Seismic Behavior Evaluation of Semi-Rigid Steel Frames with Knee Bracing by Modal Pushover Analysis (MPA)

Nowadays use of a new structural bracing system called 'Knee Bracing System' have taken the specialists attention too much. On the other hand nonlinear static analysis procedures in estimate structures performance in earthquake time have taken attention too much. One of these procedure is modal pushover analysis (MPA) procedure. The accuracy of MPA procedure for simple steel moment resisting frame has been verified and considered in Chintanapakdee and Chopra-s article in 2003. Since the accuracy of MPA procedure has not verified for semi-rigid steel frames with knee bracing, we are going to get through with this matter in this study. For this purpose, the selected structures are four frames with different heights, 5 to 20 stories, will be designed according to AISC criteria. Then MPA procedure is used for the same frames with different rigidity percentiles of connections. The results of seismic responses are compared with dynamic nonlinear response history analysis as exact procedure and accuracy of MPA procedure is evaluated. It seems that MPA procedure accuracy will come down by reduction of the rigidity percentiles of semi-rigid connections.

Numerical Simulations of Flood and Inundation in Jobaru River Basin Using Laser Profiler Data

Laser Profiler (LP) data from aerial laser surveys have been increasingly used as topographical inputs to numerical simulations of flooding and inundation in river basins. LP data has great potential for reproducing topography, but its effective usage has not yet been fully established. In this study, flooding and inundation are simulated numerically using LP data for the Jobaru River basin of Japan’s Saga Plain. The analysis shows that the topography is reproduced satisfactorily in the computational domain with urban and agricultural areas requiring different grid sizes. A 2-D numerical simulation shows that flood flow behavior changes as grid size is varied.

Cross-cultural Analysis of the Strategy of Tolerance in the Republic of Kazakhstan

The modern Kazakh society is characterized by strengthen cross-cultural communication, the emergence of new powerful subcultures, accelerated change in social systems and values. The socio-political reforms in all fields have changed the quality of social relationships and spiritual life.Cross-cultural approach involves the analysis of different types of behavior and communication, including the manifestation of the conflict, and the formation of marginal destructive stereotypes.

Radar Task Schedulers based on Multiple Queue

There are very complex communication systems, as the multifunction radar, MFAR (Multi-Function Array Radar), where functions are integrated all together, and simultaneously are performed the classic functions of tracking and surveillance, as all the functions related to the communication, countermeasures, and calibration. All these functions are divided into the tasks to execute. The task scheduler is a key element of the radar, since it does the planning and distribution of energy and time resources to be shared and used by all tasks. This paper presents schedulers based on the use of multiple queue. Several schedulers have been designed and studied, and it has been made a comparative analysis of different performed schedulers. The tests and experiments have been done by means of system software simulation. Finally a suitable set of radar characteristics has been selected to evaluate the behavior of the task scheduler working.

Optimal Controllers with Actuator Saturation for Nonlinear Structures

Since the actuator capacity is limited, in the real application of active control systems under sever earthquakes it is conceivable that the actuators saturate, hence the actuator saturation should be considered as a constraint in design of optimal controllers. In this paper optimal design of active controllers for nonlinear structures by considering actuator saturation, has been studied. The proposed method for designing optimal controllers is based on defining an optimization problem which the objective has been to minimize the maximum displacement of structure when a limited capacity for actuator has been used. To this end a single degree of freedom (SDF) structure with a bilinear hysteretic behavior has been simulated under a white noise ground acceleration of different amplitudes. Active tendon control mechanism, comprised of prestressed tendons and an actuator, and extended nonlinear Newmark method based instantaneous optimal control algorithm have been used. To achieve the best results, the weights corresponding to displacement, velocity, acceleration and control force in the performance index have been optimized by the Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA). Results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in considering actuator saturation. Also based on the numerical simulations it can be concluded that the actuator capacity and the average value of required control force are two important factors in designing nonlinear controllers which consider the actuator saturation.

Occupants- Behavior and Spatial Implications of Riverfront Residential in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The urbanization phenomenon in Yogyakarta Special Province, Indonesia, encouraged people move to the city for getting jobs in the informal sectors. They live in some temporary houses in the three main riverbanks: Gadjahwong, Code, and Winongo. Triggered by its independent status they use it as the space for accommodating domestic, social and economy activities because of the non standardized room size of their houses, where are recognized as the environmental hazards. This recognition makes the ambivalent perception when was related to the twelfth point of the philosophy of community development concept: the empowering individuals and communities. Its spatial implication have actually described the territory and the place making phenomena. By analyzing some data collected the author-s fundamental research funded by The General Directorate of Higher Education of Indonesia, this paper will discuss how do the spatial implications of the occupants- behavior and the numerous perceptions of those phenomena.

Effect of Mean Stress on Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Stainless Steel 304L

Stainless steel has been employed in many engineering applications ranging from pharmaceutical equipment to piping in the nuclear reactors and storage to chemical products. In this attempt, simulation of fatigue crack growth based on experimental results of austenitic stainless steel 304L was presented using AFGROW code when NASGRO mode laws adopted. Double through crack at hole specimen is used in this investigation under constant amplitude loading. Effect of mean stress is highlighted. Results show that fatigue crack growth rate (FCGR) and fatigue life were affected by maximum applied load and dimension of hole. An equivalent of Paris law for this material was estimated.

Stress Analysis of Adhesively Bonded Double- Lap Joints Subjected to Combined Loading

Adhesively bonded joints are preferred over the conventional methods of joining such as riveting, welding, bolting and soldering. Some of the main advantages of adhesive joints compared to conventional joints are the ability to join dissimilar materials and damage-sensitive materials, better stress distribution, weight reduction, fabrication of complicated shapes, excellent thermal and insulation properties, vibration response and enhanced damping control, smoother aerodynamic surfaces and an improvement in corrosion and fatigue resistance. This paper presents the behavior of adhesively bonded joints subjected to combined thermal loadings, using the numerical methods. The joint configuration considers aluminum as central adherend with six different outer adherends including aluminum, steel, titanium, boronepoxy, unidirectional graphite-epoxy and cross-ply graphite-epoxy and epoxy-based adhesives. Free expansion of the joint in x direction was permitted and stresses in adhesive layer and interfaces calculated for different adherends.

Pipelines Monitoring System Using Bio-mimetic Robots

Recently there has been a growing interest in the field of bio-mimetic robots that resemble the behaviors of an insect or an aquatic animal, among many others. One of various bio-mimetic robot applications is to explore pipelines, spotting any troubled areas or malfunctions and reporting its data. Moreover, the robot is able to prepare for and react to any abnormal routes in the pipeline. Special types of mobile robots are necessary for the pipeline monitoring tasks. In order to move effectively along a pipeline, the robot-s movement will resemble that of insects or crawling animals. When situated in massive pipelines with complex routes, the robot places fixed sensors in several important spots in order to complete its monitoring. This monitoring task is to prevent a major system failure by preemptively recognizing any minor or partial malfunctions. Areas uncovered by fixed sensors are usually impossible to provide real-time observation and examination, and thus are dependent on periodical offline monitoring. This paper proposes a monitoring system that is able to monitor the entire area of pipelines–with and without fixed sensors–by using the bio-mimetic robot.

Stability Issues on an Implemented All-Pass Filter Circuitry

The so-called all-pass filter circuits are commonly used in the field of signal processing, control and measurement. Being connected to capacitive loads, these circuits tend to loose their stability; therefore the elaborate analysis of their dynamic behavior is necessary. The compensation methods intending to increase the stability of such circuits are discussed in this paper, including the socalled lead-lag compensation technique being treated in detail. For the dynamic modeling, a two-port network model of the all-pass filter is being derived. The results of the model analysis show, that effective lead-lag compensation can be achieved, alone by the optimization of the circuit parameters; therefore the application of additional electric components are not needed to fulfill the stability requirement.

Development of UiTM Robotic Prosthetic Hand

The study of human hand morphology reveals that developing an artificial hand with the capabilities of human hand is an extremely challenging task. This paper presents the development of a robotic prosthetic hand focusing on the improvement of a tendon driven mechanism towards a biomimetic prosthetic hand. The design of this prosthesis hand is geared towards achieving high level of dexterity and anthropomorphism by means of a new hybrid mechanism that integrates a miniature motor driven actuation mechanism, a Shape Memory Alloy actuated mechanism and a passive mechanical linkage. The synergy of these actuators enables the flexion-extension movement at each of the finger joints within a limited size, shape and weight constraints. Tactile sensors are integrated on the finger tips and the finger phalanges area. This prosthesis hand is developed with an exact size ratio that mimics a biological hand. Its behavior resembles the human counterpart in terms of working envelope, speed and torque, and thus resembles both the key physical features and the grasping functionality of an adult hand.

Ensuring Data Security and Consistency in FTIMA - A Fault Tolerant Infrastructure for Mobile Agents

Transaction management is one of the most crucial requirements for enterprise application development which often require concurrent access to distributed data shared amongst multiple application / nodes. Transactions guarantee the consistency of data records when multiple users or processes perform concurrent operations. Existing Fault Tolerance Infrastructure for Mobile Agents (FTIMA) provides a fault tolerant behavior in distributed transactions and uses multi-agent system for distributed transaction and processing. In the existing FTIMA architecture, data flows through the network and contains personal, private or confidential information. In banking transactions a minor change in the transaction can cause a great loss to the user. In this paper we have modified FTIMA architecture to ensure that the user request reaches the destination server securely and without any change. We have used triple DES for encryption/ decryption and MD5 algorithm for validity of message.

Planning the Building Evacuation Routes by a Spatial Network

The previous proposed evacuation routing approaches usually divide the space into multiple interlinked zones. However, it may be harder to clearly and objectively define the margins of each zone. This paper proposes an approach that connects locations of necessary guidance into a spatial network. In doing so, evacuation routes can be constructed based on the links between starting points, turning nodes, and terminal points. This approach more conforms to the real-life evacuation behavior. The feasibility of the proposed approach is evaluated through a case of one floor in a hospital building. Results indicate that the proposed approach provides valuable suggestions for evacuation planning.

CFD Simulation and Validation of Flap Type Wave-Maker

A general purpose viscous flow solver Ansys CFX was used to solve the unsteady three-dimensional (3D) Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equation (RANSE) for simulating a 3D numerical viscous wave tank. A flap-type wave generator was incorporated in the computational domain to generate the desired incident waves. Authors have made effort to study the physical behaviors of Flap type wave maker with governing parameters. Dependency of the water fill depth, Time period of oscillations and amplitude of oscillations of flap were studied. Effort has been made to establish relations between parameters. A validation study was also carried out against CFD methodology with wave maker theory. It has been observed that CFD results are in good agreement with theoretical results. Beaches of different slopes were introduced to damp the wave, so that it should not cause any reflection from boundary. As a conclusion this methodology can simulate the experimental wave-maker for regular wave generation for different wave length and amplitudes.

The Path to Web Intelligence Maturity

Web intelligence, if made personal, can fuel the process of building communications around the interests and preferences of each individual customer or prospect, by providing specific behavioral insights about each individual. To become fully efficient, Web intelligence must reach a stage of a high-level maturity, passing throughout a process that involves five steps: (1) Web site analysis; (2) Web site and advertising optimization; (3) Segment targeting; (4) Interactive marketing (online only); and (5) Interactive marketing (online and offline). Discussing these steps in detail, the paper uncovers the real gold mine that is personal-level Web intelligence.

Transient Hydrodynamic and Thermal Behaviors of Fluid Flow in a Vertical Porous Microchannel under the Effect of Hyperbolic Heat Conduction Model

The transient hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors of fluid flow in open-ended vertical parallel-plate porous microchannel are investigated semi-analytically under the effect of the hyperbolic heat conduction model. The model that combines both the continuum approach and the possibility of slip at the boundary is adopted in the study. The Effects of Knudsen number , Darcy number , and thermal relaxation time  on the microchannel hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors are investigated using the hyperbolic heat conduction models. It is found that as  increases the slip in the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary condition increases. This slip in the hydrodynamic boundary condition increases as  increases. Also, the slip in the thermal boundary condition increases as  decreases especially the early stage of time.

Policies that Enhance Learning and Teaching

Educational institutions often implement policies with the intention of influencing how learning and teaching occur. Generally, such policies are not as effective as their makers would like; changing the behavior of third-level teachers proves difficult. Nevertheless, a policy instituted in 2006 at the Dublin Institute of Technology has met with success: each newly hired faculty member must have a post-graduate qualification in “Learning and Teaching" or successfully complete one within the first two years of employment. The intention is to build teachers- knowledge about student-centered pedagogies and their capacity to implement them. As a result of this policy (and associated programs that support it), positive outcomes are readily apparent. Individual teachers who have completed the programs have implemented significant change at the course and program levels. This paper introduces the policy, identifies outcomes in relation to existing theory, describes research underway, and pinpoints areas where organizational learning has occurred.

Durability of LDPE Geomembrane within Sealing System of MSW (Landfill)

Analyse of locally manufactured Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) durability, used within lining systems at bottom of Municipal Solid Waste (landfill), is done in the present work. For this end, short and middle time creep behavior under tension of the analyzed material is carried out. The locally manufactured material is tested and compared to the European one (LDPE-CE). Both materials was tested in 03 various mediums: ambient and two aggressive (salty water and foam water), using three specimens in each case. A testing campaign is carried out using an especially designed and achieved testing bench. Moreover, characterisation tests were carried out to evaluate the medium effect on the mechanical properties of the tested material (LDPE). Furthermore, experimental results have been used to establish a law regression which can be used to predict creep behaviour of the analyzed material. As a result, the analyzed LDPE material has showed a good stability in different ambient and aggressive mediums; as well, locally manufactured LDPE seems more flexible, compared with the European one. This makes it more useful to the desired application.

Evolving a Fuzzy Rule-Base for Image Segmentation

A new method for color image segmentation using fuzzy logic is proposed in this paper. Our aim here is to automatically produce a fuzzy system for color classification and image segmentation with least number of rules and minimum error rate. Particle swarm optimization is a sub class of evolutionary algorithms that has been inspired from social behavior of fishes, bees, birds, etc, that live together in colonies. We use comprehensive learning particle swarm optimization (CLPSO) technique to find optimal fuzzy rules and membership functions because it discourages premature convergence. Here each particle of the swarm codes a set of fuzzy rules. During evolution, a population member tries to maximize a fitness criterion which is here high classification rate and small number of rules. Finally, particle with the highest fitness value is selected as the best set of fuzzy rules for image segmentation. Our results, using this method for soccer field image segmentation in Robocop contests shows 89% performance. Less computational load is needed when using this method compared with other methods like ANFIS, because it generates a smaller number of fuzzy rules. Large train dataset and its variety, makes the proposed method invariant to illumination noise

Improvising Intrusion Detection for Malware Activities on Dual-Stack Network Environment

Malware is software which was invented and meant for doing harms on computers. Malware is becoming a significant threat in computer network nowadays. Malware attack is not just only involving financial lost but it can also cause fatal errors which may cost lives in some cases. As new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) emerged, many people believe this protocol could solve most malware propagation issues due to its broader addressing scheme. As IPv6 is still new compares to native IPv4, some transition mechanisms have been introduced to promote smoother migration. Unfortunately, these transition mechanisms allow some malwares to propagate its attack from IPv4 to IPv6 network environment. In this paper, a proof of concept shall be presented in order to show that some existing IPv4 malware detection technique need to be improvised in order to detect malware attack in dual-stack network more efficiently. A testbed of dual-stack network environment has been deployed and some genuine malware have been released to observe their behaviors. The results between these different scenarios will be analyzed and discussed further in term of their behaviors and propagation methods. The results show that malware behave differently on IPv6 from the IPv4 network protocol on the dual-stack network environment. A new detection technique is called for in order to cater this problem in the near future.