Abstract: Iran has several potential for using renewable
energies, so use them could significantly contribute to energy supply.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the potential of the country
and select the appropriate DG technologies with consideration the
potential and primary energy resources in the regions. In this context,
hybrid energy systems proportionate with the potential of different
regions will be determined based on technical, economic, and
environmental aspect. In the following the proposed structure will be
optimized in terms of size and cost. DG technologies used in this
project include photovoltaic system, wind turbine, diesel generator
and battery bank. The HOMER software is applied for choosing the
appropriate structure and the optimization of system sizing. The
results have been analyzed in terms of technical and economic. The
performance and the cost of each project demonstrate the appropriate
structure of hybrid energy system in that region.
Abstract: The present paper summarizes the analysis of the
request for consultation of information and data on industrial
emissions made publicly available on the web site of the Ministry of
Environment, Land and Sea on integrated pollution prevention and
control from large industrial installations, the so called “AIA Portal”.
As a matter of fact, a huge amount of information on national
industrial plants is already available on internet, although it is usually
proposed as textual documentation or images.
Thus, it is not possible to access all the relevant information
through interoperability systems and also to retrieval relevant
information for decision making purposes as well as rising of
awareness on environmental issue.
Moreover, since in Italy the number of institutional and private
subjects involved in the management of the public information on
industrial emissions is substantial, the access to the information is
provided on internet web sites according to different criteria; thus, at
present it is not structurally homogeneous and comparable.
To overcome the mentioned difficulties in the case of the
Coordinating Committee for the implementation of the Agreement
for the industrial area in Taranto and Statte, operating before the
IPPC permit granting procedures of the relevant installation located
in the area, a big effort was devoted to elaborate and to validate data
and information on characterization of soil, ground water aquifer and
coastal sea at disposal of different subjects to derive a global
perspective for decision making purposes. Thus, the present paper
also focuses on main outcomes matured during such experience.
Abstract: An analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of
magnetic field and heat source on the steady boundary layer flow and
heat transfer of a Casson nanofluid over a vertical cylinder stretching
exponentially along its radial direction. Using a similarity
transformation, the governing mathematical equations, with the
boundary conditions are reduced to a system of coupled, non –linear
ordinary differential equations. The resulting system is solved
numerically by the fourth order Runge – Kutta scheme with shooting
technique. The influence of various physical parameters such as
Reynolds number, Prandtl number, magnetic field, Brownian motion
parameter, thermophoresis parameter, Lewis number and the natural
convection parameter are presented graphically and discussed for non
– dimensional velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume
fraction. Numerical data for the skin – friction coefficient, local
Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number have been tabulated
for various parametric conditions. It is found that the local Nusselt
number is a decreasing function of Brownian motion parameter Nb
and the thermophoresis parameter Nt.
Abstract: In this paper we describe one critical research
program within a complex, ongoing multi-year project (2010 to 2014
inclusive) with the overall goal to improve the learning outcomes for
first year undergraduate commerce/business students within an
Information Systems (IS) subject with very large enrolment. The
single research program described in this paper is the analysis of
student attitudes and decision making in relation to the availability of
formative assessment feedback via Web-based real time conferencing
and document exchange software (Adobe Connect). The formative
assessment feedback between teaching staff and students is in respect
of an authentic problem-based, team-completed assignment. The
analysis of student attitudes and decision making is investigated via
both qualitative (firstly) and quantitative (secondly) application of the
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with a two statistically-significant
and separate trial samples of the enrolled students. The initial
qualitative TPB investigation revealed that perceived self-efficacy,
improved time-management, and lecturer-student relationship
building were the major factors in shaping an overall favorable
student attitude to online feedback, whilst some students expressed
valid concerns with perceived control limitations identified within the
online feedback protocols. The subsequent quantitative TPB
investigation then confirmed that attitude towards usage, subjective
norms surrounding usage, and perceived behavioral control of usage
were all significant in shaping student intention to use the online
feedback protocol, with these three variables explaining 63 percent of
the variance in the behavioral intention to use the online feedback
protocol. The identification in this research of perceived behavioral
control as a significant determinant in student usage of a specific
technology component within a virtual learning environment (VLE)
suggests that VLEs could now be viewed not as a single, atomic
entity, but as a spectrum of technology offerings ranging from the
mature and simple (e.g., email, Web downloads) to the cutting-edge
and challenging (e.g., Web conferencing and real-time document
exchange). That is, that all VLEs should not be considered the same.
The results of this research suggest that tertiary students have the
technological sophistication to assess a VLE in this more selective
manner.
Abstract: Collaborative technologies or software known as
groupware are key enabling tools for communication, collaboration
and co-ordination among individuals, work groups and businesses.
Available reviews of the groupware literature are very few,
and mostly neither systematic nor recent.
This paper is an effort to fill this gap, and to provide researchers,
with a more up-to-date and wide systematic literature review. For this
purpose, 1087 scholarly articles, published from 1990 to 2013, on the
topic of groupware, were collected by the literature search. The study
here adopted the systematic approach of lexical analysis for the
analysis of those articles.
Abstract: Verification and Validation of Simulated Process
Model is the most important phase of the simulator life cycle.
Evaluation of simulated process models based on Verification and
Validation techniques checks the closeness of each component model
(in a simulated network) with the real system/process with respect to
dynamic behaviour under steady state and transient conditions. The
process of Verification and Validation helps in qualifying the process
simulator for the intended purpose whether it is for providing
comprehensive training or design verification. In general, model
verification is carried out by comparison of simulated component
characteristics with the original requirement to ensure that each step
in the model development process completely incorporates all the
design requirements. Validation testing is performed by comparing
the simulated process parameters to the actual plant process
parameters either in standalone mode or integrated mode.
A Full Scope Replica Operator Training Simulator for PFBR -
Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor has been developed at IGCAR,
Kalpakkam, INDIA named KALBR-SIM (Kalpakkam Breeder
Reactor Simulator) where in the main participants are
engineers/experts belonging to Modeling Team, Process Design and
Instrumentation & Control design team. This paper discusses about
the Verification and Validation process in general, the evaluation
procedure adopted for PFBR operator training Simulator, the
methodology followed for verifying the models, the reference
documents and standards used etc. It details out the importance of
internal validation by design experts, subsequent validation by
external agency consisting of experts from various fields, model
improvement by tuning based on expert’s comments, final
qualification of the simulator for the intended purpose and the
difficulties faced while co-coordinating various activities.
Abstract: This study is concerned with the optimization of
fermentation parameters for the hyper production of mannanase from
Fusarium oxysporum SS-25 employing two step statistical strategy
and kinetic characterization of crude enzyme preparation. The
Plackett-Burman design used to screen out the important factors in
the culture medium revealed 20% (w/w) wheat bran, 2% (w/w) each
of potato peels, soyabean meal and malt extract, 1% tryptone, 0.14%
NH4SO4, 0.2% KH2PO4, 0.0002% ZnSO4, 0.0005% FeSO4, 0.01%
MnSO4, 0.012% SDS, 0.03% NH4Cl, 0.1% NaNO3 in brewer’s spent
grain based medium with 50% moisture content, inoculated with
2.8×107 spores and incubated at 30oC for 6 days to be the main
parameters influencing the enzyme production. Of these factors, four
variables including soyabean meal, FeSO4, MnSO4 and NaNO3 were
chosen to study the interactive effects and their optimum levels in
central composite design of response surface methodology with the
final mannanase yield of 193 IU/gds. The kinetic characterization
revealed the crude enzyme to be active over broader temperature and
pH range. This could result in 26.6% reduction in kappa number with
4.93% higher tear index and 1% increase in brightness when used to
treat the wheat straw based kraft pulp. The hydrolytic potential of
enzyme was also demonstrated on both locust bean gum and guar
gum.
Abstract: Advanced head and neck cancers are aggressive
tumours, which require aggressive treatment. Treatment efficiency is
often hindered by cancer cell repopulation during radiotherapy,
which is due to various mechanisms triggered by the loss of tumour
cells and involves both stem and differentiated cells. The aim of the
current paper is to present in silico simulations of radiotherapy
schedules on a virtual head and neck tumour grown with biologically
realistic kinetic parameters. Using the linear quadratic formalism of
cell survival after radiotherapy, altered fractionation schedules
employing various treatment breaks for normal tissue recovery are
simulated and repopulation mechanism implemented in order to
evaluate the impact of various cancer cell contribution on tumour
behaviour during irradiation. The model has shown that the timing of
treatment breaks is an important factor influencing tumour control in
rapidly proliferating tissues such as squamous cell carcinomas of the
head and neck. Furthermore, not only stem cells but also
differentiated cells, via the mechanism of abortive division, can
contribute to malignant cell repopulation during treatment.
Abstract: This study attempts to elicit the perceptions and
attitudes of EFL learners of the Preparatory Year Program at KSU
towards dialogue journal writing as an EFL learning strategy. The
descriptive research design used incorporated both qualitative and
quantitative instruments to accomplish the objectives of the study. A
learners’ attitude questionnaire and follow-up interviewswith learners
from a randomly selected representative sample of the participants
were employed. The participants were 55 female Saudi university
students in the Preparatory Year Program at King Saud University.
The analysis of the results indicated that the PYP learners had highly
positive attitudes towards dialogue journal writing in their EFL
classes and positive perceptions of the benefits of the use of dialogue
journal writing as an EFL learning strategy. The results also revealed
that dialogue journals are considered an effective EFL learning
strategy since they fulfill various needs for both learners and
instructors. Interestingly, the analysis of the results also revealed that
Saudi university level students tend to write about personal topics in
their dialogue journals more than academic ones.
Abstract: The emerging Cognitive Radio is combo of both the
technologies i.e. Radio dynamics and software technology. It involve
wireless system with efficient coding, designing, and making them
artificial intelligent to take the decision according to the surrounding
environment and adopt themselves accordingly, so as to deliver the
best QoS. This is the breakthrough from fixed hardware and fixed
utilization of the spectrum. This software-defined approach of
research is centralized at user-definition and application driven
model, various software method are used for the optimization of the
wireless communication. This paper focused on the Spectrum
allocation technique using genetic algorithm GA to evolve radio,
represented by chromosomes. The chromosomes gene represents the
adjustable parameters in given radio and by using GA, evolving over
the generations, the optimized set of parameters are evolved, as per
the requirement of user and availability of the spectrum, in our
prototype the gene consist of 6 different parameters, and the best set
of parameters are evolved according to the application need and
availability of the spectrum holes and thus maintaining best QoS for
user, simultaneously maintaining licensed user rights. The analyzing
tool Matlab is used for the performance of the prototype.
Abstract: Different tools and technologies were implemented
for Crisis Response and Management (CRM) which is generally
using available network infrastructure for information exchange.
Depending on type of disaster or crisis, network infrastructure could
be affected and it could not be able to provide reliable connectivity.
Thus any tool or technology that depends on the connectivity could
not be able to fulfill its functionalities. As a solution, a new message
exchange framework has been developed. Framework provides
offline/online information exchange platform for CRM Information
Systems (CRMIS) and it uses XML compression and packet
prioritization algorithms and is based on open source web
technologies. By introducing offline capabilities to the web
technologies, framework will be able to perform message exchange
on unreliable networks. The experiments done on the simulation
environment provide promising results on low bandwidth networks
(56kbps and 28.8 kbps) with up to 50% packet loss and the solution is
to successfully transfer all the information on these low quality
networks where the traditional 2 and 3 tier applications failed.
Abstract: Managing and improving efficiency in the current
highly competitive global automotive industry demands that those
companies adopt leaner and more flexible systems. During the past
20 years the domestic automotive industry in North America has been
focusing on establishing new management strategies in order to meet
market demands. The lean management process also known as
Toyota Manufacturing Process (TPS) or lean manufacturing
encompasses tools and techniques that were established in order to
provide the best quality product with the fastest lead time at the
lowest cost. The following paper presents a study that focused on
improving labor efficiency at one of the Big Three (Ford, GM,
Chrysler LLC) domestic automotive facility in North America. The
objective of the study was to utilize several lean management tools in
order to optimize the efficiency and utilization levels at the “Pre-
Marriage” chassis area in a truck manufacturing and assembly
facility. Utilizing three different lean tools (i.e. Standardization of
work, 7 Wastes, and 5S) this research was able to improve efficiency
by 51%, utilization by 246%, and reduce operations by 14%. The
return on investment calculated based on the improvements made
was 284%.
Abstract: This paper presents modeling of an Alternating
Current (AC) Photovoltaic (PV) module using Matlab/Simulink. The
proposed AC-PV module model is simple, realistic, and application
oriented. The model is derived on module level as compared to cell
level directly from the information provided by the manufacturer data
sheet. DC-PV module, MPPT control, BC, VSI and LC filter, all
were treated as a single unit. The model accounts for changes in
variations of both irradiance and temperature. The AC-PV module
proposed model is simulated and the results are compared with the
datasheet projected numbers to validate model’s accuracy and
effectiveness. Implementation and results demonstrate simplicity and
accuracy, as well as reliability of the model.
Abstract: Fast changing knowledge systems on the Internet can
be accessed more efficiently with the help of automatic document
summarization and updating techniques. The aim of multi-document
update summary generation is to construct a summary unfolding the
mainstream of data from a collection of documents based on the
hypothesis that the user has already read a set of previous documents.
In order to provide a lot of semantic information from the documents,
deeper linguistic or semantic analysis of the source documents were
used instead of relying only on document word frequencies to select
important concepts. In order to produce a responsive summary,
meaning oriented structural analysis is needed. To address this issue,
the proposed system presents a document summarization approach
based on sentence annotation with aspects, prepositions and named
entities. Semantic element extraction strategy is used to select
important concepts from documents which are used to generate
enhanced semantic summary.
Abstract: A Motzkin shift is a mathematical model for constraints
on genetic sequences. In terms of the theory of symbolic dynamics,
the Motzkin shift is nonsofic, and therefore, we cannot use the Perron-
Frobenius theory to calculate its topological entropy. The Motzkin
shift M(M,N) which comes from language theory, is defined to be the
shift system over an alphabet A that consists of N negative symbols,
N positive symbols and M neutral symbols. For an x in the full shift,
x will be in the Motzkin subshift M(M,N) if and only if every finite
block appearing in x has a non-zero reduced form. Therefore, the
constraint for x cannot be bounded in length. K. Inoue has shown that
the entropy of the Motzkin shift M(M,N) is log(M + N + 1). In this
paper, a new direct method of calculating the topological entropy of
the Motzkin shift is given without any measure theoretical discussion.
Abstract: In the present work, the alloy of Bismuth-lead is
prepared on the basis of percentage of molecular weight 9:1, 5:5 and
1:9 ratios and grown by Zone- Refining Technique under a vacuum
atmosphere. The EDAX of these samples are done and the results are
reported. Micro hardness test has been used as an alternative test for
measuring material’s tensile properties. The effect of temperature and
load on the hardness of the grown alloy has been studied. Further the
comparative studies of work hardening coefficients are reported.
Abstract: Construction cost estimation is one of the most
important aspects of construction project design. For generations, the
process of cost estimating has been manual, time-consuming and
error-prone. This has partly led to most cost estimates to be unclear
and riddled with inaccuracies that at times lead to over- or underestimation
of construction cost. The development of standard set of
measurement rules that are understandable by all those involved in a
construction project, have not totally solved the challenges. Emerging
Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies can exploit
standard measurement methods to automate cost estimation process
and improve accuracies. This requires standard measurement
methods to be structured in ontological and machine readable format;
so that BIM software packages can easily read them. Most standard
measurement methods are still text-based in textbooks and require
manual editing into tables or Spreadsheet during cost estimation. The
aim of this study is to explore the development of an ontology based
on New Rules of Measurement (NRM) commonly used in the UK for
cost estimation. The methodology adopted is Methontology, one of
the most widely used ontology engineering methodologies. The
challenges in this exploratory study are also reported and
recommendations for future studies proposed.
Abstract: The increasing demand of gallium, indium and
rare-earth elements for the production of electronics, e.g. solid
state-lighting, photovoltaics, integrated circuits, and liquid crystal
displays, will exceed the world-wide supply according to current
forecasts. Recycling systems to reclaim these materials are not yet in
place, which challenges the sustainability of these technologies. This
paper proposes a multispectral imaging system as a basis for a vision
based recognition system for valuable components of electronics
waste. Multispectral images intend to enhance the contrast of images
of printed circuit boards (single components, as well as labels) for
further analysis, such as optical character recognition and entire
printed circuit board recognition. The results show, that a higher
contrast is achieved in the near infrared compared to ultraviolett and
visible light.
Abstract: The present work aims to throw light on the effects of
arcing in air on the surface state of contact pastilles made of silvernickel
Ag-Ni (60/40). Also, the photoelectric emission from these
electrical contacts has been investigated in the spectral range of 196-
256 nm. In order to study the effects of arcing on the EWF, the
metallic samples were subjected to electrical arcs in air, at
atmospheric pressure and room temperature, after that, they have
been introduced into the vacuum chamber of an experimental UHV
set-up for EWF measurements. Both Fowler method of isothermal
curves and linearized Fowler plots were used for the measurement of
the EWF by the photoelectric effect.
It has been found that the EWF varies with the number of applied
arcs. Thus, after 500 arcs in air, the observed EWF increasing is
probably due to progressive inclusion of oxide on alloy surface.
Microscopic examination is necessary to get better understandings on
EWF of silver alloys, for both virgin and arced electrical contacts.
Abstract: This study is used as a definition method to the value
and function in manufacturing sector. In concurrence of discussion
about present condition of modeling method, until now definition of
1D-CAE is ambiguity and not conceptual. Across all the physic fields,
those methods are defined with the formulation of differential
algebraic equation which only applied time derivation and simulation.
At the same time, we propose semi-acausal modeling concept and
differential algebraic equation method as a newly modeling method
which the efficiency has been verified through the comparison of
numerical analysis result between the semi-acausal modeling
calculation and FEM theory calculation.