Search results for: thermal efficiency.
642 Removing Ocular Artifacts from EEG Signals using Adaptive Filtering and ARMAX Modeling
Authors: Parisa Shooshtari, Gelareh Mohamadi, Behnam Molaee Ardekani, Mohammad Bagher Shamsollahi
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EEG signal is one of the oldest measures of brain activity that has been used vastly for clinical diagnoses and biomedical researches. However, EEG signals are highly contaminated with various artifacts, both from the subject and from equipment interferences. Among these various kinds of artifacts, ocular noise is the most important one. Since many applications such as BCI require online and real-time processing of EEG signal, it is ideal if the removal of artifacts is performed in an online fashion. Recently, some methods for online ocular artifact removing have been proposed. One of these methods is ARMAX modeling of EEG signal. This method assumes that the recorded EEG signal is a combination of EOG artifacts and the background EEG. Then the background EEG is estimated via estimation of ARMAX parameters. The other recently proposed method is based on adaptive filtering. This method uses EOG signal as the reference input and subtracts EOG artifacts from recorded EEG signals. In this paper we investigate the efficiency of each method for removing of EOG artifacts. A comparison is made between these two methods. Our undertaken conclusion from this comparison is that adaptive filtering method has better results compared with the results achieved by ARMAX modeling.Keywords: Ocular Artifacts, EEG, Adaptive Filtering, ARMAX
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1889641 Measurement of Operational and Environmental Performance of the Coal-Fired Power Plants in India by Using Data Envelopment Analysis
Authors: Vijay Kumar Bajpai, Sudhir Kumar Singh
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In this study, the performance analyses of the twenty five Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) used for electricity generation are carried out through various Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. Three efficiency indices are defined and pursued. During the calculation of the operational performance, energy and non-energy variables are used as input, and net electricity produced is used as desired output (Model-1). CO2 emitted to the environment is used as the undesired output (Model-2) in the computation of the pure environmental performance while in Model-3 CO2 emissions is considered as detrimental input in the calculation of operational and environmental performance. Empirical results show that most of the plants are operating in increasing returns to scale region and Mettur plant is efficient one with regards to energy use and environment. The result also indicates that the undesirable output effect is insignificant in the research sample. The present study will provide clues to plant operators towards raising the operational and environmental performance of CFPPs.
Keywords: Coal fired power plants, environmental performance, data envelopment analysis, operational performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2347640 The Necessity of Biomass Application for Developing Combined Heat and Power(CHP) with Biogas Fuel: Case Study
Authors: Farnaz Amin Salehi, David Edward.Cotton, Mohammad Ali Abdoli, Kambiz Rezapour
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The daily increase of organic waste materials resulting from different activities in the country is one of the main factors for the pollution of environment. Today, with regard to the low level of the output of using traditional methods, the high cost of disposal waste materials and environmental pollutions, the use of modern methods such as anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas has been prevailing. The collected biogas from the process of anaerobic digestion, as a renewable energy source similar to natural gas but with a less methane and heating value is usable. Today, with the help of technologies of filtration and proper preparation, access to biogas with features fully similar to natural gas has become possible. At present biogas is one of the main sources of supplying electrical and thermal energy and also an appropriate option to be used in four stroke engine, diesel engine, sterling engine, gas turbine, gas micro turbine and fuel cell to produce electricity. The use of biogas for different reasons which returns to socio-economic and environmental advantages has been noticed in CHP for the production of energy in the world. The production of biogas from the technology of anaerobic digestion and its application in CHP power plants in Iran can not only supply part of the energy demands in the country, but it can materialize moving in line with the sustainable development. In this article, the necessity of the development of CHP plants with biogas fuels in the country will be dealt based on studies performed from the economic, environmental and social aspects. Also to prove the importance of the establishment of these kinds of power plants from the economic point of view, necessary calculations has been done as a case study for a CHP power plant with a biogas fuel.Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, CHP, Organic Wastes
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1639639 Breast Skin-Line Estimation and Breast Segmentation in Mammograms using Fast-Marching Method
Authors: Roshan Dharshana Yapa, Koichi Harada
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Breast skin-line estimation and breast segmentation is an important pre-process in mammogram image processing and computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer. Limiting the area to be processed into a specific target region in an image would increase the accuracy and efficiency of processing algorithms. In this paper we are presenting a new algorithm for estimating skin-line and breast segmentation using fast marching algorithm. Fast marching is a partial-differential equation based numerical technique to track evolution of interfaces. We have introduced some modifications to the traditional fast marching method, specifically to improve the accuracy of skin-line estimation and breast tissue segmentation. Proposed modifications ensure that the evolving front stops near the desired boundary. We have evaluated the performance of the algorithm by using 100 mammogram images taken from mini-MIAS database. The results obtained from the experimental evaluation indicate that this algorithm explains 98.6% of the ground truth breast region and accuracy of the segmentation is 99.1%. Also this algorithm is capable of partially-extracting nipple when it is available in the profile.
Keywords: Mammogram, fast marching method, mathematical morphology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2663638 A Computational Study of the Effect of Intake Design on Volumetric Efficiency for Best Performance in Motorsport
Authors: Dominic Wentworth-Linton, Shian Gao
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This project was aimed at investigating the effect of velocity stacks on the intakes of internal combustion engines for motorsport applications. The intake systems in motorsport are predominantly fuel injection with a plate mounted for the stacks. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics software, the relationship between the stack length and power and torque delivery across the engine’s rev range was investigated and the results were used to choose the best option for its intended motorsport discipline. The test results are expected to vary with engine geometry and its natural manufacturer characteristics. The test was also relevant in bridging between computational data and real simulation as the results show flow, pressure and velocity readings but the behaviour of the engine is inferred from the nature of each test. The results of the data analysis were tested in a real-life simulation on a dynamometer to prove the theory of stack length on power and torque delivery, which helps determine the most suitable stack for the Vauxhall engine for rallying in the Caribbean.
Keywords: CFD simulation, internal combustion engine, intake system, dynamometer test.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2235637 Numerical Method Based On Initial Value-Finite Differences for Free Vibration of Stepped Thickness Plates
Authors: Ahmed M. Farag, Wael F. Mohamed, Atef A. Ata, Burhamy M. Burhamy
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The main objective of the present paper is to derive an easy numerical technique for the analysis of the free vibration through the stepped regions of plates. Based on the utilities of the step by step integration initial values IV and Finite differences FD methods, the present improved Initial Value Finite Differences (IVFD) technique is achieved. The first initial conditions are formulated in convenient forms for the step by step integrations while the upper and lower edge conditions are expressed in finite difference modes. Also compatibility conditions are created due to the sudden variation of plate thickness. The present method (IVFD) is applied to solve the fourth order partial differential equation of motion for stepped plate across two different panels under the sudden step compatibility in addition to different types of end conditions. The obtained results are examined and the validity of the present method is proved showing excellent efficiency and rapid convergence.
Keywords: Vibrations, Step by Step Integration, Stepped plate, Boundary.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1831636 Performance of Derna Steam Power Plant at Varying Super-Heater Operating Conditions Based on Exergy
Authors: Idris Elfeituri
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In the current study, energy and exergy analysis of a 65 MW steam power plant was carried out. This study investigated the effect of variations of overall conductance of the super heater on the performance of an existing steam power plant located in Derna, Libya. The performance of the power plant was estimated by a mathematical modelling which considers the off-design operating conditions of each component. A fully interactive computer program based on the mass, energy and exergy balance equations has been developed. The maximum exergy destruction has been found in the steam generation unit. A 50% reduction in the design value of overall conductance of the super heater has been achieved, which accordingly decreases the amount of the net electrical power that would be generated by at least 13 MW, as well as the overall plant exergy efficiency by at least 6.4%, and at the same time that would cause an increase of the total exergy destruction by at least 14 MW. The achieved results showed that the super heater design and operating conditions play an important role on the thermodynamics performance and the fuel utilization of the power plant. Moreover, these considerations are very useful in the process of the decision that should be taken at the occasions of deciding whether to replace or renovate the super heater of the power plant.
Keywords: Exergy, super-heater, fouling, steam power plant, off-design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1111635 Advanced Travel Information System in Heterogeneous Networks
Authors: Hsu-Yung Cheng, Victor Gau, Chih-Wei Huang, Jenq-Neng Hwang, Chih-Chang Yu
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In order to achieve better road utilization and traffic efficiency, there is an urgent need for a travel information delivery mechanism to assist the drivers in making better decisions in the emerging intelligent transportation system applications. In this paper, we propose a relayed multicast scheme under heterogeneous networks for this purpose. In the proposed system, travel information consisting of summarized traffic conditions, important events, real-time traffic videos, and local information service contents is formed into layers and multicasted through an integration of WiMAX infrastructure and Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET). By the support of adaptive modulation and coding in WiMAX, the radio resources can be optimally allocated when performing multicast so as to dynamically adjust the number of data layers received by the users. In addition to multicast supported by WiMAX, a knowledge propagation and information relay scheme by VANET is designed. The experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.Keywords: Intelligent Transportation Systems, RelayedMulticast, WiMAX, Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1704634 Mercury Removing Capacity of Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes as Detected by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy: Kinetic & Equilibrium Studies
Authors: Yasser M. Moustafa, Rania E. Morsi, Mohammed Fathy
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Multiwall carbon nanotubes, prepared by chemical vapor deposition, have an average diameter of 60-100 nm as shown by High Resolution Transmittance Electron Microscope, HR-TEM. The Multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were further characterized using X-ray Diffraction and Raman Spectroscopy. Mercury uptake capacity of MWCNTs was studied using batch adsorption method at different concentration ranges up to 150 ppm. Mercury concentration (before and after the treatment) was measured using cold vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy. The effect of time, concentration, pH and adsorbent dose were studied. MWCNT were found to perform complete absorption in the sub-ppm concentrations (parts per billion levels) while for high concentrations, the adsorption efficiency was 92% at the optimum conditions; 0.1 g of the adsorbent at 150 ppm mercury (II) solution. The adsorption of mercury on MWCNTs was found to follow the Freundlich adsorption isotherm and the pseudo-second order kinetic model.
Keywords: Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, Hydride System, Mercury Removing, Multi Wall Carbon Nanotubes.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2406633 Experimental Analysis on Electrical and Photometric Performances of Commercially Available Integrated Compact Fluorescent Lamp
Authors: Hu-Hsiao Hsu, Po-Ren Chung, Ming-Chin Ho, Chieh-Feng Tsai, Che-Ming Chiang, Shin-Ku Lee
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Lighting upgrades involve relatively lower costs which allow the benefits to be spread more widely than is possible with any other energy efficiency measure. In order to popularize the adoption of CFL in Taiwan, the authority proposes to implement a new energy efficient lamp comparative label system. The current study was accordingly undertaken to investigate the factors affecting the performance and the deviation of actual and labeled performance of commercially available integrated CFLs. In this paper, standard test methods to determine the electrical and photometric performances of CFL were developed based on CIE 84-1989 and CIE 60901-1987, then 55 selected CFLs from market were tested. The results show that with higher color temperature of CFLs lower efficacy are achieved. It was noticed that the most packaging of CFL often lack the information of Color Rendering Index. Also, there was no correlation between price and performance of the CFLs was indicated in this work. The results of this paper might help consumers to make more informed CFL-purchasing decisions.Keywords: Compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), Efficacy, Color Rendering Index (CRI), Energy saving.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1494632 Cloud Computing for E-Learning with More Emphasis on Security Issues
Authors: Sajjad Hashemi, Seyyed Yasser Hashemi
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In today's world, success of most systems depend on the use of new technologies and information technology (IT) which aimed to increase efficiency and satisfaction of users. One of the most important systems that use information technology to deliver services is the education system. But for educational services in the form of E-learning systems, hardware and software equipment should be containing high quality, which requires substantial investment. Because the vast majority of educational establishments can not invest in this area so the best way for them is reducing the costs and providing the E-learning services by using cloud computing. But according to the novelty of the cloud technology, it can create challenges and concerns that the most noted among them are security issues. Security concerns about cloud-based E-learning products are critical and security measures essential to protect valuable data of users from security vulnerabilities in products. Thus, the success of these products happened if customers meet security requirements then can overcome security threats. In this paper tried to explore cloud computing and its positive impact on E- learning and put main focus to identify security issues that related to cloud-based E-learning efforts which have been improve security and provide solutions in management challenges.
Keywords: Cloud computing, E-Learning, Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3209631 An Analysis of the Optimization Condition of Plasma Generator for Air Conditioner System
Authors: Arunrungrusmi S, Chaokamnerd W , Tanitteerapan T , Mungkung N., Yuji T.
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This research aimed to develop plasma system used in air conditioners. This developed plasma system could be installed in the air conditioners - all split type. The quality of air could be improved to be equal to present plasma system. Development processes were as follows: 1) to study the plasma system used in the air conditioners, 2) to design a plasma generator, 3) to develop the plasma generator, and 4) to test its performance in many types of the air conditioners. This plasma system was developed by AC high voltage – 14 kv with a frequency of 50 kHz. Carbon was a conductor to generate arc in air purifier system. The research was tested by installing the plasma generator in the air conditioners - wall type. Whereas, there were 3 types of installations: air flow out, air flow in, and room center. The result of the plasma generator installed in the air conditioners, split type, revealed that the air flow out installation provided the highest average of o-zone at 223 mg/h. This type of installation provided the highest efficiency of air quality improvement. Moreover, the air flow in installation and the room center installation provided the average of the o-zone at 163 mg/h and 64 mg/h, respectively.
Keywords: Air Conditioner, Plasma generator, High voltage, Optimization, Installation position.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1349630 Supply Chain Decarbonisation – A Cost-Based Decision Support Model in Slow Steaming Maritime Operations
Authors: Eugene Y. C. Wong, Henry Y. K. Lau, Mardjuki Raman
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CO2 emissions from maritime transport operations represent a substantial part of the total greenhouse gas emission. Vessels are designed with better energy efficiency. Minimizing CO2 emission in maritime operations plays an important role in supply chain decarbonisation. This paper reviews the initiatives on slow steaming operations towards the reduction of carbon emission. It investigates the relationship and impact among slow steaming cost reduction, carbon emission reduction, and shipment delay. A scenario-based cost-driven decision support model is developed to facilitate the selection of the optimal slow steaming options, considering the cost on bunker fuel consumption, available speed, carbon emission, and shipment delay. The incorporation of the social cost of cargo is reviewed and suggested. Additional measures on the effect of vessels sizes, routing, and type of fuels towards decarbonisation are discussed.
Keywords: Slow steaming, carbon emission, maritime logistics, sustainability, green supply chain.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2665629 A Structural Support Vector Machine Approach for Biometric Recognition
Authors: Vishal Awasthi, Atul Kumar Agnihotri
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Face is a non-intrusive strong biometrics for identification of original and dummy facial by different artificial means. Face recognition is extremely important in the contexts of computer vision, psychology, surveillance, pattern recognition, neural network, content based video processing. The availability of a widespread face database is crucial to test the performance of these face recognition algorithms. The openly available face databases include face images with a wide range of poses, illumination, gestures and face occlusions but there is no dummy face database accessible in public domain. This paper presents a face detection algorithm based on the image segmentation in terms of distance from a fixed point and template matching methods. This proposed work is having the most appropriate number of nodal points resulting in most appropriate outcomes in terms of face recognition and detection. The time taken to identify and extract distinctive facial features is improved in the range of 90 to 110 sec. with the increment of efficiency by 3%.Keywords: Face recognition, Principal Component Analysis, PCA, Linear Discriminant Analysis, LDA, Improved Support Vector Machine, iSVM, elastic bunch mapping technique.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 472628 Augmentation Opportunity of Transmission Control Protocol Performance in Wireless Networks and Cellular Systems
Authors: Ghassan A. Abed, Samir I. Badrawi
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The advancement in wireless technology with the wide use of mobile devices have drawn the attention of the research and technological communities towards wireless environments, such as Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs), and mobile systems and ad-hoc networks. Unfortunately, wired and wireless networks are expressively different in terms of link reliability, bandwidth, and time of propagation delay and by adapting new solutions for these enhanced telecommunications, superior quality, efficiency, and opportunities will be provided where wireless communications were otherwise unfeasible. Some researchers define 4G as a significant improvement of 3G, where current cellular network’s issues will be solved and data transfer will play a more significant role. For others, 4G unifies cellular and wireless local area networks, and introduces new routing techniques, efficient solutions for sharing dedicated frequency bands, and an increased mobility and bandwidth capacity. This paper discusses the possible solutions and enhancements probabilities that proposed to improve the performance of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) over different wireless networks and also the paper investigated each approach in term of advantages and disadvantages.
Keywords: TCP, Wireless Networks, Cellular Systems, WLAN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1925627 Application of IED to Condition Based Maintenance of Medium Voltage GCB/VCB
Authors: Ming-Ta Yang, Jyh-Cherng Gu, Chun-Wei Huang, Jin-Lung Guan
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Time base maintenance (TBM) is conventionally applied by the power utilities to maintain circuit breakers (CBs), transformers, bus bars and cables, which may result in under maintenance or over maintenance. As information and communication technology (ICT) industry develops, the maintenance policies of many power utilities have gradually changed from TBM to condition base maintenance (CBM) to improve system operating efficiency, operation cost and power supply reliability. This paper discusses the feasibility of using intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) to construct a CB CBM management platform. CBs in power substations can be monitored using IEDs with additional logic configuration and wire connections. The CB monitoring data can be sent through intranet to a control center and be analyzed and integrated by the Elipse Power Studio software. Finally, a human-machine interface (HMI) of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system can be designed to construct a CBM management platform to provide maintenance decision information for the maintenance personnel, management personnel and CB manufacturers.
Keywords: Circuit breaker, Condition base maintenance, Intelligent electronic device, Time base maintenance, SCADA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2276626 Digital Preservation in Nigeria Universities Libraries: A Comparison between University of Nigeria Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
Authors: Suleiman Musa, Shuaibu Sidi Safiyanu
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This study examined the digital preservation in Nigeria university libraries. A comparison between the university of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU, Zaria). The study utilized primary source of data obtained from two selected institution librarians. Finding revealed varying results in terms of skills acquired by librarians before and after digitization of the two institutions. The study reports that journals publication, text book, CD-ROMS, conference papers and proceedings, theses, dissertations and seminar papers are among the information resources available for digitization. The study further documents that copyright issue, power failure, and unavailability of needed materials are among the challenges facing the digitization of library of the institution. On the basis of the finding, the study concluded that digitization of library enhances efficiency in organization and retrieval of information services. The study therefore recommended that software should be upgraded with backup, training of the librarians on digital process, installation of antivirus and enhancement of technical collaboration between the library and MIS.Keywords: Digitalization, preservation, libraries, comparison.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1715625 Working Capital Management, Firms- Performance and Market Valuation in Nigeria
Authors: Sunday. E. Ogundipe, Abiola Idowu, Lawrencia. O. Ogundipe
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This study examines the impact of working capital management on firms- performance and market value of the firms in Nigeria. A sample of fifty four non-financial quoted firms in Nigeria listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange was used for this study. Data were collected from annual reports of the sampled firms for the period 1995-2009. This result shows there is a significant negative relationship between cash conversion cycle and market valuation and firm-s performance. It also shows that debt ratio is positively related to market valuation and negatively related firm-s performance. The findings confirm that there is a significant relationship between Market valuation, profitability and working capital component in line with previous studies. This mean that Nigeria firms should ensure adequate management of working capital especially cash conversion cycle components of account receivables, account payables and inventories, as efficiency working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the firms- market value.Keywords: Cash Conversion Cycle, Firms' Performance, Market Valuation, Working Capital Management
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6325624 Roller Guide Design and Manufacturing for Spatial Cylindrical Cams
Authors: Yuan L. Lai, Jui P. Hung, Jian H. Chen
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This paper was aimed at developing a computer aided design and manufacturing system for spatial cylindrical cams. In the proposed system, a milling tool with a diameter smaller than that of the roller, instead of the standard cutter for traditional machining process, was used to generate the tool path for spatial cams. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, a multi-axis machining simulation software was further used to simulate the practical milling operation of spatial cams. It was observed from computer simulation that the tool path of small-sized cutter were within the motion range of a standard cutter, no occurrence of overcutting. Examination of a finished cam component clearly verifies the accuracy of the tool path generated for small-sized milling tool. It is believed that the use of small-sized cutter for the machining of the spatial cylindrical cams can generate a better surface morphology with higher accuracy. The improvement in efficiency and cost for the manufacturing of the spatial cylindrical cam can be expected through the proposed method.Keywords: Cylindrical cams, Computer-aided manufacturing, Tool path.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3436623 Rainfall–Runoff Simulation Using WetSpa Model in Golestan Dam Basin, Iran
Authors: M. R. Dahmardeh Ghaleno, M. Nohtani, S. Khaledi
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Flood simulation and prediction is one of the most active research areas in surface water management. WetSpa is a distributed, continuous, and physical model with daily or hourly time step that explains precipitation, runoff, and evapotranspiration processes for both simple and complex contexts. This model uses a modified rational method for runoff calculation. In this model, runoff is routed along the flow path using Diffusion-Wave equation which depends on the slope, velocity, and flow route characteristics. Golestan Dam Basin is located in Golestan province in Iran and it is passing over coordinates 55° 16´ 50" to 56° 4´ 25" E and 37° 19´ 39" to 37° 49´ 28"N. The area of the catchment is about 224 km2, and elevations in the catchment range from 414 to 2856 m at the outlet, with average slope of 29.78%. Results of the simulations show a good agreement between calculated and measured hydrographs at the outlet of the basin. Drawing upon Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient for calibration periodic model estimated daily hydrographs and maximum flow rate with an accuracy up to 59% and 80.18%, respectively.
Keywords: Watershed simulation, WetSpa, stream flow, flood prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1018622 Bidirectional Discriminant Supervised Locality Preserving Projection for Face Recognition
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Dimensionality reduction and feature extraction are of crucial importance for achieving high efficiency in manipulating the high dimensional data. Two-dimensional discriminant locality preserving projection (2D-DLPP) and two-dimensional discriminant supervised LPP (2D-DSLPP) are two effective two-dimensional projection methods for dimensionality reduction and feature extraction of face image matrices. Since 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP preserve the local structure information of the original data and exploit the discriminant information, they usually have good recognition performance. However, 2D-DLPP and 2D-DSLPP only employ single-sided projection, and thus the generated low dimensional data matrices have still many features. In this paper, by combining the discriminant supervised LPP with the bidirectional projection, we propose the bidirectional discriminant supervised LPP (BDSLPP). The left and right projection matrices for BDSLPP can be computed iteratively. Experimental results show that the proposed BDSLPP achieves higher recognition accuracy than 2D-DLPP, 2D-DSLPP, and bidirectional discriminant LPP (BDLPP).Keywords: Face recognition, dimension reduction, locality preserving projection, discriminant information, bidirectional projection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 672621 Optimisation of Intermodal Transport Chain of Supermarkets on Isle of Wight, UK
Authors: Jingya Liu, Yue Wu, Jiabin Luo
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This work investigates an intermodal transportation system for delivering goods from a Regional Distribution Centre to supermarkets on the Isle of Wight (IOW) via the port of Southampton or Portsmouth in the UK. We consider this integrated logistics chain as a 3-echelon transportation system. In such a system, there are two types of transport methods used to deliver goods across the Solent Channel: one is accompanied transport, which is used by most supermarkets on the IOW, such as Spar, Lidl and Co-operative food; the other is unaccompanied transport, which is used by Aldi. Five transport scenarios are studied based on different transport modes and ferry routes. The aim is to determine an optimal delivery plan for supermarkets of different business scales on IOW, in order to minimise the total running cost, fuel consumptions and carbon emissions. The problem is modelled as a vehicle routing problem with time windows and solved by genetic algorithm. The computing results suggested that accompanied transport is more cost efficient for small and medium business-scale supermarket chains on IOW, while unaccompanied transport has the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of large business scale supermarket chains.
Keywords: Genetic algorithm, intermodal transport system, Isle of Wight, optimization, supermarket.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 993620 Assessment of Energy Consumption in Cluster Redevelopment: A Case Study of Bhendi Bazar in Mumbai
Authors: Insiya Kapasi, Roshni Udyavar Yehuda
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Cluster Redevelopment is a new concept in the city of Mumbai. Its regulations were laid down by the government in 2009. The concept of cluster redevelopment encompasses a group of buildings defined by a boundary as specified by the municipal authority (in this case, Mumbai), which may be dilapidated or approved for redevelopment. The study analyses the effect of cluster redevelopment in the form of renewal of old group of buildings as compared to refurbishment or restoration - on energy consumption. The methodology includes methods of assessment to determine increase or decrease in energy consumption in cluster redevelopment based on different criteria such as carpet area of the units, building envelope and its architectural elements. Results show that as the area and number of units increase the Energy consumption increases and the EPI (energy performance index) decreases as compared to the base case. The energy consumption per unit area declines by 29% in the proposed cluster redevelopment as compared to the original settlement. It is recommended that although the development is spacious and provides more light and ventilation, aspects such as glass type, traditional architectural features and consumer behavior are critical in the reduction of energy consumption.
Keywords: Cluster redevelopment, energy consumption, energy efficiency, typologies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 609619 Adaptive PID Controller based on Reinforcement Learning for Wind Turbine Control
Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh
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A self tuning PID control strategy using reinforcement learning is proposed in this paper to deal with the control of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). Actor-Critic learning is used to tune PID parameters in an adaptive way by taking advantage of the model-free and on-line learning properties of reinforcement learning effectively. In order to reduce the demand of storage space and to improve the learning efficiency, a single RBF neural network is used to approximate the policy function of Actor and the value function of Critic simultaneously. The inputs of RBF network are the system error, as well as the first and the second-order differences of error. The Actor can realize the mapping from the system state to PID parameters, while the Critic evaluates the outputs of the Actor and produces TD error. Based on TD error performance index and gradient descent method, the updating rules of RBF kernel function and network weights were given. Simulation results show that the proposed controller is efficient for WECS and it is perfectly adaptable and strongly robust, which is better than that of a conventional PID controller.Keywords: Wind energy conversion systems, reinforcementlearning; Actor-Critic learning; adaptive PID control; RBF network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4912618 Evaluation of Negative Air Ions in Bioaerosol Removal: Indoor Concentration of Airborne Bacterial and Fungal in Residential Building in Qom City, Iran
Authors: Z. Asadgol, A. Nadali, H. Arfaeinia, M. Khalifeh Gholi, R. Fateh, M. Fahiminia
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The present investigation was conducted to detect the type and concentrations of bacterial and fungal bioaerosols in one room (bedroom) of each selected residential building located in different regions of Qom during February 2015 (n=9) to July 2016 (n=11). Moreover, we evaluated the efficiency of negative air ions (NAIs) in bioaerosol reduction in indoor air in residential buildings. In the first step, the mean concentrations of bacterial and fungal in nine sampling sites evaluated in winter were 744 and 579 colony forming units (CFU)/m3, while these values were 1628.6 and 231 CFU/m3 in the 11 sampling sites evaluated in summer, respectively. The most predominant genera between bacterial and fungal in all sampling sites were detected as Micrococcus spp. and Staphylococcus spp. and also, Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp., respectively. The 95% and 45% of sampling sites have bacterial and fungal concentrations over the recommended levels, respectively. In the removal step, we achieved a reduction with a range of 38% to 93% for bacterial genera and 25% to 100% for fungal genera by using NAIs. The results suggested that NAI is a highly effective, simple and efficient technique in reducing the bacterial and fungal concentration in the indoor air of residential buildings.
Keywords: Bacterial, fungal, negative air ions, indoor air, Iran.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 950617 Production Throughput Modeling under Five Uncertain Variables Using Bayesian Inference
Authors: Amir Azizi, Amir Yazid B. Ali, Loh Wei Ping
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Throughput is an important measure of performance of production system. Analyzing and modeling of production throughput is complex in today-s dynamic production systems due to uncertainties of production system. The main reasons are that uncertainties are materialized when the production line faces changes in setup time, machinery break down, lead time of manufacturing, and scraps. Besides, demand changes are fluctuating from time to time for each product type. These uncertainties affect the production performance. This paper proposes Bayesian inference for throughput modeling under five production uncertainties. Bayesian model utilized prior distributions related to previous information about the uncertainties where likelihood distributions are associated to the observed data. Gibbs sampling algorithm as the robust procedure of Monte Carlo Markov chain was employed for sampling unknown parameters and estimating the posterior mean of uncertainties. The Bayesian model was validated with respect to convergence and efficiency of its outputs. The results presented that the proposed Bayesian models were capable to predict the production throughput with accuracy of 98.3%.
Keywords: Bayesian inference, Uncertainty modeling, Monte Carlo Markov chain, Gibbs sampling, Production throughput
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2136616 The European Legislation on End-of-Waste
Authors: Claudio D'Alonzo
Abstract:
According to recent tendencies, progress on resource efficiency is possible and it will lead to economic, environmental, and social benefits. The passage to a circular economy system, in which all the materials and energy will maintain their value for as long as possible, waste is reduced and only a few resources are used, is one of the most relevant parts of the European Union's environmental policy to develop a sustainable, competitive and low-carbon economy. The concept of circular economy is to be found in Decision 1386/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2020 named “Living well, within the limits of our planet”. To modernise waste management systems in the Union and to consolidate the European model as one of the most effective in the world, a revised waste legislative framework entered into force in July 2018. Regarding the Italian legislation, the laws to be modified are the Legislative Decree 3 April 2006, n. 152 and the laws ruling waste management, end-of-waste, by-products and, the regulatory principles regarding circular economy. European rules on end-of-waste are not fully harmonised and so there are legal challenges. The target to be achieved is full consistency between the laws implementing waste and chemicals policies. Only in this way, materials will be safe, fit-for-purpose and designed for durability; additionally, they will have a low environmental impact.
Keywords: Circular economy, end-of-waste, legislation, secondary raw materials.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 59615 Investigation of the Properties of Epoxy Modified Binders Based on Epoxy Oligomer with Improved Deformation and Strength Properties
Authors: Hlaing Zaw Oo, N. Kostromina, V. Osipchik, T. Kravchenko, K. Yakovleva
Abstract:
The process of modification of ed-20 epoxy resin synthesized by vinyl-containing compounds is considered. It is shown that the introduction of vinyl-containing compounds into the composition based on epoxy resin ED-20 allows adjusting the technological and operational characteristics of the binder. For improvement of the properties of epoxy resin, following modifiers were selected: polyvinylformalethyl, polyvinyl butyral and composition of linear and aromatic amines (Аramine) as a hardener. Now the big range of hardeners of epoxy resins exists that allows varying technological properties of compositions, and also thermophysical and strength indicators. The nature of the aramin type hardener has a significant impact on the spatial parameters of the mesh, glass transition temperature, and strength characteristics. Epoxy composite materials based on ED-20 modified with polyvinyl butyral were obtained and investigated. It is shown that the composition of resins based on derivatives of polyvinyl butyral and ED-20 allows obtaining composite materials with a higher complex of deformation-strength, adhesion and thermal properties, better water resistance, frost resistance, chemical resistance, and impact strength. The magnitude of the effect depends on the chemical structure, temperature and curing time. In the area of concentrations, where the effect of composite synergy is appearing, the values of strength and stiffness significantly exceed the similar parameters of the individual components of the mixture. The polymer-polymer compositions form their class of materials with diverse specific properties that ensure their competitive application. Coatings with high performance under cyclic loading have been obtained based on epoxy oligomers modified with vinyl-containing compounds.Keywords: Epoxy resins, modification, vinyl-containing compounds, deformation and strength properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 576614 Farming Production in Brazil: Innovation and Land-Sparing Effect
Authors: Isabela Romanha de Alcantara, José Eustáquio Ribeiro Vieira Filho, José Garcia Gasques
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Innovation and technology can be determinant factors to ensure agricultural and sustainable growth, as well as productivity gains. Technical change has contributed considerably to supply agricultural expansion in Brazil. This agricultural growth could be achieved by incorporating more land or capital. If capital is the main source of agricultural growth, it is possible to increase production per unit of land. The objective of this paper is to estimate: 1) total factor productivity (TFP), which is measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input; and 2) the land-saving effect (LSE) that is the amount of land required in the case that yield rate is constant over time. According to this study, from 1990 to 2019, it appears that 87% of Brazilian agriculture product growth comes from the gains of productivity; the remaining 13% comes from input growth. In the same period, the total LSE was roughly 400 Mha, which corresponds to 47% of the national territory. These effects reflect the greater efficiency of using productive factors, whose technical change has allowed an increase in the agricultural production based on productivity gains.
Keywords: agriculture, land-saving effect, livestock, productivity
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 760613 The Use of Fractional Brownian Motion in the Generation of Bed Topography for Bodies of Water Coupled with the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Authors: Elysia Barker, Jian Guo Zhou, Ling Qian, Steve Decent
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A method of modelling topography used in the simulation of riverbeds is proposed in this paper which removes the need for datapoints and measurements of a physical terrain. While complex scans of the contours of a surface can be achieved with other methods, this requires specialised tools which the proposed method overcomes by using fractional Brownian motion (FBM) as a basis to estimate the real surface within a 15% margin of error while attempting to optimise algorithmic efficiency. This removes the need for complex, expensive equipment and reduces resources spent modelling bed topography. This method also accounts for the change in topography over time due to erosion, sediment transport, and other external factors which could affect the topography of the ground by updating its parameters and generating a new bed. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate both stationary and steady flow cases in a side-by-side comparison over the generated bed topography using the proposed method, and a test case taken from an external source. The method, if successful, will be incorporated into the current LBM program used in the testing phase, which will allow an automatic generation of topography for the given situation in future research, removing the need for bed data to be specified.
Keywords: Bed topography, FBM, LBM, shallow water, simulations.
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