Abstract: The elution process for the removal of Co and Cu from clinoptilolite as an ion-exchanger was investigated using three parameters: bed volume, pH and contact time. The present paper study has shown quantitatively that acid concentration has a significant effect on the elution process. The favorable eluant concentration was found to be 2 M HCl and 2 M H2SO4, respectively. The multi-component equilibrium relationship in the process can be very complex, and perhaps ill-defined. In such circumstances, it is preferable to use a non-parametric technique such as Neural Network to represent such an equilibrium relationship.
Abstract: Occurrence of a multiple-points fault in machine operations could result in exhibiting complex fault signatures, which could result in lowering fault diagnosis accuracy. In this study, a multiple-points defect model (MPDM) is proposed which can simulate fault signature-s dynamics for n-points bearing faults. Furthermore, this study identifies that in case of multiple-points fault in the rotary machine, the location of the dominant component of defect frequency shifts depending upon the relative location of the fault points which could mislead the fault diagnostic model to inaccurate detections. Analytical and experimental results are presented to characterize and validate the variation in the dominant component of defect frequency. Based on envelop detection analysis, a modification is recommended in the existing fault diagnostic models to consider the multiples of defect frequency rather than only considering the frequency spectrum at the defect frequency in order to incorporate the impact of multiple points fault.
Abstract: In this paper Lattice Boltzmann simulation of
turbulent natural convection with large-eddy simulations (LES) in a
square cavity which is filled by water has been investigated. The
present results are validated by finds of other investigations which
have been done with different numerical methods. Calculations were
performed for high Rayleigh numbers of Ra=108 and 109. The results
confirm that this method is in acceptable agreement with other
verifications of such a flow. In this investigation is tried to present
Large-eddy turbulence flow model by Lattice Boltzmann Method
(LBM) with a clear and simple statement. Effects of increase in
Rayleigh number are displayed on streamlines, isotherm counters and
average Nusselt number. Result shows that the average Nusselt
number enhances with growth of the Rayleigh numbers.
Abstract: Intelligent Transportation System integrates various modern advanced technologies into the ground transportation system, and it will be the goal of urban transport system in the future because of its comprehensive effects. However, it also brings some problems, such as project performance assessment, fairness of benefiting groups, fund management, which are directly related to its operation and implementation. Wuhan has difficulties in organizing transportation because of its nature feature (river and lake), therefore, calling Service of Taxi plays an important role in transportation. This paper researches on calling Service of Taxi in Wuhan, based on quantitative and qualitative analysis. It analyzes its operations management systematically, including business model, finance, usage analysis and users evaluation. As for business model, it is that the government leads the operation at the initial stage, and the third part dominates the operation at the mature stage, which not only eases the pressure of the third part and benefits the spread of the calling service at the initial stage, but also alleviates financial pressure of government and improve the efficiency of the operation at the mature stage. As for finance, it draws that this service will bring heavy financial burden of equipments, but it will be alleviated in the future because of its spread. As for usage analysis, through data comparison, this service can bring some benefits for taxi drivers, and time and spatial distribution of usage have certain features. As for user evaluation, it analyzes using group and the reason why choosing it. At last, according to the analysis above, the paper puts forward the potentials, limitations, and future development strategies for it.
Abstract: The future of business intelligence (BI) is to integrate
intelligence into operational systems that works in real-time
analyzing small chunks of data based on requirements on continuous
basis. This is moving away from traditional approach of doing
analysis on ad-hoc basis or sporadically in passive and off-line mode
analyzing huge amount data. Various AI techniques such as expert
systems, case-based reasoning, neural-networks play important role
in building business intelligent systems. Since BI involves various
tasks and models various types of problems, hybrid intelligent
techniques can be better choice. Intelligent systems accessible
through web services make it easier to integrate them into existing
operational systems to add intelligence in every business processes.
These can be built to be invoked in modular and distributed way to
work in real time. Functionality of such systems can be extended to
get external inputs compatible with formats like RSS. In this paper,
we describe a framework that use effective combinations of these
techniques, accessible through web services and work in real-time.
We have successfully developed various prototype systems and done
few commercial deployments in the area of personalization and
recommendation on mobile and websites.
Abstract: Numerical studies on race car aerodynamics at wing
in ground effect have been carried out using a steady 3d, double
precision, pressure-based, and standard k-epsilon turbulence model.
Through various parametric analytical studies we have observed that
at a particular speed and ground clearance of the wings a favorable
negative lift was found high at a particular angle of attack for all the
physical models considered in this paper. The fact is that if the
ground clearance height to chord length (h/c) is too small, the
developing boundary layers from either side (the ground and the
lower surface of the wing) can interact, leading to an altered variation
of the aerodynamic characteristics at wing in ground effect. Therefore
a suitable ground clearance must be predicted throughout the racing
for a better performance of the race car, which obviously depends
upon the coupled effects of the topography, wing orientation with
respect to the ground, the incoming flow features and/or the race car
speed. We have concluded that for the design of high performance
and high speed race cars the adjustable wings capable to alter the
ground clearance and the angles of attack is the best design option for
any race car for racing safely with variable speeds.
Abstract: The effect of small non-parallelism of the base flow
on the stability of slightly curved mixing layers is analyzed in the
present paper. Assuming that the instability wavelength is much
smaller than the length scale of the variation of the base flow we
derive an amplitude evolution equation using the method of multiple
scales. The proposed asymptotic model provides connection between
parallel flow approximations and takes into account slow
longitudinal variation of the base flow.
Abstract: The purposes of this study are 1) to study the impact
of the 3-community-core model: House (H), Temple (T), and School
(S) with the co-operation of official departments on community
development to ASEAN economic community involvement and 2) to
study the procedures and extension of the model. The research which
is a qualitative research is based on the formal and informal
interviews. Local people in a community are observed. Group
interview is, also, operated by executors and cooperators in the
school in the community. In terms of social and cultural dimension,
the 3-community-core model consisting of house, temple and school
is the base of Thai cultures bringing about understanding, happiness
and unity to the community. The result of this research is that the
official departments in accompanied with this model developers
cooperatively work together in the community to support such factors
as budget, plan, activities. Moreover, the need of community, and the
continual result to sustain the community are satisfied by the model
implementation. In terms of the procedures of the model
implementation, executors and co-operators can work, coordinate,
think, and launch their public relation altogether. Concerning the
model development, this enables the community to achieve its goal to
prepare the community’s readiness for ASEAN Economic
Community involvement.
Abstract: With the long-term objective of Critical Heat Flux (CHF) prediction, a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) framework for simulation of subcooled and saturated nucleate pool boiling is developed. One case of saturated, and three cases of subcooled boiling at different subcooling levels are simulated. Grid refinement study is also reported. Both boiling and condensation phenomena can be computed simultaneously in the proposed numerical framework. Computed bubble detachment diameters of the saturated nucleate pool boiling cases agree well with the experiment. The flow structures around the growing bubble are presented and the accompanying physics is described. The relation between heat flux evolution from the heated wall and the bubble growth is studied, along with investigations of temperature distribution and flow field evolutions.
Abstract: Hospital staff and managers are under pressure and
concerned for effective use and management of scarce resources. The
hospital admissions require many decisions that have complex and
uncertain consequences for hospital resource utilization and patient
flow. It is challenging to predict risk of admissions and length of stay
of a patient due to their vague nature. There is no method to capture
the vague definition of admission of a patient. Also, current methods
and tools used to predict patients at risk of admission fail to deal with
uncertainty in unplanned admission, LOS, patients- characteristics.
The main objective of this paper is to deal with uncertainty in
health system variables, and handles uncertain relationship among
variables. An introduction of machine learning techniques along with
statistical methods like Regression methods can be a proposed
solution approach to handle uncertainty in health system variables. A
model that adapts fuzzy methods to handle uncertain data and
uncertain relationships can be an efficient solution to capture the
vague definition of admission of a patient.
Abstract: This article deals with numerical simulation of the
floor heating convector in 3D. Numerical simulation is focused on
cooling mode of the floor heating convector. Geometrical model
represents section of the heat exchanger – two fins with the gap
between, pipes are not involved. Two types of fin are examined –
sinusoidal and angular shape with different fin spacing. Results of fin
spacing in case of constant Reynolds number are presented. For the
numerical simulation was used commercial software Ansys Fluent.
Abstract: Since Network-on-Chip (NoC) uses network
interfaces (NIs) to improve the design productivity, by now, there
have been a few papers addressing the design and implementation of a
NI module. However, none of them considered the difference of
address encoding methods between NoC and the traditional
bus-shared architecture. On the basis of this difference, in the paper,
we introduce a transmit mechanism to solve such a problem for global
asynchronous locally synchronous (GALS) NoC. Furthermore, we
give the concrete implementation of the NI module in this transmit
mechanism. Finally, we evaluate its performance and area overhead
by a VHDL-based cycle-accurate RTL model and simulation results
confirm the validity of this address-oriented transmit mechanism.
Abstract: The story of Alibaba demonstrates a credible example of how a small start-up company can eventually make it big in the global economy through the Internet. This case study does not attempt to present Alibaba as a perfect formula; rather, it discusses the strategies carried out by the firm and, in the process, culls out the important lessons that can guide start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs in the complex world of online trading. Similar to the interesting and exotic Asian cuisine that continuously evolves from the diversity of Asia-s people and their unique culture and personality, Alibaba has successfully transformed itself over the years, adapting to the changes in and demands of online businessto- business (B2B) commerce.
Abstract: High-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spraying
uses a combustion process to heat the gas flow and coating material.
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to
predict gas dynamic behavior in a HVOF thermal spray gun in which
premixed oxygen and propane are burnt in a combustion chamber
linked to a parallel-sided nozzle. The CFD analysis is applied to
investigate axisymmetric, steady-state, turbulent, compressible,
chemically reacting, subsonic and supersonic flow inside and outside
the gun. The gas velocity, temperature, pressure and Mach number
distributions are presented for various locations inside and outside
the gun. The calculated results show that the most sensitive
parameters affecting the process are fuel-to-oxygen gas ratio and
total gas flow rate. Gas dynamic behavior along the centerline of the
gun depends on both total gas flow rate and fuel-to-oxygen gas ratio.
The numerical simulations show that the axial gas velocity and Mach
number distribution depend on both flow rate and ratio; the highest
velocity is achieved at the higher flow rate and most fuel-rich ratio.
In addition, the results reported in this paper illustrate that the
numerical simulation can be one of the most powerful and beneficial
tools for the HVOF system design, optimization and performance
analysis.
Abstract: A numerical prediction of flow in a tube bank is reported. The flow regimes considered cover a wide range of Reynolds numbers, which range from 380 to 99000 and which are equivalent to a range of inlet velocities from very low (0.072 m/s) to very high (60 m/s). In this study, calculations were made using the standard k-e model with standard wall function. The drag coefficient, skin friction drag, pressure drag, and pressure distribution around a tube were investigated. As the velocity increased, the drag coefficient decreased until the velocity exceeded 45 m/s, after which it increased. Furthermore, the pressure drag and skin friction drag depend on the velocity.
Abstract: The research on two-wheels balancing robot has
gained momentum due to their functionality and reliability when
completing certain tasks. This paper presents investigations into the
performance comparison of Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and
PID-PID controllers for a highly nonlinear 2–wheels balancing robot.
The mathematical model of 2-wheels balancing robot that is highly
nonlinear is derived. The final model is then represented in statespace
form and the system suffers from mismatched condition. Two
system responses namely the robot position and robot angular
position are obtained. The performances of the LQR and PID-PID
controllers are examined in terms of input tracking and disturbances
rejection capability. Simulation results of the responses of the
nonlinear 2–wheels balancing robot are presented in time domain. A
comparative assessment of both control schemes to the system
performance is presented and discussed.
Abstract: To respond to the Kyoto Protocol, the policy of Payment for Environmental Service (PES), which was entitled “Plain Landscape Afforestation Program (PLAP)", was certified by Executive Yuan in Taiwan on 31 August 2001 and has been implementing for six years since 1 January 2002. Although the PLAP has received a lot of positive comments, there are still many difficulties during the process of implementation, such as insufficient technology for afforestation, private landowners- low interests in participating in PLAP, insufficient subsidies, and so on, which are potential threats that hinder the PLAP from moving forward in future. In this paper, selecting Ping-Tung County in Taiwan as a sample region and targeting those private landowners with and without intention to participate in the PLAP, respectively, we conduct an empirical analysis based on the Logit model to investigate the factors that determine whether those private landowners join the PLAP, so as to realize the incentive effects of the PLAP upon the personal decision on afforestation. The possible factors that might determine private landowner-s participation in the PLAP include landowner-s characteristics, cropland characteristics, as well as policy factors. Among them, the policy factors include afforestation subsidy amount (+), duration of afforestation subsidy (+), the rules on adjoining and adjacent areas (+), and so on, which do not reach the remarkable level in statistics though, but the directions of variable signs are consistent with the intuition behind the policy. As for the landowners- characteristics, each of age (+), education level (–), and annual household income (+) variables reaches 10% of the remarkable level in statistics; as for the cropland characteristics, each of cropland area (+), cropland price (–), and the number of cropland parcels (–) reaches 1% of the remarkable level in statistics. In light of the above, the cropland characteristics are the dominate factor that determines the probability of landowner-s participation in the PLAP. In the Logit model established by this paper, the probability of correctly estimating nonparticipants is 98%, the probability of correctly estimating the participants is 71.8%, and the probability for the overall estimation is 95%. In addition, Hosmer-Lemeshow test and omnibus test also revealed that the Logit model in this paper may provide fine goodness of fit and good predictive power in forecasting private landowners- participation in this program. The empirical result of this paper expects to help the implementation of the afforestation programs in Taiwan.
Abstract: Technological newness and innovativeness are
important aspects of small firm development, growth and wealth
creation. The contribution of the study to entrepreneurship
personality research and to technology-related research in
entrepreneurship is that the model of the general personality driven
technological development was developed and empirically tested.
Hypotheses relating the big five personality factors (OCEAN:
openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and
neuroticism) and technological developments were tested by using
multiple regression analysis on survey data from a sample of 160
entrepreneurs from Slovenia. The model reveals two personality
factors, which are predictive of technological developments:
openness (positive impact) and neuroticism (negative impact). In
addition, a positive impact of firm age on technological
developments was found. Other personality factors
(conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness) of entrepreneurs
may not be considered important for their firm technological
developments.
Abstract: A bond graph model of a two degrees of freedom
PUMA is described. System inversion gives the system input
required to generate a given system output. In order to get the system
inversion of the PUMA manipulator, a linearization of the nonlinear
bond graph is obtained. Hence, the bicausality of the linearized bond
graph of the PUMA manipulator is applied. Thus, the bicausal bond
graph provides a systematic way of generating the equations of the
system inversion. Simulation results to verify the calculated input for
a given output are shown.
Abstract: In the context of spectrum surveillance, a method to
recover the code of spread spectrum signal is presented, whereas the
receiver has no knowledge of the transmitter-s spreading sequence.
The approach is based on a genetic algorithm (GA), which is forced to
model the received signal. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are well known
for their robustness in solving complex optimization problems.
Experimental results show that the method provides a good
estimation, even when the signal power is below the noise power.