Abstract: A large amount of data is typically stored in relational
databases (DB). The latter can efficiently handle user queries which
intend to elicit the appropriate information from data sources.
However, direct access and use of this data requires the end users to
have an adequate technical background, while they should also cope
with the internal data structure and values presented. Consequently
the information retrieval is a quite difficult process even for IT or DB
experts, taking into account the limited contributions of relational
databases from the conceptual point of view. Ontologies enable users
to formally describe a domain of knowledge in terms of concepts and
relations among them and hence they can be used for unambiguously
specifying the information captured by the relational database.
However, accessing information residing in a database using
ontologies is feasible, provided that the users are keen on using
semantic web technologies. For enabling users form different
disciplines to retrieve the appropriate data, the design of a Graphical
User Interface is necessary. In this work, we will present an
interactive, ontology-based, semantically enable web tool that can be
used for information retrieval purposes. The tool is totally based on
the ontological representation of underlying database schema while it
provides a user friendly environment through which the users can
graphically form and execute their queries.
Abstract: Environmental impact assessment techniques have
been developed as a result of the worldwide efforts to reduce the
environmental impact of global warming. By using the quantification
method in the construction industry, it is now possible to manage the
greenhouse gas is to systematically evaluate the impact on the
environment over the entire construction process. In particular, the
proportion of greenhouse gas emissions at the production stage of
construction material occupied is high, and efforts are needed in
particular in the construction field.
In this research, intended for concrete products for the construction
materials, by using the LCA method, we compared the results of
environmental impact assessment and carbon emissions of developing
products that have been applied low-carbon technologies compared to
existing products. As a results, by introducing a raw material of
industrial waste, showed carbon reduction. Through a comparison of
the carbon emission reduction effect of low carbon technologies, it is
intended to provide academic data for the evaluation of greenhouse
gases in the construction sector and the development of low carbon
technologies of the future.
Abstract: It is important to take security measures to protect
your computer information, reduce identify theft, and prevent from
malicious cyber-attacks. With cyber-attacks on the continuous rise,
people need to understand and learn ways to prevent from these
attacks. Cyber-attack is an important factor to be considered if one is
to be able to protect oneself from malicious attacks. Without proper
security measures, most computer technology would hinder home
users more than such technologies would help. Knowledge of how
cyber-attacks operate and protective steps that can be taken to reduce
chances of its occurrence are key to increasing these security
measures. The purpose of this paper is to inform home users on the
importance of identifying and taking preventive steps to avoid cyberattacks.
Throughout this paper, many aspects of cyber-attacks will be
discuss: what a cyber-attack is, the affects of cyber-attack for home
users, different types of cyber-attacks, methodology to prevent such
attacks; home users can take to fortify security of their computer.
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 use of technology in the classroom is an issue that
is constantly evolving. Digital age students learn differently than their
teachers did, so now the teacher should be constantly evolving their
methods and teaching techniques to be more in touch with the
student. In this paper a case study presents how were used some of
these technologies by accompanying a classroom course, this in order
to provide students with a different and innovative experience as their
teacher usually presented the activities to develop. As students
worked in the various activities, they increased their digital skills by
employing unknown tools that helped them in their professional
training. The twenty-first century teacher should consider the use of
Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom
thinking in skills that students of the digital age should possess. It
also takes a brief look at the history of distance education and it is
also highlighted the importance of integrating technology as part of
the student's training.
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: 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: 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: This article is to review and understand the new
generation of students to understand their expectations and attitudes.
There are a group of students on school projects, creative work,
educational software and digital signal source, the use of social
networking tools to communicate with friends and a part in the
competition. Today's students have been described as the new
millennium students. They use information and communication
technology in a more creative and innovative at home than at school,
because the information and communication technologies for
different purposes, in the home, usually occur in school. They
collaborate and communicate more effectively when they are at
home. Most children enter school, they will bring about how to use
information and communication technologies, some basic skills and
some tips on how to use information and communication technology
will provide a more advanced than most of the school's expectations.
Many teachers can help students, however, still a lot of work,
"tradition", without a computer, and did not see the "new social
computing networks describe young people to learn and new ways of
working life in the future", in the education system of the benefits of
using a computer.
Abstract: Negative pressure phenomenon appears in many
thermodynamic, geophysical and biophysical processes in the Nature
and technological systems. For more than 100 years of the laboratory
researches beginning from F. M. Donny’s tests, the great values of
negative pressure have been achieved. But this phenomenon has not
been practically applied, being only a nice lab toy due to the special
demands for the purity and homogeneity of the liquids for its
appearance. The possibility of creation of direct wave of negative
pressure in real heterogeneous liquid systems was confirmed
experimentally under the certain kinetic and hydraulic conditions.
The negative pressure can be considered as the factor of both useful
and destroying energies. The new approach to generation of the
negative pressure waves in impure, unclean fluids has allowed the
creation of principally new energy saving technologies and
installations to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of different
production processes. It was proved that the negative pressure is one
of the main factors causing hard troubles in some technological and
natural processes. Received results emphasize the necessity to take
into account the role of the negative pressure as an energy factor in
evaluation of many transient thermohydrodynamic processes in the
Nature and production systems.
Abstract: Composite materials, due to their unique properties
such as high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and impact
resistance have huge potential as structural materials in automotive,
construction and transportation applications. However, these
properties often come at higher cost owing to complex design
methods, difficult manufacturing processes and raw material cost.
Traditionally, tapered laminated composite structures are
manufactured using autoclave manufacturing process by ply drop off
technique. Autoclave manufacturing though very powerful suffers
from high capital investment and higher energy consumption. As per
the current trends in composite manufacturing, Out of Autoclave
(OoA) processes are looked as emerging technologies for
manufacturing the structural composite components for aerospace
and defense applications. However, there is a need for improvement
among these processes to make them reliable and consistent. In this
paper, feasibility of using out of autoclave process to manufacture the
variable thickness cantilever beam is discussed. The minimum weight
design for the composite beam is obtained using constant stress beam
concept by tailoring the thickness of the beam. Ply drop off
techniques was used to fabricate the variable thickness beam from
glass/epoxy prepregs. Experiments were conducted to measure
bending stresses along the span of the cantilever beam at different
intervals by applying the concentrated load at the free end.
Experimental results showed that the stresses in the bean at different
intervals were constant. This proves the ability of OoA process to
manufacture the constant stress beam. Finite element model for the
constant stress beam was developed using commercial finite element
simulation software. It was observed that the simulation results
agreed very well with the experimental results and thus validated
design and manufacturing approach used.
Abstract: Batteries of electric vehicles (BEV) are becoming
more attractive with the advancement of new battery technologies
and promotion of electric vehicles. BEV batteries are recharged on
board vehicles using either the grid (G2V for Grid to Vehicle) or
renewable energies in a stand-alone application (H2V for Home to
Vehicle). This paper deals with the modeling, sizing and control of a
photovoltaic stand-alone application that can charge the BEV at
home. The modeling approach and developed mathematical models
describing the system components are detailed. Simulation and
experimental results are presented and commented.
Abstract: This paper presents analysis and design of a wideband
Wilkinson power divider for wireless applications. The design is
accomplished by transforming the lengths and impedances of the
quarter wavelength sections of the conventional Wilkinson power
divider into U-shaped sections. The designed power divider is
simulated by using ADS Agilent technologies and CST microwave
studio software. It is shown that the proposed power divider has
simple topology and good performances in terms of insertion loss,
port matching and isolation at all operating frequencies (1.8 GHz,
2.45 GHz and 3.55 GHz).
Abstract: Vertical Handover(VHO) among different
communication technologies ensuring uninterruption and service
continuity is one of the most important performance parameter in
Heterogenous networks environment. In an integrated Universal
Mobile Telecommunicatin System(UMTS) and Wireless Local
Area Network(WLAN), WLAN is given an inherent priority over
UMTS because of its high data rates with low cost. Therefore
mobile users want to be associated with WLAN maximum of the
time while roaming, to enjoy best possible services with low cost.
That encourages reduction of number of VHO. In this work the
reduction of number of VHO with respect to varying number of
WLAN Access Points(APs) in an integrated UMTS and WLAN
network is investigated through simulation to provide best possible
cost effective service to the users. The simulation has been carried
out for an area (7800 × 9006)m2 where COST-231 Hata model
and 3GPP (TR 101 112 V 3.1.0) specified models are used for
WLAN and UMTS path loss models respectively. The handover
decision is triggered based on the received signal level as compared
to the fade margin. Fade margin gives a probabilistic measure of
the reliability of the communication link. A relationship between
number of WLAN APs and the number of VHO is also established
in this work.
Abstract: With a long history, dual-task has become one of the
most intriguing research fields regarding human brain functioning
and cognition. However, findings considering effects of taskinterrelations
are limited (especially, in combined motor and
cognitive tasks). Therefore, we aimed at developing a measurement
system in order to analyse interrelation effects of cognitive and motor
tasks. On the one hand, the present study demonstrates the
applicability of the measurement system and on the other hand first
results regarding a systematisation of different task combinations are
shown. Future investigations should combine imagine technologies
and this developed measurement system.
Abstract: Science and technology has a major impact on many
societal domains such as communication, medicine, food,
transportation, etc. However, this dominance of modern technology
can have a negative unintended impact on indigenous systems, and in
particular on indigenous foods. This problem serves as a motivation
to this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of learners on
the usefulness of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for learning about indigenous foods. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. The design and
identification of theories and models will be achieved using literature
content analysis. The objective on the empirical testing of such
theories and models will be achieved through the survey of
Hospitality studies learners from different schools in the iLembe and
Umgungundlovu Districts of the South African Kwazulu-Natal
province. SPSS is used to quantitatively analyze the data collected by
the questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and
Pearson correlations after the assessment of the validity and the
reliability of the data. The main hypothesis behind this study is that
there is a connection between the demographics of learners, their
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods, and the following personality and eLearning related theories
constructs: Computer self-efficacy, Trust in ICT systems, and
Conscientiousness; as suggested by existing studies on learning
theories. This hypothesis was fully confirmed by the survey
conducted by this study except for the demographic factors where
gender and age were not found to be determinant factors of learners’
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods.
Abstract: In this paper a new design of a broadband microwave
power limiter is presented and validated into simulation by using
ADS software (Advanced Design System) from Agilent technologies.
The final circuit is built on microstrip lines by using identical Zero
Bias Schottky diodes. The power limiter is designed by Associating 3
stages Schottky diodes. The obtained simulation results permit to
validate this circuit with a threshold input power level of 0 dBm until
a maximum input power of 30 dBm.
Abstract: The demand of high quality services has fueled
dimensional research and development in wireless communications
and networking. As a result, different wireless technologies like
Wireless LAN, CDMA, GSM, UMTS, MANET, Bluetooth and
satellite networks etc. have emerged in the last two decades. Future
networks capable of carrying multimedia traffic need IP convergence,
portability, seamless roaming and scalability among the existing
networking technologies without changing the core part of the
existing communications networks. To fulfill these goals, the present
networking systems are required to work in cooperation to ensure
technological independence, seamless roaming, high security and
authentication, guaranteed Quality of Services (QoS). In this paper, a
conceptual framework for a cooperative network (CN) is proposed
for integration of heterogeneous existing networks to meet out the
requirements of the next generation wireless networks.