Abstract: Light rail systems have proliferated in Spain in the last decade, following a tendency that is common not only in other European countries but also in other parts of the world. This paper reviews the benefits of light rail systems, both related to environmental issues and mobility issues. It analyses the evolution of light rail projects in Spain and shows that light rail systems in this country have evolved towards an extensive use of public-private partnerships. The analysis of the Spanish projects, however, does not contribute any conclusive evidence about whether public-private partnerships have been more efficient than publicly owned enterprises in building and operating light rail systems.
Abstract: An approach of design of stable of control systems with ultimately wide ranges of uncertainly disturbed parameters is offered. The method relies on using of nonlinear structurally stable functions from catastrophe theory as controllers. Theoretical part presents an analysis of designed nonlinear second-order control systems. As more important the integrators in series, canonical controllable form and Jordan forms are considered. The analysis resumes that due to added controllers systems become stable and insensitive to any disturbance of parameters. Experimental part presents MATLAB simulation of design of control systems of epidemic spread, aircrafts angular motion and submarine depth. The results of simulation confirm the efficiency of offered method of design. KeywordsCatastrophes, robust control, simulation, uncertain parameters.
Abstract: Authentication plays a vital role in many secure
systems. Most of these systems require user to log in with his or her
secret password or pass phrase before entering it. This is to ensure all
the valuables information is kept confidential guaranteeing also its
integrity and availability. However, to achieve this goal, users are
required to memorize high entropy passwords or pass phrases.
Unfortunately, this sometimes causes difficulty for user to remember
meaningless strings of data. This paper presents a new scheme which
assigns a weight to each personal question given to the user in
revealing the encrypted secrets or password. Concentration of this
scheme is to offer fault tolerance to users by allowing them to forget
the specific password to a subset of questions and still recover the
secret and achieve successful authentication. Comparison on level of
security for weight-based and weightless secret recovery scheme is
also discussed. The paper concludes with the few areas that requires
more investigation in this research.
Abstract: In this study, the reduction of Cr(VI) by use of scrap
iron, a cheap and locally available industrial waste, was investigated
in continuous system. The greater scrap iron efficiency observed for
the first two sections of the column filling indicate that most of the
reduction process was carried out in the bottom half of the column
filling. This was ascribed to a constant decrease of Cr(VI)
concentration inside the filling, as the water front passes from the
bottom to the top end of the column. While the bottom section of the
column filling was heavily passivated with secondary mineral phases,
the top section was less affected by the passivation process; therefore
the column filling would likely ensure the reduction of Cr(VI) for
time periods longer than 216 hours. The experimental results indicate
that fixed beds columns packed with scrap iron could be successfully
used for the first step of Cr(VI) polluted wastewater treatment.
However, the mass of scrap iron filling should be carefully estimated
since it significantly affects the Cr(VI) reduction efficiency.
Abstract: Public housing is a vital factor in community
development. Successful city, housing and eco system regeneration
design is essential in providing positive community development.
This concerns work places, nice dwellings, providing premises for
child care, care of the elderly, providing qualitative premises for
different kinds of commercial service, providing a nice built
environment and housing areas and not the least activating tenants.
The public housing companies give value to society by stimulating
people, renovating socially and economically sustainable as well as
being partners to local business and authorities. By their activities the
housing companies contribute to sustainable local and regional
growth and the identity and reputation of cities. A Social, Economic
and Ecological Reputation Effect (SEERE) model for actions to
promote housing and community reputation is presented. The model
emphasizes regenerative actions to restore natural eco systems as part
of housing renewal strategies and to strengthen municipality
reputation.
Abstract: This paper explores the social and political imperatives in the sphere of public policy relating to social justice. In India, the colonial legacy and post-colonial social and political pressures sustained the appropriation of 'caste' category in allocating public resources to the backward class of citizens. For several reasons, 'economic' category could not be placed in allocating resources. This paper examines the reasons behind the deliberative exercises and formulating policies and seeks an alternative framework in realizing social justice in terms of a unified category. This attempt can be viewed as a reconciliation of traditional and modern values for a viable alternative in public policy making.
Abstract: Internet access is a vital part of the modern world and an important tool in the education of our children. It is present in schools, homes and even shopping malls. Mastering the use of the internet is likely to be an important skill for those entering the job markets of the future. An internet user can be anyone he or she wants to be in an online chat room, or play thrilling and challenging games against other players from all corners of the globe. It seems at present time (or near future) for many people relationships in the real world may be neglected as those in the virtual world increase in importance. Internet is provided a fast mode of transportation caused freedom from family bonds and mixing with different cultures and new communities. This research is an attempt to study effect of Internet on Social capital. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 168 students of Payame Noor University of Kermanshah city in country of Iran were considered. Degree of social capital is moderate. With the help of the Multi-variable Regression, variables of Iranian message attractive, Interest to internet with effect of positive and variable Creating a cordial atmosphere with negative effect be significant.
Abstract: The efficient use of available licensed spectrum is
becoming more and more critical with increasing demand and usage
of the radio spectrum. This paper shows how the use of spectrum as
well as dynamic spectrum management can be effectively managed
and spectrum allocation schemes in the wireless communication
systems be implemented and used, in future. This paper would be an
attempt towards better utilization of the spectrum. This research will
focus on the decision-making process mainly, with an
assumption that the radio environment has already been sensed and
the QoS requirements for the application have been specified either
by the sensed radio environment or by the secondary user itself. We
identify and study the characteristic parameters of Cognitive Radio
and use Genetic Algorithm for spectrum allocation. Performance
evaluation is done using MATLAB toolboxes.
Abstract: WiMAX and Wi-Fi are considered as the promising
broadband access solutions for wireless MAN’s and LANs,
respectively. In the recent works WiMAX is considered suitable as a
backhaul service to connect multiple dispersed Wi-Fi ‘hotspots’.
Hence a new integrated WiMAX/Wi-Fi architecture has been
proposed in literatures. In this paper the performance of an integrated
WiMAX/Wi-Fi network has been investigated by streaming a video
conference application. The difference in performance between the
two protocols is compared with respect to video conferencing. The
Heterogeneous network was simulated in the OPNET simulator.
Abstract: Process measurement is the task of empirically and objectively assigning numbers to the properties of business processes in such a way as to describe them. Desirable attributes to study and measure include complexity, cost, maintainability, and reliability. In our work we will focus on investigating process complexity. We define process complexity as the degree to which a business process is difficult to analyze, understand or explain. One way to analyze a process- complexity is to use a process control-flow complexity measure. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the control-flow complexity measure in terms of Weyuker-s properties. Weyuker-s properties must be satisfied by any complexity measure to qualify as a good and comprehensive one.
Abstract: The present work deals with the structural analysis of
turbine blades and modeling of turbine blades. A common failure
mode for turbine machines is high cycle of fatigue of compressor and
turbine blades due to high dynamic stresses caused by blade vibration
and resonance within the operation range of the machinery. In this
work, proper damping system will be analyzed to reduce the
vibrating blade. The main focus of the work is the modeling of under
platform damper to evaluate the dynamic analysis of turbine-blade
vibrations. The system is analyzed using Bond graph technique. Bond
graph is one of the most convenient ways to represent a system from
the physical aspect in foreground. It has advantage of putting together
multi-energy domains of a system in a single representation in a
unified manner. The bond graph model of dry friction damper is
simulated on SYMBOLS-shakti® software. In this work, the blades
are modeled as Timoshenko beam. Blade Vibrations under different
working conditions are being analyzed numerically.
Abstract: Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in many economies. In New Zealand, for example, 97% of all manufacturing companies employ less than 100 staff, and generate the predominant part of this industry sector-s economic output. Manufacturing SMEs as a group also have a significant impact on the environment. This situation is similar in many developed economies, including the European Union. Sustainable economic development therefore needs to strongly consider the role of manufacturing SMEs, who generally find it challenging to move towards more environmentally friendly business practices. This paper presents a systems thinking approach to modelling and understanding the factors which have an influence on the successful uptake of environmental practices in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. It presents a number of causal loop diagrams which have been developed based on primary action research, and a thorough understanding of the literature in this area. The systems thinking model provides the basis for further development of a strategic framework for the successful uptake of environmental innovation in manufacturing SMEs.
Abstract: Early Intervention Program (EIP) is required to
improve the overall development of children with Trisomy 21 (Down
syndrome). In order to help trainer and parent in the implementation
of EIP, a support system has been developed. The support system is
able to screen data automatically, store and analyze data, generate
individual EIP (curriculum) with optimal training duration and to
generate training automatically. The system consists of hardware and
software where the software has been implemented using Java
language and Linux Fedora. The software has been tested to ensure the
functionality and reliability. The prototype has been also tested in
Down syndrome centers. Test result shows that the system is reliable
to be used for generation of an individual curriculum which includes
the training program to improve the motor, cognitive, and combination
abilities of Down syndrome children under 6 years.
Abstract: Where renewable energy sources, solar, hydro, wind are available the remote communities and businesses can be provided with the most reliable and affordable source of electrical energy. This paper presents a model of safari rest contains all the necessary services for the interested tourists who visit the safari Sinai desert. The PV energy system provides the rural energy needs of remote communities. A photovoltaic renewable energy system is designed to feed the global Ac and Dc electrical required load of this safari rest . The benefits of photovoltaic renewable energy at rural applications are its versatility and convenience. This model of safari rest must be taken in consideration by Egyptian Government as it will provide the tourism plane by new interested tourism field which put a big spot on Red sea area: El Ghordaka.
Abstract: Modern spatial database management systems require a unique Spatial Access Method (SAM) in order solve complex spatial quires efficiently. In this case the spatial data structure takes a prominent place in the SAM. Inadequate data structure leads forming poor algorithmic choices and forging deficient understandings of algorithm behavior on the spatial database. A key step in developing a better semantic spatial object data structure is to quantify the performance effects of semantic and outlier detections that are not reflected in the previous tree structures (R-Tree and its variants). This paper explores a novel SSRO-Tree on SAM to the Topo-Semantic approach. The paper shows how to identify and handle the semantic spatial objects with outlier objects during page overflow/underflow, using gain/loss metrics. We introduce a new SSRO-Tree algorithm which facilitates the achievement of better performance in practice over algorithms that are superior in the R*-Tree and RO-Tree by considering selection queries.
Abstract: With the increasing spread of computers and the internet among culturally, linguistically and geographically diverse communities, issues of internationalization and localization and becoming increasingly important. For some of the issues such as different scales for length and temperature, there is a well-developed measurement theory. For others such as date formats no such theory will be possible. This paper fills a gap by developing a measurement theory for a class of scales previously overlooked, based on discrete and interval-valued scales such as spanner and shoe sizes. The paper gives a theoretical foundation for a class of data representation problems.
Abstract: The degradation of selected pharmaceuticals in some
water matrices was studied by using several chemical treatments. The
pharmaceuticals selected were the beta-blocker metoprolol, the
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory naproxen, the antibiotic amoxicillin,
and the analgesic phenacetin; and their degradations were conducted
by using UV radiation alone, ozone, Fenton-s reagent, Fenton-like
system, photo-Fenton system, and combinations of UV radiation and
ozone with H2O2, TiO2, Fe(II), and Fe(III). The water matrices, in
addition to ultra-pure water, were a reservoir water, a groundwater,
and two secondary effluents from two municipal WWTP. The results
reveal that the presence of any second oxidant enhanced the
oxidation rates, with the systems UV/TiO2 and O3/TiO2 providing the
highest degradation rates. It is also observed in most of the
investigated oxidation systems that the degradation rate followed the
sequence: amoxicillin > naproxen > metoprolol > phenacetin. Lower
rates were obtained with the pharmaceuticals dissolved in natural
waters and secondary effluents due to the organic matter present
which consume some amounts of the oxidant agents.
Abstract: As the network based technologies become
omnipresent, demands to secure networks/systems against threat
increase. One of the effective ways to achieve higher security is
through the use of intrusion detection systems (IDS), which are a
software tool to detect anomalous in the computer or network. In this
paper, an IDS has been developed using an improved machine
learning based algorithm, Locally Linear Neuro Fuzzy Model
(LLNF) for classification whereas this model is originally used for
system identification. A key technical challenge in IDS and LLNF
learning is the curse of high dimensionality. Therefore a feature
selection phase is proposed which is applicable to any IDS. While
investigating the use of three feature selection algorithms, in this
model, it is shown that adding feature selection phase reduces
computational complexity of our model. Feature selection algorithms
require the use of a feature goodness measure. The use of both a
linear and a non-linear measure - linear correlation coefficient and
mutual information- is investigated respectively
Abstract: This paper presents a software quality support tool, a
Java source code evaluator and a code profiler based on
computational intelligence techniques. It is Java prototype software
developed by AI Group [1] from the Research Laboratories at
Universidad de Palermo: an Intelligent Java Analyzer (in Spanish:
Analizador Java Inteligente, AJI). It represents a new approach to
evaluate and identify inaccurate source code usage and transitively,
the software product itself.
The aim of this project is to provide the software development
industry with a new tool to increase software quality by extending
the value of source code metrics through computational intelligence.
Abstract: Access Management is the proactive management of
vehicular access points to land parcels adjacent to all manner of
roadways. Good access management promotes safe and efficient use
of the transportation network. This study attempts to utilize archived
data from the University Technology of Malaysia on-campus area to
assess the accuracy with which access management display some
benefits. Results show that usage of access management reduces
delay and fewer crashes. Clustered development can improve
walking, cycling and transit travel, reduce parking requirements and
improve emergency responses. Effective Access Management
planning can also reduce total roadway facility costs by reducing the
number of driveways and intersections. At the end after presenting
recommendations some of the travel impact, and benefits that
can be derived if these suggestions are implemented have
been summarized with the related comments.