasi-isothermal expansion. The maximum quasi- Ericsson cycles temperature is set to a lower value than the maximum Brayton cycle temperature, equal to the Brayton cycle power turbine inlet temperature, in order to decrease the engine NOx emissions. Also, the power/expansion ratio distribution over the stages of the gas generator turbine is maintained the same. In two of the considered quasi-Ericsson cycles, the efficiencies of the gas generator turbine, as well as the power/expansion ratio distribution over the stages of the gas generator turbine are maintained the same as for the reference case, while for the other two cases, the efficiencies are increased in order to obtain the same shaft power as in the reference case. For the two cases respecting the first condition, both the shaft power and the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine decrease, while for the other two, the power and efficiency are maintained, as a result of assuming new, more efficient gas generator turbines.

Keywords: Combustion, Ericsson, thermodynamic analysis, turbine.

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Authors: Ali A. Al-Jazaairry, Tahsin T. Sabbagh

Abstract:

Presence of cavities in soil predictably induces ground deformation and changes in soil stress, which might influence adjacent existing pile foundations, though the effect of twin cavities on a nearby pile needs to be understood. This research is an attempt to identify the behaviour of piles subjected to axial load and embedded in cavitied clayey soil. A series of finite element modelling were conducted to investigate the performance of piled foundation located in such soils. The validity of the numerical simulation was evaluated by comparing it with available field test and alternative analytical model. The study involved many parameters such as twin cavities size, depth, spacing between cavities, and eccentricity of cavities from the pile axis on the pile performance subjected to axial load. The study involved many cases; in each case, a critical value has been found in which cavities’ presence has shown minimum impact on the behaviour of pile. Load-displacement relationships of the affecting parameters on the pile behaviour were presented to provide helpful information for designing piled foundation situated near twin underground cavities. It was concluded that the presence of the cavities within the soil mass reduces the ultimate capacity of pile. This reduction differs according to the size and location of the cavity.

Keywords: Axial load, clay, finite element, pile, twin cavities, ultimate capacity.

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Authors: E. T. L. Cöuras Ford, V. A. C. Vale, J. U. L. Mendes, F. A. Ribeiro

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The study of the aerodynamics related to the improvement in the acting of airplanes and automobiles with the objective of being reduced the effect of the attrition of the air on structures, providing larger speeds and smaller consumption of fuel. The application of the knowledge of the aerodynamics not more limits to the aeronautical and automobile industries. Therefore, this research aims to design and construction of a wind tunnel to perform aerodynamic analysis in bodies of cars, seeking greater efficiency. Therefore, this research aims to design and construction of a wind tunnel to perform aerodynamic analysis in bodies of cars, seeking greater efficiency. For this, a methodology for wind tunnel type selection is designed to be built, taking into account the various existing configurations in which chose to build an open circuit tunnel, due to the lower complexity of construction and installation; operational simplicity and low cost. The guidelines for the project were teaching: the layer that limits study and analyze specimens with different geometries. For the variation of pressure in the test, section of a switched gauge used a pitot tube. Thus, it was possible to obtain quantitative and qualitative results, which proved to be satisfactory.

Keywords: Wind tunnel, Aerodynamics, Air.

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Authors: Omar Farahat Hassanein, A. Samer Ezeldin

Abstract:

The construction industry is a very dynamic field. Every day new technologies and methods are developed to fasten the process and increase its efficiency. Hence, if a project uses fewer resources it will be more efficient.

This paper examines the recycling of concrete construction and demolition (C&D) waste to reuse it as aggregates in on-site applications for construction projects in Egypt and possibly in the Middle East. The study focuses on a stationary plant setting. The machinery set-up used in the plant is analyzed technically and financially.

The findings are gathered and grouped to obtain a comprehensive cost-benefit financial model to demonstrate the feasibility of establishing and operating a concrete recycling plant. Furthermore, a detailed business plan including the time and hierarchy is proposed. 

Keywords: Construction wastes, recycling, sustainability, financial model, concrete recycling, concrete life cycle.

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Authors: Amir Hossein Daei Sorkhabi, Bita Khazini

Abstract:

In this paper the intelligent control of full automatic car wash using a programmable logic controller (PLC) has been investigated and designed to do all steps of carwashing. The Intelligent control of full automatic carwash has the ability to identify and profile the geometrical dimensions of the vehicle chassis. Vehicle dimension identification is an important point in this control system to adjust the washing brushes position and time duration. The study also tries to design a control set for simulating and building the automatic carwash. The main purpose of the simulation is to develop criteria for designing and building this type of carwash in actual size to overcome challenges of automation. The results of this research indicate that the proposed method in process control not only increases productivity, speed, accuracy and safety but also reduce the time and cost of washing based on dynamic model of the vehicle. A laboratory prototype based on an advanced intelligent control has been built to study the validity of the design and simulation which it’s appropriate performance confirms the validity of this study.

Keywords: Automatic Carwash, Dimension, PLC.

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Authors: Md. Anayet U. Patwari, Mohammad Ahsan Habib, Md. Tanzib Ehsan, Md Golam Ahnaf, Md. S. I. Chowdhury

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Surface roughness is one of the key quality parameters of the finished product. During any machining operation, high temperatures are generated at the tool-chip interface impairing surface quality and dimensional accuracy of products. Cutting fluids are generally applied during machining to reduce temperature at the tool-chip interface. However, usages of cutting fluids give rise to problems such as waste disposal, pollution, high cost, and human health hazard. Researchers, now-a-days, are opting towards dry machining and other cooling techniques to minimize use of coolants during machining while keeping surface roughness of products within desirable limits. In this paper, a concept of using peltier cooling effects during aluminium milling operation has been presented and adopted with an aim to improve surface roughness of the machined surface. Experimental evidence shows that peltier cooling effect provides better surface roughness of the machined surface compared to dry machining.

Keywords: Aluminium, surface roughness, Peltier cooling effect, milling operation.

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Authors: A. Abdalla, A. Kaltayev

Abstract:

The ultimate goal of this article is to develop a robust and accurate numerical method for solving hyperbolic conservation laws in one and two dimensions. A hybrid numerical method, coupling a cheap fourth order total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme [1] for smooth region and a Robust seventh-order weighted non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme [2] near discontinuities, is considered. High order multi-resolution analysis is used to detect the high gradients regions of the numerical solution in order to capture the shocks with the WENO scheme, while the smooth regions are computed with fourth order total variation diminishing (TVD). For time integration, we use the third order TVD Runge-Kutta scheme. The accuracy of the resulting hybrid high order scheme is comparable with these of WENO, but with significant decrease of the CPU cost. Numerical demonstrates that the proposed scheme is comparable to the high order WENO scheme and superior to the fourth order TVD scheme. Our scheme has the added advantage of simplicity and computational efficiency. Numerical tests are presented which show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Keywords: WENO scheme, TVD schemes, smoothness indicators, multi-resolution.

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Authors: Rizwan Asghar, Dake Liu

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A hardware efficient, multi mode, re-configurable architecture of interleaver/de-interleaver for multiple standards, like DVB, WiMAX and WLAN is presented. The interleavers consume a large part of silicon area when implemented by using conventional methods as they use memories to store permutation patterns. In addition, different types of interleavers in different standards cannot share the hardware due to different construction methodologies. The novelty of the work presented in this paper is threefold: 1) Mapping of vital types of interleavers including convolutional interleaver onto a single architecture with flexibility to change interleaver size; 2) Hardware complexity for channel interleaving in WiMAX is reduced by using 2-D realization of the interleaver functions; and 3) Silicon cost overheads reduced by avoiding the use of small memories. The proposed architecture consumes 0.18mm2 silicon area for 0.12μm process and can operate at a frequency of 140 MHz. The reduced complexity helps in minimizing the memory utilization, and at the same time provides strong support to on-the-fly computation of permutation patterns.

Keywords: Hardware interleaver implementation, WiMAX, DVB, block interleaver, convolutional interleaver, hardwaremultiplexing.

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Authors: Abdul Rashid Ahmadi, Samiullah Paracha, Hamidullah Sokout, Mohammad Hanif Gharanai

Abstract:

Conventional educational practices, do not offer all the required skills for teachers to successfully survive in today’s workplace. Due to poor professional training, a big gap exists across the curriculum plan and the teacher practices in the classroom. As such, raising the quality of teaching through ICT-enabled training and professional development of teachers should be an urgent priority. ‘Mobile Learning’, in that vein, is an increasingly growing field of educational research and practice across schools and work places. In this paper, we propose a novel Mobile learning system that allows the users to learn through an intelligent mobile learning in cooperatively every-time and every-where. The system will reduce the training cost and increase consistency, efficiency, and data reliability. To establish that our system will display neither functional nor performance failure, the evaluation strategy is based on formal observation of users interacting with system followed by questionnaires and structured interviews.

Keywords: Computer Assisted Learning, Intelligent Tutoring system, Learner Centered Design, Mobile Mediated Learning and Teacher education (MMLTE).

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Authors: A. Pourkamali Anaraki, M. Shahabizadeh, B. Babaee

Abstract:

The plastic forming process of sheet plate takes an important place in forming metals. The traditional techniques of tool design for sheet forming operations used in industry are experimental and expensive methods. Prediction of the forming results, determination of the punching force, blank holder forces and the thickness distribution of the sheet metal will decrease the production cost and time of the material to be formed. In this paper, multi-stage deep drawing simulation of an Industrial Part has been presented with finite element method. The entire production steps with additional operations such as intermediate annealing and springback has been simulated by ABAQUS software under axisymmetric conditions. The simulation results such as sheet thickness distribution, Punch force and residual stresses have been extracted in any stages and sheet thickness distribution was compared with experimental results. It was found through comparison of results, the FE model have proven to be in close agreement with those of experiment.

Keywords: Deep drawing, Finite element method, Simulation.

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Authors: Min Kook Choi, Hyun Gyu Lee, Ryan You, Byeong-Seok Shin, Sang-Chul Lee

Abstract:

Wireless capsule Endoscopy (WCE) has rapidly shown its wide applications in medical domain last ten years thanks to its noninvasiveness for patients and support for thorough inspection through a patient-s entire digestive system including small intestine. However, one of the main barriers to efficient clinical inspection procedure is that it requires large amount of effort for clinicians to inspect huge data collected during the examination, i.e., over 55,000 frames in video. In this paper, we propose a method to compute meaningful motion changes of WCE by analyzing the obtained video frames based on regional optical flow estimations. The computed motion vectors are used to remove duplicate video frames caused by WCE-s imaging nature, such as repetitive forward-backward motions from peristaltic movements. The motion vectors are derived by calculating directional component vectors in four local regions. Our experiments are performed on small intestine area, which is of main interest to clinical experts when using WCEs, and our experimental results show significant frame reductions comparing with a simple frame-to-frame similarity-based image reduction method.

Keywords: Wireless capsule endoscopy, optical flow, duplicated image, duplicated frame.

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Authors: Muhammad Tariq A. Chaudhary

Abstract:

The tremendous loss of life that resulted in the aftermath of recent earthquakes in developing countries is mostly due to the collapse of non-engineered and semi-engineered building structures. Such structures are used as houses, schools, primary healthcare centers and government offices. These building are classified structurally into two categories viz. non-engineered and semi-engineered. Non-engineered structures include: adobe, unreinforced masonry (URM) and wood buildings. Semi-engineered buildings are mostly low-rise (up to 3 story) light concrete frame structures or masonry bearing walls with reinforced concrete slab. This paper presents an overview of the typical damage observed in non-engineered structures and their most likely causes in the past earthquakes with specific emphasis on the performance of such structures in the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. It is demonstrated that seismic performance of these structures can be improved from life-safety viewpoint by adopting simple low-cost modifications to the existing construction practices. Incorporation of some of these practices in the reconstruction efforts after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake are examined in the last section for mitigating seismic risk hazard.

Keywords: Kashmir earthquake, non-engineered buildings, seismic hazard, structural details, structural strengthening.

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Authors: Z. Khan, O. Moselhi, T. Zayed

Abstract:

Development of levels of service in municipal context is a flexible vehicle to assist in performing quality-cost trade-off analysis for municipal services. This trade-off depends on the willingness of a community to pay as well as on the condition of the assets. Community perspective of the performance of an asset from service point of view may be quite different from the municipality perspective of the performance of the same asset from condition point of view. This paper presents a three phased level of service based methodology for water mains that consists of :1)development of an Analytical Hierarchy model of level of service 2) development of Fuzzy Weighted Sum model of water main condition index and 3) deriving a Fuzzy logic based function that maps level of service to asset condition index. This mapping will assist asset managers in quantifying condition improvement requirement to meet service goals and to make more informed decisions on interventions and relayed priorities.

Keywords: Asset Management, Level of Service, Condition Index, Analytical Hierarchy, Fuzzy Logic.

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