Abstract: Automation of airport operations can greatly improve
ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile
design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and
guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional
trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two
stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage,
speeds are allocated at control points, which ensure smooth speed
profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles
of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control
point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel
consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the
first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method
for the second-stage problem, since it only has a small set of discrete
variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented
methodology performs well on real world speed profile design
problems.
Abstract: Communicating users' needs, goals and problems help
designers and developers overcome challenges faced by end users.
Personas are used to represent end users’ needs. In our research,
creating personas allowed the following questions to be answered:
Who are the potential user groups? What do they want to achieve by
using the service? What are the problems that users face? What
should the service provide to them? To develop realistic personas, we
conducted a focus group discussion with undergraduate and graduate
students and also interviewed a university librarian. The personas
were created to help evaluating the Institutional Repository that is
based on the DSpace system. The profiles helped to communicate
users' needs, abilities, tasks, and problems, and the task scenarios
used in the heuristic evaluation were based on these personas. Four
personas resulted of a focus group discussion with undergraduate and
graduate students and from interviewing a university librarian. We
then used these personas to create focused task-scenarios for a
heuristic evaluation on the system interface to ensure that it met
users' needs, goals, problems and desires. In this paper, we present
the process that we used to create the personas that led to devise the
task scenarios used in the heuristic evaluation as a follow up study of
the DSpace university repository.
Abstract: This paper presents the influence of the vertical
seismic component on the non-linear dynamics analysis of three
different structures. The subject structures were analyzed and
designed according to recent codes. This paper considers three types
of buildings: 5-, 10-, and 15-story buildings. The non-linear dynamics
analysis of the structures with assuming elastic-perfectly-plastic
behavior was performed using RAM PERFORM-3D software; the
horizontal component was taken into consideration with and without
the incorporation of the corresponding vertical component. Dynamic
responses obtained for the horizontal component acting alone were
compared with those obtained from the simultaneous application of
both seismic components. The results show that the effect of the
vertical component of ground motion may increase the axial load
significantly in the interior columns and, consequently, the stories.
The plastic mechanisms would be changed. The P-Delta effect is
expected to increase. The punching base plate shear of the columns
should be considered. Moreover, the vertical component increases the
input energy when the structures exhibit inelastic behavior and are
taller.
Abstract: In an attempt to investigate the performance of single
basin solar still for climate conditions of Ludhiana a single basin
solar still was designed, fabricated and tested. The energy balance
equations for various parts of the still are solved by Gauss-Seidel
iteration method. Computer model was made and experimentally
validated. The validated computer model was used to estimate the
annual distillation yield and performance ratio of the still for
Ludhiana. The Theoretical and experimental distillation yield were
4318.79 ml and 3850 ml respectively for the typical day. The
predicted distillation yield was 12.5% higher than the experimental
yield. The annual distillation yield per square metre aperture area and
annual performance ratio for single basin solar still is 1095 litres and
0.43 respectively. The payback period for micro-stepped solar still is
2.5 years.
Abstract: The research aims to study the association between
job satisfaction, motivation and the five factors of organizational
citizenship behavior (i.e. Altruism, Conscientiousness,
Sportsmanship, Courtesy and Civic virtue) among Public Sector
Employees in Pakistan. In this research Structure Equation Modeling
with confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the relationship
between two independent and five dependent variables. Data was
collected through questionnaire survey from 152 Public Servants
Working in Gujrat District-Pakistan in different capacities. Stratified
Random Sampling Technique was used to conduct this survey. The
results of the study indicate that five factors of OCB have positive
significant relation with both motivation and job satisfaction except
the relationship of Civic Virtue with Motivation. The research
findings implicate that factors other than motivation and job
satisfaction may also affect OCB. Likewise, all the five factors of
OCB may not be present in all populations. Thus, Managers must
concentrate on increasing motivation and job satisfaction to increase
OCB. Furthermore, the present research gives a direction to future
researchers to use more independent variables (e.g. Culture,
leadership, workplace environment, various job attitudes, types of
motivation, etc.) on different types of populations with larger sample
size in order to find the reasons behind insignificant relationship of
civic virtue with Motivation in the research in hand and to generalize
the tested model.
Abstract: This paper describes the collection and analysis of
data obtained from face-to-face interviews conducted in selected
Libyan industrial companies. The objectives of the interviews are to
enhance understanding, and generate explanations of current issues in
culture and quality management systems in Libyan companies. The
method used in analyzing the questions, as well as the main finding
of each question are explained. The interviews probed areas identify
national and organizational culture, quality management systems,
current methods, effects, barriers and other factors affecting the
success of quality management implementation. Eleven questions are
prepared and been discussed with the interviewees.
Abstract: Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), developed in the
dance community over the past seventy years, is an effective method
for observing, describing, notating, and interpreting human
movement to enhance communication and expression in everyday
and professional life. Many applications that use motion capture data
might be significantly leveraged if the Laban qualities will be
recognized automatically. This paper presents an automated
recognition method of Laban qualities from motion capture skeletal
recordings and it is demonstrated on the output of Microsoft’s Kinect
V2 sensor.
Abstract: This paper introduces a method to optimal design of a
hybrid Wind/Photovoltaic/Fuel cell generation system for a typical
domestic load that is not located near the electricity grid. In this
configuration the combination of a battery, an electrolyser, and a
hydrogen storage tank are used as the energy storage system. The aim
of this design is minimization of overall cost of generation scheme
over 20 years of operation. The Matlab/Simulink is applied for
choosing the appropriate structure and the optimization of system
sizing. A teaching learning based optimization is used to optimize the
cost function. An overall power management strategy is designed for
the proposed system to manage power flows among the different
energy sources and the storage unit in the system. The results have
been analyzed in terms of technical and economic. The simulation
results indicate that the proposed hybrid system would be a feasible
solution for stand-alone applications at remote locations.
Abstract: The growing number of computer viruses and the
detection of zero day malware have been the concern for security
researchers for a large period of time. Existing antivirus products
(AVs) rely on detecting virus signatures which do not provide a full
solution to the problems associated with these viruses. The use of
logic formulae to model the behaviour of viruses is one of the most
encouraging recent developments in virus research, which provides
alternatives to classic virus detection methods. In this paper, we
proposed a comparative study about different virus detection
techniques. This paper provides the advantages and drawbacks of
different detection techniques. Different techniques will be used in
this paper to provide a discussion about what technique is more
effective to detect computer viruses.
Abstract: Investigating the dynamic responses of high rise
structures under the effect of siesmic ground motion is extremely
important for the proper analysis and design of multitoried structures.
Since the presence of infilled walls strongly influences the behaviour
of frame systems in multistoried buildings, there is an increased need
for developing guidelines for the analysis and design of infilled
frames under the effect of dynamic loads for safe and proper design
of buildings. In this manuscript, we evaluate the natural frequencies
and natural periods of single bay single storey frames considering the
effect of infill walls by using the Eigen value analysis and validating
with SAP 2000 (free vibration analysis). Various parameters obtained
from the diagonal strut model followed for the free vibration analysis
is then compared with the Finite Element model, where infill is
modeled as shell elements (four noded). We also evaluated the effect
of various parameters on the natural periods of vibration obtained by
free vibration analysis in SAP 2000 comparing them with those
obtained by the empirical expressions presented in I.S. 1893(Part I)-
2002.
Abstract: In this article, a new method is proposed for the measuring of well-being inequality through a model composed of superimposing satisfaction waves. The displacement of households’ satisfactory state (i.e. satisfaction) is defined in a satisfaction string. The duration of the satisfactory state for a given period is measured in order to determine the relationship between utility and total satisfactory time, itself dependent on the density and tension of each satisfaction string. Thus, individual cardinal total satisfaction values are computed by way of a one-dimensional form for scalar sinusoidal (harmonic) moving wave function, using satisfaction waves with varying amplitudes and frequencies which allow us to measure wellbeing inequality. One advantage to using satisfaction waves is the ability to show that individual utility and consumption amounts would probably not commute; hence, it is impossible to measure or to know simultaneously the values of these observables from the dataset. Thus, we crystallize the problem by using a Heisenberg-type uncertainty resolution for self-adjoint economic operators. We propose to eliminate any estimation bias by correlating the standard deviations of selected economic operators; this is achieved by replacing the aforementioned observed uncertainties with households’ perceived uncertainties (i.e. corrected standard deviations) obtained through the logarithmic psychophysical law proposed by Weber and Fechner.
Abstract: The primary objective of this work was to study the
effect of resin chemistry, pH and molarity of binding and elution
buffer on aggregate removal using Cation Exchange Chromatography
and find the optimum conditions which can give efficient aggregate
removal with minimum loss of yield. Four different resins were used
for carrying out the experiments: Fractogel EMD SO3
-(S), Fractogel EMD COO-(M), Capto SP ImpRes and S Ceramic HyperD. Runs
were carried out on the AKTA Avant system. Design of Experiments
(DOE) was used for analysis using the JMP software. The
dependence of the yield obtained using different resins on the
operating conditions was studied. Success has been achieved in
obtaining yield greater than 90% using Capto SP ImpRes and
Fractogel EMD COO-(M) resins. It has also been found that a change
in the operating conditions generally has different effects on the
yields obtained using different resins.
Abstract: In the present paper the design of plate heat exchangers
is formulated as an optimization problem considering two
mathematical modelling. The number of plates is the objective
function to be minimized, considering implicitly some parameters
configuration. Screening is the optimization method used to solve the
problem. Thermal and hydraulic constraints are verified, not viable
solutions are discarded and the method searches for the convergence to
the optimum, case it exists. A case study is presented to test the
applicability of the developed algorithm. Results show coherency with
the literature.
Abstract: Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) is a collection
of mobile devices forming a communication network without
infrastructure. MANET is vulnerable to security threats due to
network’s limited security, dynamic topology, scalability and the lack
of central management. The Quality of Service (QoS) routing in such
networks is limited by network breakage caused by node mobility or
nodes energy depletions. The impact of node mobility on trust
establishment is considered and its use to propagate trust through a
network is investigated in this paper. This work proposes an
enhanced Associativity Based Routing (ABR) with Fuzzy based
Trust (Fuzzy- ABR) routing protocol for MANET to improve QoS
and to mitigate network attacks.
Abstract: The increasing volume of solid waste generated,
collected and disposed daily complicate adequate management of
solid waste by relevant agency like Niger State Environmental
Protection Agency (NISEPA). In addition, the impacts of solid waste
on the natural environment and human livelihood require
identification of cost-effective ways for sustainable municipal waste
management in Nigeria. These signal the need for identifying
environment-friendly initiative and local solution to address the
problem of municipal solid waste. A research field was secured at
Pago, Minna, Niger State which is located in the guinea savanna belt
of Nigeria, within longitude 60 361 4311 - 4511 and latitude 90 291
37.6111 - .6211 N. Poultry droppings, decomposed household waste
manure and NPK treatments were used. The experimental field was
divided into three replications and four (4) treatments on each
replication making a total of twelve (12) plots. The treatments were
allotted using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and
Data collected was analyzed using SPSS software and RCBD. The
result depicts variation in plant height and number of leaves at 50%
flowering; Poultry dropping records the highest height while the
number of leaves for waste manure competes fairly well with NPK
treatment. Similarly, the varying treatments significantly increase
vegetable yield, as the control (non-treatment) records the least yield
for the three vegetable samples. Adoption of this organic manure for
cultivation does not only enhance environment quality and attainment
of food security but will contribute to local economic development,
poverty alleviation as well as social inclusion.
Abstract: A new design of aerostatic thrust bearing is proposed
for high static stiffness. The bearing body, which is mead of polymer
covered with metallic membrane, is held by a circular ring. Such a
support helps form a concave air gap to grasp the air pressure. The
polymer body, which can be made rapidly by either injection or
molding is able to provide extra damping under dynamic loading. The
smooth membrane not only serves as the bearing surface but also
protects the polymer body. The restrictor is a capillary inside a silicone
tube. It can passively compensate the variation of load by expanding
the capillary diameter for more air flux. In the present example, the
stiffness soars from 15.85 N/μm of typical bearing to 349.85 N/μm at
bearing elevation 9.5 μm; meanwhile the load capacity also enhances
from 346.86 N to 704.18 N.
Abstract: Concrete is strong in compression however weak in
tension. The tensile strength as well as ductile property of concrete
could be improved by addition of short dispersed fibers. Polyethylene
terephthalate (PET) fiber obtained from hand cutting or mechanical
slitting of plastic sheets generally used as discrete reinforcement in
substitution of steel fiber. PET fiber obtained from the former process
is in the form of straight slit sheet pattern that impart weaker
mechanical bonding behavior in the concrete matrix. To improve the
limitation of straight slit sheet fiber the present study considered two
additional geometry of fiber namely (a) flattened end slit sheet and
(b) deformed slit sheet. The mix for plain concrete was design for a
compressive strength of 25 MPa at 28 days curing time with a watercement
ratio of 0.5. Cylindrical and beam specimens with 0.5% fibers
volume fraction and without fibers were cast to investigate the
influence of geometry on the mechanical properties of concrete. The
performance parameters mainly studied include flexural strength,
splitting tensile strength, compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse
velocity (UPV). Test results show that geometry of fiber has a
marginal effect on the workability of concrete. However, it plays a
significant role in achieving a good compressive and tensile strength
of concrete. Further, significant improvement in term of flexural and
energy dissipation capacity were observed from other fibers as
compared to the straight slit sheet pattern. Also, the inclusion of PET
fiber improved the ability in absorbing energy in the post-cracking
state of the specimen as well as no significant porous structures.
Abstract: Electrohydraulic servo system have been used in
industry in a wide number of applications. Its dynamics are highly
nonlinear and also have large extent of model uncertainties and
external disturbances. In this paper, a robust back-stepping control
(RBSC) scheme is proposed to overcome the problem of disturbances
and system uncertainties effectively and to improve the tracking
performance of EHS systems. In order to implement the proposed
control scheme, the system uncertainties in EHS systems are
considered as total leakage coefficient and effective oil volume. In
addition, in order to obtain the virtual controls for stabilizing system,
the update rule for the system uncertainty term is induced by
the Lyapunov control function (LCF). To verify the performance and
robustness of the proposed control system, computer simulation of
the proposed control system using Matlab/Simulink Software
is executed. From the computer simulation, it was found that the
RBSC system produces the desired tracking performance and has
robustness to the disturbances and system uncertainties of EHS
systems.
Abstract: The teaching of computer programming for beginners
has been generally considered as a difficult and challenging task.
Several methodologies and research tools have been developed,
however, the difficulty of teaching still remains. Our work integrates
the state of the art in teaching programming with game software and
further provides metrics for the evaluation of student performance in
a collaborative activity of playing games. This paper aims to present a
multi-agent system architecture to be incorporated to the educational
collaborative game software for teaching programming that monitors,
evaluates and encourages collaboration by the participants. A
literature review has been made on the concepts of Collaborative
Learning, Multi-agents systems, collaborative games and techniques
to teach programming using these concepts simultaneously.
Abstract: Information technology plays an irreplaceable role in
introducing and improving business process orientation in a
company. It enables implementation of the theoretical concept,
measurement of results achieved and undertaking corrective
measures aimed at improvements. Information technology is a key
concept in the development and implementation of the business
process management systems as it establishes a connection to
business operations. Both in the literature and practice, insurance
companies are often seen as highly process oriented due to the nature
of their business and focus on customers. They are also considered
leaders in using information technology for business process
management. The research conducted aimed to investigate whether
the perceived leadership status of insurance companies is well
deserved, i.e. to establish the level of process orientation and explore
the practice of information technology use in insurance companies in
the region. The main instrument for primary data collection within
this research was an electronic survey questionnaire sent to the
management of insurance companies in the Republic of Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia. The
conducted research has shown that insurance companies have a
satisfactory level of process orientation, but that there is also a huge
potential for improvement, especially in the segment of information
technology and its connection to business processes.