Search results for: Current Source/Sink

Authors: Pablo Enrique Sartor Del Giudice

Abstract:

Penalty shootouts often decide the outcome of important soccer matches. Although usually referred to as ”lotteries”, there is evidence that some national teams and clubs consistently perform better than others. The outcomes are therefore not explained just by mere luck, and therefore there are ways to improve the average performance of players, naturally at the expense of some sort of effort. In this article we study the payoff of player performance improvements in terms of the performance of the team as a whole. To do so we develop an analytical model with static individual performances, as well as Monte Carlo models that take into account the known influence of partial score and round number on individual performances. We find that within a range of usual values, the team performance improves above 70% faster than individual performances do. Using these models, we also estimate that the new ABBA penalty shootout ordering under test reduces almost all the known bias in favor of the first-shooting team under the current ABAB system.

Keywords: Football, penalty shootouts, Montecarlo simulation, ABBA.

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Authors: Won Kyung Ham, Kang Hoon Cho, Yongho Chung, Sang C. Park

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Presented in this paper is a framework of a software ‘WEMax’. The WEMax is invented for analysis and simulation for manned assembly lines to sustain and improve performance of manufacturing systems. In a manufacturing system, performance, such as productivity, is a key of competitiveness for output products. However, the manned assembly lines are difficult to forecast performance, because human labors are not expectable factors by computer simulation models or mathematical models. Existing approaches to performance forecasting of the manned assembly lines are limited to matters of the human itself, such as ergonomic and workload design, and non-human-factor-relevant simulation. Consequently, an approach for the forecasting and improvement of manned assembly line performance is needed to research. As a solution of the current problem, this study proposes a framework that is for generation and simulation of virtual manned assembly lines, and the framework has been implemented as a software.

Keywords: Performance Forecasting, Simulation, Virtual Manned Assembly Line.

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Authors: Yongyoon Suh, Yongtae Park

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The interaction among information and communication technology (ICT) industries is a recently ubiquitous phenomenon through fixed-mobile integration. To monitor the impact of interaction, previous research has mainly focused on measuring spillover effect among ICT industries using various methods. Among others, inter-industry analysis is one of the useful methods for examining spillover effect between industries. However, more complex ICT industries become, more important the impact within an industry is. Inter-industry analysis is limited in mirroring intra-relationships within an industry. Thus, this study applies the analytic network process (ANP) to measure the spillover effect, capturing all of the intra and inter-relationships. Using ANP-based intra and inter-industry analysis, the spillover effect is effectively measured, mirroring the complex structure of ICT industries. A main ICT industry and its linkages are also explored to show the current structure of ICT industries. The proposed approach is expected to allow policy makers to understand interactions of ICT industries and their impact.

Keywords: ANP, intra and inter-industry analysis, spillover effect

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Authors: Samy A. Selim

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The antimicrobial, antiplasmid and cytotoxic activities of marine algae Halimeda opuntia and Sarconema filiforme were investigated. Antimicrobial bioassay against some human pathogenic bacteria and yeast were conducted using disc diffusion method. Halimeda extract exhibited antibacterial activity against six species of microrganisms, with significant inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus. While Sarconema extract was better potent as antifungal against Candida albicans. Comparative antibacterial studies showed that Halimeda extract showed equivalent or better activity as compared with commercial antibiotic when tested against Staphylococcus aureus. Further tests conducted using dilution method showed both extracts as having bacteriostatic mode of action against the tested microorganisms. Methanol extract of two species showed significant cytotoxicity (LC50 <500μg) on brine shrimp. Halimeda opuntia showed highest cytotoxic activity (LC50 =192.3μg). Also, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the ability of methanolic extract of the algal extracts to cure R-plasmids from certain clinical E. coli isolates. The active fraction of Halimeda and Sarconema could cure plasmids from E. coli at curing efficiencies of approximately 78%. The active fraction mediated plasmid curing resulted in the subsequent loss of antibiotic resistance encoded in the plasmids as revealed by antibiotic resistance profile of cured strains. The screening results confirm the possible use of marine algae Halimeda opuntia and Sarconema filiforme as a source of pharmacological benefits.

Keywords: Antimicrobial, antiplasmid Cytotoxicity, Marine Algae.

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Authors: N. Georgoulopoulos, A. Hatzopoulos, K. Karamitsios, K. Kotrotsios, A. I. Metsai

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Current server systems are responsible for critical applications that run in different infrastructures, such as the cloud, physical machines, and virtual machines. A common challenge that these systems face are the various hardware faults that may occur due to the high load, among other reasons, which translates to errors resulting in malfunctions or even server downtime. The most important hardware parts, that are causing most of the errors, are the CPU, RAM, and the hard drive - HDD. In this work, we investigate selected CPU, RAM, and HDD errors, observed or simulated in kernel ring buffer log files from GNU/Linux servers. Moreover, a severity characterization is given for each error type. Understanding these errors is crucial for the efficient analysis of kernel logs that are usually utilized for monitoring servers and diagnosing faults. In addition, to support the previous analysis, we present possible ways of simulating hardware errors in RAM and HDD, aiming to facilitate the testing of methods for detecting and tackling the above issues in a server running on GNU/Linux.

Keywords: hardware errors, Kernel logs, GNU/Linux servers, RAM, HDD, CPU

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Authors: Aleksandre Ergeshidze

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The exchange rate is a pivotal pricing instrument that simultaneously impacts various components of the economy. Depreciation of nominal exchange rate is export promoting, which might be a desired export-led growth policy, and particularly critical to closing-down the widening current account imbalance. However, negative effects resulting from high dollarization and high share of imported intermediate inputs can outweigh positive effect. The aim of this research is to quantify impact of change in nominal exchange rate and test contractionary depreciation hypothesis on Georgian economy using structural and Bayesian vector autoregression. According to the acquired results, appreciation of nominal exchange rate is expected to decrease inflation, monetary policy rate, interest rate on domestic currency loans and economic growth in the medium run; however, impact on economic growth in the short run is statistically not significant.

Keywords: Bayesian vector autoregression, contractionary depreciation, dollarization, nominal exchange rate, structural vector autoregression.

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Authors: M. Feliciano, F. Maia, A. Gonçalves

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Olive oil production sector plays an important role in Portuguese economy. It had a major growth over the last decade, increasing its weight in the overall national exports. International market penetration for Mediterranean traditional products is increasingly more demanding, especially in the Northern European markets, where consumers are looking for more sustainable products. Trying to support this growing demand this study addresses olive oil production under the environmental and eco-efficiency perspectives. The analysis considers two consecutive product life cycle stages: olive trees farming; and olive oil extraction in mills. Addressing olive farming, data collection covered two different organizations: a middle-size farm (~12ha) (F1) and a large-size farm (~100ha) (F2). Results from both farms show that olive collection activities are responsible for the largest amounts of Green House Gases (GHG) emissions. In this activities, estimate for the Carbon Footprint per olive was higher in F2 (188g CO₂e/kg_olive) than in F1 (148g CO₂e/kg_olive). Considering olive oil extraction, two different mills were considered: one using a two-phase system (2P) and other with a three-phase system (3P). Results from the study of two mills show that there is a much higher use of water in 3P. Energy intensity (EI) is similar in both mills. When evaluating the GHG generated, two conditions are evaluated: a biomass neutral condition resulting on a carbon footprint higher in 3P (184g CO₂e/L_{olive oil}) than in 2P (92g CO₂e/L_{olive oil}); and a non-neutral biomass condition in which 2P increase its carbon footprint to 273g CO₂e/L_{olive oil}. When addressing the carbon footprint of possible combinations among studied subsystems, results suggest that olive harvesting is the major source for GHG.

Keywords: Carbon footprint, environmental indicators, farming subsystem, industrial subsystem, olive oil.

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Authors: Ranya Elkhayat

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This paper aims at offering a futures study for higher education in the Middle East. Paying special attention to the negative impacts of neoliberalism, the paper will demonstrate how higher education is now commodified, corporatized and how arts and humanities are eschewed in favor of science and technology. This conceptual paper argues against the neoliberal agenda and aims at providing an alternative exemplified in the Capabilities Approach with special reference to Martha Nussbaum’s theory. The paper is divided into four main parts: the current state of higher education under neoliberal values, a prediction of the conditions of higher education in the near future, the future of higher education using the theoretical framework of the Capabilities Approach, and finally, some areas of concern regarding the approach. The implications of the study demonstrate that Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach will ensure that the values of education are preserved while avoiding the pitfalls of neoliberalism.

Keywords: Capabilities approach, education future, higher education, MENA.

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Authors: Jatinderkumar R. Saini

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E-mail has become a key mechanism of electronic communication. This is true for professional organizations that like to communicate with their subjects online and are slowly shifting to paper-less office. The current paper focuses specifically on academic institutions offering Engineering course in Gujarat state and attempts for textual analysis of the usernames of the institutional e-mail addresses. We found that the institutions tend to design the username segment of their e-mail addresses by choosing words or combination of words from specific categories. The paper also highlights the use of special characters, digits and random words in designing the usernames. On the sidelines, the paper lists the style of employing department names and designations for the design process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first formal attempt to analyze the selection of words employed for designing username segment of e-mail addresses of engineering institutions.

Keywords: E-mail address, Institute, Engineering, Username.

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Authors: Hycham Aboutaleb, Bruno Monsuez

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Current systems complexity has reached a degree that requires addressing conception and design issues while taking into account environmental, operational, social, legal and financial aspects. Therefore, one of the main challenges is the way complex systems are specified and designed. The exponential growing effort, cost and time investment of complex systems in modeling phase emphasize the need for a paradigm, a framework and an environment to handle the system model complexity. For that, it is necessary to understand the expectations of the human user of the model and his limits. This paper presents a generic framework for designing complex systems, highlights the requirements a system model needs to fulfill to meet human user expectations, and suggests a graphbased formalism for modeling complex systems. Finally, a set of transformations are defined to handle the model complexity.

Keywords: Higraph-based, formalism, system engineering paradigm, modeling requirements, graph-based transformations.

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Authors: Vanda Božić, Željko Nikač

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The wars and armed conflicts have often resulted in violations of international humanitarian law, and often commit the most serious international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression and genocide. However, only in the XX century the rule was articulated idea of establishing a body of international criminal justice in order to prosecute these crimes and their perpetrators. The first steps in this field have been made by establishing the International military tribunals for war crimes at Nuremberg and Tokyo, and the formation of ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In the end, The International Criminal Court was established in Rome in 1998 with the aim of justice and in order to give satisfaction the victims of crimes and their families. The aim of the paper was to provide a historical and comparative analysis of the institutions of international criminal justice based on which these institutions de lege lata fulfilled the goals of individual criminal responsibility and justice. Furthermore, the authors suggest de lege ferenda that the Permanent International Criminal Tribunal, in addition to the prospective case, also takes over the current ICTY and ICTR cases.

Keywords: International crimes, international criminal justice, prosecution of crimes, Ad Hoc tribunal, the International Criminal Court.

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Authors: Cigdem Safak Saglam

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Most thermal power plants use steam as working fluid in their power cycle. Therefore, in addition to fuel, water is the other main input for thermal plants. Water and steam must be highly pure in order to protect the systems from corrosion, scaling and biofouling. Pure process water is produced in water treatment plants having many several treatment methods. Treatment plant design is selected depending on raw water source and required water quality. Although working principle of fossil-fuel fired thermal power plants are same, there is no standard design and equipment arrangement valid for all thermal power plant utility systems. Besides that, there are many other technology evaluation and selection criteria for designing the most optimal water systems meeting the requirements such as local conditions, environmental restrictions, electricity and other consumables availability and transport, process water sources and scarcity, land use constraints etc. Aim of this study is explaining the adopted methodology for technology selection for process water preparation and industrial waste water treatment plant in a thermal power plant project located in Tufanbeyli, Adana Province in Turkey. Thermal power plant is fired with indigenous lignite coal extracted from adjacent lignite reserves. This paper addresses all above-mentioned factors affecting the thermal power plant water treatment facilities (demineralization + waste water treatment) design and describes the ultimate design of Tufanbeyli Thermal Power Plant Water Treatment Plant.

Keywords: Thermal power plant, lignite coal, pre-treatment, demineralization, electrodialysis, recycling, waste water, process water.

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Authors: G. Haupt

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Existing literature ondesign reasoning seems to give either one sided accounts on expert design behaviour based on internal processing. In the same way ecological theoriesseem to focus one sidedly on external elementsthat result in a lack of unifying design cognition theory. Although current extended design cognition studies acknowledge the intellectual interaction between internal and external resources, there still seems to be insufficient understanding of the complexities involved in such interactive processes. As such,this paper proposes a novelmulti-directional model for design researchers tomap the complex and dynamic conduct controlling behaviour in which both the computational and ecological perspectives are integrated in a vertical manner. A clear distinction between identified intentional and emerging physical drivers, and relationships between them during the early phases of experts- design process, is demonstrated by presenting a case study in which the model was employed.

Keywords: External representation, early phases, extended design cognition, internal processes and external drivers, conduct controlling behaviour.

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Authors: N. Zainul Abidin, N. Yusof, H. Awang

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Bringing change to the housing industry requires multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from the government and local industry and the effect of competitive advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand, organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost escalation would hinder a faster progress.

Keywords: Developers, Green Concept, Housing Industry, Sustainable Construction

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Authors: Mohsin Talib Mohammed, Zahid A. Khan, Arshad N. Siddiquee

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Biometallic materials are the most important materials for use in biomedical applications especially in manufacturing a variety of biological artificial replacements in a modern worlds, e.g. hip, knee or shoulder joints, due to their advanced characteristics. Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are used extensively in biomedical applications based on their high specific strength and excellent corrosion resistance. Beta-Ti alloys containing completely biocompatible elements are exceptionally prospective materials for manufacturing of bioimplants. They have superior mechanical, chemical and electrochemical properties for use as biomaterials. These biomaterials have the ability to introduce the most important property of biochemical compatibility which is low elastic modulus. This review examines current information on the recent developments in alloying elements leading to improvements of beta Ti alloys for use as biomaterials. Moreover, this paper focuses mainly on the evolution, evaluation and development of the modulus of elasticity as an effective factor on the performance of beta alloys.

Keywords: Beta Alloys, Biomedical Applications, Titanium Alloys, Young's Modulus.

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Authors: Khaled E. A. Negm

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In the current research, we present an operation framework and protection mechanism to facilitate secure environment to protect mobile agents against tampering. The system depends on the presence of an authentication authority. The advantage of the proposed system is that security measures is an integral part of the design, thus common security retrofitting problems do not arise. This is due to the presence of AlGamal encryption mechanism to protect its confidential content and any collected data by the agent from the visited host . So that eavesdropping on information from the agent is no longer possible to reveal any confidential information. Also the inherent security constraints within the framework allow the system to operate as an intrusion detection system for any mobile agent environment. The mechanism is tested for most of the well known severe attacks against agents and networked systems. The scheme proved a promising performance that makes it very much recommended for the types of transactions that needs highly secure environments, e. g., business to business.

Keywords: Mobile agent security, mobile accesses, agent encryption.

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Authors: K. Kalaiselvan, A. Elango

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In general, it is desirable to finish the weld quickly, before a large volume of surrounding metal heats up and expands. The welding process used, type, welding current and speed of travel, thus, affect the degree of shrinkage and distortion of a weldment. The use of mechanized welding equipment reduces welding time, metal affected zone and consequently distortion. This article helps to define what weld distortion is and then provide a practical understanding of the causes of distortion, effects of shrinkage in butt joint welded assemblies using TI6AL4VA and Aluminium AA2024 alloy sheet. The beam offset position to the joint interface towards titanium and aluminium side. The factors affecting distortion during welding is also given. Test results reveal that welding speed is the significant parameter to decide the extent of distortion. Also welding from Al side reduces the distortion while Ti side increases the distortion.

Keywords: Nd:YAG Pulsed laser welding, Titanium/Aluminium thin sheet butt joint, distortion.

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Authors: Shahram Naghizadeh Raeisi, Ali Alghooneh

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Using membrane technology and modification of milk protein structural properties, a lactose free yogurt was developed. The functional, textural and structural properties of the sample were evaluated and compared with the commercial ones. Results showed that the modification of protein in high fat set yogurt resulted in 11.55%, 18%, 20.21% and 7.08% higher hardness, consistency, water holding capacity, and shininess values compared with the control one. Furthermore, these indices of modified low fat set yogurt were 21.40%, 25.41%, 28.15% & 10.58% higher than the control one, which could be related to the gel network microstructural properties in yogurt formulated with modified protein. In this way, in comparison with the control one, the index of linkage strength (A), the number of linkages (z), and time scale of linkages (λrel) of the high fat modified yogurt were 22.10%, 50.68%, 21.82% higher than the control one; whereas, the average linear distance between two adjacent crosslinks (ξ), was 16.77% lower than the control one. For low fat modified yogurt, A, z, λrel, and ξ indices were 34.30%, 61.70% and 42.60% higher and 19.20% lower than the control one, respectively. The shelf life of modified yogurt was extended to 10 weeks in the refrigerator, while, the control set yogurt had a 3 weeks shelf life. The acidity of high fat and low fat modified yogurts increased from 76 to 84 and 72 to 80 Dornic degrees during 10 weeks of storage, respectively, whereas for control high fat and low fat yogurts they increased from 82 to 122 and 77 to 112 Dornic degrees, respectively. This behavior could be due to the elimination of microorganism’s source of energy in modified yogurt. Furthermore, the calories of high fat and low fat lactose free yogurts were 25% and 40% lower than their control samples, respectively. Generally, results showed that the lactose free yogurt with modified protein, despite of 1% lower protein content than the control one, showed better functional properties, nutritional properties, network parameters, and shelf stability, which could be promising in the set yogurt industry.

Keywords: Lactose free, low calorie, network properties, protein modification.

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Authors: S. Vasupongayya, W. Noodam, P. Kongyong

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This paper presents the result of three senior capstone projects at the Department of Computer Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. These projects focus on developing an examination management system for the Faculty of Engineering in order to manage the examination both the examination room assignments and the examination proctor assignments in each room. The current version of the software is a web-based application. The developed software allows the examination proctors to select their scheduled time online while each subject is assigned to each available examination room according to its type and the room capacity. The developed system is evaluated using real data by prospective users of the system. Several suggestions for further improvements are given by the testers. Even though the features of the developed software are not superior, the developing process can be a case study for a projectbased teaching style. Furthermore, the process of developing this software can show several issues in developing an educational support application.

Keywords: Scheduling, Web-based, Greedy Algorithm, Engineering Education.

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Authors: Carol B.Collins, M. H. N Tabrizi

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The purposes of this paper are to (1) promote excellence in computer science by suggesting a cohesive innovative approach to fill well documented deficiencies in current computer science education, (2) justify (using the authors- and others anecdotal evidence from both the classroom and the real world) why this approach holds great potential to successfully eliminate the deficiencies, (3) invite other professionals to join the authors in proof of concept research. The authors- experiences, though anecdotal, strongly suggest that a new approach involving visual modeling technologies should allow computer science programs to retain a greater percentage of prospective and declared majors as students become more engaged learners, more successful problem-solvers, and better prepared as programmers. In addition, the graduates of such computer science programs will make greater contributions to the profession as skilled problem-solvers. Instead of wearily rememorizing code as they move to the next course, students will have the problem-solving skills to think and work in more sophisticated and creative ways.

Keywords: Algorithms, CASE, Problem-solving, UML.

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Authors: Sangeeta Singh, Pankaj Kumar, P. N. Kondekar

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In this paper, the transient device performance analysis of n-type Gate Inside JunctionLess Transistor (GI-JLT) has been evaluated. 3-D Bohm Quantum Potential (BQP) transport device simulation has been used to evaluate the delay and power dissipation performance. GI-JLT has a number of desirable device parameters such as reduced propagation delay, dynamic power dissipation, power and delay product, intrinsic gate delay and energy delay product as compared to Gate-all-around transistors GAA-JLT. In addition to this, various other device performance parameters namely, on/off current ratio, short channel effects (SCE), transconductance Generation Factor (TGF) and unity gain cut-off frequency (fT ) and subthreshold slope (SS) of the GI-JLT and GAA-JLT have been analyzed and compared. GI-JLT shows better device performance characteristics than GAA-JLT for low power and high frequency applications, because of its larger gate electrostatic control on the device operation.

Keywords: Gate-inside junctionless transistor GI-JLT, Gate-all-around junctionless transistor GAA-JLT, propagation delay, power delay product.

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Authors: Azadeh Rouhandeh, Chris Joslin, Zhen Qu, Yuu Ono

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The centre of rotation of the hip joint is needed for an accurate simulation of the joint performance in many applications such as pre-operative planning simulation, human gait analysis, and hip joint disorders. In human movement analysis, the hip joint center can be estimated using a functional method based on the relative motion of the femur to pelvis measured using reflective markers attached to the skin surface. The principal source of errors in estimation of hip joint centre location using functional methods is soft tissue artefacts due to the relative motion between the markers and bone. One of the main objectives in human movement analysis is the assessment of soft tissue artefact as the accuracy of functional methods depends upon it. Various studies have described the movement of soft tissue artefact invasively, such as intra-cortical pins, external fixators, percutaneous skeletal trackers, and Roentgen photogrammetry. The goal of this study is to present a non-invasive method to assess the displacements of the markers relative to the underlying bone using optical motion capture data and tissue thickness from ultrasound measurements during flexion, extension, and abduction (all with knee extended) of the hip joint. Results show that the artefact skin marker displacements are non-linear and larger in areas closer to the hip joint. Also marker displacements are dependent on the movement type and relatively larger in abduction movement. The quantification of soft tissue artefacts can be used as a basis for a correction procedure for hip joint kinematics.

Keywords: Hip joint centre, motion capture, soft tissue artefact, ultrasound depth measurement.

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Authors: Ling Zheng, Yaping Wei, Kang Cao, Songpo Shi, Jinxing Wang

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It-s difficult for China-s current land transfer institutions limited to county-wide to solve the contradiction between urban-rural development and construction land shortage. On the basis of analyzing China-s construction land transfer system, and evaluation toward Transfer of development rights (TDR) practices in Anhui and Chongqing, the passage proposes: (1) we should establish a multi-level land indicators trade market under the guidance of regional spatial objectives, and allow land transfer paid across cities and counties within a specific area following the regulation of both government and market; (2) it would be better to combine organically the policy ntentions of land plan, regional plan, urban plan and economic plan, and link them with land indicators transfer to promote a wider range of urban-rural balance and regional coordination.

Keywords: China's land institutions, transfer of development rights, urban-rural balance, regional coordination.

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Authors: David Tena-Gago, Jose M. Alcaraz Calero, Qi Wang

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The evolution and integration of automated vehicles have become more and more tangible in recent years. State-of-the-art technological advances in the field of camera-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer vision greatly favor the performance and reliability of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), leading to a greater knowledge of vehicular operation and resembling the human behaviour. However, the exclusive use of this technology still seems insufficient to control the vehicular operation at 100%. To reveal the degree of accuracy of the current camera-based automated driving AI modules, this paper studies the structure and behavior of one of the main solutions in a controlled testing environment. The results obtained clearly outline the lack of reliability when using exclusively the AI model in the perception stage, thereby entailing using additional complementary sensors to improve its safety and performance.

Keywords: Accuracy assessment, AI-Driven Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, automated vehicles.

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Authors: A. Appe, B. Poluparthi, L. Kasivajjula, U. Mv, S. Bagadi, P. Modi, A. Singh, H. Gunupudi, S. Troiano, J. Paul, J. Stovall, J. Yamamoto

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The necessity of data-driven decisions in healthcare strategy formulation is rapidly increasing. A reliable framework which helps identify factors impacting a healthcare provider facility or a hospital (from here on termed as facility) market share is of key importance. This pilot study aims at developing a data-driven machine learning-regression framework which aids strategists in formulating key decisions to improve the facility’s market share which in turn impacts in improving the quality of healthcare services. The US (United States) healthcare business is chosen for the study, and the data spanning 60 key facilities in Washington State and about 3 years of historical data are considered. In the current analysis, market share is termed as the ratio of the facility’s encounters to the total encounters among the group of potential competitor facilities. The current study proposes a two-pronged approach of competitor identification and regression approach to evaluate and predict market share, respectively. Leveraged model agnostic technique, SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations), to quantify the relative importance of features impacting the market share. Typical techniques in literature to quantify the degree of competitiveness among facilities use an empirical method to calculate a competitive factor to interpret the severity of competition. The proposed method identifies a pool of competitors, develops Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) and feature level word vectors, and evaluates the key connected components at the facility level. This technique is robust since it is data-driven, which minimizes the bias from empirical techniques. The DAGs factor in partial correlations at various segregations and key demographics of facilities along with a placeholder to factor in various business rules (for e.g., quantifying the patient exchanges, provider references, and sister facilities). Identified are the multiple groups of competitors among facilities. Leveraging the competitors' identified developed and fine-tuned Random Forest Regression model to predict the market share. To identify key drivers of market share at an overall level, permutation feature importance of the attributes was calculated. For relative quantification of features at a facility level, incorporated SHAP, a model agnostic explainer. This helped to identify and rank the attributes at each facility which impacts the market share. This approach proposes an amalgamation of the two popular and efficient modeling practices, viz., machine learning with graphs and tree-based regression techniques to reduce the bias. With these, we helped to drive strategic business decisions.

Keywords: Competition, DAGs, hospital, healthcare, machine learning, market share, random forest, SHAP.

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Authors: M. Norouzi, M. H. Kayhani, M. R. H. Nobari, M. Karimi Demneh

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In this paper, fully developed flow and heat transfer of viscoelastic materials in curved ducts with square cross section under constant heat flux have been investigated. Here, staggered mesh is used as computational grids and flow and heat transfer parameters have been allocated in this mesh with marker and cell method. Numerical solution of governing equations has being performed with FTCS finite difference method. Furthermore, Criminale-Eriksen- Filbey (CEF) constitutive equation has being used as viscoelastic model. CEF constitutive equation is a suitable model for studying steady shear flow of viscoelastic materials which is able to model both effects of the first and second normal stress differences. Here, it is shown that the first and second normal stresses differences have noticeable and inverse effect on secondary flows intensity and mean Nusselt number which is the main novelty of current research.

Keywords: Viscoelastic, fluid flow, heat convection, CEF model, curved duct, square cross section.

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Authors: Akram Mahdaviparsa, Tamera McCuen, Vahideh Karimimansoob

Abstract:

Fire service is responsible for protecting life, assets, and natural resources from fire and other hazardous incidents. Search and rescue in unfamiliar buildings is a vital part of firefighters’ responsibilities. Providing firefighters with precise building information in an easy-to-understand format is a potential solution for mitigating the negative consequences of fire hazards. The negative effect of insufficient knowledge about a building’s indoor environment impedes firefighters’ capabilities and leads to lost property. A data rich building information modeling (BIM) is a potentially useful source in three-dimensional (3D) visualization and data/information storage for fire emergency response. Therefore, this research’s purpose is prioritizing the required information for firefighters from the most important information to the least important. A survey was carried out with firefighters working in the Norman Fire Department to obtain the importance of each building information item. The results show that “the location of exit doors, windows, corridors, elevators, and stairs”, “material of building elements”, and “building data” are the three most important information specified by firefighters. The results also implied that the 2D model of architectural, structural and way finding is more understandable in comparison with the 3D model, while the 3D model of MEP system could convey more information than the 2D model. Furthermore, color in visualization can help firefighters to understand the building information easier and quicker. Sufficient internal consistency of all responses was proven through developing the Pearson Correlation Matrix and obtaining Cronbach’s alpha of 0.916. Therefore, the results of this study are reliable and could be applied to the population.

Keywords: BIM, building fire response, ranking, visualization.

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Authors: Hitham M. Tlilan

Abstract:

The effect of notch depth on the elastic new strainconcentration factor (SNCF) of rectangular bars with single edge Unotch under combined loading is studied here. The finite element method (FEM) and super position technique are used in the current study. This new SNCF under combined loading of static tension and pure bending has been defined under triaxial stress state. The employed specimens have constant gross thickness of 16.7 mm and net section thickness varied to give net-to-gross thickness ratio ho/Ho from 0.2 to 0.95. The results indicated that the elastic SNCF for combined loading increases with increasing notch depth up to ho/Ho = 0.7 and sharply decreases with increasing notch depth. It is also indicated that the elastic SNCF of combined loading is greater than that of pure bending and less than that of the static tension for 0.2 ≤ ho/Ho ≤ 0.7. However, the elastic SNCF of combined loading is the elastic SNCF for static tension and less than that of pure bending for shallow notches (i.e. 0.8 ≤ ho/Ho ≤ 0.95).

Keywords: Bar, notch, strain, tension, bending

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Authors: Augustine C. Azubogu, Victor E. Idigo, Schola U. Nnebe, Obinna S. Oguejiofor, Simon E.

Abstract:

The main goal of this seminal paper is to introduce the application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in long distance infrastructure monitoring (in particular in pipeline infrastructure monitoring) – one of the on-going research projects by the Wireless Communication Research Group at the department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The current sensor network architectures for monitoring long distance pipeline infrastructures are previewed. These are wired sensor networks, RF wireless sensor networks, integrated wired and wireless sensor networks. The reliability of these architectures is discussed. Three reliability factors are used to compare the architectures in terms of network connectivity, continuity of power supply for the network, and the maintainability of the network. The constraints and challenges of wireless sensor networks for monitoring and protecting long distance pipeline infrastructure are discussed.

Keywords: Connectivity, maintainability, reliability, wireless sensor networks.

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Authors: Wenbo Wang, Yi-fang Brook Wu

Abstract:

The spread of misinformation and disinformation has become a major concern, particularly with the rise of social media as a primary source of information for many people. As a means to address this phenomenon, automated fact-checking has emerged as a safeguard against the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Existing fact-checking approaches aim to determine whether a news claim is true or false, and they have achieved decent veracity prediction accuracy. However, the state of the art methods rely on manually verified external information to assist the checking model in making judgments, which requires significant human resources. This study presents a framework, SAC, which focuses on 1) augmenting the representation of a claim by incorporating additional context using general-purpose, comprehensive and authoritative data; 2) developing a search function to automatically select relevant, new and credible references; 3) focusing on the important parts of the representations of a claim and its reference that are most relevant to the fact-checking task. The experimental results demonstrate that: 1) Augmenting the representations of claims and references through the use of a knowledge base, combined with the multi-head attention technique, contributes to improved performance of fact-checking. 2) SAC with auto-selected references outperforms existing fact-checking approaches with manual selected references. Future directions of this study include I) exploring knowledge graph in Wikidata to dynamically augment the representations of claims and references without introducing too much noises; II) exploring semantic relations in claims and references to further enhance fact-checking.

Keywords: Fact checking, claim verification, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing.

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