Search results for: minimum spanning tree.

Authors: M. Zeydan, G. Toğa

Abstract:

This study deals with a multi-criteria optimization problem which has been transformed into a single objective optimization problem using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Grey Relational Analyses (GRA) approach. Grey-RSM and Grey-ANN are hybrid techniques which can be used for solving multi-criteria optimization problem. There have been two main purposes of this research as follows. 1. To determine optimum and robust fiber dyeing process conditions by using RSM and ANN based on GRA, 2. To obtain the best suitable model by comparing models developed by different methodologies. The design variables for fiber dyeing process in textile are temperature, time, softener, anti-static, material quantity, pH, retarder, and dispergator. The quality characteristics to be evaluated are nominal color consistency of fiber, maximum strength of fiber, minimum color of dyeing solution. GRA-RSM with exact level value, GRA-RSM with interval level value and GRA-ANN models were compared based on GRA output value and MSE (Mean Square Error) performance measurement of outputs with each other. As a result, GRA-ANN with interval value model seems to be suitable reducing the variation of dyeing process for GRA output value of the model.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Grey Relational Analysis, Optimization, Response Surface Methodology

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Authors: Jesús Everardo Olguín Tiznado, Rafael García Martínez, Claudia Camargo Wilson, Juan Andrés López Barreras, Everardo Inzunza González, Javier Ordorica Villalvazo

Abstract:

The response surface methodology (RSM) is a collection of mathematical and statistical techniques useful in the modeling and analysis of problems in which the dependent variable receives the influence of several independent variables, in order to determine which are the conditions under which should operate these variables to optimize a production process. The RSM estimated a regression model of first order, and sets the search direction using the method of maximum / minimum slope up / down MMS U/D. However, this method selects the step size intuitively, which can affect the efficiency of the RSM. This paper assesses how the step size affects the efficiency of this methodology. The numerical examples are carried out through Monte Carlo experiments, evaluating three response variables: efficiency gain function, the optimum distance and the number of iterations. The results in the simulation experiments showed that in response variables efficiency and gain function at the optimum distance were not affected by the step size, while the number of iterations is found that the efficiency if it is affected by the size of the step and function type of test used.

Keywords: RSM, dependent variable, independent variables, efficiency, simulation

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Authors: Abiodun M. Aibinu, Athaur Rahman Najeeb, Momoh J. E. Salami, Amir A. Shafie

Abstract:

An alternative approach to the use of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction is the use of parametric modeling technique. This method is suitable for problems in which the image can be modeled by explicit known source functions with a few adjustable parameters. Despite the success reported in the use of modeling technique as an alternative MRI reconstruction technique, two important problems constitutes challenges to the applicability of this method, these are estimation of Model order and model coefficient determination. In this paper, five of the suggested method of evaluating the model order have been evaluated, these are: The Final Prediction Error (FPE), Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Residual Variance (RV), Minimum Description Length (MDL) and Hannan and Quinn (HNQ) criterion. These criteria were evaluated on MRI data sets based on the method of Transient Error Reconstruction Algorithm (TERA). The result for each criterion is compared to result obtained by the use of a fixed order technique and three measures of similarity were evaluated. Result obtained shows that the use of MDL gives the highest measure of similarity to that use by a fixed order technique.

Keywords: Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA), MagneticResonance Imaging (MRI), Parametric modeling, Transient Error.

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Authors: M. H. Sedaghat, A. Zamani, S. Morshedi, R. Janamiri, M. Safdari, I. Mahdavi, A. Hosseini, A. Hatampour

Abstract:

Although lots of experiments have been done in enhanced oil recovery, the number of experiments which consider the effects of local and global heterogeneity on efficiency of enhanced oil recovery based on the polymer-surfactant flooding is low and rarely done. In this research, we have done numerous experiments of water flooding and polymer-surfactant flooding on a five spot glass micromodel in different conditions such as different positions of layers. In these experiments, five different micromodels with three different pore structures are designed. Three models with different layer orientation, one homogenous model and one heterogeneous model are designed. In order to import the effect of heterogeneity of porous media, three types of pore structures are distributed accidentally and with equal ratio throughout heterogeneous micromodel network according to random normal distribution. The results show that maximum EOR recovery factor will happen in a situation where the layers are orthogonal to the path of mainstream and the minimum EOR recovery factor will happen in a situation where the model is heterogeneous. This experiments show that in polymer-surfactant flooding, with increase of angles of layers the EOR recovery factor will increase and this recovery factor is strongly affected by local heterogeneity around the injection zone.

Keywords: Layered Reservoir, Micromodel, Local Heterogeneity, Polymer-Surfactant Flooding, Enhanced Oil Recovery.

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Authors: G. Sekeroglu, M. Altan

Abstract:

Working capital is identified as firm’s all current assets. Inventories which are one of the working capital elements are very important among current assets for firms. Because, profitability is an indicator for firms’ financial success is provided with minimum cost and optimum inventory quantity. So in this study, it is investigated as comparatively that the effect of inventory management on the profitability of Turkish firms which operated in weaving industry, eatables industry, wholesale and retail industry in between 2003 – 2012 years. Research data consist of profitability ratios and inventory turnovers ratio calculated by using balance sheets and income statements of firms which operated in Borsa Istanbul (BIST). In this research, the relationship between inventories and profitability is investigated by using SPSS-20 software with regression and correlation analysis. The results achieved from three industry departments which exist in study interpreted as comparatively. Accordingly, it is determined that there is a positive relationship between inventory management and profitability in eatables industry. However, it was founded that there is no relationship between inventory management and profitability in weaving industry and wholesale and retail industry.

Keywords: Profitability, regression analysis, inventory management, working capital.

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Authors: B. Janani, S. Thiruvenkadam

Abstract:

In this work, the system evaluates the impact of considering a stochastic approach on the day ahead basis Unit Commitment. Comparisons between stochastic and deterministic Unit Commitment solutions are provided. The Unit Commitment model consists in the minimization of the total operation costs considering unit’s technical constraints like ramping rates, minimum up and down time. Load shedding and wind power spilling is acceptable, but at inflated operational costs. The evaluation process consists in the calculation of the optimal unit commitment and in verifying the fulfillment of the considered constraints. For the calculation of the optimal unit commitment, an algorithm based on the Benders Decomposition, namely on the Dual Dynamic Programming, was developed. Two approaches were considered on the construction of stochastic solutions. Data related to wind power outputs from two different operational days are considered on the analysis. Stochastic and deterministic solutions are compared based on the actual measured wind power output at the operational day. Through a technique capability of finding representative wind power scenarios and its probabilities, the system can analyze a more detailed process about the expected final operational cost.

Keywords: Benders’ decomposition, network constrained AC unit commitment, stochastic programming, wind power uncertainty.

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Authors: Ghada Salem, Nihal Kabel

Abstract:

Objective: This in vitro study was carried out to assess the microleakage properties of nano-filled glass ionomer in comparison to resin-reinforced glass ionomers. Material and Methods: 40 deciduous molar teeth were included in this study. Class-II cavity was prepared in a standard form for all the specimens. The teeth were randomly distributed into two groups (20 per group) according to the restorative material used either nano-glass ionomer or Photac Fill glass ionomer restoration. All specimens were thermocycled for 1000 cycles between 5 and 55 °C. After that, the teeth were immersed in 2% methylene blue dye then sectioned and evaluated under a stereomicroscope. Microleakage was assessed using linear dye penetration and on a scale from zero to five. Results: Two way ANOVA test revealed a statistically significant lower degree of microleakage in both occlusal and gingival restorations (0.4±0.2), (0.9±0.1) for nano-filled glass ionomer group in comparison to resin modified glass ionomer (2.3±0.7), (2.4±0.5). No statistical difference was found between gingival and occlusal leakage regarding the effect of the measured site. Conclusion: Nano-filled glass ionomer shows superior sealing ability which enables this type of restoration to be used in minimum invasive treatment.

Keywords: Microleakage, nano-ionomer, resin-reinforced glass ionomer, proximal cavity preparation.

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Authors: N. Manavizadeh, M. Hosseini, M. Rabbani

Abstract:

In the last decades to supply the various and different demands of clients, a lot of manufacturers trend to use the mixedmodel assembly line (MMAL) in their production lines, since this policy make possible to assemble various and different models of the equivalent goods on the same line with the MTO approach. In this article, we determine the sequence of (MMAL) line, with applying the kitting approach and planning of rest time for general workers to reduce the wastages, increase the workers effectiveness and apply the sector of lean production approach. This Multi-objective sequencing problem solved in small size with GAMS22.2 and PSO meta heuristic in 10 test problems and compare their results together and conclude that their results are very similar together, next we determine the important factors in computing the cost, which improving them cost reduced. Since this problem, is NPhard in large size, we use the particle swarm optimization (PSO) meta-heuristic for solving it. In large size we define some test problems to survey it-s performance and determine the important factors in calculating the cost, that by change or improved them production in minimum cost will be possible.

Keywords: Mixed-Model Assembly Line, particle swarmoptimization, Multi-objective sequencing problem, MTO system, kitto-assembly, rest time

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Authors: S. Anna Durai, E. Anna Saro

Abstract:

Image Compression using Artificial Neural Networks is a topic where research is being carried out in various directions towards achieving a generalized and economical network. Feedforward Networks using Back propagation Algorithm adopting the method of steepest descent for error minimization is popular and widely adopted and is directly applied to image compression. Various research works are directed towards achieving quick convergence of the network without loss of quality of the restored image. In general the images used for compression are of different types like dark image, high intensity image etc. When these images are compressed using Back-propagation Network, it takes longer time to converge. The reason for this is, the given image may contain a number of distinct gray levels with narrow difference with their neighborhood pixels. If the gray levels of the pixels in an image and their neighbors are mapped in such a way that the difference in the gray levels of the neighbors with the pixel is minimum, then compression ratio as well as the convergence of the network can be improved. To achieve this, a Cumulative distribution function is estimated for the image and it is used to map the image pixels. When the mapped image pixels are used, the Back-propagation Neural Network yields high compression ratio as well as it converges quickly.

Keywords: Back-propagation Neural Network, Cumulative Distribution Function, Correlation, Convergence.

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Authors: Mandana Kariminejad, Ali Ghaffari

Abstract:

Today, the treatment of cancer, in a relatively short period, with minimum adverse effects is a great concern for oncologists. In this paper, based on a recently used mathematical model for cancer, a guideline has been proposed for the amount and duration of drug doses for cancer treatment by immunotherapy. Dynamically speaking, the mathematical ordinary differential equation (ODE) model of cancer has different equilibrium points; one of them is unstable, which is called the no tumor equilibrium point. In this paper, based on the number of tumor cells an intelligent soft computing controller (a combination of fuzzy logic controller and genetic algorithm), decides regarding the amount and duration of drug doses, to eliminate the tumor cells and stabilize the unstable point in a relatively short time. Two different immunotherapy approaches; active and adoptive, have been studied and presented. It is shown that the rate of decay of tumor cells is faster and the doses of drug are lower in comparison with the result of some other literatures. It is also shown that the period of treatment and the doses of drug in adoptive immunotherapy are significantly less than the active method. A recommendation to oncologists has also been presented.

Keywords: Tumor, immunotherapy, fuzzy controller, Genetic algorithm, mathematical model.

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Authors: Yung-Chien Sun, O. Grant Clark

Abstract:

In this paper, the implementation of a rule-based intuitive reasoner is presented. The implementation included two parts: the rule induction module and the intuitive reasoner. A large weather database was acquired as the data source. Twelve weather variables from those data were chosen as the “target variables" whose values were predicted by the intuitive reasoner. A “complex" situation was simulated by making only subsets of the data available to the rule induction module. As a result, the rules induced were based on incomplete information with variable levels of certainty. The certainty level was modeled by a metric called "Strength of Belief", which was assigned to each rule or datum as ancillary information about the confidence in its accuracy. Two techniques were employed to induce rules from the data subsets: decision tree and multi-polynomial regression, respectively for the discrete and the continuous type of target variables. The intuitive reasoner was tested for its ability to use the induced rules to predict the classes of the discrete target variables and the values of the continuous target variables. The intuitive reasoner implemented two types of reasoning: fast and broad where, by analogy to human thought, the former corresponds to fast decision making and the latter to deeper contemplation. . For reference, a weather data analysis approach which had been applied on similar tasks was adopted to analyze the complete database and create predictive models for the same 12 target variables. The values predicted by the intuitive reasoner and the reference approach were compared with actual data. The intuitive reasoner reached near-100% accuracy for two continuous target variables. For the discrete target variables, the intuitive reasoner predicted at least 70% as accurately as the reference reasoner. Since the intuitive reasoner operated on rules derived from only about 10% of the total data, it demonstrated the potential advantages in dealing with sparse data sets as compared with conventional methods.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, intuition, knowledge acquisition, limited certainty.

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Authors: Ambuj Srivastava, Narender Singh

Abstract:

This paper presents the effect of installation of cylindrical external store on the performance, stability, control and handling qualities of light transport category aircraft. A pair of long cylindrical store was installed symmetrically on either side of the fuselage (port and starboard) ahead of the wing and below the fuselage bottom surface running below pilot and co-pilot window. The cylindrical store was installed as hanging from aircraft surface through specially designed brackets. The adjoining structure was sufficiently reinforced for bearing aerodynamic loads. The length to diameter ratio of long cylindrical store was ~20. Based on academic studies and flow simulation analysis, a considerable detrimental effect on single engine second segment climb performance was found which was later validated through extensive flight testing exercise. The methodology of progressive flight envelope opening was adopted. The certification was sought from Regional airworthiness authorities and for according approval.

Keywords: Second segment climb, maximum operating speed, cruise performance, single engine and twin engine, minimum control speed, and additional trim required.

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Authors: Apirak Sombat, Teerapol Saleewong, Poom Kumam, Parin Chaipunya, Wiyada Kumam, Anantachai Padcharoen, Yeol Je Cho, Thana Sutthibutpong

Abstract:

This research is aimed to study a two-step iteration process defined over a finite family of σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings. The strong convergence is guaranteed under the framework of Banach spaces with some additional structural properties including strict and uniform convexity, reflexivity, and smoothness assumptions. With similar projection technique for nonself-mapping in Hilbert spaces, we hereby use the generalized projection to construct a point within the corresponding domain. Moreover, we have to introduce the use of duality mapping and its inverse to overcome the unavailability of duality representation that is exploit by Hilbert space theorists. We then apply our results for σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonself-mappings to solve for ideal efficiency of vector optimization problems composed of finitely many objective functions. We also showed that the obtained solution from our process is the closest to the origin. Moreover, we also give an illustrative numerical example to support our results.

Keywords: σ-asymptotically quasi-nonexpansive nonselfmapping, strong convergence, fixed point, uniformly convex and uniformly smooth Banach space.

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Authors: Om Prakash Verma, Rajesh Singla, Rajesh Kumar

Abstract:

Conventional controller’s usually required a prior knowledge of mathematical modelling of the process. The inaccuracy of mathematical modelling degrades the performance of the process, especially for non-linear and complex control problem. The process used is Water-Bath system, which is most widely used and nonlinear to some extent. For Water-Bath system, it is necessary to attain desired temperature within a specified period of time to avoid the overshoot and absolute error, with better temperature tracking capability, else the process is disturbed.

To overcome above difficulties intelligent controllers, Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), are proposed in this paper. The Fuzzy controller is designed to work with knowledge in the form of linguistic control rules. But the translation of these linguistic rules into the framework of fuzzy set theory depends on the choice of certain parameters, for which no formal method is known. To design ANFIS, Fuzzy-Inference-System is combined with learning capability of Neural-Network.

It is analyzed that ANFIS is best suitable for adaptive temperature control of above system. As compared to PID and FLC, ANFIS produces a stable control signal. It has much better temperature tracking capability with almost zero overshoot and minimum absolute error.

Keywords: PID Controller, FLC, ANFIS, Non-Linear Control System, Water-Bath System, MATLAB-7.

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Authors: Saad Chakkor, Mostafa Baghouri, Abderrahmane Hajraoui

Abstract:

ESPRIT-TLS method appears a good choice for high resolution fault detection in induction machines. It has a very high effectiveness in the frequency and amplitude identification. Contrariwise, it presents a high computation complexity which affects its implementation in real time fault diagnosis. To avoid this problem, a Fast-ESPRIT algorithm that combined the IIR band-pass filtering technique, the decimation technique and the original ESPRIT-TLS method was employed to enhance extracting accurately frequencies and their magnitudes from the wind stator current with less computation cost. The proposed algorithm has been applied to verify the wind turbine machine need in the implementation of an online, fast, and proactive condition monitoring. This type of remote and periodic maintenance provides an acceptable machine lifetime, minimize its downtimes and maximize its productivity. The developed technique has evaluated by computer simulations under many fault scenarios. Study results prove the performance of Fast- ESPRIT offering rapid and high resolution harmonics recognizing with minimum computation time and less memory cost.

Keywords: Spectral Estimation, ESPRIT-TLS, Real Time, Diagnosis, Wind Turbine Faults, Band-Pass Filtering, Decimation.

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Authors: D. I. De Souza, G. P. Azevedo, R. Rocha

Abstract:

In this paper we will develop a sequential life test approach applied to a modified low alloy-high strength steel part used in highway overpasses in Brazil.We will consider two possible underlying sampling distributions: the Normal and theInverse Weibull models. The minimum life will be considered equal to zero. We will use the two underlying models to analyze a fatigue life test situation, comparing the results obtained from both.Since a major chemical component of this low alloy-high strength steel part has been changed, there is little information available about the possible values that the parameters of the corresponding Normal and Inverse Weibull underlying sampling distributions could have. To estimate the shape and the scale parameters of these two sampling models we will use a maximum likelihood approach for censored failure data. We will also develop a truncation mechanism for the Inverse Weibull and Normal models. We will provide rules to truncate a sequential life testing situation making one of the two possible decisions at the moment of truncation; that is, accept or reject the null hypothesis H0. An example will develop the proposed truncated sequential life testing approach for the Inverse Weibull and Normal models.

Keywords: Sequential life testing, normal and inverse Weibull models, maximum likelihood approach, truncation mechanism.

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Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

Abstract:

Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, ParetoOptimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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Authors: Budiyono, I N. Widiasa, S. Johari, Sunarso

Abstract:

In this study, the kinetic of biogas production was studied by performing a series laboratory experiment using rumen fluid of animal ruminant as inoculums. Cattle manure as substrate was inoculated by rumen fluid to the anaerobic biodigester. Laboratory experiments using 400 ml biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 grams of fresh cattle manure was fed to each biodigester and mixed with rumen fluid by manure : rumen weight ratio of 1:1 (MR11). The operating temperatures were varied at room temperature and 38.5 oC. The cumulative volume of biogas produced was used to measure the biodigester performance. The research showed that the rumen fluid inoculated to biodigester gave significant effect to biogas production (P<0.05). Rumen fluid inoculums caused biogas production rate and efficiency increase two to three times in compare to manure substrate without rumen fluid. With the rumen fluid inoculums, gave the kinetic parameters of biogas production i.e biogas production rate constants (U), maximum biogas production (A), and minimum time to produce biogas (λ) are 3.89 ml/(gVS.day); 172.51 (ml/gVS); dan 7.25 days, respectively. While the substrate without rumen fluid gave the kinetic parameters U, A, and λ are 1.74 ml/(gVS.day); 73.81 (ml/gVS); dan 14.75 days, respectively. The future work will be carried out to study the dynamics of biogas production if both the rumen inoculums and manure are fed in the continuous system.

Keywords: rumen fluid, inoculums, anaerobic digestion, biogasproduction.

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Authors: P. Priakanth, P. Thangaraj

Abstract:

Due to the complex network architecture, the mobile adhoc network-s multihop feature gives additional problems to the users. When the traffic load at each node gets increased, the additional contention due its traffic pattern might cause the nodes which are close to destination to starve the nodes more away from the destination and also the capacity of network is unable to satisfy the total user-s demand which results in an unfairness problem. In this paper, we propose to create an algorithm to compute the optimal MAC-layer bandwidth assigned to each flow in the network. The bottleneck links contention area determines the fair time share which is necessary to calculate the maximum allowed transmission rate used by each flow. To completely utilize the network resources, we compute two optimal rates namely, the maximum fair share and minimum fair share. We use the maximum fair share achieved in order to limit the input rate of those flows which crosses the bottleneck links contention area when the flows that are not allocated to the optimal transmission rate and calculate the following highest fair share. Through simulation results, we show that the proposed protocol achieves improved fair share and throughput with reduced delay.

Keywords: MAC-layer, MANETs, Multihop, optimal rate, Transmission.

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Authors: Khalid Safaa Hashim Al Khalidy, Ali Jalil Abdul Kareem Chabuk, Majid Mohammed Ali Kadhim

Abstract:

This research aims to study the lead pollution in the air of Babylon governorate that resulted generally from vehicles exhausts in addition to industrial and human activities.Vehicles number in Babylon governorate increased significantly after year 2003 that resulted with increase in lead emissions into the air.Measurement of lead emissions was done in seven stations distributed randomly in Babylon governorate. These stations where located in Industrial (Al-Sena'ay) Quarter, 60 street (near to Babylon sewer directorate), 40 Street (near to the first intersection), Al-Hashmia city, Al-Mahaweel city, , Al- Musayab city in addition to another station in Sayd Idris village belong to Abugharaq district (Agricultural station for comparison). The measured concentrations in these stations were compared with the standard limits of Environmental Protection Agency EPA (2 μg /m3). The results of this study showed that the average of lead concentrations ,in Babylon governorate during year 2010, was (3.13 μg/m3) which was greater than standard limits (2 μg/m3). The maximum concentration of lead was (6.41 μg / m3) recorded in the Industrial (Al-Sena'ay) Quarter during April month, while the minimum concentrations was (0.36 μg / m3) recorded in the agricultural station (Abugharaq) during December month.

Keywords: Lead, pollution, lead concentration

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Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

Abstract:

Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, Pareto Optimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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Authors: Pejman Hosseinioun, Hasan Shakeri, Ghasem Ghorbanirostam

Abstract:

In recent years, we have seen an increasing importance of research and study on knowledge source, decision support systems, data mining and procedure of knowledge discovery in data bases and it is considered that each of these aspects affects the others. In this article, we have merged information source and knowledge source to suggest a knowledge based system within limits of management based on storing and restoring of knowledge to manage information and improve decision making and resources. In this article, we have used method of data mining and Apriori algorithm in procedure of knowledge discovery one of the problems of Apriori algorithm is that, a user should specify the minimum threshold for supporting the regularity. Imagine that a user wants to apply Apriori algorithm for a database with millions of transactions. Definitely, the user does not have necessary knowledge of all existing transactions in that database, and therefore cannot specify a suitable threshold. Our purpose in this article is to improve Apriori algorithm. To achieve our goal, we tried using fuzzy logic to put data in different clusters before applying the Apriori algorithm for existing data in the database and we also try to suggest the most suitable threshold to the user automatically.

Keywords: Decision support system, data mining, knowledge discovery, data discovery, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Tsung-Chia Chen

Abstract:

The orthogonal processes to shape the triangle steel plate into a equilateral vertical steel are examined by an incremental elasto-plastic finite-element method based on an updated Lagrangian formulation. The highly non-linear problems due to the geometric changes, the inelastic constitutive behavior and the boundary conditions varied with deformation are taken into account in an incremental manner. On the contact boundary, a modified Coulomb friction mode is specially considered. A weighting factor r-minimum is employed to limit the step size of loading increment to linear relation. In particular, selective reduced integration was adopted to formulate the stiffness matrix. The simulated geometries of verticality could clearly demonstrate the vertical processes until unloading. A series of experiments and simulations were performed to validate the formulation in the theory, leading to the development of the computer codes. The whole deformation history and the distribution of stress, strain and thickness during the forming process were obtained by carefully considering the moving boundary condition in the finite-element method. Therefore, this modeling can be used for judging whether a equilateral vertical steel can be shaped successfully. The present work may be expected to improve the understanding of the formation of the equilateral vertical steel.

Keywords: Elasto-plastic, finite element, orthogonal pressing process, vertical steel.

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Authors: Mahdi Hamzehei

Abstract:

In this research, heat transfer of a poly Ethylene fluidized bed reactor without reaction were studied experimentally and computationally at different superficial gas velocities. A multifluid Eulerian computational model incorporating the kinetic theory for solid particles was developed and used to simulate the heat conducting gas–solid flows in a fluidized bed configuration. Momentum exchange coefficients were evaluated using the Syamlal– O-Brien drag functions. Temperature distributions of different phases in the reactor were also computed. Good agreement was found between the model predictions and the experimentally obtained data for the bed expansion ratio as well as the qualitative gas–solid flow patterns. The simulation and experimental results showed that the gas temperature decreases as it moves upward in the reactor, while the solid particle temperature increases. Pressure drop and temperature distribution predicted by the simulations were in good agreement with the experimental measurements at superficial gas velocities higher than the minimum fluidization velocity. Also, the predicted time-average local voidage profiles were in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. The study showed that the computational model was capable of predicting the heat transfer and the hydrodynamic behavior of gas-solid fluidized bed flows with reasonable accuracy.

Keywords: Gas-solid flows, fluidized bed, Hydrodynamics, Heat transfer, Turbulence model, CFD

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Authors: T. Mokhele, O. Mutanga, F. Ahmed

Abstract:

South Africa is one of the few countries that have stopped using the same Enumeration Areas (EAs) for census enumeration and dissemination. The advantage of this change is that confidentiality issue could be addressed for census dissemination as the design of geographic unit for collection is mainly to ensure that this unit is covered by one enumerator. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the performance of automated zone design output areas against non-zone design developed geographies using the 2001 census data, and 2011 census to some extent, as the main input. The comparison of the Automated Zone-design Tool (AZTool) census output areas with the Small Area Layers (SALs) and SubPlaces based on confidentiality limit, population distribution, and degree of homogeneity, as well as shape compactness, was undertaken. Further, SPSS was employed for validation of the AZTool output results. The results showed that AZTool developed output areas out-perform the existing official SAL and SubPlaces with regard to minimum population threshold, population distribution and to some extent to homogeneity. Therefore, it was concluded that AZTool program provides a new alternative to the creation of optimised census output areas for dissemination of population census data in South Africa.

Keywords: AZTool, enumeration areas, small areal layers, South Africa.

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Authors: J. Y. Lee, J. Kim, H. J. Chang, J. M. Kim

Abstract:

People’s tendency towards living in apartment houses is increasing in a densely populated country. However, some residents living in apartment houses are bothered by noise coming from the houses above. In order to reduce noise pollution, the communities are increasingly imposing a bylaw, including the limitation of floor impact sound, minimum thickness of floors, and floor soundproofing solutions. This research effort focused on the specific long-time deflection of resilient materials in the floor sound insulation systems of apartment houses. The experimental program consisted of testing nine floor sound insulation specimens subjected to sustained load for 45 days. Two main parameters were considered in the experimental investigation: three types of resilient materials and magnitudes of loads. The test results indicated that the structural behavior of the floor sound insulation systems under long-time load was quite different from that the systems under short-time load. The loading period increased the deflection of floor sound insulation systems and the increasing rate of the long-time deflection of the systems with ethylene vinyl acetate was smaller than that of the systems with low density ethylene polystyrene.

Keywords: Resilient materials, floor sound insulation systems, long-time deflection, sustained load, noise pollution.

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Authors: Mohammed Sharif, Donald Burn

Abstract:

Large scale climate signals and their teleconnections can influence hydro-meteorological variables on a local scale. Several extreme flow and timing measures, including high flow and low flow measures, from 62 hydrometric stations in Canada are investigated to detect possible linkages with several large scale climate indices. The streamflow data used in this study are derived from the Canadian Reference Hydrometric Basin Network and are characterized by relatively pristine and stable land-use conditions with a minimum of 40 years of record. A composite analysis approach was used to identify linkages between extreme flow and timing measures and climate indices. The approach involves determining the 10 highest and 10 lowest values of various climate indices from the data record. Extreme flow and timing measures for each station were examined for the years associated with the 10 largest values and the years associated with the 10 smallest values. In each case, a re-sampling approach was applied to determine if the 10 values of extreme flow measures differed significantly from the series mean. Results indicate that several stations are impacted by the large scale climate indices considered in this study. The results allow the determination of any relationship between stations that exhibit a statistically significant trend and stations for which the extreme measures exhibit a linkage with the climate indices.

Keywords: flood analysis, low-flow events, climate change, trend analysis, Canada

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Authors: Georgi Bebrov, Rozalina Dimova

Abstract:

In the field of quantum secure communication, there is no evaluation that characterizes quantum secure communication (QSC) protocols in a complete, general manner. The current paper addresses the problem concerning the lack of such an evaluation for QSC protocols by introducing an optimality evaluation, which is expressed as the average over the three main parameters of QSC protocols: efficiency, security, and practicality. For the efficiency evaluation, the common expression of this parameter is used, which incorporates all the classical and quantum resources (bits and qubits) utilized for transferring a certain amount of information (bits) in a secure manner. By using criteria approach whether or not certain criteria are met, an expression for the practicality evaluation is presented, which accounts for the complexity of the QSC practical realization. Based on the error rates that the common quantum attacks (Measurement and resend, Intercept and resend, probe attack, and entanglement swapping attack) induce, the security evaluation for a QSC protocol is proposed as the minimum function taken over the error rates of the mentioned quantum attacks. For the sake of clarity, an example is presented in order to show how the optimality is calculated.

Keywords: Quantum cryptography, quantum secure communcation, quantum secure direct communcation security, quantum secure direct communcation efficiency, quantum secure direct communcation practicality.

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Authors: M. Parva, K. Dola, F. Pour Rahimian

Abstract:

Earthquake is considered as one of the most catastrophic disasters in Iran, in terms of both short-term and long-term hazards. Due to the particular financial and time constraints in Iran, quickly constructed post-earthquake houses (PEHs) do not fulfill the minimum requirements to be considered as comfortable dwellings for people. Consequently, people often transform PEHs after they start to reside. However, lack of understanding about process, motivation, and results of housing transformation leads to construction of some houses not suitable for future transformations, hence resulting in eventually demolished or abandoned PEHs. This study investigated housing transformations in a natural bed of post-earthquake Lar. This paper reports results of the conducted survey for comparing normal condition housing transformation with post-earthquake housing transformation in order to reveal the factors that affect post-earthquake housing transformation in Iran. The findings proposed the use of a combination of ‘Temporary’ and ‘Permanent’ housing reconstruction models in Iran to provide victims with basic but permanent post-disaster dwellings. It is also suggested that needs for future transformation should be predicted and addressed during early stages of design and development. This study contributes to both research and practice regarding post-earthquake housing reconstruction in Iran by proposing new design approaches and guidelines.

Keywords: Housing transformation, Iran, Lar, post-earthquake housing.

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Authors: Arnaud Nougues

Abstract:

This paper describes a two-stage methodology derived from IMC (Internal Model Control) for tuning a PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controller for levels or other integrating processes in an industrial environment. Focus is ease of use and implementation speed which are critical for an industrial application. Tuning can be done with minimum effort and without the need of time-consuming open-loop step tests on the plant. The first stage of the method applies to levels only: the vessel residence time is calculated from equipment dimensions and used to derive a set of preliminary PI (Proportional-Integral) settings with IMC. The second stage, re-tuning in closed-loop, applies to levels as well as other integrating processes: a tuning correction mechanism has been developed based on a series of closed-loop simulations with model errors. The tuning correction is done from a simple closed-loop step test and application of a generic correlation between observed overshoot and integral time correction. A spin-off of the method is that an estimate of the vessel residence time (levels) or open-loop process gain (other integrating process) is obtained from the closed-loop data.

Keywords: closed-loop model identification, IMC-PID tuning method, integrating process control, on-line PID tuning adaptation

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