Search results for: spatial abilities

Authors: Maryam Kargar, Neamatolah Khorasani, Mahmoud Karami, Gholam-Reza Rafiee, Reza Naseh

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Interpolated contour maps drawn for aluminum, copper and molybdenum in downstream monitoring boreholes of water dam in Miduk Copper Complex and the values of pH, redox potential (Eh) and distance from water dam indicate different trends of variation and behavior of these three elements in downward groundwater resources. As these maps exhibit, aluminum is dominant in the most alkaline (pH = 9-11) borehole (MB5) to water dam. The highest concentration of molybdenum is found in the nearest borehole (MB6) to water dam. Main concentration of copper is observed in the most oxidized borehole (MB3 with Eh=293.2mV). The spatial difference among sampling stations can be attributed to the existence of faults and diaclases in the geologic structure of Miduk region which causes the groundwater sampling sites to be impressed by different contamination sources (toe seepage and upper seepage water originated from different zones of tailings dump).

Keywords: Contour maps, Monitoring borehole, Toe seepage, Upper seepage.

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Authors: Shiau-Feng Lin, Chiuhsiang Joe Lin, Rou-Wen Wang, Wei-Jung Shiang

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The Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming increasingly important for business, education, and entertainment, therefore VR technology have been applied for training purposes in the areas of military, safety training and flying simulators. In particular, the superior and high reliability VR training system is very important in immersion. Manipulation training in immersive virtual environments is difficult partly because users must do without the hap contact with real objects they rely on in the real world to orient themselves and their manipulated. In this paper, we create a convincing questionnaire of immersion and an experiment to assess the influence of immersion on performance in VR training system. The Immersion Questionnaire (IQ) included spatial immersion, Psychological immersion, and Sensory immersion. We show that users with a training system complete visual attention and detection of signals. Twenty subjects were allocated to a factorial design consisting of two different VR systems (Desktop VR and Projector VR). The results indicated that different VR representation methods significantly affected the participants- Immersion dimensions.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Training, Immersion, Visual Attention, Visual Detection

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Authors: Ming-Hui Cheng, Jyh-Horng Jeng

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In this study, a classification-based video super-resolution method using artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed to enhance low-resolution (LR) to high-resolution (HR) frames. The proposed method consists of four main steps: classification, motion-trace volume collection, temporal adjustment, and ANN prediction. A classifier is designed based on the edge properties of a pixel in the LR frame to identify the spatial information. To exploit the spatio-temporal information, a motion-trace volume is collected using motion estimation, which can eliminate unfathomable object motion in the LR frames. In addition, temporal lateral process is employed for volume adjustment to reduce unnecessary temporal features. Finally, ANN is applied to each class to learn the complicated spatio-temporal relationship between LR and HR frames. Simulation results show that the proposed method successfully improves both peak signal-to-noise ratio and perceptual quality.

Keywords: Super-resolution, classification, spatio-temporal information, artificial neural network.

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Authors: H. Afer, N. Rouag, R. Penelle

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In the Fe-3%Si sheets, grade Hi-B, with AlN and MnS as inhibitors, the Goss grains which abnormally grow do not have a size greater than the average size of the primary matrix. In this heterogeneous microstructure, the size factor is not a required condition for the secondary recrystallization. The onset of the small Goss grain abnormal growth appears to be related to a particular behavior of their grain boundaries, to the local texture and to the distribution of the inhibitors. The presence and the evolution of oriented clusters ensure to the small Goss grains a favorable neighborhood to grow. The modified Monte-Carlo approach, which is applied, considers the local environment of each grain. The grain growth is dependent of its real spatial position; the matrix heterogeneity is then taken into account. The grain growth conditions are considered in the global matrix and in different matrixes corresponding to A component clusters. The grain growth behaviour is considered with introduction of energy only, energy and mobility, energy and mobility and precipitates.

Keywords: Abnormal grain growth, grain boundary energy andmobility, neighbourhood, oriented clusters.

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Authors: Abdulwahab Alalyani, Mahbub Rashid

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Public green space promotes community health including daily activities, but these resources may not be available enough or may not equitably be distributed. This paper measures and compares the availability of public green spaces (PGS) among low, middle, and high-income neighborhoods in the Riyadh city. Additionally, it compares the total availability of PGS to WHO standard and Dubai availability of PGS per person. All PGS were mapped using geographical information systems, and total area availability of PGS compared to WHO and Dubai standards. To evaluate the significant differences in PGS availability across low, medium, and high-income Riyadh neighborhoods, we used a One-way ANOVA analysis of covariance to test the differences. As a result, by comparing PGS of Riyadh neighborhoods to WHO and Dubai-availability, it was found that Riyadh PGS were lower than the minimum standard of WHO and as well as Dubai. Riyadh has only 1.13 m² per capita of PGS. The second finding, the availability of PGS, was significantly different among Riyadh neighborhoods based on socioeconomic status. The future development of PGS should be focused on increasing PGS availability and should be given priority to those low-income and unhealthy communities.

Keywords: Spatial equity, green space, healthy city, quality of life, income, built environment.

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Authors: A. Kojah, A. Nacaroğlu

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Single phase transmission lines are used to transfer data or energy between two users. Transient conditions such as switching operations and short circuit faults cause the generation of the fluctuation on the waveform to be transmitted. Spatial voltage distribution on the single phase transmission line may change owing to the position and duration of the short circuit fault in the system. In this paper, the state space representation of the single phase transmission line for short circuit fault and for various types of terminations is given. Since the transmission line is modeled in time domain using distributed parametric elements, the mathematical representation of the event is given in state space (time domain) differential equation form. It also makes easy to solve the problem because of the time and space dependent characteristics of the voltage variations on the distributed parametrically modeled transmission line.

Keywords: Energy transmission, transient effects, transmission line, transient voltage, RLC short circuit, single phase.

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Authors: Marian Agbugui

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The West African Lung fishes are fishes rich in protein and serve as an important source of food supply for man. The kind of food ingested by this group of fishes is dependent on the alimentary canal as well as the fish’s digestive processes which provide suitable modifications for maximum utilization of food taken. A study of the alimentary canal of P. annectens will expose the best information on the anatomy and histology of the fish. Samples of P. annectens were dissected to reveal the liver, pancreas and entire gut wall. Digital pictures of the mouth, jaws and the Gastrointestinal Tract (GIT) were taken. The entire gut was identified, sectioned and micro graphed. P. annectens was observed to possess a terminal mouth that opens up to 10% of its total body length, an adaptive feature to enable the fish to swallow the whole of its pry. Its dentition is made up of incisors- scissor-like teeth which also help to firmly grip, seize and tear through the skin of prey before swallowing. A short, straight and longitudinal GIT was observed in P. annectens which is known to be common feature in lungfishes, though it is thought to be a primitive characteristic similar to the lamprey. The oesophagus is short and distensible similar to other predatory and carnivorous species. Food is temporarily stored in the stomach before it is passed down into the intestine. A pyloric aperture is seen at the end of the double folded pyloric valve which leads into an intestine that makes up 75% of the whole GIT. The intestine begins at the posterior end of the pyloric aperture and winds down in six coils through the whole length intestine and ends at the cloaca. From this study it is concluded that P. annectens possess a composite GIT with organs similar to other lung fishes; it is a detritor with carnivorous abilities.

Keywords: Gastrointestinal tract, incisors scissor-like teeth, intestine, mucus, Protopterus annectens, serosa.

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Authors: Svetlana Perović

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Out of all visual arts including: painting, sculpture, graphics, photography, architecture, and others, architecture is by far the most complex one, because the art category is only one of its determinants. Architecture, to some extent includes other arts which can significantly influence the shaping of an urban space (artistic interventions). These arts largely shape the visual culture in combination with other categories: film, TV, Internet, information technologies that are "changing the world" etc. In the area of architecture and urbanism, visual culture is achieved through the aspects of visual spatial effects. In this context, a complex visual deliberation about designing urban areas in order to contribute to the urban visual culture, and with it restore the cultural identity of the city, is becoming almost the primary concept of contemporary urban and architectural practice. Research in this paper relate to the city of Niksic and its place in the visual urban culture. We are looking at the city’s existing visual effects and determining the directions of transformability of its physical structure in order to achieve the visual realization of an urban area and the renewal of cultural identity of a modern city.

Keywords: Nikšić, transformability, visual culture, visual realization.

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Authors: Antonio Carlos Marques Alvim, Fernando Carvalho da Silva, Aquilino Senra Martinez

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For a quick and accurate calculation of spatial neutron distribution in nuclear power reactors 3D nodal codes are usually used aiming at solving the neutron diffusion equation for a given reactor core geometry and material composition. These codes use a second order polynomial to represent the transverse leakage term. In this work, a nodal method based on the well known nodal expansion method (NEM), developed at COPPE, making use of this polynomial expansion was modified to treat the transverse leakage term for the external surfaces of peripheral reflector nodes. The proposed method was implemented into a computational system which, besides solving the diffusion equation, also solves the burnup equations governing the gradual changes in material compositions of the core due to fuel depletion. Results confirm the effectiveness of this modified treatment of peripheral nodes for practical purposes in PWR reactors.

Keywords: Transverse leakage, nodal expansion method, power density, PWR reactors

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Authors: J. P. Dubois

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Stochastic modeling of network traffic is an area of significant research activity for current and future broadband communication networks. Multimedia traffic is statistically characterized by a bursty variable bit rate (VBR) profile. In this paper, we develop an improved model for uniform activity level video sources in ATM using a doubly stochastic autoregressive model driven by an underlying spatial point process. We then examine a number of burstiness metrics such as the peak-to-average ratio (PAR), the temporal autocovariance function (ACF) and the traffic measurements histogram. We found that the former measure is most suitable for capturing the burstiness of single scene video traffic. In the last phase of this work, we analyse statistical multiplexing of several constant scene video sources. This proved, expectedly, to be advantageous with respect to reducing the burstiness of the traffic, as long as the sources are statistically independent. We observed that the burstiness was rapidly diminishing, with the largest gain occuring when only around 5 sources are multiplexed. The novel model used in this paper for characterizing uniform activity video was thus found to be an accurate model.

Keywords: AR, ATM, burstiness, doubly stochastic, statisticalmultiplexing.

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Authors: Mariam Abdulaziz Y.Esmaeel

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The study aimed to identify the nature of autistic talent, the manifestations of their weak central coherence, and their sensory characteristics. The case study consisted of four talented autistic males. Two of them in drawing, one in clay formation and one in jigsaw puzzle. Tools of data collection were Group Embedded Figures Test, Block Design Test, Sensory Profile Checklist Revised, Interview forms and direct observation. Results indicated that talent among autistics emerges in limited domain and being extraordinary for each case. Also overlapping construction properties. Indeed, they show three perceptual aspects of weak central coherence: The weak in visual spatial-constructional coherence, the weak in perceptual coherence and the weak in verbal – semantic coherence. Moreover, the majority of the study cases used the three strategies of weak central coherence (segmentation, obliqueness and rotation). As for the sensory characteristics, all study cases have numbers of that characteristics that especially emerges in the visual system.

Keywords: Autism, Central Coherence, Savant, Sensory characteristics, Talent.

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Authors: Ahmed Elrewainy

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Mixing in the hyperspectral imaging occurs due to the low spatial resolutions of the used cameras. The existing pure materials “endmembers” in the scene share the spectra pixels with different amounts called “abundances”. Unmixing of the data cube is an important task to know the present endmembers in the cube for the analysis of these images. Unsupervised unmixing is done with no information about the given data cube. Sparsity is one of the recent approaches used in the source recovery or unmixing techniques. The l₁-norm optimization problem “basis pursuit” could be used as a sparsity-based approach to solve this unmixing problem where the endmembers is assumed to be sparse in an appropriate domain known as dictionary. This optimization problem is solved using proximal method “iterative thresholding”. The l₁-norm basis pursuit optimization problem as a sparsity-based unmixing technique was used to unmix real and synthetic hyperspectral data cubes.

Keywords: Basis pursuit, blind source separation, hyperspectral imaging, spectral unmixing, wavelets.

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the strategic development deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living. New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together with the bioclimatic behavior will be seen through a series of experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with architects. Furthermore, the building will be seen not as an object but rather as a vessel of human activities. This will further enhance the notion of merging the material and immaterial, the built and unbuilt, subject-human, and the object-building. This eventually will enable to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building in relation to the place and its inhabitants, where the human topography is more important than the material topography. The specificities of the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of living. Opening up a discourse with premises of weather-nature, materialimmaterial, human-material topographies in relation to the contested sites of the borders will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia, a refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic architecture. The project focusses on the direct and quite obvious bioclimatic features such as south orientation and cross ventilation. Furthermore, it tries to reinvent the adaptation of these parameters in order to turn the whole house to a contemporary living environment. In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units, we will proceed examining the implementation of the same developed methodology in designing living units and complexes. Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in both horizontal and vertical developments. Social activities are seen as directly affected and forged by the weather conditions thus generating a new social identity of people where people are directly involved and interacting with the weather. The human actions and interaction with the built, material environment in order to respond to weather will be seen as the result of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the immaterial, and the material aspects of the living environment.

Keywords: Building as a verb, contemporary living, traditional bioclimatic wisdom, weather architecture.

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Authors: Ibrahim Shaker, Amr El Hossany, Moustafa Osman, Mohamed El Raey

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This paper will explore integration model between GIS–SCADA system and enclosure quantification model to approach the impact of failure-safe event. There are real demands to identify spatial objects and improve control system performance. Nevertheless, the employed methodology is predicting electro-mechanic operations and corresponding time to environmental incident variations. Open processing, as object systems technology, is presented for integration enclosure database with minimal memory size and computation time via connectivity drivers such as ODBC:JDBC during main stages of GIS–SCADA connection. The function of Geographic Information System is manipulating power distribution in contrast to developing issues. In other ward, GIS-SCADA systems integration will require numerical objects of process to enable system model calibration and estimation demands, determine of past events for analysis and prediction of emergency situations for response training.

Keywords: Air dispersion model, integration power system, SCADA systems, GIS system, environmental management.

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Authors: Samy Sadek, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Axel Panning, Bernd Michaelis, Usama Sayed

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In this paper, we propose a novel approach for image segmentation via fuzzification of Rènyi Entropy of Generalized Distributions (REGD). The fuzzy REGD is used to precisely measure the structural information of image and to locate the optimal threshold desired by segmentation. The proposed approach draws upon the postulation that the optimal threshold concurs with maximum information content of the distribution. The contributions in the paper are as follow: Initially, the fuzzy REGD as a measure of the spatial structure of image is introduced. Then, we propose an efficient entropic segmentation approach using fuzzy REGD. However the proposed approach belongs to entropic segmentation approaches (i.e. these approaches are commonly applied to grayscale images), it is adapted to be viable for segmenting color images. Lastly, diverse experiments on real images that show the superior performance of the proposed method are carried out.

Keywords: Entropy of generalized distributions, entropy fuzzification, entropic image segmentation.

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Authors: Brian J. Thomas

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Recent changes in food retailing structure have led to the development of large supercenters in suburban areas of the United States. These changes have led some authors to suggest that there are food deserts in some urban areas, where food is difficult to access, especially for disadvantaged consumers. This study tests the food desert hypothesis by comparing the distance from food retailers to food secure and food insecure households in one urban, Midwest neighborhood. This study utilizes GIS to compare household survey respondent locations against the location of various types of area food retailers. Results of this study indicate no apparent difference between food secure and insecure households in the reported importance of distance on the decision to shop at various retailers. However, there were differences in the spatial relationship between households and retailers. Food insecure households tended to be located slightly farther from large food retailers and slightly closer to convenience stores. Furthermore, food insecure households reported traveling slightly farther to their primary food retailer. The differences between the two groups was, however, relatively small.

Keywords: Food desert, food retailer, food security, sociology.

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Authors: Chiu-Wen Chen, Chih-Feng Chen, Cheng-Di Dong

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Surface sediment samples were collected from the Canon River mouth, Taiwan and analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Total PAHs concentrations varied from 337 to 1,252 ng/g dry weight, with a mean concentration of 827 ng/g dry weight. The spatial distribution of PAHs reveals that the PAHs concentration is relatively high in the river mouth region, and gradually diminishes toward the harbor region. Diagnostic ratios showed that the possible source of PAHs in the Canon River mouth could be petroleum combustion. The toxic equivalent concentrations (TEQcarc) of PAHs varied from 47 to 112 ng TEQ/g dry weight. Higher total TEQcarc values were found in the river mouth region. As compared with the US Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs), the observed levels of PAHs at Canon River mouth were lower than the effects range low (ERL), and would probably not exert adverse biological effects.

Keywords: PAHs, sediment, river mouth, sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), toxic equivalent (TEQcarc)

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Authors: Gizem Kodak

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The Strait of Çanakkale (Dardanelles), together with the Strait of Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara, form the Turkish Straits System. In other words, the Strait of Çanakkale is the southern gate of the system that connects the Black Sea countries with the other countries of the world. Due to the heavy maritime traffic, it is important to scientifically examine the accident characteristics in the region. In particular, the results indicated by the descriptive statistics are of critical importance in order to strengthen the safety of navigation. At this point, exploratory data analysis offers strategic outputs in terms of defining the problem and knowing the strengths and weaknesses against possible accident risk. The study aims to determine the accident characteristics in the Strait of Çanakkale with temporal and spatial analysis of historical data, using Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) as the research method. The study's results will reveal the general characteristics of maritime accidents in the region and form the infrastructure for future studies. Therefore, the text provides a clear description of the research goals and methodology, and the study's contributions are well-defined.

Keywords: Maritime Accidents, EDA, Strait of Çanakkale, navigational safety.

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Authors: W. C. Lucas, S. Titus, M. E. M. Young

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Gymnastics is the umbrella term that represents seven different and unique disciplines of gymnastics. Men and women of all ages and abilities practice this sport, and participation in gymnastics can develop both gross and fine motor skills, strength, flexibility, coordination and balance. There are various social factors, such as a family’s socioeconomic status or accessibility to sports facilities that may play a role in affecting levels of participation. The aim of this study is to investigate the social factors that have an influence on gymnastics participation in the Western Cape. To this end, a qualitative approach is adopted to collect data. This study also adopts the ecological systems theory as the theoretical framework, and is used to analyze and interpret current social factors that directly or indirectly influence participation in gymnastics. The study’s objectives were to ascertain which social factors hinder participation, and which social factors promote participation, thus, coaches, parents and gymnasts participated in focus group discussions. Key informant interviews took place with experts in the field of gymnastics in the Western Cape. A thematic analysis was conducted on transcriptions from the focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Social factors investigated in this study occurred in the chronosystem, macrosystem, exosystem, mesosystem, and microsystem, and had both a direct and indirect influence on the gymnast’s continued participation. These systems are defined as the environment of the individual, in which they grow and develop. The research findings of this paper are used to draw conclusions and make specific recommendations for practice and further research. The information gathered in this study can assist all stakeholders within the field of gymnastics, such as parents, judges, coaches, gymnasts, and the supporting community which surround the participating gymnast.

Keywords: Developing child, ecological systems theory, facilities, federation, gymnastics, influence, participation, social factors, socioeconomic status, sport.

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Authors: V. Vicente E. Mujica, Gustavo Gonzalez

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The global coverage of broadband multimedia and internet-based services in terrestrial-satellite networks demand particular interests for satellite providers in order to enhance services with low latencies and high signal quality to diverse users. In particular, the delay of on-board processing is an inherent source of latency in a satellite communication that sometimes is discarded for the end-to-end delay of the satellite link. The frame work for this paper includes modelling of an on-orbit satellite payload using an agent model that can reproduce the properties of processing delays. In essence, a comparison of different spatial interpolation methods is carried out to evaluate physical data obtained by an GEO satellite in order to define a discretization function for determining that delay. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed agent and the development of a delay discretization function are together validated by simulating an hybrid satellite and terrestrial network. Simulation results show high accuracy according to the characteristics of initial data points of processing delay for Ku bands.

Keywords: Terrestrial-satellite networks, latency, on-orbit satellite payload, simulation.

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Authors: I. R. Farah, I. B. Ismail, M. B. Ahmed

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The huge development of new technologies and the apparition of open communication system more and more sophisticated create a new challenge to protect digital content from piracy. Digital watermarking is a recent research axis and a new technique suggested as a solution to these problems. This technique consists in inserting identification information (watermark) into digital data (audio, video, image, databases...) in an invisible and indelible manner and in such a way not to degrade original medium-s quality. Moreover, we must be able to correctly extract the watermark despite the deterioration of the watermarked medium (i.e attacks). In this paper we propose a system for watermarking satellite images. We chose to embed the watermark into frequency domain, precisely the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). We applied our algorithm on satellite images of Tunisian center. The experiments show satisfying results. In addition, our algorithm showed an important resistance facing different attacks, notably the compression (JEPG, JPEG2000), the filtering, the histogram-s manipulation and geometric distortions such as rotation, cropping, scaling.

Keywords: Digital data watermarking, Spatial Database, Satellite images, Discrete Wavelets Transform (DWT).

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Authors: Gulnara N. Nabiyeva, Stephen M. Wheeler

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a multipurpose computer-based tool that provides a sophisticated ability to map and analyze data on different spatial layers. However, GIS is far more easily applied in some policy areas than others. This paper seeks to determine the areas of sustainable development, including environmental, economic, and social dimensions, where GIS has been used to date to support efforts to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to discuss potential areas where it might be used more. Based on an extensive analysis of published literature, we ranked the SDGs according to how frequently GIS has been used to study related policy. We found that SDG#15 “Life on Land” is most often addressed with GIS, following by SDG#11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, and SDG#13 “Climate Action”. On the other hand, we determined that SDG#2 “Zero Hunger”, SDG#8 “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, and SDG#16 “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions” are least addressed with GIS. The paper outlines some specific ways that GIS might be applied to the SDGs least linked to this tool currently.

Keywords: GIS, GIS application, sustainable community development, sustainable development goals.

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Authors: Ines Hamdi, Mohamed Ben Ahmed

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The understanding of the system level of biological behavior and phenomenon variously needs some elements such as gene sequence, protein structure, gene functions and metabolic pathways. Challenging problems are representing, learning and reasoning about these biochemical reactions, gene and protein structure, genotype and relation between the phenotype, and expression system on those interactions. The goal of our work is to understand the behaviors of the interactions networks and to model their evolution in time and in space. We propose in this study an ontological meta-model for the knowledge representation of the genetic regulatory networks. Ontology in artificial intelligence means the fundamental categories and relations that provide a framework for knowledge models. Domain ontology's are now commonly used to enable heterogeneous information resources, such as knowledge-based systems, to communicate with each other. The interest of our model is to represent the spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal knowledge. We validated our propositions in the genetic regulatory network of the Aarbidosis thaliana flower

Keywords: Ontological model, spatio-temporal modeling, Genetic Regulatory Networks (GRNs), knowledge representation.

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Authors: S. M. Feroz, K. Yoshimura, A. Hagihara

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The forest stand consisted of four layers. The species composition between the third and the bottom layers was almost similar, whereas it was almost exclusive between the top and the lower three layers. The values of Shannon-s index H' and Pielou-s index J ' tended to increase from the bottom layer upward, except for H' -value of the top layer. The values of H' and J ' were 4.21 bit and 0.73, respectively, for the total stand. High woody species diversity of the forest depended on large trees in the upper layers, which trend was different from a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest grown in silicate habitat in the northern part of Okinawa Island. The spatial distribution of trees was overlapped between the third and the bottom layers, whereas it was independent or slightly exclusive between the top and the lower three layers. Mean tree weight of each layer decreased from the top toward the bottom layer, whereas the corresponding tree density increased from the top downward. This relationship was analogous to the process of self-thinning plant populations.

Keywords: Canopy multi-layering, limestone habitat, mean tree weight-density relationship, species diversity, subtropical forest.

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Authors: Dimitra Alexiou

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During the last 10 years, in spite of the economic crisis, the number of tourists arriving in Greece has increased, particularly during the tourist season from April to October. In this paper, the number of annual tourist arrivals is studied to explore their preferences with regard to the month of travel, the selected destinations, as well the amount of money spent. The collected data are processed with statistical methods, yielding numerical and graphical results. From the computation of statistical parameters and the forecasting with exponential smoothing, useful conclusions are arrived at that can be used by the Greek tourism authorities, as well as by tourist organizations, for planning purposes for the coming years. The results of this paper and the computed forecast can also be used for decision making by private tourist enterprises that are investing in Greece. With regard to the statistical methods, the method of Simple Exponential Smoothing of time series of data is employed. The search for a best forecast for 2017 and 2018 provides the value of the smoothing coefficient. For all statistical computations and graphics Microsoft Excel is used.

Keywords: Tourism, statistical methods, exponential smoothing, land spatial planning, economy, Microsoft Excel.

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Authors: Lorena Munoz

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Since the 1990s, cities in the Global South have implemented revanchist neoliberal urban regeneration policies that cater to urban elites based on “recovering” public space for capital accumulation purposes. These policies often work to reify street vending as survival strategies of ‘last resort’ for marginalized people and as an unorganized, unsystematic economic activities that needs to be disciplined, incorporated and institutionalized into the formal economy. This paper suggests that, by moving away from frameworks that reify formal/informal spheres of the economy, we are able to disrupt and rethink normative understandings of economic practices categorized as ‘informal’. Through queering economies, informal workers center their own understandings of self-value and legitimacy informing their economic lives and contributions to urban life. As such, queering the economy opens up possibilities of rethinking urban redevelopment policies that incorporate rather than remove street vendors, as their economic practices are incorporated into the everyday fabric and aesthetic of urban life.

Keywords: Informal economy, street vending, diverse economies, immigrant informal workers.

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Authors: N. K. Ambujam, V. Sudha

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Reservoirs are being contaminated all around the world with point source and Non-Point Source (NPS) pollution. The most common NPS pollutants are sediments and nutrients. Krishnagiri Reservoir (KR) has been chosen for the present case study, which is located in the tropical semi-arid climatic zone of Tamil Nadu, South India. It is the main source of surface water in Krishnagiri district to meet the freshwater demands. The reservoir has lost about 40% of its water holding capacity due to sedimentation over the period of 50 years. Hence, from the research and management perspective, there is a need for a sound knowledge on the spatial and seasonal variations of KR water quality. The present study encompasses the specific objectives as (i) to investigate the longitudinal heterogeneity and seasonal variations of physicochemical parameters, nutrients and biological characteristics of KR water and (ii) to examine the extent of degradation of water quality in KR. 15 sampling points were identified by uniform stratified method and a systematic monthly sampling strategy was selected due to high dynamic nature in its hydrological characteristics. The physicochemical parameters, major ions, nutrients and Chlorophyll a (Chl a) were analysed. Trophic status of KR was classified by using Carlson's Trophic State Index (TSI). All statistical analyses were performed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences programme, version-16.0. Spatial maps were prepared for Chl a using Arc GIS. Observations in KR pointed out that electrical conductivity and major ions are highly variable factors as it receives inflow from the catchment with different land use activities. The study of major ions in KR exhibited different trends in their values and it could be concluded that as the monsoon progresses the major ions in the water decreases or water quality stabilizes. The inflow point of KR showed comparatively higher concentration of nutrients including nitrate, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), total phosphors (TP), total suspended phosphorus (TSP) and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) during monsoon seasons. This evidently showed the input of significant amount of nutrients from the catchment side through agricultural runoff. High concentration of TDP and TSP at the lacustrine zone of the reservoir during summer season evidently revealed that there was a significant release of phosphorus from the bottom sediments. Carlson’s TSI of KR ranged between 81 and 92 during northeast monsoon and summer seasons. High and permanent Cyanobacterial bloom in KR could be mainly due to the internal loading of phosphorus from the bottom sediments. According to Carlson’s TSI classification Krishnagiri reservoir was ranked in the hyper-eutrophic category. This study provides necessary basic data on the spatio-temporal variations of water quality in KR and also proves the impact of point and NPS pollution from the catchment area. High TSI warrants a greater threat for the recovery of internal P loading and hyper-eutrophic condition of KR. Several expensive internal measures for the reduction of internal loading of P were introduced by many scientists. However, the outcome of the present research suggests for the innovative algae harvesting technique for the removal of sediment nutrients.

Keywords: Hyper-eutrophication, Krishnagiri reservoir, nutrients, NPS pollution.

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Authors: Saqib Mahmood, Rolf Radespiel

Abstract:

This paper aims at numerically analysing the effect of an active flow control (AFC) by a vortex generator jet (VGJ) submerged in a boundary layer via Chimera Grids and Detached- Eddy Simulation (DES). The performance of DES results are judged against Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and compared with the experiments that showed an unsteady vortex motion downstream of VGJ. Experimental results showed that the mechanism of embedding logitudinal vortex structure in the main stream flow is quite effective in increasing the near wall momentum of separated aircraft wing. In order to simulate such a flow configuration together with the VGJ, an efficient numerical approach is required. This requirement is fulfilled by performing the DES simulation over the flat plate using the DLR TAU Code. The DES predictions identify the vortex region via smooth hybrid length scale and predict the unsteady vortex motion observed in the experiments. The DES results also showed that the sufficient grid refinement in the vortex region resolves the turbulent scales downstream of the VGJ, the spatial vortex core postion and nondimensional momentum coefficient
RVx .

Keywords: VGJ, Chimera Grid, DES, RANS.

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Authors: Mohamed Shahin, Ahmed Badawi, Mohamed Kamel

Abstract:

This paper presents a hand vein authentication system using fast spatial correlation of hand vein patterns. In order to evaluate the system performance, a prototype was designed and a dataset of 50 persons of different ages above 16 and of different gender, each has 10 images per person was acquired at different intervals, 5 images for left hand and 5 images for right hand. In verification testing analysis, we used 3 images to represent the templates and 2 images for testing. Each of the 2 images is matched with the existing 3 templates. FAR of 0.02% and FRR of 3.00 % were reported at threshold 80. The system efficiency at this threshold was found to be 99.95%. The system can operate at a 97% genuine acceptance rate and 99.98 % genuine reject rate, at corresponding threshold of 80. The EER was reported as 0.25 % at threshold 77. We verified that no similarity exists between right and left hand vein patterns for the same person over the acquired dataset sample. Finally, this distinct 100 hand vein patterns dataset sample can be accessed by researchers and students upon request for testing other methods of hand veins matching.

Keywords: Biometrics, Verification, Hand Veins, PatternsSimilarity, Statistical Performance.

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Authors: Zeinab Galavani, Reza Rezaei-Nasirabad, Rasoul Sadighi-Bonabi

Abstract:

Using a force balanced translational-radial dynamics, phase space of the moving single bubble sonoluminescence (m- SBSL) in 85% wt sulfuric acid has been numerically calculated. This phase space is compared with that of single bubble sonoluminescence (SBSL) in pure water which has been calculated by using the mere radial dynamics. It is shown that in 85% wt sulfuric acid, in a general agreement with experiment, the bubble-s positional instability threshold lays under the shape instability threshold. At the onset of spatial instability of moving sonoluminescing (SL) bubble in 85% wt sulfuric acid, temporal effects of the hydrodynamic force on the bubble translational-radial dynamics have been investigated. The appearance of non-zero history force on the moving SL bubble is because of proper condition which was produced by high viscosity of acid. Around the moving bubble collapse due to the rapid contraction of the bubble wall, the inertial based added mass force overcomes the viscous based history force and induces acceleration on the bubble translational motion.

Keywords: Bjerknes force, History force, Reynolds number, Sonoluminescence.

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