Search results for: whole-of-society approach.
2452 CFD Predictions of Dense Slurry Flow in Centrifugal Pump Casings
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.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 49142451 A New Approach to ECG Biometric Systems: A Comparitive Study between LPC and WPD Systems
Authors: Justin Leo Cheang Loong, Khazaimatol S Subari, Rosli Besar, Muhammad Kamil Abdullah
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In this paper, a novel method for a biometric system based on the ECG signal is proposed, using spectral coefficients computed through linear predictive coding (LPC). ECG biometric systems have traditionally incorporated characteristics of fiducial points of the ECG signal as the feature set. These systems have been shown to contain loopholes and thus a non-fiducial system allows for tighter security. In the proposed system, incorporating non-fiducial features from the LPC spectrum produced a segment and subject recognition rate of 99.52% and 100% respectively. The recognition rates outperformed the biometric system that is based on the wavelet packet decomposition (WPD) algorithm in terms of recognition rates and computation time. This allows for LPC to be used in a practical ECG biometric system that requires fast, stringent and accurate recognition.
Keywords: biometric, ecg, linear predictive coding, wavelet packet decomposition
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29022450 A Novel Approach to Optimal Cutting Tool Replacement
Authors: Cem Karacal, Sohyung Cho, William Yu
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In metal cutting industries, mathematical/statistical models are typically used to predict tool replacement time. These off-line methods usually result in less than optimum replacement time thereby either wasting resources or causing quality problems. The few online real-time methods proposed use indirect measurement techniques and are prone to similar errors. Our idea is based on identifying the optimal replacement time using an electronic nose to detect the airborne compounds released when the tool wear reaches to a chemical substrate doped into tool material during the fabrication. The study investigates the feasibility of the idea, possible doping materials and methods along with data stream mining techniques for detection and monitoring different phases of tool wear.Keywords: Tool condition monitoring, cutting tool replacement, data stream mining, e-Nose.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18822449 Biogas Control: Methane Production Monitoring Using Arduino
Authors: W. Ait Ahmed, M. Aggour, M. Naciri
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Extracting energy from biomass is an important alternative to produce different types of energy (heat, electricity, or both) assuring low pollution and better efficiency. It is a new yet reliable approach to reduce green gas emission by extracting methane from industry effluents and use it to power machinery. We focused in our project on using paper and mill effluents, treated in a UASB reactor. The methane produced is used in the factory’s power supply. The aim of this work is to develop an electronic system using Arduino platform connected to a gas sensor, to measure and display the curve of daily methane production on processing. The sensor will send the gas values in ppm to the Arduino board so that the later sends the RS232 hardware protocol. The code developed with processing will transform the values into a curve and display it on the computer screen.Keywords: Biogas, Arduino, processing, code, methane, gas sensor, program.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35452448 A Single-Period Inventory Problem with Resalable Returns: A Fuzzy Stochastic Approach
Authors: Oshmita Dey, Debjani Chakraborty
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In this paper, a single period inventory model with resalable returns has been analyzed in an imprecise and uncertain mixed environment. Demand has been introduced as a fuzzy random variable. In this model, a single order is placed before the start of the selling season. The customer, for a full refund, may return purchased products within a certain time interval. Returned products are resalable, provided they arrive back before the end of the selling season and are found to be undamaged. Products remaining at the end of the season are salvaged. All demands not met directly are lost. The probabilities that a sold product is returned and that a returned product is resalable, both imprecise in a real situation, have been assumed to be fuzzy in nature.
Keywords: Fuzzy random variable, Modified graded meanintegration, Internet mail order, Inventory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15282447 Fractional Masks Based On Generalized Fractional Differential Operator for Image Denoising
Authors: Hamid A. Jalab, Rabha W. Ibrahim
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This paper introduces an image denoising algorithm based on generalized Srivastava-Owa fractional differential operator for removing Gaussian noise in digital images. The structures of nxn fractional masks are constructed by this algorithm. Experiments show that, the capability of the denoising algorithm by fractional differential-based approach appears efficient to smooth the Gaussian noisy images for different noisy levels. The denoising performance is measured by using peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) for the denoising images. The results showed an improved performance (higher PSNR values) when compared with standard Gaussian smoothing filter.
Keywords: Fractional calculus, fractional differential operator, fractional mask, fractional filter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30042446 Modeling and Identification of Hammerstein System by using Triangular Basis Functions
Authors: K. Elleuch, A. Chaari
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This paper deals with modeling and parameter identification of nonlinear systems described by Hammerstein model having Piecewise nonlinear characteristics such as Dead-zone nonlinearity characteristic. The simultaneous use of both an easy decomposition technique and the triangular basis functions leads to a particular form of Hammerstein model. The approximation by using Triangular basis functions for the description of the static nonlinear block conducts to a linear regressor model, so that least squares techniques can be used for the parameter estimation. Singular Values Decomposition (SVD) technique has been applied to separate the coupled parameters. The proposed approach has been efficiently tested on academic examples of simulation.Keywords: Identification, Hammerstein model, Piecewisenonlinear characteristic, Dead-zone nonlinearity, Triangular basisfunctions, Singular Values Decomposition
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19202445 An Improved Optimal Sliding Mode Control for Structural Stability
Authors: Leila Fatemi, Morteza Moradi, Azadeh Mansouri
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In this paper, the modified optimal sliding mode control with a proposed method to design a sliding surface is presented. Because of the inability of the previous approach of the sliding mode method to design a bounded and suitable input, the new variation is proposed in the sliding manifold to obviate problems in a structural system. Although the sliding mode control is a powerful method to reject disturbances and noises, the chattering problem is not good for actuators. To decrease the chattering phenomena, the optimal control is added to the sliding mode control. Not only the proposed method can decline the intense variations in the inputs of the system but also it can produce the efficient responses respect to the sliding mode control and optimal control that are shown by performing some numerical simulations.
Keywords: Structural Control, optimal control, optimal sliding mode controller, modified sliding surface.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20092444 Extended Release System of Hypoglycemic Agent Containing Solid Dispersions: Strategies and Mechanisms
Authors: Amit Kumar, Ramendeep Grawal, Peeyush Sharma, Dinesh Puri, Anil Bhandari
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The main perspective of the present study aims at overcoming solubility problems by using the technique of solid dispersion. Repaglinide is a BCS Class II drug, having low aqueous solubility and therefore, low bioavailability. Solid dispersions of repaglinide with different carriers Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone (PVP) and Ethyl Cellulose (EC) in different ratios were prepared by suspending method and Dissolving methods. In vitro release studies revealed that the F7 formulation showed extended drug release. So, the dissolution profile of solid dispersion containing EC and PVP K30 (1: 3) was selected as the best formulation because of its extended drug release among all formulations. In conclusion, solid dispersions of Repaglinide in PVP have shown to be a promising approach to improve the bioavailability of Repaglinide.
Keywords: Ethyl Cellulose, Glibenclamide, Polyvinyl Pyrrolidone, Repaglinide, Solid Dispersion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26422443 Entrepreneurial Activity - Indicator of Regional Development in Croatia
Authors: Svjetlana Letinić, Katarina Štavlić
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Given that entrepreneurship is a very significant factor of regional development, it is necessary to approach systematically the development with measures of regional politics. According to international classification The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS II), there are three regions in Croatia. The indicators of entrepreneurial activities on the national level of Croatia are analyzed in the paper, taking into consideration the results of referent research. The level of regional development is shown based on the analysis of entrepreneurs- operations. The results of the analysis show a very unfavorable situation in entrepreneurial activities on the national level of Croatia. The origin of this situation is to be found in the surroundings with an expressed inequality of regional development, which is caused by the non-existence of a strategically directed regional policy. In this paper recommendations which could contribute to the reduction of regional inequality in Croatia, have been made.
Keywords: indicators of entrepreneurial activity, regional development, regional inequity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16762442 Object Recognition Approach Based on Generalized Hough Transform and Color Distribution Serving in Generating Arabic Sentences
Authors: Nada Farhani, Naim Terbeh, Mounir Zrigui
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The recognition of the objects contained in images has always presented a challenge in the field of research because of several difficulties that the researcher can envisage because of the variability of shape, position, contrast of objects, etc. In this paper, we will be interested in the recognition of objects. The classical Hough Transform (HT) presented a tool for detecting straight line segments in images. The technique of HT has been generalized (GHT) for the detection of arbitrary forms. With GHT, the forms sought are not necessarily defined analytically but rather by a particular silhouette. For more precision, we proposed to combine the results from the GHT with the results from a calculation of similarity between the histograms and the spatiograms of the images. The main purpose of our work is to use the concepts from recognition to generate sentences in Arabic that summarize the content of the image.
Keywords: Recognition of shape, generalized hough transformation, histogram, Spatiogram, learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6182441 Optimization Technique in Scheduling Duck Tours
Authors: Norhazwani M. Y., Khoo, C. F., Hasrul Nisham R.
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Tourism industries are rapidly increased for the last few years especially in Malaysia. In order to attract more tourists, Malaysian Governance encourages any effort to increase Malaysian tourism industry. One of the efforts in attracting more tourists in Malacca, Malaysia is a duck tour. Duck tour is an amphibious sightseeing tour that works in two types of engines, hence, it required a huge cost to operate and maintain the vehicle. To other country, it is not so new but in Malaysia, it is just introduced, thus it does not have any systematic routing yet. Therefore, this paper proposed an optimization technique to formulate and schedule this tour to minimize the operating costs by considering it into Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). The problem is then can be solved by one of the optimization technique especially meta-heuristics approach such as Tabu Search (TS) and Reactive Tabu Search (RTS).Keywords: Optimization, Reactive Tabu Search, Tabu Search, Travelling Salesman Problem
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17012440 Optimized Multiplier Based upon 6-Input Luts and Vedic Mathematics
Authors: Zulhelmi Zakaria, Shuja A. Abbasi
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A new approach has been used for optimized design of multipliers based upon the concepts of Vedic mathematics. The design has been targeted to state-of-the art field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The multiplier generates partial products using Vedic mathematics method by employing basic 4x4 multipliers designed by exploiting 6-input LUTs and multiplexers in the same slices resulting in drastic reduction in area. The multiplier is realized on Xilinx FPGAs using devices Virtex-5 and Virtex-6.Carry Chain Adder was employed to obtain final products. The performance of the proposed multiplier was examined and compared to well-known multipliers such as Booth, Carry Save, Carry ripple, and array multipliers. It is demonstrated that the proposed multiplier is superior in terms of speed as well as power consumption.
Keywords: Multiplier, Vedic Mathematics, LUTs, FPGAs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29242439 Optimal Design of Substation Grounding Grid Based on Genetic Algorithm Technique
Authors: Ahmed Z. Gabr, Ahmed A. Helal, Hussein E. Said
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With the incessant increase of power systems capacity and voltage grade, the safety of grounding grid becomes more and more prominent. In this paper, the designing substation grounding grid is presented by means of genetic algorithm (GA). This approach purposes to control the grounding cost of the power system with the aid of controlling grounding rod number and conductor lengths under the same safety limitations. The proposed technique is used for the design of the substation grounding grid in Khalda Petroleum Company “El-Qasr” power plant and the design was simulated by using CYMGRD software for results verification. The result of the design is highly complying with IEEE 80-2000 standard requirements.
Keywords: Genetic algorithm, optimum grounding grid design, power system analysis, power system protection, single layer model, substation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28062438 Kernel’s Parameter Selection for Support Vector Domain Description
Authors: Mohamed EL Boujnouni, Mohamed Jedra, Noureddine Zahid
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Support Vector Domain Description (SVDD) is one of the best-known one-class support vector learning methods, in which one tries the strategy of using balls defined on the feature space in order to distinguish a set of normal data from all other possible abnormal objects. As all kernel-based learning algorithms its performance depends heavily on the proper choice of the kernel parameter. This paper proposes a new approach to select kernel's parameter based on maximizing the distance between both gravity centers of normal and abnormal classes, and at the same time minimizing the variance within each class. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated on several benchmarks. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and the effectiveness of the presented method.
Keywords: Gravity centers, Kernel’s parameter, Support Vector Domain Description, Variance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18312437 Model Discovery and Validation for the Qsar Problem using Association Rule Mining
Authors: Luminita Dumitriu, Cristina Segal, Marian Craciun, Adina Cocu, Lucian P. Georgescu
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There are several approaches in trying to solve the Quantitative 1Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) problem. These approaches are based either on statistical methods or on predictive data mining. Among the statistical methods, one should consider regression analysis, pattern recognition (such as cluster analysis, factor analysis and principal components analysis) or partial least squares. Predictive data mining techniques use either neural networks, or genetic programming, or neuro-fuzzy knowledge. These approaches have a low explanatory capability or non at all. This paper attempts to establish a new approach in solving QSAR problems using descriptive data mining. This way, the relationship between the chemical properties and the activity of a substance would be comprehensibly modeled.Keywords: association rules, classification, data mining, Quantitative Structure - Activity Relationship.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17882436 An Analysis of the Relationship between Manufacturing Growth and Economic Growth in South Africa: A Cointegration Approach
Authors: Johannes T. Tsoku, Teboho J. Mosikari, Diteboho Xaba, Thatoyaone Modise
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This paper examines the relationship between manufacturing growth and economic growth in South Africa using quarterly data ranging from 2001 to 2014. The paper employed the Johansen cointegration to test the Kaldor’s hypothesis. The Johansen cointegration results revealed that there is a long run relationship between GDP, manufacturing, service and employment. The Granger causality results revealed that there is a unidirectional causality running from manufacturing growth to GDP growth. The overall findings of the study confirm that Kaldor’s first law of growth is applicable in South African economy. Therefore, investment strategies and policies should be alignment towards promoting growth in the manufacturing sector in order to boost the economic growth of South Africa.
Keywords: Cointegration, economic growth, Kaldor’s law, manufacturing growth.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18472435 Performance Assessment in a Voice Coil Motor for Maximizing the Energy Harvesting with Gait Motions
Authors: Hector A. Tinoco, Cesar Garcia-Diaz, Olga L. Ocampo-Lopez
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In this study, an experimental approach is established to assess the performance of different beams coupled to a Voice Coil Motor (VCM) with the aim to maximize mechanically the energy harvesting in the inductive transducer that is included on it. The VCM is extracted from a recycled hard disk drive (HDD) and it is adapted for carrying out experimental tests of energy harvesting. Two individuals were selected for walking with the VCM-beam device as well as to evaluate the performance varying two parameters in the beam; length of the beams and a mass addition. Results show that the energy harvesting is maximized with specific beams; however, the harvesting efficiency is improved when a mass is added to the end of the beams.
Keywords: Hard disk drive, HDD, energy harvesting, voice coil motor, VCM, energy harvester, gait motions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14842434 Automatic Authentication of Handwritten Documents via Low Density Pixel Measurements
Authors: Abhijit Mitra, Pranab Kumar Banerjee, C. Ardil
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We introduce an effective approach for automatic offline au- thentication of handwritten samples where the forgeries are skillfully done, i.e., the true and forgery sample appearances are almost alike. Subtle details of temporal information used in online verification are not available offline and are also hard to recover robustly. Thus the spatial dynamic information like the pen-tip pressure characteristics are considered, emphasizing on the extraction of low density pixels. The points result from the ballistic rhythm of a genuine signature which a forgery, however skillful that may be, always lacks. Ten effective features, including these low density points and den- sity ratio, are proposed to make the distinction between a true and a forgery sample. An adaptive decision criteria is also derived for better verification judgements.Keywords: Handwritten document verification, Skilled forgeries, Low density pixels, Adaptive decision boundary.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17162433 A new Adaptive Approach for Histogram based Mouth Segmentation
Authors: Axel Panning, Robert Niese, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Bernd Michaelis
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The segmentation of mouth and lips is a fundamental problem in facial image analyisis. In this paper we propose a method for lip segmentation based on rg-color histogram. Statistical analysis shows, using the rg-color-space is optimal for this purpose of a pure color based segmentation. Initially a rough adaptive threshold selects a histogram region, that assures that all pixels in that region are skin pixels. Based on that pixels we build a gaussian model which represents the skin pixels distribution and is utilized to obtain a refined, optimal threshold. We are not incorporating shape or edge information. In experiments we show the performance of our lip pixel segmentation method compared to the ground truth of our dataset and a conventional watershed algorithm.Keywords: Feature extraction, Segmentation, Image processing, Application
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17882432 Manufacturing Process of S-Glass Fiber Reinforced PEKK Prepregs
Authors: Nassier A. Nassir, Robert Birch, Zhongwei Guan
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The aim of this study is to investigate the fundamental science/technology related to novel S-glass fiber reinforced polyether- ketone-ketone (GF/PEKK) composites and to gain insight into bonding strength and failure mechanisms. Different manufacturing techniques to make this high-temperature pre-impregnated composite (prepreg) were conducted i.e. mechanical deposition, electrostatic powder deposition, and dry powder prepregging techniques. Generally, the results of this investigation showed that it was difficult to control the distribution of the resin powder evenly on the both sides of the fibers within a specific percentage. Most successful approach was by using a dry powder prepregging where the fibers were coated evenly with an adhesive that served as a temporary binder to hold the resin powder in place onto the glass fiber fabric.Keywords: Dry powder technique, PEKK, S-glass, thermoplastic prepreg.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10722431 Slope Effect in Emission Evaluation to Assess Real Pollutant Factors
Authors: G. Meccariello, L. Della Ragione
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The exposure to outdoor air pollution causes lung cancer and increases the risk of bladder cancer. Because air pollution in urban areas is mainly caused by transportation, it is necessary to evaluate pollutant exhaust emissions from vehicles during their realworld use. Nevertheless their evaluation and reduction is a key problem, especially in the cities, that account for more than 50% of world population. A particular attention was given to the slope variability along the streets during each journey performed by the instrumented vehicle. In this paper we dealt with the problem of describing a quantitatively approach for the reconstruction of GPS coordinates and altitude, in the context of correlation study between driving cycles / emission / geographical location, during an experimental campaign realized with some instrumented cars. Finally the slope analysis can be correlated to the emission and consumption values in a specific road position, and it could be evaluated its influence on their behaviour.
Keywords: Air pollution, Driving cycles, GPS signal, Slope, Emission factor, fuel consumption.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19022430 Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony and Least Squares Method for Rule-Based Systems Learning
Authors: Ahcene Habbi, Yassine Boudouaoui
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This paper deals with the problem of automatic rule generation for fuzzy systems design. The proposed approach is based on hybrid artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization and weighted least squares (LS) method and aims to find the structure and parameters of fuzzy systems simultaneously. More precisely, two ABC based fuzzy modeling strategies are presented and compared. The first strategy uses global optimization to learn fuzzy models, the second one hybridizes ABC and weighted least squares estimate method. The performances of the proposed ABC and ABC-LS fuzzy modeling strategies are evaluated on complex modeling problems and compared to other advanced modeling methods.
Keywords: Automatic design, learning, fuzzy rules, hybrid, swarm optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21572429 Cost and Profit Analysis of Markovian Queuing System with Two Priority Classes: A Computational Approach
Authors: S. S. Mishra, D. K. Yadav
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This paper focuses on cost and profit analysis of single-server Markovian queuing system with two priority classes. In this paper, functions of total expected cost, revenue and profit of the system are constructed and subjected to optimization with respect to its service rates of lower and higher priority classes. A computing algorithm has been developed on the basis of fast converging numerical method to solve the system of non linear equations formed out of the mathematical analysis. A novel performance measure of cost and profit analysis in view of its economic interpretation for the system with priority classes is attempted to discuss in this paper. On the basis of computed tables observations are also drawn to enlighten the variational-effect of the model on the parameters involved therein.Keywords: Cost and Profit, Computing, Expected Revenue, Priority classes
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27162428 An Augmented Automatic Choosing Control Designed by Extremizing a Combination of Hamiltonian and Lyapunov Functions for Nonlinear Systems with Constrained Input
Authors: Toshinori Nawata, Hitoshi Takata
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In this paper we consider a nonlinear feedback control called augmented automatic choosing control (AACC) for nonlinear systems with constrained input. Constant terms which arise from section wise linearization of a given nonlinear system are treated as coefficients of a stable zero dynamics.Parameters included in the control are suboptimally selectedby extremizing a combination of Hamiltonian and Lyapunov functions with the aid of the genetic algorithm. This approach is applied to a field excitation control problem of power system to demonstrate the splendidness of the AACC. Simulation results show that the new controller can improve performance remarkably well.
Keywords: Augmented Automatic Choosing Control, NonlinearControl, Genetic Algorithm, Hamiltonian, Lyapunovfunction
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14412427 Multi-Functional Insect Cuticles: Informative Designs for Man-Made Surfaces
Authors: Hsuan-Ming S Hu, Jolanta A Watson, Bronwen W Cribb, Gregory S Watson
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Biomimicry has many potential benefits as many technologies found in nature are superior to their man-made counterparts. As technological device components approach the micro and nanoscale, surface properties such as surface adhesion and friction may need to be taken into account. Lowering surface adhesion by manipulating chemistry alone might no longer be sufficient for such components and thus physical manipulation may be required. Adhesion reduction is only one of the many surface functions displayed by micro/nano-structured cuticles of insects. Here, we present a mini review of our understanding of insect cuticle structures and the relationship between the structure dimensions and the corresponding functional mechanisms. It may be possible to introduce additional properties to material surfaces (indeed multi-functional properties) based on the design of natural surfaces.Keywords: Biomimicry, micro/nanostructures, self-cleaning surfaces, superhydrophobicity
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18922426 A Numerical Simulation of the Indoor Air Flow
Authors: Karel Frana, Jianshun S. Zhang, Milos Muller
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The indoor airflow with a mixed natural/forced convection was numerically calculated using the laminar and turbulent approach. The Boussinesq approximation was considered for a simplification of the mathematical model and calculations. The results obtained, such as mean velocity fields, were successfully compared with experimental PIV flow visualizations. The effect of the distance between the cooled wall and the heat exchanger on the temperature and velocity distributions was calculated. In a room with a simple shape, the computational code OpenFOAM demonstrated an ability to numerically predict flow patterns. Furthermore, numerical techniques, boundary type conditions and the computational grid quality were examined. Calculations using the turbulence model k-omega had a significant effect on the results influencing temperature and velocity distributions.Keywords: natural and forced convections, numerical simulations, indoor airflows.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32062425 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Selection Using Fuzzy Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis
Authors: C. Ardil
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The selection of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) involves complex decision-making due to the evaluation of numerous alternatives and criteria simultaneously. This process necessitates the consideration of various factors such as payload capacity, maximum speed, endurance, altitude, avionics systems, price, economic life, and maximum range. This study aims to determine the most suitable UAV by taking these criteria into account. To achieve this, the standard fuzzy set methodology is employed, enabling decision-makers to define linguistic terms as references. A practical numerical example is provided to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. Through a successful application, a comparison of different UAVs is conducted, culminating in the selection of the most appropriate vehicle during the final stage.
Keywords: Standard fuzzy sets (SFSs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) selection, multiple criteria decision making, MCDM
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2692424 Meeting Criminogenic Needs to Reduce Recidivism: The Diversion of Vulnerable Offenders from the Criminal Justice System into Care
Authors: Paulo Rocha
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Once in touch with the Criminal Justice System, offenders with mental disorder tend to return to custody more often than nondisordered individuals, which suggests they have not been receiving appropriate treatment in prison. In this scenario, diverting individuals into care as early as possible in their trajectory seems to be the appropriate approach to rehabilitate mentally unwell offenders and alleviate overcrowded prisons. This paper builds on an ethnographic research investigating the challenges encountered by practitioners working to divert offenders into care while attempting to establish cross-boundary interactions with professionals in the Criminal Justice System and Mental Health Services in the UK. Drawing upon the findings of the study, this paper suggests the development of adequate tools to enable liaison between agencies which ultimately results in successful interventions.
Keywords: Criminogenic needs, interagency collaboration, liaison and diversion, recidivism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9072423 Signal Processing Approach to Study Multifractality and Singularity of Solar Wind Speed Time Series
Authors: Tushnik Sarkar, Mofazzal H. Khondekar, Subrata Banerjee
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This paper investigates the nature of the fluctuation of the daily average Solar wind speed time series collected over a period of 2492 days, from 1st January, 1997 to 28th October, 2003. The degree of self-similarity and scalability of the Solar Wind Speed signal has been explored to characterise the signal fluctuation. Multi-fractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) method has been implemented on the signal which is under investigation to perform this task. Furthermore, the singularity spectra of the signals have been also obtained to gauge the extent of the multifractality of the time series signal.Keywords: Detrended fluctuation analysis, generalized Hurst exponent, holder exponents, multifractal exponent, multifractal spectrum, singularity spectrum, time series analysis.
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