Abstract: This paper considers the control of the longitudinal
flight dynamics of an F-16 aircraft. The primary design objective
is model-following of the pitch rate q, which is the preferred
system for aircraft approach and landing. Regulation of the aircraft
velocity V (or the Mach-hold autopilot) is also considered, but
as a secondary objective. The problem is challenging because the
system is nonlinear, and also non-affine in the input. A sliding
mode controller is designed for the pitch rate, that exploits the
modal decomposition of the linearized dynamics into its short-period
and phugoid approximations. The inherent robustness of the SMC
design provides a convenient way to design controllers without gain
scheduling, with a steady-state response that is comparable to that
of a conventional polynomial based gain-scheduled approach with
integral control, but with improved transient performance. Integral
action is introduced in the sliding mode design using the recently
developed technique of “conditional integrators", and it is shown that
robust regulation is achieved with asymptotically constant exogenous
signals, without degrading the transient response. Through extensive
simulation on the nonlinear multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
longitudinal model of the F-16 aircraft, it is shown that the conditional
integrator design outperforms the one based on the conventional linear
control, without requiring any scheduling.
Abstract: Solar shading designs are important for reduction of building energy consumption and improvement of indoor thermal environment. This paper carried out a number of building simulations for evaluation of the energy performance of different shading devices based on incremental costs. The results show that movable shading devices lower incremental costs by up to 50% compared with fixed ones for the same building energy efficiency for residential buildings, and wing panel shadings are much more suitable in commercial buildings than baring screen ones and overhangs for commercial buildings.
Abstract: India-s North-Eastern part, comprising of seven states, is a lowly developed, tribal population dominated region in India. Inspite of the common Mongoloid origin and lifestyle of majority of the population residing here, sharp differences exist in the status of their socio-economic development. The present paper, through a state-wise analysis, makes an attempt to find out the extent of this disparity, especially on the socio-economic front. It illustrates the situations prevailing in health, education, economic and social cohesion sector. Discussion on the implications of such disparity on social stability finds that the causes of frequent insurgency activities, that have been penetrating the region for a long time, thereby creating communal conflicts, can be traced in the economic deprivation and disparity. In the last section, the paper makes policy prescription and suggests how by taking care of disparity and deprivation both poverty and the problem of communal conflicts can be controlled.
Abstract: Nowadays, Multimedia Communication has been developed and improved rapidly in order to enable users to communicate between each other over the Internet. In general, the multimedia communication consists of audio and video communication. However, this paper focuses on audio streams. The audio translation between protocols is a very critical issue due to solving the communication problems between any two protocols, as well as it enables people around the world to talk with each other at anywhere and anytime even they use different protocols. In this paper, a proposed method for an audio translation module between two protocols has been presented. These two protocols are InterAsterisk eXchange Protocol (IAX) and Real Time Switching Control Protocol (RSW), which they are widely used to provide two ways audio transfer feature. The result of this work is to introduce possibility of interworking together.
Abstract: Missing data is a persistent problem in almost all
areas of empirical research. The missing data must be treated very
carefully, as data plays a fundamental role in every analysis.
Improper treatment can distort the analysis or generate biased results.
In this paper, we compare and contrast various imputation techniques
on missing data sets and make an empirical evaluation of these
methods so as to construct quality software models. Our empirical
study is based on NASA-s two public dataset. KC4 and KC1. The
actual data sets of 125 cases and 2107 cases respectively, without
any missing values were considered. The data set is used to create
Missing at Random (MAR) data Listwise Deletion(LD), Mean
Substitution(MS), Interpolation, Regression with an error term and
Expectation-Maximization (EM) approaches were used to compare
the effects of the various techniques.
Abstract: In this work, we present an automatic vehicle detection
system for airborne videos using combined features. We propose a
pixel-wise classification method for vehicle detection using Dynamic
Bayesian Networks. In spite of performing pixel-wise classification,
relations among neighboring pixels in a region are preserved in the
feature extraction process. The main novelty of the detection scheme is
that the extracted combined features comprise not only pixel-level
information but also region-level information. Afterwards, tracking is
performed on the detected vehicles. Tracking is performed using
efficient Kalman filter with dynamic particle sampling. Experiments
were conducted on a wide variety of airborne videos. We do not
assume prior information of camera heights, orientation, and target
object sizes in the proposed framework. The results demonstrate
flexibility and good generalization abilities of the proposed method on
a challenging dataset.
Abstract: ZnO nanostructures including nanowires, nanorods,
and nanoneedles were successfully deposited on GaAs substrates,
respectively, by simple two-step chemical method for the first time. A
ZnO seed layer was firstly pre-coated on the O2-plasma treated
substrate by sol-gel process, followed by the nucleation of ZnO
nanostructures through hydrothermal synthesis. Nanostructures with
different average diameter (15-250 nm), length (0.9-1.8 μm), density
(0.9-16×109 cm-2) were obtained via adjusting the growth time and
concentration of precursors. From the reflectivity spectra, we
concluded ordered and taper nanostructures were preferential for
photovoltaic applications. ZnO nanoneedles with an average diameter
of 106 nm, a moderate length of 2.4 μm, and the density of 7.2×109
cm-2 could be synthesized in the concentration of 0.04 M for 18 h.
Integrated with the nanoneedle array, the power conversion efficiency
of single junction solar cell was increased from 7.3 to 12.2%,
corresponding to a 67% improvement.
Abstract: A method is presented for using thermo-mechanical fatigue analysis as a tool in the design of automotive heat exchangers. Use of infra-red thermography to measure the real thermal history in the heat exchanger reduces the time necessary for calculating design parameters and improves prediction accuracy. Thermal shocks are the primary cause of heat exchanger damage. Thermo-mechanical simulation is based on the mean behavior of the aluminum tubes used in the heat exchanger. An energetic fatigue criterion is used to detect critical zones.
Abstract: A new analytical model is developed which provides
close-formed solutions for both transient indoor and envelope
temperature changes in buildings. Time-dependent boundary
temperature is presented as Fourier series which can approximate real
weather conditions. The final close-formed solutions are simple,
concise, and comprehensive. The model was compared with
numerical results and good accuracy was obtained. The model can
be used as design and control guidelines in engineering applications
for analysing mechanical heat transfer properties for buildings.
Abstract: Campus sustainability is the goal of a university striving for sustainable development. This study found that of 17 popular approaches, two comprehensive campus sustainability assessment frameworks were developed in the context of Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE), and used by many university campuses around the world. Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating Systems (STARS) and the Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) approaches are more comprehensive than others. Therefore, the researchers examined aspects and elements used by CSAF and STARS in the approach to develop a campus sustainability assessment framework for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Documents analysis found that CSAF and STARS do not focus on physical development, especially the construction industry, as key elements of campus sustainability assessment. This finding is in accordance with the Sustainable UKM Programme which consists of three main components of sustainable community, ecosystem and physical development.
Abstract: Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm is a relatively new swarm intelligence technique for clustering. It produces higher
quality clusters compared to other population-based algorithms but with poor energy efficiency, cluster quality consistency and typically slower in convergence speed. Inspired by energy saving foraging behavior of natural honey bees this paper presents a Quality and Quantity Aware Artificial Bee Colony (Q2ABC) algorithm to improve quality of cluster identification, energy efficiency and convergence speed of the original ABC. To evaluate the performance of Q2ABC algorithm, experiments were conducted on a suite of ten benchmark UCI datasets. The results demonstrate Q2ABC outperformed ABC and K-means algorithm in the quality of clusters delivered.
Abstract: This work aims to describe the process of developing
services and applications of seamless communication within a
Telecom Italia long-term research project, which takes as central aim
the design of a wearable communication device. In particular, the
objective was to design a wrist phone integrated into everyday life of
people in full transparency. The methodology used to design the
wristwatch was developed through several subsequent steps also
involving the Personas Layering Framework. The data collected in
this phases have been very useful for designing an improved version
of the first two concepts of wrist phone going to change aspects
related to the four critical points expressed by the users.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to study in depth some methodological aspects of social interventation, focusing on desirable passage from social maternage method to peer advocacy method. For this purpose, we intend analyze social and organizative components, that affect operator's professional action and that are part of his psychological environment, besides the physical and social one. In fact, operator's interventation should not be limited to a pure supply of techniques, nor to take shape as improvised action, but “full of good purposes".
Abstract: Buyer coalition with a combination of items is a group of buyers joining together to purchase a combination of items with a larger discount. The primary aim of existing buyer coalition with a combination of items research is to generate a large total discount. However, the aim is hard to achieve because this research is based on the assumption that each buyer completely knows other buyers- information or at least one buyer knows other buyers- information in a coalition by exchange of information. These assumption contrast with the real world environment where buyers join a coalition with incomplete information, i.e., they concerned only with their expected discounts. Therefore, this paper proposes a new buyer community coalition formation with a combination of items scheme, called the Community Compromised Combinatorial Coalition scheme, under such an environment of incomplete information. In order to generate a larger total discount, after buyers who want to join a coalition propose their minimum required saving, a coalition structure that gives a maximum total retail prices is formed. Then, the total discount division of the coalition is divided among buyers in the coalition depending on their minimum required saving and is a Pareto optimal. In mathematical analysis, we compare concepts of this scheme with concepts of the existing buyer coalition scheme. Our mathematical analysis results show that the total discount of the coalition in this scheme is larger than that in the existing buyer coalition scheme.
Abstract: Green supply chain management is an increasingly recognized practice among companies that are seeking to improve environmental performance. Of particular concern is how to arouse organizational awareness and put green activities into practice in
order to enhance manufacturing performances. This paper investigates the correlation of green supply chain practices and
manufacturing performances in Malaysian certified MS ISO 14000 manufacturing firms. The findings shows that green supply chain
practices which that can be denominated product recycling, environmental compliance and optimization have significant influence to some of the manufacturing performances.
Abstract: The advances in multimedia and networking technologies
have created opportunities for Internet pirates, who can easily
copy multimedia contents and illegally distribute them on the Internet,
thus violating the legal rights of content owners. This paper describes
how a simple and well-known watermarking procedure based on a
spread spectrum method and a watermark recovery by correlation can
be improved to effectively and adaptively protect MPEG-2 videos
distributed on the Internet. In fact, the procedure, in its simplest
form, is vulnerable to a variety of attacks. However, its security
and robustness have been increased, and its behavior has been
made adaptive with respect to the video terminals used to open
the videos and the network transactions carried out to deliver them
to buyers. In fact, such an adaptive behavior enables the proposed
procedure to efficiently embed watermarks, and this characteristic
makes the procedure well suited to be exploited in web contexts,
where watermarks usually generated from fingerprinting codes have
to be inserted into the distributed videos “on the fly", i.e. during the
purchase web transactions.
Abstract: Text data mining is a process of exploratory data
analysis. Classification maps data into predefined groups or classes.
It is often referred to as supervised learning because the classes are
determined before examining the data. This paper describes proposed
radial basis function Classifier that performs comparative crossvalidation
for existing radial basis function Classifier. The feasibility
and the benefits of the proposed approach are demonstrated by means
of data mining problem: direct Marketing. Direct marketing has
become an important application field of data mining. Comparative
Cross-validation involves estimation of accuracy by either stratified
k-fold cross-validation or equivalent repeated random subsampling.
While the proposed method may have high bias; its performance
(accuracy estimation in our case) may be poor due to high variance.
Thus the accuracy with proposed radial basis function Classifier was
less than with the existing radial basis function Classifier. However
there is smaller the improvement in runtime and larger improvement
in precision and recall. In the proposed method Classification
accuracy and prediction accuracy are determined where the
prediction accuracy is comparatively high.
Abstract: Mobile learning (M-learning) is the current technology that is becoming more popular. It uses the current mobile and wireless computing technology to complement the effectiveness of traditional learning process. The objective of this paper is presents a survey from 90 undergraduate students of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), to identify the students- perception on Mlearning. From the results, the students are willing to use M-learning. The acceptance level of the students is high, and the results obtained revealed that the respondents almost accept M-learning as one method of teaching and learning process and also able to improve the educational efficiency by complementing traditional learning in UTP.
Abstract: An active suspension system has been proposed to
improve the ride comfort. A quarter-car 2 degree-of-freedom (DOF)
system is designed and constructed on the basis of the concept of a
four-wheel independent suspension to simulate the actions of an
active vehicle suspension system. The purpose of a suspension
system is to support the vehicle body and increase ride comfort. The
aim of the work described in the paper was to illustrate the
application of fuzzy logic technique to the control of a continuously
damping automotive suspension system. The ride comfort is
improved by means of the reduction of the body acceleration caused
by the car body when road disturbances from smooth road and real
road roughness.
The paper describes also the model and controller used in the
study and discusses the vehicle response results obtained from a
range of road input simulations. In the conclusion, a comparison of
active suspension fuzzy control and Proportional Integration
derivative (PID) control is shown using MATLAB simulations.
Abstract: The abundance and availability of rice husk, an agricultural waste, make them as a good source for precursor of activated carbon. In this work, rice husk-based activated carbons were prepared via base treated chemical activation process prior the carbonization process. The effect of carbonization temperatures (400, 600 and 800oC) on their pore structure was evaluated through morphology analysis using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Sample carbonized at 800oC showed better evolution and development of pores as compared to those carbonized at 400 and 600oC. The potential of rice husk-based activated carbon as an alternative adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Ni(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II) from single metal aqueous solution. The adsorption studies using rice husk-based activated carbon as an adsorbent were carried out as a function of contact time at room temperature and the metal ions were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The ability to remove metal ion from single metal aqueous solution was found to be improved with the increasing of carbonization temperature. Among the three metal ions tested, Pb(II) ion gave the highest adsorption on rice husk-based activated carbon. The results obtained indicate the potential to utilize rice husk as a promising precursor for the preparation of activated carbon for removal of heavy metals.