Search results for: ordinary knee bracing frame
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 830

Search results for: ordinary knee bracing frame

620 An Ergonomic Evaluation of Three Load Carriage Systems for Reducing Muscle Activity of Trunk and Lower Extremities during Giant Puppet Performing Tasks

Authors: Cathy SW. Chow, Kristina Shin, Faming Wang, B. C. L. So

Abstract:

During some dynamic giant puppet performances, an ergonomically designed load carrier system is necessary for the puppeteers to carry a giant puppet body’s heavy load with minimum muscle stress. A load carrier (i.e. prototype) was designed with two small wheels on the foot; and a hybrid spring device on the knee in order to assist the sliding and knee bending movements respectively. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of three load carriers including two other commercially available load mounting systems, Tepex and SuitX, and the prototype. Ten male participants were recruited for the experiment. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was used to collect the participants’ muscle activities during forward moving and bouncing and with and without load of 11.1 kg that was 60 cm above the shoulder. Five bilateral muscles including the lumbar erector spinae (LES), rectus femoris (RF), bicep femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA), and gastrocnemius (GM) were selected for data collection. During forward moving task, the sEMG data showed smallest muscle activities by Tepex harness which exhibited consistently the lowest, compared with the prototype and SuitX which were significantly higher on left LES 68.99% and 64.99%, right LES 26.57% and 82.45%; left RF 87.71% and 47.61%, right RF 143.57% and 24.28%; left BF 80.21% and 22.23%, right BF 96.02% and 21.83%; right TA 6.32% and 4.47%; left GM 5.89% and 12.35% respectively. The result above reflected mobility was highly restricted by tested exoskeleton devices. On the other hand, the sEMG data from bouncing task showed the smallest muscle activities by prototype which exhibited consistently the lowest, compared with the Tepex harness and SuitX which were significantly lower on lLES 6.65% and 104.93, rLES 23.56% and 92.19%; lBF 33.21% and 93.26% and rBF 24.70% and 81.16%; lTA 46.51% and 191.02%; rTA 12.75% and 125.76%; IGM 31.54% and 68.36%; rGM 95.95% and 96.43% respectively.

Keywords: Exoskeleton, load carriage aid, giant puppet performers, electromyography.

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619 Seismic Behavior of Self-Balancing Post-Tensioned Reinforced Concrete Spatial Structure

Authors: Mircea Pastrav, Horia Constantinescu

Abstract:

The construction industry is currently trying to develop sustainable reinforced concrete structures. In trying to aid in the effort, the research presented in this paper aims to prove the efficiency of modified special hybrid moment frames composed of discretely jointed precast and post-tensioned concrete members. This aim is due to the fact that current design standards do not cover the spatial design of moment frame structures assembled by post-tensioning with special hybrid joints. This lack of standardization is coupled with the fact that previous experimental programs, available in scientific literature, deal mainly with plane structures and offer little information regarding spatial behavior. A spatial model of a modified hybrid moment frame is experimentally analyzed. The experimental results of a natural scale model test of a corner column-beams sub-structure, cut from an actual multilevel building tested to seismic type loading are presented in order to highlight the behavior of this type of structure. The test is performed under alternative cycles of imposed lateral displacements, up to a storey drift ratio of 0.035. Seismic response of the spatial model is discussed considering the acceptance criteria for reinforced concrete frame structures designed based on experimental tests, as well as some of its major sustainability features. The results obtained show an overall excellent behavior of the system. The joint detailing allows for quick and cheap repairs after an accidental event and a self-balancing behavior of the system that ensures it can be used almost immediately after an accidental event it.

Keywords: Modified hybrid joint, seismic type loading response, self-balancing structure, acceptance criteria.

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618 Simulation Study on the Indoor Thermal Comfort with Insulation on Interior Structural Components of Super High-Rise Residences

Authors: Y. Wang, H. Fukuda, A. Ozaki, H. Sato

Abstract:

In this study, we discussed the effects on the thermal comfort of super high-rise residences that how effected by the high thermal capacity structural components. We considered different building orientations, structures, and insulation methods. We used the dynamic simulation software THERB (simulation of the thermal environment of residential buildings). It can estimate the temperature, humidity, sensible temperature, and heating/cooling load for multiple buildings. In the past studies, we examined the impact of air-conditioning loads (hereinafter referred to as AC loads) on the interior structural parts and the AC-usage patterns of super-high-rise residences. Super-high-rise residences have more structural components such as pillars and beams than do ordinary apartment buildings. The skeleton is generally made of concrete and steel, which have high thermal-storage capacities. The thermal-storage capacity of super-high-rise residences is considered to have a larger impact on the AC load and thermal comfort than that of ordinary residences. We show that the AC load of super-high-rise units would be reduced by installing insulation on the surfaces of interior walls that are not usually insulated in Japan.

Keywords: High-rise Residences, AC Load, Thermal Comfort, Thermal Storage, Insulation Patterns

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617 Stator-Flux-Oriented Based Encoderless Direct Torque Control for Synchronous Reluctance Machines Using Sliding Mode Approach

Authors: J. Soltani, H. Abootorabi Zarchi, Gh. R. Arab Markadeh

Abstract:

In this paper a sliding-mode torque and flux control is designed for encoderless synchronous reluctance motor drive. The sliding-mode plus PI controllers are designed in the stator-flux field oriented reference frame which is able to track the mentioned reference signals with a minimum pulsations in the state condition. In addition, with these controllers a fast dynamic response is also achieved for the drive system. The proposed control scheme is robust subject to parameters variation except to stator resistance. To solve this problem a simple estimator is used for on-line detecting of this parameter. Moreover, the rotor position and speed are estimated by on-line obtaining of the stator-flux-space vector. The effectiveness and capability of the proposed control approach is verified by both the simulation and experimental results.

Keywords: Synchronous Reluctance Motor, Direct Torque and Flux Control, Sliding Mode, Field-Oriented Frame, Encoderless.

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616 Contribution of the SidePlate Beam-Column Connections to the Seismic Responses of Special Moment Frames

Authors: Gökhan Yüksel, Serdar Akça, İlker Kalkan

Abstract:

The present study is an attempt to demonstrate the significant levels of contribution of the moment-resisting beam-column connections with side plates to the earthquake behavior of special steel moment frames. To this end, the moment-curvature relationships of a regular beam-column connection and its SidePlate counterpart were determined with the help of finite element analyses. The connection stiffness and deformability values from these finite element analyses were used in the linear time-history analyses of an example structural steel frame under three different seismic excitations. The top-story lateral drift, base shear, and overturning moment values in two orthogonal directions were obtained from these time-history analyses and compared to each other. The results revealed the improvements in the system response with the use of SidePlate connections. The paper ends with crucial recommendations for the plan and design of further studies on this very topic.

Keywords: Seismic detailing, special moment frame, steel structures, beam-column connection, earthquake-resistant design.

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615 'Performance-Based' Seismic Methodology and Its Application in Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures

Authors: Jelena R. Pejović, Nina N. Serdar

Abstract:

This paper presents an analysis of the “Performance-Based” seismic design method, in order to overcome the perceived disadvantages and limitations of the existing seismic design approach based on force, in engineering practice. Bearing in mind, the specificity of the earthquake as a load and the fact that the seismic resistance of the structures solely depends on its behaviour in the nonlinear field, traditional seismic design approach based on force and linear analysis is not adequate. “Performance-Based” seismic design method is based on nonlinear analysis and can be used in everyday engineering practice. This paper presents the application of this method to eight-story high reinforced concrete building with combined structural system (reinforced concrete frame structural system in one direction and reinforced concrete ductile wall system in other direction). The nonlinear time-history analysis is performed on the spatial model of the structure using program Perform 3D, where the structure is exposed to forty real earthquake records. For considered building, large number of results were obtained. It was concluded that using this method we could, with a high degree of reliability, evaluate structural behavior under earthquake. It is obtained significant differences in the response of structures to various earthquake records. Also analysis showed that frame structural system had not performed well at the effect of earthquake records on soil like sand and gravel, while a ductile wall system had a satisfactory behavior on different types of soils.

Keywords: Ductile wall, frame system, nonlinear time-history analysis, performance-based methodology, RC building.

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614 Optimal Power Allocation for the Proposed Asymmetric Turbo Code for 3G Systems

Authors: K. Ramasamy, B. Balamuralithara, Mohammad Umar Siddiqi

Abstract:

We proposed a new class of asymmetric turbo encoder for 3G systems that performs well in both “water fall" and “error floor" regions in [7]. In this paper, a modified (optimal) power allocation scheme for the different bits of new class of asymmetric turbo encoder has been investigated to enhance the performance. The simulation results and performance bound for proposed asymmetric turbo code with modified Unequal Power Allocation (UPA) scheme for the frame length, N=400, code rate, r=1/3 with Log-MAP decoder over Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel are obtained and compared with the system with typical UPA and without UPA. The performance tests are extended over AWGN channel for different frame size to verify the possibility of implementation of the modified UPA scheme for the proposed asymmetric turbo code. From the performance results, it is observed that the proposed asymmetric turbo code with modified UPA performs better than the system without UPA and with typical UPA and it provides a coding gain of 0.4 to 0.52dB.

Keywords: Asymmetric turbo code, Generator polynomial, Interleaver, UPA, WCDMA, cdma2000.

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613 Numerical Study for Compressive Strength of Basalt Composite Sandwich Infill Panel

Authors: Viriyavudh Sim, Jung Kyu Choi, Yong Ju Kwak, Oh Hyeon Jeon, Woo Young Jung

Abstract:

In this study, we investigated the buckling performance of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) sandwich infill panels. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a major evolution for energy dissipation when used as infill material of frame structure, a basic Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC) infill wall system consists of two FRP laminates surrounding an infill of foam core. Furthermore, this type of component is for retrofitting and strengthening frame structure to withstand the seismic disaster. In-plane compression was considered in the numerical analysis with ABAQUS platform to determine the buckling failure load of BFRP infill panel system. The present result shows that the sandwich BFRP infill panel system has higher resistance to buckling failure than those of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) infill panel system, i.e. 16% increase in buckling resistance capacity.

Keywords: Basalt fiber reinforced polymer, buckling performance, FEM analysis, sandwich infill panel.

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612 Optimization of Shear Frame Structures Applying Various Forms of Wavelet Transforms

Authors: Seyed Sadegh Naseralavi, Sohrab Nemati, Ehsan Khojastehfar, Sadegh Balaghi

Abstract:

In the present research, various formulations of wavelet transform are applied on acceleration time history of earthquake. The mentioned transforms decompose the strong ground motion into low and high frequency parts. Since the high frequency portion of strong ground motion has a minor effect on dynamic response of structures, the structure is excited by low frequency part. Consequently, the seismic response of structure is predicted consuming one half of computational time, comparing with conventional time history analysis. Towards reducing the computational effort needed in seismic optimization of structure, seismic optimization of a shear frame structure is conducted by applying various forms of mentioned transformation through genetic algorithm.

Keywords: Time history analysis, wavelet transform, optimization, earthquake.

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611 General Purpose Graphic Processing Units Based Real Time Video Tracking System

Authors: Mallikarjuna Rao Gundavarapu, Ch. Mallikarjuna Rao, K. Anuradha Bai

Abstract:

Real Time Video Tracking is a challenging task for computing professionals. The performance of video tracking techniques is greatly affected by background detection and elimination process. Local regions of the image frame contain vital information of background and foreground. However, pixel-level processing of local regions consumes a good amount of computational time and memory space by traditional approaches. In our approach we have explored the concurrent computational ability of General Purpose Graphic Processing Units (GPGPU) to address this problem. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) with adaptive weighted kernels is used for detecting the background. The weights of the kernel are influenced by local regions and are updated by inter-frame variations of these corresponding regions. The proposed system has been tested with GPU devices such as GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 280 and Quadro K2000. The results are encouraging with maximum speed up 10X compared to sequential approach.

Keywords: Connected components, Embrace threads, Local weighted kernel, Structuring element.

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610 Viability of Slab Sliding System for Single Story Structure

Authors: C. Iihoshi, G.A. MacRae, G.W. Rodgers, J.G. Chase

Abstract:

Slab sliding system (SSS) with Coulomb friction  interface between slab and supporting frame is a passive structural  vibration control technology. The system can significantly reduce the  slab acceleration and accompanied lateral force of the frame. At the  same time it is expected to cause the slab displacement magnification  by sliding movement. To obtain the general comprehensive seismic  response of a single story structure, inelastic response spectra were  computed for a large ensemble of ground motions and a practical range  of structural periods and friction coefficient values. It was shown that  long period structures have no trade-off relation between force  reduction and displacement magnification with respect to elastic  response, unlike short period structures. For structures with the  majority of mass in the slab, the displacement magnification value can  be predicted according to simple inelastic displacement relation for  inelastically responding SDOF structures because the system behaves  elastically to a SDOF structure.

 

Keywords: Earthquake, Isolation, Slab, Sliding.

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609 A Robust Visual SLAM for Indoor Dynamic Environment

Authors: Xiang Zhang, Daohong Yang, Ziyuan Wu, Lei Li, Wanting Zhou

Abstract:

Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) uses cameras to gather information in unknown environments to achieve simultaneous localization and mapping of the environment. This technology has a wide range of applications in autonomous driving, virtual reality, and other related fields. Currently, the research advancements related to VSLAM can maintain high accuracy in static environments. But in dynamic environments, the presence of moving objects in the scene can reduce the stability of the VSLAM system, leading to inaccurate localization and mapping, or even system failure. In this paper, a robust VSLAM method was proposed to effectively address the challenges in dynamic environments. We proposed a dynamic region removal scheme based on a semantic segmentation neural network and geometric constraints. Firstly, a semantic segmentation neural network is used to extract the prior active motion region, prior static region, and prior passive motion region in the environment. Then, the lightweight frame tracking module initializes the transform pose between the previous frame and the current frame on the prior static region. A motion consistency detection module based on multi-view geometry and scene flow is used to divide the environment into static regions and dynamic regions. Thus, the dynamic object region was successfully eliminated. Finally, only the static region is used for tracking thread. Our research is based on the ORBSLAM3 system, which is one of the most effective VSLAM systems available. We evaluated our method on the TUM RGB-D benchmark and the results demonstrate that the proposed VSLAM method improves the accuracy of the original ORBSLAM3 by 70%˜98.5% under a high dynamic environment.

Keywords: Dynamic scene, dynamic visual SLAM, semantic segmentation, scene flow, VSLAM.

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608 Seismic Fragility Functions of RC Moment Frames Using Incremental Dynamic Analyses

Authors: Seung-Won Lee, Jong Soo Lee, Won-Jik Yang, Hyung-Joon Kim

Abstract:

A capacity spectrum method (CSM), one of methodologies to evaluate seismic fragilities of building structures, has been long recognized as the most convenient method, even if it contains several limitations to predict the seismic response of structures of interest. This paper proposes the procedure to estimate seismic fragility curves using an incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) rather than the method adopting a CSM. To achieve the research purpose, this study compares the seismic fragility curves of a 5-story reinforced concrete (RC) moment frame obtained from both methods; an IDA method and aCSM. Both seismic fragility curves are similar in slight and moderate damage states whereas the fragility curve obtained from the IDA method presents less variation (or uncertainties) in extensive and complete damage states. This is due to the fact that the IDA method can properly capture the structural response beyond yielding rather than the CSM and can directly calculate higher mode effects. From these observations, the CSM could overestimate seismic vulnerabilities of the studied structure in extensive or complete damage states.

Keywords: Seismic fragility curve, Incremental dynamic analysis, Capacity spectrum method, Reinforced concrete moment frame.

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607 On Developing an Automatic Speech Recognition System for Standard Arabic Language

Authors: R. Walha, F. Drira, H. El-Abed, A. M. Alimi

Abstract:

The Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) applied to Arabic language is a challenging task. This is mainly related to the language specificities which make the researchers facing multiple difficulties such as the insufficient linguistic resources and the very limited number of available transcribed Arabic speech corpora. In this paper, we are interested in the development of a HMM-based ASR system for Standard Arabic (SA) language. Our fundamental research goal is to select the most appropriate acoustic parameters describing each audio frame, acoustic models and speech recognition unit. To achieve this purpose, we analyze the effect of varying frame windowing (size and period), acoustic parameter number resulting from features extraction methods traditionally used in ASR, speech recognition unit, Gaussian number per HMM state and number of embedded re-estimations of the Baum-Welch Algorithm. To evaluate the proposed ASR system, a multi-speaker SA connected-digits corpus is collected, transcribed and used throughout all experiments. A further evaluation is conducted on a speaker-independent continue SA speech corpus. The phonemes recognition rate is 94.02% which is relatively high when comparing it with another ASR system evaluated on the same corpus.

Keywords: ASR, HMM, acoustical analysis, acoustic modeling, Standard Arabic language

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606 Dynamic Behavior of Brain Tissue under Transient Loading

Authors: Y. J. Zhou, G. Lu

Abstract:

In this paper, an analytical study is made for the dynamic behavior of human brain tissue under transient loading. In this analytical model the Mooney-Rivlin constitutive law is coupled with visco-elastic constitutive equations to take into account both the nonlinear and time-dependent mechanical behavior of brain tissue. Five ordinary differential equations representing the relationships of five main parameters (radial stress, circumferential stress, radial strain, circumferential strain, and particle velocity) are obtained by using the characteristic method to transform five partial differential equations (two continuity equations, one motion equation, and two constitutive equations). Analytical expressions of the attenuation properties for spherical wave in brain tissue are analytically derived. Numerical results are obtained based on the five ordinary differential equations. The mechanical responses (particle velocity and stress) of brain are compared at different radii including 5, 6, 10, 15 and 25 mm under four different input conditions. The results illustrate that loading curves types of the particle velocity significantly influences the stress in brain tissue. The understanding of the influence by the input loading cures can be used to reduce the potentially injury to brain under head impact by designing protective structures to control the loading curves types.

Keywords: Analytical method, mechanical responses, spherical wave propagation, traumatic brain injury.

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605 Towards the Prediction of Aesthetic Requirements for Women’s Apparel Product

Authors: Yu Zhao, Min Zhang, Yuanqian Wang, Qiuyu Yu

Abstract:

The prediction of aesthetics of apparel is helpful for the development of a new type of apparel. This study is to build the quantitative relationship between the aesthetics and its design parameters. In particular, women’s pants have been preliminarily studied. This aforementioned relationship has been carried out by statistical analysis. The contributions of this study include the development of a more personalized apparel design mechanism and the provision of some empirical knowledge for the development of other products in the aspect of aesthetics.

Keywords: Aesthetics, crease line, cropped straight leg pants, knee width.

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604 A High Performance Technique in Harmonic Omitting Based on Predictive Current Control of a Shunt Active Power Filter

Authors: K. G. Firouzjah, A. Sheikholeslami

Abstract:

The perfect operation of common Active Filters is depended on accuracy of identification system distortion. Also, using a suitable method in current injection and reactive power compensation, leads to increased filter performance. Due to this fact, this paper presents a method based on predictive current control theory in shunt active filter applications. The harmonics of the load current is identified by using o–d–q reference frame on load current and eliminating the DC part of d–q components. Then, the rest of these components deliver to predictive current controller as a Threephase reference current by using Park inverse transformation. System is modeled in discreet time domain. The proposed method has been tested using MATLAB model for a nonlinear load (with Total Harmonic Distortion=20%). The simulation results indicate that the proposed filter leads to flowing a sinusoidal current (THD=0.15%) through the source. In addition, the results show that the filter tracks the reference current accurately.

Keywords: Active filter, predictive current control, low pass filter, harmonic omitting, o–d–q reference frame.

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603 Shaking Force Balancing of Mechanisms: An Overview

Authors: Vigen Arakelian

Abstract:

The balancing of mechanisms is a well-known problem in the field of mechanical engineering because the variable dynamic loads cause vibrations, as well as noise, wear and fatigue of the machines. A mechanical system with unbalance shaking force and shaking moment transmits substantial vibration to the frame. Therefore, the objective of the balancing is to cancel or reduce the variable dynamic reactions transmitted to the frame. The resolution of this problem consists in the balancing of the shaking force and shaking moment. It can be fully or partially, by internal mass redistribution via adding counterweights or by modification of the mechanism's architecture via adding auxiliary structures. The balancing problems are of continue interest to researchers. Several laboratories around the world are very active in this area and new results are published regularly. However, despite its ancient history, mechanism balancing theory continues to be developed and new approaches and solutions are constantly being reported. Various surveys have been published that disclose particularities of balancing methods. The author believes that this is an appropriate moment to present a state of the art of the shaking force balancing studies completed by new research results. This paper presents an overview of methods devoted to the shaking force balancing of mechanisms, as well as the historical aspects of the origins and the evolution of the balancing theory of mechanisms.

Keywords: Inertia forces, shaking forces, balancing, dynamics.

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602 An Analytical Study on Rotational Capacity of Beam-Column Joints in Unit Modular Frames

Authors: Kyung-Suk Choi, Hyung-Joon Kim

Abstract:

Modular structural systems are constructed using a method that they are assembled with prefabricated unit modular frames on-site. This provides a benefit that can significantly reduce building construction time. The structural design is usually carried out under the assumption that their load-carrying mechanism is similar to that of traditional steel moment-resisting systems. However, both systems are different in terms of beam-column connection details which may strongly influence the lateral structural behavior. Specially, the presence of access holes in a beam-column joint of a unit modular frame could cause undesirable failure during strong earthquakes. Therefore, this study carried out finite element analyses (FEMs) of unit modular frames to investigate the cyclic behavior of beam-column joints with the access holes. Analysis results show that the unit modular frames present stable cyclic response with large deformation capacities and their joints are classified into semi-rigid connections even if there are access holes.

Keywords: Unit modular frame, steel moment connection, nonlinear analytical model, moment-rotation relation, access holes.

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601 Performance Verification of Seismic Design Codes for RC Frames

Authors: Payam Asadi, Ali Bakhshi

Abstract:

In this study, a frame work for verification of famous seismic codes is utilized. To verify the seismic codes performance, damage quantity of RC frames is compared with the target performance. Due to the randomness property of seismic design and earthquake loads excitation, in this paper, fragility curves are developed. These diagrams are utilized to evaluate performance level of structures which are designed by the seismic codes. These diagrams further illustrate the effect of load combination and reduction factors of codes on probability of damage exceedance. Two types of structures; very high important structures with high ductility and medium important structures with intermediate ductility are designed by different seismic codes. The Results reveal that usually lower damage ratio generate lower probability of exceedance. In addition, the findings indicate that there are buildings with higher quantity of bars which they have higher probability of damage exceedance. Life-cycle cost analysis utilized for comparison and final decision making process.

Keywords: RC frame, fragility curve, performance-base design, life-cycle cost analyses, seismic design codes.

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600 Aspect Oriented Software Architecture

Authors: Pradip Peter Dey, Ronald F. Gonzales, Gordon W. Romney, Mohammad Amin, Bhaskar Raj Sinha

Abstract:

Natural language processing systems pose a unique challenge for software architectural design as system complexity has increased continually and systems cannot be easily constructed from loosely coupled modules. Lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of linguistic information are tightly coupled in a manner that requires separation of concerns in a special way in design, implementation and maintenance. An aspect oriented software architecture is proposed in this paper after critically reviewing relevant architectural issues. For the purpose of this paper, the syntactic aspect is characterized by an augmented context-free grammar. The semantic aspect is composed of multiple perspectives including denotational, operational, axiomatic and case frame approaches. Case frame semantics matured in India from deep thematic analysis. It is argued that lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects work together in a mutually dependent way and their synergy is best represented in the aspect oriented approach. The software architecture is presented with an augmented Unified Modeling Language.

Keywords: Language engineering, parsing, software design, user experience.

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599 Analysis of the Communication Methods of an iCIM 3000 System within the Frame of Research Purpose

Authors: Radovan Holubek, Daynier Rolando Delgado Sobrino, Roman Ruzarovsky

Abstract:

Current trends in manufacturing are characterized by production broadening, innovation cycle shortening, and the products having a new shape, material and functions. The production strategy focused on time needed change from the traditional functional production structure to flexible manufacturing cells and lines. Production by automated manufacturing system (AMS) is one of the most important manufacturing philosophies in the last years. The main goals of the project we are involved in lies on building a laboratory in which will be located a flexible manufacturing system consisting of at least two production machines with NC control (milling machines, lathe). These machines will be linked to a transport system and they will be served by industrial robots. Within this flexible manufacturing system a station for the quality control consisting of a camera system and rack warehouse will be also located. The design, analysis and improvement of this manufacturing system, specially with a special focus on the communication among devices constitute the main aims of this paper. The key determining factors for the manufacturing system design are: the product, the production volume, the used machines, the disposable manpower, the disposable infrastructure and the legislative frame for the specific cases.

Keywords: Paperless manufacturing, flexible manufacturing, robotized manufacturing, material flow, iCIM.

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598 Robotic Arm Allowing a Diabetic Quadriplegic Patient to Self-Administer Insulin

Authors: L. Parisi

Abstract:

A method which allows a diabetic quadriplegic patient that has had four limb amputations (above the knee and elbow) to self-administer injections of insulin has been designed. The aim of this research project is to improve a quadriplegic patient’s selfmanagement, affected by diabetes, by designing a suitable device for self-administering insulin. The quadriplegic patient affected by diabetes has to be able to selfadminister insulin safely and independently to guarantee stable healthy conditions. The device also should be designed to adapt to a number of different varying personal characteristics such as height and body weight.

Keywords: Robotics, diabetes, quadriplegia, self-management.

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597 Evaluation of Seismic Parameters and Response Modification Factor of Connections in Reduced Beam Section

Authors: Elmira Tavasoli Yousef Abadi

Abstract:

All structural components influencing the inelastic analysis alter response modification factor too. Ductility of connections has been regarded among the factors which have a direct impact on steel frame response modification factor. The experience of recent earthquakes such as the 1994 Northridge earthquake showed that structural connections in steel frame incurred unexpected (brittle) fracture in beam-to-column connection area. One of the methods to improve performance of moment frames is to reduce the beam section near the connection to the column. Reduced Beam Section (RBS) refers to one of the proposed moment connections in FEMA350. Ductility is the most important advantage of this connection over the other moment connections; it is found as the major factor in suitable plastic behavior of structural system. In this paper, beam-to-column connection with RBS and wide-flange beams has been examined via software Abaqus 6.12. It is observed that use of RBS connections can improve the connection behavior at inelastic area to a large extent and avoid stress concentrations and large deformation in the column.

Keywords: RBS, seismic performance, beam-to-column connection, ductility, wide-flange beam.

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596 Fish Locomotion for Innovative Marine Propulsion Systems

Authors: Omar B. Yaakob, Yasser M. Ahmed, Ahmad F. Said

Abstract:

There is an essential need for obtaining the mathematical representation of fish body undulations, which can be used for designing and building new innovative types of marine propulsion systems with less environmental impact. This research work presents a case study to derive the mathematical model for fish body movement. Observation and capturing image methods were used in this study in order to obtain a mathematical representation of Clariasbatrachus fish (catfish). An experiment was conducted by using an aquarium with dimension 0.609 m x 0.304 m x 0.304 m, and a 0.5 m ruler was attached at the base of the aquarium. Progressive Scan Monochrome Camera was positioned at 1.8 m above the base of the aquarium to provide swimming sequences. Seven points were marked on the fish body using white marker to indicate the fish movement and measuring the amplitude of undulation. Images from video recordings (20 frames/s) were analyzed frame by frame using local coordinate system, with time interval 0.05 s. The amplitudes of undulations were obtained for image analysis from each point that has been marked on fish body. A graph of amplitude of undulations versus time was plotted by using computer to derive a mathematical fit. The function for the graph is polynomial with nine orders.

Keywords: Fish locomotion, body undulation, steady and unsteady swimming modes.

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595 Evaluation of Expected Annual Loss Probabilities of RC Moment Resisting Frames

Authors: Saemee Jun, Dong-Hyeon Shin, Tae-Sang Ahn, Hyung-Joon Kim

Abstract:

Building loss estimation methodologies which have been advanced considerably in recent decades are usually used to estimate socio and economic impacts resulting from seismic structural damage. In accordance with these methods, this paper presents the evaluation of an annual loss probability of a reinforced concrete moment resisting frame designed according to Korean Building Code. The annual loss probability is defined by (1) a fragility curve obtained from a capacity spectrum method which is similar to a method adopted from HAZUS, and (2) a seismic hazard curve derived from annual frequencies of exceedance per peak ground acceleration. Seismic fragilities are computed to calculate the annual loss probability of a certain structure using functions depending on structural capacity, seismic demand, structural response and the probability of exceeding damage state thresholds. This study carried out a nonlinear static analysis to obtain the capacity of a RC moment resisting frame selected as a prototype building. The analysis results show that the probability of being extensive structural damage in the prototype building is expected to 0.01% in a year.

Keywords: Expected annual loss, Loss estimation, RC structure, Fragility analysis.

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594 Robust Digital Cinema Watermarking

Authors: Sadi Vural, Hiromi Tomii, Hironori Yamauchi

Abstract:

With the advent of digital cinema and digital broadcasting, copyright protection of video data has been one of the most important issues. We present a novel method of watermarking for video image data based on the hardware and digital wavelet transform techniques and name it as “traceable watermarking" because the watermarked data is constructed before the transmission process and traced after it has been received by an authorized user. In our method, we embed the watermark to the lowest part of each image frame in decoded video by using a hardware LSI. Digital Cinema is an important application for traceable watermarking since digital cinema system makes use of watermarking technology during content encoding, encryption, transmission, decoding and all the intermediate process to be done in digital cinema systems. The watermark is embedded into the randomly selected movie frames using hash functions. Embedded watermark information can be extracted from the decoded video data. For that, there is no need to access original movie data. Our experimental results show that proposed traceable watermarking method for digital cinema system is much better than the convenient watermarking techniques in terms of robustness, image quality, speed, simplicity and robust structure.

Keywords: Decoder, Digital content, JPEG2000 Frame, System-On-Chip, traceable watermark, Hash Function, CRC-32.

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593 A Hybrid Expert System for Generating Stock Trading Signals

Authors: Hosein Hamisheh Bahar, Mohammad Hossein Fazel Zarandi, Akbar Esfahanipour

Abstract:

In this paper, a hybrid expert system is developed by using fuzzy genetic network programming with reinforcement learning (GNP-RL). In this system, the frame-based structure of the system uses the trading rules extracted by GNP. These rules are extracted by using technical indices of the stock prices in the training time period. For developing this system, we applied fuzzy node transition and decision making in both processing and judgment nodes of GNP-RL. Consequently, using these method not only did increase the accuracy of node transition and decision making in GNP's nodes, but also extended the GNP's binary signals to ternary trading signals. In the other words, in our proposed Fuzzy GNP-RL model, a No Trade signal is added to conventional Buy or Sell signals. Finally, the obtained rules are used in a frame-based system implemented in Kappa-PC software. This developed trading system has been used to generate trading signals for ten companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The simulation results in the testing time period shows that the developed system has more favorable performance in comparison with the Buy and Hold strategy.

Keywords: Fuzzy genetic network programming, hybrid expert system, technical trading signal, Tehran stock exchange.

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592 Fragility Assessment for Vertically Irregular Buildings with Soft Storey

Authors: N. Akhavan, Sh. Tavousi Tafreshi, A. Ghasemi

Abstract:

Seismic behavior of irregular structures through the past decades indicate that the stated buildings do not have appropriate performance. Among these subjects, the current paper has investigated the behavior of special steel moment frame with different configuration of soft storey vertically. The analyzing procedure has been evaluated with respect to incremental dynamic analysis (IDA), and numeric process was carried out by OpenSees finite element analysis package. To this end, nine 2D steel frames, with different numbers of stories and irregularity positions, which were subjected to seven pairs of ground motion records orthogonally with respect to Ibarra-Krawinkler deterioration model, have been investigated. This paper aims at evaluating the response of two-dimensional buildings incorporating soft storey which subjected to bi-directional seismic excitation. The IDAs were implemented for different stages of PGA with various ground motion records, in order to determine maximum inter-storey drift ratio. According to statistical elements and fracture range (standard deviation), the vulnerability or exceedance from above-mentioned cases has been examined. For this reason, fragility curves for different placement of soft storey in the first, middle and the last floor for 4, 8, and 16 storey buildings have been generated and compared properly.

Keywords: Special steel moment frame, soft storey, incremental dynamic analysis, fragility curve.

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591 Performance of Steel Frame with a Viscoelastic Damper Device under Earthquake Excitation

Authors: M. H. Mehrabi, S. S. Ghodsi, Zainah Ibrahim, Meldi Suhatril

Abstract:

Standard routes for upgrading existing buildings to improve their seismic response can be expensive in terms of both time and cost due to the modifications required to the foundations. As a result, interest has grown in the installation of viscoelastic dampers (VEDs) in mid and high-rise buildings. Details of a low-cost viscoelastic passive control device, the rotary rubber braced damper (RRBD), are presented in this paper. This design has the added benefits of being lightweight and simple to install. Experimental methods and finite element modeling were used to assess the performance of the proposed VED design and its effect on building response during earthquakes. The analyses took into account the behaviors of non-linear materials and large deformations. The results indicate that the proposed RRBD provides high levels of energy absorption, ensuring the stable cyclical response of buildings in all scenarios considered. In addition, time history analysis was employed in this study to evaluate the RRBD’s ability to control the displacements and accelerations experienced by steel frame structures. It was demonstrated that the device responds well even at low displacements, highlighting its suitability for use in seismic events of varying severity.

Keywords: Dynamic response, passive control, performance test, seismic protection.

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