Search results for: typical (repetitive) large scale projects

Authors: Abhijit Chandra, Sudipta Chattopadhyay

Abstract:

In this communication, we have made an attempt to design multiplier-less low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter with the aid of various mutation strategies of Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. Impulse response coefficient of the designed FIR filter has been represented as sums or differences of powers of two. Performance of the proposed filter has been evaluated in terms of its frequency response and associated hardware cost. Supremacy of our approach has been substantiated by comparing our result with many of the existing multiplier-less filter design algorithms of recent interest. It has also been demonstrated that DE-optimized filter outperforms Genetic Algorithm (GA) based design by a large margin.  Hardware efficiency of our algorithm has further been validated by implementing those filters on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chip.

Keywords: Convergence speed, Differential Evolution (DE), error histogram, finite impulse response (FIR) filter, total power of two (TPT), zero-valued filter coefficient (ZFC).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2152

Authors: W. A. D. P. Wanigasundera, P. C. B. Alahakoon

Abstract:

Kandy district in Sri Lanka, has small scale and rain-fed paddy farming, and highly vulnerable to climate change. In this study, the status of climate change was assessed using meteorological data and compared with the perceptions of paddy farming community. Factors affecting the adaptation to the climate smart farming were also assessed.

 Meteorological data for 33 years were collected and the changes over time compared with the perceptions of farmers. The temperature, rainfall and number of rainy days have increased in both locations. The onset of rains also has shifted. The perceptions of the majority of the farmers were in line with the actual changes. The knowledge and attitudes about the causes of climate change and adaptation were medium and related to level of adoption. Formulating effective communication strategies, and a collaborative approach involving state, private sector, civil society to make Sri Lankan agriculture ‘climate-smart’ is urgently needed.

Keywords: Adaptation of climate-smart technology, climate change, perception, rain-fed paddy.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3241

Authors: Mohamed A. Tantawy, Nourelhoda A. Hussein, Moataz A. Mahrous

Abstract:

New planning and city design theories are continuously debated and optimized for seeking efficiency and adequacy in economic and life quality aspects. Here, we examine the children-city relationship, to reflect on how modern and traditional cities affect the social climate. We adopt children as a proper caliber for urbanism, as for their very young age, they are independent and attached to family. Their fragility offers a chance to gauge how various urban settings directly affect their feeling of safety, containment, and their perception of belonging for home territory. The importance of street play for the child development process is discussed thoroughly. The authority they have on their play (when and what to play) pushes us to our conclusion. A mediocre built environment characterized by spontaneity and human-scale semi-private urban spaces, is irreplaceable by a perfectly designed far away playgrounds. Street play has a huge role in empowering children for a gradual engagement with grown-ups’ urban flow.

Keywords: Child's psychology, social activity, street play, urban fabric.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1563

Authors: Afshin Ahmadi Nadooshan, Ebrahim Shirani

Abstract:

Different numerical methods are employed and developed for simulating interfacial flows. A large range of applications belong to this group, e.g. two-phase flows of air bubbles in water or water drops in air. In such problems surface tension effects often play a dominant role. In this paper, various models of surface tension force for interfacial flows, the CSF, CSS, PCIL and SGIP models have been applied to simulate the motion of small air bubbles in water and the results were compared and reviewed. It has been pointed out that by using SGIP or PCIL models, we are able to simulate bubble rise and obtain results in close agreement with the experimental data.

Keywords: Volume-of-Fluid, Bubble Rising, SGIP model, CSS model, CSF model, PCIL model, interface, surface tension force.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1778

Authors: Nasser Mohamed Ramli, Nurul Izzati Zulkifli

Abstract:

Sump can be defined as a reservoir which contains slurry; a mixture of solid and liquid or water, in it. Sump system is an unsteady process owing to the level response. Sump level shall be monitored carefully by using a good controller to avoid overflow. The current conventional controllers would not be able to solve problems with large time delay and nonlinearities, Fuzzy Logic controller is tested to prove its ability in solving the listed problems of slurry sump. Therefore, in order to justify the effectiveness and reliability of these controllers, simulation of the sump system was created by using MATLAB and the results were compared. According to the result obtained, instead of Proportional-Integral (PI) and Proportional-Integral and Derivative (PID), Fuzzy Logic controller showed the best result by offering quick response of 0.32 s for step input and 5 s for pulse generator, by producing small Integral Absolute Error (IAE) values that are 0.66 and 0.36 respectively.

Keywords: Fuzzy, sump, level, controller.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 776

Authors: Rowland M. Brucken

Abstract:

This paper argues nation-building theories that prioritize democratic governance best explain the successful postindependence development of Botswana. Three main competing schools of thought exist regarding the sequencing of policies that should occur to re-build weakened or failed states. The first posits that economic development should receive foremost attention, while democratization and a binding sense of nationalism can wait. A second group of experts identified constructing a sense of nationalism among a populace is necessary first, so that the state receives popular legitimacy and obedience that are prerequisites for development. Botswana, though, transitioned into a multi-party democracy and prosperous open economy due to the utilization of traditional democratic structures, enlightened and accountable leadership, and an educated technocratic civil service. With these political foundations already in place when the discovery of diamonds occurred, the resulting revenues were spent wisely on projects that grew the economy, improved basic living standards, and attracted foreign investment. Thus democratization preceded, and therefore provided an accountable basis for, economic development that might otherwise have been squandered by greedy and isolated elites to the detriment of the greater population. Botswana was one of the poorest nations in the world at the time of its independence in 1966, with little infrastructure, a dependence on apartheid South Africa for trade, and a largely subsistence economy. Over the next thirty years, though, its economy grew the fastest of any nation in the world. The transparent and judicious use of diamond returns is only a partial explanation, as the government also pursued economic diversification, mass education, and rural development in response to public needs. As nation-building has become a project undertaken by nations and multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Botswana may provide best practices that others should follow in attempting to reconstruct economically and politically unstable states.

Keywords: Botswana, democratization, economic development, nation-building.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3422

Authors: T. S. Chou, K. K. Yen, J. Luo

Abstract:

The network traffic data provided for the design of intrusion detection always are large with ineffective information and enclose limited and ambiguous information about users- activities. We study the problems and propose a two phases approach in our intrusion detection design. In the first phase, we develop a correlation-based feature selection algorithm to remove the worthless information from the original high dimensional database. Next, we design an intrusion detection method to solve the problems of uncertainty caused by limited and ambiguous information. In the experiments, we choose six UCI databases and DARPA KDD99 intrusion detection data set as our evaluation tools. Empirical studies indicate that our feature selection algorithm is capable of reducing the size of data set. Our intrusion detection method achieves a better performance than those of participating intrusion detectors.

Keywords: Intrusion detection, feature selection, k-nearest neighbors, fuzzy clustering, Dempster-Shafer theory

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1924

Authors: Albert Albers, Pablo Enrique Leslabay

Abstract:

The Institute of Product Development is dealing with the development, design and dimensioning of micro components and systems as a member of the Collaborative Research Centre 499 “Design, Production and Quality Assurance of Molded micro components made of Metallic and Ceramic Materials". Because of technological restrictions in the miniaturization of conventional manufacturing techniques, shape and material deviations cannot be scaled down in the same proportion as the micro parts, rendering components with relatively wide tolerance fields. Systems that include such components should be designed with this particularity in mind, often requiring large clearance. On the end, the output of such systems results variable and prone to dynamical instability. To save production time and resources, every study of these effects should happen early in the product development process and base on computer simulation to avoid costly prototypes. A suitable method is proposed here and exemplary applied to a micro technology demonstrator developed by the CRC499. It consists of a one stage planetary gear train in a sun-planet-ring configuration, with input through the sun gear and output through the carrier. The simulation procedure relies on ordinary Multi Body Simulation methods and subsequently adds other techniques to further investigate details of the system-s behavior and to predict its response. The selection of the relevant parameters and output functions followed the engineering standards for regular sized gear trains. The first step is to quantify the variability and to reveal the most critical points of the system, performed through a whole-mechanism Sensitivity Analysis. Due to the lack of previous knowledge about the system-s behavior, different DOE methods involving small and large amount of experiments were selected to perform the SA. In this particular case the parameter space can be divided into two well defined groups, one of them containing the gear-s profile information and the other the components- spatial location. This has been exploited to explore the different DOE techniques more promptly. A reduced set of parameters is derived for further investigation and to feed the final optimization process, whether as optimization parameters or as external perturbation collective. The 10 most relevant perturbation factors and 4 to 6 prospective variable parameters are considered in a new, simplified model. All of the parameters are affected by the mentioned production variability. The objective functions of interest are based on scalar output-s variability measures, so the problem becomes an optimization under robustness and reliability constrains. The study shows an initial step on the development path of a method to design and optimize complex micro mechanisms composed of wide tolerated elements accounting for the robustness and reliability of the systems- output.

Keywords: Micro molded components, Optimization, Robustness und Reliability, Simulation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1509

Authors: Vesna Vulić

Abstract:

Croatia has made large steps forward in the development of higher education over the past 10 years. Purposes and objectives of the tertiary education system are focused on the personal development of young people so that they obtain competences for employment on a flexible labour market. The most frequent tensions between the tertiary institutions and employers are complaints that the current tertiary education system still supplies students with an abundance of theoretical knowledge and not enough practical skills. Polytechnics and schools of professional higher education should deliver professional education and training that will satisfy the needs of their local communities. The 21^st century sets demand on undergraduates as well as their lecturers to strive for the highest standards. The skills students acquire during their studies should serve the needs of their future professional careers. In this context, teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) presents an enormous challenge for teachers. They have to cope with teaching the language in classes with a large number of students, limitations of time, inadequate equipment and teaching material; most frequently, this leads to focusing on specialist vocabulary neglecting the development of skills and competences required for future employment. Globalization has transformed the labour market and set new standards a perspective employee should meet. When knowledge of languages is considered, new generic skills and competences are required. Not only skillful written and oral communication is needed, but also information, media, and technology literacy, learning skills which include critical and creative thinking, collaborating and communicating, as well as social skills. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the needs of two groups of ESP first year Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students taking ESP as a mandatory course: 47 first-year Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students, 21 first-year employed part-time Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study students and 30 graduates with a degree in Undergraduate Professional Administrative Study with various amounts of work experience. The survey adopted a quantitative approach with the aim to determine the differences between the groups in their perception of the four language skills and different areas of law, as well as getting the insight into students' satisfaction with the current course and their motivation for studying ESP. Their perceptions will be compared to the results of the questionnaire conducted among sector professionals in order to examine how they perceive the same elements of the ESP course content and to what extent it fits into their working environment. The results of the survey indicated that there is a strong correlation between acquiring work experience and the level of importance given to particular areas of law studied in an ESP course which is in line with our initial hypothesis. In conclusion, the results of the survey should help lecturers in re-evaluating and updating their ESP course syllabi.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, ESP, language skills, motivation, needs analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1114

Authors: Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos, Nicos Komninos, Christina Kakderi

Abstract:

Smart cities are high on the political agenda around the globe. However, planning smart cities and deploying applications dealing with the complex problems of the urban environment is a very challenging task that is difficult to be undertaken solely by the cities. We argue that the uptake of smart city strategies is facilitated, first, through the development of smart city application repositories allowing re-use of already developed and tested software, and, second, through cloud computing which disengages city authorities from any resource constraints, technical or financial, and has a higher impact and greater effect at the city level The combination of these two solutions allows city governments and municipalities to select and deploy a large number of applications dedicated to different city functions, which collectively could create a multiplier effect with a greater impact on the urban environment.

Keywords: Smart cities, applications, cloud computing, migration to the cloud, application repositories.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2275

Authors: Keshav Pujeri, Pranesh Jain, Krutibas Panda

Abstract:

Significant changes in oil and gas drilling have emphasized the need to verify the integrity and reliability of drill stem components. Defects are inevitable in cast components, regardless of application; but if these defects go undetected, any severe defect could cause down-hole failure. One such defect is shrinkage porosity. Castings with lower level shrinkage porosity (CB levels 1 and 2) have scattered pores and do not occupy large volumes; so pressure testing and helium leak testing (HLT) are sufficient for qualifying the castings. However, castings with shrinkage porosity of CB level 3 and higher, behave erratically under pressure testing and HLT making these techniques insufficient for evaluating the castings- integrity. This paper presents a case study to highlight how the radiography technique is much more effective than pressure testing and HLT.

Keywords: Casting Defects, Interconnects, Leak Check, Pressure Test, Radiography.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3503

Authors: N. P. Dhanalakshmi, R. Nagarajan

Abstract:

The sonochemical decolorization and degradation of azo dye Methyl violet using Fenton-s reagent in the presence of a high-frequency acoustic field has been investigated. Dyeing and textile effluents are the major sources of azo dyes, and are most troublesome among industrial wastewaters, causing imbalance in the eco-system. The effect of various operating conditions (initial concentration of dye, liquid-phase temperature, ultrasonic power and frequency and process time) on sonochemical degradation was investigated. Conversion was found to increase with increase in initial concentration, temperature, power level and frequency. Both horntype and tank-type sonicators were used, at various power levels (250W, 400W and 500W) for frequencies ranging from 20 kHz - 1000 kHz. A 'Process Intensification' parameter PI, was defined to quantify the enhancement of the degradation reaction by ultrasound when compared to control (i.e., without ultrasound). The present work clearly demonstrates that a high-frequency ultrasonic bath can be used to achieve higher process throughput and energy efficiency at a larger scale of operation.

Keywords: Fenton oxidation, process intensification, sonochemical degradation of MV, ultrasonic frequency.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2542

Authors: Penghui Zhang, Hua Zhang, Jun-Bo Wang, Cheng Zeng, Zijian Cao

Abstract:

With the development of software-defined networks and programmable data planes, in-band network telemetry (INT) has become an emerging technology in communications because it can get accurate and real-time network information. However, due to the expansion of the network scale, existing telemetry systems, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, have difficulty in meeting the common requirements of low overhead, low latency and full coverage for traffic measurement. This paper proposes a network-wide telemetry system with a low-latency low-overhead path planning (INT-LLPP). This paper builds a mathematical model to analyze the telemetry overhead and latency of INT systems. Then, we adopt a greedy-based path planning algorithm to reduce the overhead and latency of the network telemetry with the full network coverage. The simulation results show that network-wide telemetry is achieved and the telemetry overhead can be reduced significantly compared with existing INT systems. INT-LLPP can control the system latency to get real-time network information.

Keywords: Network telemetry, network monitoring, path planning, low latency.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 233

Authors: S. Hirokawa, M. Fukunaga, M. Mawatari

Abstract:

Knee joint forces are available by in vivo measurement using an instrumented knee prosthesis for small to moderate knee flexion but not for high flexion yet. We created a 2D mathematical model of the lower limb incorporating several new features such as a patello-femoral mechanism, a thigh-calf contact at high knee flexion and co-contracting muscles' force ratio, then used it to determine knee joint forces arising from high knee flexions in four kneeling conditions: rising with legs in parallel, with one foot forward, with or without arm use. With arms used, the maximum values of knee joint force decreased to about 60% of those with arms not used. When rising with one foot forward, if arms are not used, the forward leg sustains a force as large as that sustained when rising with legs parallel.

Keywords: Knee joint force, kneeling, mathematical model, biomechanics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4182

Authors: David E. Culler, Noah D. Anderson

Abstract:

Integrated systems for product design, manufacturing, and lifecycle management are difficult to implement and customize. Commercial software vendors, including CAD/CAM and third party PDM/PLM developers, create user interfaces and functionality that allow their products to be applied across many industries. The result is that systems become overloaded with functionality, difficult to navigate, and use terminology that is unfamiliar to engineers and production personnel. For example, manufacturers of automotive, aeronautical, electronics, and household products use similar but distinct methods and processes. Furthermore, each company tends to have their own preferred tools and programs for controlling work and information flow and that connect design, planning, and manufacturing processes to business applications. This paper presents a methodology and a case study that addresses these issues and suggests that in the future more companies will develop personalized applications that fit to the natural way that their business operates. A functioning system has been implemented at a highly competitive U.S. aerospace tooling and component supplier that works with many prominent airline manufacturers around the world including The Boeing Company, Airbus, Embraer, and Bombardier Aerospace. During the last three years, the program has produced significant benefits such as the automatic creation and management of component and assembly designs (parametric models and drawings), the extensive use of lightweight 3D data, and changes to the way projects are executed from beginning to end. CATIA (CAD/CAE/CAM) and a variety of programs developed in C#, VB.Net, HTML, and SQL make up the current system. The web-based platform is facilitating collaborative work across multiple sites around the world and improving communications with customers and suppliers. This work demonstrates that the creative use of Application Programming Interface (API) utilities, libraries, and methods is a key to automating many time-consuming tasks and linking applications together.

Keywords: CAD/CAM, CAPP, PDM, PLM, Scalable Systems.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1645

Authors: Ahmed H. El-Masry, Mohamed A. Dabaon, Tarek F. El-Shafiey, Abd El-Hakim A. Khalil

Abstract:

An experimental study was performed to investigate the behavior and strength of proposed technique to connect reinforced concrete (RC) beam to steel or composite columns. This approach can practically be used in several types of building construction. In this technique, the main beam of the frame consists of a transfer part (part of beam; Tr.P) and a common reinforcement concrete beam. The transfer part of the beam is connected to the column, whereas the rest of the beam is connected to the transfer part from each side. Four full-scale beam-column connections were tested under static loading. The test parameters were the length of the transfer part and the column properties. The test results show that using of the transfer part technique leads to modify the deformation capabilities for the RC beam and hence it increases its resistance against failure. Increase in length of the transfer part did not necessarily indicate an enhanced behavior. The test results contribute to the characterization of the connection behavior between RC beam - steel column and can be used to calibrate numerical models for the simulation of this type of connection.

Keywords: Composite column, reinforced concrete beam, Steel Column, Transfer Part.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5305

Authors: Krzysztof J. Czarnocki, E. Czarnocka, K. Szaniawska

Abstract:

Main goal of the research project is Scaffold Use Risk Assessment Model (SURAM) formulation, developed for the assessment of risk levels as a various construction process stages with various work trades. Finally, in 2016, the project received financing by the National Center for Research and development according to PBS3/A2/19/2015–Research Grant. The presented data, calculations and analyzes discussed in this paper were created as a result of the completion on the first and second phase of the PBS3/A2/19/2015 project. Method: One of the arms of the research project is the assessment of worker visual concentration on the sight zones as well as risky visual point inadequate observation. In this part of research, the mobile eye-tracker was used to monitor the worker observation zones. SMI Eye Tracking Glasses is a tool, which allows us to analyze in real time and place where our eyesight is concentrated on and consequently build the map of worker's eyesight concentration during a shift. While the project is still running, currently 64 construction sites have been examined, and more than 600 workers took part in the experiment including monitoring of typical parameters of the work regimen, workload, microclimate, sound vibration, etc. Full equipment can also be useful in more advanced analyses. Because of that technology we have verified not only main focus of workers eyes during work on or next to scaffolding, but we have also examined which changes in the surrounding environment during their shift influenced their concentration. In the result of this study it has been proven that only up to 45.75% of the shift time, workers’ eye concentration was on one of three work-related areas. Workers seem to be distracted by noisy vehicles or people nearby. In opposite to our initial assumptions and other authors’ findings, we observed that the reflective parts of the scaffoldings were not more recognized by workers in their direct workplaces. We have noticed that the red curbs were the only well recognized part on a very few scaffoldings. Surprisingly on numbers of samples, we have not recognized any significant number of concentrations on those curbs. Conclusion: We have found the eye-tracking method useful for the construction of the SURAM model in the risk perception and worker’s behavior sub-modules. We also have found that the initial worker's stress and work visual conditions seem to be more predictive for assessment of the risky developing situation or an accident than other parameters relating to a work environment.

Keywords: Accident assessment model, eye tracking, occupational safety, scaffolding.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1142

Authors: Mahamed G.H. Omran, Andries P Engelbrecht, Ayed Salman

Abstract:

A new dynamic clustering approach (DCPSO), based on Particle Swarm Optimization, is proposed. This approach is applied to unsupervised image classification. The proposed approach automatically determines the "optimum" number of clusters and simultaneously clusters the data set with minimal user interference. The algorithm starts by partitioning the data set into a relatively large number of clusters to reduce the effects of initial conditions. Using binary particle swarm optimization the "best" number of clusters is selected. The centers of the chosen clusters is then refined via the Kmeans clustering algorithm. The experiments conducted show that the proposed approach generally found the "optimum" number of clusters on the tested images.

Keywords: Clustering Validation, Particle Swarm Optimization, Unsupervised Clustering, Unsupervised Image Classification.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2449

Authors: Theologos Athanaselis, Stelios Bakamidis, Ioannis Dologlou

Abstract:

There are multiple reasons to expect that detecting the word order errors in a text will be a difficult problem, and detection rates reported in the literature are in fact low. Although grammatical rules constructed by computer linguists improve the performance of grammar checker in word order diagnosis, the repairing task is still very difficult. This paper presents an approach for repairing word order errors in English text by reordering words in a sentence and choosing the version that maximizes the number of trigram hits according to a language model. The novelty of this method concerns the use of an efficient confusion matrix technique for reordering the words. The comparative advantage of this method is that works with a large set of words, and avoids the laborious and costly process of collecting word order errors for creating error patterns.

Keywords: Permutations filtering, Statistical languagemodel N-grams, Word order errors

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1580

Authors: Young-San Shin, Seongsoo Lee

Abstract:

Hall sensor is widely used to measure rotation angle. When the Hall voltage is measured for linear displacement, it is converted to angular displacement using arctangent function, which requires a large lookup table. In this paper, a lookup table reduction technique is presented for angle measurement. When the input of the lookup table is small within a certain threshold, the change of the outputs with respect to the change of the inputs is relatively small. Thus, several inputs can share same output, which significantly reduce the lookup table size. Its error analysis was also performed, and the threshold was determined so as to maintain the error less than 1°. When the Hall voltage has 11-bit resolution, the lookup table size is reduced from 1,024 samples to 279 samples.

Keywords: Hall sensor, angle measurement, lookup table, arctangent.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1520

Authors: R. Mechgoug, A. Titaouine

Abstract:

Fuzzy systems have been successfully used for exchange rate forecasting. However, fuzzy system is very confusing and complex to be designed by an expert, as there is a large set of parameters (fuzzy knowledge base) that must be selected, it is not a simple task to select the appropriate fuzzy knowledge base for an exchange rate forecasting. The researchers often look the effect of fuzzy knowledge base on the performances of fuzzy system forecasting. This paper proposes a genetic fuzzy predictor to forecast the future value of daily US Dollar/Euro exchange rate time’s series. A range of methodologies based on a set of fuzzy predictor’s which allow the forecasting of the same time series, but with a different fuzzy partition. Each fuzzy predictor is built from two stages, where each stage is performed by a real genetic algorithm.

Keywords: Foreign exchange rate, time series forecasting, Fuzzy System, and Genetic Algorithm.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1993

Authors: Basem Mustafa Abd. Amer , Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Attas

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to develop a fast and reliable surveillance system based on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device. This is to extend the capability of the device to detect moving objects which is already available in personal computers. Secondly, to compare the performance between Background subtraction (BS) and Temporal Frame Differencing (TFD) techniques for PDA platform as to which is more suitable. In order to reduce noise and to prepare frames for the moving object detection part, each frame is first converted to a gray-scale representation and then smoothed using a Gaussian low pass filter. Two moving object detection schemes i.e., BS and TFD have been analyzed. The background frame is updated by using Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter so that the background frame is adapted to the varying illuminate conditions and geometry settings. In order to reduce the effect of noise pixels resulting from frame differencing morphological filters erosion and dilation are applied. In this research, it has been found that TFD technique is more suitable for motion detection purpose than the BS in term of speed. On average TFD is approximately 170 ms faster than the BS technique

Keywords: Surveillance, PDA, Motion Detection, ImageProcessing , Background Subtraction.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1755

Authors: Betül Özgenç Kaya, Soner Kuslu, Sabri Çolak, Turan Çalban

Abstract:

Ulexite (Na2O.2CaO.5B2O3.16H2O) is boron mineral that is found in large quantities in the Turkey and world. In this study, the dissolution of this mineral in the disodium hydrogen phosphate solutions has been studied. Temperature, concentration, stirring speed, solid liquid ratio and particle size were selected as parameters. The experimental results were successfully correlated by linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were evaluated shrinking core models for solid-fluid systems. It was observed that increase in the reaction temperature and decrease in the solid/liquid ratio causes an increase the dissolution rate of ulexite. The activation energy was found to be 63.4 kJ/mol. The leaching of ulexite was controlled by chemical reaction.

Keywords: Disodium hydrogen phosphate, Leaching kinetics, Ulexite.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2142

Authors: S. Azadmard-Damirchi, Sh. Emami, J. Hesari, S.H. Peighambardoust, M. Nemati

Abstract:

Nuts are part of a healthy diet such as Mediterranean diet. Benefits of nuts in reducing the risk of heart disease has been reasonably attributed to their composition of vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids, fiber and phytochemicals such as polyphenols, tocopherols, squalene and phytosterols. More than 75% of total fatty acids of nuts are unsaturated. α- tocopherol is the main tocopherol isomer present in most of the nuts. While walnuts, Brazil nut, cashew nut, peanut, pecan and pistachio nuts are rich in γ- tocopherol. β- sitosterol is dominant sterol in nuts. Pistachio and pine nut have the highest total phytosterol and Brazil nut and English walnut the lowest. Walnuts also contain large amount of phenolic compounds compared with other nuts. Nuts are rich in compounds with antioxidant properties and their consumption can offer preventing from incidence of many diseases including cardiovascular.

Keywords: Nuts, phenols, phytosterols, squalene, vitamin E.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5636

Authors: Swanti Satsangi, Ashish Gulati, Prem Kumar Kalra, C. Patvardhan

Abstract:

Due to the non- intuitive nature of Quantum algorithms, it becomes difficult for a classically trained person to efficiently construct new ones. So rather than designing new algorithms manually, lately, Genetic algorithms (GA) are being implemented for this purpose. GA is a technique to automatically solve a problem using principles of Darwinian evolution. This has been implemented to explore the possibility of evolving an n-qubit circuit when the circuit matrix has been provided using a set of single, two and three qubit gates. Using a variable length population and universal stochastic selection procedure, a number of possible solution circuits, with different number of gates can be obtained for the same input matrix during different runs of GA. The given algorithm has also been successfully implemented to obtain two and three qubit Boolean circuits using Quantum gates. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the GA procedure even when the search spaces are large.

Keywords: Ancillas, Boolean functions, Genetic algorithm, Oracles, Quantum circuits, Scratch bit

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1936

Authors: Taher Baghaee Moghaddam, Mohamed Rehan Karim

Abstract:

Utilization of waste material in asphalt pavement would be beneficial in order to find an alternative solution to increase service life of asphalt pavement and reduce environmental pollution as well. One of these waste materials is Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) which is a type of polyester material and is produced in a large extent. This research program is investigating the effects of adding waste PET particles into the asphalt mixture with a maximum size of 2.36 mm. Different percentages of PET were added into the mixture during dry process. Gap-graded mixture (SMA 14) and PG 80-100 asphalt binder have been used for this study. To evaluate PET reinforced asphalt mixture different laboratory investigations have been conducted on specimens. Marshall Stability test was carried out. Besides, stiffness modulus test and indirect tensile fatigue test were conducted on specimens at optimum asphalt content. It was observed that in many cases PET reinforced SMA mixture had better mechanical properties in comparison with control mixture.

Keywords: Asphalt mixture, Environment, Mix properties, Polyethylene terephthalate

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2093

Authors: Fernando Miguel Campos, Fernando Jesus Aguiar, Pedro Campos

Abstract:

A large amount of software products offer a wide range and number of features. This is called featuritis or creeping featurism and tends to rise with each release of the product. Feautiris often adds unnecessary complexity to software, leading to longer learning curves and overall confusing the users and degrading their experience. We take a look to a new design approach tendency that has been coming up, the so-called “What You Get is What You Need” concept that argues that products should be very focused, simple and with minimalistic interfaces in order to help users conduct their tasks in distraction-free ambiences. This isn’t as simple to implement as it might sound and the developers need to cut down features. Our contribution illustrates and evaluates this design method through a novel distraction-free diagramming tool named Delineato Pro for Mac OS X in which the user is confronted with an empty canvas when launching the software and where tools only show up when really needed.

Keywords: Diagramming, HCI, usability, user interface.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1424

Authors: S. Raissi, R- Eslami Farsani

Abstract:

In recent years, response surface methodology (RSM) has brought many attentions of many quality engineers in different industries. Most of the published literature on robust design methodology is basically concerned with optimization of a single response or quality characteristic which is often most critical to consumers. For most products, however, quality is multidimensional, so it is common to observe multiple responses in an experimental situation. Through this paper interested person will be familiarize with this methodology via surveying of the most cited technical papers. It is believed that the proposed procedure in this study can resolve a complex parameter design problem with more than two responses. It can be applied to those areas where there are large data sets and a number of responses are to be optimized simultaneously. In addition, the proposed procedure is relatively simple and can be implemented easily by using ready-made standard statistical packages.

Keywords: Multi-Response Surface Methodology (MRSM), Design of Experiments (DOE), Process modeling, Quality improvement; Robust Design.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4450

Authors: Sergei Aleinik, Mikhail Stolbov

Abstract:

In this work, a method of time delay estimation for  dual-channel acoustic signals (speech, music, etc.) recorded under  reverberant conditions is investigated. Standard methods based on  cross-correlation of the signals show poor results in cases involving  strong reverberation, large distances between microphones and  asynchronous recordings. Under similar conditions, a method based  on cross-correlation of temporal envelopes of the signals delivers a  delay estimation of acceptable quality. This method and its properties  are described and investigated in detail, including its limits of  applicability. The method’s optimal parameter estimation and a  comparison with other known methods of time delay estimation are  also provided.

 

Keywords: Cross-correlation, delay estimation, signal envelope, signal processing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3058

Authors: Barbara Gawda

Abstract:

The study attempts to show the relationship between the structure of love by Sternberg and personality disorder traits. People with personality disorders experience dysfunctional emotionality. They manifest difficulties in experiencing love and closeness. Their relationships are marked by ambivalence and conflicts, e.g., as in borderline and narcissistic personality disorders. Considering love as a crucial human feeling, the study was planned to describe the associations between intimacy, passion, commitment, and personality disorder traits in a community sample. A sample of 194 participants was investigated (men and women in similar age and education levels). The following techniques were used: the SCID-II to assess personality disorders’ traits and the Triangular Love Scale by Sternberg to assess the components of love. Results show there are significant negative correlations between intimacy, commitment and personality disorders traits. Many personality disorders are associated with decreasing of intimacy and commitment, whereas passion was not associated with personality disorders’ traits. Results confirm that emotional impairments in personality disorders elicit conflicts and problems in relationships based on love and closeness.

Keywords: Intimacy, commitment, love, passion, personality disorders.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1091