Abstract: Network reconfiguration in distribution system is realized by changing the status of sectionalizing switches to reduce the power loss in the system. This paper presents a new method which applies an artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) for determining the sectionalizing switch to be operated in order to solve the distribution system loss minimization problem. The ABC algorithm is a new population based metaheuristic approach inspired by intelligent foraging behavior of honeybee swarm. The advantage of ABC algorithm is that it does not require external parameters such as cross over rate and mutation rate as in case of genetic algorithm and differential evolution and it is hard to determine these parameters in prior. The other advantage is that the global search ability in the algorithm is implemented by introducing neighborhood source production mechanism which is a similar to mutation process. To demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm, computer simulations are carried out on 14, 33, and 119-bus systems and compared with different approaches available in the literature. The proposed method has outperformed the other methods in terms of the quality of solution and computational efficiency.
Abstract: Non-viral gene carriers composed of biodegradable
polymers or lipids have been considered as a safer alternative for gene
carriers over viral vectors. We have developed multi-functional
nano-micelles for both drug and gene delivery application.
Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was modified by grafting stearic acid (SA)
and formulated to polymeric micelles (PEI-SA) with positive surface
charge for gene and drug delivery. Our results showed that PEI-SA
micelles provided high siRNA binding efficiency. In addition, siRNA
delivered by PEI-SA carriers also demonstrated significantly high
cellular uptake even in the presence of serum proteins. The
post-transcriptional gene silencing efficiency was greatly improved by
the polyplex formulated by 10k PEI-SA/siRNA. The amphiphilic
structure of PEI-SA micelles provided advantages for multifunctional
tasks; where the hydrophilic shell modified with cationic charges can
electrostatically interact with DNA or siRNA, and the hydrophobic
core can serve as payloads for hydrophobic drugs, making it a
promising multifunctional vehicle for both genetic and chemotherapy
application.
Abstract: In the past few years there is a change in the view of high performance applications and parallel computing. Initially such applications were targeted towards dedicated parallel machines. Recently trend is changing towards building meta-applications composed of several modules that exploit heterogeneous platforms and employ hybrid forms of parallelism. The aim of this paper is to propose a model of virtual parallel computing. Virtual parallel computing system provides a flexible object oriented software framework that makes it easy for programmers to write various parallel applications.
Abstract: A simple mobile engine-driven pneumatic paddy
collector made of locally available materials using local
manufacturing technology was designed, fabricated, and tested for
collecting and bagging of paddy dried on concrete pavement. The
pneumatic paddy collector had the following major components:
radial flat bladed type centrifugal fan, power transmission system,
bagging area, frame and the conveyance system. Results showed
significant differences on the collecting capacity, noise level, and fuel
consumption when rotational speed of the air mover shaft was varied.
Other parameters such as collecting efficiency, air velocity,
augmented cracked grain percentage, and germination rate were not
significantly affected by varying rotational speed of the air mover
shaft. The pneumatic paddy collector had a collecting efficiency of
99.33 % with a collecting capacity of 2685.00 kg/h at maximum
rotational speed of centrifugal fan shaft of about 4200 rpm. The
machine entailed an investment cost of P 62,829.25. The break-even
weight of paddy was 510,606.75 kg/yr at a collecting cost of 0.11
P/kg of paddy. Utilizing the machine for 400 hours per year
generated an income of P 23,887.73. The projected time needed to
recover cost of the machine based on 2685 kg/h collecting capacity
was 2.63 year.
Abstract: A traffic light gives security from traffic congestion,reducing the traffic jam, and organizing the traffic flow. Furthermore,increasing congestion level in public road networks is a growingproblem in many countries. Using Intelligent Transportation Systemsto provide emergency vehicles a green light at intersections canreduce driver confusion, reduce conflicts, and improve emergencyresponse times. Nowadays, the technology of wireless sensornetworks can solve many problems and can offer a good managementof the crossroad. In this paper, we develop a new approach based onthe technique of clustering and the graphical possibilistic fusionmodeling. So, the proposed model is elaborated in three phases. Thefirst one consists to decompose the environment into clusters,following by the fusion intra and inter clusters processes. Finally, wewill show some experimental results by simulation that proves theefficiency of our proposed approach.KeywordsTraffic light, Wireless sensor network, Controller,Possibilistic network/Bayesain network.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of preparation and control of orders on performance. The focused activities explored in this research are: procurement, production and distribution. These changes in performance were obtained through improvement of the supply chain. It is proved using all the company activities that it is possible to increase de efficiency and do services in an adequate way, placing the products in the market efficiently. For that, it was explored the importance of the supply chain, with privilege to the practical environment and the quantification of the obtained results.
Abstract: This research deals with techno economic analysis to select the most economic desalination method for Asalouyeh combined cycle power plant . Due to lack of fresh water, desalination of sea water is necessary to provide required DM water of Power Plant. The most common desalination methods are RO, MSF, MED, and MED–TVC. In this research, methods of RO, MED, and MED– TVC have been compared. Simulation results show that recovery of heat of exhaust gas of main stack is optimum case for providing DM water required for injected steam of MED desalination. This subject is very important because of improving thermal efficiency of power plant using extra heat recovery. Also, it has been shown that by adding 3 rows of finned tube to de-aerator evaporator, which is very simple and low cost, required steam for generating 5200 m3/day of desalinated water is obtainable.
Abstract: Electromyography (EMG) signal processing has been investigated remarkably regarding various applications such as in rehabilitation systems. Specifically, wavelet transform has served as a powerful technique to scrutinize EMG signals since wavelet transform is consistent with the nature of EMG as a non-stationary signal. In this paper, the efficiency of wavelet transform in surface EMG feature extraction is investigated from four levels of wavelet decomposition and a comparative study between different mother wavelets had been done. To recognize the best function and level of wavelet analysis, two evaluation criteria, scatter plot and RES index are recruited. Hereupon, four wavelet families, namely, Daubechies, Coiflets, Symlets and Biorthogonal are studied in wavelet decomposition stage. Consequently, the results show that only features from first and second level of wavelet decomposition yields good performance and some functions of various wavelet families can lead to an improvement in separability class of different hand movements.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to investigate the efficiency of the light emitting diode (LED) tube in various color lights used to lure the adult coconut hispine beetle. The research was conducted by setting the forward bias on LED tubes, and the next step was to test luminous efficacy and quantity of electricity used to power each LED tube in different color lights. Finally, the researcher examined the efficiency of each color-light LED tube to lure the adult coconut hispine beetle.
The results showed that the ultraviolet LED tubes had the most capacity to allure the adult coconut hispine beetles with the percentage of 82.92, followed by the blue LED tubes with the percentage of 59.76. Whereas the yellow, pink, red and warm white LED tubes had no influence to the adult coconut hispine beetles.
Abstract: The study of interaction among the grain, moisture,
and the surrounding space (air) is key to understanding the graindrying
process. In Iran, rice (mostly Indica type) is dried by flat
bed type dryer until the final MC reaches to 6 to 8%. The
experiments were conducted to examine the effect of application of
discharge fan with different heights of paddy on the drying
efficiency. Experiments were designed based on two different
configurations of the drying methods; with and without discharge
fan with three different heights of paddy including; 5, 10, and 15
cm. The humid heated air will be going out immediately by the
suction of discharge fan. The drying time is established upon the
average final MC to achieve about 8%. To save energy and reduce
the drying time, the distribution of temperature between layers
should be fast and uniform with minimum difference; otherwise
the difference of MC gradient between layers will be high and will
induce grain breakage. The difference of final MC between layers
in the two methods was 48-73%. The steady state of temperature
between the two methods has saved time in the range of 10-20%,
and the efficiency of temperature distribution increased 17-26% by
the use of discharge fan.
Abstract: In recent years, the use of vector variance as a
measure of multivariate variability has received much attention in
wide range of statistics. This paper deals with a more economic
measure of multivariate variability, defined as vector variance minus
all duplication elements. For high dimensional data, this will increase
the computational efficiency almost 50 % compared to the original
vector variance. Its sampling distribution will be investigated to make
its applications possible.
Abstract: Heat source addition to the axisymmetric supersonic
inlet may improve the performance parameters, which will increase
the inlet efficiency. In this investigation the heat has been added to
the flow field at some distance ahead of an axisymmetric inlet by
adding an imaginary thermal source upstream of cowl lip. The effect
of heat addition on the drag coefficient, mass flow rate and the
overall efficiency of the inlet have been investigated. The results
show that heat addition causes flow separation, hence to prevent this
phenomena, roughness has been added on the spike surface.
However, heat addition reduces the drag coefficient and the inlet
mass flow rate considerably. Furthermore, the effects of position,
size, and shape on the inlet performance were studied. It is found that
the thermal source deflects the flow streamlines. By improper
location of the thermal source, the optimum condition has been
obtained. For the optimum condition, the drag coefficient is
considerably reduced and the inlet mass flow rate and its efficiency
have been increased slightly. The optimum shape of the heat source
is obtained too.
Abstract: Business rules are widely used within the services
sector. They provide consistency and allow relatively unskilled staff
to process complex transactions correctly. But there are many
examples where the rules themselves have an impact on the costs and
profits of an organisation. Financial services, transport and human
services are areas where the rules themselves can impact the bottom
line in a predictable way. If this is the case, how can we find that set
of rules that maximise profit, performance or customer service, or
any other key performance indicators? The manufacturing, energy
and process industries have embraced mathematical optimisation
techniques to improve efficiency, increase production and so on. This
paper explores several real world (but simplified) problems in the
services sector and shows how business rules can be optimised. It
also examines the similarities and differences between the service
and other sectors, and how optimisation techniques could be used to
deliver similar benefits.
Abstract: The intermittent connectivity modifies the “always
on" network assumption made by all the distributed query processing
systems. In modern- day systems, the absence of network
connectivity is considered as a fault. Since the last upload, it might
not be feasible to transmit all the data accumulated right away over
the available connection. It is possible that vital information may be
delayed excessively when the less important information takes place
of the vital information. Owing to the restricted and uneven
bandwidth, it is vital that the mobile nodes make the most
advantageous use of the connectivity when it arrives. Hence, in order
to select the data that needs to be transmitted first, some sort of data
prioritization is essential. A continuous query processing system for
intermittently connected mobile networks that comprises of a delaytolerant
continuous query processor distributed across the mobile
hosts has been proposed in this paper. In addition, a mechanism for
prioritizing query results has been designed that guarantees enhanced
accuracy and reduced delay. It is illustrated that our architecture
reduces the client power consumption, increases query efficiency by
the extensive simulation results.
Abstract: An optimal solution for a large number of constraint
satisfaction problems can be found using the technique of
substitution and elimination of variables analogous to the technique
that is used to solve systems of equations. A decision function
f(A)=max(A2) is used to determine which variables to eliminate. The
algorithm can be expressed in six lines and is remarkable in both its
simplicity and its ability to find an optimal solution. However it is
inefficient in that it needs to square the updated A matrix after each
variable elimination. To overcome this inefficiency the algorithm is
analyzed and it is shown that the A matrix only needs to be squared
once at the first step of the algorithm and then incrementally updated
for subsequent steps, resulting in significant improvement and an
algorithm complexity of O(n3).
Abstract: UWB is a very attractive technology for many
applications. It provides many advantages such as fine resolution and high power efficiency. Our interest in the current study is the use of
UWB radar technique in microwave medical imaging systems, especially for early breast cancer detection. The Federal Communications Commission FCC allowed frequency bandwidth of
3.1 to 10.6 GHz for this purpose. In this paper we suggest an UWB Bowtie slot antenna with enhanced bandwidth. Effects of varying the geometry of the antenna
on its performance and bandwidth are studied. The proposed antenna
is simulated in CST Microwave Studio. Details of antenna design and
simulation results such as return loss and radiation patterns are discussed in this paper. The final antenna structure exhibits good
UWB characteristics and has surpassed the bandwidth requirements.
Abstract: Intelligent Video-Surveillance (IVS) systems are
being more and more popular in security applications. The analysis
and recognition of abnormal behaviours in a video sequence has
gradually drawn the attention in the field of IVS, since it allows
filtering out a large number of useless information, which guarantees
the high efficiency in the security protection, and save a lot of human
and material resources. We present in this paper ADABeV, an
intelligent video-surveillance framework for event recognition in
crowded scene to detect the abnormal human behaviour. This
framework is attended to be able to achieve real-time alarming,
reducing the lags in traditional monitoring systems. This architecture
proposal addresses four main challenges: behaviour understanding in
crowded scenes, hard lighting conditions, multiple input kinds of
sensors and contextual-based adaptability to recognize the active
context of the scene.
Abstract: An attempt was made for availability of wastewater reuse/reclamation for irrigation purposes using phytoremediation “the low cost and less technology", using six local aquatic macrophytes “e.g. T. angustifolia, B. maritimus, Ph. australis, A. donax, A. plantago-aquatica and M. longifolia (Linn)" as biological waste purifiers. Outdoor experiments/designs were conducted from May 03, 2007 till October 15, 2008, close to one of the main sewage channels of Sulaimani City/Iraq*. All processes were mainly based on conventional wastewater treatment processes, besides two further modifications were tested, the first was sand filtration pots, implanted by individual species of experimental macrophytes and the second was constructed wetlands implanted by experimental macrophytes all together. Untreated and treated wastewater samples were analyzed for their key physico-chemical properties (only heavy metals Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu with particular reference to removal efficiency by experimental macrophytes are highlighted in this paper). On the other hand, vertical contents of heavy metals were also evaluated from both pots and the cells of constructed wetland. After 135 days, macrophytes were harvested and heavy metals were analyzed in their biomass (roots/shoots) for removal efficiency assessment (i.e. uptake/ bioaccumulation rate). Results showed that; removal efficiency of all studied heavy metals was much higher in T. angustifolia followed by Ph. Australis, B. maritimus and A. donax in triple experiment sand pots. Constructed wetland experiments have revealed that; the more replicated constructed wetland cells the highest heavy metal removal efficiency was indicated.
Abstract: Numerical studies have been carried out using a
validated two-dimensional RNG k-epsilon turbulence model for the
design optimization of a thrust vector control system using shock
induced supersonic secondary jet. Parametric analytical studies have
been carried out with various secondary jets at different divergent
locations, jet interaction angles, jet pressures. The results from the
parametric studies of the case on hand reveal that the primary nozzle
with a small divergence angle, downstream injections with a distance
of 2.5 times the primary nozzle throat diameter from the primary
nozzle throat location warrant higher efficiency over a certain range
of jet pressures and jet angles. We observed that the supersonic
secondary jet opposing the core flow with jets interaction angle of
40o to the axis far downstream of the nozzle throat facilitates better
thrust vectoring than the secondary jet with same direction as that of
core flow with various interaction angles. We concluded that fixing
of the supersonic secondary jet nozzle pointing towards the throat
direction with suitable angle at a distance 2 to 4 times of the primary
nozzle throat diameter, as the case may be, from the primary nozzle
throat location could facilitate better thrust vectoring for the
supersonic aerospace vehicles.
Abstract: Nowadays, HPC, Grid and Cloud systems are evolving
very rapidly. However, the development of infrastructure solutions
related to HPC is lagging behind. While the existing infrastructure is
sufficient for simple cases, many computational problems have more
complex requirements.Such computational experiments use different
resources simultaneously to start a large number of computational
jobs.These resources are heterogeneous. They have different
purposes, architectures, performance and used software.Users need a
convenient tool that allows to describe and to run complex
computational experiments under conditions of HPC environment.
This paper introduces a modularworkflow system called SEGL
which makes it possible to run complex computational experiments
under conditions of a real HPC organization. The system can be used
in a great number of organizations, which provide HPC power.
Significant requirements to this system are high efficiency and
interoperability with the existing HPC infrastructure of the
organization without any changes.