Abstract: The paper deals with the analysis of triggering
conditions and evolution processes of piping phenomena, in relation
to both mechanical and hydraulic aspects. In particular, the aim of
the study is to predict slope instabilities triggered by piping,
analysing the conditions necessary for a flow failure to occur. Really,
the mechanical effect involved in the loads redistribution around the
pipe is coupled to the drainage process arising from higher
permeability of the pipe. If after the pipe formation, the drainage
goes prevented for pipe clogging, the porewater pressure increase can
lead to the failure or even the liquefaction, with a subsequent flow
slide. To simulate the piping evolution and to verify relevant stability
conditions, a iterative coupled modelling approach has been pointed
out. As example, the proposed tool has been applied to the Stava
Valley disaster (July, 1985), demonstrating that piping might be one
of triggering phenomena of the tailings dams collapse.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used to monitor/observe vast inaccessible regions through deployment of large number of sensor nodes in the sensing area. For majority of WSN applications, the collected data needs to be combined with geographic information of its origin to make it useful for the user; information received from remote Sensor Nodes (SNs) that are several hops away from base station/sink is meaningless without knowledge of its source. In addition to this, location information of SNs can also be used to propose/develop new network protocols for WSNs to improve their energy efficiency and lifetime. In this paper, range free localization protocols for WSNs have been proposed. The proposed protocols are based on weighted centroid localization technique, where the edge weights of SNs are decided by utilizing fuzzy logic inference for received signal strength and link quality between the nodes. The fuzzification is carried out using (i) Mamdani, (ii) Sugeno, and (iii) Combined Mamdani Sugeno fuzzy logic inference. Simulation results demonstrate that proposed protocols provide better accuracy in node localization compared to conventional centroid based localization protocols despite presence of unintentional radio frequency interference from radio frequency (RF) sources operating in same frequency band.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach for an unequal error
protection of facial features of personal ID images coding. We
consider unequal error protection (UEP) strategies for the efficient
progressive transmission of embedded image codes over noisy
channels. This new method is based on the progressive image
compression embedded zerotree wavelet (EZW) algorithm and UEP
technique with defined region of interest (ROI). In this case is ROI
equal facial features within personal ID image. ROI technique is
important in applications with different parts of importance. In ROI
coding, a chosen ROI is encoded with higher quality than the
background (BG). Unequal error protection of image is provided by
different coding techniques and encoding LL band separately. In our
proposed method, image is divided into two parts (ROI, BG) that
consist of more important bytes (MIB) and less important bytes
(LIB). The proposed unequal error protection of image transmission
has shown to be more appropriate to low bit rate applications,
producing better quality output for ROI of the compresses image.
The experimental results verify effectiveness of the design. The
results of our method demonstrate the comparison of the UEP of
image transmission with defined ROI with facial features and the
equal error protection (EEP) over additive white gaussian noise
(AWGN) channel.
Abstract: This paper presents a method of model selection and
identification of Hammerstein systems by hybridization of the genetic
algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). An unknown
nonlinear static part to be estimated is approximately represented
by an automatic choosing function (ACF) model. The weighting
parameters of the ACF and the system parameters of the linear
dynamic part are estimated by the linear least-squares method. On
the other hand, the adjusting parameters of the ACF model structure
are properly selected by the hybrid algorithm of the GA and PSO,
where the Akaike information criterion is utilized as the evaluation
value function. Simulation results are shown to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed hybrid algorithm.
Abstract: The lack of inclusive housing in Australia contributes
to the marginalization and exclusion of people with disability and
older people from family and community life. The Australian
government has handed over the responsibility of increasing the
supply of inclusive housing to the housing industry through an agreed
national access standard and a voluntary strategy. Voluntary
strategies have not been successful in other constituencies and little is
known about what would work in Australia today. Findings from a
research project into the voluntariness of the housing industry
indicate that a reliable and consistent supply is unlikely without an
equivalent increase in demand. The strategy has, however, an
important role to play in the task of changing housing industry
practices towards building more inclusive communities.
Abstract: The need for multilingual communication in Japan has
increased due to an increase in the number of foreigners in the
country. When people communicate in their nonnative language,
the differences in language prevent mutual understanding among
the communicating individuals. In the medical field, communication
between the hospital staff and patients is a serious problem. Currently,
medical translators accompany patients to medical care facilities, and
the demand for medical translators is increasing. However, medical
translators cannot necessarily provide support, especially in cases in
which round-the-clock support is required or in case of emergencies.
The medical field has high expectations from information technology.
Hence, a system that supports accurate multilingual communication is
required. Despite recent advances in machine translation technology,
it is very difficult to obtain highly accurate translations. We have
developed a support system called M3 for multilingual medical
reception. M3 provides support functions that aid foreign patients in
the following respects: conversation, questionnaires, reception procedures,
and hospital navigation; it also has a Q&A function. Users
can operate M3 using a touch screen and receive text-based support.
In addition, M3 uses accurate translation tools called parallel texts
to facilitate reliable communication through conversations between
the hospital staff and the patients. However, if there is no parallel
text that expresses what users want to communicate, the users cannot
communicate. In this study, we have developed a circulating support
environment for multilingual medical communication using parallel
texts. The proposed environment can circulate necessary parallel texts
through the following procedure: (1) a user provides feedback about
the necessary parallel texts, following which (2) these parallel texts
are created and evaluated.
Abstract: Due to the mobility of users, many information
systems are now developed with the capability of supporting retrieval
of information from both static and mobile users. Hence, the
amount, content and format of the information retrieved will need to
be tailored according to the device and the user who requested for it.
Thus, this paper presents a framework for the design and
implementation of such a system, which is to be developed for
communicating final examination related information to the
academic community at one university in Malaysia. The concept of
personalization will be implemented in the system so that only highly
relevant information will be delivered to the users. The
personalization concept used will be based on user profiling as well
as context. The system in its final state will be accessible through cell
phones as well as intranet connected personal computers.
Abstract: Arvia®, a spin-out company of University of Manchester, UK is commercialising a water treatment technology for the removal of low concentrations of organics from water. This technology is based on the adsorption of organics onto graphite based adsorbents coupled with their electrochemical regeneration in a simple electrochemical cell. In this paper, the potential of the process to adsorb microorganisms and electrochemically disinfect them present in water has been demonstrated. Bench scale experiments have indicated that the process of adsorption using graphite adsorbents with electrochemical regeneration can be used for water disinfection effectively. The most likely mechanisms of disinfection of water through this process include direct electrochemical oxidation and electrochemical chlorination.
Abstract: The network traffic data provided for the design of
intrusion detection always are large with ineffective information and
enclose limited and ambiguous information about users- activities.
We study the problems and propose a two phases approach in our
intrusion detection design. In the first phase, we develop a
correlation-based feature selection algorithm to remove the worthless
information from the original high dimensional database. Next, we
design an intrusion detection method to solve the problems of
uncertainty caused by limited and ambiguous information. In the
experiments, we choose six UCI databases and DARPA KDD99
intrusion detection data set as our evaluation tools. Empirical studies
indicate that our feature selection algorithm is capable of reducing the
size of data set. Our intrusion detection method achieves a better
performance than those of participating intrusion detectors.
Abstract: Medical image data hiding has strict constrains such
as high imperceptibility, high capacity and high robustness.
Achieving these three requirements simultaneously is highly
cumbersome. Some works have been reported in the literature on
data hiding, watermarking and stegnography which are suitable for
telemedicine applications. None is reliable in all aspects. Electronic
Patient Report (EPR) data hiding for telemedicine demand it blind
and reversible. This paper proposes a novel approach to blind
reversible data hiding based on integer wavelet transform.
Experimental results shows that this scheme outperforms the prior
arts in terms of zero BER (Bit Error Rate), higher PSNR (Peak Signal
to Noise Ratio), and large EPR data embedding capacity with
WPSNR (Weighted Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) around 53 dB,
compared with the existing reversible data hiding schemes.
Abstract: This paper is mainly concerned with the application of
a novel technique of data interpretation for classifying measurements
of plasma columns in Tokamak reactors for nuclear fusion
applications. The proposed method exploits several concepts derived
from soft computing theory. In particular, Artificial Neural Networks
and Multi-Class Support Vector Machines have been exploited to
classify magnetic variables useful to determine shape and position of
the plasma with a reduced computational complexity. The proposed
technique is used to analyze simulated databases of plasma equilibria
based on ITER geometry configuration. As well as demonstrating the
successful recovery of scalar equilibrium parameters, we show that
the technique can yield practical advantages compared with earlier
methods.
Abstract: Most scientific programs have large input and output
data sets that require out-of-core programming or use virtual memory
management (VMM). Out-of-core programming is very error-prone
and tedious; as a result, it is generally avoided. However, in many
instance, VMM is not an effective approach because it often results
in substantial performance reduction. In contrast, compiler driven I/O
management will allow a program-s data sets to be retrieved in parts,
called blocks or tiles. Comanche (COmpiler MANaged caCHE) is a
compiler combined with a user level runtime system that can be used
to replace standard VMM for out-of-core programs. We describe
Comanche and demonstrate on a number of representative problems
that it substantially out-performs VMM. Significantly our system
does not require any special services from the operating system and
does not require modification of the operating system kernel.
Abstract: We study the spatial design of experiment and we want to select a most informative subset, having prespecified size, from a set of correlated random variables. The problem arises in many applied domains, such as meteorology, environmental statistics, and statistical geology. In these applications, observations can be collected at different locations and possibly at different times. In spatial design, when the design region and the set of interest are discrete then the covariance matrix completely describe any objective function and our goal is to choose a feasible design that minimizes the resulting uncertainty. The problem is recast as that of maximizing the determinant of the covariance matrix of the chosen subset. This problem is NP-hard. For using these designs in computer experiments, in many cases, the design space is very large and it's not possible to calculate the exact optimal solution. Heuristic optimization methods can discover efficient experiment designs in situations where traditional designs cannot be applied, exchange methods are ineffective and exact solution not possible. We developed a GA algorithm to take advantage of the exploratory power of this algorithm. The successful application of this method is demonstrated in large design space. We consider a real case of design of experiment. In our problem, design space is very large and for solving the problem, we used proposed GA algorithm.
Abstract: This paper demonstrates design and construction of
microcontroller-based telephone exchange system and the aims of
this paper is to study telecommunication, connection with
PIC16F877A and DTMF MT8870D. In microcontroller system, PIC
16F877 microcontroller is used to control the call processing. Dial
tone, busy tone and ring tone are provided during call progress.
Instead of using ready made tone generator IC, oscillator based tone
generator is used. The results of this telephone exchange system are
perfect for homes and small businesses needing the extensions. It
requires the phone operation control system, the analog interface
circuit and the switching circuit. This exchange design will contain
eight channels.
It is the best low cost, good quality telephone exchange for today-s
telecommunication needs. It offers the features available in much
more expensive PBX units without using high-priced phones. It is for
long distance telephone services.
Abstract: Public awareness towards green energy are on the rise and this can be prove by many product being manufactured or prerequired to be made as energy saving devices mainly to save consumer from spending more on utility billing. These schemes are popular nowadays and many homemade appliances are turned into energy saving gadget which attracts the attention of consumers. Knowing the public demands and pattern towards purchasing home appliances thus the idea of “energy saving suction hood (ESSH)" is proposed. The ESSH can be used in many places that require smoke ventilation or even to reduce the room temperature as many conventional suction hoods (CSH) do, but this device works automatically by the usage of sensors that detects the smoke/temperature and automatically spins the exhaust fan. As it turns, the mechanical rotation rotates the AC generator which is coupled together with the fan and then charges the battery. The innovation of this product is, it does not rely on the utility supply as it is also hook up with a solar panel which also charges the battery, Secondly, it generates energy as the exhaust fan mechanically rotates. Thirdly, an energy loop back feature is introduced to this system which will supply for the ventilator fan. Another major innovation is towards interfacing this device with an in house production of generator. This generator is produced by proper design on stator as well as rotor to reduce the losses. A comparison is made between the ESSH and the CSH and result shows that the ESSH saves 172.8kWh/year of utility supply which is used by CSH. This amount of energy can save RM 3.14 from monthly utility bill and a total of RM 37.67 per year. In fact this product can generate 175 Watt of power from generator(75W) and solar panel(100W) that can be used either to supply other household appliances and/or to loop back to supply the fans motor. The innovation of this system is essential for future production of other equipment by using the loopback power method and turning most equipment into a standalone system.
Abstract: In the present study, a procedure was developed to
determine the optimum reaction rate constants in generalized
Arrhenius form and optimized through the Nelder-Mead method. For
this purpose, a comprehensive mathematical model of a fixed bed
reactor for dehydrogenation of heavy paraffins over Pt–Sn/Al2O3
catalyst was developed. Utilizing appropriate kinetic rate expressions
for the main dehydrogenation reaction as well as side reactions and
catalyst deactivation, a detailed model for the radial flow reactor was
obtained. The reactor model composed of a set of partial differential
equations (PDE), ordinary differential equations (ODE) as well as
algebraic equations all of which were solved numerically to
determine variations in components- concentrations in term of mole
percents as a function of time and reactor radius. It was demonstrated
that most significant variations observed at the entrance of the bed
and the initial olefin production obtained was rather high. The
aforementioned method utilized a direct-search optimization
algorithm along with the numerical solution of the governing
differential equations. The usefulness and validity of the method was
demonstrated by comparing the predicted values of the kinetic
constants using the proposed method with a series of experimental
values reported in the literature for different systems.
Abstract: The mechanism of microwave heating is essentially
that of dielectric heating. After exposing the emulsion to the
microwave Electromagnetic (EM) field, molecular rotation and ionic
conduction due to the penetration of (EM) into the emulsion are
responsible for the internal heating. To determine the capability of
microwave technology in demulsification of crude oil emulsions,
microwave demulsification method was applied in a 50-50 % and 20-
80 % water-in-oil emulsions with microwave exposure time varied
from 20-180 sec. Transient temperature profiles of water-in-oil
emulsions inside a cylindrical container were measured. The
temperature rise at a given location was almost horizontal (linear).
The average rates of temperature increase of 50-50 % and 20-80 %
water-in-oil emulsions are 0.351 and 0.437 oC/sec, respectively. The
rate of temperature increase of emulsions decreased at higher
temperature due to decreasing dielectric loss of water. These results
indicate that microwave demulsification of water-in-oil emulsions
does not require chemical additions. Microwave has the potential to
be used as an alternative way in the demulsification process.
Abstract: Static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) is a shunt connected voltage source converter (VSC), which can affect rapid control of reactive flow in the transmission line by controlling the generated a.c. voltage. The main aim of the paper is to design a power system installed with a Static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) and demonstrates the application of the linearised Phillips-heffron model in analyzing the damping effect of the STATCOM to improve power system oscillation stability. The proposed PI controller is designed to coordinate two control inputs: Voltage of the injection bus and capacitor voltage of the STATCOM, to improve the Dynamic stability of a SMIB system .The power oscillations damping (POD) control and power system stabilizer (PSS) and their coordinated action with proposed controllers are tested. The simulation result shows that the proposed damping controllers provide satisfactory performance in terms of improvements of dynamic stability of the system.
Abstract: Cryptographic algorithms play a crucial role in the
information society by providing protection from unauthorized
access to sensitive data. It is clear that information technology will
become increasingly pervasive, Hence we can expect the emergence
of ubiquitous or pervasive computing, ambient intelligence. These
new environments and applications will present new security
challenges, and there is no doubt that cryptographic algorithms and
protocols will form a part of the solution. The efficiency of a public
key cryptosystem is mainly measured in computational overheads,
key size and bandwidth. In particular the RSA algorithm is used in
many applications for providing the security. Although the security
of RSA is beyond doubt, the evolution in computing power has
caused a growth in the necessary key length. The fact that most chips
on smart cards can-t process key extending 1024 bit shows that there
is need for alternative. NTRU is such an alternative and it is a
collection of mathematical algorithm based on manipulating lists of
very small integers and polynomials. This allows NTRU to high
speeds with the use of minimal computing power. NTRU (Nth degree
Truncated Polynomial Ring Unit) is the first secure public key
cryptosystem not based on factorization or discrete logarithm
problem. This means that given sufficient computational resources
and time, an adversary, should not be able to break the key. The
multi-party communication and requirement of optimal resource
utilization necessitated the need for the present day demand of
applications that need security enforcement technique .and can be
enhanced with high-end computing. This has promoted us to develop
high-performance NTRU schemes using approaches such as the use
of high-end computing hardware. Peer-to-peer (P2P) or enterprise
grids are proven as one of the approaches for developing high-end
computing systems. By utilizing them one can improve the
performance of NTRU through parallel execution. In this paper we
propose and develop an application for NTRU using enterprise grid
middleware called Alchemi. An analysis and comparison of its
performance for various text files is presented.
Abstract: In this research, we propose a weighted class based
queuing (WCBQ) mechanism to provide class differentiation and to
reduce the load for the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) presence
server (PS). The tasks of admission controller for the PS are
demonstrated. Analysis and simulation models are developed to
quantify the performance of WCBQ scheme. An optimized dropping
time frame has been developed based on which some of the preexisting
messages are dropped from the PS-buffer. Cost functions are
developed and simulation comparison has been performed with FCFS
(First Come First Served) scheme. The results show that the PS
benefits significantly from the proposed queuing and dropping
algorithm (WCBQ) during heavy traffic.