Abstract: Connected vehicles are equipped with wireless sensors
that aid in Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Infrastructure
(V2I) communication. These vehicles will in the near future
provide road safety, improve transport efficiency, and reduce traffic
congestion. One of the challenges for connected vehicles is how
to ensure that information sent across the network is secure. If
security of the network is not guaranteed, several attacks can occur,
thereby compromising the robustness, reliability, and efficiency of
the network. This paper discusses existing security mechanisms and
unique properties of connected vehicles. The methodology employed
in this work is exploratory. The paper reviews existing security
solutions for connected vehicles. More concretely, it discusses
various cryptographic mechanisms available, and suggests areas
of improvement. The study proposes a combination of symmetric
key encryption and public key cryptography to improve security.
The study further proposes message aggregation as a technique to
overcome message redundancy. This paper offers a comprehensive
overview of connected vehicles technology, its applications, its
security mechanisms, open challenges, and potential areas of future
research.
Abstract: The housing industry is crucial for sustainable
development of every country. Housing is a basic need that can
enhance the quality of life. Owning a house is therefore the main aim
of individuals. However, affordability has become a critical issue
towards homeownership. In recent years, housing price in the main
cities has increased tremendously to unaffordable level. This paper
investigates factors influencing the housing price from developer’s
perspective and provides recommendation on strategies to tackle this
issue. Online and face-to-face survey was conducted on housing
developers operating in Penang, Malaysia. The results indicate that
(1) location; (2) macroeconomics factor; (3) demographic factors; (4)
land/zoning and; (5) industry factors are the main factors influencing
the housing price. This paper contributes towards better
understanding on developers’ view on how the housing price is
determined and form a basis for government to help tackle the
housing affordability issue.
Abstract: High reflectance of surgical instruments under bright
light hinders the visual clarity during laparoscopic surgical
procedures leading to loss of precision and device control and creates
strain and undesired difficulties to surgeons. Majority of the surgical
instruments are made of surgical grade steel. Instruments with a non
reflective surface can enhance the visual clarity during precision
surgeries. A conversion coating of black oxide has been successfully
developed 410 grade surgical stainless steel .The characteristics of
the developed coating suggests the application of this technique for
developing 410 grade surgical instruments with minimal reflectance.
Abstract: Waste polyethylene (PE) is classified as waste low
density polyethylene (LDPE) and waste high density polyethylene
(HDPE) according to their densities. Pyrolysis of plastic waste may
have an important role in dealing with the enormous amounts of
plastic waste produced all over the world, by decreasing their
negative impact on the environment. This waste may be converted
into economically valuable hydrocarbons, which can be used both as
fuels and as feed stock in the petrochemical industry. End product
yields and properties depend on the plastic waste composition.
Pyrolytic biochar is one of the most important products of waste
plastics pyrolysis. In this study, HDPE and LDPE plastic wastes were
co-pyrolyzed together with waste olive pomace. Pyrolysis runs were
performed at temperature 700°C with heating rates of 5°C/min.
Higher pyrolysis oil and gas yields were observed by the using waste
olive pomace. The biochar yields of HDPE- olive pomace and LDPEolive
pomace were 6.37% and 7.26% respectively for 50% olive
pomace doses. The calorific value of HDPE-olive pomace and
LDPE-olive pomace of pyrolysis oil were 8350 and 8495 kCal.
Abstract: The development of numerical analysis and its
application to geomechanics problems have provided geotechnical
engineers with extremely powerful tools. One of the most important
problems in geotechnical engineering is the slope stability
assessment. It is a very difficult task due to several aspects such the
nature of the problem, experimental consideration, monitoring,
controlling, and assessment. The main objective of this paper is to
perform a comparative numerical study between the following
methods: The Limit Equilibrium (LEM), Finite Element (FEM),
Limit Analysis (LAM) and Distinct Element (DEM). The comparison
is conducted in terms of the safety factors and the critical slip
surfaces. Through the results, we see the feasibility to analyse slope
stability by many methods.
Abstract: The aim of this work is to present a low cost adsorbent
for removing toxic heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Therefore,
we are interested to investigate the efficiency of natural clay minerals
collected from south Tunisia and their modified form using sulfuric
acid in the removal of toxic metal ions: Zn(II) and Pb(II) from
synthetic waste water solutions. The obtained results indicate that
metal uptake is pH-dependent and maximum removal was detected to
occur at pH 6. Adsorption equilibrium is very rapid and it was
achieved after 90 min for both metal ions studied. The kinetics results
show that the pseudo-second-order model describes the adsorption
and the intraparticle diffusion models are the limiting step. The
treatment of natural clay with sulfuric acid creates more active sites
and increases the surface area, so it showed an increase of the
adsorbed quantities of lead and zinc in single and binary systems. The
competitive adsorption study showed that the uptake of lead was
inhibited in the presence of 10 mg/L of zinc. An antagonistic binary
adsorption mechanism was observed. These results revealed that clay
is an effective natural material for removing lead and zinc in single
and binary systems from aqueous solution.
Abstract: The idea of cropping-system is a method used by
farmers. It is an environmentally-friendly method, protecting the
natural resources (soil, water, air, nutritive substances) and increase
the production at the same time, taking into account some crop
particularities. The combination of this powerful method with the
concepts of genetic algorithms results into a possibility of generating
sequences of crops in order to form a rotation. The usage of this type
of algorithms has been efficient in solving problems related to
optimization and their polynomial complexity allows them to be used
at solving more difficult and various problems. In our case, the
optimization consists in finding the most profitable rotation of
cultures. One of the expected results is to optimize the usage of the
resources, in order to minimize the costs and maximize the profit. In
order to achieve these goals, a genetic algorithm was designed. This
algorithm ensures the finding of several optimized solutions of
cropping-systems possibilities which have the highest profit and,
thus, which minimize the costs. The algorithm uses genetic-based
methods (mutation, crossover) and structures (genes, chromosomes).
A cropping-system possibility will be considered a chromosome and
a crop within the rotation is a gene within a chromosome. Results
about the efficiency of this method will be presented in a special
section. The implementation of this method would bring benefits into
the activity of the farmers by giving them hints and helping them to
use the resources efficiently.
Abstract: The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of
corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR on the National
Commercial Bank (NCB) in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this, a
case study was made of the CSR activities of this bank from the
perspective of its branch managers. The NCB was chosen as it was
one of the first Saudi banks to engage in CSR and currently has a
wide range of CSR initiatives. A qualitative research method was
used. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to eighty branch
managers of the NCB, with fifty-five usable questionnaires returned
and twenty managers were interviewed as part of the primary
research. Data from both questionnaires and interviews were
analysed using qualitative content analysis. Six themes emerged from
the questionnaire findings were used to develop the interview
questions. These themes are the following: Awareness of employees
about CSR in the NCB; CSR activities as a type of investment;
Government and media support; Increased employee loyalty in the
NCB; Prestige and profit to the NCB; and View of CSR in Islam.
This paper makes a theoretical contribution in that it investigates and
increases understanding of the effect of CSR on the NCB in Saudi
Arabia. In addition, it makes a practical contribution by making
recommendations which can support the development of CSR in the
NCB. A limitation of the paper is that it is a case study of only one
bank. It is therefore recommended that future research could be
conducted with other banks in Saudi Arabia, or indeed, with a range
of other types of firm within the financial services area in Saudi
Arabia. In this way, the same issues could be explored but with a
greater potential generalisability of findings of CSR within the Saudi
Arabian financial services industry. In addition, this paper takes a
qualitative approach and it is suggested that future research be carried
out using mixed methods, which could provide a greater depth of
analysis.
Abstract: Discrimination against women and girls impairs progress in all domains of development articulated either in the framework of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Paper aspires to create greater awareness among researchers and policy makers of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the opportunities created by reducing them within the Arab region. The study reveals how Arab countries are closing in on gender-oriented targets of the third and fifth MDGs. While some countries can claim remarkable achievements particularly in girls’ equality in education, there is still a long way to go to keep Arab’s commitments to current and future generations in other countries and subregions especially in the economic participation or in the political empowerment of women. No country has closed or even expected to close the economic participation gap or the political empowerment gap. This should provide the incentive to keep moving forward in the Post-2015 Agenda. Findings of the study prove that while Arab states have uneven achievements in reducing maternal mortality, Arab women remain at a disadvantage in the labour market. For Arab region especially LDCs, improving maternal health is part of the unmet agenda for the post-2015 period and still calls for intensified efforts and procedures. While antenatal care coverage is improving across the Arab region, progress is marginal in LDCs. To achieve proper realization of gender equality and empowerment of women in the Arab region in the post-2015 agenda, the study presents critical key challenges to be addressed. These challenges include: Negative cultural norms and stereotypes; violence against women and girls; early marriage and child labour; women’s limited control over their own bodies; limited ability of women to generate their own income and control assets and property; gender-based discrimination in law and in practice; women’s unequal participation in private and public decision making autonomy; and limitations in data. However, in all Arab states, gender equality must be integrated as a goal across all issues, particularly those that affect the future of a country.
Abstract: This study presents an inverse analysis for predicting the thermal conductivities and the heat flux of a high-temperature metallurgical reactor simultaneously. Once these thermal parameters are predicted, the time-varying thickness of the protective phase-change bank that covers the inside surface of the brick walls of a metallurgical reactor can be calculated. The enthalpy method is used to solve the melting/solidification process of the protective bank. The inverse model rests on the Levenberg-Marquardt Method (LMM) combined with the Broyden method (BM). A statistical analysis for the thermal parameter estimation is carried out. The effect of the position of the temperature sensors, total number of measurements and measurement noise on the accuracy of inverse predictions is investigated. Recommendations are made concerning the location of temperature sensors.
Abstract: In an economic crisis such as the one that shook (and still shake) Europe, one does not question the importance of the measures that encourage the hiring and integration of young people into the labour market. In the mentioned context, enterprises tend to reduce the cost of labour and to seek flexible contracting instruments. The professional internships allow innovation and creativity at low cost, because, as they are not labour contracts, the enterprises do not have to respect the minimum standards related to wages, working time duration and so on. In Portugal, we observe a widespread existence of training contracts in which the trainee worked several hours without salary or was paid below the legally prescribed for the function and the work period. For this reason, under the tripartite agreement for a new system of regulation of labour relations, employment policies and social protection, between the Government and the social partners, in June 2008, foresaw a prohibition of professional internships unpaid and the legal regulation of the mandatory internships for access to an activity. The first Act about private internship contracts, i.e., internships without public funding was embodied in the Decree-Law N. 66/2011, of 1st June. This work is dedicated to the study of the legal regime of the internship contract in Portugal, by analysing the problems brought by the new set of rules and especially those which remains unresolved. In fact, we can conclude that the number of situations covered by the Act is much lower than what was expected, because of the exclusion of the mandatory internship for access to a profession when the activity is developed autonomously. Since the majority of the activities can be developed both autonomously or subordinated, it is quite easy to out of the Act requirements and, so, out of the protection that it confers to the intern. In order to complete this study, we considered not only the mentioned legal Act, but also the few doctrine and jurisprudence about the theme.
Abstract: Solid particle erosion has been identified as a critical wear phenomenon which takes place during operation of aeroengines in dusty environment. The present work discusses the erosion behavior of Ti-44.5Al-6.25Nb-0.8Mo-0.1B alloy (TNB-V4) which finds its application in low pressure gas turbines and can be used for high pressure compressors too. Prior to the erosion tests, the alloy was heat treated to improve the mechanical properties. Afterwards, specimens were eroded at impact angles of 30° and 90° at room and high temperatures (100 °C-400 °C). Volume loss and erosion behavior are studied through gravimetric analysis, whereas erosion mechanisms are characterized through scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate a clear difference in the erosion mechanism for different impact angles. The influence of the test temperature on the erosion behavior of the alloy is also discussed in the present contribution.
Abstract: An approach to compute optimum seismic design parameters is presented. It is based on the optimization of the expected present value of the total cost, which includes the initial cost of structures as well as the cost due to earthquakes. Different types of seismicity models are considered, including one for characteristic earthquakes. Uncertainties are included in some variables to observe the influence on optimum values. Optimum seismic design coefficients are computed for three different structural types representing high, medium and low rise buildings, located near and far from the seismic sources. Ordinary and important structures are considered in the analysis. The results of optimum values show an important influence of seismicity models as well as of uncertainties on the variables.
Abstract: In connected vehicle systems where wireless communication is available among the involved vehicles and intersection controllers, it is possible to design an intersection coordination strategy that leads the connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) travel through the road intersections without the conventional traffic light control. In this paper, we present a distributed coordination strategy for the CAVs at multiple interconnected intersections that aims at improving system fuel efficiency and system mobility. We present a distributed control solution where in the higher level, the intersection controllers calculate the road desired average velocity and optimally assign reference velocities of each vehicle. In the lower level, every vehicle is considered to use model predictive control (MPC) to track their reference velocity obtained from the higher level controller. The proposed method has been implemented on a simulation-based case with two-interconnected intersection network. Additionally, the effects of mixed vehicle types on the coordination strategy has been explored. Simulation results indicate the improvement on vehicle fuel efficiency and traffic mobility of the proposed method.
Abstract: A uniquely restricted matching is defined to be a
matching M whose matched vertices induces a sub-graph which has
only one perfect matching. In this paper, we make progress on the
open question of the status of this problem on interval graphs (graphs
obtained as the intersection graph of intervals on a line). We give
an algorithm to compute maximum cardinality uniquely restricted
matchings on certain sub-classes of interval graphs. We consider two
sub-classes of interval graphs, the former contained in the latter, and
give O(|E|^2) time algorithms for both of them. It is to be noted that
both sub-classes are incomparable to proper interval graphs (graphs
obtained as the intersection graph of intervals in which no interval
completely contains another interval), on which the problem can be
solved in polynomial time.
Abstract: This research paper presents a framework for classifying Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images for Dementia. Dementia, an age-related cognitive decline is indicated by degeneration of cortical and sub-cortical structures. Characterizing morphological changes helps understand disease development and contributes to early prediction and prevention of the disease. Modelling, that captures the brain’s structural variability and which is valid in disease classification and interpretation is very challenging. Features are extracted using Gabor filter with 0, 30, 60, 90 orientations and Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM). It is proposed to normalize and fuse the features. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) selects features. Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier with different kernels is evaluated, for efficiency to classify dementia. This study evaluates the presented framework using MRI images from OASIS dataset for identifying dementia. Results showed that the proposed feature fusion classifier achieves higher classification accuracy.
Abstract: Fenton oxidation technology is the general strategy for the treatment of organic compounds-contained wastewater. However, a considerable amount of ferric sludge was produced during the Fenton process as secondary wastes, which were needed to be further removed from the effluent and treated. In this study, heterogeneous catalysts based on ferrite oxide (Cu-Fe-Ce-O) were synthesized and characterized, and their application for Fenton-like oxidation of simulated and actual radioactive organic wastewater was investigated. The results of TOC decomposition efficiency around 54% ~ 99% were obtained when the catalyst loading, H2O2 loading, pH, temperature, and reaction time were controlled. In this case, no secondary wastes formed and the given catalysts were able to be separated by magnetic devices and reused again.
Abstract: There is a requirement for registered edible seed pumpkin suitable for eating in Turkey. A total of 81 genotypes collected from the researchers in 2005 originated from Eskisehir, Konya, Nevsehir, Tekirdag, Sakarya, Kayseri and Kirsehir provinces were utilized. The used genetic materials were brought to S5 generation by the research groups among 2006 and 2010 years. In this research, S5 stage reached in the genotype given some of the morphological features, and selection of promising genotypes generated scale were made. Results showed that the A-1 (420), A-7 (410), A-8 (420), A-32 (420), B-17 (410), B-24 (410), B-25 (420), B-33 (400), C-24 (420), C-25 (410), C-26 (410) and C-30 (420) genotypes are expected to be promising varieties.
Abstract: There is a gap at combustor-turbine interface where leakage flow comes out to prevent hot gas ingestion into the gas turbine nozzle platform. The leakage flow protects the nozzle endwall surface from the hot gas coming from combustor exit. For controlling flow’s stream, the gap’s geometry is transformed by changing fillet radius size. During the operation, step configuration is occurred that was unintended between combustor-turbine platform interface caused by thermal expansion or mismatched assembly. In this study, CFD simulations were performed to investigate the effect of the fillet and step on heat transfer and film cooling effectiveness on the nozzle platform. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-stokes equation was solved with turbulence model, SST k-omega. With the fillet configuration, predicted film cooling effectiveness results indicated that fillet radius size influences to enhance film cooling effectiveness. Predicted film cooling effectiveness results at forward facing step configuration indicated that step height influences to enhance film cooling effectiveness. We suggested that designer change a combustor-turbine interface configuration which was varied by fillet radius size near endwall gap when there was a step at combustor-turbine interface. Gap shape was modified by increasing fillet radius size near nozzle endwall. Also, fillet radius and step height were interacted with the film cooling effectiveness and heat transfer on endwall surface.
Abstract: An active islanding detection method using disturbance signal injection with intelligent controller is proposed in this study. First, a DC\AC power inverter is emulated in the distributed generator (DG) system to implement the tracking control of active power, reactive power outputs and the islanding detection. The proposed active islanding detection method is based on injecting a disturbance signal into the power inverter system through the d-axis current which leads to a frequency deviation at the terminal of the RLC load when the utility power is disconnected. Moreover, in order to improve the transient and steady-state responses of the active power and reactive power outputs of the power inverter, and to further improve the performance of the islanding detection method, two probabilistic fuzzy neural networks (PFNN) are adopted to replace the traditional proportional-integral (PI) controllers for the tracking control and the islanding detection. Furthermore, the network structure and the online learning algorithm of the PFNN are introduced in detail. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the tracking control and the proposed active islanding detection method are verified with experimental results.