Search results for: household refuses handling

Authors: Suby Khanam, Jamshed Siddiqui, Faisal Talib

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Total Quality Management (TQM) is a managerial approach that improves the competitiveness of the industry, meanwhile Information technology (IT) was introduced with TQM for handling the technical issues which is supported by quality experts for fulfilling the customers’ requirement. Present paper aims to utilise AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) methodology to priorities and rank the hierarchy levels of TQM enablers and IT resource together for its successful implementation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. A total of 17 TQM enablers (nine) and IT resources (eight) were identified and partitioned into 3 categories and were prioritised by AHP approach. The finding indicates that the 17 sub-criteria can be grouped into three main categories namely organizing, tools and techniques, and culture and people. Further, out of 17 sub-criteria, three sub-criteria: top management commitment and support, total employee involvement, and continuous improvement got highest priority whereas three sub-criteria such as structural equation modelling, culture change, and customer satisfaction got lowest priority. The result suggests a hierarchy model for ICT industry to prioritise the enablers and resources as well as to improve the TQM and IT performance in the ICT industry. This paper has some managerial implication which suggests the managers of ICT industry to implement TQM and IT together in their organizations to get maximum benefits and how to utilize available resources. At the end, conclusions, limitation, future scope of the study are presented.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process, Information Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Prioritization, Total Quality Management.

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Authors: Olayinka Gafar Okeola, Akinola Muyiwa Moore

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Urban population is rapidly increasing in Ilorin, (the capital of Kwara State of Nigeria) along with related increased water demand. The inadequacies of water supply services have forced the populace to depend on dug wells, boreholes, water tankers, street vendors etc. for their water needs. People spend hours daily carrying jerry can all around to collect and queue for water at the public water tap with high opportunity cost both in time and economic wastage. This situation motivated this study to assess the sustainability of an urban water supply services to unravel the factors undermining the effective delivery of services. Contingent Valuation Method was used to place value on water supply services using the Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice format for willingness to pay elicitation. A database was created with Microsoft Excel and Stata 12 Software to model and evaluate the variables that affect household willingness to pay. The results of the study reveal that about 92% of the total households surveyed were connected to the Government water supply out of which 87% reported that they were not satisfied with the existing services. The results furthered revealed that respondents are willing to pay ₦2500 monthly to enjoy sustainable water supply service delivery.

Keywords: Willingness-to-pay, contingent valuation method, Nigeria, service, delivery.

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Authors: Arne Hitzmann, Philipp Wentscher, Alexander Gabel, Reinhard Gerndt

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Autonomous mobile robots can be found in a wide field of applications. Their types range from household robots over workshop robots to autonomous cars and many more. All of them undergo a number of testing steps during development, production and maintenance. This paper describes an approach to improve testing of robot behavior. It was inspired by the RoboCup @work competition that itself reflects a robotics benchmark for industrial robotics. There, scaled down versions of mobile industrial robots have to navigate through a workshop-like environment or operation area and have to perform tasks of manipulating and transporting work pieces. This paper will introduce an approach of automated vision-based testing of the behavior of the so called youBot robot, which is the most widely used robot platform in the RoboCup @work competition. The proposed system allows automated testing of multiple tries of the robot to perform a specific missions and it allows for the flexibility of the robot, e.g. selecting different paths between two tasks within a mission. The approach is based on a multi-camera setup using, off the shelf cameras and optical markers. It has been applied for test-driven development (TDD) and maintenance-like verification of the robot behavior and performance.

Keywords: Supervisory control, Testing, Markers, Mono Vision, Automation.

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Authors: Atef. A. Ata, Sohair F. Rezeka, Ahmed El-Shenawy, Mohammed Diab

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Image processing in today’s world grabs massive attentions as it leads to possibilities of broaden application in many fields of high technology. The real challenge is how to improve existing sorting system applications which consists of two integrated stations of processing and handling with a new image processing feature. Existing color sorting techniques use a set of inductive, capacitive, and optical sensors to differentiate object color. This research presents a mechatronic color sorting system solution with the application of image processing. A 5-DOF robot arm is designed and developed with pick and place operation to act as the main part of the color sorting system. Image processing procedure senses the circular objects in an image captured in real time by a webcam fixed at the end-effector then extracts color and position information out of it. This information is passed as a sequence of sorting commands to the manipulator that has pick-and-place mechanism. Performance analysis proves that this color based object sorting system works accurately under ideal condition in term of adequate illumination, circular objects shape and color. The circular objects tested for sorting are red, green and blue. For non-ideal condition, such as unspecified color the accuracy reduces to 80%.

Keywords: Robotics manipulator, 5-DOF manipulator, image processing, Color sorting, Pick-and-place.

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Authors: Fan Li, Chun-Hsien Chen, Li Pheng Khoo

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Operators of vessel traffic service (VTS) center provides three different types of services; namely information service, navigational assistance and traffic organization to vessels. To provide these services, operators monitor vessel traffic through computer interface and provide navigational advice based on the information integrated from multiple sources, including automatic identification system (AIS), radar system, and closed circuit television (CCTV) system. Therefore, this information is crucial in VTS operation. However, what information the VTS operator actually need to efficiently and properly offer services is unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate into information requirements for VTS operation. To achieve this aim, field observation was carried out to elicit the information requirements for VTS operation. The study revealed that the most frequent and important tasks were handling arrival vessel report, potential conflict control and abeam vessel report. Current location and vessel name were used in all tasks. Hazard cargo information was particularly required when operators handle arrival vessel report. The speed, the course, and the distance of two or several vessels were only used in potential conflict control. The information requirements identified in this study can be utilized in designing a human-computer interface that takes into consideration what and when information should be displayed, and might be further used to build the foundation of a decision support system for VTS.

Keywords: Vessel traffic service, information requirements, hierarchy task analysis, field observation.

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Authors: Gabriella Tjondro, Julita Dortua Laurentina Nainggolan

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Introduction: There are several things affecting menstrual cycle, namely, nutritional status, diet, financial status of one’s household and exercises. The most commonly used parameter to calculate the fat in a human body is body mass index. Therefore, it is necessary to do research to prevent complications caused by menstrual disorder in the future. Design Study: This research is an observational analytical study with the cross-sectional-case control approach. Participants (n = 124; median age = 19.5 years ± SD 3.5) were classified into 2 groups: normal, NM (n = 62; BMI = 18-23 kg/m²) and obese, OB (n = 62; BMI = > 25 kg/m²). BMI was calculated from the equation; BMI = weight, kg/height, m². Results: There were 79.10% from obese group who experienced menstrual cycle disorders (n=53, 79.10%; p value 0.00; OR 5.25) and 20.90% from normal BMI group with menstrual cycle disorders. There were several factors in this research that also influence the menstrual cycle disorders such as stress (44.78%; p value 0.00; OR 1.85), sleep disorders (25.37%; p value 0.00; OR 1.01), physical activities (25.37%; p value 0.00; OR 1.24) and diet (10.45%; p value 0.00; OR 1.07). Conclusion: There is a significant relation between body mass index (obese) and menstrual cycle disorders. However, BMI is not the only factor that affects the menstrual cycle disorders. There are several factors that also can affect menstrual cycle disorders, in this study we use stress, sleep disorders, physical activities and diet, in which none of them are dominant.

Keywords: Menstrual disorders, menstrual cycle, obesity, body mass index, stress, sleep disorders, physical activities, diet.

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Authors: Mukesh Kumar Shah, Tushar Gupta

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An Upgraded Cuckoo Search Algorithm is proposed here to solve optimization problems based on the improvements made in the earlier versions of Cuckoo Search Algorithm. Short comings of the earlier versions like slow convergence, trap in local optima improved in the proposed version by random initialization of solution by suggesting an Improved Lambda Iteration Relaxation method, Random Gaussian Distribution Walk to improve local search and further proposing Greedy Selection to accelerate to optimized solution quickly and by “Study Nearby Strategy” to improve global search performance by avoiding trapping to local optima. It is further proposed to generate better solution by Crossover Operation. The proposed strategy used in algorithm shows superiority in terms of high convergence speed over several classical algorithms. Three standard algorithms were tested on a 6-generator standard test system and the results are presented which clearly demonstrate its superiority over other established algorithms. The algorithm is also capable of handling higher unit systems.

Keywords: Economic dispatch, Gaussian selection operator, prohibited operating zones, ramp rate limits, upgraded cuckoo search.

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Authors: Abimbola O. Aniki, Esther T. Akinlabi

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This paper proposes an effective maintenance method by considering the implementation of the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software to plan a maintenance activity in a manufacturing industry. Globally, maintenance is a very important activity in the manufacturing sector to prolong the life span of equipment and machinery; it is also applicable to all household items. It is obvious and well known that apart from giving long life to equipment, it reduces the substantial financial losses for repairs and save the production downtime. In some cases, appropriate maintenance of plant equipment and machinery reduces the tendencies of injuries to personnel in the job floor. But before the maintenance process can be carried out, proper and effective work order planning and scheduling must be in place in other to achieve the set goals and objectives of a maintenance shop. Brief reviews of common planning tools which include the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) are presented. An interesting outline of analyses on planning and scheduling for effective job planning in a typical manufacturing industry using the CMMS is also presented and discussed. Finally, the steps to adhere to in making job planning effective in a manufacturing industry are also highlighted.

Keywords: Advanced Downtime Analysis Programme (ADAP), Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), Corrective Maintenance (CM), Executing Department (ED), Maintenance Department (MD), Preventive Maintenance (PM).

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Authors: Atef M. Ghaleb, Mohamed Z. Ramadan, Khalid Saad Aljaloud

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The aim of this study is to assesses the lifting capabilities of persons experiencing hypoxia. It also examines the behavior of the physiological response induced through the lifting process related to changing in the hypoxia and lifting frequency variables. For this purpose, the study performed two consecutive tests by using; (1) training and acclimatization; and (2) an actual collection of data. A total of 10 male students from King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were recruited in the study. A two-way repeated measures design, with two independent variables (ambient oxygen (15%, 18% and 21%)) and lifting frequency (1 lift/min and 4 lifts/min) and four dependent variables i.e., maximum acceptable weight of lift (MAWL), Electromyography (EMG) of four muscle groups (anterior deltoid, trapezius, biceps brachii, and erector spinae), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and rating of oxygen feeling (ROF) were used in this study. The results show that lifting frequency has significantly impacted the MAWL and muscles’ activities. The oxygen content had a significant effect on the RPE and ROE. The study has revealed that acclimatization and training sessions significantly reduce the effect of the hypoxia on the human physiological parameters during the manual materials handling tasks.

Keywords: Lifting capabilities, muscle activities (sEMG), oxygen content, perceived exertion.

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Authors: Win Thandar Soe, Innocent Mpawenimana, Mathieu Di Fazio, Cécile Belleudy, Aung Ze Ya

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Intelligent electronic equipment and automation network is the brain of high-tech energy management systems in critical role of smart homes dominance. Smart home is a technology integration for greater comfort, autonomy, reduced cost, and energy saving as well. These services can be provided to home owners for managing their home appliances locally or remotely and consequently allow them to automate intelligently and responsibly their consumption by individual or collective control systems. In this study, three smart plugs are described and one of them tested on typical household appliances. This article proposes to collect the data from the wireless technology and to extract some smart data for energy management system. This smart data is to quantify for three kinds of load: intermittent load, phantom load and continuous load. Phantom load is a waste power that is one of unnoticed power of each appliance while connected or disconnected to the main. Intermittent load and continuous load take in to consideration the power and using time of home appliances. By analysing the classification of loads, this smart data will be provided to reduce the communication of wireless sensor network for energy management system.

Keywords: Energy management, load profile, smart plug, wireless sensor network.

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Authors: Funmilola O. Omoya

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Muscid flies are known to be vectors of disease agents and species that annoy humans and domesticated animals. An example of these flies is Musca domestica (house fly) whose adult and immature stages occur in a variety of filthy organic substances including household garbage and animal manures. They contribute to microbial contamination of foods. It is therefore imperative to control these flies as a result of their role in Public health. The second and third instars of Musca domestica (Linn) were infected with varying cell loads of Bacillus subtilis in vitro for a period of 48 hours to evaluate its larvicidal activities. Mortality of the larvae increased with incubation period after treatment with the varying cell loads. Investigation revealed that the second instars larvae were more susceptible to treatment than the third instars treatments. Values obtained from the third instar group were significantly different (P<0.05) from those obtained from the second instars group in all the treatments. Lethal concentration (LC₅₀) at 24 hours for 2^nd instars was 2.35 while LC₅₀ at 48 hours was 4.31.This study revealed that Bacillus subtilis possess good larvicidal potential for use in the control of Musca domestica in poultry farms.

Keywords: Bacillus subtilis, larvicidal activities, Musca domestica, poultry farms.

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Authors: Gautham Das, Edward Morrone, Erik Treble, Clinton Binder

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a low-cost filter regarding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS is a commonly used man-made chemical that can be found in a variety of household and industrial products with deleterious effects on humans. The filter consists of a combination of low-cost materials which could be locally procured. Water testing results for 4 different PFAS contaminants indicated that for Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) regulation is 7 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), the ATSDR regulation is 10.5 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), the ATSDR regulation is 11 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. For Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), the ATSDR regulation is 70 ppt, the initial concentration was 15 ppt, and the final concentration was 3.9 ppt. The results indicated a 74% reduction in PFAS concentration in filtered samples. Statistical data through regression analysis showed 0.9 validity of the sample data. Initial tests show the efficiency of the proposed filter described could be far greater if tested at a greater scale. It is highly recommended further testing to be conducted to validate the data for an innovative solution to a ubiquitous problem.

Keywords: PFAS, PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, low-cost filter.

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Authors: U. Yerlikaya, R. T. Balkan

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In this research, a method is developed to obtain high-dimensional configuration space for path planning problems. In typical cases, the path planning problems are solved directly in the 3-dimensional (D) workspace. However, this method is inefficient in handling the robots with various geometrical and mechanical restrictions. To overcome these difficulties, path planning may be formalized and solved in a new space which is called configuration space. The number of dimensions of the configuration space comes from the degree of freedoms of the system of interest. The method can be applied in two ways. In the first way, the point clouds of all the bodies of the system and interaction of them are used. The second way is performed via using the clearance function of simulation software where the minimum distances between surfaces of bodies are simultaneously measured. A double-turret system is held in the scope of this study. The 4-D configuration space of a double-turret system is obtained in these two ways. As a result, the difference between these two methods is around 1%, depending on the density of the point cloud. The disparity between the two forms steadily decreases as the point cloud density increases. At the end of the study, in order to verify 4-D configuration space obtained, 4-D path planning problem was realized as 2-D + 2-D and a sample path planning is carried out with using A* algorithm. Then, the accuracy of the configuration space is proved using the obtained paths on the simulation model of the double-turret system.

Keywords: A* Algorithm, autonomous turrets, high-dimensional C-Space, manifold C-Space, point clouds.

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Authors: Rasha A. Salameh

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This research attempts to evaluate the treatment provided by the Qatari media to the decision to allow Saudi women to drive, and then activate this decision after a few months, that is, within the time frame between September 26, 2017 until June 30, 2018. This is through asking several questions, including whether the political dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia has cast a shadow over this handling, and if these Qatari media handlings are used to criticize the Saudi regime for delaying this step. Here emerges one of the research hypotheses that says that the coverage did not have the required professionalism, due to the fact that the decision and its activation took place in light of the political stalemate between Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which requires testing the media framing and agenda theories to know to what extent they apply to this case. The research dealt with a sample of five Qatari media read in this sample: Al-Jazeera Net, The New Arab Newspaper, Al-Sharq Newspaper, The Arab Newspaper, and Al-Watan Newspaper. The results showed that most of the authors who covered the decision to allow Saudi women to drive a car did not achieve a balance in their writing, and that almost half of them did not have objectivity, and this indicates the proof of the hypothesis that there is a defect in the professional competence in covering the decision to allow Saudi women to drive cars by means of Qatari media, and the researcher attributes this result to the political position between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the fact that the Arab media in most of them are characterized by a low ceiling of freedom, and most of them are identical in their position with the position of the regime’s official view.

Keywords: Saudi women, stereotypes, hate speech, framing.

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Authors: D. Y. Bawa, M. I. Ribah, I. S. Jega, V. O. Oyedepo

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This study was conducted to determine the physicochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentration (Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn)) in freshwater from Jega river. 30 water samples were collected in two 1-liter sterile plastic containers from three designated sampling points, namely; Station A (before the bridge; upstream), Station B (at the bridge where human activities such as washing of cars, motorbike, clothes, bathing and other household materials are concentrated), Station C (after the bridge; downstream) fortnightly, between March and July 2014. Results indicated that the highest pH mean value of 7.08 ± 1.12 was observed in station C, the highest conductivity with the mean 58.75 ± 7.87 µs/cm was observed at station A, the highest mean value of the water total hardness was observed at station A (54 ± 16.11 mg/L), the highest mean value of nitrate deposit was observed in station A (1.66 ± 1.33 mg/L), the highest mean value of alkalinity was observed at station B (51.33 ± 6.66 mg/L) and the highest mean (39.56 ± 3.24 mg/L) of total dissolved solids was observed at station A. The highest concentration mean value of Fe was observed in station C (65.33 ± 4.50 mg/L), the highest concentrations of Cd was observed in station C (0.99 ± 0.36 mg/L), the mean value of 2.13 ± 1.99 mg/L was the highest concentration of Zn observed in station B, the concentration of Pb was not detected (ND) and the highest concentration of Cu with the mean value of 0.43 ± 0.16 mg/L was observed in station B, while the lowest concentration was observed at station C (0.27 ± 0.26 mg/L). Statistical analysis shows no significant difference (P > 0.05) among the sampling stations for both the physicochemical characteristics and heavy metal concentrations. The results were found to be within the internationally acceptable standard limits.

Keywords: Assessment, freshwater, heavy metal concentration, physicochemical.

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Authors: R. K. D. G. Kaluarachchi

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The generation of solid waste and its effective management are debated topics in Sri Lanka as well as in the global environment. It was estimated that the most of the waste generated in global was originated from construction and demolition of buildings. Thus, the proportion of construction waste in solid waste generation cannot be underestimated. The construction waste, which is the by-product generated and removed from work sites is collected in direct and indirect processes. Hence, the objectives of this research are to identify the proportion of construction waste which can be reused and identify the methods to reduce the waste generation without reducing the quality of the process. A 6-storey building construction site was selected for this research. The site was divided into six zones depending on the process. Ten waste materials were identified by considering the adverse effects on safety and health of people and the economic value of them. The generated construction waste in each zone was recorded per week for a period of five months. The data revealed that sand, cement, wood used for form work and rusted steel rods were the generated waste which has higher economic value in all zones. Structured interviews were conducted to gather information on how the materials are categorized as waste and the capability of reducing, reusing and recycling the waste. It was identified that waste is generated in following processes; ineffective storage of material for a longer time and improper handling of material during the work process. Further, the alteration of scheduled activities of construction work also yielded more waste. Finally, a proper management of construction waste is suggested to reduce and reuse waste.

Keywords: Construction waste, effective management, reduce, reuse.

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Authors: R. Hocine, K. Belkacemi, A. Boukortt, A. Boudjemai

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When designing satellites, one of the major issues aside for designing its primary subsystems is to devise its thermal. The thermal management of satellites requires solving different sets of issues with regards to modelling. If the satellite is well conditioned all other parts of the satellite will have higher temperature no matter what. The main issue of thermal modelling for satellite design is really making sure that all the other points of the satellite will be within the temperature limits they are designed. The insertion of power electronics in aerospace technologies is becoming widespread and the modern electronic systems used in space must be reliable and efficient with thermal management unaffected by outer space constraints. Many advanced thermal management techniques have been developed in recent years that have application in high power electronic systems. This paper presents a Three-Dimensional Modal Transmission Line Matrix (3D-TLM) implementation of transient heat flow in space power electronics. In such kind of components heat dissipation and good thermal management are essential. Simulation provides the cheapest tool to investigate all aspects of power handling. The 3DTLM has been successful in modeling heat diffusion problems and has proven to be efficient in terms of stability and complex geometry. The results show a three-dimensional visualisation of self-heating phenomena in the device affected by outer space constraints, and will presents possible approaches for increasing the heat dissipation capability of the power modules.

Keywords: Thermal management, conduction, heat dissipation, CTE, ceramic, heat spreader, nodes, 3D-TLM.

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Authors: Shi Zhang

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This paper aims to introduce the allopatry of national college entrance examination which allow migrant students enter senior high schools and take college entrance exam where they live, identifies the reasons affect the implementation of this policy in the Chinese context. Most of China’s provinces and municipalities recently have announced new policies regarding national college entrance exams for non-local students. The paper conducts SWOT analysis reveals the opportunities, strength, weakness and challenges of the scheme, so as to discuss the implementation strategies from the perspectives of idea and institution. The research findings imply that the government should take a more positive attitude toward relaxing the allopatry of NCEE policy restrictions, and promote the reform household registration policy and NCEE policy with synchronous operations. Higher education institutions should explore the diversification of enrollment model; the government should issue the authority of universities and colleges to select elite migrant students beyond the restrictions of NCEE. To suit reform policies to local conditions, the big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou should publish related compensate measures for children of migrant workers access to higher vocational colleges with tuition fee waivered. 

Keywords: College entrance examination, higher education, education policy, education equality.

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Authors: Loai Ben Naji, Osama M. Ibrahim, Khaled J. Al-Fadhalah

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The objective of this paper is to investigate the formation and adhesion of a protective aluminum-oxide (Al₂O₃, alumina) layer on the surface of Iron-Chromium-Aluminum Alloy (Fe-Cr-Al) sintered-metal-fibers. The oxide-scale layer was developed via multi-stage thermal oxidation at 930 ^oC for 1 hour, followed by 1 hour at 960 ^oC, and finally at 990 ^oC for 2 hours. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images show that the multi-stage thermal oxidation resulted in the formation of predominantly Al₂O₃ platelets-like and whiskers. SEM images also reveal non-uniform oxide-scale growth on the surface of the fibers. Furthermore, peeling/spalling of the alumina protective layer occurred after minimum handling, which indicates weak adhesion forces between the protective layer and the base metal alloy.  Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis of the heat-treated Fe-Cr-Al sintered-metal-fibers confirmed the high aluminum content on the surface of the protective layer, and the low aluminum content on the exposed base metal alloy surface. In conclusion, the failure of the oxide-scale protective layer exposes the base metal alloy to further oxidation, and the fragile non-uniform oxide-scale is not suitable as a support for catalysts.

Keywords: High-temperature oxidation, alumina protective layer, iron-chromium-aluminum alloy, sintered-metal-fibers.

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Authors: Sagir M. Yusuf, Chris Baber

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In this paper, we describe how Bayesian inferential reasoning will contributes in obtaining a well-satisfied prediction for Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOPs) with uncertainties. We also demonstrate how DCOPs could be merged to multi-agent knowledge understand and prediction (i.e. Situation Awareness). The DCOPs functions were merged with Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) in the form of situation, awareness, and utility nodes. We describe how the uncertainties can be represented to the BBN and make an effective prediction using the expectation-maximization algorithm or conjugate gradient descent algorithm. The idea of variable prediction using Bayesian inference may reduce the number of variables in agents’ sampling domain and also allow missing variables estimations. Experiment results proved that the BBN perform compelling predictions with samples containing uncertainties than the perfect samples. That is, Bayesian inference can help in handling uncertainties and dynamism of DCOPs, which is the current issue in the DCOPs community. We show how Bayesian inference could be formalized with Distributed Situation Awareness (DSA) using uncertain and missing agents’ data. The whole framework was tested on multi-UAV mission for forest fire searching. Future work focuses on augmenting existing architecture to deal with dynamic DCOPs algorithms and multi-agent information merging.

Keywords: DCOP, multi-agent reasoning, Bayesian reasoning, swarm intelligence.

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Authors: H. M. Nuralam, Z. Xiao-lan, B. K. Dubey, D. Wen-Chuan

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Healthcare waste (HCW) is one of the major concerns in environmental issues due to its infectious and hazardous nature that is requires specific treatment and systematic management prior to final disposal. This study aimed to assess HCW management system in Dhaka City (DC), Bangladesh, by investigating the present practices implemented by the city. In this study, five different healthcare establishments were selected in DC. Field visits and interviews with health personnel and staff who are concerned with the waste management were conducted. The information was gathered through questionnaire focus on the different aspect of HCW management like, waste segregation and collection, storage and transport, awareness as well. The results showed that a total of 7,215 kg/day (7.2 ton/day) of waste were generated, of which 79.36% (5.6 ton/day) was non-hazardous waste and 20.6% (1.5 ton/day) was hazardous waste. The rate of waste generation in these healthcare establishments (HCEs) was 2.6 kg/bed/day. There was no appropriate and systematic management of HCWs except at few private HCEs that segregate their hazardous waste. All the surveyed HCEs dumped their HCW together with the municipal waste, and some staff members were also found to be engaged in improper handling of the generated waste. Furthermore, the used sharp instruments, saline bags, blood bags and test tubes were collected for resale or reuse. Nevertheless, the lack of awareness, appropriate policy, regulation and willingness to act, were responsible for the improper management of HCW in DC. There was lack of practical training of concerned healthcare to handle the waste properly, while the nurses and staff were found to be aware of the health impacts of HCW.

Keywords: Awareness, disposal, Dhaka City, healthcare waste management, waste generation.

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Authors: Corné J. Coetzee, Etienne Horn

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One of the main challenges in using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is to specify the correct input parameter values. In general, the models are sensitive to the input parameter values and accurate results can only be achieved if the correct values are specified. For the linear contact model, micro-parameters such as the particle density, stiffness, coefficient of friction, as well as the particle size and shape distributions are required. There is a need for a procedure to accurately calibrate these parameters before any attempt can be made to accurately model a complete bulk materials handling system. Since DEM is often used to model applications in the mining and quarrying industries, a calibration procedure was developed for materials that consist of relatively large (up to 40 mm in size) particles. A coarse crushed aggregate was used as the test material. Using a specially designed large shear box with a diameter of 590 mm, the confined Young’s modulus (bulk stiffness) and internal friction angle of the material were measured by means of the confined compression test and the direct shear test respectively. DEM models of the experimental setup were developed and the input parameter values were varied iteratively until a close correlation between the experimental and numerical results was achieved. The calibration process was validated by modelling the pull-out of an anchor from a bed of material. The model results compared well with experimental measurement.

Keywords: Discrete Element Method (DEM), calibration, shear box, anchor pull-out.

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Authors: Mohamed Mahmoud Hasan, Hoda M. O. Mokhtar

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With the gigantic increment in portable applications use and the spread of positioning and location-aware technologies that we are seeing today, new procedures and methodologies for location-based strategies are required. Location recommendation is one of the highly demanded location-aware applications uniquely with the wide accessibility of social network applications that are location-aware including Facebook check-ins, Foursquare, and others. In this paper, we aim to present a new methodology for location recommendation. The proposed approach coordinates customary spatial traits alongside other essential components including shortest distance, and user interests. We also present another idea namely, "activity trajectory" that represents trajectory that fulfills the set of activities that the user is intrigued to do. The approach dispatched acquaints the related distance value to select trajectory(ies) with minimum cost value (distance) and spatial-area to prune unneeded directions. The proposed calculation utilizes the idea of movement direction to prescribe most comparable N-trajectory(ies) that matches the client's required action design with least voyaging separation. To upgrade the execution of the proposed approach, parallel handling is applied through the employment of a MapReduce based approach. Experiments taking into account genuine information sets were built up and tested for assessing the proposed approach. The exhibited tests indicate how the proposed approach beets different strategies giving better precision and run time.

Keywords: Location-based recommendation, map-reduce, recommendation system, trajectory search.

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Authors: Youngjae Jin, Daeshik Kim

Abstract:

This paper describes a cycle accurate simulation results of weight values learned by an auto-encoder behavior model in terms of pre-route simulation. Given the results we visualized the first layer representations with natural images. Many common deep learning threads have focused on learning high-level abstraction of unlabeled raw data by unsupervised feature learning. However, in the process of handling such a huge amount of data, the learning method’s computation complexity and time limited advanced research. These limitations came from the fact these algorithms were computed by using only single core CPUs. For this reason, parallel-based hardware, FPGAs, was seen as a possible solution to overcome these limitations. We adopted and simulated the ready-made auto-encoder to design a behavior model in VerilogHDL before designing hardware. With the auto-encoder behavior model pre-route simulation, we obtained the cycle accurate results of the parameter of each hidden layer by using MODELSIM. The cycle accurate results are very important factor in designing a parallel-based digital hardware. Finally this paper shows an appropriate operation of behavior model based pre-route simulation. Moreover, we visualized learning latent representations of the first hidden layer with Kyoto natural image dataset.

Keywords: Auto-encoder, Behavior model simulation, Digital hardware design, Pre-route simulation, Unsupervised feature learning.

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Authors: Ashish Saini, A.K. Saxena

Abstract:

The genetic algorithm (GA) based solution techniques are found suitable for optimization because of their ability of simultaneous multidimensional search. Many GA-variants have been tried in the past to solve optimal power flow (OPF), one of the nonlinear problems of electric power system. The issues like convergence speed and accuracy of the optimal solution obtained after number of generations using GA techniques and handling system constraints in OPF are subjects of discussion. The results obtained for GA-Fuzzy OPF on various power systems have shown faster convergence and lesser generation costs as compared to other approaches. This paper presents an enhanced GA-Fuzzy OPF (EGAOPF) using penalty factors to handle line flow constraints and load bus voltage limits for both normal network and contingency case with congestion. In addition to crossover and mutation rate adaptation scheme that adapts crossover and mutation probabilities for each generation based on fitness values of previous generations, a block swap operator is also incorporated in proposed EGA-OPF. The line flow limits and load bus voltage magnitude limits are handled by incorporating line overflow and load voltage penalty factors respectively in each chromosome fitness function. The effects of different penalty factors settings are also analyzed under contingent state.

Keywords: Contingent operation state, Fuzzy rule base, Genetic Algorithms, Optimal Power Flow.

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Authors: Mazyar Ahrari, Ramin Khajavi, Mehdi Kamali Dolatabadi, Tayebeh Toliyat, Abosaeed Rashidi

Abstract:

Fabric as the first and most common layer that is in permanent contact with human skin is a very good interface to provide coverage, as well as heat and cold insulation. Phase change materials (PCMs) are organic and inorganic compounds which have the capability of absorbing and releasing noticeable amounts of latent heat during phase transitions between solid and liquid phases at a low temperature range. PCMs come across phase changes (liquid-solid and solid-liquid transitions) during absorbing and releasing thermal heat; so, in order to use them for a long time, they should have been encapsulated in polymeric shells, so-called microcapsules. Microencapsulation and nanoencapsulation methods have been developed in order to reduce the reactivity of a PCM with outside environment, promoting the ease of handling, decreasing the diffusion and evaporation rates. Methods of incorporation of PCMs in textiles such as electrospinning and determining thermal properties had been summarized. Paraffin waxes catch a lot of attention due to their high thermal storage density, repeatability of phase change, thermal stability, small volume change during phase transition, chemical stability, non-toxicity, non-flammability, non-corrosive and low cost and they seem to play a key role in confronting with climate change and global warming. In this article, we aimed to review the researches concentrating on the characteristics of PCMs and new materials and methods of microencapsulation.

Keywords: Thermoregulation, phase change materials, microencapsulation, thermal energy storage, nanoencapsulation.

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Authors: Seongcheol Kwon, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

Abstract:

We assume an IoT-based smart-home environment where the on-off status of each of the electrical appliances including the room lights can be recognized in a real time by monitoring and analyzing the smart meter data. At any moment in such an environment, we can recognize what the household or the user is doing by referring to the status data of the appliances. In this paper, we focus on a smart-home service that is to activate a robot vacuum cleaner at right time by recognizing the user situation, which requires a situation-aware model that can distinguish the situations that allow vacuum cleaning (Yes) from those that do not (No). We learn as our candidate models a few classifiers such as naïve Bayes, decision tree, and logistic regression that can map the appliance-status data into Yes and No situations. Our training and test data are obtained from simulations of user behaviors, in which a sequence of user situations such as cooking, eating, dish washing, and so on is generated with the status of the relevant appliances changed in accordance with the situation changes. During the simulation, both the situation transition and the resulting appliance status are determined stochastically. To compare the performances of the aforementioned classifiers we obtain their learning curves for different types of users through simulations. The result of our empirical study reveals that naïve Bayes achieves a slightly better classification accuracy than the other compared classifiers.

Keywords: Situation-awareness, Smart home, IoT, Machine learning, Classifier.

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Authors: Kamal K. Bharadwaj, Basheer M. Al-Maqaleh

Abstract:

In the recent past, there has been an increasing interest in applying evolutionary methods to Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) and a number of successful applications of Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Genetic Programming (GP) to KDD have been demonstrated. The most predominant representation of the discovered knowledge is the standard Production Rules (PRs) in the form If P Then D. The PRs, however, are unable to handle exceptions and do not exhibit variable precision. The Censored Production Rules (CPRs), an extension of PRs, were proposed by Michalski & Winston that exhibit variable precision and supports an efficient mechanism for handling exceptions. A CPR is an augmented production rule of the form: If P Then D Unless C, where C (Censor) is an exception to the rule. Such rules are employed in situations, in which the conditional statement 'If P Then D' holds frequently and the assertion C holds rarely. By using a rule of this type we are free to ignore the exception conditions, when the resources needed to establish its presence are tight or there is simply no information available as to whether it holds or not. Thus, the 'If P Then D' part of the CPR expresses important information, while the Unless C part acts only as a switch and changes the polarity of D to ~D. This paper presents a classification algorithm based on evolutionary approach that discovers comprehensible rules with exceptions in the form of CPRs. The proposed approach has flexible chromosome encoding, where each chromosome corresponds to a CPR. Appropriate genetic operators are suggested and a fitness function is proposed that incorporates the basic constraints on CPRs. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords: Censored Production Rule, Data Mining, MachineLearning, Evolutionary Algorithms.

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Authors: G. Arabaci

Abstract:

Heavy metals are one of the major groups of contaminants in the environment and many of them are toxic even at very low concentration in plants and animals. However, some metals play important roles in the biological function of many enzymes in living organisms. Metals such as zinc, iron, and cooper are important for survival and activity of enzymes in plants, however heavy metals can inhibit enzyme which is responsible for defense system of plants. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is a copper-containing metalloenzyme which is responsible for enzymatic browning reaction of plants. Enzymatic browning is a major problem for the handling of vegetables and fruits in food industry. It can be increased and effected with many different futures such as metals in the nature and ground. In the present work, PPO was isolated and characterized from green leaves of red poppy plant (Papaverr hoeas). Then, the effect of some known antibrowning agents which can form complexes with metals and metals were investigated on the red poppy PPO activity. The results showed that glutathione was the most potent inhibitory effect on PPO activity. Cu(II) and Fe(II) metals increased the enzyme activities however, Sn(II) had the maximum inhibitory effect and Zn(II) and Pb(II) had no significant effect on the enzyme activity. In order to reduce the effect of heavy metals, the effects of metal-antibrowning agent complexes on the PPO activity were determined. EDTA and metal complexes had no significant effect on the enzyme. L-ascorbic acid and metal complexes decreased but L-ascorbic acid-Cu(II)-complex had no effect. Glutathione–metal complexes had the best inhibitory effect on Red poppy leaf PPO activity.

Keywords: Inhibition, metal, red poppy, Polyphenol oxidase (PPO).

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Authors: S. Zith Dey Babu, S. Kour, S. Verma, C. Verma, V. Pathania, A. Agrawal, V. Chaudhary, A. Manoj Puthur, R. Goyal, A. Pal, T. Danti Dey, A. Kumar, K. Wadhwa, O. Ved

Abstract:

Background: Skin cancer is now is the buzzing button in the field of medical science. The cyst's pandemic is drastically calibrating the body and well-being of the global village. Methods: The extracted image of the skin tumor cannot be used in one way for diagnosis. The stored image contains anarchies like the center. This approach will locate the forepart of an extracted appearance of skin. Partitioning image models has been presented to sort out the disturbance in the picture. Results: After completing partitioning, feature extraction has been formed by using genetic algorithm and finally, classification can be performed between the trained and test data to evaluate a large scale of an image that helps the doctors for the right prediction. To bring the improvisation of the existing system, we have set our objectives with an analysis. The efficiency of the natural selection process and the enriching histogram is essential in that respect. To reduce the false-positive rate or output, GA is performed with its accuracy. Conclusions: The objective of this task is to bring improvisation of effectiveness. GA is accomplishing its task with perfection to bring down the invalid-positive rate or outcome. The paper's mergeable portion conflicts with the composition of deep learning and medical image processing, which provides superior accuracy. Proportional types of handling create the reusability without any errors.

Keywords: Computer-aided system, detection, image segmentation, morphology.

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