Abstract: To investigates the effect of fiberglass clamping
process improvement on drape simulation prediction. This has
great effect on the mould and the fiber during manufacturing
process. This also, improves the fiber strain, the quality of the
fiber orientation in the area of folding and wrinkles formation
during the press-forming process. Drape simulation software
tool was used to digitalize the process, noting the formation
problems on the contour sensitive part. This was compared
with the real life clamping processes using single and double
frame set-ups to observe the effects. Also, restrains are
introduced by using clips, and the G-clamps with predetermine
revolution to; restrain the fabric deformation during the
forming process.The incorporation of clamping and fabric
restrain deformation improved on the prediction of the
simulation tool. Therefore, for effective forming process,
incorporation of clamping process into the drape simulation
process will assist in the development of fiberglass application
in manufacturing process.
Abstract: This paper introduces a novel approach to estimate the
clique potentials of Gibbs Markov random field (GMRF) models
using the Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithm and the Mean
Field (MF) theory. The proposed approach is based on modeling the
potential function associated with each clique shape of the GMRF
model as a Gaussian-shaped kernel. In turn, the energy function of
the GMRF will be in the form of a weighted sum of Gaussian
kernels. This formulation of the GMRF model urges the use of the
SVM with the Mean Field theory applied for its learning for
estimating the energy function. The approach has been tested on
synthetic texture images and is shown to provide satisfactory results
in retrieving the synthesizing parameters.
Abstract: Basic ingredients of concrete are cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. To produce a concrete of certain specific properties, optimum proportion of these ingredients are mixed. The important factors which govern the mix design are grade of concrete, type of cement and size, shape and grading of aggregates. Concrete mix design method is based on experimentally evolved empirical relationship between the factors in the choice of mix design. Basic draw backs of this method are that it does not produce desired strength, calculations are cumbersome and a number of tables are to be referred for arriving at trial mix proportion moreover, the variation in attainment of desired strength is uncertain below the target strength and may even fail. To solve this problem, a lot of cubes of standard grades were prepared and attained 28 days strength determined for different combination of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. An artificial neural network (ANN) was prepared using these data. The input of ANN were grade of concrete, type of cement, size, shape and grading of aggregates and output were proportions of various ingredients. With the help of these inputs and outputs, ANN was trained using feed forward back proportion model. Finally trained ANN was validated, it was seen that it gave the result with/ error of maximum 4 to 5%. Hence, specific type of concrete can be prepared from given material properties and proportions of these materials can be quickly evaluated using the proposed ANN.
Abstract: In this paper, the feasibility study of using a hybrid
system of ground heat exchangers (GHE) and direct evaporative
cooling system in arid weather condition has been performed. The
model is applied for Yazd and Kerman, two cities with arid weather
condition in Iran. The system composed of three sections: Ground-
Coupled-Circuit (GCC), Direct Evaporative Cooler (DEC) and
Cooling Coil Unite (CCU). The GCC provides the necessary precooling
for DEC. The GCC includes four vertical GHE which are
designed in series configuration. Simulation results show that
hybridization of GCC and DEC could provide comfort condition
whereas DEC alone did not. Based on the results the cooling
effectiveness of a hybrid system is more than unity. Thus, this novel
hybrid system could decrease the air temperature below the ambient
wet-bulb temperature. This environmentally clean and energy
efficient system can be considered as an alternative to the mechanical
vapor compression systems.
Abstract: This paper develops an unscented grid-based filter
and a smoother for accurate nonlinear modeling and analysis
of time series. The filter uses unscented deterministic sampling
during both the time and measurement updating phases, to approximate
directly the distributions of the latent state variable. A
complementary grid smoother is also made to enable computing
of the likelihood. This helps us to formulate an expectation
maximisation algorithm for maximum likelihood estimation of
the state noise and the observation noise. Empirical investigations
show that the proposed unscented grid filter/smoother compares
favourably to other similar filters on nonlinear estimation tasks.
Abstract: Scale Time Offset Robust Modulation (STORM) [1]–
[3] is a high bandwidth waveform design that adds time-scale
to embedded reference modulations using only time-delay [4]. In
an environment where each user has a specific delay and scale,
identification of the user with the highest signal power and that
user-s phase is facilitated by the STORM processor. Both of these
parameters are required in an efficient multiuser detection algorithm.
In this paper, the STORM modulation approach is evaluated with
a direct sequence spread quadrature phase shift keying (DS-QPSK)
system. A misconception of the STORM time scale modulation is that
a fine temporal resolution is required at the receiver. STORM will
be applied to a QPSK code division multiaccess (CDMA) system
by modifying the spreading codes. Specifically, the in-phase code
will use a typical spreading code, and the quadrature code will
use a time-delayed and time-scaled version of the in-phase code.
Subsequently, the same temporal resolution in the receiver is required
before and after the application of STORM. In this paper, the bit error
performance of STORM in a synchronous CDMA system is evaluated
and compared to theory, and the bit error performance of STORM
incorporated in a single user WCDMA downlink is presented to
demonstrate the applicability of STORM in a modern communication
system.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are emerging
because of the developments in wireless communication technology and miniaturization of the hardware. WSN consists of a large number of low-cost, low-power, multifunctional sensor nodes to monitor physical conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure,
motion, etc. The MAC protocol to be used in the sensor networks must be energy efficient and this should aim at conserving the energy during its operation. In this paper, with the focus of analyzing the
MAC protocols used in wireless Adhoc networks to WSN, simulation
experiments were conducted in Global Mobile Simulator
(GloMoSim) software. Number of packets sent by regular nodes, and received by sink node in different deployment strategies, total energy
spent, and the network life time have been chosen as the metric for comparison. From the results of simulation, it is evident that the IEEE 802.11 protocol performs better compared to CSMA and MACA protocols.
Abstract: In recent years, most of the regions in the world are
exposed to degradation and erosion caused by increasing
population and over use of land resources. The understanding of
the most important factors on soil erosion and sediment yield are
the main keys for decision making and planning. In this study, the
sediment yield and soil erosion were estimated and the priority of
different soil erosion factors used in the MPSIAC method of soil
erosion estimation is evaluated in AliAbad watershed in southwest
of Isfahan Province, Iran. Different information layers of the
parameters were created using a GIS technique. Then, a
multivariate procedure was applied to estimate sediment yield and
to find the most important factors of soil erosion in the model. The
results showed that land use, geology, land and soil cover are the
most important factors describing the soil erosion estimated by
MPSIAC model.
Abstract: The aeration process via injectors is used to combat
the lack of oxygen in lakes due to eutrophication. A 3D numerical
simulation of the resulting flow using a simplified model is presented.
In order to generate the best dynamic in the fluid with respect to
the aeration purpose, the optimization of the injectors location is
considered. We propose to adapt to this problem the topological
sensitivity analysis method which gives the variation of a criterion
with respect to the creation of a small hole in the domain. The main
idea is to derive the topological sensitivity analysis of the physical
model with respect to the insertion of an injector in the fluid flow
domain. We propose in this work a topological optimization algorithm
based on the studied asymptotic expansion. Finally we present some
numerical results, showing the efficiency of our approach
Abstract: This work focuses on the remediation of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated soil via Fenton
treatment coupled with novel chelating agent (CA). The feasibility of
chelated modified Fenton (MF) treatment to promote PAH oxidation
in artificially contaminated soils was investigated in laboratory scale
batch experiments at natural pH. The effects of adding inorganic and
organic CA are discussed. Experiments using different iron catalyst
to CA ratios were conducted, resulting in hydrogen peroxide: soil:
iron: CA weight ratios that varied from 0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.008 to
0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.067. The results revealed that (1) inorganic CA
could provide much higher PAH removal efficiency and (2) most of
the proposed CAs were more efficient than commonly utilised CAs
even at mild ratio. This work highlights the potential of novel
chelating agents in maintaining a suitable environment throughout
the Fenton treatment, particularly in soils with high buffer capacity.
Abstract: Abu Dhabi is one of the fastest developed cities in the region. On top of all the current and future environmental challenges, Abu Dhabi aims to be among the top governments in the world in sustainable development. Abu Dhabi plans to create an attractive, livable and sustainable managed urban environment in which all necessary services and infrastructure are provided in a sustainable and timely manner. Abu Dhabi is engaged in a difficult challenge to develop credible environmental indicators that would assess the ambitious environmental targets. The aim of those indicators is to provide reliable guidance to decision makers and the public concerning key factors that determine the state of urban environment and identify major areas for policy intervention. In order to ensure sustainable development in UAE in general, and of Abu Dhabi City in particular, relevant and contextual environmental indicators need to be carefully considered. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to establish environmental policy goals. The environment indicators assist city decision-making in such areas as identification of significant environmental aspects and observation of environmental performance trends. Those can help to find ways of reducing environmental pollution and in improving eco-efficiency. This paper outlines recent strategies implemented in Abu Dhabi that aims to improve the sustainable performance of the city-s built environment. The paper explores the variety of current and possible indicators at different levels and their roles in the development of the city.
Abstract: In this paper, a pipelined version of genetic algorithm,
called PLGA, and a corresponding hardware platform are described.
The basic operations of conventional GA (CGA) are made pipelined
using an appropriate selection scheme. The selection operator, used
here, is stochastic in nature and is called SA-selection. This helps
maintaining the basic generational nature of the proposed pipelined
GA (PLGA). A number of benchmark problems are used to compare
the performances of conventional roulette-wheel selection and the
SA-selection. These include unimodal and multimodal functions with
dimensionality varying from very small to very large. It is seen that
the SA-selection scheme is giving comparable performances with
respect to the classical roulette-wheel selection scheme, for all the
instances, when quality of solutions and rate of convergence are considered.
The speedups obtained by PLGA for different benchmarks
are found to be significant. It is shown that a complete hardware
pipeline can be developed using the proposed scheme, if parallel
evaluation of the fitness expression is possible. In this connection
a low-cost but very fast hardware evaluation unit is described.
Results of simulation experiments show that in a pipelined hardware
environment, PLGA will be much faster than CGA. In terms of
efficiency, PLGA is found to outperform parallel GA (PGA) also.
Abstract: The paper deals with calculation of the parameters of
ceramic material from a set of destruction tests of ceramic heads of
total hip joint endoprosthesis. The standard way of calculation of the
material parameters consists in carrying out a set of 3 or 4 point
bending tests of specimens cut out from parts of the ceramic material
to be analysed. In case of ceramic heads, it is not possible to cut out
specimens of required dimensions because the heads are too small (if
the cut out specimens were smaller than the normalised ones, the
material parameters derived from them would exhibit higher strength
values than those which the given ceramic material really has). On
that score, a special testing jig was made, in which 40 heads were
destructed. From the measured values of circumferential strains of the
head-s external spherical surface under destruction, the state of stress
in the head under destruction was established using the final elements
method (FEM). From the values obtained, the sought for parameters
of the ceramic material were calculated using Weibull-s weakest-link
theory.
Abstract: The characterization of κ-carrageenan could provide a
better understanding of its functions in biological, medical and
industrial applications. Chemical and physical analyses of
carrageenan from seaweeds, Euchema cottonii L., were done to offer
information on its properties and the effects of Co-60 γ-irradiation on
its thermochemical characteristics. The structural and morphological
characteristics of κ-carrageenan were determined using scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) while the composition, molecular weight
and thermal properties were determined using attenuated total
reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), gel
permeation chromatography (GPC), thermal gravimetric analysis
(TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Further chemical
analysis was done using hydrogen-1 nuclear magnetic resonance (1H
NMR) and functional characteristics in terms of biocompatibility
were evaluated using cytotoxicity test.
Abstract: We propose a decoy-pulse protocol for frequency-coded implementation of B92 quantum key distribution protocol. A direct extension of decoy-pulse method to frequency-coding scheme results in security loss as an eavesdropper can distinguish between signal and decoy pulses by measuring the carrier photon number without affecting other statistics. We overcome this problem by optimizing the ratio of carrier photon number of decoy-to-signal pulse to be as close to unity as possible. In our method the switching between signal and decoy pulses is achieved by changing the amplitude of RF signal as opposed to modulating the intensity of optical signal thus reducing system cost. We find an improvement by a factor of 100 approximately in the key generation rate using decoy-state protocol. We also study the effect of source fluctuation on key rate. Our simulation results show a key generation rate of 1.5×10-4/pulse for link lengths up to 70km. Finally, we discuss the optimum value of average photon number of signal pulse for a given key rate while also optimizing the carrier ratio.
Abstract: The Chinese Postman Problem (CPP) is one of the
classical problems in graph theory and is applicable in a wide range
of fields. With the rapid development of hybrid systems and model
based testing, Chinese Postman Problem with Time Dependent Travel
Times (CPPTDT) becomes more realistic than the classical problems.
In the literature, we have proposed the first integer programming
formulation for the CPPTDT problem, namely, circuit formulation,
based on which some polyhedral results are investigated and a cutting
plane algorithm is also designed. However, there exists a main drawback:
the circuit formulation is only available for solving the special
instances with all circuits passing through the origin. Therefore, this
paper proposes a new integer programming formulation for solving
all the general instances of CPPTDT. Moreover, the size of the circuit
formulation is too large, which is reduced dramatically here. Thus, it
is possible to design more efficient algorithm for solving the CPPTDT
in the future research.
Abstract: Wireless Mesh Networking is a promising proposal
for broadband data transmission in a large area with low cost and
acceptable QoS. These features- trade offs in WMNs is a hot research
field nowadays. In this paper a mathematical optimization framework
has been developed to maximize throughput according to upper
bound delay constraints. IEEE 802.11 based infrastructure
backhauling mode of WMNs has been considered to formulate the
MINLP optimization problem. Proposed method gives the full
routing and scheduling procedure in WMN in order to obtain
mentioned goals.
Abstract: The numerical analytic continuation of a function f(z) = f(x + iy) on a strip is discussed in this paper. The data are only given approximately on the real axis. The periodicity of given data is assumed. A truncated Fourier spectral method has been introduced to deal with the ill-posedness of the problem. The theoretic results show that the discrepancy principle can work well for this problem. Some numerical results are also given to show the efficiency of the method.
Abstract: Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of the
densely populated cities in the world. Due to rapid urbanization 60%
of its population lives in slum and squatter settlements. The reason
behind this poverty is low economic growth, inequitable distribution
of income, unequal distribution of productive assets, unemployment
and underemployment, high rate of population growth, low level of
human resource development, natural disasters, and limited access to
public services. Along with poverty, creating pressure on urban land,
shelter, plots, open spaces this creates environmental and ecological
degradation. These constraints are mostly resulted from the failures
of the government policies and measures and only Government can
solve this problem. This is now prime time to establish planning and
environmental management policy and sustainable urban
development for the city and for the urban slum dwellers which are
free from eviction, criminals, rent seekers and other miscreants.
Abstract: Environment both endowed and built are essential for
tourism. However tourism and environment maintains a complex
relationship, where in most cases environment is at the receiving end.
Many tourism development activities have adverse environmental
effects, mainly emanating from construction of general infrastructure
and tourism facilities. These negative impacts of tourism can lead to
the destruction of precious natural resources on which it depends.
These effects vary between locations; and its effect on a hill
destination is highly critical. This study aims at developing a
Sustainable Tourism Planning Model for an environmentally
sensitive tourism destination in Kerala, India. Being part of the
Nilgiri mountain ranges, Munnar falls in the Western Ghats, one of
the biological hotspots in the world. Endowed with a unique high
altitude environment Munnar inherits highly significant ecological
wealth. Giving prime importance to the protection of this ecological
heritage, the study proposes a tourism planning model with resource
conservation and sustainability as the paramount focus. Conceiving a
novel approach towards sustainable tourism planning, the study
proposes to assess tourism attractions using Ecological Sensitivity
Index (ESI) and Tourism Attractiveness Index (TAI). Integration of
these two indices will form the Ecology – Tourism Matrix (ETM),
outlining the base for tourism planning in an environmentally
sensitive destination. The ETM Matrix leads to a classification of
tourism nodes according to its Conservation Significance and
Tourism Significance. The spatial integration of such nodes based on
the Hub & Spoke Principle constitutes sub – regions within the STZ.
Ensuing analyses lead to specific guidelines for the STZ as a whole,
specific tourism nodes, hubs and sub-regions. The study results in a
multi – dimensional output, viz., (1) Classification system for tourism
nodes in an environmentally sensitive region/ destination (2)
Conservation / Tourism Development Strategies and Guidelines for
the micro and macro regions and (3) A Sustainable Tourism Planning
Tool particularly for Ecologically Sensitive Destinations, which can
be adapted for other destinations as well.