Search results for: normal shock location
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1685

Search results for: normal shock location

1565 SFCL Location Selection Considering Reliability Indices

Authors: Wook-Won Kim, Sung-Yul Kim, Jin-O Kim

Abstract:

The fault current levels through the electric devices have a significant impact on failure probability. New fault current results in exceeding the rated capacity of circuit breaker and switching equipments and changes operation characteristic of overcurrent relay. In order to solve these problems, SFCL (Superconducting Fault Current Limiter) has rising as one of new alternatives so as to improve these problems. A fault current reduction differs depending on installed location. Therefore, a location of SFCL is very important. Also, SFCL decreases the fault current, and it prevents surrounding protective devices to be exposed to fault current, it then will bring a change of reliability. In this paper, we propose method which determines the optimal location when SFCL is installed in power system. In addition, the reliability about the power system which SFCL was installed is evaluated. The efficiency and effectiveness of this method are also shown by numerical examples and the reliability indices are evaluated in this study at each load points. These results show a reliability change of a system when SFCL was installed.

Keywords: Superconducting Fault Current Limiter, OptimalLocation, Reliability

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1564 Clinical Signs of Neonatal Calves in Experimental Colisepticemia

Authors: Samad Lotfollahzadeh

Abstract:

Escherichia coli (E. coli) is the most isolated bacteria from blood circulation of septicemic calves. Given the prevalence of septicemia in animals and its economic importance in veterinary practice, better understanding of changes in clinical signs following disease, may contribute to early detection of disorder. The present study has been carried out to detect changes of clinical signs in induced sepsis in calves with E. coli. Colisepticemia has been induced in 10 twenty-day old healthy Holstein- Frisian calves with intravenous injection of 1.5 X 109 colony forming units (cfu) of O111:H8 strain of E. coli. Clinical signs including rectal temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, shock, appetite, sucking reflex, feces consistency, general behavior, dehydration and standing ability were recorded in experimental calves during 24 hours after induction of colisepticemia. Blood culture was also carried out from calves four times during experiment. ANOVA with repeated measure is used to see changes of calves’ clinical signs to experimental colisepticemia, and values of P≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Mean values of rectal temperature and heart rate as well as median values of respiratory rate, appetite, suckling reflex, standing ability and feces consistency of experimental calves increased significantly during study (P<0.05). In the present study median value of shock score was not significantly increased in experimental calves (P> 0.05). The results of present study showed that total score of clinical signs in calves with experimental colisepticemia increased significantly, although score of some clinical signs such as shock did not change significantly.

Keywords: Calves, Clinical signs scoring, E. coli O111:H8, Experimental colisepticemia,

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1563 Distributed Generator Placement and Sizing in Unbalanced Radial Distribution System

Authors: J. B. V. Subrahmanyam, C. Radhakrishna

Abstract:

To minimize power losses, it is important to determine the location and size of local generators to be placed in unbalanced power distribution systems. On account of some inherent features of unbalanced distribution systems, such as radial structure, large number of nodes, a wide range of X/R ratios, the conventional techniques developed for the transmission systems generally fail on the determination of optimum size and location of distributed generators (DGs). This paper presents a simple method for investigating the problem of contemporaneously choosing best location and size of DG in three-phase unbalanced radial distribution system (URDS) for power loss minimization and to improve the voltage profile of the system. Best location of the DG is determined by using voltage index analysis and size of DG is computed by variational technique algorithm according to available standard size of DGs. This paper presents the results of simulations for 25-bus and IEEE 37- bus Unbalanced Radial Distribution system.

Keywords: Distributed generator, unbalanced radial distributionsystem, voltage index analysis, variational algorithm.

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1562 A Robust Optimization Model for the Single-Depot Capacitated Location-Routing Problem

Authors: Abdolsalam Ghaderi

Abstract:

In this paper, the single-depot capacitated location-routing problem under uncertainty is presented. The problem aims to find the optimal location of a single depot and the routing of vehicles to serve the customers when the parameters may change under different circumstances. This problem has many applications, especially in the area of supply chain management and distribution systems. To get closer to real-world situations, travel time of vehicles, the fixed cost of vehicles usage and customers’ demand are considered as a source of uncertainty. A combined approach including robust optimization and stochastic programming was presented to deal with the uncertainty in the problem at hand. For this purpose, a mixed integer programming model is developed and a heuristic algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search(VNS) is presented to solve the model. Finally, the computational results are presented and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: Location-routing problem, robust optimization, Stochastic Programming, variable neighborhood search.

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1561 Assessment of the Effect of Feed Plate Location on Interactions for a Binary Distillation Column

Authors: A. Khelassi, R. Bendib

Abstract:

The paper considers the effect of feed plate location on the interactions in a seven plate binary distillation column. The mathematical model of the distillation column is deduced based on the equations of mass and energy balances for each stage, detailed model for both reboiler and condenser, and heat transfer equations. The Dynamic Relative Magnitude Criterion, DRMC is used to assess the interactions in different feed plate locations for a seven plate (Benzene-Toluene) binary distillation column ( the feed plate is originally at stage 4). The results show that whenever we go far from the optimum feed plate position, the level of interaction augments.

Keywords: Distillation column, assessment of interactions, feedplate location, DRMC.

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1560 Thermal Characterization of Smart and Large-Scale Building Envelope System in a Subtropical Climate

Authors: Andrey A. Chernousov, Ben Y. B. Chan

Abstract:

The thermal behavior of a large-scale, phase change material (PCM) enhanced building envelope system was studied in regard to the need for pre-fabricated construction in subtropical regions. The proposed large-scale envelope consists of a reinforced aluminum skin, insulation core, phase change material and reinforced gypsum board. The PCM impact on an energy efficiency of an enveloped room was resolved by validation of the EnergyPlus numerical scheme and optimization of a smart material location in the core. The PCM location was optimized by a minimization method of a cooling energy demand. It has been shown that there is good agreement between the test and simulation results. The optimal location of the PCM layer in Hong Kong summer conditions has been then recomputed for core thicknesses of 40, 60 and 80 mm. A non-dimensional value of the optimal PCM location was obtained to be same for all the studied cases and the considered external and internal conditions.

Keywords: Thermal performance, phase change material, energy efficiency, PCM optimization.

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1559 I-Vague Normal Groups

Authors: Zelalem Teshome Wale

Abstract:

The notions of I-vague normal groups with membership and non-membership functions taking values in an involutary dually residuated lattice ordered semigroup are introduced which generalize the notions with truth values in a Boolean algebra as well as those usual vague sets whose membership and non-membership functions taking values in the unit interval [0, 1]. Various operations and properties are established.

Keywords: Involutary dually residuated lattice ordered semigroup, I-vague set, I-vague group and I-vague normal group.

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1558 A Location-Allocation-Routing Model for a Home Health Care Supply Chain Problem

Authors: Amir Mohammad Fathollahi Fard, Mostafa Hajiaghaei-Keshteli, Mohammad Mahdi Paydar

Abstract:

With increasing life expectancy in developed countries, the role of home care services is highlighted by both academia and industrial contributors in Home Health Care Supply Chain (HHCSC) companies. The main decisions in such supply chain systems are the location of pharmacies, the allocation of patients to these pharmacies and also the routing and scheduling decisions of nurses to visit their patients. In this study, for the first time, an integrated model is proposed to consist of all preliminary and necessary decisions in these companies, namely, location-allocation-routing model. This model is a type of NP-hard one. Therefore, an Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) is utilized to solve the model, especially in large sizes. Results confirm the efficiency of the developed model for HHCSC companies as well as the performance of employed ICA.

Keywords: Home health care supply chain, location-allocation-routing problem, imperialist competitive algorithm, optimization.

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1557 Distribution Centers Reliability Cost in Capacitated Facility Location Problem

Authors: Mehdi Seifbarghy, Sajjad Jalali, Seyed Habib A. Rahmati

Abstract:

Recently studies in area of supply chain network (SCN) have focused on the disruption issues in distribution systems. Also this paper extends the previous literature by providing a new biobjective model for cost minimization of designing a three echelon SCN across normal and failure scenarios with considering multi capacity option for manufacturers and distribution centers. Moreover, in order to solve the problem by means of LINGO software, novel model will be reformulated through a branch of LP-Metric method called Min-Max approach.

Keywords: Scenario programming, Distribution, Multi-echelon supply chain design, Reliable facility

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1556 Modeling of Normal and Atherosclerotic Blood Vessels using Finite Element Methods and Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: K. Kamalanand, S. Srinivasan

Abstract:

Analysis of blood vessel mechanics in normal and diseased conditions is essential for disease research, medical device design and treatment planning. In this work, 3D finite element models of normal vessel and atherosclerotic vessel with 50% plaque deposition were developed. The developed models were meshed using finite number of tetrahedral elements. The developed models were simulated using actual blood pressure signals. Based on the transient analysis performed on the developed models, the parameters such as total displacement, strain energy density and entropy per unit volume were obtained. Further, the obtained parameters were used to develop artificial neural network models for analyzing normal and atherosclerotic blood vessels. In this paper, the objectives of the study, methodology and significant observations are presented.

Keywords: Blood vessel, atherosclerosis, finite element model, artificial neural networks

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1555 Dynamic Response of Nano Spherical Shell Subjected to Termo-Mechanical Shock Using Nonlocal Elasticity Theory

Authors: J. Ranjbarn, A. Alibeigloo

Abstract:

In this paper, we present an analytical method for analysis of nano-scale spherical shell subjected to thermo-mechanical shocks based on nonlocal elasticity theory. Thermo-mechanical properties of nano shpere is assumed to be temperature dependent. Governing partial differential equation of motion is solved analytically by using Laplace transform for time domain and power series for spacial domain. The results in Laplace domain is transferred to time domain by employing the fast inverse Laplace transform (FLIT) method. Accuracy of present approach is assessed by comparing the the numerical results with the results of published work in literature. Furtheremore, the effects of non-local parameter and wall thickness on the dynamic characteristics of the nano-sphere are studied.

Keywords: Nano-scale spherical shell, nonlocal elasticity theory, thermomechanical shock.

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1554 Steering Velocity Bounded Mobile Robots in Environments with Partially Known Obstacles

Authors: Reza Hossseynie, Amir Jafari

Abstract:

This paper presents a method for steering velocity bounded mobile robots in environments with partially known stationary obstacles. The exact location of obstacles is unknown and only a probability distribution associated with the location of the obstacles is known. Kinematic model of a 2-wheeled differential drive robot is used as the model of mobile robot. The presented control strategy uses the Artificial Potential Field (APF) method for devising a desired direction of movement for the robot at each instant of time while the Constrained Directions Control (CDC) uses the generated direction to produce the control signals required for steering the robot. The location of each obstacle is considered to be the mean value of the 2D probability distribution and similarly, the magnitude of the electric charge in the APF is set as the trace of covariance matrix of the location probability distribution. The method not only captures the challenges of planning the path (i.e. probabilistic nature of the location of unknown obstacles), but it also addresses the output saturation which is considered to be an important issue from the control perspective. Moreover, velocity of the robot can be controlled during the steering. For example, the velocity of robot can be reduced in close vicinity of obstacles and target to ensure safety. Finally, the control strategy is simulated for different scenarios to show how the method can be put into practice.

Keywords: Steering, obstacle avoidance, mobile robots, constrained directions control, artificial potential field.

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1553 A Study on Behaviour of Normal Strength Concrete and High Strength Concrete Subjected to Elevated Temperatures

Authors: C. B. K.Rao, Rooban Kumar

Abstract:

Cement concrete is a complex mixture of different materials. Behaviour of concrete depends on its mix proportions and constituents when it is subjected to elevated temperatures. Principal effects due to elevated temperatures are loss in compressive strength, loss in weight or mass, change in colour and spall of concrete. The experimental results of normal concrete and high strength concrete subjected elevated temperatures at 200°C, 400°C, 600°C, and 800°C and different cooling regimes viz. air cooling, water quenching on different grade of concrete are reported in this paper.

Keywords: High strength concrete, Normal strength concrete, Elevated Temperature, Loss of mass.

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1552 Estimation of the Mean of the Selected Population

Authors: Kalu Ram Meena, Aditi Kar Gangopadhyay, Satrajit Mandal

Abstract:

Two normal populations with different means and same variance are considered, where the variance is known. The population with the smaller sample mean is selected. Various estimators are constructed for the mean of the selected normal population. Finally, they are compared with respect to the bias and MSE risks by the mehod of Monte-Carlo simulation and their performances are analysed with the help of graphs.

Keywords: Estimation after selection, Brewster-Zidek technique.

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1551 Prediction of Location of High Energy Shower Cores using Artificial Neural Networks

Authors: Gitanjali Devi, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma, Pranayee Datta, Anjana Kakoti Mahanta

Abstract:

Artificial Neural Network (ANN)s can be modeled for High Energy Particle analysis with special emphasis on shower core location. The work describes the use of an ANN based system which has been configured to predict locations of cores of showers in the range 1010.5 to 1020.5 eV. The system receives density values as inputs and generates coordinates of shower events recorded for values captured by 20 core positions and 80 detectors in an area of 100 meters. Twenty ANNs are trained for the purpose and the positions of shower events optimized by using cooperative ANN learning. The results derived with variations of input upto 50% show success rates in the range of 90s.

Keywords: EAS, Shower, Core, ANN, Location.

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1550 Sleep Scheduling Schemes Based on Location of Mobile User in Sensor-Cloud

Authors: N. Mahendran, R. Priya

Abstract:

The mobile cloud computing (MCC) with wireless sensor networks (WSNs) technology gets more attraction by research scholars because its combines the sensors data gathering ability with the cloud data processing capacity. This approach overcomes the limitation of data storage capacity and computational ability of sensor nodes. Finally, the stored data are sent to the mobile users when the user sends the request. The most of the integrated sensor-cloud schemes fail to observe the following criteria: 1) The mobile users request the specific data to the cloud based on their present location. 2) Power consumption since most of them are equipped with non-rechargeable batteries. Mostly, the sensors are deployed in hazardous and remote areas. This paper focuses on above observations and introduces an approach known as collaborative location-based sleep scheduling (CLSS) scheme. Both awake and asleep status of each sensor node is dynamically devised by schedulers and the scheduling is done purely based on the of mobile users’ current location; in this manner, large amount of energy consumption is minimized at WSN. CLSS work depends on two different methods; CLSS1 scheme provides lower energy consumption and CLSS2 provides the scalability and robustness of the integrated WSN.

Keywords: Sleep scheduling, mobile cloud computing, wireless sensor network, integration, location, network lifetime.

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1549 Calculation Analysis of an Axial Compressor Supersonic Stage Impeller

Authors: Y. B. Galerkin, E. Y. Popova, K. V. Soldatova

Abstract:

There is an evident trend to elevate pressure ratio of a single stage of a turbo compressors - axial compressors in particular. Whilst there was an opinion recently that a pressure ratio 1,9 was a reasonable limit, later appeared information on successful modeling tested of stages with pressure ratio up to 2,8. The authors recon that lack of information on high pressure stages makes actual a study of rational choice of design parameters before high supersonic flow problems solving. The computer program of an engineering type was developed. Below is presented a sample of its application to study possible parameters of the impeller of the stage with pressure ratio 3,0. Influence of two main design parameters on expected efficiency, periphery blade speed and flow structure is demonstrated. The results had lead to choose a variant for further analysis and improvement by CFD methods.

Keywords: Supersonic stage, impeller, efficiency, flow rate coefficient, work coefficient, loss coefficient, oblique shock, direct shock.

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1548 Speed Characteristics of Mixed Traffic Flow on Urban Arterials

Authors: Ashish Dhamaniya, Satish Chandra

Abstract:

Speed and traffic volume data are collected on different sections of four lane and six lane roads in three metropolitan cities in India. Speed data are analyzed to fit the statistical distribution to individual vehicle speed data and all vehicles speed data. It is noted that speed data of individual vehicle generally follows a normal distribution but speed data of all vehicle combined at a section of urban road may or may not follow the normal distribution depending upon the composition of traffic stream. A new term Speed Spread Ratio (SSR) is introduced in this paper which is the ratio of difference in 85th and 50th percentile speed to the difference in 50th and 15th percentile speed. If SSR is unity then speed data are truly normally distributed. It is noted that on six lane urban roads, speed data follow a normal distribution only when SSR is in the range of 0.86 – 1.11. The range of SSR is validated on four lane roads also.

Keywords: Normal distribution, percentile speed, speed spread ratio, traffic volume.

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1547 An Investigation into Turbine Blade Tip Leakage Flows at High Speeds

Authors: Z. Saleh, E. J. Avital, T. Korakianitis

Abstract:

The effect of the blade tip geometry of a high pressure gas turbine is studied experimentally and computationally for high speed leakage flows. For this purpose two simplified models are constructed, one models a flat tip of the blade and the second models a cavity tip of the blade. Experimental results are obtained from a transonic wind tunnel to show the static pressure distribution along the tip wall and provide flow visualization. RANS computations were carried to provide further insight into the mean flow behavior and to calculate the discharge coefficient which is a measure of the flow leaking over the tip. It is shown that in both geometries of tip the flow separates over the tip to form a separation bubble. The bubble is higher for the cavity tip while a complete shock wave system of oblique waves ending with a normal wave can be seen for the flat tip. The discharge coefficient for the flat tip shows less dependence on the pressure ratio over the blade tip than the cavity tip. However, the discharge coefficient for the cavity tip is lower than that of the flat tip, showing a better ability to reduce the leakage flow and thus increase the turbine efficiency.

Keywords: Gas turbine, blade tip leakage flow, transonic flow.

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1546 Compressive Strength Development of Normal Concrete and Self-Consolidating Concrete Incorporated with GGBS

Authors: M. Nili, S. Tavasoli, A. R. Yazdandoost

Abstract:

In this paper, an experimental investigation on the effect of Isfahan Ground Granulate Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) on the compressive strength development of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) and normal concrete (NC) was performed. For this purpose, Portland cement type I was replaced with GGBS in various Portions. For NC and SCC Mixes, 10*10*10 cubic cm specimens were tested in 7, 28 and 91 days. It must be stated that in this research water to cement ratio was 0.44, cement used in cubic meter was 418 Kg/m³ and Superplasticizer (SP) Type III used in SCC based on Poly-Carboxylic acid. The results of experiments have shown that increasing GGBS Percentages in both types of concrete reduce Compressive strength in early ages.

Keywords: Compressive strength, GGBS, normal concrete, self-consolidating concrete.

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1545 An Exploratory Study Regarding the Effects of Auditor Switch, Auditee’s Industry, and Auditee’s Location on Audit Fees in Australia

Authors: Ashkan Mirzay Fashami

Abstract:

This study examines the effects of auditor switch, auditee’s industry, and auditee’s location on audit fees in Australia. It uses fee data of Australian Securities Exchange 500 companies, considering all industry classifications throughout the country from 2006 until 2016. Main findings show that auditor switch does not affect audit fees. However, auditee’s industry affects audit fees. This effect occurs in information technology, financials, energy, and materials sectors among the top 500 companies. Financials, energy, and materials sectors face a fee rise, whereas information technology has a fee cut. The extent of fee changes is different among various industries, wherein the financial sector has the highest increase. Further, auditee’s location affects audit fees. Top 500 companies in Hobart, Perth, and Brisbane face a fee reduction, wherein the highest cut is in Hobart. Further analysis suggests that the Australian audit market is being increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Big Four audit firms.

Keywords: Audit fee, auditor switch, Australia, industry, location.

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1544 Adaptive WiFi Fingerprinting for Location Approximation

Authors: Mohd Fikri Azli bin Abdullah, Khairul Anwar bin Kamarul Hatta, Esther Jeganathan

Abstract:

WiFi has become an essential technology that is widely used nowadays. It is famous due to its convenience to be used with mobile devices. This is especially true for Internet users worldwide that use WiFi connections. There are many location based services that are available nowadays which uses Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) signal fingerprinting. A common example that is gaining popularity in this era would be Foursquare. In this work, the WiFi signal would be used to estimate the user or client’s location. Similar to GPS, fingerprinting method needs a floor plan to increase the accuracy of location estimation. Still, the factor of inconsistent WiFi signal makes the estimation defer at different time intervals. Given so, an adaptive method is needed to obtain the most accurate signal at all times. WiFi signals are heavily distorted by external factors such as physical objects, radio frequency interference, electrical interference, and environmental factors to name a few. Due to these factors, this work uses a method of reducing the signal noise and estimation using the Nearest Neighbour based on past activities of the signal to increase the signal accuracy up to more than 80%. The repository yet increases the accuracy by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) pattern matching. The repository acts as the server cum support of the client side application decision. Numerous previous works has adapted the methods of collecting signal strengths in the repository over the years, but mostly were just static. In this work, proposed solutions on how the adaptive method is done to match the signal received to the data in the repository are highlighted. With the said approach, location estimation can be done more accurately. Adaptive update allows the latest location fingerprint to be stored in the repository. Furthermore, any redundant location fingerprints are removed and only the updated version of the fingerprint is stored in the repository. How the location estimation of the user can be predicted would be highlighted more in the proposed solution section. After some studies on previous works, it is found that the Artificial Neural Network is the most feasible method to deploy in updating the repository and making it adaptive. The Artificial Neural Network functions are to do the pattern matching of the WiFi signal to the existing data available in the repository.

Keywords: Adaptive Repository, Artificial Neural Network, Location Estimation, Nearest Neighbour Euclidean Distance, WiFi RSSI Fingerprinting.

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1543 Ultrasonic System for Diagnosis of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders: Development, Verification and Clinical Trials

Authors: Eun-Geun Kim, Won-Pil Park, Dae-Gon Woo, Chang-Yong Ko, Yong-Heum Lee, Dohyung Lim, Tae-Min Shin, Han-Sung Kim, Gyoun-Jung Lee

Abstract:

Functional gastrointestinal disorders affect millions of people spread all age regardless of race and sex. There are, however, rare diagnostic methods for the functional gastrointestinal disorders because functional disorders show no evidence of organic and physical causes. Our research group identified recently that the gastrointestinal tract well in the patients with the functional gastrointestinal disorders becomes more rigid than healthy people when palpating the abdominal regions overlaying the gastrointestinal tract. Aim of this study is, therefore, to develop a diagnostic system for the functional gastrointestinal disorders based on ultrasound technique, which can quantify the characteristic above related to the rigidity of the gastrointestinal tract well. Ultrasound system was designed. The system consisted of transmitter, ultrasonic transducer, receiver, TGC, and CPLD, and verified via a phantom test. For the phantom test, ten soft-tissue specimens were harvested from porcine. Five of them were then treated chemically to mimic a rigid condition of gastrointestinal tract well, which was induced by functional gastrointestinal disorders. Additionally, the specimens were tested mechanically to identify if the mimic was reasonable. The customized ultrasound system was finally verified through application to human subjects with/without functional gastrointestinal disorders (Normal and Patient Groups). It was identified from the mechanical test that the chemically treated specimens were more rigid than normal specimen. This finding was favorably compared with the result obtained from the phantom test. The phantom test also showed that ultrasound system well described the specimen geometric characteristics and detected an alteration in the specimens. The maximum amplitude of the ultrasonic reflective signal in the rigid specimens (0.2±0.1Vp-p) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly higher than that in the normal specimens (0.1±0.0Vp-p). Clinical tests using our customized ultrasound system for human subject showed that the maximum amplitudes of the ultrasonic reflective signals near to the gastrointestinal tract well for the patient group (2.6±0.3Vp-p) were generally higher than those in normal group (0.1±0.2Vp-p). Here, maximum reflective signals was appeared at 20mm depth approximately from abdominal skin for all human subjects, corresponding to the location of the boundary layer close to gastrointestinal tract well. These results suggest that newly designed diagnostic system based on ultrasound technique may diagnose enough the functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Keywords: Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, DiagnosticSystem, Phantom Test, Ultrasound System.

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1542 Reliability Modeling and Data Analysis of Vacuum Circuit Breaker Subject to Random Shocks

Authors: Rafik Medjoudj, Rabah Medjoudj, D. Aissani

Abstract:

The electrical substation components are often subject to degradation due to over-voltage or over-current, caused by a short circuit or a lightning. A particular interest is given to the circuit breaker, regarding the importance of its function and its dangerous failure. This component degrades gradually due to the use, and it is also subject to the shock process resulted from the stress of isolating the fault when a short circuit occurs in the system. In this paper, based on failure mechanisms developments, the wear out of the circuit breaker contacts is modeled. The aim of this work is to evaluate its reliability and consequently its residual lifetime. The shock process is based on two random variables such as: the arrival of shocks and their magnitudes. The arrival of shocks was modeled using homogeneous Poisson process (HPP). By simulation, the dates of short-circuit arrivals were generated accompanied with their magnitudes. The same principle of simulation is applied to the amount of cumulative wear out contacts. The objective reached is to find the formulation of the wear function depending on the number of solicitations of the circuit breaker.

Keywords: reliability, short-circuit, models of shocks.

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1541 A Heat-Inducible Transgene Expression System for Gene Therapy

Authors: Masaki Yamaguchi, Akira Ito, Noriaki Okamoto, Yoshinori Kawabe, Masamichi Kamihira

Abstract:

Heat-inducible gene expression vectors are useful for hyperthermia-induced cancer gene therapy, because the combination of hyperthermia and gene therapy can considerably improve the therapeutic effects. In the present study, we developed an enhanced heat-inducible transgene expression system in which a heat-shock protein (HSP) promoter and tetracycline-responsive transactivator were combined. When the transactivator plasmid containing the tetracycline-responsive transactivator gene was co-transfected with the reporter gene expression plasmid, a high level of heat-induced gene expression was observed compared with that using the HSP promoter without the transactivator. In vitro evaluation of the therapeutic effect using HeLa cells showed that heat-induced therapeutic gene expression caused cell death in a high percentage of these cells, indicating that this strategy is promising for cancer gene therapy.

Keywords: Inducible gene expression, Gene therapy, Hyperthermia, Heat shock protein, Tetracycline transactivator.

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1540 Genetic Comparison of Two Different Arabian Oryx Populations in UAE Based on Microsatellite Analysis

Authors: Mohammed A. Khidhir, K. Praveen Kumar, Marwa Al-Aseer

Abstract:

This is a genetic comparison study of Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) population at two different locations (A &B) based on nuclear microsatellite DNA markers. Arabian Oryx is listed as vulnerable and endanger by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Thirty microsatellite markers from bovine family were applied to investigate the genetic diversity of the Arabian Oryx and to set up a molecular inventory. Among 30 microsatellite markers used, 13 markers were moderately polymorphic. Arabian Oryx at location A has shown better gene diversity over location B. However, mean number of alleles were less than location B. Data of within population inbreeding coefficient indicates inbreeding at both locations (A&B). Based on the analysis of polymorphic microsatellite markers, the study revealed that Arabian Oryx need a genetically designed breeding program.

Keywords: Arabian oryx, Microsatellites

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1539 Optical Flow Technique for Supersonic Jet Measurements

Authors: H. D. Lim, Jie Wu, T. H. New, Shengxian Shi

Abstract:

This paper outlines the development of an experimental technique in quantifying supersonic jet flows, in an attempt to avoid seeding particle problems frequently associated with particle-image velocimetry (PIV) techniques at high Mach numbers. Based on optical flow algorithms, the idea behind the technique involves using high speed cameras to capture Schlieren images of the supersonic jet shear layers, before they are subjected to an adapted optical flow algorithm based on the Horn-Schnuck method to determine the associated flow fields. The proposed method is capable of offering full-field unsteady flow information with potentially higher accuracy and resolution than existing point-measurements or PIV techniques. Preliminary study via numerical simulations of a circular de Laval jet nozzle successfully reveals flow and shock structures typically associated with supersonic jet flows, which serve as useful data for subsequent validation of the optical flow based experimental results. For experimental technique, a Z-type Schlieren setup is proposed with supersonic jet operated in cold mode, stagnation pressure of 4 bar and exit Mach of 1.5. High-speed singleframe or double-frame cameras are used to capture successive Schlieren images. As implementation of optical flow technique to supersonic flows remains rare, the current focus revolves around methodology validation through synthetic images. The results of validation test offers valuable insight into how the optical flow algorithm can be further improved to improve robustness and accuracy. Despite these challenges however, this supersonic flow measurement technique may potentially offer a simpler way to identify and quantify the fine spatial structures within the shock shear layer.

Keywords: Schlieren, optical flow, supersonic jets, shock shear layer.

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1538 A Location Routing Model for the Logistic System in the Mining Collection Centers of the Northern Region of Boyacá-Colombia

Authors: Erika Ruíz, Luis Amaya, Diego Carreño

Abstract:

The main objective of this study is to design a mathematical model for the logistics of mining collection centers in the northern region of the department of Boyacá (Colombia), determining the structure that facilitates the flow of products along the supply chain. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to define a suitable design of the distribution network, taking into account the products, customer’s characteristics and the availability of information. Likewise, some other aspects must be defined, such as number and capacity of collection centers to establish, routes that must be taken to deliver products to the customers, among others. This research will use one of the operation research problems, which is used in the design of distribution networks known as Location Routing Problem (LRP).

Keywords: Location routing problem, logistic, mining collection, model.

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1537 Normal and Peaberry Coffee Beans Classification from Green Coffee Bean Images Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine

Authors: Hira Lal Gope, Hidekazu Fukai

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to develop a system which can identify and sort peaberries automatically at low cost for coffee producers in developing countries. In this paper, the focus is on the classification of peaberries and normal coffee beans using image processing and machine learning techniques. The peaberry is not bad and not a normal bean. The peaberry is born in an only single seed, relatively round seed from a coffee cherry instead of the usual flat-sided pair of beans. It has another value and flavor. To make the taste of the coffee better, it is necessary to separate the peaberry and normal bean before green coffee beans roasting. Otherwise, the taste of total beans will be mixed, and it will be bad. In roaster procedure time, all the beans shape, size, and weight must be unique; otherwise, the larger bean will take more time for roasting inside. The peaberry has a different size and different shape even though they have the same weight as normal beans. The peaberry roasts slower than other normal beans. Therefore, neither technique provides a good option to select the peaberries. Defect beans, e.g., sour, broken, black, and fade bean, are easy to check and pick up manually by hand. On the other hand, the peaberry pick up is very difficult even for trained specialists because the shape and color of the peaberry are similar to normal beans. In this study, we use image processing and machine learning techniques to discriminate the normal and peaberry bean as a part of the sorting system. As the first step, we applied Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as machine learning techniques to discriminate the peaberry and normal bean. As a result, better performance was obtained with CNN than with SVM for the discrimination of the peaberry. The trained artificial neural network with high performance CPU and GPU in this work will be simply installed into the inexpensive and low in calculation Raspberry Pi system. We assume that this system will be used in under developed countries. The study evaluates and compares the feasibility of the methods in terms of accuracy of classification and processing speed.

Keywords: Convolutional neural networks, coffee bean, peaberry, sorting, support vector machine.

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1536 Contact Stress Analysis of Spur Gear Teeth Pair

Authors: Ali Raad Hassan

Abstract:

Contact stress analysis between two spur gear teeth was considered in different contact positions, representing a pair of mating gears during rotation. A programme has been developed to plot a pair of teeth in contact. This programme was run for each 3° of pinion rotation from the first location of contact to the last location of contact to produce 10 cases. Each case was represented a sequence position of contact between these two teeth. The programme gives graphic results for the profiles of these teeth in each position and location of contact during rotation. Finite element models were made for these cases and stress analysis was done. The results were presented and finite element analysis results were compared with theoretical calculations, wherever available.

Keywords: Contact stress, Spur gear, Contact ratio, Finite elements

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