Search results for: environmental quality

Authors: Nino Abesadze, Marine Mindorashvili, Nino Paresashvili

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The main purpose of the article is to make complex statistical analysis of tourist expenses of foreign visitors. We used mixed technique of selection that implies rules of random and proportional selection. Computer software SPSS was used to compute statistical data for corresponding analysis. Corresponding methodology of tourism statistics was implemented according to international standards. Important information was collected and grouped from the major Georgian airports. Techniques of statistical observation were prepared. A representative population of foreign visitors and a rule of selection of respondents were determined. We have a trend of growth of tourist numbers and share of tourists from post-soviet countries constantly increases. Level of satisfaction with tourist facilities and quality of service has grown, but still we have a problem of disparity between quality of service and prices. The design of tourist expenses of foreign visitors is diverse; competitiveness of tourist products of Georgian tourist companies is higher.

Keywords: Tourist, expenses, methods, statistics, analysis.

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Authors: Kei Fujii, Jun Okawa, Kaori Suigetsu

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Concatenative speech synthesis is a method that can make speech sound which has naturalness and high-individuality of a speaker by introducing a large speech corpus. Based on this method, in this paper, we propose a voice conversion method whose conversion speech has high-individuality and naturalness. The authors also have two subjective evaluation experiments for evaluating individuality and sound quality of conversion speech. From the results, following three facts have be confirmed: (a) the proposal method can convert the individuality of speakers well, (b) employing the framework of unit selection (especially join cost) of concatenative speech synthesis into conventional voice conversion improves the sound quality of conversion speech, and (c) the proposal method is robust against the difference of genders between a source speaker and a target speaker.

Keywords: concatenative speech synthesis, join cost, speaker individuality, unit selection, voice conversion

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Authors: Dilek Özdemir, Gül Tekin Temur

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In Supply Chain Management (SCM), strengthening partnerships with suppliers is a significant factor for enhancing competitiveness. Hence, firms increasingly emphasize supplier evaluation processes. Supplier evaluation systems are basically developed in terms of criteria such as quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility. Because there are many variables to be analyzed, this process becomes hard to execute and needs expertise. On this account, this study aims to develop an expert system on supplier evaluation process by designing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) that is supported with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The methods are applied on the data of 24 suppliers, which have longterm relationships with a medium sized company from German Iron and Steel Industry. The data of suppliers consists of variables such as material quality (MQ), discount of amount (DOA), discount of cash (DOC), payment term (PT), delivery time (DT) and annual revenue (AR). Meanwhile, the efficiency that is generated by using DEA is added to the supplier evaluation system in order to use them as system outputs.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network (ANN), DataEnvelopment Analysis (DEA), Supplier Evaluation System.

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Authors: Ahmed A. D. Sarhan, S. R. Besharaty, Javad Akbaria, M. Hamdi

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The capability of CNC gantry milling machines in manufacturing long components has caused the expanded use of such machines. On the other hand, the machines’ gantry rigidity can reduce under severe loads or vibration during operation. Indeed, the quality of machining is dependent on the machine’s dynamic behavior throughout the operating process. For this reason, these types of machines have always been used widely and are not efficient. Therefore, they can usually be employed for rough machining and may not produce adequate surface finishing. In this paper, a CNC gantry milling machine with the potential to produce good surface finish has been designed and analyzed. The lowest natural frequency of this machine is 202 Hz corresponding to 12000 rpm at all motion amplitudes with a full range of suitable frequency responses. Meanwhile, the maximum deformation under dead loads for the gantry machine is 0.565*m, indicating that this machine tool is capable of producing higher product quality.

Keywords: Finite element, frequency response, gantry design, gantry machine, static and dynamic analysis.

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Authors: Low Khong Teck, Hasan S. M. Al-Khaffaf, Abdullah Zawawi Talib, Tan Kian Lam

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In this paper, an extended study is performed on the effect of different factors on the quality of vector data based on a previous study. In the noise factor, one kind of noise that appears in document images namely Gaussian noise is studied while the previous study involved only salt-and-pepper noise. High and low levels of noise are studied. For the noise cleaning methods, algorithms that were not covered in the previous study are used namely Median filters and its variants. For the vectorization factor, one of the best available commercial raster to vector software namely VPstudio is used to convert raster images into vector format. The performance of line detection will be judged based on objective performance evaluation method. The output of the performance evaluation is then analyzed statistically to highlight the factors that affect vector quality.

Keywords: Performance Evaluation, Vectorization, Median Filter, Gaussian Noise.

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Authors: Wanida Suwunniponth

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The objectives of this research paper was to study the influencing factors that contributed the willingness of consumers to purchase products online included quality of website, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, trust on online purchases, attitude towards online shopping and intentions to online purchases. The research was conducted in both quantitative and qualitative methods, by utilizing both questionnaire and in-depth interview. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 350 consumers who had online shopping experiences in Bangkok, Thailand. Statistics utilized in this research included descriptive statistics and path analysis.

The findings revealed that the factors concerning with quality of website, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness played an influence on trust in online shopping. Trust also played an influence on attitude towards online purchase, whereas trust and attitude towards online purchase manipulated the intention of online purchase.

Keywords: E-commerce, intention, online shopping, Technology acceptance model.

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Authors: Alireza Faed, David Forbes

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Complaints today have the ability to retain customer loyalty using state of the art systems and strategies in customer relationship management to analyze and respond to a plethora of customer perception. The Majority of companies are not aware of the beneficiary utilization of customer complaints for the sake of quality improvements. Also, some companies have problems determining how resolution of complaints can be profitable. In this study, we will define the problems and ascertain the importance of customer management system on the companies. Furthermore, we will determine the impact of such a system on efficiency, confidence, profitability and customer complaints. Eventually, we will develop methods and address the issues. In this paper, we used an open-ended questionnaire and distributed that to 30 randomly chosen respondents which were the passengers in an airport. We also define three hypotheses for our study and we will validate each of them. Then using frequency, Chi- Square and quality control method we optimized the size of customers- negative feedback and improved the process of customer retention.

Keywords: Complaint, Complaint management system, Customer relationship management, Retention.

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Authors: El Falaki Brahim, Khalidi Idrissi Mohammed, Bennani Samir

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E-learning is not restricted to the use of new technologies for the online content, but also induces the adoption of new approaches to improve the quality of education. This quality depends on the ability of these approaches (technical and pedagogical) to provide an adaptive learning environment. Thus, the environment should include features that convey intentions and meeting the educational needs of learners by providing a customized learning path to acquiring a competency concerned In our proposal, we believe that an individualized learning path requires knowledge of the learner. Therefore, it must pass through a personalization of diagnosis to identify precisely the competency gaps to fill, and reduce the cognitive load To personalize the diagnosis and pertinently measure the competency gap, we suggest implementing the formative assessment in the e-learning environment and we propose the introduction of a pre-regulation process in the area of formative assessment, involving its individualization and implementation in e-learning.

Keywords: Competency-Based-Approach, E-learning, Formative assessment, learner model, Modeling, pre-regulation process

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Authors: Mohammed Abaoli, Omer Kara

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The current research has investigated the soil quality status under dryland vegetation of Yabello district, Southern Ethiopia in which we should identify the nature and extent of salinity problem of the area for further research bases. About 48 soil samples were taken from 0-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 91-120 cm soil depths by opening 12 representative soil profile pits at 1.5 m depth. Soil color, texture, bulk density, Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Na, K, Mg, Ca, CaCO₃, gypsum (CaSO₄), pH, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) were analyzed. The dominant soil texture was silty-clay-loam.  Bulk density varied from 1.1 to 1.31 g/cm³. High SOC content was observed in 0-30 cm. The soil pH ranged from 7.1 to 8.6. The electrical conductivity shows indirect relationship with soil depth while CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ concentrations were observed in a direct relationship with depth. About 41% are non-saline, 38.31% saline, 15.23% saline-sodic and 5.46% sodic soils. Na concentration in saline soils was greater than Ca and Mg in all the soil depths. Ca and Mg contents were higher above 60 cm soil depth in non-saline soils. The concentrations of SO₂^-4 and HCO^-3 were observed to be higher at the most lower depth than upper. SAR value tends to be higher at lower depths in saline and saline-sodic soils, but decreases at lower depth of the non-saline soils. The distribution of ESP above 60 cm depth was in an increasing order in saline and saline-sodic soils. The result of the research has shown the direction to which extent of salinity we should consider for the Commiphora plant species we want to grow on the area. 

Keywords: Commiphora species, dryland vegetation, ecological significance, soil quality, salinity problem.

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Authors: R. M. R. Hussein

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Climate change is one of the greatest environmental, economic, and social challenges of our time. Urban transportation has had a major negative impact on our environment—most of our air pollution comes from transport. This paper explores ways to move toward a more sustainable transport system by focusing on creating a more efficient and livable city and improving the environmental efficiency of transport activity. The analytical study covers some international examples of applying sustainable transportation and uses them to suggest a frame work to develop the transportation system in Egypt to be sustainable and more intelligent.

Keywords: Eco-efficiency, electric vehicle, liveable city, sustainable transportation.

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Authors: E. Abustam, M. Yusuf, H. M. Ali, M. I. Said, F. N. Yuliati

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The aim of this study was to improve the durability and quality of Bali beef (M. Longissimus dorsi) and broiler carcass through the addition of liquid smoke as a natural preservative. This study was using Longissimus dorsi muscle from male Bali beef aged 3 years, broiler breast and thigh aged 40 days. Three types of meat were marinated in liquid smoke with concentrations of 0, 5, and 10% for 30 minutes at the level of 20% of the sample weight (w/w). The samples were storage at 2-5°C for 1 month. This study designed as a factorial experiment 3 x 3 x 4 based on a completely randomized design with 5 replications; the first factor was meat type (beef, chicken breast and chicken thigh); the 2^nd factor was liquid smoke concentrations (0, 5, and 10%), and the 3^rd factor was storage duration (1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks). Parameters measured were TBA value, total bacterial colonies, water holding capacity (WHC), shear force value both before and after cooking (80°C – 15min.), and cooking loss. The results showed that the type of meat produced WHC, shear force value, cooking loss and TBA differed between the three types of meat. Higher concentration of liquid smoke, the WHC, shear force value, TBA, and total bacterial colonies were decreased; at a concentration of 10% of liquid smoke, the total bacterial colonies decreased by 57.3% from untreated with liquid smoke. Longer storage, the total bacterial colonies and WHC were increased, while the shear force value and cooking loss were decreased. It can be concluded that a 10% concentration of liquid smoke was able to maintain fat oxidation and bacterial growth in Bali beef and chicken breast and thigh.

Keywords: Bali beef, chicken meat, liquid smoke, meat quality.

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Authors: G. Dottavio, M. F. Andrade, F. Renard, V. Cheutet, A.-L. L. S. Vercraene, P. Hoang, S. Briet, R. Dachicourt, Y. Baizet

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An important number of technological equipment and high-skilled workers over long periods of time have to be mobilized during nuclear decommissioning processes. The related operations generate complex flows of waste and high inventory levels, associated to information flows of heterogeneous types. Taking into account that more than 10 decommissioning operations are on-going in France and about 50 are expected toward 2025: A big challenge is addressed today. The management of decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear installations represents an important part of the nuclear-based energy lifecycle, since it has an environmental impact as well as an important influence on the electricity cost and therefore the price for end-users. Bringing new technologies and new solutions into decommissioning methodologies is thus mandatory to improve the quality, cost and delay efficiency of these operations. The purpose of our project is to improve decommissioning management efficiency by developing a decision-support framework dedicated to plan nuclear facility decommissioning operations and to optimize waste evacuation by means of a logistic approach. The target is to create an easy-to-handle tool capable of i) predicting waste flows and proposing the best decommissioning logistics scenario and ii) managing information during all the steps of the process and following the progress: planning, resources, delays, authorizations, saturation zones, waste volume, etc. In this article we present our results from waste nuclear flows simulation during decommissioning process, including discrete-event simulation supported by FLEXSIM 3-D software. This approach was successfully tested and our works confirms its ability to improve this type of industrial process by identifying the critical points of the chain and optimizing it by identifying improvement actions. This type of simulation, executed before the start of the process operations on the basis of a first conception, allow ‘what-if’ process evaluation and help to ensure quality of the process in an uncertain context. The simulation of nuclear waste flows before evacuation from the site will help reducing the cost and duration of the decommissioning process by optimizing the planning and the use of resources, transitional storage and expensive radioactive waste containers. Additional benefits are expected for the governance system of the waste evacuation since it will enable a shared responsibility of the waste flows.

Keywords: Nuclear decommissioning, logistical optimization, decision-support framework, waste management.

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Authors: E. Sarauskis, L. Masilionyte, Z. Kriauciuniene, K. Romaneckas, S. Buragiene

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In maize growing technologies, tillage technological operations are the most time-consuming and require the greatest fuel input. Substitution of conventional tillage, involving deep ploughing, by other reduced tillage methods can reduce technological production costs, diminish soil degradation and environmental pollution from greenhouse gas emissions, as well as improve economic competitiveness of agricultural produce.

Experiments designed to assess energy and environmental aspects associated with different reduced tillage systems, applied in maize cultivation were conducted at Aleksandras Stulginskis University taking into account Lithuania’s economic and climate conditions. The study involved 5 tillage treatments: deep ploughing (DP, control), shallow ploughing (SP), deep cultivation (DC), shallow cultivation (SC) and no-tillage (NT).

Our experimental evidence suggests that with the application of reduced tillage systems it is feasible to reduce fuel consumption by 13-58% and working time input by 8.4% to nearly 3-fold, to reduce the cost price of maize cultivation technological operations, decrease environmental pollution with CO₂ gas by 30 to 146 kg ha^-1, compared with the deep ploughing.

Keywords: Reduced tillage, energy and environmental assessment, fuel consumption, CO2 emission, maize.

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Authors: Dinesh Kumar, Y. S. Brar, V. K. Banga

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Multicast Network Technology has pervaded our lives-a few examples of the Networking Techniques and also for the improvement of various routing devices we use. As we know the Multicast Data is a technology offers many applications to the user such as high speed voice, high speed data services, which is presently dominated by the Normal networking and the cable system and digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Advantages of Multi cast Broadcast such as over other routing techniques. Usually QoS (Quality of Service) Guarantees are required in most of Multicast applications. The bandwidth-delay constrained optimization and we use a multi objective model and routing approach based on genetic algorithm that optimizes multiple QoS parameters simultaneously. The proposed approach is non-dominated routes and the performance with high efficiency of GA. Its betterment and high optimization has been verified. We have also introduced and correlate the result of multicast GA with the Broadband wireless to minimize the delay in the path.

Keywords: GA (genetic Algorithms), Quality of Service, MOGA, Steiner Tree.

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Authors: Jonathan Sahu, Jill Aylott

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Individuals with Autism, Intellectual and Developmental disabilities (AIDD) are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, hampered not only by their own limitations to understand and interact with the wider society, but also societal limitations in perception and understanding. Communication to express their needs and wishes is fundamental to enable such individuals to live and prosper in society. This research project was designed as an organisational case study, in a large secondary health care hospital within the National Health Service (NHS), to assess the quality of care provided to people with AIDD and to review the role of advocacy to reduce health inequalities in these individuals. Methods: The research methodology adopted was as an “insider researcher”. Data collection included both quantitative and qualitative data i.e. a mixed method approach. A semi-structured interview schedule was designed and used to obtain qualitative and quantitative primary data from a wide range of interdisciplinary frontline health care workers to assess their understanding and awareness of systems, processes and evidence based practice to offer a quality service to people with AIDD. Secondary data were obtained from sources within the organisation, in keeping with “Case Study” as a primary method, and organisational performance data were then compared against national benchmarking standards. Further data sources were accessed to help evaluate the effectiveness of different types of advocacy that were present in the organisation. This was gauged by measures of user and carer experience in the form of retrospective survey analysis, incidents and complaints. Results: Secondary data demonstrate near compliance of the Organisation with the current national benchmarking standard (Monitor Compliance Framework). However, primary data demonstrate poor knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, poor knowledge of organisational systems, processes and evidence based practice applied for people with AIDD. In addition there was poor knowledge and awareness of frontline health care workers of advocacy and advocacy schemes for this group. Conclusions: A significant amount of work needs to be undertaken to improve the quality of care delivered to individuals with AIDD. An operational strategy promoting the widespread dissemination of information may not be the best approach to deliver quality care and optimal patient experience and patient advocacy. In addition, a more robust set of standards, with appropriate metrics, needs to be developed to assess organisational performance which will stand the test of professional and public scrutiny.

Keywords: Autism, intellectual developmental disabilities, advocacy, health inequalities, quality of care.

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Authors: Meeta Ratawa Tiwary

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Damaturu is the capital of Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria where civic amenities and facilities are not adequate even after 24 years of its existence. The volatile security and political situations are most significant causes for the same. The basic facility for the citizens in terms of drinking water and electricity are not available. For the drinking water, they have to rely on personal boreholes or the filtered borehole waters available in packaged sachets in market. The present study is concerned with environmental impact of indiscriminate disposal of drinking synthetic polythene water sachets in Damaturu. The sachet water is popularly called as “pure water”, but its purity is questionable. Increased production and consumption of sachet water has led to indiscriminate dumping and disposal of empty sachets leading to serious environmental threat. The evidence of this is seen for sachets littering the streets and the drainages blocked by ‘blocks’ of water sachet waste. Sachet water gained much popularity in Nigeria because the product is convenient for use, affordable and economically viable. The present study aims to find out the solution to this environmental problem. The fieldbased study has found some significant factors that cause environmental and socio economic effect due to this. Some recommendations have been made based on research findings regarding sustainable waste management, recycling and re-use of the non-biodegradable products in society.

Keywords: Civic amenities, non-biodegradable, pure water, sustainable environment, waste disposal.

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Authors: Ioannis Manikas

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The increased consumer demand for environmentally friendly production and distribution practices and the stricter environmental regulations turned environmental aspects into important criteria in business decision-making. On the other hand, Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) has evolved dramatically during the last decades in theory and practice serving as a reference point for exchanging experiences among all agents involved in programs and projects to fostering policy and strategy development. Global pressures make it more important than ever to gain a better understanding of the contribution that agrifood businesses make to FNS and to examine ways to make them more resilient in an increasingly globalized and uncertain world. This study extends the standard three-dimensional model of sustainability to include two more dimensions: A technological dimension and a policy/political dimension. Apart from the economic, environmental and social dimensions regularly used in sustainability literature, the extended model will accurately represent the measures and policies addressing food and nutrition security.

Keywords: Food and nutrition security, sustainability, food safety, resilience.

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Authors: Louis Denis Kevin Catherine, Raja Aziz Raja Ma’arof, Azrina Arshad, Sangeeth Suresh

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Machining parameters are very important in determining the surface quality of any material. In the past decade, some new engineering materials were developed for the manufacturing industry which created a need to conduct an investigation on the impact of the said parameters on their surface roughness. Polyurethane (PU) block is widely used in the automotive industry to manufacture parts such as checking fixtures that are used to verify the dimensional accuracy of automotive parts. In this paper, the design of experiment (DOE) was used to investigate on the effect of the milling parameters on the PU block. Furthermore, an analysis of the machined surface chemical composition was done using scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that the surface roughness of the PU block is severely affected when PU undergoes a flood machining process instead of a dry condition. In addition the stepover and the silicon content were found to be the most significant parameters that influence the surface quality of the PU block.

Keywords: Polyurethane (PU), design of experiment (DOE), scanning electron microscope (SEM), surface roughness.

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Authors: T. Arsan

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Video streaming over lossy IP networks is very important issues, due to the heterogeneous structure of networks. Infrastructure of the Internet exhibits variable bandwidths, delays, congestions and time-varying packet losses. Because of variable attributes of the Internet, video streaming applications should not only have a good end-to-end transport performance but also have a robust rate control, furthermore multipath rate allocation mechanism. So for providing the video streaming service quality, some other components such as Bandwidth Estimation and Adaptive Rate Controller should be taken into consideration. This paper gives an overview of video streaming concept and bandwidth estimation tools and then introduces special architectures for bandwidth adaptive video streaming. A bandwidth estimation algorithm – pathChirp, Optimized Rate Controllers and Multipath Rate Allocation Algorithm are considered as all-in-one solution for video streaming problem. This solution is directed and optimized by a decision center which is designed for obtaining the maximum quality at the receiving side.

Keywords: Adaptive Video Streaming, Bandwidth Estimation, QoS, Software Architecture.

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Authors: Monika Chuchro

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This paper presents a preliminary attempt to apply classification of time series using meta-clusters in order to improve the quality of regression models. In this case, clustering was performed as a method to obtain subgroups of time series data with normal distribution from the inflow into wastewater treatment plant data, composed of several groups differing by mean value. Two simple algorithms, K-mean and EM, were chosen as a clustering method. The Rand index was used to measure the similarity. After simple meta-clustering, a regression model was performed for each subgroups. The final model was a sum of the subgroups models. The quality of the obtained model was compared with the regression model made using the same explanatory variables, but with no clustering of data. Results were compared using determination coefficient (R2), measure of prediction accuracy- mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and comparison on a linear chart. Preliminary results allow us to foresee the potential of the presented technique.

Keywords: Clustering, Data analysis, Data mining, Predictive models.

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Authors: Mahdi Hayatdavudi, Ali Reza Rajabi, Mohammad Hassan Raouf, Mojtaba Saeedimoghadam, Amir Habibi

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Generally, distributed generation units refer to small-scale electric power generators that produce electricity at a site close to the customer or an electric distribution system (in parallel mode). From the customers’ point of view, a potentially lower cost, higher service reliability, high power quality, increased energy efficiency, and energy independence can be the key points of a proper DG unit. Moreover, the use of renewable types of distributed generations such as wind, photovoltaic, geothermal or hydroelectric power can also provide significant environmental benefits. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to study their impacts on the distribution networks. A marked increase in Distributed Generation (DG), associated with medium voltage distribution networks, may be expected. Nowadays, distribution networks are planned for unidirectional power flows that are peculiar to passive systems, and voltage control is carried out exclusively by varying the tap position of the HV/MV transformer. This paper will compare different DG control methods and possible network reconfiguration aimed at assessing their effect on voltage profiles.

Keywords: Distribution Feeder Reconfiguration (DFR), Distributed Generator (DG), Voltage Profile, Control.

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Authors: Haodong Wu, Ping Huang, Junsan Wang

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In China, with the rapid urbanization and industrialization, and highly accelerated economic development have resulted in degradation of water resource. The water quality deterioration usual result from eutrophication in most cases, so how to dispose this type pollution water higher efficiently is an urgent task. Hower, different with traditional technology, constructed wetlands are effective treatment systems that can be very useful because they are simple technology and low operational cost. A pilot-scale treatment including constructed wetlands was constructed at XingYun Lake, Yuxi, China, and operated as primary treatment measure before eutrophic-lake water draining to riverine landscape. Water quality indices were determined during the experiment, the results indicated that treatment removal efficiencies were high for Nitrate nitrogen, Chlorophyll–a and Algae, the final removal efficiency reached to 95.20%, 93.33% and 99.87% respectively, but the removal efficiency of Total phosphorous and Total nitrogen only reach to 68.83% and 50.00% respectively.

Keywords: Constructed wetland, Eutrophic-lake water, Nutrientremoval, Removal efficiency

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Authors: Kouassi Dongo, Christian Zurbrügg, Gueladio Cissé1, Brigit Obrist, Marcel Tanner, Jean Biémi

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This study analyzed environmental health risks and people-s perceptions of risks related to waste management in poor settlements of Abidjan, to develop integrated solutions for health and well-being improvement. The trans-disciplinary approach used relied on remote sensing, a geographic information system (GIS), qualitative and quantitative methods such as interviews and a household survey (n=1800). Mitigating strategies were then developed using an integrated participatory stakeholder workshop. Waste management deficiencies resulting in lack of drainage and uncontrolled solid and liquid waste disposal in the poor settlements lead to severe environmental health risks. Health problems were caused by direct handling of waste, as well as through broader exposure of the population. People in poor settlements had little awareness of health risks related to waste management in their community and a general lack of knowledge pertaining to sanitation systems. This unfortunate combination was the key determinant affecting the health and vulnerability. For example, an increased prevalence of malaria (47.1%) and diarrhoea (19.2%) was observed in the rainy season when compared to the dry season (32.3% and 14.3%). Concerted and adapted solutions that suited all the stakeholders concerned were developed in a participatory workshop to allow for improvement of health and well-being.

Keywords: Abidjan, environmental health risks, informalsettlements, vulnerability, waste management.

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Authors: Qi Xiu, Hiromu Hota, Yohsuke Ishii, Takuya Oda

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Recently, collectable manufacturing data are rapidly increasing. On the other hand, mega recall is getting serious as a social problem. Under such circumstances, there are increasing needs for preventing mega recalls by defect analysis such as root cause analysis and abnormal detection utilizing manufacturing data. However, the time to classify strings in manufacturing data by traditional method is too long to meet requirement of quick defect analysis. Therefore, we present String Length Distribution Classification method (SLDC) to correctly classify strings in a short time. This method learns character features, especially string length distribution from Product ID, Machine ID in BOM and asset list. By applying the proposal to strings in actual manufacturing data, we verified that the classification time of strings can be reduced by 80%. As a result, it can be estimated that the requirement of quick defect analysis can be fulfilled.

Keywords: Data quality, feature selection, probability distribution, string classification, string length.

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Authors: Joohee Kim

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This paper presents a video transmission system using layered multiple description (coding (MDC) and multi-path transport for reliable video communications in wireless ad-hoc networks. The proposed MDC extends a quality-scalable H.264/AVC video coding algorithm to generate two independent descriptions. The two descriptions are transmitted over different paths to a receiver in order to alleviate the effect of unstable channel conditions of wireless adhoc networks. If one description is lost due to transmission erros, then the correctly received description is used to estimate the lost information of the corrupted description. The proposed MD coder maintains an adequate video quality as long as both description are not simultaneously lost. Simulation results show that the proposed MD coding combined with multi-path transport system is largely immune to packet losses, and therefore, can be a promising solution for robust video communications over wireless ad-hoc networks.

Keywords: Multiple description coding, wireless video streaming, rate control.

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Authors: V. Lakshmi Narasimhan, Bayu Hendradjaya

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We have defined two suites of metrics, which cover static and dynamic aspects of component assembly. The static metrics measure complexity and criticality of component assembly, wherein complexity is measured using Component Packing Density and Component Interaction Density metrics. Further, four criticality conditions namely, Link, Bridge, Inheritance and Size criticalities have been identified and quantified. The complexity and criticality metrics are combined to form a Triangular Metric, which can be used to classify the type and nature of applications. Dynamic metrics are collected during the runtime of a complete application. Dynamic metrics are useful to identify super-component and to evaluate the degree of utilisation of various components. In this paper both static and dynamic metrics are evaluated using Weyuker-s set of properties. The result shows that the metrics provide a valid means to measure issues in component assembly. We relate our metrics suite with McCall-s Quality Model and illustrate their impact on product quality and to the management of component-based product development.

Keywords: Component Assembly, Component Based SoftwareEngineering, CORBA Component Model, Software ComponentMetrics.

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Authors: Asmatullah Chaudhry, Anwar M. Mirza

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We present a general comparison of punctual kriging based image restoration for different neighbourhood sizes. The formulation of the technique under consideration is based on punctual kriging and fuzzy concepts for image restoration in spatial domain. Three different neighbourhood windows are considered to estimate the semivariance at different lags for studying its effect in reduction of negative weights resulted in punctual kriging, consequently restoration of degraded images. Our results show that effect of neighbourhood size higher than 5x5 on reduction in negative weights is insignificant. In addition, image quality measures, such as structure similarity indices, peak signal to noise ratios and the new variogram based quality measures; show that 3x3 window size gives better performance as compared with larger window sizes.

Keywords: Image restoration, punctual kriging, semi-variance, structure similarity index, negative weights in punctual kriging.

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Authors: Gianluigi De Mare, Tony Leopoldo Luigi Lenza, Rino Conte

Abstract:

The evolution of technology and construction techniques has enabled the upgrading of transport networks. In particular, the high-speed rail networks allow convoys to peak at above 300 km/h. These structures, however, often significantly impact the surrounding environment. Among the effects of greater importance are the ones provoked by the soundwave connected to train transit. The wave propagation affects the quality of life in areas surrounding the tracks, often for several hundred metres. There are substantial damages to properties (buildings and land), in terms of market depreciation. The present study, integrating expertise in acoustics, computering and evaluation fields, outlines a useful model to select project paths so as to minimize the noise impact and reduce the causes of possible litigation. It also facilitates the rational selection of initiatives to contain the environmental damage to the already existing railway tracks. The research is developed with reference to the Italian regulatory framework (usually more stringent than European and international standards) and refers to a case study concerning the high speed network in Italy.

Keywords: Impact, compensation for financial loss, depreciation of property, railway network design, genetic algorithms.

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Authors: Dana Aljadaa, Hasim Altan

Abstract:

Japan’s strategy is based on improving the current resources and productivity by identifying the environmental challenges to progress further in many areas. For example, it will help in understanding the competitive challenges in the industry, emerging innovation, and other progresses. The present study seeks to examine the characteristics of sustainable practices using materials that will last longer and following environmental policies. There has been a major emphasis since 1990s and onwards about recycling and preserving the environment. Furthermore, the present paper analyses and argues how national interest in policy increases resource productivity. It is a universal law, but these actions may be different based on the unique situation of the country. In addition, the present study explains some of the strategies developed by the Environmental Agency of Japan in the last few years. There are a few resources reviewed involving ‘Strategy for an Environmental Nation in the 21st Century’ from 2001, ‘Clean Asia Initiative’ from 2008, and ‘New Growth Strategy’ from 2010. The present paper also highlights the emphasis on increasing efficiency, as it is an important part of sustainability. We finally conclude by providing reasoning on the impact and positivity of reducing production and consumption on the environment, resulting in a productive and progressive Japan for the near and long term future.

Keywords: Green innovation, sustainable development, resource productivity, sound material-cycle society, waste management.

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Authors: Karim Shiraazi, Mahyar Asheghi Milani, Alireza Sadeghi, Eram Azami, Ahadollah Azami

Abstract:

A passive system "Qanat" is collection of some underground wells. A mother-well was dug in a place far from the city where they could reach to the water table maybe 100 meters underground, they dug other wells to direct water toward the city, with minimum possible gradient. Using the slope of the earth they could bring water close to the surface in the city. The source of water or the appearance of Qanat, land slope and the ownership lines are the important and effective factors in the formation of routes and the segment division of lands to the extent that making use of Qanat as the techniques of extracting underground waters creates a channel of routes with an organic order and hierarchy coinciding the slope of land and it also guides the Qanat waters in the tradition texture of salt desert and border provinces of it. Qanats are excavated in a specified distinction from each other. The quantity of water provided by Qanats depends on the kind of land, distance from mountain, geographical situation of them and the rate of water supply from the underground land. The rate of underground waters, possibility of Qanat excavation, number of Qanats and rate of their water supply from one hand and the quantity of cultivable fertile lands from the other hand are the important natural factors making the size of cities. In the same manner the cities with several Qanats have multi central textures. The location of cities is in direct relation with land quality, soil fertility and possibility of using underground water by excavating Qanats. Observing the allowable distance for Qanat watering is a determining factor for distance between villages and cities. Topography, land slope, soil quality, watering system, ownership, kind of cultivation, etc. are the effective factors in directing Qanats for excavation and guiding water toward the cultivable lands and it also causes the formation of different textures in land division of farming provinces. Several divisions such as orderly and wide, inorderly, thin and long, comb like, etc. are the introduction to organic order. And at the same time they are complete coincidence with environmental conditions in the typical development of ecological architecture and planning in the traditional cities and settlements order.

Keywords: Qanat, Settlement Formation, Hot-Arid Region, Sustainable Development

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