Effects of Variations in Generator Inputs for Small Signal Stability Studies of a Three Machine Nine Bus Network

Small signal stability causes small perturbations in the generator that can cause instability in the power network. It is generally known that small signal stability are directly related to the generator and load properties. This paper examines the effects of generator input variations on power system oscillations for a small signal stability study. Eigenvaules and eigenvectors are used to examine the stability of the power system. The dynamic power system's mathematical model is constructed and thus calculated using load flow and small signal stability toolbox on MATLAB. The power system model is based on a 3-machine 9-bus system that was modified to suit this study. In this paper, Participation Factors are a means to gauge the effects of variation in generation with other parameters on the network are also incorporated.

How to Win Passengers and Influence Motorists? Lessons Learned from a Comparative Study of Global Transit Systems

Due to the call of global warming effects, city planners aim at actions for reducing carbon emission. One of the approaches is to promote the usage of public transportation system toward the transit-oriented-development. For example, rapid transit system in Taipei city and Kaohsiung city are opening. However, until November 2008 the average daily patronage counted only 113,774 passengers at Kaohsiung MRT systems, much less than which was expected. Now the crucial questions: how the public transport competes with private transport? And more importantly, what factors would enhance the use of public transport? To give the answers to those questions, our study first applied regression to analyze the factors attracting people to use public transport around cities in the world. It is shown in our study that the number of MRT stations, city population, cost of living, transit fare, density, gasoline price, and scooter being a major mode of transport are the major factors. Subsequently, our study identified successful and unsuccessful cities in regard of the public transport usage based on the diagnosis of regression residuals. Finally, by comparing transportation strategies adopted by those successful cities, our conclusion stated that Kaohsiung City could apply strategies such as increasing parking fees, reducing parking spaces in downtown area, and reducing transfer time by providing more bus services and public bikes to promote the usage of public transport.

Robotic Hands: Design Review and Proposal of New Design Process

In this paper we intend to ascertain the state of the art on multifingered end-effectors, also known as robotic hands or dexterous robot hands, and propose an experimental setup for an innovative task based design approach, involving cutting edge technologies in motion capture. After an initial description of the capabilities and complexity of a human hand when grasping objects, in order to point out the importance of replicating it, we analyze the mechanical and kinematical structure of some important works carried out all around the world in the last three decades and also review the actuators and sensing technologies used. Finally we describe a new design philosophy proposing an experimental setup for the first stage using recent developments in human body motion capture systems that might lead to lighter and always more dexterous robotic hands.

A Formulation of the Latent Class Vector Model for Pairwise Data

In this research, a latent class vector model for pairwise data is formulated. As compared to the basic vector model, this model yields consistent estimates of the parameters since the number of parameters to be estimated does not increase with the number of subjects. The result of the analysis reveals that the model was stable and could classify each subject to the latent classes representing the typical scales used by these subjects.

The Accuracy of the Flight Derivative Estimates Derived from Flight Data

The accuracy of estimated stability and control derivatives of a light aircraft from flight test data were evaluated. The light aircraft, named ChangGong-91, is the first certified aircraft from the Korean government. The output error method, which is a maximum likelihood estimation technique and considers measurement noise only, was used to analyze the aircraft responses measures. The multi-step control inputs were applied in order to excite the short period mode for the longitudinal and Dutch-roll mode for the lateral-directional motion. The estimated stability/control derivatives of Chan Gong-91 were analyzed for the assessment of handling qualities comparing them with those of similar aircraft. The accuracy of the flight derivative estimates derived from flight test measurement was examined in engineering judgment, scatter and Cramer-Rao bound, which turned out to be satisfactory with minor defects..

Difference in the Color Preference by a Geographical Factor

Recently, the design is becoming important in product development. The technology which is a strong point of Japan is immediately caught up by the foreign countries, and the price competition begins. Therefore companies tend to plan differentiation of products by the design or a color. The purpose of my work was to consider the optimal color for using by product development. We needed to clarify the thing leading to color preference for this purpose. Two kinds of investigations were made. By the first investigation, we found out that a geographical factor difference existed in color preference. Then, investigation which regarded the difference as latitude was conducted. However, the result expected from the difference in latitude was not obtained. It seems that it is necessary to set up difference of latitude a little more greatly, or to reexamine by other geographical factors.

Association of G-174C Polymorphism of the Interleukin-6 Gene Promoter with Obesity in Iranian Population

Expression and secretion of inflammation markers are disturbed in obesity. Interleukin-6 reduces body fat mass. The common G-174C polymorphism in the promoter of IL-6 gene has been reported that effects on transcriptional regulation. The objective was to investigate association of the common polymorphism G-174C with obesity in Iranian population. The present study is cross sectional association study that included 242 individuals (110 men and 132 women). Serum IL-6 levels, C-reactive protein, fasting blood glucose and blood lipids profile were measured .BMI and WHR were calculated. Genotyping is carried out by PCR and RFLP. The frequencies of G and C allele were 64.5% and 35.5%, respectively. The G-174C polymorphism was not associated with BMI and WHR. However in obese individual, fasting blood glucose was significantly higher in carrier of C allele compared with the noncarrier. The IL-6 G-174C polymorphism is not a risk factor for obesity in Iranian population.

Using Structural Equation Modeling in Causal Relationship Design for Balanced-Scorecards' Strategic Map

Through 1980s, management accounting researchers described the increasing irrelevance of traditional control and performance measurement systems. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a critical business tool for a lot of organizations. It is a performance measurement system which translates mission and strategy into objectives. Strategy map approach is a development variant of BSC in which some necessary causal relations must be established. To recognize these relations, experts usually use experience. It is also possible to utilize regression for the same purpose. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which is one of the most powerful methods of multivariate data analysis, obtains more appropriate results than traditional methods such as regression. In the present paper, we propose SEM for the first time to identify the relations between objectives in the strategy map, and a test to measure the importance of relations. In SEM, factor analysis and test of hypotheses are done in the same analysis. SEM is known to be better than other techniques at supporting analysis and reporting. Our approach provides a framework which permits the experts to design the strategy map by applying a comprehensive and scientific method together with their experience. Therefore this scheme is a more reliable method in comparison with the previously established methods.

Pattern Classification of Back-Propagation Algorithm Using Exclusive Connecting Network

The objective of this paper is to a design of pattern classification model based on the back-propagation (BP) algorithm for decision support system. Standard BP model has done full connection of each node in the layers from input to output layers. Therefore, it takes a lot of computing time and iteration computing for good performance and less accepted error rate when we are doing some pattern generation or training the network. However, this model is using exclusive connection in between hidden layer nodes and output nodes. The advantage of this model is less number of iteration and better performance compare with standard back-propagation model. We simulated some cases of classification data and different setting of network factors (e.g. hidden layer number and nodes, number of classification and iteration). During our simulation, we found that most of simulations cases were satisfied by BP based using exclusive connection network model compared to standard BP. We expect that this algorithm can be available to identification of user face, analysis of data, mapping data in between environment data and information.

Experimental Investigation and Sensitivity Analysis for the Effects of Fracture Parameters to the Conductance Properties of Laterite

This experiment discusses the effects of fracture parameters such as depth, length, width, angle and the number of the fracture to the conductance properties of laterite using the DUK-2B digital electrical measurement system combined with the method of simulating the fractures. The results of experiment show that the changes of fracture parameters produce effects to the conductance properties of laterite. There is a clear degressive period of the conductivity of laterite during increasing the depth, length, width, or the angle and the quantity of fracture gradually. When the depth of fracture exceeds the half thickness of the soil body, the conductivity of laterite shows evidently non-linear diminishing pattern and the amplitude of decrease tends to increase. The length of fracture has fewer effects than the depth to the conductivity. When the width of fracture reaches some fixed values, the change of the conductivity is less sensitive to the change of the width, and at this time, the conductivity of laterite maintains at a stable level. When the angle of fracture is less than 45°, the decrease of the conductivity is more clearly as the angle increases. But when angle is more than 45°, change of the conductivity is relatively gentle as the angle increases. The increasing quantity of the fracture causes the other fracture parameters having great impact on the change of conductivity. When moisture content and temperature were unchanged, depth and angle of fractures are the major factors affecting the conductivity of laterite soil; quantity, length, and width are minor influencing factors. The sensitivity of fracture parameters affect conductivity of laterite soil is: depth >angles >quantity >length >width.

The Relationship between Personality Characteristics and Driving Behavior

The present study investigated the relationship between personality characteristics of drivers and the number and amount of fines they have in a year .This study was carried out on 120 male taxi drivers that worked at least seven hours in a day in Lamerd - a city in the south of IRAN. Subjects were chosen voluntarily among those available. Predictive variables were the NEO –five great personality factors (1. conscientiousness 2. Openness to Experience 3.Neuroticism4 .Extraversion 5.Agreeableness ) thecriterion variables were the number and amount of fines the drivers have had the last three years. the result of regression analysis showed that conscientiousness factor was able to negatively predict the number and amount of financial fines the drivers had during the last three years. The openness factor positively predicted the number of fines they had in last 3 years and the amount of financial fines during the last year. The extraversion factor both meaningfully and positively could predict only the amount of financial fines they had during the last year. Increasing age was associated with decreasing driving offenses as well as financial loss.The findings can be useful in recognizing the high-risk drivers and leading them to counseling centers .They can also be used to inform the drivers about their personality and it’s relation with their accident rate. Such criteria would be of great importance in employing drivers in different places such as companies, offices etc…

Generic Workload Management System Using Condor-Based Pilot Factory in PanDA Framework

In the current Grid environment, efficient workload management presents a significant challenge, for which there are exorbitant de facto standards encompassing resource discovery, brokerage, and data transfer, among others. In addition, the real-time resource status, essential for an optimal resource allocation strategy, is often not readily accessible. To address these issues and provide a cleaner abstraction of the Grid with the potential of generalizing into arbitrary resource-sharing environment, this paper proposes a new Condor-based pilot mechanism applied in the PanDA architecture, PanDA-PF WMS, with the goal of providing a more generic yet efficient resource allocating strategy. In this architecture, the PanDA server primarily acts as a repository of user jobs, responding to pilot requests from distributed, remote resources. Scheduling decisions are subsequently made according to the real-time resource information reported by pilots. Pilot Factory is a Condor-inspired solution for a scalable pilot dissemination and effectively functions as a resource provisioning mechanism through which the user-job server, PanDA, reaches out to the candidate resources only on demand.

Environmental Efficiency of Electric Power Industry of the United States: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

Importance of environmental efficiency of electric power industry stems from high demand for energy combined with global warming concerns. It is especially essential for the world largest economies like that of the United States. The paper introduces a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model of environmental efficiency using indicators of fossil fuels utilization, emissions rate, and electric power losses. Using DEA is advantageous in this situation over other approaches due to its nonparametric nature. The paper analyzes data for the period of 1990 - 2006 by comparing actual yearly levels in each dimension with the best values of partial indicators for the period. As positive factors of efficiency, tendency to the decline in emissions rates starting 2000, and in electric power losses starting 2004 may be mentioned together with increasing trend of fuel utilization starting 1999. As a result, dynamics of environmental efficiency is positive starting 2002. The main concern is the decline in fossil fuels utilization in 2006. This negative change should be reversed to comply with ecological and economic requirements.

Optimal Water Allocation: Sustainable Management of Dam Reservoir

Scarcity of water resources and huge costs of establishing new hydraulic installations necessitate optimal exploitation from existing reservoirs. Sustainable management and efficient exploitation from existing finite water resources are important factors in water resource management, particularly in the periods of water insufficiency and in dry regions, and on account of competitive allocations in the view of exploitation management. This study aims to minimize reservoir water release from a determined rate of demand. A numerical model for water optimal exploitation has been developed using GAMS introduced by the World Bank and applied to the case of Meijaran dam, northern Iran. The results indicate that this model can optimize the function of reservoir exploitation while required water for lower parts of the region will be supplied. Further, allocating optimal water from reservoir, the optimal rate of water allocated to any group of the users were specified to increase benefits in curve dam exploitation.

Energy and Exergy Analysis of Dual Purpose Solar Collector

Energy and exergy study of air-water combined solar collector which is called dual purpose solar collector (DPSC) is investigated. The method of ε - NTU is used. Analysis is performed for triangle channels. Parameters like the air flow rate and water inlet temperature are studied. Results are shown that DPSC has better energy and exergy efficiency than single collector. In addition, the triangle passage with water inlet temperature of 60O C has shown better exergy and energy efficiency.

Ammonia Gas Removal from Gas Stream by Biofiltration using Agricultural Residue Biofilter Medias in Laboratory-scale Biofilter

In this research, a biofiltration process to remove ammonia gas from gas stream using agricultural residue biofilter medias is studied. The experiments were conducted in laboratoryscale biofilter. The biofilter medias were a mixture of manure fertilizer and bagasse at various ratios i.e., 1:3, 1:5 and 1:7. The experiments were performed for a period of 40 days. The empty bed retention time (EBRT) is 78s. The moisture content of biofilter media was maintained at 45-60% using water. The results showed that the agricultural residues (manure fertilizer and bagasse) are suitable as biofilter media for ammonia gas removal in biofiltration process. The maximum efficiency of ammonia gas removal is observed from the 1:5 of manure fertilizer: bagasse ratio at 89.93%. The biofiltration is more effective at low ammonia gas concentration. In addition, the mixture ratio of biofilter media is not a significant factor in biofiltration operation while the most significant factor for biofiltration operation is the inlet ammonia gas concentration.

ERP Implementation Success in Iran: Examining the Role of System Environment Factors

The aim of this paper is to examine factors related to system environment (namely, system quality and vendor support) that influences ERP implementation success in Iranian companies. Implementation success is identified using user satisfaction and organizational impact perspective. The study adopts the survey questionnaire approach to collect empirical data. The questionnaire was distributed to ERP users and a total of 384 responses were used for analysis. The results illustrated that both system quality and vendor support have significant effect on ERP implementation success. This implies that companies must ensure they source for the best available system and a vendor that is dependable, reliable and trustworthy.

Resistor-less Current-mode Universal Biquad Filter Using CCTAs and Grounded Capacitors

This article presents a current-mode universal biquadratic filter. The proposed circuit can apparently provide standard functions of the biquad filter: low-pass, high-pass, bandpass, band-reject and all-pass functions. The circuit uses 4 current controlled transconductance amplifiers (CCTAs) and 2 grounded capacitors. In addition, the pole frequency and quality factor can be adjusted by electronic method by adjusting the bias currents of the CCTA. The proposed circuit uses only grounded capacitors without additional external resistors, the proposed circuit is considerably appropriate to further developing into an integrated circuit. The results of PSPICE simulation program are corresponding to the theoretical analysis.

Identification of Most Frequently Occurring Lexis in Body-enhancement Medicinal Unsolicited Bulk e-mails

e-mail has become an important means of electronic communication but the viability of its usage is marred by Unsolicited Bulk e-mail (UBE) messages. UBE consists of many types like pornographic, virus infected and 'cry-for-help' messages as well as fake and fraudulent offers for jobs, winnings and medicines. UBE poses technical and socio-economic challenges to usage of e-mails. To meet this challenge and combat this menace, we need to understand UBE. Towards this end, the current paper presents a content-based textual analysis of more than 2700 body enhancement medicinal UBE. Technically, this is an application of Text Parsing and Tokenization for an un-structured textual document and we approach it using Bag Of Words (BOW) and Vector Space Document Model techniques. We have attempted to identify the most frequently occurring lexis in the UBE documents that advertise various products for body enhancement. The analysis of such top 100 lexis is also presented. We exhibit the relationship between occurrence of a word from the identified lexis-set in the given UBE and the probability that the given UBE will be the one advertising for fake medicinal product. To the best of our knowledge and survey of related literature, this is the first formal attempt for identification of most frequently occurring lexis in such UBE by its textual analysis. Finally, this is a sincere attempt to bring about alertness against and mitigate the threat of such luring but fake UBE.

Assessment of Sediment Quality According To Heavy Metal Status in the West Port of Malaysia

Eight heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Zn, Hg, Pb, Cd, Ni and As) were analyzed in sediment samples in the dry and wet seasons from November 2009 to October 2010 in West Port of Peninsular Malaysia. The heavy metal concentrations (mg/kg dry weight) were ranged from 23.4 to 98.3 for Zn, 22.3 to 80 for Pb, 7.4 to 27.6 Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 20.2 to 162 for As, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg and 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr. Metals concentrations in dry season were higher than the rainy season except in cupper and chromium. Analysis of variance with Statistical Analysis System (SAS) shows that the mean concentration of metals in the two seasons (α level=0.05) are not significantly different which shows that the metals were held firmly in the matrix of sediment. Also there are significant differences between control point station with other stations. According to the Interim Sediment Quality guidelines (ISQG), the metal concentrations are moderately polluted, except in arsenic which shows the highest level of pollution.