Abstract: In this paper a new approach for transmission pricing
is presented. The main idea is voltage angle allocation, i.e.
determining the contribution of each contract on the voltage angle of
each bus. DC power flow is used to compute a primary solution for
angle decomposition. To consider the impacts of system non-linearity
on angle decomposition, the primary solution is corrected in different
iterations of decoupled Newton-Raphson power flow. Then, the
contribution of each contract on power flow of each transmission line
is computed based on angle decomposition. Contract-related flows
are used as a measure for “extent of use" of transmission network
capacity and consequently transmission pricing. The presented
approach is applied to a 4-bus test system and IEEE 30-bus test
system.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted on the comparative
study of drip and furrow irrigation methods at the farmer-s field in
Umar Kot. The total area under experiment about 4000m2 was
divided into two equal portions. One portion about 40m X 50m was
occupied by drip and the other portion about 40m X 50m by furrow
irrigation method. Soil at the experimental site was clay loam in
texture for 0-60cm depth; average dry bulk density and field capacity
was 1.16g/cm3 and 28.5% respectively. The results reveal that the
drip irrigation method saved 56.4% water and gave 22% more yield
as compared to that of furrow irrigation method. Higher water use
efficiency about 4.87 was obtained in drip irrigation method; whereas
lower water used efficiency about 1.66 was obtained in furrow
irrigation method. The present study suggests farming community to
adopt drip irrigation method instead of old traditional flooding
methods.
Abstract: The composition, vapour pressure, and heat capacity
of nine biodiesel fuels from different sources were measured. The
vapour pressure of the biodiesel fuels is modeled assuming an ideal
liquid phase of the fatty acid methyl esters constituting the fuel. New
methodologies to calculate the vapour pressure and ideal gas and
liquid heat capacities of the biodiesel fuel constituents are proposed.
Two alternative optimization scenarios are evaluated: 1) vapour
pressure only; 2) vapour pressure constrained with liquid heat
capacity. Without physical constraints, significant errors in liquid
heat capacity predictions were found whereas the constrained
correlation accurately fit both vapour pressure and liquid heat
capacity.
Abstract: The main aim of the presented experiments is to
improve behaviour of sandwich structures under dynamic loading,
such as crash or explosion. Several cellular materials are widely used
as core of the sandwich structures and their properties influence
the response of the entire element under impact load. To optimize
their performance requires the characterisation of the core material
behaviour at high strain rates and identification of the underlying
mechanism. This work presents the study of high strain-rate
characteristics of a specific porous lightweight blast energy absorbing
foam using a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) technique
adapted to perform tests on low strength materials. Two different
velocities, 15 and 30 m.s-1 were used to determine the strain
sensitivity of the material. Foams were designed using two types of
porous lightweight spherical raw materials with diameters of 30-
100 *m, combined with polymer matrix. Cylindrical specimens with
diameter of 15 mm and length of 7 mm were prepared and loaded
using a Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar apparatus to assess the relation
between the composition of the material and its shock wave
attenuation capacity.
Abstract: In recent years, rehabilitation has been the subject of extensive research due to increased spending on building work and repair of built works. In all cases, it is absolutely essential to carry out methods of strengthening or repair of structural elements, and that following an inspection analysis and methodology of a correct diagnosis. The reinforced concrete columns are important elements in building structures. They support the vertical loads and provide bracing against the horizontal loads. This research about the behavior of reinforced concrete rectangular columns, rehabilitated by concrete liner, confinement FRP fabric, steel liner or cage formed by metal corners. It allows comparing the contributions of different processes used perspective section resistance elements rehabilitated compared to that is not reinforced or repaired. The different results obtained revealed a considerable gain in bearing capacity failure of reinforced sections cladding concrete, metal bracket, steel plates and a slight improvement to the section reinforced with fabric FRP. The use of FRP does not affect the weight of the structures, but the use of different techniques cladding increases the weight of elements rehabilitated and therefore the weight of the building which requires resizing foundations.
Abstract: In this paper, a two factor scheme is proposed to
generate cryptographic keys directly from biometric data, which
unlike passwords, are strongly bound to the user. Hash value of the
reference iris code is used as a cryptographic key and its length
depends only on the hash function, being independent of any other
parameter. The entropy of such keys is 94 bits, which is much higher
than any other comparable system. The most important and distinct
feature of this scheme is that it regenerates the reference iris code by
providing a genuine iris sample and the correct user password. Since
iris codes obtained from two images of the same eye are not exactly
the same, error correcting codes (Hadamard code and Reed-Solomon
code) are used to deal with the variability. The scheme proposed here
can be used to provide keys for a cryptographic system and/or for
user authentication. The performance of this system is evaluated on
two publicly available databases for iris biometrics namely CBS and
ICE databases. The operating point of the system (values of False
Acceptance Rate (FAR) and False Rejection Rate (FRR)) can be set
by properly selecting the error correction capacity (ts) of the Reed-
Solomon codes, e.g., on the ICE database, at ts = 15, FAR is 0.096%
and FRR is 0.76%.
Abstract: Until recently, energy security and climate change
were considered separate issues to be dealt with by policymakers.
The two issues are now converging, challenging the security and
climate communities to develop a better understanding of how to deal
with both issues simultaneously. Although Egypt is not a major
contributor to the world's total GHG emissions, it is particularly
vulnerable to the potential effects of global climate change such as
rising sea levels and changed patterns of rainfall in the Nile Basin.
Climate change is a major threat to sustainable growth and
development in Egypt, and the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals. Egypt-s capacity to respond to the challenges of
climate instability will be expanded by improving overall resilience,
integrating climate change goals into sustainable development
strategies, increasing the use of modern energy systems with reduced
carbon intensity, and strengthening international initiatives. This
study seeks to establish a framework for considering the complex and
evolving links between energy security and climate change,
applicable to Egypt.
Abstract: Because of architectural condition and structure application, sometimes mass source and stiffness source are not coincidence, and the structure is irregular. The structure is also might be asymmetric as an asymmetric bracing in plan which leads to unbalance distribution of stiffness or because of unbalance distribution of the mass. Both condition lead to eccentricity and torsion in the structure. The deficiency of ordinary code to evaluate the performance of steel structures against earthquake has been caused designing based on performance level or capacity spectrum be used. By using the mentioned methods it is possible to design a structure that its behavior against different earthquakes be predictive. In this article 5- story buildings with different percentage of asymmetric which is because of stiffness changes have been designed. The static and dynamic nonlinear analysis under three acceleration recording has been done. Finally performance level of the structure has been evaluated.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to establish the experimental conditions for removal of Cibacron Brilliant Yellow 3G-P dye (CBY) from aqueous solutions by sorption onto coffee husks as a low-cost sorbent. The effects of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial CBY dye concentration, sorbent mass, pH, temperature) were examined and the optimal experimental conditions were determined. The results indicated that the removal of the dye was pH dependent and at initial pH of 2, the dye was removed effectively. The CBY dye sorption data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich equilibrium models. The maximum sorption capacity of CBY dye ions onto coffee husks increased from 24.04 to 35.04 mg g-1 when the temperature was increased from 293 to 313 K. The calculated sorption thermodynamic parameters including ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS° indicated that the CBY dye sorption onto coffee husks is a spontaneous, endothermic and mainly physical in nature.
Abstract: Faced with social and health system capacity
constraints and rising and changing demand for welfare services,
governments and welfare providers are increasingly relying on
innovation to help support and enhance services. However, the
evidence reported by several studies indicates that the realization of
that potential is not an easy task. Innovations can be deemed
inherently complex to implement and operate, because many of them
involve a combination of technological and organizational renewal
within an environment featuring a diversity of stakeholders. Many
public welfare service innovations are markedly systemic in their
nature, which means that they emerge from, and must address, the
complex interplay between political, administrative, technological,
institutional and legal issues. This paper suggests that stakeholders
dealing with systemic innovation in welfare services must deal with
ambiguous and incomplete information in circumstances of
uncertainty. Employing a literature review methodology and case
study, this paper identifies, categorizes and discusses different
aspects of the uncertainty of systemic innovation in public welfare
services, and argues that uncertainty can be classified into eight
categories: technological uncertainty, market uncertainty,
regulatory/institutional uncertainty, social/political uncertainty,
acceptance/legitimacy uncertainty, managerial uncertainty, timing
uncertainty and consequence uncertainty.
Abstract: Hydrogen is an important chemical in many industries
and it is expected to become one of the major fuels for energy
generation in the future. Unfortunately, hydrogen does not exist in its
elemental form in nature and therefore has to be produced from
hydrocarbons, hydrogen-containing compounds or water.
Above its critical point (374.8oC and 22.1MPa), water has lower
density and viscosity, and a higher heat capacity than those of
ambient water. Mass transfer in supercritical water (SCW) is
enhanced due to its increased diffusivity and transport ability. The
reduced dielectric constant makes supercritical water a better solvent
for organic compounds and gases. Hence, due to the aforementioned
desirable properties, there is a growing interest toward studies
regarding the gasification of organic matter containing biomass or
model biomass solutions in supercritical water.
In this study, hydrogen and biofuel production by the catalytic
gasification of 2-Propanol in supercritical conditions of water was
investigated. Pt/Al2O3and Ni/Al2O3were the catalysts used in the
gasification reactions. All of the experiments were performed under a
constant pressure of 25MPa. The effects of five reaction temperatures
(400, 450, 500, 550 and 600°C) and five reaction times (10, 15, 20,
25 and 30 s) on the gasification yield and flammable component
content were investigated.
Abstract: Liquidity risk management ranks to key concepts
applied in finance. Liquidity is defined as a capacity to obtain
funding when needed, while liquidity risk means as a threat to this
capacity to generate cash at fair costs. In the paper we present
challenges of liquidity risk management resulting from the 2007-
2009 global financial upheaval. We see five main regulatory
liquidity risk management issues requiring revision in coming
years: liquidity measurement, intra-day and intra-group liquidity
management, contingency planning and liquidity buffers, liquidity
systems, controls and governance, and finally models testing the
viability of business liquidity models.
Abstract: Advent enhancements in the field of computing have
increased massive use of web based electronic documents. Current
Copyright protection laws are inadequate to prove the ownership for
electronic documents and do not provide strong features against
copying and manipulating information from the web. This has
opened many channels for securing information and significant
evolutions have been made in the area of information security.
Digital Watermarking has developed into a very dynamic area of
research and has addressed challenging issues for digital content.
Watermarking can be visible (logos or signatures) and invisible
(encoding and decoding). Many visible watermarking techniques
have been studied for text documents but there are very few for web
based text. XML files are used to trade information on the internet
and contain important information. In this paper, two invisible
watermarking techniques using Synonyms and Acronyms are
proposed for XML files to prove the intellectual ownership and to
achieve the security. Analysis is made for different attacks and
amount of capacity to be embedded in the XML file is also noticed.
A comparative analysis for capacity is also made for both methods.
The system has been implemented using C# language and all tests are
made practically to get the results.
Abstract: Prestressing in structure increases ratio of load-bearing capacity to weight. Suspendomes are single-layer braced domes reinforced with cable and strut. Prestressing of cables alter value and distribution of stress in structure. In this study two configuration, diamatic and lamella domes is selected. Investigated domes have span of 100m with rise-to-span ratios of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3. Single layer domes loaded under service load combinations according to ISO code. After geometric nonlinear analysis, models are designed with tubular and I-shaped sections then reinforced with cable and strut and converted to suspendomes. Displacements and stresses of some groups of nodes and elements in all of single-layer domes and suspendomes for three load combinations, symmetric snow, asymmetric snow and wind are compared. Variation due to suspending system is investigated. Suspendomes are redesigned and minimum possible weight after addition of cable and strut is obtained.
Abstract: The use of externally bonded Carbon Fiber
Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) reinforcement has proven to be an
effective technique to strengthen steel structures. An experimental
study on CFRP bonded steel plate with double strap joint has been
conducted and specimens are tested under tensile loadings. An
empirical model has been developed using stress-based approach to
predict ultimate capacity of the CFRP bonded steel structure. The
results from the model are comparable with the experimental result
with a reasonable accuracy.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of
setting up a learning community within an elementary school in
Ontario, Canada. The description is provided through reflection and
examination of field notes taken during the yearlong training and
implementation process. Specifically the impact of teachers- capacity
on the creation of a learning community was of interest. This paper is
intended to inform and add to the debate around the tensions that
exist in implementing a bottom-up professional development model
like the learning community in a top-down organizational structure.
My reflections of the process illustrate that implementation of the
learning community professional development model may be
difficult and yet transformative in the professional lives of the
teachers, students, and administration involved in the change process.
I conclude by suggesting the need for a new model of professional
development that requires a transformative shift in power dynamics
and a shift in the view of what constitutes effective professional
learning.
Abstract: The present work deals with analyses of the effects
of bearing curvature and non-Newtonian characteristics on the load capacity of an exponential rectangular squeeze film bearing using
Bingham fluids as lubricants. Bingham fluids are characterized by an
yield value and hence the formation of a “rigid" core in the region
between the plates is justified. The flow is confined to the region
between the core and the plates. The shape of the core has been
identified through numerical means. Further, numerical solutions for
the pressure distribution and load carrying capacity of the bearing
for various values of Bingham number and curvature parameter have
been obtained. The effects of bearing curvature and non-Newtonian
characteristics of the lubricant on the bearing performances have been
discussed.
Abstract: The production of activated carbon from low or zero cost of agricultural by-products or wastes has received great attention from academics and practitioners due to its economic and environmental benefits. In the production of bamboo furniture, a significant amount of bamboo waste is inevitably generated. Therefore, this research aimed to prepare activated carbons from bamboo furniture waste by chemical (KOH) activation and determine their properties and adsorption capacities for water treatment. The influence of carbonization time on the properties and adsorption capacities of activated carbons was also investigated. The finding showed that the bamboo-derived activated carbons had microporous characteristics. They exhibited high tendency for the reduction of impurities present in effluent water. Their adsorption capacities were comparable to the adsorption capacity of a commercial activated carbon regarding to the reduction in COD, TDS and turbidity of the effluent water.
Abstract: In this present study, experimental work was
conducted to study the effectiveness of newly innovated steel-CFRP
composite (CFRP laminates sandwiched between two steel strips) as
stirrups. A total numbers of eight concrete beams were tested under
four point loads. Each beam measured 1600 mm long, 160mm width
and 240 mm depth. The beams were reinforced with different shear
reinforcements; one without stirrups, one with steel stirrups and six
with different types and numbers of steel-CRFR stirrups. Test results
indicated that the steel-CFRP stirrups had enhanced the shear
strength capacity of beams. Moreover, the tests revealed that steel-
CFRP stirrups reached to their ultimate tensile strength unlike FRP
stirrups which rupture at much lower level than their ultimate
strength as werereported in various researches.
Abstract: This paper reports on investigations into capacity of a
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communication
system employing a uniform linear array (ULA) at the transmitter and
either a uniform linear array (ULA) or a uniform circular array (UCA)
antenna at the receiver. The transmitter is assumed to be surrounded by
scattering objects while the receiver is postulated to be free from
scattering objects. The Laplacian distribution of angle of arrival
(AOA) of a signal reaching the receiver is postulated. Calculations of
the MIMO system capacity are performed for two cases without and
with the channel estimation errors. For estimating the MIMO channel,
the scaled least square (SLS) and minimum mean square error
(MMSE) methods are considered.