Search results for: Gilbert model

Authors: Saleh Alumaran, Giampaolo Bella, Feng Chen

Abstract:

The study of organisations’ information security cultures has attracted scholars as well as healthcare services industry to research the topic and find appropriate tools and approaches to develop a positive culture. The vast majority of studies in Saudi national health services are on the use of technology to protect and secure health services information. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the role and impact of an organisation’s cultural dimensions on information security. This research investigated and analysed the role and impact of cultural dimensions on information security in Saudi Arabia health service. Hypotheses were tested and two surveys were carried out in order to collect data and information from three major hospitals in Saudi Arabia (SA). The first survey identified the main cultural-dimension problems in SA health services and developed an initial information security culture framework model. The second survey evaluated and tested the developed framework model to test its usefulness, reliability and applicability. The model is based on human behaviour theory, where the individual’s attitude is the key element of the individual’s intention to behave as well as of his or her actual behaviour. The research identified a set of cultural and sub-cultural dimensions in SA health information security and services.

Keywords: Behaviour theory, Culture dimensions, Electronic health records, Information security.

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Authors: Syed Akhter Hossain, M. Lutfar Rahman, Farruk Ahmed

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Bangla Vowel characterization determines the spectral properties of Bangla vowels for efficient synthesis as well as recognition of Bangla vowels. In this paper, Bangla vowels in isolated word have been analyzed based on speech production model within the framework of Analysis-by-Synthesis. This has led to the extraction of spectral parameters for the production model in order to produce different Bangla vowel sounds. The real and synthetic spectra are compared and a weighted square error has been computed along with the error in the formant bandwidths for efficient representation of Bangla vowels. The extracted features produced good representation of targeted Bangla vowel. Such a representation also plays essential role in low bit rate speech coding and vocoders.

Keywords: Speech, vowel, formant, synthesis, spectrum, LPC.

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Authors: Lucie Côté, Martin Lauzier, Guy Beauchamp, France Guertin

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Stress causes deleterious effects to the physical, psychological and organizational levels, which highlight the need to use effective coping strategies to deal with it. Several coping models exist, but they don’t integrate the different strategies in a coherent way nor do they take into account the new research on the emotional coping and acceptance of the stressful situation. To fill these gaps, an integrative model incorporating the main coping strategies was developed. This model arises from the review of the scientific literature on coping and from a qualitative study carried out among workers with low or high levels of stress, as well as from an analysis of clinical cases. The model allows one to understand under what circumstances the strategies are effective or ineffective and to learn how one might use them more wisely. It includes Specific Strategies in controllable situations (the Modification of the Situation and the Resignation-Disempowerment), Specific Strategies in non-controllable situations (Acceptance and Stubborn Relentlessness) as well as so-called General Strategies (Wellbeing and Avoidance). This study is intended to undertake and present the process of development and validation of an instrument to measure coping strategies based on this model. An initial pool of items has been generated from the conceptual definitions and three expert judges have validated the content. Of these, 18 items have been selected for a short form questionnaire. A sample of 300 students and employees from a Quebec university was used for the validation of the questionnaire. Concerning the reliability of the instrument, the indices observed following the inter-rater agreement (Krippendorff’s alpha) and the calculation of the coefficients for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) are satisfactory. To evaluate the construct validity, a confirmatory factor analysis using MPlus supports the existence of a model with six factors. The results of this analysis suggest also that this configuration is superior to other alternative models. The correlations show that the factors are only loosely related to each other. Overall, the analyses carried out suggest that the instrument has good psychometric qualities and demonstrates the relevance of further work to establish predictive validity and reconfirm its structure. This instrument will help researchers and clinicians better understand and assess coping strategies to cope with stress and thus prevent mental health issues.

Keywords: Acceptance, coping strategies, measurement instrument, questionnaire, stress, validation process.

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Authors: Byoung-Tak Zhang, Chan-Hoon Park

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Hypernetworks are a generalized graph structure representing higher-order interactions between variables. We present a method for self-organizing hypernetworks to learn an associative memory of sentences and to recall the sentences from this memory. This learning method is inspired by the “mental chemistry" model of cognition and the “molecular self-assembly" technology in biochemistry. Simulation experiments are performed on a corpus of natural-language dialogues of approximately 300K sentences collected from TV drama captions. We report on the sentence completion performance as a function of the order of word-interaction and the size of the learning corpus, and discuss the plausibility of this architecture as a cognitive model of language learning and memory.

Keywords: Linguistic recall memory, sentence completion task, self-organizing hypernetworks, cognitive learning and memory.

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Authors: Mat Isa, C. M., Mohd Saman, H., Mohd Nasir, S. R., Jaapar, A.

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International market expansion involves a strategic process of market entry decision through which a firm expands its operation from domestic to the international domain. Hence, entry timing choices require the needs to balance the early entry risks and the problems in losing opportunities as a result of late entry into a new market. Questionnaire surveys administered to 115 Malaysian construction firms operating in 51 countries worldwide have resulted in 39.1 percent response rate. Factor analysis was used to determine the most significant factors affecting entry timing choices of the firms to penetrate the international market. A logistic regression analysis used to examine the firms’ entry timing choices, indicates that the model has correctly classified 89.5 per cent of cases as late movers. The findings reveal that the most significant factor influencing the construction firms’ choices as late movers was the firm factor related to the firm’s international experience, resources, competencies and financing capacity. The study also offers valuable information to construction firms with intention to internationalize their businesses.

Keywords: Factors, early movers, entry timing choices, late movers, Logistic Regression Model, Principal Axis Factorial Analysis, Malaysian construction firms.

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Authors: G. Bickel, D. Jensen

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This research documents a qualitative study of selected Native Americans who have successfully graduated from mainstream higher education institutions. The research framework explored the Bicultural Identity Formation Model as a means of understanding the expressions of the students' adaptations to mainstream education. This approach lead to an awareness of how the participants in the study used specific cultural and social strategies to enhance their educational success and also to an awareness of how they coped with cultural dissonance to achieve a new academic identity. Research implications impact a larger audience of bicultural, foreign, or international students experiencing cultural dissonance.

Keywords: Bicultural Identity Formation Model, Cultural Dissonance, Higher Education, Student Success

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Authors: Vinay K. Nangia, Cashmira Pramanik

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Academia-industry relationship is not like that of technology donator-acceptor, but is of interactive and collaborative nature, acknowledging and ensuring mutual respect for each other-s role and contributions with an eye to attaining the true purpose of such relationships, namely, bringing about research-outcome synergy. Indeed, academia-industry interactions are a system that requires active and collaborative participations of all the stakeholders. This paper examines various issues associated with academic institutions and industry collaboration with special attention to the nature of resources and potentialities of stakeholders in the context of knowledge management. This paper also explores the barriers of academia-industry interaction. It identifies potential areas where industry-s participation with academia would be most effective for synergism. Lastly, this paper proposes an integrated model of several new collaborative approaches that are possible, mainly in the Indian scenario to strengthen academia-industry interface.

Keywords: academia-industry, interface, knowledge economy, technology transfer.

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Authors: S. Mehrab Amiri, Nasser Talebbeydokhti

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Modeling sediment transport processes by means of numerical approach often poses severe challenges. In this way, a number of techniques have been suggested to solve flow and sediment equations in decoupled, semi-coupled or fully coupled forms. Furthermore, in order to capture flow discontinuities, a number of techniques, like artificial viscosity and shock fitting, have been proposed for solving these equations which are mostly required careful calibration processes. In this research, a numerical scheme for solving shallow water and Exner equations in fully coupled form is presented. First-Order Centered scheme is applied for producing required numerical fluxes and the reconstruction process is carried out toward using Monotonic Upstream Scheme for Conservation Laws to achieve a high order scheme.  In order to satisfy C-property of the scheme in presence of bed topography, Surface Gradient Method is proposed. Combining the presented scheme with fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm for time integration yields a competent numerical scheme. In addition, to handle non-prismatic channels problems, Cartesian Cut Cell Method is employed. A trained Multi-Layer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network which is of Feed Forward Back Propagation (FFBP) type estimates sediment flow discharge in the model rather than usual empirical formulas. Hydrodynamic part of the model is tested for showing its capability in simulation of flow discontinuities, transcritical flows, wetting/drying conditions and non-prismatic channel flows. In this end, dam-break flow onto a locally non-prismatic converging-diverging channel with initially dry bed conditions is modeled. The morphodynamic part of the model is verified simulating dam break on a dry movable bed and bed level variations in an alluvial junction. The results show that the model is capable in capturing the flow discontinuities, solving wetting/drying problems even in non-prismatic channels and presenting proper results for movable bed situations. It can also be deducted that applying Artificial Neural Network, instead of common empirical formulas for estimating sediment flow discharge, leads to more accurate results.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, morphodynamic model, sediment continuity equation, shallow water equations.

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Authors: A. Armin, R. Fotouhi, W. Szyszkowski

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This paper is part of a study to develop robots for farming. As such power requirement to operate equipment attach to such robots become an important factor. Soil-tool interaction plays major role in power consumption, thus predicting accurately the forces which act on the blade during the farming is very important for optimal designing of farm equipment. In this paper, a finite element investigation for tillage tools and soil interaction is described by using an inelastic constitutive material law for agriculture application. A 3-dimensional (3D) nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) is developed to examine behavior of a blade with different rake angles moving in a block of soil, and to estimate the blade force. The soil model considered is an elastic-plastic with non-associated Drucker-Prager material model. Special use of contact elements are employed to consider connection between soil-blade and soil-soil surfaces. The FEA results are compared with experimental ones, which show good agreement in accurately predicting draft forces developed on the blade when it moves through the soil. Also a very good correlation was obtained between FEA results and analytical results from classical soil mechanics theories for straight blades. These comparisons verified the FEA model developed. For analyzing complicated soil-tool interactions and for optimum design of blades, this method will be useful.

Keywords: Finite element analysis, soil-blade contact modeling, blade force.

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Authors: Shyam S.N. Perera

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The optimal control problem for the viscoelastic melt spinning process has not been reported yet in the literature. In this study, an optimal control problem for a mathematical model of a viscoelastic melt spinning process is considered. Maxwell-Oldroyd model is used to describe the rheology of the polymeric material, the fiber is made of. The extrusion velocity of the polymer at the spinneret as well as the velocity and the temperature of the quench air and the fiber length serve as control variables. A constrained optimization problem is derived and the first–order optimality system is set up to obtain the adjoint equations. Numerical solutions are carried out using a steepest descent algorithm. A computer program in MATLAB is developed for simulations.

Keywords: Fiber spinning, Maxwell-Oldroyd, Optimal control, First-order optimality system, Adjoint system

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Authors: Safwan Kanan, Jonathan Dewsbury, Gregory Lane-Serff

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A salinity gradient solar pond is a free energy source system for collecting, convertingand storing solar energy as heat. In thispaper, the principles of solar pond are explained. A mathematical model is developed to describe and simulate heat and mass transferbehaviour of salinity gradient solar pond. MATLAB codes are programmed to solve the one dimensional finite difference method for heat and mass transfer equations. Temperature profiles and concentration distributions are calculated. The numerical results are validated with experimental data and the results arefound to be in good agreement.

Keywords: Finite Difference method, Salt-gradient solar-pond, Solar energy, Transient heat and mass transfer.

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Authors: Abdullah A. AlShaher

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In this paper, we demonstrate how regression curves can be used to recognize 2D non-rigid handwritten shapes. Each shape is represented by a set of non-overlapping uniformly distributed landmarks. The underlying models utilize 2^nd order of polynomials to model shapes within a training set. To estimate the regression models, we need to extract the required coefficients which describe the variations for a set of shape class. Hence, a least square method is used to estimate such modes. We then proceed by training these coefficients using the apparatus Expectation Maximization algorithm. Recognition is carried out by finding the least error landmarks displacement with respect to the model curves. Handwritten isolated Arabic characters are used to evaluate our approach.

Keywords: Shape recognition, Arabic handwritten characters, regression curves, expectation maximization algorithm.

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Authors: Krisada Sungkhamanee

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The objectives of this research are to know the management form of Samut Songkram lodging entrepreneurs with sufficient economy framework, to know the threat that affect this business and drawing the fit model for this province in order to sustain their business with Samut Songkram style. What will happen if they do not use this philosophy? Will they have a cash short fall? The data and information are collected by informal discussion with 8 managers and 400 questionnaires. We will use a mix of methods both qualitative research and quantitative research for our study. Bent Flyvbjerg’s phronesis is utilized for this analysis. Our research will prove that sufficient economy can help small and medium business firms solve their problems. We think that the results of our research will be a financial model to solve many problems of the entrepreneurs and this way will use to practice in other areas of our country. 

Keywords: Samut Songkram, Hospitality Business, Sufficient Economy Philosophy.

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Authors: A. Amar, N. Burtebayev, Zh. K. Kerimkulov, M. K. Baktybayev, J. T. Burtebayeva, A. K. Morzabayev, S. K. Sakhiev, N. Saduyev, S. B. Sakuta

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Elastic and inelastic scattering of α-particles by ⁹Be nuclei at different incident energies have been analyzed. Optical model parameters (OMPs) of α-particles elastic scattering by ⁹Be at different energies have been obtained. Coupled Reaction Channel (CRC) of elastic scattering, inelastic scattering and transfer reaction has been calculated using Fresco Code. The effect of involving CRC calculations on the analysis of differential cross section has been studied. The transfer reaction of (⁵He) in the reaction ⁹Be(α,⁹Be)α has been studied. The spectroscopic factor of ⁹Be≡α+⁵He has been extracted.

Keywords: Elastic scattering of α-particles, Optical model parameters, Coupled Reaction Channel, the transfer reaction of (5He), the spectroscopic factor of 9Be≡α+5He.

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Authors: José Antonio Esparza Isasa, Finn Overgaard Hansen, Peter Gorm Larsen

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This paper presents a new methodology to study power and energy consumption in mechatronic systems early in the development process. This new approach makes use of two modeling languages to represent and simulate embedded control software and electromechanical subsystems in the discrete event and continuous time domain respectively within a single co-model. This co-model enables an accurate representation of power and energy consumption and facilitates the analysis and development of both software and electro-mechanical subsystems in parallel. This makes the engineers aware of energy-wise implications of different design alternatives and enables early trade-off analysis from the beginning of the analysis and design activities.

Keywords: Energy consumption, embedded systems, modeldriven engineering, power awareness.

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Authors: Muhammad Sohail Khan, Rehan Ali Shah

Abstract:

The present paper applies the optimal homotopy perturbation method (OHPM) and the optimal homotopy asymptotic method (OHAM) introduced recently to obtain analytic approximations of the non-linear equations modeling the flow of polymer in case of wire coating of a corotational Maxwell fluid. Expression for the velocity field is obtained in non-dimensional form. Comparison of the results obtained by the two methods at different values of non-dimensional parameter l₁₀, reveal that the OHPM is more effective and easy to use. The OHPM solution can be improved even working in the same order of approximation depends on the choices of the auxiliary functions.

Keywords: Wire coating die, Corotational Maxwell model, optimal homotopy asymptotic method, optimal homotopy perturbation method.

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Authors: R. Mangiaracina, A. Perego, F. Campari

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Despite the fact that B2c eCommerce has become important in numerous economies, its adoption varies from country to country. This paper aims to identify the factors affecting (enabling or inhibiting) B2c eCommerce and to determine their quantitative impact on the diffusion of online sales across countries. A dynamic panel model analyzing the relationship between 13 factors (Macroeconomic, Demographic, Socio-Cultural, Infrastructural and Offer related) stemming from a complete literature analysis and the B2c eCommerce value in 45 countries over 9 years has been developed. Having a positive correlation coefficient, GDP, mobile penetration, Internet user penetration and credit card penetration resulted as enabling drivers of the B2c eCommerce value across countries, whereas, having a negative correlation coefficient,equal distribution of income and the development of traditional retailing network act as inhibiting factors.

Keywords: B2c eCommerce diffusion, influencing factors, dynamic panel model

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Authors: Jasmin Velagic, Nedim Osmic, Bakir Lacevic

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In this paper the neural network-based controller is designed for motion control of a mobile robot. This paper treats the problems of trajectory following and posture stabilization of the mobile robot with nonholonomic constraints. For this purpose the recurrent neural network with one hidden layer is used. It learns relationship between linear velocities and error positions of the mobile robot. This neural network is trained on-line using the backpropagation optimization algorithm with an adaptive learning rate. The optimization algorithm is performed at each sample time to compute the optimal control inputs. The performance of the proposed system is investigated using a kinematic model of the mobile robot.

Keywords: Mobile robot, kinematic model, neural network, motion control, adaptive learning rate.

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Authors: Huei-Wen Lin

Abstract:

This paper is to clarify the relationship of individual investor types, risk tolerance and herding bias. The questionnaire survey investigation is conducted to collect 389 valid and voluntary individual investors and to examine how the risk tolerance plays as a mediator between four types of personality and herding bias. Based on featuring BB&K model and reviewing the prior literature of psychology, a linear structural model are constructed and further used to evaluate the path of herding formation through the analysis of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results showed that more impetuous investors would be prone to herding bias directly, but rather exhibit higher risk tolerance. However, risk tolerance would fully mediate between the level of confidence (i.e., confident or anxious) and herding bias, but not mediate between the method of action (careful or impetuous) for individual investors.

Keywords: Herding, investor types, risk tolerance.

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Authors: Nadjah Chergui, Narhimene Boustia

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Intrusion Detection Systems are an essential tool for network security infrastructure. However, IDSs have a serious problem which is the generating of massive number of alerts, most of them are false positive ones which can hide true alerts and make the analyst confused to analyze the right alerts for report the true attacks. The purpose behind this paper is to present a formalism model to perform correlation engine by the reduction of false positive alerts basing on vulnerability contextual information. For that, we propose a formalism model based on non-monotonic JClassicδє description logic augmented with a default (δ) and an exception (є) operator that allows a dynamic inference according to contextual information.

Keywords: Context, exception, default, IDS, Non-monotonic Description Logic JClassicδє, vulnerability.

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Authors: Siti Nurhidayah Naqiah Abdull Rani, Herlina Abdul Rahim, Rashidah Ghazali, Noramli Abdul Razak

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Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has always been of great interest in the food and agriculture industries. The development of prediction models has facilitated the estimation process in recent years. In this study, 110 crude palm oil (CPO) samples were used to build a free fatty acid (FFA) prediction model. 60% of the collected data were used for training purposes and the remaining 40% used for testing. The visible peaks on the NIR spectrum were at 1725 nm and 1760 nm, indicating the existence of the first overtone of C-H bands. Principal component regression (PCR) was applied to the data in order to build this mathematical prediction model. The optimal number of principal components was 10. The results showed R2=0.7147 for the training set and R2=0.6404 for the testing set.

Keywords: Palm oil, fatty acid, NIRS, regression.

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Authors: Hayder H. Kareem, Shunqi Pan

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Groundwater is a vital water resource in many areas in the world, particularly in the Middle-East region where the water resources become scarce and depleting. Sustainable management and planning of the groundwater resources become essential and urgent given the impact of the global climate change. In the recent years, numerical models have been widely used to predict the flow pattern and assess the water resources security, as well as the groundwater quality affected by the contaminants transported. In this study, MODFLOW is used to study the current status of groundwater resources and the risk of water resource security in the region centred at Al-Najaf City, which is located in the mid-west of Iraq and adjacent to the Euphrates River. In this study, a conceptual model is built using the geologic and hydrogeologic collected for the region, together with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data obtained from the "Global Land Cover Facility" (GLCF) and "United State Geological Survey" (USGS) for the study area. The computer model is also implemented with the distributions of 69 wells in the area with the steady pro-defined hydraulic head along its boundaries. The model is then applied with the recharge rate (from precipitation) of 7.55 mm/year, given from the analysis of the field data in the study area for the period of 1980-2014. The hydraulic conductivity from the measurements at the locations of wells is interpolated for model use. The model is calibrated with the measured hydraulic heads at the locations of 50 of 69 wells in the domain and results show a good agreement. The standard-error-of-estimate (SEE), root-mean-square errors (RMSE), Normalized RMSE and correlation coefficient are 0.297 m, 2.087 m, 6.899% and 0.971 respectively. Sensitivity analysis is also carried out, and it is found that the model is sensitive to recharge, particularly when the rate is greater than (15mm/year). Hydraulic conductivity is found to be another parameter which can affect the results significantly, therefore it requires high quality field data. The results show that there is a general flow pattern from the west to east of the study area, which agrees well with the observations and the gradient of the ground surface. It is found that with the current operational pumping rates of the wells in the area, a dry area is resulted in Al-Najaf City due to the large quantity of groundwater withdrawn. The computed water balance with the current operational pumping quantity shows that the Euphrates River supplies water into the groundwater of approximately 11759 m³/day, instead of gaining water of 11178 m³/day from the groundwater if no pumping from the wells. It is expected that the results obtained from the study can provide important information for the sustainable and effective planning and management of the regional groundwater resources for Al-Najaf City.

Keywords: Al-Najaf city, conceptual modelling, groundwater, unconfined aquifer, visual MODFLOW.

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Authors: Ali Reza Honarvar , Naser Ghasem Agaee

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For controlling urban transportations, traffic lights show similar behavior for different kinds of vehicles at intersections. Emergency vehicles need special behavior at intersections, so traffic lights should behave in different manner when emergency vehicles approach them. At the present time, intelligent traffic lights control urban transportations intelligently. In this paper the ethical aspect of this topic is considered. A model is proposed for adding special component to emergency vehicles and traffic lights for controlling traffic in ethical manner. The proposed model is simulated by JADE.

Keywords: Ethical traffic control, intelligent transportation, Ethical agent, Multi-agent system.

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Authors: S. D. El Wakil, J. Rice

Abstract:

The aim of the current work was to employ the finite element method to model a slab, with a small hole across its width, undergoing plastic plane strain deformation. The computational model had, however, to be validated by comparing its results with those obtained experimentally. Since they were in good agreement, the finite element method can therefore be considered a reliable tool that can help gain better understanding of the mechanism of ductile failure in structural members having stress raisers. The finite element software used was ANSYS, and the PLANE183 element was utilized. It is a higher order 2-D, 8-node or 6-node element with quadratic displacement behavior. A bilinear stress-strain relationship was used to define the material properties, with constants similar to those of the material used in the experimental study. The model was run for several tensile loads in order to observe the progression of the plastic deformation region, and the stress concentration factor was determined in each case. The experimental study involved employing the visioplasticity technique, where a circular mesh (each circle was 0.5 mm in diameter, with 0.05 mm line thickness) was initially printed on the side of an aluminum slab having a small hole across its width. Tensile loading was then applied to produce a small increment of plastic deformation. Circles in the plastic region became ellipses, where the directions of the principal strains and stresses coincided with the major and minor axes of the ellipses. Next, we were able to determine the directions of the maximum and minimum shear stresses at the center of each ellipse, and the slip-line field was then constructed. We were then able to determine the stress at any point in the plastic deformation zone, and hence the stress concentration factor. The experimental results were found to be in good agreement with the analytical ones.

Keywords: Finite element method to model a slab, slab undergoing plastic deformation, stress distribution around a circular hole, visioplasticity.

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Authors: Ali Emad

Abstract:

Enhancement of the performance of a reverse osmosis (RO) unit through periodic control is studied. The periodic control manipulates the feed pressure and flow rate of the RO unit. To ensure the periodic behavior of the inputs, the manipulated variables (MV) are transformed into the form of sinusoidal functions. In this case, the amplitude and period of the sinusoidal functions become the surrogate MV and are thus regulated via nonlinear model predictive control algorithm. The simulation results indicated that the control system can generate cyclic inputs necessary to enhance the closedloop performance in the sense of increasing the permeate production and lowering the salt concentration. The proposed control system can attain its objective with arbitrary set point for the controlled outputs. Successful results were also obtained in the presence of modeling errors.

Keywords: Reverse osmosis, water desalination, periodic control, model predictive control.

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Authors: Radu Dobrescu, Matei Dobrescu, Daniela Hossu

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The paper proposes a unified model for multimedia data retrieval which includes data representatives, content representatives, index structure, and search algorithms. The multimedia data are defined as k-dimensional signals indexed in a multidimensional k-tree structure. The benefits of using the k-tree unified model were demonstrated by running the data retrieval application on a six networked nodes test bed cluster. The tests were performed with two retrieval algorithms, one that allows parallel searching using a single feature, the second that performs a weighted cascade search for multiple features querying. The experiments show a significant reduction of retrieval time while maintaining the quality of results.

Keywords: balancing strategies, multimedia databases, parallelprocessing, retrieval algorithms

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Authors: Kong-Seng, Lai, Nor'Aini Yusof

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Organizational culture fosters innovation, and innovation is the main engine to be sustained within the uncertainty market. Like other countries, the construction industry significantly contributes to the economy, society and technology of Malaysia, yet, innovation is still considered slow compared to other industries such as manufacturing. Given the important role of an architect as the key player and the contributor of new ideas in the construction industry, there is a call to identify the issue and improve the current situation by focusing on the architectural firms. In addition, the existing studies tend to focus only on a few dimensions of organizational culture and very few studies consider whether innovation is being generated or adopted. Hence, the present research tends to fill in the gap by identifying the organizational cultures that foster or hinder innovation generation and/or innovation adoption, and propose a model of organizational culture and innovation generation and/or adoption.

Keywords: Innovation adoption, innovation generation, architectural firm, organizational culture

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Authors: Jasna Dragosavac, Žarko Janda, J.V. Milanović, Dušan Arnautović

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This paper discusses coordinated reactive power - voltage (Q-V) control in a multi machine steam power plant. The drawbacks of manual Q-V control are briefly listed, and the design requirements for coordinated Q-V controller are specified. Theoretical background and mathematical model of the new controller are presented next followed by validation of developed Matlab/Simulink model through comparison with recorded responses in real steam power plant and description of practical realisation of the controller. Finally, the performance of commissioned controller is illustrated on several examples of coordinated Q-V control in real steam power plant and compared with manual control.

Keywords: Coordinated Voltage Control, Power Plant Control, Reactive Power Control, Sensitivity Matrix

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Authors: Shinji Kajiwara

Abstract:

The spring-driven ball-type check valve is one of the most important components of hydraulic systems: it controls the position of the ball and prevents backward flow. To simplify the structure, the spring must be eliminated, and to accomplish this, the flow pattern and the behavior of the check ball in L-shaped pipe must be determined. In this paper, we present a full-scale model of a check ball made of acrylic resin, and we determine the relationship between the initial position of the ball, the position and diameter of the inflow port. The check flow rate increases in a standard center inflow model, and it is possible to greatly decrease the check-flow rate by shifting the inflow from the center.

Keywords: Hydraulics, Pipe Flow, Numerical Simulation, Flow Visualization, Check ball, L-shaped Pipe.

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Authors: Krishnan V. Pagalthivarthi, Pankaj K. Gupta, Vipin Tyagi, M. R. Ravi

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Dense slurry flow through centrifugal pump casing has been modeled using the Eulerian-Eulerian approach with Eulerian multiphase model in FLUENT 6.1®. First order upwinding is considered for the discretization of momentum, k and ε terms. SIMPLE algorithm has been applied for dealing with pressurevelocity coupling. A mixture property based k-ε turbulence model has been used for modeling turbulence. Results are validated first against mesh independence and experiments for a particular set of operational and geometric conditions. Parametric analysis is then performed to determine the effect on important physical quantities viz. solid velocities, solid concentration and solid stresses near the wall with various operational geometric conditions of the pump.

Keywords: Centrifugal pump casing, Dense slurry, Solidsconcentration, Wall shear stress, Pump geometric parameters.

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