Abstract: This paper is concerning the application of a deterministic decisional pattern to a multi-agent system which would provide intelligence to a distributed energy smart grid at local consumer level. Development of multi-agent application involves agent specifications, analysis, design and realization. It can be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach to control the smart grid system in a decentralized competitive approach. The proposed algorithmic solution results from a deterministic dichotomous approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative process to solve automatic learning problems. Through memory of collected past tries, the algorithm monotonically converges to very steep system operation point in attraction basin resulting from weak system nonlinearity. In this sense, system is given by (local) constitutive elementary rules the intelligence of its global existence so that it can self-organize toward optimal operating sequence.
Abstract: Gene networks present a graphical view at the level of gene activities and genetic functions and help us to understand complex interactions in a meaningful manner. In the present study, we have analyzed the gene interaction of PPAR-γ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma) by search tool for retrieval of interacting genes. We find PPAR-γ is highly networked by genetic interactions with 10 genes: RXRA (retinoid X receptor, alpha), PPARGC1A (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, coactivator 1 alpha), NCOA1 (nuclear receptor coactivator 1), NR0B2 (nuclear receptor subfamily 0, group B, member 2), HDAC3 (histone deacetylase 3), MED1 (mediator complex subunit 1), INS (insulin), NCOR2 (nuclear receptor co-repressor 2), PAX8 (paired box 8), ADIPOQ (adiponectin) and it augurs well for the fact that obesity and several other metabolic disorders are inter related.
Abstract: The Korean Government has applied the preliminary feasibility study to new government R&D program plans as a part of an evaluation system for R&D programs. The preliminary feasibility study for the R&D program is composed of 3 major criteria such as technological, policy and economic analysis. The program logic model approach is used as a part of the technological analysis in the preliminary feasibility study. We has developed and improved the R&D program logic model. The logic model is a very useful tool for evaluating R&D program plans. Using a logic model, we can generally identify important factors of the R&D program plan, analyze its logic flow and find the disconnection or jump in the logic flow among components of the logic model.
Abstract: This paper deals with design of walking beam pendel
axle suspension system. This axles and suspension systems are
mainly required for transportation of heavy duty and Over Dimension
Consignment (ODC) cargo, which is exceeding legal limit in terms of
length, width and height. Presently, in Indian transportation industry,
ODC movement growth rate has increased in transportation of bridge
sections (pre-cast beams), transformers, heavy machineries, boilers,
gas turbines, windmill blades etc. However, current Indian standard
road transport vehicles are facing lot of service and maintenance
issues due to non availability of suitable axle and suspension to carry
the ODC cargoes. This in turn will lead to increased number of road
accidents, bridge collapse and delayed deliveries, which finally result
in higher operating cost. Understanding these requirements, this work
was carried out. These axles and suspensions are designed for
optimum self – weight with maximum payload carrying capacity with
better road stability.
Abstract: Worldwide interests for the renewable energy are increasing due to environmental and climate changes from traditional petroleum related energy sources. To account for these social needs, ligneous biomass energy is considered as one of the environmentally friend energy solutions. The wood torrefaction process is a feasible method to improve the properties of the biomass fuel and makes the wood have low moisture, lower smoke emission and increased heating value. In this work, therefore, the moisture evaporation model which largely affects energy efficiency of ligneous biomass through moisture contents and heating value relative to its weight is studied with numerical modeling approach by analyzing the effects of torrefaction furnace temperature. The results show that the temperature and moisture fraction of wood decrease by increasing the furnace temperature. When the torrefaction temperature is lower than 423K, there were little changes of the moisture fraction in the wood. Also, it can be found that charcoal is produced more slowly when the torrefaction temperature is lower than 573K.
Abstract: Transesterification reactions free of catalyst between
roasted chicken fat with methanol were carried out in a batch reactor
in order to produce biodiesel to temperatures from 120°C to 140°C.
Parameters related to the transesterification reactions, including
temperature, time and the molar ratio of chicken fat to methanol also
investigated. The maximum yield of the reaction was of 98% under
conditions of 140°C, 4 h of reaction time and a molar ratio of chicken
fat to methanol of 1:31. The biodiesel thus obtained exhibited a
viscosity of 6.3 mm2/s and a density of 895.9 kg/m3. The results
showed this process can be right choice to produce biodiesel since
this process does not use any catalyst. Therefore, the steps of
neutralization and washing are avoided, indispensables in the case of
the alkaline catalysis.
Abstract: The gap between the selection of risk-reduction options in the railway industry and the task of their effective implementation results in compromised safety and substantial losses. An effective risk management must necessarily integrate the evaluation phases with the implementation phase. This paper proposes an essential categorisation of risk reduction measures that best addresses a standard railway industry portfolio. By categorising the risk reduction options into design, operational, procedural and technical options, it is guaranteed that the efforts of the implementation facilitators (people, processes and supporting systems) are systematically harmonised. The classification is based on an integration of fundamental principles of risk reduction in the railway industry with the systems engineering approach.
This paper argues that the use of a similar classification approach is an attribute of organisations possessing a superior level of risk-reduction readiness. The integration of the proposed rational classification structure provides a solid ground for effective risk reduction.
Abstract:
This research studied the influence of delta wing and delta winglet vortex generators on air flow characteristic. Normally, the vortex generator has been used for enhancing the heat transfer performance by promote the helical flow of air stream. The vortex generator was setup in the wind tunnel and the flow pattern of air stream passing the vortex generator was observed by using smoke generator. The Reynolds number of air stream was between 30,000 and 80,000. It is found that the delta winglet having 20mm fin height and 30 degree of air stream contact angle generates the maximum helical flow of air stream.
Abstract: Execution of Business Software Systems (BSS) Development and Enhancement Projects (D&EP) is characterized by the exceptionally low effectiveness, leading to considerable financial losses. The general reason for low effectiveness of such projects is that they are inappropriately managed. One of the factors of proper BSS D&EP management is suitable (reliable and objective) method of project work effort estimation since this is what determines correct estimation of its major attributes: project cost and duration. BSS D&EP is usually considered to be accomplished effectively if product of a planned functionality is delivered without cost and time overrun. The goal of this paper is to prove that choosing approach to the BSS D&EP work effort estimation has a considerable influence on the effectiveness of such projects execution.
Abstract: The concept of adaptive shape parameters (ASP) has been presented for solution of incompressible Navier Strokes equations using mesh-free local Radial Basis Functions (RBF). The aim is to avoid ill-conditioning of coefficient matrices of RBF weights and inaccuracies in RBF interpolation resulting from non-optimized shape of basis functions for the cases where data points (or nodes) are not distributed uniformly throughout the domain. Unlike conventional approaches which assume globally similar values of RBF shape parameters, the presented ASP technique suggests that shape parameter be calculated exclusively for each data point (or node) based on the distribution of data points within its own influence domain. This will ensure interpolation accuracy while still maintaining well conditioned system of equations for RBF weights. Performance and accuracy of ASP technique has been tested by evaluating derivatives and laplacian of a known function using RBF in Finite difference mode (RBFFD), with and without the use of adaptivity in shape parameters. Application of adaptive shape parameters (ASP) for solution of incompressible Navier Strokes equations has been presented by solving lid driven cavity flow problem on mesh-free domain using RBF-FD. The results have been compared for fixed and adaptive shape parameters. Improved accuracy has been achieved with the use of ASP in RBF-FD especially at regions where larger gradients of field variables exist.
Abstract: Localization and Recognition of License registration characters from the moving vehicle is a computationally complex task in the field of machine vision and is of substantial interest because of its diverse applications such as cross border security, law enforcement and various other intelligent transportation applications. Previous research used the plate specific details such as aspect ratio, character style, color or dimensions of the plate in the complex task of plate localization. In this paper, license registration character is localized by Enhanced Weight based density map (EWBDM) method, which is independent of such constraints. In connection with our previous method, this paper proposes a method that relaxes constraints in lighting conditions, different fonts of character occurred in the plate and plates with hand-drawn characters in various aspect quotients. The robustness of this method is well suited for applications where the appearance of plates seems to be varied widely. Experimental results show that this approach is suited for recognizing license plates in different external environments.
Abstract: Travel Demands influence micro-level traffic behavior,
furthermore traffic states. In order to evaluate the effect of travel
demands on traffic states, this paper introduces the Demand-
Motivation-Behaviors (DMB) micro traffic behavior analysis model
which denotes that vehicles behaviors are determines by motivations
that relies on traffic demands from the perspective of behavior
science. For vehicles, there are two kinds of travel demands: reaching
travel destinations from orientations and meeting expectations of
travel speed. To satisfy travel demands, the micro traffic behaviors are
delivered such as car following behavior, optional and mandatory lane
changing behaviors. Especially, mandatory lane changing behaviors
depending on travel demands take strong impact on traffic states.
In this paper, we define the DMB-based cellular automate traffic
simulation model to evaluate the effect of travel demands on traffic
states under the different δ values that reflect the ratio of mandatory
lane-change vehicles.
Abstract: Discrete search path planning in time-constrained uncertain environment relying upon imperfect sensors is known to be hard, and current problem-solving techniques proposed so far to compute near real-time efficient path plans are mainly bounded to provide a few move solutions. A new information-theoretic –based open-loop decision model explicitly incorporating false alarm sensor readings, to solve a single agent military logistics search-and-delivery path planning problem with anticipated feedback is presented. The decision model consists in minimizing expected entropy considering anticipated possible observation outcomes over a given time horizon. The model captures uncertainty associated with observation events for all possible scenarios. Entropy represents a measure of uncertainty about the searched target location. Feedback information resulting from possible sensor observations outcomes along the projected path plan is exploited to update anticipated unit target occupancy beliefs. For the first time, a compact belief update formulation is generalized to explicitly include false positive observation events that may occur during plan execution. A novel genetic algorithm is then proposed to efficiently solve search path planning, providing near-optimal solutions for practical realistic problem instances. Given the run-time performance of the algorithm, natural extension to a closed-loop environment to progressively integrate real visit outcomes on a rolling time horizon can be easily envisioned. Computational results show the value of the approach in comparison to alternate heuristics.
Abstract: Synthetic oily wastewaters were prepared from metal working fluids (MWF). Electrocoagulation experiments were performed under constant voltage application. The current, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature were recorded on line at every 5 seconds during the experiments. Effects of applied voltage differences, electrode materials and distance between electrodes on removal efficiency have been investigated. According to the experimental results, the treatment of MWF wastewaters by iron electrodes rather than aluminum and stainless steel was much quicker; and the distance between electrodes should be less than 1cm. The electrocoagulation process was modeled by using block oriented approach and found out that it can be modeled as a single input and multiple output system. Modeling studies indicates that the electrocoagulation process has a nonlinear model structure.
Abstract: In this work we study the thermodynamic behavior of some ventilated facades under summer operating conditions in Southern Spain. Under these climatic conditions, indoor comfort implies a high energetic demand due to high temperatures that usually are reached in this season in the considered geographical area.
The aim of this work is to determine if during summer operating conditions in Southern Spain, ventilated façades provide some energy saving compared to the non-ventilated façades and to deduce their behavior patterns in terms of energy efficiency.
The modelization of the air flow in the channel has been performed by using Navier-Stokes equations for thermodynamic flows. Numerical simulations have been carried out with a 2D Finite Element approach.
This way, we analyze the behavior of ventilated façades under different weather conditions as variable wind, variable temperature and different levels of solar irradiation.
CFD computations show the combined effect of the shading of the external wall and the ventilation by the natural convection into the air gap achieve a reduction of the heat load during the summer period. This reduction has been evaluated by comparing the thermodynamic performances of two ventilated and two unventilated façades with the same geometry and thermophysical characteristics.
Abstract: Image segmentation is the process to segment a given image into several parts so that each of these parts present in the
image can be further analyzed. There are numerous techniques of image segmentation available in literature. In this paper, authors have been analyzed the edge-based approach for image segmentation. They have been implemented the different edge operators like Prewitt, Sobel, LoG, and Canny on the basis of their threshold parameter. The results of these operators have been shown for
various images.
Abstract: This paper investigates the suitability of Latin Hypercube sampling (LHS) for composite electric power system reliability analysis. Each sample generated in LHS is mapped into an equivalent system state and used for evaluating the annualized system and load point indices. DC loadflow based state evaluation model is solved for each sampled contingency state. The indices evaluated are loss of load probability, loss of load expectation, expected demand not served and expected energy not supplied. The application of the LHS is illustrated through case studies carried out using RBTS and IEEE-RTS test systems. Results obtained are compared with non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation and state enumeration analytical approaches. An error analysis is also carried out to check the LHS method’s ability to capture the distributions of the reliability indices. It is found that LHS approach estimates indices nearer to actual value and gives tighter bounds of indices than non-sequential Monte Carlo simulation.
Abstract: Nowadays, in most radiotherapy departments, the commercial treatment planning systems (TPS) used to calculate dose distributions needs to be verified; therefore, quick, easy-to-use and low cost dose distribution algorithms are desirable to test and verify the performance of the TPS. In this paper, we put forth an analytical method to calculate the phantom scatter contribution and depth dose on the central axis based on the equivalent square concept. Then, this method was generalized to calculate the profiles at any depth and for several field shapes regular or irregular fields under symmetry and asymmetry photon beam conditions. Varian 2100 C/D and Siemens Primus Plus Linacs with 6 and 18 MV photon beam were used for irradiations. Percentage depth doses (PDDs) were measured for a large number of square fields for both energies, and for 45º wedges which were employed to obtain the profiles in any depth. To assess the accuracy of the calculated profiles, several profile measurements were carried out for some treatment fields. The calculated and measured profiles were compared by gamma-index calculation. All γ–index calculations were based on a 3% dose criterion and a 3 mm dose-to-agreement (DTA) acceptance criterion. The γ values were less than 1 at most points. However, the maximum γ observed was about 1.10 in the penumbra region in most fields and in the central area for the asymmetric fields. This analytical approach provides a generally quick and fairly accurate algorithm to calculate dose distribution for some treatment fields in conventional radiotherapy.
Abstract: In the present study, the problem of geometrically nonlinear free vibrations of functionally graded circular plates (FGCP) resting on Pasternak elastic foundation with immovable ends was studied. The material properties of the functionally graded composites examined were assumed to be graded in the thickness direction and estimated through the rule of mixture. The theoretical model is based on the classical Plate theory and the Von Kármán geometrical nonlinearity assumptions. Hamilton’s principle is applied and a multimode approach is derived to calculate the fundamental nonlinear frequency parameters, which are found to be in a good agreement with the published results dealing with the problem of functionally graded plates. On the other hand, the influence of the foundation parameters on the nonlinear frequency to the linear frequency ratio of the FGCP has been studied. The effect of the linear and shearing foundations is to decrease the frequency ratio, where it increases with the effect of the nonlinear foundation stiffness.
Abstract: Hydrogen fuel is a zero-emission fuel which uses electrochemical cells or combustion in internal engines, to power vehicles and electric devices. Methods of hydrogen storage for subsequent use span many approaches, including high pressures, cryogenics and chemical compounds that reversibly release H2 upon heating. Most research into hydrogen storage is focused on storing hydrogen as a lightweight, compact energy carrier for mobile applications. With the accelerating demand for cleaner and more efficient energy sources, hydrogen research has attracted more attention in the scientific community. Until now, full implementation of a hydrogen-based energy system has been hindered in part by the challenge of storing hydrogen gas, especially onboard an automobile. New techniques being researched may soon make hydrogen storage more compact, safe and efficient. In this overview, few hydrogen storage methods and mechanism of hydrogen uptake in carbon nanotubes are summarized.