Search results for: residential block model

Authors: Y.Chakrapani, K.Soundera Rajan

Abstract:

In this paper a hybrid technique of Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing (HGASA) is applied for Fractal Image Compression (FIC). With the help of this hybrid evolutionary algorithm effort is made to reduce the search complexity of matching between range block and domain block. The concept of Simulated Annealing (SA) is incorporated into Genetic Algorithm (GA) in order to avoid pre-mature convergence of the strings. One of the image compression techniques in the spatial domain is Fractal Image Compression but the main drawback of FIC is that it involves more computational time due to global search. In order to improve the computational time along with acceptable quality of the decoded image, HGASA technique has been proposed. Experimental results show that the proposed HGASA is a better method than GA in terms of PSNR for Fractal image Compression.

Keywords: Fractal Image Compression, Genetic Algorithm, HGASA, Simulated Annealing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1665

Authors: M. M. Shabani, O. J. Nydal, R. Larsen

Abstract:

Gas hydrates can agglomerate and block multiphase oil and gas pipelines when water is present at hydrate forming conditions. Using "Cold Flow Technology", the aim is to condition gas hydrates so that they can be transported as a slurry mixture without a risk of agglomeration. During the pipeline shut down however, hydrate particles may settle in bends and build hydrate plugs. An experimental setup has been designed and constructed to study the flow of such plugs at start up operations. Experiments have been performed using model fluid and model hydrate particles. The propagations of initial plugs in a bend were recorded with impedance probes along the pipe. The experimental results show a dispersion of the plug front. A peak in pressure drop was also recorded when the plugs were passing the bend. The evolutions of the plugs have been simulated by numerical integration of the incompressible mass balance equations, with an imposed mixture velocity. The slip between particles and carrier fluid has been calculated using a drag relation together with a particle-fluid force balance.

Keywords: Cold Flow Technology, Gas Hydrate Plug Flow Experiments, One Dimensional Incompressible Two Fluid Model, Slurry Flow in Inclined Pipes and Bends, Transient Slurry Flow.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2114

Authors: O. P. Sharma, V. Janyani, S. Sancheti

Abstract:

Data rate, tolerable bit error rate or frame error rate and range & coverage are the key performance requirement of a communication link. In this paper performance of MFSK link is analyzed in terms of bit error rate, number of errors and total number of data processed. In the communication link model proposed, which is implemented using MATLAB block set, an improvement in BER is observed. Different parameters which effects and enables to keep BER low in M-ary communication system are also identified.

Keywords: Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), Bit Error Rate (BER), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), Orthogonal Signaling.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2889

Authors: Nchimbi Edward Pius, Liu Qin, Fion Yang, Zhu Hong Ming

Abstract:

The current Hadoop block placement policy do not fairly and evenly distributes replicas of blocks written to datanodes in a Hadoop cluster.

This paper presents a new solution that helps to keep the cluster in a balanced state while an HDFS client is writing data to a file in Hadoop cluster. The solution had been implemented, and test had been conducted to evaluate its contribution to Hadoop distributed file system.

It has been found that, the solution has lowered global execution time taken by Hadoop balancer to 22 percent. It also has been found that, Hadoop balancer respectively over replicate 1.75 and 3.3 percent of all re-distributed blocks in the modified and original Hadoop clusters.

The feature that keeps the cluster in a balanced state works as a core part to Hadoop system and not just as a utility like traditional balancer. This is one of the significant achievements and uniqueness of the solution developed during the course of this research work.

Keywords: Balancer, Datanode, Distributed file system, Hadoop, Replicas.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4959

Authors: Junaid Rashid, Waqar Mehmood, Muhammad Wasif Nisar

Abstract:

This survey paper shows the recent state of model comparison as it’s applies to Model Driven engineering. In Model Driven Engineering to calculate the difference between the models is a very important and challenging task. There are number of tasks involved in model differencing that firstly starts with identifying and matching the elements of the model. In this paper, we discuss how model matching is accomplished, the strategies, techniques and the types of the model. We also discuss the future direction. We found out that many of the latest model comparison strategies are geared near enabling Meta model and similarity based matching. Therefore model versioning is the most dominant application of the model comparison. Recently to work on comparison for versioning has begun to deteriorate, giving way to different applications. Ultimately there is wide change among the tools in the measure of client exertion needed to perform model comparisons, as some require more push to encourage more sweeping statement and expressive force.

Keywords: Model comparison, model clone detection, model versioning, EMF Model, model diff.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2171

Authors: Aly Mohamed El Husseiny, Azza Ezz Abdelkader

Abstract:

There is a critical thin line between freedom of choice and randomness. The distance between imagination and perception and between perception and execution varies depending on numerous factors. While in developed areas residents have the opportunity and abilities to build flexible homes, residents in developing areas create their own dwellings in informal settlements, even though none of them is comfortable at home in the long run. This paper explores three factors: What residents really need, what they do with limited flexibility, and what they do when there are no limits, as in the case of informal settlements. This paper studies alteration to residential buildings and how they connect to the changes in people’s lifecycle in all past cases. This study also examines all approaches to flexibility, focusing on a social approach. The results of this study are based on three practical studies: Interviews with residents in an informal settlement (Eshash Mahfouz in Minya in Egypt), a civil study of buildings in a middle-class district, and a survey of residents from many countries, including Egypt, and interviews with a number of them to determine residents’ needs and the extent of renovations they made or would like to make to their homes.

Keywords: Flexibility, housing, freedom of choice, social, changes, residents.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 863

Authors: Li Xinyao, Hong Jianzhong, Wu Wenkai

Abstract:

In order to make environmental test centrifuge balance automatically and accurately, reduce unbalance centrifugal force, balance adjusting system of centrifuge is designed. The new balance adjusting system comprises motor-reducer, timing belt, screw pair, slider-guideway and four rocker force sensors. According to information obtained by the four rocker force sensors, unbalanced value at both ends of the big arm is computed and heavy block is moved to achieve balance adjusting. In this paper, motor power and torque to move the heavy block is calculated. In full load running progress of centrifuge, the stress-strain of screw pair composed by adjusting nut and big arm are analyzed. A successful application of the balance adjusting system is also put forwarded. The results show that the balance adjusting system can satisfy balance require of environmental test centrifuge.

Keywords: balance adjusting system, centrifuge, screw pair, timing belt

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1370

Authors: Seongsoo Park, Mun-Kyu Lee, Dong Kyue Kim, Kunsoo Park, Yousung Kang, Sokjoon Lee, Howon Kim, Kyoil Chung

Abstract:

Electronic seal is an electronic device to check the authenticity and integrity of freight containers at the point of arrival. While RFID-based eSeals are gaining more acceptances and there are also some standardization processes for these devices, a recent research revealed that the current RFID-based eSeals are vulnerable to various attacks. In this paper, we provide a feasible solution to enhance the security of active RFID-based eSeals. Our approach is to use an authentication and key agreement protocol between eSeal and reader device, enabling data encryption and integrity check. Our protocol is based on the use of block cipher AES, which is reasonable since a block cipher can also be used for many other security purposes including data encryption and pseudo-random number generation. Our protocol is very simple, and it is applicable to low-end active RFID eSeals.

Keywords: Authentication, Container Security, Electronic seal, RFID

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1901

Authors: Navdeep Goel, Salvador Gabarda

Abstract:

Digital images are widely used in computer applications. To store or transmit the uncompressed images requires considerable storage capacity and transmission bandwidth. Image compression is a means to perform transmission or storage of visual data in the most economical way. This paper explains about how images can be encoded to be transmitted in a multiplexing time-frequency domain channel. Multiplexing involves packing signals together whose representations are compact in the working domain. In order to optimize transmission resources each 4 × 4 pixel block of the image is transformed by a suitable polynomial approximation, into a minimal number of coefficients. Less than 4 × 4 coefficients in one block spares a significant amount of transmitted information, but some information is lost. Different approximations for image transformation have been evaluated as polynomial representation (Vandermonde matrix), least squares + gradient descent, 1-D Chebyshev polynomials, 2-D Chebyshev polynomials or singular value decomposition (SVD). Results have been compared in terms of nominal compression rate (NCR), compression ratio (CR) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) in order to minimize the error function defined as the difference between the original pixel gray levels and the approximated polynomial output. Polynomial coefficients have been later encoded and handled for generating chirps in a target rate of about two chirps per 4 × 4 pixel block and then submitted to a transmission multiplexing operation in the time-frequency domain.

Keywords: Chirp signals, Image multiplexing, Image transformation, Linear canonical transform, Polynomial approximation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2129

Authors: Melis Inalpulat, Levent Genc

Abstract:

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes due to human activities and natural causes have become a major environmental concern. Assessment of temporal remote sensing data provides information about LULC impacts on environment. Land Surface Temperature (LST) is one of the important components for modeling environmental changes in climatological, hydrological, and agricultural studies. In this study, LULC changes (September 7, 1984 and July 8, 2014) especially in agricultural lands together with population changes (1985-2014) and LST status were investigated using remotely sensed and census data in South Marmara Watershed, Turkey. LULC changes were determined using Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data acquired in 1984 and 2014 summers. Six-band TM and OLI images were classified using supervised classification method to prepare LULC map including five classes including Forest (F), Grazing Land (G), Agricultural Land (A), Water Surface (W), Residential Area-Bare Soil (R-B) classes. The LST image was also derived from thermal bands of the same dates. LULC classification results showed that forest areas, agricultural lands, water surfaces and residential area-bare soils were increased as 65751 ha, 20163 ha, 1924 ha and 20462 ha respectively. In comparison, a dramatic decrement occurred in grazing land (107985 ha) within three decades. The population increased 29% between years 1984-2014 in whole study area. Along with the natural causes, migration also caused this increase since the study area has an important employment potential. LULC was transformed among the classes due to the expansion in residential, commercial and industrial areas as well as political decisions. In the study, results showed that agricultural lands around the settlement areas transformed to residential areas in 30 years. The LST images showed that mean temperatures were ranged between 26-32°C in 1984 and 27-33°C in 2014. Minimum temperature of agricultural lands was increased 3°C and reached to 23°C. In contrast, maximum temperature of A class decreased to 41°C from 44°C. Considering temperatures of the 2014 R-B class and 1984 status of same areas, it was seen that mean, min and max temperatures increased by 2°C. As a result, the dynamism of population, LULC and LST resulted in increasing mean and maximum surface temperatures, living spaces/industrial areas and agricultural lands.

Keywords: Census data, landsat, land surface temperature (LST), land use land cover (LULC).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2120

Authors: Omaima N. Ahmad AL-Allaf

Abstract:

Over communication networks, images can be easily copied and distributed in an illegal way. The copyright protection for authors and owners is necessary. Therefore, the digital watermarking techniques play an important role as a valid solution for authority problems. Digital image watermarking techniques are used to hide watermarks into images to achieve copyright protection and prevent its illegal copy. Watermarks need to be robust to attacks and maintain data quality. Therefore, we discussed in this paper two approaches for image watermarking, first is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and the second approach is based on Genetic Algorithm (GA). Discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) is used with the two approaches separately for embedding process to cover image transformation. Each of PSO and GA is based on co-relation coefficient to detect the high energy coefficient watermark bit in the original image and then hide the watermark in original image. Many experiments were conducted for the two approaches with different values of PSO and GA parameters. From experiments, PSO approach got better results with PSNR equal 53, MSE equal 0.0039. Whereas GA approach got PSNR equal 50.5 and MSE equal 0.0048 when using population size equal to 100, number of iterations equal to 150 and 3×3 block. According to the results, we can note that small block size can affect the quality of image watermarking based PSO/GA because small block size can increase the search area of the watermarking image. Better PSO results were obtained when using swarm size equal to 100.

Keywords: Image watermarking, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, discrete wavelet transform.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1159

Authors: S. Hma Salah, H. Du, N. Al-Jawad

Abstract:

Ethnicity identification of face images is of interest in many areas of application, but existing methods are few and limited. This paper presents a fusion scheme that uses block-based uniform local binary patterns and Haar wavelet transform to combine local and global features. In particular, the LL subband coefficients of the whole face are fused with the histograms of uniform local binary patterns from block partitions of the face. We applied the principal component analysis on the fused features and managed to reduce the dimensionality of the feature space from 536 down to around 15 without sacrificing too much accuracy. We have conducted a number of preliminary experiments using a collection of 746 subject face images. The test results show good accuracy and demonstrate the potential of fusing global and local features. The fusion approach is robust, making it easy to further improve the identification at both feature and score levels.

Keywords: Ethnicity identification, fusion, local binary patterns, wavelet.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2992

Authors: Nkongho Ayuketang Arreyndip, Ebobenow Joseph

Abstract:

In this paper, temperature extremes are forecast by employing the block maxima method of the Generalized extreme value(GEV) distribution to analyse temperature data from the Cameroon Development Corporation (C.D.C). By considering two sets of data (Raw data and simulated data) and two (stationary and non-stationary) models of the GEV distribution, return levels analysis is carried out and it was found that in the stationary model, the return values are constant over time with the raw data while in the simulated data, the return values show an increasing trend but with an upper bound. In the non-stationary model, the return levels of both the raw data and simulated data show an increasing trend but with an upper bound. This clearly shows that temperatures in the tropics even-though show a sign of increasing in the future, there is a maximum temperature at which there is no exceedence. The results of this paper are very vital in Agricultural and Environmental research.

Keywords: Return level, Generalized extreme value (GEV), Meteorology, Forecasting.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2106

Authors: S. Jalaja, A. M. Vijaya Prakash

Abstract:

Recursive combination of an algorithm based on Karatsuba multiplication is exploited to design a generalized transpose and parallel Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter. Mid-range Karatsuba multiplication and Carry Save adder based on Karatsuba multiplication reduce time complexity for higher order multiplication implemented up to n-bit. As a result, we design modified N-tap Transpose and Parallel Symmetric FIR Filter Structure using Karatsuba algorithm. The mathematical formulation of the FFA Filter is derived. The proposed architecture involves significantly less area delay product (APD) then the existing block implementation. By adopting retiming technique, hardware cost is reduced further. The filter architecture is designed by using 90 nm technology library and is implemented by using cadence EDA Tool. The synthesized result shows better performance for different word length and block size. The design achieves switching activity reduction and low power consumption by applying with and without retiming for different combination of the circuit. The proposed structure achieves more than a half of the power reduction by adopting with and without retiming techniques compared to the earlier design structure. As a proof of the concept for block size 16 and filter length 64 for CKA method, it achieves a 51% as well as 70% less power by applying retiming technique, and for CSA method it achieves a 57% as well as 77% less power by applying retiming technique compared to the previously proposed design.

Keywords: Carry save adder Karatsuba multiplication, mid-range Karatsuba multiplication, modified FFA, transposed filter, retiming.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 910

Authors: Eduardo da Silva, Tânia Caetano, Jessica B. Lopes

Abstract:

Emotion dysregulation has been linked to psychopathology in general and, in particular, to substance abuse and other addiction-related disorders, such as eating disorders, impulsive disorder, and gambling. It has been proposed that a lessening of the difficulties in emotion regulation can have a significant positive impact on the treatment of these disorders. The present study explores the association between the progress in the Change & Grow^® therapeutic model (5 stages of treatment), and the decrease in the difficulties related to emotion regulation. The Change & Grow^® model has five stages of treatment according to the model’s five principles (Truth, Acceptance, Gratitude, Love and Responsibility) and incorporates different therapeutic approaches such as positive psychology, cognitive and behavioral therapy and third generation therapies. The main objective is to understand the impact of the presented therapeutic model on difficulties in emotion regulation in patients with addiction-related disorders. The exploratory study has a cross-sectional design. Participants were 44 (15 women and 29 men) Portuguese patients in the residential Villa Ramadas International Treatment Centre. The instrument used was the Portuguese version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), which measures six dimensions of emotion regulation (Strategies, Non-acceptance, Awareness, Impulse, Goals, and Clarity). The mean rank scores for both the DERS total score and the Impulse subscale showed statistically significant differences according to Stage of Treatment/Principles. Furthermore, Stage of Treatment/Principles held a negative correlation with the scores of the Non-acceptance and Impulse subscales, as well as the DERS total score. The results indicate that the Change & Grow^® model seems to have an impact in lessening the patient’s difficulties in emotion regulation. The Impulse dimension suffered the greater impact, which supports the well-known relevance of impulse control, or related difficulties, in addiction-related disorders.

Keywords: Addiction, Change & Grow®, emotion regulation, psychopathology.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1324

Authors: D. M. S. Bandara, Yunqi Lei, Ye Luo

Abstract:

Fingerprints are suitable as long-term markers of human identity since they provide detailed and unique individual features which are difficult to alter and durable over life time. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to encrypt and decrypt fingerprint images by using a specially designed Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) procedure based on block ciphers. In addition, to increase the confusing effect of fingerprint encryption, we also utilize a chaotic-behaved method called Arnold Cat Map (ACM) for a 2D scrambling of pixel locations in our method. Experimental results are carried out with various types of efficiency and security analyses. As a result, we demonstrate that the proposed fingerprint encryption/decryption algorithm is advantageous in several different aspects including efficiency, security and flexibility. In particular, using this algorithm, we achieve a margin of about 0.1% in the test of Number of Pixel Changing Rate (NPCR) values comparing to the-state-of-the-art performances.

Keywords: Arnold cat map, biometric encryption, block cipher, elliptic curve cryptography, fingerprint encryption, Koblitz’s Encoding.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1097

Authors: Ambalika Ekka

Abstract:

In today’s world, the growing demand for urban built forms has resulted in the production and consumption of building materials i.e. embodied energy in building construction, leading to pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, new buildings will offer a unique opportunity to implement more energy efficient building without compromising on building performance of the building. Embodied energy of building materials forms major contribution to embodied energy in buildings. The paper results in an approach towards designing an energy efficient apartment building through embodied energy assessment. This paper discusses the trend of residential development in Rourkela, which includes three case studies of the contemporary houses, followed by architectural elements, number of storeys, predominant material use and plot sizes using primary data. It results in identification of predominant material used and other characteristics in urban area. Further, the embodied energy coefficients of various dominant building materials and alternative materials manufactured in Indian Industry is taken in consideration from secondary source i.e. literature study. The paper analyses the embodied energy by estimating materials and operational energy of proposed building followed by altering the specifications of the materials based on the building components i.e. walls, flooring, windows, insulation and roof through res build India software and comparison of different options is assessed with consideration of sustainable parameters. This paper results that autoclaved aerated concrete block only reaches the energy performance Index benchmark i.e. 69.35 kWh/m² yr i.e. by saving 4% of operational energy and as embodied energy has no particular index, out of all materials it has the highest EE 23206202.43  MJ.

Keywords: Energy efficient, embodied energy, energy performance index, building materials.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 998

Authors: Fahad Alsharari, Mohd Salmi Md Noorani

Abstract:

A Motzkin shift is a mathematical model for constraints on genetic sequences. In terms of the theory of symbolic dynamics, the Motzkin shift is nonsofic, and therefore, we cannot use the Perron- Frobenius theory to calculate its topological entropy. The Motzkin shift M(M,N) which comes from language theory, is defined to be the shift system over an alphabet A that consists of N negative symbols, N positive symbols and M neutral symbols. For an x in the full shift, x will be in the Motzkin subshift M(M,N) if and only if every finite block appearing in x has a non-zero reduced form. Therefore, the constraint for x cannot be bounded in length. K. Inoue has shown that the entropy of the Motzkin shift M(M,N) is log(M + N + 1). In this paper, a new direct method of calculating the topological entropy of the Motzkin shift is given without any measure theoretical discussion.

Keywords: Motzkin shift, topological entropy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2011

Authors: A. A. K. Abou-Arab, M. A. Abou Donia, Nevin E. Sharaf, Sherif R. Mohamed, A. K. Enab

Abstract:

Lead being a toxic heavy metal that mankind is exposed to the highest levels of this metal from environmental pollutants. A total of 180 Male scalp hair samples were collected from different environments in Greater Cairo (GC), i.e. industrial, heavy traffic and rural areas (60 samples from each) having different activities during the period of, 1/5/2010 to 1/11/2012. Hair samples were collected during five stages. Data proved that the concentration of lead in male industrial areas of Cairo ranged between 6.2847 to 19.0432 μg/g, with mean value of 12.3288 μg/g. On the other hand, lead content of hair samples of residential-traffic areas ranged between 2.8634 to 16.3311 μg/g with mean value of 9.7552 μg/g. While lead concentration on the hair of the male residents living in rural area ranged between 1.0499-9.0402μg/g with mean value of 4.7327 μg/g. The Pb concentration in scalp hair of Cairo residents of residential-traffic and rural traffic areas was observed to follow the same pattern. The pattern was that of decrease concentration of summer and its increase in winter. Then, there was a marked increase in Pb concentration of summer 2012, and this increase was significant. These were obviously seen for the residential-traffic and rural areas residents. Pb pollution in residents of industrial areas showed the same seasonal pattern, but there was marked to decrease in Pb concentration of summer 2012, and this decrease was significant. Lead pollution in residents of GC was serious. It is worth noting that the atmosphere is still contaminated by lead despite a decade of using unleaded gasoline. Strong seasonal variation in higher Pb concentration on winter than in summer was found. Major contributions to the pollution with Pb could include industry emissions, motor vehicle emissions and long transported dust from outside Cairo. More attention should be paid to the reduction of Pb content of the urban aerosol and to the Pb pollution health.

Keywords: Hair, lead, environmental exposure, seasonal variations, Egypt.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1691

Authors: Seyed Ziya Tabatabaei, Azimi Bin Hj Hamzah, Fatemeh Ebrahimi

Abstract:

The increase in proportion of older people in Malaysia has led to a significant growth of health care demands. The aim of this study is to explore how perceived health care needs influence on quality of life among elderly Malay residents who reside in a Malaysian residential home. This study employed a method known as ethnographic research from May 2011 to January 2012. Four data collection strategies were selected as the main data-collecting tools including participant observation, field notes, in-depth interviews, and review of related documents. The nine knowledgeable participants for the present study were selected using the purposive sampling method. Two themes were identified: (1) Medical concerns: Feeling secure, lack of information, inadequate medical staff; and (2) Health promotion: Body condition, health education, physiotherapy and rehabilitation. These results could evoke the attention of policy-makers and care providers to better meet elderly residents’ health care needs.

Keywords: Ethnographic study, health care needs, elderly Malay people, Malaysia, quality of life, residential home.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1576

Authors: Mohammad Shams Esfand Abadi, John Hakon Husøy

Abstract:

Employing a recently introduced unified adaptive filter theory, we show how the performance of a large number of important adaptive filter algorithms can be predicted within a general framework in nonstationary environment. This approach is based on energy conservation arguments and does not need to assume a Gaussian or white distribution for the regressors. This general performance analysis can be used to evaluate the mean square performance of the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm, its normalized version (NLMS), the family of Affine Projection Algorithms (APA), the Recursive Least Squares (RLS), the Data-Reusing LMS (DR-LMS), its normalized version (NDR-LMS), the Block Least Mean Squares (BLMS), the Block Normalized LMS (BNLMS), the Transform Domain Adaptive Filters (TDAF) and the Subband Adaptive Filters (SAF) in nonstationary environment. Also, we establish the general expressions for the steady-state excess mean square in this environment for all these adaptive algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate through simulations that these results are useful in predicting the adaptive filter performance.

Keywords: Adaptive filter, general framework, energy conservation, mean-square performance, nonstationary environment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2187

Authors: Kuo-Cheng Liu

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose ablock-wise watermarking scheme for color image authentication to resist malicious tampering of digital media. The thresholding technique is incorporated into the scheme such that the tampered region of the color image can be recovered with high quality while the proofing result is obtained. The watermark for each block consists of its dual authentication data and the corresponding feature information. The feature information for recovery iscomputed bythe thresholding technique. In the proofing process, we propose a dual-option parity check method to proof the validity of image blocks. In the recovery process, the feature information of each block embedded into the color image is rebuilt for high quality recovery. The simulation results show that the proposed watermarking scheme can effectively proof the tempered region with high detection rate and can recover the tempered region with high quality.

Keywords: thresholding technique, tamper proofing, tamper recovery

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1632

Authors: Jun Peng, Johnny Ching Ming Ho

Abstract:

In order to calculate the flexural strength of normal-strength concrete (NSC) beams, the nonlinear actual concrete stress distribution within the compression zone is normally replaced by an equivalent rectangular stress block, with two coefficients of α and β to regulate the intensity and depth of the equivalent stress respectively. For NSC beams design, α and β are usually assumed constant as 0.85 and 0.80 in reinforced concrete (RC) codes. From an earlier investigation of the authors, α is not a constant but significantly affected by flexural strain gradient, and increases with the increasing of strain gradient till a maximum value. It indicates that larger concrete stress can be developed in flexure than that stipulated by design codes. As an extension and application of the authors- previous study, the modified equivalent concrete stress block is used here to produce a series of design charts showing the maximum design limits of flexural strength and ductility of singly- and doubly- NSC beams, through which both strength and ductility design limits are improved by taking into account strain gradient effect.

Keywords: Concrete beam, Ductility, Equivalent concrete stress, Normal strength, Strain gradient, Strength

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1687

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

Abstract:

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.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3001

Authors: Bala Dhandayuthapani Veerasamy

Abstract:

Parallel programming models exist as an abstraction of hardware and memory architectures. There are several parallel programming models in commonly use; they are shared memory model, thread model, message passing model, data parallel model, hybrid model, Flynn-s models, embarrassingly parallel computations model, pipelined computations model. These models are not specific to a particular type of machine or memory architecture. This paper expresses the model program for concurrent approach to data parallel model through java programming.

Keywords: Concurrent, Data Parallel, JDK, Parallel, Thread

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2097

Authors: Eric Sitorus, Septian Prahastudhi, Turgod Nainggolan, Erwin Riyanto

Abstract:

Mining by block or panel caving is a mining method that takes advantage of fractures within an ore body, coupled with gravity, to extract material from a predetermined column of ore. The caving column is weakened from beneath through the use of undercutting, after which the ore breaks up and is extracted from below in a continuous cycle. The nature of this method induces cyclical stresses on the pillars of excavations as stress is built up and released over time, which has a detrimental effect on both the installed ground support and the rock mass itself. Ground support capacity, especially on the production where excavation void ratio is highest, is subjected to heavy loading. Strain above threshold of the elongation of support capacity can yield resulting in damage to excavations. Geotechnical engineers must evaluate not only the remnant capacity of ground support systems but also investigate depth of rock mass yield within pillars, backs and floors. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that has the ability to evaluate rock mass damage using electromagnetic waves. This paper illustrates a case study from the Grasberg mining complex where non-invasive information on the depth of damage and condition of the remaining rock mass was required. GPR with 100 MHz antenna resolution was used to obtain images of the subsurface to determine rehabilitation requirements prior to recommencing production activities. The GPR surveys were used to calibrate the reflection coefficient response of varying rock mass conditions to known Rock Quality Designation (RQD) parameters observed at the mine. The calibrated GPR survey allowed site engineers to map subsurface conditions and plan rehabilitation accordingly.

Keywords: Block caving, ground penetrating radar, reflectivity, RQD.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 669

Authors: Roya Morad, W. Eirik Heintz

Abstract:

The identity of a neighborhood is inevitably shaped by the architecture and the people of that place. Conventionally the streets within each neighborhood served as a semi-public-private extension of the private living spaces. The street as a design element formed a hybrid condition that was neither totally public nor private, and it encouraged social interactions. Thus through creating a sense of community, one of the most basic human needs of belonging was achieved. Similar to major global cities, Tehran has undergone serious urbanization. Developing into a capital city of high rises has resulted in an increase in urban density. Although allocating more residential units in each neighborhood was a critical response to the population boom and the limited land area of the city, it also created a crisis in terms of social communication and place attachment. District 10 in Tehran is a neighborhood that has undergone the most urban transformation among the other 22 districts in the capital and currently has the highest population density. This paper will explore how the active streets in district 10 have changed into their current condition of high rises with a lack of meaningful social interactions amongst its inhabitants. A residential building can be thought of as a large group of people. One would think that as the number of people increases, the opportunities for social communications would increase as well. However, according to the survey, there is an indirect relationship between the two. As the number of people of a residential building increases, the quality of each acquaintance reduces, and the depth of relationships between people tends to decrease. This comes from the anonymity of being part of a crowd and the lack of social spaces characterized by most high-rise apartment buildings. Without a sense of community, the attachment to a neighborhood is decreased. This paper further explores how the neighborhood participates to fulfill ones need for social interaction and focuses on the qualitative aspects of alternative spaces that can redevelop the sense of place attachment within the community.

Keywords: High density, place attachment, social communication, street life, urban transformation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 514

Authors: Matthew D. Baffa

Abstract:

Infrared thermography is a non-destructive test method used to estimate surface temperatures based on the amount of electromagnetic energy radiated by building envelope components. These surface temperatures are indicators of various qualitative building envelope deficiencies such as locations and extent of heat loss, thermal bridging, damaged or missing thermal insulation, air leakage, and moisture presence in roof, floor, and wall assemblies. Although infrared thermography is commonly used for qualitative deficiency detection in buildings, this study assesses its use as a quantitative method to estimate the overall thermal conductance value (U-value) of the exterior above-grade walls of a study home. The overall U-value of exterior above-grade walls in a home provides useful insight into the energy consumption and thermal comfort of a home. Three methodologies from the literature were employed to estimate the overall U-value by equating conductive heat loss through the exterior above-grade walls to the sum of convective and radiant heat losses of the walls. Outdoor infrared thermography field measurements of the exterior above-grade wall surface and reflective temperatures and emissivity values for various components of the exterior above-grade wall assemblies were carried out during winter months at the study home using a basic thermal imager device. The overall U-values estimated from each methodology from the literature using the recorded field measurements were compared to the nominal exterior above-grade wall overall U-value calculated from materials and dimensions detailed in architectural drawings of the study home. The nominal overall U-value was validated through calendarization and weather normalization of utility bills for the study home as well as various estimated heat loss quantities from a HOT2000 computer model of the study home and other methods. Under ideal environmental conditions, the estimated overall U-values deviated from the nominal overall U-value between ±2% to ±33%. This study suggests infrared thermography can estimate the overall U-value of exterior above-grade walls in low-rise residential homes with a fair amount of accuracy.

Keywords: Emissivity, heat loss, infrared thermography, thermal conductance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 835

Authors: Siqing S. Chen

Abstract:

Landscape connectivity combines a description of the physical structure of the landscape with special species- response to that structure, which forms the theoretical background of applying landscape connectivity principles in the practices of landscape planning and design. In this study, a residential development project in the southern United States was used to explore the meaning of landscape connectivity and its application in town planning. The vast rural landscape in the southern United States is conspicuously characterized by the hedgerow trees or groves. The patchwork landscape of fields surrounded by high hedgerows is a traditional and familiar feature of the American countryside. Hedgerows are in effect linear strips of trees, groves, or woodlands, which are often critical habitats for wildlife and important for the visual quality of the landscape. Based on geographic information system (GIS) and statistical analysis (FRAGSTAT), this study attempts to quantify the landscape connectivity characterized by hedgerows in south Alabama where substantial areas of authentic hedgerow landscape are being urbanized due to the ever expanding real estate industry and high demand for new residential development. The results of this study shed lights on how to balance the needs of new urban development and biodiversity conservation by maintaining a higher level of landscape connectivity, thus will inform the design intervention.

Keywords: Biodiversity, Connectivity, Landscape planning, GIS

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4499

Authors: Z. Pavlík, J. Žumár, M. Pavlíková, J. Kočí, R. Černý

Abstract:

Water vapour transport properties of gypsum block are studied in dependence on relative humidity using inverse analysis based on genetic algorithm. The computational inverse analysis is performed for the relative humidity profiles measured along the longitudinal axis of a rod sample. Within the performed transient experiment, the studied sample is exposed to two environments with different relative humidity, whereas the temperature is kept constant. For the basic gypsum characterisation and for the assessment of input material parameters necessary for computational application of genetic algorithm, the basic material properties of gypsum are measured as well as its thermal and water vapour storage parameters. On the basis of application of genetic algorithm, the relative humidity dependent water vapour diffusion coefficient and water vapour diffusion resistance factor are calculated.

Keywords: Water vapour transport, gypsum block, transient experiment, genetic algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1659