Abstract: We board the problem of creating a seismic alert
system, based upon artificial neural networks, trained by using the
well-known back-propagation and genetic algorithms, in order to emit
the alarm for the population located into a specific city, about an
eminent earthquake greater than 4.5 Richter degrees, and avoiding
disasters and human loses. In lieu of using the propagation wave, we
employed the magnitude of the earthquake, to establish a correlation
between the recorded magnitudes from a controlled area and the city,
where we want to emit the alarm. To measure the accuracy of the
posed method, we use a database provided by CIRES, which contains
the records of 2500 quakes incoming from the State of Guerrero
and Mexico City. Particularly, we performed the proposed method to
generate an issue warning in Mexico City, employing the magnitudes
recorded in the State of Guerrero.
Abstract: The article is devoted to Kazakh repatriates and their
migration to Kazakhstan as historical homeland, and also addresses
the problem of migrants- adaptation in the republic, particularly in
Almaty oblast (region). The authors used up-to-date statictics and
materials of the Department of Migration Committee to analyze the
newcomers- number and features of the repatriate-s location in this
oblast. Having studied this region they were able to identify the main
reasons why Kazakh Diaspora in Central Asia, Iran, Avganistana and
Turkey is eager to come back to their historic homeland along with
repatriates adaptation to the republic.
Abstract: Wastages such as grated coconut meat, spent tea and used sugarcane had contributed negative impacts to the environment. Vermicomposting method is fully utilized to manage the wastes towards a more sustainable approach. The worms that are used in the vermicomposting are Eisenia foetida and Eudrillus euginae. This research shows that the vermicompost of wastages has voltage of electrical energy and is able to light up the Light-Emitting Diode (LED) device. Based on the experiment, the use of replicated and double compartments of the component will produce double of voltage. Hence, for conclusion, this harmless and low cost technology of vermicompost can act as a dry cell in order to reduce the usage of hazardous chemicals that can contaminate the environment.
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of width and height of the
model on the earthquake response in the finite element method is
discussed. For this purpose an earth dam as a soil structure under
earthquake has been considered. Various dam-foundation models are
analyzed by Plaxis, a finite element package for solving geotechnical
problems. The results indicate considerable differences in the seismic
responses.
Abstract: Several models of vulnerability assessment have been proposed. The selection of one of these models depends on the objectives of the study. The classical methodologies for seismic vulnerability analysis, as a part of seismic risk analysis, have been formulated with statistical criteria based on a rapid observation. The information relating to the buildings performance is statistically elaborated. In this paper, we use the European Macroseismic Scale EMS-98 to define the relationship between damage and macroseismic intensity to assess the seismic vulnerability. Applying to Algiers area, the first step is to identify building typologies and to assign vulnerability classes. In the second step, damages are investigated according to EMS-98.
Abstract: The one-class support vector machine “support vector
data description” (SVDD) is an ideal approach for anomaly or outlier
detection. However, for the applicability of SVDD in real-world
applications, the ease of use is crucial. The results of SVDD are
massively determined by the choice of the regularisation parameter C
and the kernel parameter of the widely used RBF kernel. While for
two-class SVMs the parameters can be tuned using cross-validation
based on the confusion matrix, for a one-class SVM this is not
possible, because only true positives and false negatives can occur
during training. This paper proposes an approach to find the optimal
set of parameters for SVDD solely based on a training set from
one class and without any user parameterisation. Results on artificial
and real data sets are presented, underpinning the usefulness of the
approach.
Abstract: A novel PDE solver using the multidimensional wave
digital filtering (MDWDF) technique to achieve the solution of a 2D
seismic wave system is presented. In essence, the continuous physical
system served by a linear Kirchhoff circuit is transformed to an
equivalent discrete dynamic system implemented by a MD wave
digital filtering (MDWDF) circuit. This amounts to numerically
approximating the differential equations used to describe elements of a
MD passive electronic circuit by a grid-based difference equations
implemented by the so-called state quantities within the passive
MDWDF circuit. So the digital model can track the wave field on a
dense 3D grid of points. Details about how to transform the continuous
system into a desired discrete passive system are addressed. In
addition, initial and boundary conditions are properly embedded into
the MDWDF circuit in terms of state quantities. Graphic results have
clearly demonstrated some physical effects of seismic wave (P-wave
and S–wave) propagation including radiation, reflection, and
refraction from and across the hard boundaries. Comparison between
the MDWDF technique and the finite difference time domain (FDTD)
approach is also made in terms of the computational efficiency.
Abstract: In the automotive industry test drives are being conducted
during the development of new vehicle models or as a part of
quality assurance of series-production vehicles. The communication
on the in-vehicle network, data from external sensors, or internal
data from the electronic control units is recorded by automotive
data loggers during the test drives. The recordings are used for fault
analysis. Since the resulting data volume is tremendous, manually
analysing each recording in great detail is not feasible.
This paper proposes to use machine learning to support domainexperts
by preventing them from contemplating irrelevant data and
rather pointing them to the relevant parts in the recordings. The
underlying idea is to learn the normal behaviour from available
recordings, i.e. a training set, and then to autonomously detect
unexpected deviations and report them as anomalies.
The one-class support vector machine “support vector data description”
is utilised to calculate distances of feature vectors. SVDDSUBSEQ
is proposed as a novel approach, allowing to classify subsequences
in multivariate time series data. The approach allows to
detect unexpected faults without modelling effort as is shown with
experimental results on recordings from test drives.
Abstract: Sickness absence represents a major economic and
social issue. Analysis of sick leave data is a recurrent challenge to analysts because of the complexity of the data structure which is
often time dependent, highly skewed and clumped at zero. Ignoring these features to make statistical inference is likely to be inefficient
and misguided. Traditional approaches do not address these problems. In this study, we discuss model methodologies in terms of statistical techniques for addressing the difficulties with sick leave data. We also introduce and demonstrate a new method by performing a longitudinal assessment of long-term absenteeism using
a large registration dataset as a working example available from the Helsinki Health Study for municipal employees from Finland during the period of 1990-1999. We present a comparative study on model
selection and a critical analysis of the temporal trends, the occurrence
and degree of long-term sickness absences among municipal employees. The strengths of this working example include the large
sample size over a long follow-up period providing strong evidence in supporting of the new model. Our main goal is to propose a way to
select an appropriate model and to introduce a new methodology for analysing sickness absence data as well as to demonstrate model
applicability to complicated longitudinal data.
Abstract: Software reliability prediction gives a great opportunity to measure the software failure rate at any point throughout system test. A software reliability prediction model provides with the technique for improving reliability. Software reliability is very important factor for estimating overall system reliability, which depends on the individual component reliabilities. It differs from hardware reliability in that it reflects the design perfection. Main reason of software reliability problems is high complexity of software. Various approaches can be used to improve the reliability of software. We focus on software reliability model in this article, assuming that there is a time redundancy, the value of which (the number of repeated transmission of basic blocks) can be an optimization parameter. We consider given mathematical model in the assumption that in the system may occur not only irreversible failures, but also a failure that can be taken as self-repairing failures that significantly affect the reliability and accuracy of information transfer. Main task of the given paper is to find a time distribution function (DF) of instructions sequence transmission, which consists of random number of basic blocks. We consider the system software unreliable; the time between adjacent failures has exponential distribution.
Abstract: The recent drive for use of performance-based methodologies in design and assessment of structures in seismic areas has significantly increased the demand for the development of reliable nonlinear inelastic static pushover analysis tools. As a result, the adaptive pushover methods have been developed during the last decade, which unlike their conventional pushover counterparts, feature the ability to account for the effect that higher modes of vibration and progressive stiffness degradation might have on the distribution of seismic storey forces. Even in advanced pushover methods, little attention has been paid to the Unsymmetric structures. This study evaluates the seismic demands for three dimensional Unsymmetric-Plan buildings determined by the Displacement-based Adaptive Pushover (DAP) analysis, which has been introduced by Antoniou and Pinho [2004]. The capability of DAP procedure in capturing the torsional effects due to the irregularities of the structures, is investigated by comparing its estimates to the exact results, obtained from Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA). Also the capability of the procedure in prediction the seismic behaviour of the structure is discussed.
Abstract: Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame system(BRBFs)
are a new type of steel seismic-load-resisting system that has found
use in several countries because of its efficiency and its promise of
seismic performance far superior to that of conventional braced
frames. The system is addressed in the 2005 edition of the AISC
Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings, also a set of design
provisions has been developed by NEHRP. This report illustrates the
seismic design of buckling restrained braced frames and compares
the result of design in the application of earthquake load for ordinary
bracing systems and buckling restrained bracing systems to see the
advantage and disadvantages of this new type of seismic resisting
system in comparison with the old Ordinary Concentric Braced
Frame systems (OCBFs); they are defined by the provisions
governing their design.
Abstract: The seismic vulnerability of an urban area is of a great
deal for local authorities especially those facing earthquakes. So, it is
important to have an efficient tool to assess the vulnerability of
existing buildings. The use of the VIP (Vulnerability Index Program)
and the GIS (Geographic Information System) let us to identify the
most vulnerable districts of an urban area.
The use of the vulnerability index method lets us to assess the
vulnerability of the center town of Blida (Algeria) which is a
historical town and which has grown enormously during the last
decades. In this method, three levels of vulnerability are defined. The
GIS has been used to build a data base in order to perform different
thematic analyses. These analyses show the seismic vulnerability of
Blida.
Abstract: This paper proposes an implementation for the
directed diffusion paradigm aids in studying this paradigm-s
operations and evaluates its behavior according to this
implementation. The directed diffusion is evaluated with respect to
the loss percentage, lifetime, end-to-end delay, and throughput.
From these evaluations some suggestions and modifications are
proposed to improve the directed diffusion behavior according to
this implementation with respect to these metrics. The proposed
modifications reflect the effect of local path repair by introducing a
technique called Loop-free Local Path Repair (LLPR) which
improves the directed diffusion behavior especially with respect to
packet loss percentage by about 92.69%. Also LLPR improves the
throughput and end-to-end delay by about 55.31% and 14.06%
respectively, while the lifetime decreases by about 29.79%.
Abstract: In this paper, the solubility of CO2 in AMP solution
have been measured at temperature range of ( 293, 303 ,313,323)
K.The amine concentration ranges studied are (2.0, 2.8, and 3.4) M.
A solubility apparatus was used to measure the solubility of CO2 in
AMP solution on samples of flue gases from Thermal and Central
Power Plants of Esfahan Steel Company. The modified Kent
Eisenberg model was used to correlate and predict the vapor-liquid
equilibria of the (CO2 + AMP + H2O) system. The model predicted
results are in good agreement with the experimental vapor-liquid
equilibrium measurements.
Abstract: Historic religious buildings located in seismic areas
have developed different failure mechanisms. Simulation of failure
modes is done with computer programs through a nonlinear dynamic
analysis or simplified using the method of failure blocks. Currently
there are simulation methodologies of failure modes based on the
failure rigid blocks method only for Roman Catholic churches type.
Due to differences of shape in plan, elevation and construction
systems between Orthodox churches and Catholic churches, for the
first time there were initiated researches in the development of this
simulation methodology for Orthodox churches. In this article are
presented the first results from the researches. The theoretical results
were compared with real failure modes recorded at an Orthodox
church from Banat region, severely damaged by earthquakes in
1991. Simulated seismic response, using a computer program based
on finite element method was confirmed by cracks after earthquakes.
The consolidation of the church was made according to these
theoretical results, realizing a rigid floor connecting all the failure
blocks.
Abstract: In this study, control performance of a smart base
isolation system consisting of a friction pendulum system (FPS) and a
magnetorheological (MR) damper has been investigated. A fuzzy
logic controller (FLC) is used to modulate the MR damper so as to
minimize structural acceleration while maintaining acceptable base
displacement levels. To this end, a multi-objective optimization
scheme is used to optimize parameters of membership functions and
find appropriate fuzzy rules. To demonstrate effectiveness of the
proposed multi-objective genetic algorithm for FLC, a numerical
study of a smart base isolation system is conducted using several
historical earthquakes. It is shown that the proposed method can find
optimal fuzzy rules and that the optimized FLC outperforms not only a
passive control strategy but also a human-designed FLC and a
conventional semi-active control algorithm.
Abstract: Earthquakes produce some of the most violent loading
situations that a structure can be subjected to and if a structure fails
under these loads then inevitably human life is put at risk. One of the
most common methods by which a structure fails under seismic
loading is at the connection of structural elements. The research
presented in this paper investigates the interlock systems as a novel
method for building structures. The main objective of this
experimental study wasto determine the dynamic characteristics and
the seismic behaviour of the proposed structures compared to
conventional structural systemsduring seismic motions. Results of
this study indicate that the interlock mechanism of the panels
influences the behaviour of lateral load-resisting systems of the
structures during earthquakes, contributing to better structural
flexibility and easier maintenance.
Abstract: Commercial infrastructures intended for use as leisure
retreats such as golf and ski resorts have been extensively developed in many rural areas of Japan. However, following the burst of the economic bubble in the 1990s, several existing resorts faced tough
management decisions and some were forced to close their business.
In this study, six alternative management options for restructuring the
existing golf courses (park, cemetery, biofuel production, reforestation,
pasturing and abandonment) are examined and their environmental
and economic impacts are quantitatively assessed. In addition,
restructuring scenarios of these options and an ex-ante assessment
model are developed. The scenario analysis by Monte Carlo simulation shows a clear trade-off between GHG savings and benefit/cost (B/C) ratios, of which “Restoring Nature" scenario
absorbs the most CO2 among the four scenarios considered, but its B/C
ratio is the lowest. This study can be used to select or examine options
and scenarios of golf course management and rural environmental
management policies.
Abstract: Subcritical water extraction was investigated as a
novel and alternative technology in the food and pharmaceutical
industry for the separation of Mannitol from olive leaves and its
results was compared with those of Soxhlet extraction. The effects of
temperature, pressure, and flow rate of water and also momentum
and mass transfer dimensionless variables such as Reynolds and
Peclet Numbers on extraction yield and equilibrium partition
coefficient were investigated. The 30-110 bars, 60-150°C, and flow
rates of 0.2-2 mL/min were the water operating conditions. The
results revealed that the highest Mannitol yield was obtained at
100°C and 50 bars. However, extraction of Mannitol was not
influenced by the variations of flow rate. The mathematical modeling
of experimental measurements was also investigated and the model is
capable of predicting the experimental measurements very well. In
addition, the results indicated higher extraction yield for the
subcritical water extraction in contrast to Soxhlet method.