Search results for: Compact town

Authors: Christos Spandonidis, Stefanos Tsantilas, Elias Sedikos, Nektarios Galiatsatos, Fotios Giannopoulos, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Demagos, Dimitrios Reppas, Christos Giordamlis

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In the present paper, a low cost, compact and modular Internet of Things (IoT) platform for air quality monitoring in urban areas is presented. This platform comprises of dedicated low cost, low power hardware and the associated embedded software that enable measurement of particles (PM2.5 and PM10), NO, CO, CO₂ and O₃ concentration in the air, along with relative temperature and humidity. This integrated platform acts as part of a greater air pollution data collecting wireless network that is able to monitor the air quality in various regions and neighborhoods of an urban area, by providing sensor measurements at a high rate that reaches up to one sample per second. It is therefore suitable for Big Data analysis applications such as air quality forecasts, weather forecasts and traffic prediction. The first real world test for the developed platform took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, where 16 devices were installed in various buildings in the city. In the near future, many more of these devices are going to be installed in the greater Thessaloniki area, giving a detailed air quality map of the city.

Keywords: Distributed sensor system, environmental monitoring, Internet of Things, IoT, Smart Cities.

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Authors: N. Boudiaf

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One major difficulty that faces developers of concurrent and distributed software is analysis for concurrency based faults like deadlocks. Petri nets are used extensively in the verification of correctness of concurrent programs. ECATNets are a category of algebraic Petri nets based on a sound combination of algebraic abstract types and high-level Petri nets. ECATNets have 'sound' and 'complete' semantics because of their integration in rewriting logic and its programming language Maude. Rewriting logic is considered as one of very powerful logics in terms of description, verification and programming of concurrent systems We proposed previously a method for translating Ada-95 tasking programs to ECATNets formalism (Ada-ECATNet) and we showed that ECATNets formalism provides a more compact translation for Ada programs compared to the other approaches based on simple Petri nets or Colored Petri nets. We showed also previously how the ECATNet formalism offers to Ada many validation and verification tools like simulation, Model Checking, accessibility analysis and static analysis. In this paper, we describe the implementation of our translation of the Ada programs into ECATNets.

Keywords: Ada tasking, Analysis, Automatic Translation, ECATNets, Maude, Rewriting Logic.

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Authors: Si Mon Kueh, Tom J. Kazmierski

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There are about 1% of the world population suffering from the hidden disability known as epilepsy and major developing countries are not fully equipped to counter this problem. In order to reduce the inconvenience and danger of epilepsy, different methods have been researched by using a artificial neural network (ANN) classification to distinguish epileptic waveforms from normal brain waveforms. This paper outlines the aim of achieving massive ANN parallelization through a dedicated hardware using bit-serial processing. The design of this bit-serial Neural Processing Element (NPE) is presented which implements the functionality of a complete neuron using variable accuracy. The proposed design has been tested taking into consideration non-idealities of a hardware ANN. The NPE consists of a bit-serial multiplier which uses only 16 logic elements on an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA and a bit-serial ALU as well as a look-up table. Arrays of NPEs can be driven by a single controller which executes the neural processing algorithm. In conclusion, the proposed compact NPE design allows the construction of complex hardware ANNs that can be implemented in a portable equipment that suits the needs of a single epileptic patient in his or her daily activities to predict the occurrences of impending tonic conic seizures.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, bit-serial neural processor, FPGA, Neural Processing Element.

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Authors: Ashwani K. Rana, Narottam Chand, Vinod Kapoor

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This paper presents a new compact analytical model of the gate leakage current in high-k based nano scale MOSFET by assuming a two-step inelastic trap-assisted tunneling (ITAT) process as the conduction mechanism. This model is based on an inelastic trap-assisted tunneling (ITAT) mechanism combined with a semiempirical gate leakage current formulation in the BSIM 4 model. The gate tunneling currents have been calculated as a function of gate voltage for different gate dielectrics structures such as HfO2, Al2O3 and Si3N4 with EOT (equivalent oxide thickness) of 1.0 nm. The proposed model is compared and contrasted with santaurus simulation results to verify the accuracy of the model and excellent agreement is found between the analytical and simulated data. It is observed that proposed analytical model is suitable for different highk gate dielectrics simply by adjusting two fitting parameters. It was also shown that gate leakages reduced with the introduction of high-k gate dielectric in place of SiO2.

Keywords: Analytical model, High-k gate dielectrics, inelastic trap assisted tunneling, metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) devices.

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Authors: Mohammed Rziza, Mohamed El Aroussi, Mohammed El Hassouni, Sanaa Ghouzali, Driss Aboutajdine

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In this paper, an efficient local appearance feature extraction method based the multi-resolution Curvelet transform is proposed in order to further enhance the performance of the well known Linear Discriminant Analysis(LDA) method when applied to face recognition. Each face is described by a subset of band filtered images containing block-based Curvelet coefficients. These coefficients characterize the face texture and a set of simple statistical measures allows us to form compact and meaningful feature vectors. The proposed method is compared with some related feature extraction methods such as Principal component analysis (PCA), as well as Linear Discriminant Analysis LDA, and independent component Analysis (ICA). Two different muti-resolution transforms, Wavelet (DWT) and Contourlet, were also compared against the Block Based Curvelet-LDA algorithm. Experimental results on ORL, YALE and FERET face databases convince us that the proposed method provides a better representation of the class information and obtains much higher recognition accuracies.

Keywords: Curvelet, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) , Contourlet, Discreet Wavelet Transform, DWT, Block-based analysis, face recognition (FR).

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Authors: Yi-Ju Lee

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This study identified the hypothesised relationship between creative experience, and revisit intention of handmade oriental parasol umbrella in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. A face-to-face questionnaire survey was administered in Meinong town, Kaohsiung. The components of creative experience were found as “sense of achievement”, “unique learning” and “interaction with instructors” in creative tourism. The result also revealed significant positive relationships between creative experience and revisit intention in handmade activities. This paper provides additional suggestions for enhancing revisit intention and guidance regarding creative tourism.

Keywords: Creative tourism, Sense of achievement, Unique learning, Interaction with instructors, Folk art.

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Authors: Guneet Saini, Shahrukh, Sunil Sharma

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Traffic congestion is the most critical issue faced by those in the transportation profession today. Over the past few years, roundabouts have been recognized as a measure to promote efficiency at intersections globally. In developing countries like India, this type of intersection still faces a lot of issues, such as bottleneck situations, long queues and increased waiting times, due to increasing traffic which in turn affect the performance of the entire urban network. This research is a case study of a non-conventional roundabout, in terms of geometric design, in a small town in India. These types of roundabouts should be analyzed for their functionality in mixed traffic conditions, prevalent in many developing countries. Microscopic traffic simulation is an effective tool to analyze traffic conditions and estimate various measures of operational performance of intersections such as capacity, vehicle delay, queue length and Level of Service (LOS) of urban roadway network. This study involves analyzation of an unsymmetrical non-circular 6-legged roundabout known as “Kala Aam Chauraha” in a small town Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh, India using VISSIM simulation package which is the most widely used software for microscopic traffic simulation. For coding in VISSIM, data are collected from the site during morning and evening peak hours of a weekday and then analyzed for base model building. The model is calibrated on driving behavior and vehicle parameters and an optimal set of calibrated parameters is obtained followed by validation of the model to obtain the base model which can replicate the real field conditions. This calibrated and validated model is then used to analyze the prevailing operational traffic performance of the roundabout which is then compared with a proposed alternative to improve efficiency of roundabout network and to accommodate pedestrians in the geometry. The study results show that the alternative proposed is an advantage over the present roundabout as it considerably reduces congestion, vehicle delay and queue length and hence, successfully improves roundabout performance without compromising on pedestrian safety. The study proposes similar designs for modification of existing non-conventional roundabouts experiencing excessive delays and queues in order to improve their efficiency especially in the case of developing countries. From this study, it can be concluded that there is a need to improve the current geometry of such roundabouts to ensure better traffic performance and safety of drivers and pedestrians negotiating the intersection and hence this proposal may be considered as a best fit.

Keywords: Operational performance, roundabout, simulation, VISSIM, traffic.

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Authors: Krushna Mahapatra, Atefeh Dadvar, Brijesh Mainali

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Alabastern, a multicultural rental housing area in the Växjö city of Sweden, was identified as poor at recycling household waste compared to other housing areas in the town. In this paper, a qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted to understand the underlying causes of waste recycling behavior of the tenants. Results showed that majority of the studied participants perceived themselves to be environmentally friendly. They reported that they recycled household waste quite often, but it was the other tenants who did not sort their waste properly. The respondents identified the causes of the improper waste recycling as lack of attitude and awareness, limitation of communication, sense of insecurity, lack of means to transport bulky waste, limitation of the recycling room, and inadequate action by the housing company Växjöbostäder.

Keywords: Household behavior, multicultural, waste management, waste recycling.

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Authors: Fonseca Jully, Chia Maribel, Rodríguez Ilba

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This paper is a qualitative research report. A group of students form a public university in a small town in Colombia participated in this study which aimed at describing to what extend the use of social ads, published on the internet, helped to develop their critical thinking skills. Students’ productions, field notes, video recordings and direct observation were the instruments and techniques used by the researches in order to gather the data which was analyzed under the principles of grounded theory and triangulation. The implementation of social ads into the classroom evidenced a noticeable improvement in students’ ability to interpret and argue social issues, as well as, their self-improvement in oral and written production in English, as a foreign language.

Keywords: Ads, critical argumentation, critical thinking, social issues.

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Authors: Trevor N. Haas, Thomas van der Kolf

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South Africa has some regions which are susceptible to moderate seismic activity. A peak ground acceleration of between 0.1g and 0.15g can be expected in the southern parts of the Western Cape. Unreinforced Masonry (URM) is commonly used as a construction material for 2 to 5 storey buildings in underprivileged areas in and around Cape Town. URM is typically regarded as the material most vulnerable to damage when subjected to earthquake excitation. In this study, a three-storey URM building was analysed by applying seven earthquake time-histories, which can be expected to occur in South Africa using a finite element approach. Experimental data was used to calibrate the in- and out-of-plane stiffness of the URM. The results indicated that tensile cracking of the in-plane piers was the dominant failure mode. It is concluded that URM buildings of this type are at risk of failure especially if sufficient ductility is not provided. The results also showed that connection failure must be investigated further.

Keywords: URM, Seismic Analysis, FEM.

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Authors: Martin Lisý, Marek Baláš, Michal Špiláček, Zdeněk Skála

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This paper deals with the issue of biomass and sorted municipal waste gasification and cogeneration using hot-air turbo-set. It brings description of designed pilot plant with electrical output 80 kWe. The generated gas is burned in secondary combustion chamber located beyond the gas generator. Flue gas flows through the heat exchanger where the compressed air is heated and consequently brought to a micro turbine. Except description, this paper brings our basic experiences from operating of pilot plant (operating parameters, contributions, problems during operating, etc.). The principal advantage of the given cycle is the fact that there is no contact between the generated gas and the turbine. So there is no need for costly and complicated gas cleaning which is the main source of operating problems in direct use in combustion engines because the content of impurities in the gas causes operation problems to the units due to clogging and tarring of working surfaces of engines and turbines, which may lead as far as serious damage to the equipment under operation. Another merit is the compact container package making installation of the facility easier or making it relatively more mobile. We imagine, this solution of cogeneration from biomass or waste can be suitable for small industrial or communal applications, for low output cogeneration.

Keywords: Biomass, combustion, gasification, microcogeneration.

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Authors: Sajjad Farashi

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Neurons in the nervous system communicate with each other by producing electrical signals called spikes. To investigate the physiological function of nervous system it is essential to study the activity of neurons by detecting and sorting spikes in the recorded signal. In this paper a method is proposed for considering the spike sorting problem which is based on the nonlinear modeling of spikes using exponential autoregressive model. The genetic algorithm is utilized for model parameter estimation. In this regard some selected model coefficients are used as features for sorting purposes. For optimal selection of model coefficients, self-organizing feature map is used. The results show that modeling of spikes with nonlinear autoregressive model outperforms its linear counterpart. Also the extracted features based on the coefficients of exponential autoregressive model are better than wavelet based extracted features and get more compact and well-separated clusters. In the case of spikes different in small-scale structures where principal component analysis fails to get separated clouds in the feature space, the proposed method can obtain well-separated cluster which removes the necessity of applying complex classifiers.

Keywords: Exponential autoregressive model, Neural data, spike sorting, time series modeling.

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Authors: Stefan M. Goetz, Thomas Weyh, Hans-Georg Herzog

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The triumph of inductive neuro-stimulation since its rediscovery in the 1980s has been quite spectacular. In lots of branches ranging from clinical applications to basic research this system is absolutely indispensable. Nevertheless, the basic knowledge about the processes underlying the stimulation effect is still very rough and rarely refined in a quantitative way. This seems to be not only an inexcusable blank spot in biophysics and for stimulation prediction, but also a fundamental hindrance for technological progress. The already very sophisticated devices have reached a stage where further optimization requires better strategies than provided by simple linear membrane models of integrate-and-fire style. Addressing this problem for the first time, we suggest in the following text a way for virtual quantitative analysis of a stimulation system. Concomitantly, this ansatz seems to provide a route towards a better understanding by using nonlinear signal processing and taking the nerve as a filter that is adapted for neuronal magnetic stimulation. The model is compact and easy to adjust. The whole setup behaved very robustly during all performed tests. Exemplarily a recent innovative stimulator design known as cTMS is analyzed and dimensioned with this approach in the following. The results show hitherto unforeseen potentials.

Keywords: Theory of magnetic stimulation, inversion, optimization, high voltage oscillator, TMS, cTMS.

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Authors: Ildar Akhmadullin, Mayank Tyagi

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The subject of this paper is the design analysis of a single well power production unit from low enthalpy geothermal resources. A complexity of the project is defined by a low temperature heat source that usually makes such projects economically disadvantageous using the conventional binary power plant approach. A proposed new compact design is numerically analyzed. This paper describes a thermodynamic analysis, a working fluid choice, downhole heat exchanger (DHE) and turbine calculation results. The unit is able to produce 321 kW of electric power from a low enthalpy underground heat source utilizing n-Pentane as a working fluid. A geo-pressured reservoir located in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, USA is selected as a prototype for the field application. With a brine temperature of 126 , the optimal length of DHE is determined as 304.8 m (1000ft). All units (pipes, turbine, and pumps) are chosen from commercially available parts to bring this project closer to the industry requirements. Numerical calculations are based on petroleum industry standards. The project is sponsored by the Department of Energy of the US.

Keywords: Downhole Heat Exchangers, Geothermal Power Generation, Organic Rankine Cycle, Refrigerants, Working Fluids.

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Authors: Padmanabhan Balasubramanian, C. Ardil

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An effective approach for realizing the binary tree structure, representing a combinational logic functionality with enhanced throughput, is discussed in this paper. The optimization in maximum operating frequency was achieved through delay minimization, which in turn was possible by means of reducing the depth of the binary network. The proposed synthesis methodology has been validated by experimentation with FPGA as the target technology. Though our proposal is technology independent, yet the heuristic enables better optimization in throughput even after technology mapping for such Boolean functionality; whose reduced CNF form is associated with a lesser literal cost than its reduced DNF form at the Boolean equation level. For cases otherwise, our method converges to similar results as that of [12]. The practical results obtained for a variety of case studies demonstrate an improvement in the maximum throughput rate for Spartan IIE (XC2S50E-7FT256) and Spartan 3 (XC3S50-4PQ144) FPGA logic families by 10.49% and 13.68% respectively. With respect to the LUTs and IOBUFs required for physical implementation of the requisite non-regenerative logic functionality, the proposed method enabled savings to the tune of 44.35% and 44.67% respectively, over the existing efficient method available in literature [12].

Keywords: Binary logic tree, FPGA based design, Boolean function, Throughput rate, CNF, DNF.

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Authors: Antonio Breda d’Azevedo

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Regularity has often been present in the form of regular polyhedra or tessellations; classical examples are the nine regular polyhedra consisting of the five Platonic solids (regular convex polyhedra) and the four Kleper-Poinsot polyhedra. These polytopes can be seen as regular maps. Maps are cellular embeddings of graphs (with possibly multiple edges, loops or dangling edges) on compact connected (closed) surfaces with or without boundary. The n-dimensional abstract polytopes, particularly the regular ones, have gained popularity over recent years. The main focus of research has been their symmetries and regularity. Planification of polyhedra helps its spatial construction, yet it destroys its symmetries. To our knowledge there is no “planification” for n-dimensional polytopes. However we show that it is possible to make a “surfacification” of the n-dimensional polytope, that is, it is possible to construct a restrictedly-marked map representation of the abstract polytope on some surface that describes its combinatorial structures as well as all of its symmetries. We also show that there are infinitely many ways to do this; yet there is one that is more natural that describes reflections on the sides ((n−1)-faces) of n-simplices with reflections on the sides of n-polygons. We illustrate this construction with the 4-tetrahedron (a regular 4-polytope with automorphism group of size 120) and the 4-cube (a regular 4-polytope with automorphism group of size 384).

Keywords: Maps, representation, polytopes.

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Authors: Ziba Omidi, Min-Ki Kim

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This research presents the design, fabrication and application of a flavor sensor for an integrated electronic tongue and electronic nose that can allow rapid characterization of multi-component mixtures in a solution. The odor gas and liquid are separated using hydrophobic porous membrane in micro fluidic channel. The sensor uses an array composed of microbeads in micromachined cavities localized on silicon wafer. Sensing occurs via colorimetric and fluorescence changes to receptors and indicator molecules that are attached to termination sites on the polymeric microbeads. As a result, the sensor array system enables simultaneous and near-real-time analyses using small samples and reagent volumes with the capacity to incorporate significant redundancies. One of the key parts of the system is a passive pump driven only by capillary force. The hydrophilic surface of the fluidic structure draws the sample into the sensor array without any moving mechanical parts. Since there is no moving mechanical component in the structure, the size of the fluidic structure can be compact and the fabrication becomes simple when compared to the device including active microfluidic components. These factors should make the proposed system inexpensive to mass-produce, portable and compatible with biomedical applications.

Keywords: Optical Sensor, Semiconductor manufacturing, Smell sensor, Taste sensor.

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Authors: Ritu Vijay, Rekha Govil

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The design of a complete expansion that allows for compact representation of certain relevant classes of signals is a central problem in signal processing applications. Achieving such a representation means knowing the signal features for the purpose of denoising, classification, interpolation and forecasting. Multilayer Neural Networks are relatively a new class of techniques that are mathematically proven to approximate any continuous function arbitrarily well. Radial Basis Function Networks, which make use of Gaussian activation function, are also shown to be a universal approximator. In this age of ever-increasing digitization in the storage, processing, analysis and communication of information, there are numerous examples of applications where one needs to construct a continuously defined function or numerical algorithm to approximate, represent and reconstruct the given discrete data of a signal. Many a times one wishes to manipulate the data in a way that requires information not included explicitly in the data, which is done through interpolation and/or extrapolation. Tidal data are a very perfect example of time series and many statistical techniques have been applied for tidal data analysis and representation. ANN is recent addition to such techniques. In the present paper we describe the time series representation capabilities of a special type of ANN- Radial Basis Function networks and present the results of tidal data representation using RBF. Tidal data analysis & representation is one of the important requirements in marine science for forecasting.

Keywords: ANN, RBF, Tidal Data.

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Authors: Mariana Panayotova-Pencheva, Anetka Trifonova, Vassilena Dakova

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790 lungs from brown hares (Lepus europeus L.) from different regions of Bulgaria were investigated during the period 2009-2017. The parasitological status and pathomorphological features in the lungs were recorded. The following parasite species were established: one nematode - Protostrongylus tauricus (7.59% prevalence), one tapeworm – larva of Taenia pisiformis – Cysticercus pisiformis (3.04% prevalence) and one arthropod – larva of Linguatula serrata – Pentastomum dentatum (0.89% prevalence). Macroscopic lesions in the lungs were different depending on the causative agents. The infections with C. pisiformis and P. dentatum were attended with small, mainly superficial changes in the lungs. Protostrongylid infections were connected with different in appearance and burden macroscopic changes. In 77.7%, they were nodular, and in the rest of cases, they diffuse. The consistency of the lesions was compact. In most of the cases, alterations were grey in colour, rarely were dark-red or marble-like. In 91.7% of these cases, they were spread on the apical parts of large lung lobes. In 36.7% middle parts of the large lung lobes, and, in 26.7% small lung lobes, were also affected. The small lung lobes were never independently infected.

Keywords: Cysticercus pisiformis, Lepus europeus, lung lesions, Pentastomum dentatum, Protostrongylus tauricus.

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Authors: Hsin-Hung Chang, Jin-Lung Guan, Ming-Ta Yang

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This paper presents a compact thermoelectric power generator system based on temperature difference across the element. The system can transfer the burning heat energy to electric energy directly. The proposed system has a thermoelectric generator and a power control box. In the generator, there are 4 thermoelectric modules (TEMs), each of which uses 2 thermoelectric chips (TEs) and 2 cold sinks, 1 thermal absorber, and 1 thermal conduction flat board. In the power control box, there are 1 storing energy device, 1 converter, and 1 inverter. The total net generating power is about 11W. This system uses commercial portable gas stoves or burns timber or the coal as the heat source, which is easily obtained. It adopts solid-state thermoelectric chips as heat inverter parts. The system has the advantages of being light-weight, quite, and mobile, requiring no maintenance, and havng easily-supplied heat source. The system can be used a as long as burning is allowed. This system works well for highly-mobilized outdoors situations by providing a power for illumination, entertainment equipment or the wireless equipment at refuge. Under heavy storms such as typhoon, when the solar panels become ineffective and the wind-powered machines malfunction, the thermoelectric power generator can continue providing the vital power.

Keywords: Thermoelectric chip, seekback effect, thermo electric power generator.

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Authors: Ahmed N. Shmroukh, Ahmed Hamza H. Ali, Ali K. Abel-Rahman

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This study is experimentally targeting to develop effective in heat and mass transfer processes for the adsorbate to obtain applicable adsorption capacity data. This is done by using fin and tube heat exchanger core and the adsorbate is adhesive over its surface and located as the core of the adsorber. The pairs are activated carbon powder/R-134a, activated carbon powder/R-407c, activated carbon powder/R-507A, activated carbon granules/R-507A, activated carbon granules/R-407c and activated carbon granules/R-134a, at different adsorption temperatures of 25, 30, 35 and 50°C. The following is results is obtained: at adsorption temperature of 25 °C the maximum adsorption capacity is found to be 0.8352kg/kg for activated carbon powder with R-134a and the minimum adsorption capacity found to be 0.1583kg/kg for activated carbon granules with R-407c. While, at adsorption temperature of 50°C the maximum adsorption capacity is found to be 0.3207kg/kg for activated carbon powder with R-134a and the minimum adsorption capacity found to be 0.0609kg/kg for activated carbon granules with R-407c. Therefore, the activated carbon powder/R-134a pair is highly recommended to be used as adsorption refrigeration working pair because of its higher maximum adsorption capacity than the other tested pairs, to produce a compact, efficient and reliable for long life performance adsorption refrigeration system.

Keywords: Adsorption, Adsorbent/Adsorbate Pairs, Adsorption Capacity, Refrigeration.

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Mohammad Hossein Zade, E. Izadi, M. Hossein Zade

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The different seismic behavior of liquid storage tanks rather than conventional structures makes their responses more complicated. Uplifting and excessive settlement due to liquid sloshing are the most frequent damages in cylindrical liquid tanks after shell bucking failure modes. As a matter of fact, uses of liquid storage tanks because of the simple construction on compact layer of soil as a foundation are very conventional, but in some cases need to retrofit are essential. The tank seismic behavior can be improved by modifying dynamic characteristic of tank with verifying seismic loads as well as retrofitting and improving base ground. This paper focuses on a typical steel tank on loose, medium and stiff sandy soil and describes an evaluation of displacement of the tank before and after retrofitting. The Abaqus program was selected for its ability to include shell and structural steel elements, soil-structure interaction, and geometrical nonlinearities and contact type elements. The result shows considerable decreasing in settlement and uplifting in the case of retrofitted tank. Also, by increasing shear strength parameter of soil, the performance of the liquid storage tank under the case of seismic load increased.

Keywords: Steel tank, soil-structure, sandy soil, seismic load.

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Authors: Regine W. Vroom, Lysanne E. Vossen, Anoek M. Geers

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Industrial design engineering is an information and knowledge intensive job. Although Wikipedia offers a lot of this information, design engineers are better served with a wiki tailored to their job, offering information in a compact manner and functioning as a design tool. For that reason WikID has been developed. However for the viability of a wiki, an active user community is essential. The main subject of this paper is a study to the influence of the communication and the contents of WikID on the user-s willingness to contribute. At first the theory about a website-s first impression, general usability guidelines and user motivation in an online community is studied. Using this theory, the aspects of the current site are analyzed on their suitability. These results have been verified with a questionnaire amongst 66 industrial design engineers (or students industrial design engineering). The main conclusion is that design engineers are enchanted with the existence of WikID and its knowledge structure (taxonomy) but this structure has not become clear without any guidance. In other words, the knowledge structure is very helpful for inspiring and guiding design engineers through their tailored knowledge domain in WikID but this taxonomy has to be better communicated on the main page. Thereby the main page needs to be fitted more to the target group preferences.

Keywords: Industrial Design Engineering Knowledge, SemanticWiki, User Willingness to Contribute Knowledge to a Wiki, Influence of Website Content to User Activation.

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Authors: M. Boulakroune, M. Challal, H. Louazene, S. Fentiz

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This paper presents two types of microstrip bandpass filter (BPF) at microwave frequencies. The first one is a tunable BPF using planar patch resonators based on a varactor diode. The filter is formed by a triple mode circular patch resonator with two pairs of slots, in which the varactor diodes are connected. Indeed, this filter is initially centered at 2.4 GHz; the center frequency of the tunable patch filter could be tuned up to 1.8 GHz simultaneously with the bandwidth, reaching high tuning ranges. Lossless simulations were compared to those considering the substrate dielectric, conductor losses and the equivalent electrical circuit model of the tuning element in order to assess their effects. Within these variations, simulation results showed insertion loss better than 2 dB and return loss better than 10 dB over the passband. The second structure is a BPF for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications based on multiple-mode resonator (MMR) and rectangular-shaped defected ground structure (DGS). This filter, which is compact size of 25.2 x 3.8 mm2, provides in the pass band an insertion loss of 0.57 dB and a return loss greater than 12 dB. The proposed filters presents good performances and the simulation results are in satisfactory agreement with the experimentation ones reported elsewhere.

Keywords: Defected ground structure, varactor diode, microstrip bandpass filter, multiple-mode resonator.

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Authors: F. Saptouw

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This paper briefly reviews the range of curatorial interventions made to preserve and display the Timbuktu Manuscripts. The government of South Africa and Mali collaborated to preserve the manuscripts, and brief notes will be presented about the value of archives in those specific spaces. The research initiatives of the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project, based at the University of Cape Town, feature prominently in the text. A brief overview of the history of the archive will be presented and its preservation as a key turning point in curating the intellectual history of the continent. ­­­The strategies of preservation, curation, publication and digitization are presented as complimentary interventions. Each materialization of the manuscripts contributes something significant; the complexity of the contribution is dependent primarily on the format of presentation. This integrated reading of the manuscripts is presented as a means to gain a more nuanced understanding of the past, which greatly surpasses how much information would be gleaned from relying on a single media format.

Keywords: Archive, curatorship, cultural heritage, museum practice, Timbuktu manuscripts.

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Authors: Vipul M. Patel, H. B. Mehta

Abstract:

Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe (CLPHP) is a passive two-phase heat transfer device having potential to achieve high heat transfer rates over conventional cooling techniques. It is found in electronics cooling due to its outstanding characteristics such as excellent heat transfer performance, simple, reliable, cost effective, compact structure and no external mechanical power requirement etc. Comprehensive understanding of the thermo-hydrodynamic mechanism of CLPHP is still lacking due to its contradictory results available in the literature. The present paper discusses the experimental study on 9 turn CLPHP. Inner and outer diameters of the copper tube are 2 mm and 4 mm respectively. The lengths of the evaporator, adiabatic and condenser sections are 40 mm, 100 mm and 50 mm respectively. Water is used as working fluid. The Filling Ratio (FR) is kept as 50% throughout the investigations. The gravitational effect is studied by placing the evaporator heater at different orientations such as horizontal (90 degree), vertical top (180 degree) and bottom (0 degree) as well as inclined top (135 degree) and bottom (45 degree). Heat input is supplied in the range of 10-50 Watt. Heat transfer mechanism is natural convection in the condenser section. Vacuum pump is used to evacuate the system up to 10^-5 bar. The results demonstrate the influence of input heat flux and gravity on the thermal performance of the CLPHP.

Keywords: Closed loop pulsating heat pipe, gravity, heat input, orientation.

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Authors: László L. Lippai

Abstract:

In addition to the fact that mental health bears great significance to a particular individual, it can also be regarded as an organizational, community and societal resource. Within the Szeged Health Promotion Research Group, we conducted mental health surveys on two levels: The inhabitants of a medium-sized Hungarian town and students of a Hungarian university with a relatively big headcount were requested to participate in surveys whose goals were to define local government priorities and organization-level health promotion programmes, respectively. To facilitate professional decision-making, we defined three, pragmatically relevant, groups of the target population: the mentally healthy, the vulnerable and the endangered. In order to determine which group a person actually belongs to, we designed a simple and quick measurement tool, which could even be utilised as a smoothing method, the Mental State Questionnaire validity of the above three categories was verified by analysis of variance against psychological quality of life variables. We demonstrate the pragmatic significance of our method via the analyses of the scores of our two mental health surveys. On town level, during our representative survey in Hódmezővásárhely (N=1839), we found that 38.7% of the participants was mentally healthy, 35.3% was vulnerable, while 16.3% was considered as endangered. We were able to identify groups that were in a dramatic state in terms of mental health. For example, such a group consisted of men aged 45 to 64 with only primary education qualification and the ratios of the mentally healthy, vulnerable and endangered were 4.5, 45.5 and 50%, respectively. It was also astonishing to see to what a little extent qualification prevailed as a protective factor in the case of women. Based on our data, the female group aged 18 to 44 with primary education—of whom 20.3% was mentally healthy, 42.4% vulnerable and 37.3% was endangered—as well as the female group aged 45 to 64 with university or college degree—of whom 25% was mentally healthy, 51.3 vulnerable and 23.8% endangered—are to be handled as priority intervention target groups in a similarly difficult position. On organizational level, our survey involving the students of the University of Szeged, N=1565, provided data to prepare a strategy of mental health promotion for a university with a headcount exceeding 20,000. When developing an organizational strategy, it was important to gather information to estimate the proportions of target groups in which mental health promotion methods; for example, life management skills development, detection, psychological consultancy, psychotherapy, would be applied. Our scores show that 46.8% of the student participants were mentally healthy, 42.1% were vulnerable and 11.1% were endangered. These data convey relevant information as to the allocation of organizational resources within a university with a considerable headcount. In conclusion, The Mental State Questionnaire, as a valid smoothing method, is adequate to describe a community in a plain and informative way in the terms of mental health. The application of the method can promote the preparation, design and implementation of mental health promotion interventions. 

Keywords: Health promotion, mental health promotion, mental state questionnaire, psychological well-being.

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Authors: Nazeema Ahmed

Abstract:

Mental health in higher education has received increasing attention over the past few decades. The high academic demands of the engineering degree, coupled with students’ mental health challenges, have led to higher education institutions offering psychotherapeutic services to students. This paper discusses an evaluation of the psychotherapy service at the University of Cape Town. The aim was to determine (i) the efficacy of the service; and (ii) the impact of race, gender, and language of the therapist on the students’ therapeutic process. An online survey was sent to 109 students who attended psychotherapy. The majority expressed favorable experiences of psychotherapy, with reports of increased capacity to engage with their academic work. Most students did not experience the gender, race, or language of the psychologists to be barriers to their therapy. The findings point to a need for ongoing psychological support for students.

Keywords: Psychotherapy, efficacy, engineering, education.

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Authors: Abdulmajeed Bashir Mlitan, Ethan Hack

Abstract:

Soil samples were collected from and around Alkomos cement factory, Alkomos town, Libya. Soil physiochemical properties were determined. In addition, olive leaves were scanned for their fungal content. This work can conclude that the results obtained for the examined physiochemical characteristics of soil in the area studied prove that cement dust from the Alkomos cement factory in Libya has had a significant impact on the soil. The affected soil properties are pH and total calcium content. These characteristics were found to be higher than those in similar soils from the same area. The increment of soil pH in the same area may be a result of precipitation of cement dust over the years. Different responses were found in each season and each site. For instance, the dominance of fungi of soil and leaves was lowest at 100 m from the factory and the evenness and diversity increased at this site compared to the control area and 250 m from the factory.

Keywords: Pollution, Soil Microbial, Alkomos, Libya.

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Authors: Ashraf M. A. Ahmad

Abstract:

Delivering streaming video over wireless is an important component of many interactive multimedia applications running on personal wireless handset devices. Such personal devices have to be inexpensive, compact, and lightweight. But wireless channels have a high channel bit error rate and limited bandwidth. Delay variation of packets due to network congestion and the high bit error rate greatly degrades the quality of video at the handheld device. Therefore, mobile access to multimedia contents requires video transcoding functionality at the edge of the mobile network for interworking with heterogeneous networks and services. Therefore, to guarantee quality of service (QoS) delivered to the mobile user, a robust and efficient transcoding scheme should be deployed in mobile multimedia transporting network. Hence, this paper examines the challenges and limitations that the video transcoding schemes in mobile multimedia transporting network face. Then handheld resources, network conditions and content based mobile and wireless video transcoding is proposed to provide high QoS applications. Exceptional performance is demonstrated in the experiment results. These experiments were designed to verify and prove the robustness of the proposed approach. Extensive experiments have been conducted, and the results of various video clips with different bit rate and frame rate have been provided.

Keywords: Content, Object detection, Transcoding, Texture, Temporal, Video.

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