Abstract: Numerous concrete structures projects are currently running in Libya as part of a US$50 billion government funding. The
quality of concrete used in 20 different construction projects were assessed based mainly on the concrete compressive strength achieved. The projects are scattered all over the country and are at
various levels of completeness. For most of these projects, the
concrete compressive strength was obtained from test results of a
150mm standard cube mold. Statistical analysis of collected concrete
compressive strengths reveals that the data in general followed a
normal distribution pattern. The study covers comparison and assessment of concrete quality aspects such as: quality control, strength range, data standard deviation, data scatter, and ratio of minimum strength to design strength. Site quality control for these projects ranged from very good to poor according to ACI214 criteria [1]. The ranges (Rg) of the strength (max. strength – min. strength) divided by average strength are from (34% to 160%). Data scatter is
measured as the range (Rg) divided by standard deviation () and is
found to be (1.82 to 11.04), indicating that the range is ±3σ.
International construction companies working in Libya follow
different assessment criteria for concrete compressive strength in lieu
of national unified procedure. The study reveals that assessments of
concrete quality conducted by these construction companies usually
meet their adopted (internal) standards, but sometimes fail to meet
internationally known standard requirements. The assessment of
concrete presented in this paper is based on ACI, British standards
and proposed Libyan concrete strength assessment criteria.
Abstract: The paper proposes a novel technique for iris
recognition using texture and phase features. Texture features are
extracted on the normalized iris strip using Haar Wavelet while phase
features are obtained using LOG Gabor Wavelet. The matching
scores generated from individual modules are combined using sum of
score technique. The system is tested on database obtained from Bath
University and Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and is giving
an accuracy of 95.62% and 97.66% respectively. The FAR and FRR
of the combined system is also reduced comparatively.
Abstract: This paper presents a new sufficient condition for the
existence, uniqueness and global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point for Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with multiple time delays. The results establish a relationship between the network parameters
of the neural system independently of the delay parameters. The results are also compared with the previously reported results in
the literature.
Abstract: The objective of this work is to show a procedure for
mesh generation in a fluidized bed using large eddy simulations
(LES) of a filtered two-fluid model. The experimental data were
obtained by [1] in a laboratory fluidized bed. Results show that it is
possible to use mesh with less cells as compared to RANS turbulence
model with granular kinetic theory flow (KTGF). Also, the numerical
results validate the experimental data near wall of the bed, which
cannot be predicted by RANS.model.
Abstract: In this paper the development of neural network based fuzzy inference system for electricity consumption prediction is considered. The electricity consumption depends on number of factors, such as number of customers, seasons, type-s of customers, number of plants, etc. It is nonlinear process and can be described by chaotic time-series. The structure and algorithms of neuro-fuzzy system for predicting future values of electricity consumption is described. To determine the unknown coefficients of the system, the supervised learning algorithm is used. As a result of learning, the rules of neuro-fuzzy system are formed. The developed system is applied for predicting future values of electricity consumption of Northern Cyprus. The simulation of neuro-fuzzy system has been performed.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and fabrication of a clock and data recovery circuit (CDR). We propose a new clock and data recovery which is based on a 1/4-rate frequency detector (QRFD). The proposed frequency detector helps reduce the VCO frequency and is thus advantageous for high speed application. The proposed frequency detector can achieve low jitter operation and extend the pull-in range without using the reference clock. The proposed CDR was implemented using a 1/4-rate bang-bang type phase detector (PD) and a ring voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The CDR circuit has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 CMOS technology. It occupies an active area of 1 x 1 and consumes 90 mW from a single 1.8V supply.
Abstract: Multi-loop (De-centralized) Proportional-Integral-
Derivative (PID) controllers have been used extensively in process
industries due to their simple structure for control of multivariable
processes. The objective of this work is to design multiple-model
adaptive multi-loop PID strategy (Multiple Model Adaptive-PID)
and neural network based multi-loop PID strategy (Neural Net
Adaptive-PID) for the control of multivariable system. The first
method combines the output of multiple linear PID controllers,
each describing process dynamics at a specific level of operation.
The global output is an interpolation of the individual multi-loop
PID controller outputs weighted based on the current value of the
measured process variable. In the second method, neural network
is used to calculate the PID controller parameters based on the
scheduling variable that corresponds to major shift in the process
dynamics. The proposed control schemes are simple in structure with
less computational complexity. The effectiveness of the proposed
control schemes have been demonstrated on the CSTR process,
which exhibits dynamic non-linearity.
Abstract: THEOS is the first earth observation spacecraft of Thailand which was launched on the 1st October 2008 and is currently operated by GISTDA. The transfer phase has been performed by Astrium Flight Dynamics team leading to a hand over to GISTDA teams starting mid-October 2008. The THEOS spacecraft-s orbit is LEO and has the same repetitivity (14+5/26) as the SPOT spacecraft, i.e. the same altitude of 822 km but it has a different mean local solar time (LST). Ground track maintenance manoeuvres are performed to maintain the ground track within a predefined control band around the reference ground track and the band is ±40 km for THEOS spacecraft. This paper presents the first ground track maintenance manoeuvre of THEOS spacecraft and the detailed results. In addition, it also includes one and a half year of operation as seen by GISTDA operators. It finally describes the foreseenable activities for the next orbit control manoeuvre (OCM) preparation.
Abstract: TiO2/MgO composite films were prepared by coating
the magnesium acetate solution in the pores of mesoporous TiO2
films using a dip coating method. Concentrations of magnesium
acetate solution were varied in a range of 1x10-4 – 1x10-1 M. The
TiO2/MgO composite films were characterized by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscropy (TEM),
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) , transient voltage
decay and I-V test. The TiO2 films and TiO2/MgO composite films
were immersed in a 0.3 mM N719 dye solution. The Dye-sensitized
solar cells with the TiO2/MgO/N719 structure showed an optimal
concentration of magnesium acetate solution of 1x10-3 M resulting in
the MgO film estimated thickness of 0.0963 nm and giving the
maximum efficiency of 4.85%. The improved efficiency of dyesensitized
solar cell was due to the magnesium oxide film as the wide
band gap coating decays the electron back transfer to the triiodide
electrolyte and reduce charge recombination.
Abstract: Perhaps no single issue has been cited as either the root
cause and / or the greatest challenge to the restructured power system then the lack of adequate reliable transmission. Probabilistic transmission planning has become increasingly necessary and important in recent
years. The transmission planning analysis carried out by the authors,
spans a 10-year horizon, taking into consideration a value of 2 % load
increase / year at each consumer. Taking into consideration this increased
load, a probabilistic power flow was carried out, all the system components
being regarded from probabilistic point of view. Several contingencies
have been generated, for assessing the security of the power system. The results have been analyzed and several important conclusions were pointed. The objective is to achieve a network that works without limit violations for all (or most of) scenario realizations. The case study is represented by the IEEE 14 buses test power system.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to find the
relationship between auspicious meaning in eastern wisdom and the
interpretation as a guideline for the design and development of
community souvenirs. The sample group included 400 customers in
Bangkok who used to buy community souvenir products. The
information was applied to design the souvenirs which were
considered for the appropriateness by 5 design specialists. The data
were analyzed to find frequency, percentage, and SD with the results
as follows. 1) The best factor referring to the auspicious meaning is
color. The application of auspicious meaning can make the value
added to the product and bring the fortune to the receivers. 2) The
effectiveness of the auspicious meaning integration on the design of
community souvenir product was in high level. When considering in
each aspect, it was found that the interpretation aspect was in high
level, the congruency of the auspicious meaning and the utility of the
product was in high level. The attractiveness and the good design
were in very high level while the potential of the value added in the
product design was in high level. The suitable application to the
design of community souvenir product was in high level.
Abstract: This paper discusses the classification process for medical data. In this paper, we use the data from ACM KDDCup 2008 to demonstrate our classification process based on latent topic discovery. In this data set, the target set and outliers are quite different in their nature: target set is only 0.6% size in total, while the outliers consist of 99.4% of the data set. We use this data set as an example to show how we dealt with this extremely biased data set with latent topic discovery and noise reduction techniques. Our experiment faces two major challenge: (1) extremely distributed outliers, and (2) positive samples are far smaller than negative ones. We try to propose a suitable process flow to deal with these issues and get a best AUC result of 0.98.
Abstract: Abrasive waterjet cutting (AWJ) is a highly efficient
method for cutting almost any type of material. When holes shall be
cut the waterjet first needs to pierce the material.This paper presents a
vast experimental analysis of piercing parameters effect on piercing
time. Results from experimentation on feed rates, work piece
thicknesses, abrasive flow rates, standoff distances and water
pressure are also presented as well as studies on three methods for
dynamic piercing. It is shown that a large amount of time and
resources can be saved by choosing the piercing parameters in a
correct way. The large number of experiments puts demands on the
experimental setup. An automated experimental setup including
piercing detection is presented to enable large series of experiments
to be carried out efficiently.
Abstract: This study suggests a model of a new set of evaluation criteria that will be used to measure the efficiency of real-world E-commerce websites. Evaluation criteria include design, usability and performance for websites, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique has been used to measure the websites efficiency. An efficient Web site is defined as a site that generates the most outputs, using the smallest amount of inputs. Inputs refer to measurements representing the amount of effort required to build, maintain and perform the site. Output is amount of traffic the site generates. These outputs are measured as the average number of daily hits and the average number of daily unique visitors.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel monitoring scheme to
minimize total active power in digital circuits depend on the demand
frequency, by adjusting automatically both supply voltage and
threshold voltages based on circuit operating conditions such as
temperature, process variations, and desirable frequency. The delay
monitoring results, will be control and apply so as to be maintained at
the minimum value at which the chip is able to operate for a given
clock frequency. Design details of power monitor are examined using
simulation framework in 32nm BTPM model CMOS process.
Experimental results show the overhead of proposed circuit in terms
of its power consumption is about 40 μW for 32nm technology;
moreover the results show that our proposed circuit design is not far
sensitive to the temperature variations and also process variations.
Besides, uses the simple blocks which offer good sensitivity, high
speed, the continuously feedback loop. This design provides up to
40% reduction in power consumption in active mode.
Abstract: The scientific perspective, the practice area of physical education and sports activities improve power capacity in all its forms of expression, being a generator of the research topics. Today theories that strength training athletes and slow down development progress will affect the strength and flexibility are discredited. On the other hand there are sectors and / or samples whose results are sports of the way higher manifestation of power as a result of the composition of the force and velocity, being based in this respect on the systematic and continuous development of both bio-motric capacities said. Training of force for children was and is controversial. Teama de accidentări sau a stopării premature a procesului de creştere a făcut ca în trecut copiii să fie ţinuţi departe de lucrul cu diferite greutăţi.Fear of injury or premature stop the growth process in the past made the children to be kept away from working with different weights. Recent studies have shown that the risk of accidents is relatively small and the strength training can help prevent them. For example, most accidents occur at the level of athletics ligaments and tendons. From this point of view, it can be said that a progressive intervention of force training, optimal design, will help enhancing their process, such as athlete much better prepared to meet training requests and competitions. Preparation of force provides a solid basis for further phases in the highest performance.
Abstract: The mountain road slope failures triggered by
earthquake activities and torrential rain namely to create the disaster.
Province Road No. 24 is a main route to the Wutai Township. The area
of the study is located at the mileages between 46K and 47K along the
road. However, the road has been suffered frequent damages as a result
of landslide and slope failures during typhoon seasons. An
understanding of the sliding behaviors in the area appears to be
necessary. Slope failures triggered by earthquake activities and heavy
rainfalls occur frequently. The study is to understand the mechanism
of slope failures and to look for the way to deal with the situation. In
order to achieve these objectives, this paper is based on theoretical and
structural geology data interpretation program to assess the potential
slope sliding behavior. The study showed an intimate relationship
between the landslide behavior of the slopes and the stratum materials,
based on structural geology analysis method to analysis slope stability
and finds the slope safety coefficient to predict the sites of destroyed
layer. According to the case study and parameter analyses results, the
slope mainly slips direction compared to the site located in the
southeast area. Find rainfall to result in the rise of groundwater level is
main reason of the landslide mechanism. Future need to set up
effective horizontal drain at corrective location, that can effective
restrain mountain road slope failures and increase stability of slope.
Abstract: In this paper we will develop further the sequential
life test approach presented in a previous article by [1] using an
underlying two parameter Weibull sampling distribution. The
minimum life will be considered equal to zero. We will again provide
rules for making one of the three possible decisions as each
observation becomes available; that is: accept the null hypothesis H0;
reject the null hypothesis H0; or obtain additional information by
making another observation. The product being analyzed is a new
type of a low alloy-high strength steel product. To estimate the shape
and the scale parameters of the underlying Weibull model we will use
a maximum likelihood approach for censored failure data. A new
example will further develop the proposed sequential life testing
approach.
Abstract: An effect of rolling temperature on the mechanical properties and microstructural evolution of an Al-Mg-Si alloy was studied. The material was rolled up to a true strain of ~0.7 at three different temperatures viz; room temperature, liquid propanol and liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen rolled sample exhibited superior properties with a yield and tensile strength of 332 MPa and 364 MPa, respectively, with a reasonably good ductility of ~9%. The liquid nitrogen rolled sample showed around 54 MPa increase in tensile strength without much reduction in the ductility as compared to the as received T6 condition alloy. The microstructural details revealed equiaxed grains in the annealed and solutionized sample and elongated grains in the rolled samples. In addition, the cryorolled samples exhibited fine grain structure compared to the room temperature rolled samples.
Abstract: In this paper, gate leakage current has been mitigated
by the use of novel nanoscale MOSFET with Source/Drain-to-Gate
Non-overlapped and high-k spacer structure for the first time. A
compact analytical model has been developed to study the gate
leakage behaviour of proposed MOSFET structure. The result
obtained has found good agreement with the Sentaurus Simulation.
Fringing gate electric field through the dielectric spacer induces
inversion layer in the non-overlap region to act as extended S/D
region. It is found that optimal Source/Drain-to-Gate Non-overlapped
and high-k spacer structure has reduced the gate leakage current to
great extent as compared to those of an overlapped structure. Further,
the proposed structure had improved off current, subthreshold slope
and DIBL characteristic. It is concluded that this structure solves the
problem of high leakage current without introducing the extra series
resistance.