Search results for: hard steels.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 442

Search results for: hard steels.

382 The Classification Model for Hard Disk Drive Functional Tests under Sparse Data Conditions

Authors: S. Pattanapairoj, D. Chetchotsak

Abstract:

This paper proposed classification models that would be used as a proxy for hard disk drive (HDD) functional test equitant which required approximately more than two weeks to perform the HDD status classification in either “Pass" or “Fail". These models were constructed by using committee network which consisted of a number of single neural networks. This paper also included the method to solve the problem of sparseness data in failed part, which was called “enforce learning method". Our results reveal that the constructed classification models with the proposed method could perform well in the sparse data conditions and thus the models, which used a few seconds for HDD classification, could be used to substitute the HDD functional tests.

Keywords: Sparse data, Classifications, Committee network

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381 The Application of Line Balancing Technique and Simulation Program to Increase Productivity in Hard Disk Drive Components

Authors: Alonggot Limcharoen, Jintana Wannarat, Vorawat Panich

Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the balancing of the number of operators (Line Balancing technique) in the production line of hard disk drive components in order to increase efficiency. At present, the trend of using hard disk drives has continuously declined leading to limits in a company’s revenue potential. It is important to improve and develop the production process to create market share and to have the ability to compete with competitors with a higher value and quality. Therefore, an effective tool is needed to support such matters. In this research, the Arena program was applied to analyze the results both before and after the improvement. Finally, the precedent was used before proceeding with the real process. There were 14 work stations with 35 operators altogether in the RA production process where this study was conducted. In the actual process, the average production time was 84.03 seconds per product piece (by timing 30 times in each work station) along with a rating assessment by implementing the Westinghouse principles. This process showed that the rating was 123% underlying an assumption of 5% allowance time. Consequently, the standard time was 108.53 seconds per piece. The Takt time was calculated from customer needs divided by working duration in one day; 3.66 seconds per piece. Of these, the proper number of operators was 30 people. That meant five operators should be eliminated in order to increase the production process. After that, a production model was created from the actual process by using the Arena program to confirm model reliability; the outputs from imitation were compared with the original (actual process) and this comparison indicated that the same output meaning was reliable. Then, worker numbers and their job responsibilities were remodeled into the Arena program. Lastly, the efficiency of production process enhanced from 70.82% to 82.63% according to the target.

Keywords: Hard disk drive, line balancing, simulation, Arena program.

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380 Synthesis of Hard Magnetic Material from Secondary Resources

Authors: M. Bahgat, F. M. Awan, H. A. Hanafy, O. N. Alzeghaibi

Abstract:

Strontium hexaferrite (SrFe12O19; Sr-ferrite) is one of the well-known materials for permanent magnets. In this study, Mtype strontium ferrite was prepared by following the conventional ceramic method from steelmaking by-product. Initial materials; SrCO3 and by-product, were mixed together in the composition of SrFe12O19 in different Sr/Fe ratios. The mixtures of these raw materials were dry-milled for 6h. The blended powder was presintered (i.e. calcination) at 1000°C for different times periods, then cooled down to room temperature. These pre-sintered samples were re-milled in a dry atmosphere for 1h and then fired at different temperatures in atmospheric conditions, and cooled down to room temperature. The produced magnetic powder has a dense hexagonal grain shape structure. The calculated energy product values for the produced samples ranged from 0.3 to 2.4 MGOe.

Keywords: Ceramic route, Hard magnetic materials, Strontium ferrite.

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379 Modified Data Mining Approach for Defective Diagnosis in Hard Disk Drive Industry

Authors: S. Soommat, S. Patamatamkul, T. Prempridi, M. Sritulyachot, P. Ineure, S. Yimman

Abstract:

Currently, slider process of Hard Disk Drive Industry become more complex, defective diagnosis for yield improvement becomes more complicated and time-consumed. Manufacturing data analysis with data mining approach is widely used for solving that problem. The existing mining approach from combining of the KMean clustering, the machine oriented Kruskal-Wallis test and the multivariate chart were applied for defective diagnosis but it is still be a semiautomatic diagnosis system. This article aims to modify an algorithm to support an automatic decision for the existing approach. Based on the research framework, the new approach can do an automatic diagnosis and help engineer to find out the defective factors faster than the existing approach about 50%.

Keywords: Slider process, Defective diagnosis and Data mining.

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378 Enhancing Student Evaluation Through Student Idol

Authors: M. S. Roslina, M.O. Syahrul Hakimah Ong, S. F. Syarifah Fazlin

Abstract:

Since after the historical moment of Malaysia Independence Day on the year of 1957, the government had been trying hard in order to find the most efficient methods in learning. However, it is hard to actually access and evaluate students whom will then be called an excellent student. It because in our realtime student who excellent is only excel in academic. This evaluation become a problem because it not balance in our real life interm of to get an excellent student in whole area in their involvement of curiculum and co-curiculum. To overcome this scenario, we proposed a method called Student Idol to evaluate student through three categories which are academic, co-curiculum and leadership. All the categories have their own merit point. Using this method, student will be evaluated more accurate compared to the previously. So, teacher can easily evaluate their student without having any emotion factor, relation factor and others. As conclustion this method will helps student evaluation more accurate and valid.

Keywords: evaluation, curiculum, co-curriculum, idol.

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377 An Investigation of Shipping Comb Failures due to usage in Manufacturing Processes using RCFA and FMEA

Authors: Atjanakul W, Chutima S., Kamnerdthong T.

Abstract:

Shipping comb is mounted on Head Stack Assembly (HSA) to prevent collision of the heads, maintain the gap between suspensions and protect HSA tips from unintentional contact damaged in the manufacturing process. Failure analysis of shipping comb in hard disk drive production processes is proposed .Field observations were performed to determine the fatal areas on shipping comb and their failure fraction. Root cause failure analysis (RCFA) is applied to specify the failure causes subjected to various loading conditions. For reliability improvement, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) procedure to evaluate the risk priority is performed. Consequently, the more suitable information design criterions were obtained.

Keywords: Shipping comb, Hard disk drive, Root cause failureanalysis, Failure mode and effects analysis

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376 Performance Assessment in a Voice Coil Motor for Maximizing the Energy Harvesting with Gait Motions

Authors: Hector A. Tinoco, Cesar Garcia-Diaz, Olga L. Ocampo-Lopez

Abstract:

In this study, an experimental approach is established to assess the performance of different beams coupled to a Voice Coil Motor (VCM) with the aim to maximize mechanically the energy harvesting in the inductive transducer that is included on it. The VCM is extracted from a recycled hard disk drive (HDD) and it is adapted for carrying out experimental tests of energy harvesting. Two individuals were selected for walking with the VCM-beam device as well as to evaluate the performance varying two parameters in the beam; length of the beams and a mass addition. Results show that the energy harvesting is maximized with specific beams; however, the harvesting efficiency is improved when a mass is added to the end of the beams.

Keywords: Hard disk drive, HDD, energy harvesting, voice coil motor, VCM, energy harvester, gait motions.

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375 Empirical Mode Decomposition Based Denoising by Customized Thresholding

Authors: Wahiba Mohguen, Raïs El’hadi Bekka

Abstract:

This paper presents a denoising method called EMD-Custom that was based on Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and the modified Customized Thresholding Function (Custom) algorithms. EMD was applied to decompose adaptively a noisy signal into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Then, all the noisy IMFs got threshold by applying the presented thresholding function to suppress noise and to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The method was tested on simulated data and real ECG signal, and the results were compared to the EMD-Based signal denoising methods using the soft and hard thresholding. The results showed the superior performance of the proposed EMD-Custom denoising over the traditional approach. The performances were evaluated in terms of SNR in dB, and Mean Square Error (MSE).

Keywords: Customized thresholding, ECG signal, EMD, hard thresholding, Soft-thresholding.

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374 Numerical Simulation of Bio-Chemical Diffusion in Bone Scaffolds

Authors: Masoud Madadelahi, Amir Shamloo, Seyedeh Sara Salehi

Abstract:

Previously, some materials like solid metals and their alloys have been used as implants in human’s body. In order to amend fixation of these artificial hard human tissues, some porous structures have been introduced. In this way, tissues in vicinity of the porous structure can be attached more easily to the inserted implant. In particular, the porous bone scaffolds are useful since they can deliver important biomolecules like growth factors and proteins. This study focuses on the properties of the degradable porous hard tissues using a three-dimensional numerical Finite Element Method (FEM). The most important studied properties of these structures are diffusivity flux and concentration of different species like glucose, oxygen, and lactate. The process of cells migration into the scaffold is considered as a diffusion process, and related parameters are studied for different values of production/consumption rates.

Keywords: Bone scaffolds, diffusivity, numerical simulation, tissue engineering.

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373 Distinction between Manifestations of Diabetic Retinopathy and Dust Artifacts Using Three-Dimensional HSV Color Space

Authors: Naoto Suzuki

Abstract:

Many ophthalmologists find it difficult to distinguish between small retinal hemorrhages and dust artifacts when using fundus photography for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy. Six patients with diabetic retinopathy underwent fundus photography, which revealed dust artifacts in the photographs of some patients. We constructed an experimental device similar to the optical system of the fundus camera and colored the fundi of the artificial eyes with khaki, sunset, rose and sunflower colors. Using the experimental device, we photographed dust artifacts using each artificial eyes. We used Scilab 5.4.0 and SIVP 0.5.3 softwares to convert the red, green, and blue (RGB) color space to the hue, saturation, and value (HSV) color space. We calculated the differences between the areas of manifestations and perimanifestations and the areas of dust artifacts and periartifacts using average HSVs. The V values in HSV for the manifestations were as follows: hemorrhages, 0.06 ± 0.03; hard exudates, −0.12 ± 0.06; and photocoagulation marks, 0.07 ± 0.02. For dust artifacts, visualized in the human and artificial eyes, the V values were as follows: human eye, 0.19 ± 0.03; khaki, 0.41 ± 0.02; sunset, 0.43 ± 0.04; rose, 0.47 ± 0.11; and sunflower, 0.59 ± 0.07. For the human and artificial eyes, we calculated two sensitivity values of dust artifacts compared to manifestation areas. V values of the HSV color space enabled the differentiation of small hemorrhages, hard exudates, and photocoagulation marks from dust artifacts.

Keywords: Diabetic retinopathy, HSV color space, small hemorrhages, hard exudates, photocoagulation marks.

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372 Application of Recycled Tungsten Carbide Powder for Fabrication of Iron Based Powder Metallurgy Alloy

Authors: Yukinori Taniguchi, Kazuyoshi Kurita, Kohei Mizuta, Keigo Nishitani, Ryuichi Fukuda

Abstract:

Tungsten carbide is widely used as a tool material in metal manufacturing process. Since tungsten is typical rare metal, establishment of recycle process of tungsten carbide tools and restore into cemented carbide material bring great impact to metal manufacturing industry. Recently, recycle process of tungsten carbide has been developed and established gradually. However, the demands for quality of cemented carbide tool are quite severe because hardness, toughness, anti-wear ability, heat resistance, fatigue strength and so on should be guaranteed for precision machining and tool life. Currently, it is hard to restore the recycled tungsten carbide powder entirely as raw material for new processed cemented carbide tool. In this study, to suggest positive use of recycled tungsten carbide powder, we have tried to fabricate a carbon based sintered steel which shows reinforced mechanical properties with recycled tungsten carbide powder. We have made set of newly designed sintered steels. Compression test of sintered specimen in density ratio of 0.85 (which means 15% porosity inside) has been conducted. As results, at least 1.7 times higher in nominal strength in the amount of 7.0 wt.% was shown in recycled WC powder. The strength reached to over 600 MPa for the Fe-WC-Co-Cu sintered alloy. Wear test has been conducted by using ball-on-disk type friction tester using 5 mm diameter ball with normal force of 2 N in the dry conditions. Wear amount after 1,000 m running distance shows that about 1.5 times longer life was shown in designed sintered alloy. Since results of tensile test showed that same tendency in previous testing, it is concluded that designed sintered alloy can be used for several mechanical parts with special strength and anti-wear ability in relatively low cost due to recycled tungsten carbide powder.

Keywords: Tungsten carbide, recycle process, compression test, powder metallurgy, anti-wear ability.

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371 Evaluation of Groundwater Quality and Its Suitability for Drinking and Agricultural Purposes Using Self-Organizing Maps

Authors: L. Belkhiri, L. Mouni, A. Tiri, T.S. Narany

Abstract:

In the present study, the self-organizing map (SOM) clustering technique was applied to identify homogeneous clusters of hydrochemical parameters in El Milia plain, Algeria, to assess the quality of groundwater for potable and agricultural purposes. The visualization of SOM-analysis indicated that 35 groundwater samples collected in the study area were classified into three clusters, which showed progressive increase in electrical conductivity from cluster one to cluster three. Samples belonging to cluster one are mostly located in the recharge zone showing hard fresh water type, however, water type gradually changed to hard-brackish type in the discharge zone, including clusters two and three. Ionic ratio studies indicated the role of carbonate rock dissolution in increases on groundwater hardness, especially in cluster one. However, evaporation and evapotranspiration are the main processes increasing salinity in cluster two and three.

Keywords: Drinking water, groundwater quality, irrigation water, self-organizing maps.

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370 Long-term Monitor of Seawater by using TiO2:Ru Sensing Electrode for Hard Clam Cultivation

Authors: Jung-Chuan Chou, Cheng-Wei Chen

Abstract:

The hard clam (meretrix lusoria) cultivated industry has been developed vigorously for recent years in Taiwan, and seawater quality determines the cultivated environment. The pH concentration variation affects survival rate of meretrix lusoria immediately. In order to monitor seawater quality, solid-state sensing electrode of ruthenium-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2:Ru) is developed to measure hydrogen ion concentration in different cultivated solutions. Because the TiO2:Ru sensing electrode has high chemical stability and superior sensing characteristics, thus it is applied as a pH sensor. Response voltages of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are readout by instrument amplifier in different sample solutions. Mean sensitivity and linearity of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are 55.20 mV/pH and 0.999 from pH1 to pH13, respectively. We expect that the TiO2:Ru sensing electrode can be applied to real environment measurement, therefore we collect two sample solutions by different meretrix lusoria cultivated ponds in the Yunlin, Taiwan. The two sample solutions are both measured for 200 seconds after calibration of standard pH buffer solutions (pH7, pH8 and pH 9). Mean response voltages of sample 1 and sample 2 are -178.758 mV (Standard deviation=0.427 mV) and -180.206 mV (Standard deviation =0.399 mV), respectively. Response voltages of the two sample solutions are between pH 8 and pH 9 which conform to weak alkali range and suitable meretrix lusoria growth. For long-term monitoring, drift of cultivated solutions (sample 1 and sample 2) are 1.16 mV/hour and 1.03 mV/hour, respectively.

Keywords: Co-sputtering system, Hard clam (meretrix lusoria), Ruthenium-doped titanium dioxide, Solid-state sensing electrode.

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369 Comparison of Zero Voltage Soft Switching and Hard Switching Boost Converter with Maximum Power Point Tracking

Authors: N. Ravi Kumar, R. Kamalakannan

Abstract:

The inherent nature of normal boost converter has more voltage stress across the power electronics switch and ripple. The presented formation of the front end rectifier stage for a photovoltaic (PV) organization is mainly used to give the supply. Further increasing of the solar efficiency is achieved by connecting the zero voltage soft switching boost converter. The zero voltage boost converter is used to convert the low level DC voltage to high level DC voltage. The inherent nature of zero voltage switching boost converter is used to shrink the voltage tension across the power electronics switch and ripple. The input stage allows the determined power point tracking to be used to extract supreme power from the sun when it is available. The hardware setup was implemented by using PIC Micro controller (16F877A).

Keywords: Boost converter, duty cycle, hard switching, MOSFET, maximum power point tracking, photovoltaic, soft switching, zero voltage switching.

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368 Music-Inspired Harmony Search Algorithm for Fixed Outline Non-Slicing VLSI Floorplanning

Authors: K. Sivasubramanian, K. B. Jayanthi

Abstract:

Floorplanning plays a vital role in the physical design process of Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) chips. It is an essential design step to estimate the chip area prior to the optimized placement of digital blocks and their interconnections. Since VLSI floorplanning is an NP-hard problem, many optimization techniques were adopted in the literature. In this work, a music-inspired Harmony Search (HS) algorithm is used for the fixed die outline constrained floorplanning, with the aim of reducing the total chip area. HS draws inspiration from the musical improvisation process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. Initially, B*-tree is used to generate the primary floorplan for the given rectangular hard modules and then HS algorithm is applied to obtain an optimal solution for the efficient floorplan. The experimental results of the HS algorithm are obtained for the MCNC benchmark circuits.

Keywords: Floor planning, harmony search, non-slicing floorplan, very large scale integrated circuits.

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367 Network Coding-based ARQ scheme with Overlapping Selection for Resource Limited Multicast/Broadcast Services

Authors: Jung-Hyun Kim, Jihyung Kim, Kwangjae Lim, Dong Seung Kwon

Abstract:

Network coding has recently attracted attention as an efficient technique in multicast/broadcast services. The problem of finding the optimal network coding mechanism maximizing the bandwidth efficiency is hard to solve and hard to approximate. Lots of network coding-based schemes have been suggested in the literature to improve the bandwidth efficiency, especially network coding-based automatic repeat request (NCARQ) schemes. However, existing schemes have several limitations which cause the performance degradation in resource limited systems. To improve the performance in resource limited systems, we propose NCARQ with overlapping selection (OS-NCARQ) scheme. The advantages of OS-NCARQ scheme over the traditional ARQ scheme and existing NCARQ schemes are shown through the analysis and simulations.

Keywords: ARQ, Network coding, Multicast/Broadcast services, Packet-based systems.

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366 Quantum Computing: A New Era of Computing

Authors: Jyoti Chaturvedi Gursaran

Abstract:

Nature conducts its action in a very private manner. To reveal these actions classical science has done a great effort. But classical science can experiment only with the things that can be seen with eyes. Beyond the scope of classical science quantum science works very well. It is based on some postulates like qubit, superposition of two states, entanglement, measurement and evolution of states that are briefly described in the present paper. One of the applications of quantum computing i.e. implementation of a novel quantum evolutionary algorithm(QEA) to automate the time tabling problem of Dayalbagh Educational Institute (Deemed University) is also presented in this paper. Making a good timetable is a scheduling problem. It is NP-hard, multi-constrained, complex and a combinatorial optimization problem. The solution of this problem cannot be obtained in polynomial time. The QEA uses genetic operators on the Q-bit as well as updating operator of quantum gate which is introduced as a variation operator to converge toward better solutions.

Keywords: Quantum computing, qubit, superposition, entanglement, measurement of states, evolution of states, Scheduling problem, hard and soft constraints, evolutionary algorithm, quantum evolutionary algorithm.

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365 Technical Determinants of Success in Quality Management Systems Implementation in the Automotive Industry

Authors: Agnieszka Misztal

Abstract:

The popularity of quality management system models continues to grow despite the transitional crisis in 2008. Their development is associated with demands of the new requirements for entrepreneurs, such as risk analysis projects and more emphasis on supervision of outsourced processes. In parallel, it is appropriate to focus attention on the selection of companies aspiring to a quality management system. This is particularly important in the automotive supplier industry, where requirements transferred to the levels in the supply chain should be clear, transparent and fairly satisfied. The author has carried out a series of researches aimed at finding the factors that allow for the effective implementation of the quality management system in automotive companies. The research was focused on four groups of companies: 1) manufacturing (parts and assemblies for the purpose of sale or for vehicle manufacturers), 2) service (repair and maintenance of the car) 3) services for the transport of goods or people, 4) commercial (auto parts and vehicles). The identified determinants were divided into two types of criteria: internal and external, as well as hard and soft. The article presents the hard – technical factors that an automotive company must meet in order to achieve the goal of the quality management system implementation.

Keywords: Automotive industry, quality management system.

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364 A ZVS Flyback DC-DC Converter using Multilayered Coreless Printed-Circuit Board(PCB) Step-down Power Transformer

Authors: Hari Babu Kotte, Radhika Ambatipudi, Dr. Kent Bertilsson

Abstract:

The experimental and theoretical results of a ZVS (Zero Voltage Switching) isolated flyback DC-DC converter using multilayered coreless PCB step down 2:1 transformer are presented. The performance characteristics of the transformer are shown which are useful for the parameters extraction. The measured energy efficiency of the transformer is found to be more than 94% with the sinusoidal input voltage excitation. The designed flyback converter has been tested successfully upto the output power level of 10W, with a switching frequency in the range of 2.7MHz-4.3MHz. The input voltage of the converter is varied from 25V-40V DC. Frequency modulation technique is employed by maintaining constant off time to regulate the output voltage of the converter. The energy efficiency of the isolated flyback converter circuit under ZVS condition in the MHz frequency region is found to be approximately in the range of 72-84%. This paper gives the comparative results in terms of the energy efficiency of the hard switched and soft switched flyback converter in the MHz frequency region.

Keywords: Coreless PCB step down transformer, DC-DCconverter, Flyback, Hard Switched Converter, MHz frequencyregion, Multilayered PCB transformer, Zero Voltage Switching

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363 Sandvik Ceramic Cutting Tool Tests with an Interrupted Cut Simulator

Authors: Robert Cep, Adam Janasek, Lenka Cepova, Josef Prochazka

Abstract:

The paper is dealing by testing of ceramic cutting tools with an interrupted machining. Tests will be provided on fixture – interrupted cut simulator. This simulator has 4 mouldings on circumference and cutting edge is put a shocks during 1 revolution. Criteria of tool wear are destruction of cutting tool or 6000 shocks. Like testing cutting tool material will be products of Sandvik Coromant 6190, 620, 650 and 670. Machined materials was be steels 15 128 (13MoCrV6). Cutting speed (408 m.min-1 and 580 m.min-1) and cutting feed (0,15 mm; 0,2 mm; 0,25 mm and 0,3 mm) were variable parameters and cutting depth was constant parameter.

Keywords: Ceramic Cutting Tools, Interrupted Cut, Machining, Cutting Tests.

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362 Impact of Music on Brain Function during Mental Task using Electroencephalography

Authors: B. Geethanjali, K. Adalarasu, R. Rajsekaran

Abstract:

Music has a great effect on human body and mind; it can have a positive effect on hormone system. Objective of this study is to analysis the effect of music (carnatic, hard rock and jazz) on brain activity during mental work load using electroencephalography (EEG). Eight healthy subjects without special musical education participated in the study. EEG signals were acquired at frontal (Fz), parietal (Pz) and central (Cz) lobes of brain while listening to music at three experimental condition (rest, music without mental task and music with mental task). Spectral powers features were extracted at alpha, theta and beta brain rhythms. While listening to jazz music, the alpha and theta powers were significantly (p < 0.05) high for rest as compared to music with and without mental task in Cz. While listening to Carnatic music, the beta power was significantly (p < 0.05) high for with mental task as compared to rest and music without mental task at Cz and Fz location. This finding corroborates that attention based activities are enhanced while listening to jazz and carnatic as compare to Hard rock during mental task.

Keywords: Music, Brain Function, Electroencephalography (EEG), Mental Task, Features extraction parameters

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361 Digital Forensics Compute Cluster: A High Speed Distributed Computing Capability for Digital Forensics

Authors: Daniel Gonzales, Zev Winkelman, Trung Tran, Ricardo Sanchez, Dulani Woods, John Hollywood

Abstract:

We have developed a distributed computing capability, Digital Forensics Compute Cluster (DFORC2) to speed up the ingestion and processing of digital evidence that is resident on computer hard drives. DFORC2 parallelizes evidence ingestion and file processing steps. It can be run on a standalone computer cluster or in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. When running in a virtualized computing environment, its cluster resources can be dynamically scaled up or down using Kubernetes. DFORC2 is an open source project that uses Autopsy, Apache Spark and Kafka, and other open source software packages. It extends the proven open source digital forensics capabilities of Autopsy to compute clusters and cloud architectures, so digital forensics tasks can be accomplished efficiently by a scalable array of cluster compute nodes. In this paper, we describe DFORC2 and compare it with a standalone version of Autopsy when both are used to process evidence from hard drives of different sizes.

Keywords: Cloud computing, cybersecurity, digital forensics, Kafka, Kubernetes, Spark.

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360 Support Vector Machine based Intelligent Watermark Decoding for Anticipated Attack

Authors: Syed Fahad Tahir, Asifullah Khan, Abdul Majid, Anwar M. Mirza

Abstract:

In this paper, we present an innovative scheme of blindly extracting message bits from an image distorted by an attack. Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to nonlinearly classify the bits of the embedded message. Traditionally, a hard decoder is used with the assumption that the underlying modeling of the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients does not appreciably change. In case of an attack, the distribution of the image coefficients is heavily altered. The distribution of the sufficient statistics at the receiving end corresponding to the antipodal signals overlap and a simple hard decoder fails to classify them properly. We are considering message retrieval of antipodal signal as a binary classification problem. Machine learning techniques like SVM is used to retrieve the message, when certain specific class of attacks is most probable. In order to validate SVM based decoding scheme, we have taken Gaussian noise as a test case. We generate a data set using 125 images and 25 different keys. Polynomial kernel of SVM has achieved 100 percent accuracy on test data.

Keywords: Bit Correct Ratio (BCR), Grid Search, Intelligent Decoding, Jackknife Technique, Support Vector Machine (SVM), Watermarking.

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359 Internet Optimization by Negotiating Traffic Times

Authors: Carlos Gonzalez

Abstract:

This paper describes a system to optimize the use of the internet by clients requiring downloading of videos at peak hours. The system consists of a web server belonging to a provider of video contents, a provider of internet communications and a software application running on a client’s computer. The client using the application software will communicate to the video provider a list of the client’s future video demands. The video provider calculates which videos are going to be more in demand for download in the immediate future, and proceeds to request the internet provider the most optimal hours to do the downloading. The times of the downloading will be sent to the application software, which will use the information of pre-established hours negotiated between the video provider and the internet provider to download those videos. The videos will be saved in a special protected section of the user’s hard disk, which will only be accessed by the application software in the client’s computer. When the client is ready to see a video, the application will search the list of current existent videos in the area of the hard disk; if it does exist, it will use this video directly without the need for internet access. We found that the best way to optimize the download traffic of videos is by negotiation between the internet communication provider and the video content provider.

Keywords: Internet optimization, video download, future demands, secure storage.

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358 The Data Processing Electronics of the METIS Coronagraph aboard the ESA Solar Orbiter Mission

Authors: M. Focardi, M. Pancrazzi, M. Uslenghi, G. Nicolini, E. Magli, F. Landini, M. Romoli, A. Bemporad, E. Antonucci, S. Fineschi, G. Naletto, P. Nicolosi, D. Spadaro, V. Andretta

Abstract:

METIS is the Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy, a Coronagraph aboard the European Space Agency-s Solar Orbiter Mission aimed at the observation of the solar corona via both VIS and UV/EUV narrow-band imaging and spectroscopy. METIS, with its multi-wavelength capabilities, will study in detail the physical processes responsible for the corona heating and the origin and properties of the slow and fast solar wind. METIS electronics will collect and process scientific data thanks to its detectors proximity electronics, the digital front-end subsystem electronics and the MPPU, the Main Power and Processing Unit, hosting a space-qualified processor, memories and some rad-hard FPGAs acting as digital controllers.This paper reports on the overall METIS electronics architecture and data processing capabilities conceived to address all the scientific issues as a trade-off solution between requirements and allocated resources, just before the Preliminary Design Review as an ESA milestone in April 2012.

Keywords: Solar Coronagraph, Data Processing Electronics, VIS and UV/EUV Detectors, LEON Processor, Rad-hard FPGAs

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357 Complementing Assessment Processes with Standardized Tests: A Work in Progress

Authors: Amparo Camacho

Abstract:

ABET accredited programs must assess the development of student learning outcomes (SOs) in engineering programs. Different institutions implement different strategies for this assessment, and they are usually designed “in house.” This paper presents a proposal for including standardized tests to complement the ABET assessment model in an engineering college made up of six distinct engineering programs. The engineering college formulated a model of quality assurance in education to be implemented throughout the six engineering programs to regularly assess and evaluate the achievement of SOs in each program offered. The model uses diverse techniques and sources of data to assess student performance and to implement actions of improvement based on the results of this assessment. The model is called “Assessment Process Model” and it includes SOs A through K, as defined by ABET. SOs can be divided into two categories: “hard skills” and “professional skills” (soft skills). The first includes abilities, such as: applying knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering and designing and conducting experiments, as well as analyzing and interpreting data. The second category, “professional skills”, includes communicating effectively, and understanding professional and ethnical responsibility. Within the Assessment Process Model, various tools were used to assess SOs, related to both “hard” as well as “soft” skills. The assessment tools designed included: rubrics, surveys, questionnaires, and portfolios. In addition to these instruments, the Engineering College decided to use tools that systematically gather consistent quantitative data. For this reason, an in-house exam was designed and implemented, based on the curriculum of each program. Even though this exam was administered during various academic periods, it is not currently considered standardized. In 2017, the Engineering College included three standardized tests: one to assess mathematical and scientific reasoning and two more to assess reading and writing abilities. With these exams, the college hopes to obtain complementary information that can help better measure the development of both hard and soft skills of students in the different engineering programs. In the first semester of 2017, the three exams were given to three sample groups of students from the six different engineering programs. Students in the sample groups were either from the first, fifth, and tenth semester cohorts. At the time of submission of this paper, the engineering college has descriptive statistical data and is working with various statisticians to have a more in-depth and detailed analysis of the sample group of students’ achievement on the three exams. The overall objective of including standardized exams in the assessment model is to identify more precisely the least developed SOs in order to define and implement educational strategies necessary for students to achieve them in each engineering program.

Keywords: Assessment, hard skills, soft skills, standardized tests.

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356 Curvature Ductility Factor of Rectangular Sections Reinforced Concrete Beams

Authors: Y. Si Youcef, M. Chemrouk

Abstract:

The present work presents a method of calculating the ductility of rectangular sections of beams considering nonlinear behavior of concrete and steel. This calculation procedure allows us to trace the curvature of the section according to the bending moment, and consequently deduce ductility. It also allowed us to study the various parameters that affect the value of the ductility. A comparison of the effect of maximum rates of tension steel, adopted by the codes, ACI [1], EC8 [2] and RPA [3] on the value of the ductility was made. It was concluded that the maximum rate of steels permitted by the ACI [1] codes and RPA [3] are almost similar in their effect on the ductility and too high. Therefore, the ductility mobilized in case of an earthquake is low, the inverse of code EC8 [2]. Recommendations have been made in this direction.

Keywords: Ductility, beam, reinforced concrete, seismic code, relationship, time bending, resistance, non-linear behavior.

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355 Gas-Solid Nitrocarburizing of Steels: Kinetic Modeling and Experimental Validation

Authors: L. Torchane

Abstract:

The study is devoted to define the optimal conditions for the nitriding of pure iron at atmospheric pressure by using NH3- Ar-C3H8 gas mixtures. After studying the mechanisms of phase formation and mass transfer at the gas-solid interface, a mathematical model is developed in order to predict the nitrogen transfer rate in the solid, the ε-carbonitride layer growth rate and the nitrogen and carbon concentration profiles. In order to validate the model and to show its possibilities, it is compared with thermogravimetric experiments, analyses and metallurgical observations (X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and electron microprobe analysis). Results obtained allow us to demonstrate the sound correlation between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions.

Keywords: Gaseous Nitrocarburizing, Kinetic Model, Diffusion, Layer Growth Kinetic.

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354 An Efficient Watermarking Method for MP3 Audio Files

Authors: Dimitrios Koukopoulos, Yiannis Stamatiou

Abstract:

In this work, we present for the first time in our perception an efficient digital watermarking scheme for mpeg audio layer 3 files that operates directly in the compressed data domain, while manipulating the time and subband/channel domain. In addition, it does not need the original signal to detect the watermark. Our scheme was implemented taking special care for the efficient usage of the two limited resources of computer systems: time and space. It offers to the industrial user the capability of watermark embedding and detection in time immediately comparable to the real music time of the original audio file that depends on the mpeg compression, while the end user/audience does not face any artifacts or delays hearing the watermarked audio file. Furthermore, it overcomes the disadvantage of algorithms operating in the PCMData domain to be vulnerable to compression/recompression attacks, as it places the watermark in the scale factors domain and not in the digitized sound audio data. The strength of our scheme, that allows it to be used with success in both authentication and copyright protection, relies on the fact that it gives to the users the enhanced capability their ownership of the audio file not to be accomplished simply by detecting the bit pattern that comprises the watermark itself, but by showing that the legal owner knows a hard to compute property of the watermark.

Keywords: Audio watermarking, mpeg audio layer 3, hard instance generation, NP-completeness.

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353 Peak Data Rate Enhancement Using Switched Micro-Macro Diversity in Cellular Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output Systems

Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois, Yvette Antar

Abstract:

With the exponential growth of cellular users, a new generation of cellular networks is needed to enhance the required peak data rates. The co-channel interference between neighboring base stations inhibits peak data rate increase. To overcome this interference, multi-cell cooperation known as coordinated multipoint transmission is proposed. Such a solution makes use of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems under two different structures: Micro- and macro-diversity. In this paper, we study the capacity and bit error rate in cellular networks using MIMO technology. We analyse both micro- and macro-diversity schemes and develop a hybrid model that switches between macro- and micro-diversity in the case of hard handoff based on a cut-off range of signal-to-noise ratio values. We conclude that our hybrid switched micro-macro MIMO system outperforms classical MIMO systems at the cost of increased hardware and software complexity.

Keywords: Cooperative multipoint transmission, ergodic capacity, hard handoff, macro-diversity, micro-diversity, multiple-input-multiple-output systems, MIMO, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM.

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