Abstract: In this work the opportunity of construction of the
qualifiers for face-recognition systems based on conjugation criteria
is investigated. The linkage between the bipartite conjugation, the
conjugation with a subspace and the conjugation with the null-space
is shown. The unified solving rule is investigated. It makes the
decision on the rating of face to a class considering the linkage
between conjugation values. The described recognition method can
be successfully applied to the distributed systems of video control
and video observation.
Abstract: Among all geo-hydrological relationships, rainfallrunoff
relationship is of utmost importance in any hydrological
investigation and water resource planning. Spatial variation, lag time
involved in obtaining areal estimates for the basin as a whole can
affect the parameterization in design stage as well as in planning
stage. In conventional hydrological processing of data, spatial aspect
is either ignored or interpolated at sub-basin level. Temporal
variation when analysed for different stages can provide clues for its
spatial effectiveness. The interplay of space-time variation at pixel
level can provide better understanding of basin parameters.
Sustenance of design structures for different return periods and their
spatial auto-correlations should be studied at different geographical
scales for better management and planning of water resources.
In order to understand the relative effect of spatio-temporal
variation in hydrological data network, a detailed geo-hydrological
analysis of Betwa river catchment falling in Lower Yamuna Basin is
presented in this paper. Moreover, the exact estimates about the
availability of water in the Betwa river catchment, especially in the
wake of recent Betwa-Ken linkage project, need thorough scientific
investigation for better planning. Therefore, an attempt in this
direction is made here to analyse the existing hydrological and
meteorological data with the help of SPSS, GIS and MS-EXCEL
software. A comparison of spatial and temporal correlations at subcatchment
level in case of upper Betwa reaches has been made to
demonstrate the representativeness of rain gauges. First, flows at
different locations are used to derive correlation and regression
coefficients. Then, long-term normal water yield estimates based on
pixel-wise regression coefficients of rainfall-runoff relationship have
been mapped. The areal values obtained from these maps can
definitely improve upon estimates based on point-based
extrapolations or areal interpolations.
Abstract: In aerospace applications, interactions of airflow with
aircraft structures can result in undesirable structural deformations.
This structural deformation in turn, can be predicted if the natural
modes of the structure are known. This can be achieved through
conventional modal testing that requires a known excitation force in
order to extract these dynamic properties. This technique can be
experimentally complex because of the need for artificial excitation
and it is also does not represent actual operational condition. The
current work presents part of research work that address the practical
implementation of operational modal analysis (OMA) applied to a
cantilevered hybrid composite plate employing single contactless
sensing system via laser vibrometer. OMA technique extracts the
modal parameters based only on the measurements of the dynamic
response. The OMA results were verified with impact hammer modal
testing and good agreement was obtained.
Abstract: In this paper we present modeling and simulation for
physical vapor deposition for metallic bipolar plates. In the models
we discuss the application of different models to simulate the
transport of chemical reactions of the gas species in the gas chamber.
The so called sputter process is an extremely sensitive process to
deposit thin layers to metallic plates. We have taken into account
lower order models to obtain first results with respect to the gas
fluxes and the kinetics in the chamber.
The model equations can be treated analytically in some
circumstances and complicated multi-dimensional models are solved
numerically with a software-package (UG unstructed grids, see [1]).
Because of multi-scaling and multi-physical behavior of the models,
we discuss adapted schemes to solve more accurate in the different
domains and scales. The results are discussed with physical
experiments to give a valid model for the assumed growth of thin
layers.
Abstract: Bicycle usage for exercise, recreation, and commuting
to work in Australia shows that pedal cycling is the fourth most
popular activity with 10.6% increase in participants between 2001
and 2007. As with other means of transport, accident and injury
becomes common although mandatory bicycle helmet wearing has
been introduced. The research aims to develop a face surrogate made
of sandwich of rigid foam and rubber sheets to represent human
facial bone under blunt impact. The facial surrogate will serve as an
important test device for further development of facial-impact
protection for cyclist. A test procedure was developed to simulate the
energy of impact and record data to evaluate the effect of impact on
facial bones. Drop tests were performed to establish a suitable
combination of materials. It was found that the sandwich structure of
rigid extruded-polystyrene foam (density of 40 kg/m3 with a pattern
of 6-mm-holes), Neoprene rubber sponge, and Abrasaflex rubber
backing, had impact characteristics comparable to that of human
facial bone. In particular, the foam thickness of 30 mm and 25 mm
was found suitable to represent human zygoma (cheekbone) and
maxilla (upper-jaw bone), respectively.
Abstract: In the present Jordan hotels scenario, service quality is
a vital competitive policy to keep customer support and build great
base. Hotels are trying to win customer loyalty by providing enhanced
quality services. This paper attempts to examine the impact of tourism
service quality dimension in the Jordanian five star hotels. A total of
322 surveys were administrated to tourists who were staying at three
branches Marriott hotel in Jordan. The results show that dimensions of
service quality such as empathy, reliability, responsiveness and
tangibility significantly predict customer loyalty. Specifically, among
the dimension of tourism service quality, the most significant predictor
of customer loyalty is tangibility. This paper implies that five star
hotels in Jordan should also come forward and try their best to present
better tourism service quality to win back their customers- loyalty.
Abstract: Today’s technology is heavily dependent on web applications. Web applications are being accepted by users at a very rapid pace. These have made our work efficient. These include webmail, online retail sale, online gaming, wikis, departure and arrival of trains and flights and list is very long. These are developed in different languages like PHP, Python, C#, ASP.NET and many more by using scripts such as HTML and JavaScript. Attackers develop tools and techniques to exploit web applications and legitimate websites. This has led to rise of web application security; which can be broadly classified into Declarative Security and Program Security. The most common attacks on the applications are by SQL Injection and XSS which give access to unauthorized users who totally damage or destroy the system. This paper presents a detailed literature description and analysis on Web Application Security, examples of attacks and steps to mitigate the vulnerabilities.
Abstract: The present paper discusses the selection of process
parameters for obtaining optimal nanocrystallites size in the CuOZrO2
catalyst. There are some parameters changing the inorganic
structure which have an influence on the role of hydrolysis and
condensation reaction. A statistical design test method is
implemented in order to optimize the experimental conditions of
CuO-ZrO2 nanoparticles preparation. This method is applied for the
experiments and L16 orthogonal array standard. The crystallites size
is considered as an index. This index will be used for the analysis in
the condition where the parameters vary. The effect of pH, H2O/
precursor molar ratio (R), time and temperature of calcination,
chelating agent and alcohol volume are particularity investigated
among all other parameters. In accordance with the results of
Taguchi, it is found that temperature has the greatest impact on the
particle size. The pH and H2O/ precursor molar ratio have low
influences as compared with temperature. The alcohol volume as
well as the time has almost no effect as compared with all other
parameters. Temperature also has an influence on the morphology
and amorphous structure of zirconia. The optimal conditions are
determined by using Taguchi method. The nanocatalyst is studied by
DTA-TG, XRD, EDS, SEM and TEM. The results of this research
indicate that it is possible to vary the structure, morphology and
properties of the sol-gel by controlling the above-mentioned
parameters.
Abstract: Kernel function, which allows the formulation of nonlinear variants of any algorithm that can be cast in terms of dot products, makes the Support Vector Machines (SVM) have been successfully applied in many fields, e.g. classification and regression. The importance of kernel has motivated many studies on its composition. It-s well-known that reproducing kernel (R.K) is a useful kernel function which possesses many properties, e.g. positive definiteness, reproducing property and composing complex R.K by simple operation. There are two popular ways to compute the R.K with explicit form. One is to construct and solve a specific differential equation with boundary value whose handicap is incapable of obtaining a unified form of R.K. The other is using a piecewise integral of the Green function associated with a differential operator L. The latter benefits the computation of a R.K with a unified explicit form and theoretical analysis, whereas there are relatively later studies and fewer practical computations. In this paper, a new algorithm for computing a R.K is presented. It can obtain the unified explicit form of R.K in general reproducing kernel Hilbert space. It avoids constructing and solving the complex differential equations manually and benefits an automatic, flexible and rigorous computation for more general RKHS. In order to validate that the R.K computed by the algorithm can be used in SVM well, some illustrative examples and a comparison between R.K and Gaussian kernel (RBF) in support vector regression are presented. The result shows that the performance of R.K is close or slightly superior to that of RBF.
Abstract: Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is an additive manufacturing process with capabilities that include: producing new
part directly from 3 Dimensional Computer Aided Design (3D CAD)
model, building new part on the existing old component and repairing an existing high valued component parts that would have
been discarded in the past. With all these capabilities and its advantages over other additive manufacturing techniques, the
underlying physics of the LMD process is yet to be fully understood probably because of high interaction between the processing
parameters and studying many parameters at the same time makes it
further complex to understand. In this study, the effect of laser power
and powder flow rate on physical properties (deposition height and
deposition width), metallurgical property (microstructure) and
mechanical (microhardness) properties on laser deposited most
widely used aerospace alloy are studied. Also, because the Ti6Al4V
is very expensive, and LMD is capable of reducing buy-to-fly ratio
of aerospace parts, the material utilization efficiency is also studied.
Four sets of experiments were performed and repeated to establish repeatability using laser power of 1.8 kW and 3.0 kW, powder flow
rate of 2.88 g/min and 5.67 g/min, and keeping the gas flow rate and
scanning speed constant at 2 l/min and 0.005 m/s respectively. The
deposition height / width are found to increase with increase in laser
power and increase in powder flow rate. The material utilization is favoured by higher power while higher powder flow rate reduces
material utilization. The results are presented and fully discussed.
Abstract: R&D risk management has been suggested as one of
the management approaches for accomplishing the goals of public
R&D investment. The investment in basic science and core technology
development is the essential roles of government for securing the
social base needed for continuous economic growth. And, it is also an
important role of the science and technology policy sectors to generate
a positive environment in which the outcomes of public R&D can be
diffused in a stable fashion by controlling the uncertainties and risk
factors in advance that may arise during the application of such
achievements to society and industry. Various policies have already
been implemented to manage uncertainties and variables that may
have negative impact on accomplishing public R& investment goals.
But we may derive new policy measures for complementing the
existing policies and for exploring progress direction by analyzing
them in a policy package from the viewpoint of R&D risk
management.
Abstract: This paper argues that a product development exercise
involves in addition to the conventional stages, several decisions
regarding other aspects. These aspects should be addressed
simultaneously in order to develop a product that responds to the
customer needs and that helps realize objectives of the stakeholders
in terms of profitability, market share and the like. We present a
framework that encompasses these different development
dimensions. The framework shows that a product development
methodology such as the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the
basic tool which allows definition of the target specifications of a
new product. Creativity is the first dimension that enables the
development exercise to live and end successfully. A number of
group processes need to be followed by the development team in
order to ensure enough creativity and innovation. Secondly,
packaging is considered to be an important extension of the product.
Branding strategies, quality and standardization requirements,
identification technologies, design technologies, production
technologies and costing and pricing are also integral parts to the
development exercise. These dimensions constitute the proposed
framework. The paper also presents a mathematical model used to
calculate the design targets based on the target costing principle. The
framework is used to study a case of a new product development in
the telecommunications services sector.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to investigate the
advantages of using large-diameter 0.7 inch prestressing strands in
pretention applications. The advantages of large-diameter strands are
mainly beneficial in the heavy construction applications. Bridges and
tunnels are subjected to a higher daily traffic with an exponential
increase in trucks ultimate weight, which raise the demand for higher
structural capacity of bridges and tunnels. In this research, precast
prestressed I-girders were considered as a case study. Flexure
capacities of girders fabricated using 0.7 inch strands and different
concrete strengths were calculated and compared to capacities of 0.6
inch strands girders fabricated using equivalent concrete strength.
The effect of bridge deck concrete strength on composite deck-girder
section capacity was investigated due to its possible effect on final
section capacity. Finally, a comparison was made to compare the
bridge cross-section of girders designed using regular 0.6 inch strands
and the large-diameter 0.7 inch. The research findings showed that
structural advantages of 0.7 inch strands allow for using fewer bridge
girders, reduced material quantity, and light-weight members. The
structural advantages of 0.7 inch strands are maximized when high
strength concrete (HSC) are used in girder fabrication, and concrete
of minimum 5ksi compressive strength is used in pouring bridge
decks. The use of 0.7 inch strands in bridge industry can partially
contribute to the improvement of bridge conditions, minimize
construction cost, and reduce the construction duration of the project.
Abstract: Nanotechnology is the science of creating, using and
manipulating objects which have at least one dimension in range of
0.1 to 100 nanometers. In other words, nanotechnology is
reconstructing a substance using its individual atoms and arranging
them in a way that is desirable for our purpose.
The main reason that nanotechnology has been attracting
attentions is the unique properties that objects show when they are
formed at nano-scale. These differing characteristics that nano-scale
materials show compared to their nature-existing form is both useful
in creating high quality products and dangerous when being in
contact with body or spread in environment.
In order to control and lower the risk of such nano-scale particles,
the main following three topics should be considered:
1) First of all, these materials would cause long term diseases that
may show their effects on body years after being penetrated in human
organs and since this science has become recently developed in
industrial scale not enough information is available about their
hazards on body.
2) The second is that these particles can easily spread out in
environment and remain in air, soil or water for very long time,
besides their high ability to penetrate body skin and causing new
kinds of diseases.
3) The third one is that to protect body and environment against
the danger of these particles, the protective barriers must be finer than
these small objects and such defenses are hard to accomplish.
This paper will review, discuss and assess the risks that human and
environment face as this new science develops at a high rate.
Abstract: Heating is inevitable in any bearing operation. This
leads to not only the thinning of the lubricant but also could lead to a
thermal deformation of the bearing. The present work is an attempt to
analyze the influence of thermal deformation on the thermohydrodynamic
lubrication of infinitely long tilted pad slider rough
bearings. As a consequence of heating the slider is deformed and is
assumed to take a parabolic shape. Also the asperities expand leading
to smaller effective film thickness. Two different types of surface
roughness are considered: longitudinal roughness and transverse
roughness. Christensen-s stochastic approach is used to derive the
Reynolds-type equations. Density and viscosity are considered to be
temperature dependent. The modified Reynolds equation, momentum
equation, continuity equation and energy equation are decoupled and
solved using finite difference method to yield various bearing
characteristics. From the numerical simulations it is observed that the
performance of the bearing is significantly affected by the thermal
distortion of the slider and asperities and even the parallel sliders
seem to carry some load.
Abstract: In this paper a novel method for multiple one dimensional real valued sinusoidal signal frequency estimation in the presence of additive Gaussian noise is postulated. A computationally simple frequency estimation method with efficient statistical performance is attractive in many array signal processing applications. The prime focus of this paper is to combine the subspace-based technique and a simple peak search approach. This paper presents a variant of the Propagator Method (PM), where a collaborative approach of SUMWE and Propagator method is applied in order to estimate the multiple real valued sine wave frequencies. A new data model is proposed, which gives the dimension of the signal subspace is equal to the number of frequencies present in the observation. But, the signal subspace dimension is twice the number of frequencies in the conventional MUSIC method for estimating frequencies of real-valued sinusoidal signal. The statistical analysis of the proposed method is studied, and the explicit expression of asymptotic (large-sample) mean-squared-error (MSE) or variance of the estimation error is derived. The performance of the method is demonstrated, and the theoretical analysis is substantiated through numerical examples. The proposed method can achieve sustainable high estimation accuracy and frequency resolution at a lower SNR, which is verified by simulation by comparing with conventional MUSIC, ESPRIT and Propagator Method.
Abstract: Renewable water resources are crucial production
variables in arid and semi-arid regions where intensive agriculture is
practiced to meet ever-increasing demand for food and fiber. This is
crucial for the Dez and Moghan command areas where water delivery
problems and adverse environmental issues are widespread. This
paper aims to identify major problems areas using on-farm surveys of
200 farmers, agricultural extensionists and water suppliers which was
complemented by secondary data and field observations during 2010-
2011 cultivating season. The SPSS package was used to analyze and
synthesis data. Results indicated inappropriate canal operations in
both schemes, though there was no unanimity about the underlying
causes. Inequitable and inflexible distribution was found to be rooted
in deficient hydraulic structures particularly in the main and
secondary canals. The inadequacy and inflexibility of water
scheduling regime was the underlying causes of recurring pest and
disease spread which often led to the decline of crop yield and
quality, although these were not disputed, the water suppliers were
not prepared to link with the deficiencies in the operation of the main
and secondary canals. They rather attributed these to the prevailing
salinity; alkalinity, water table fluctuations and leaching of the
valuable agro-chemical inputs from the plants- route zone with farreaching
consequences. Examples of these include the pollution of
ground and surface resources due to over-irrigation at the farm level
which falls under the growers- own responsibility. Poor irrigation
efficiency and adverse environmental problems were attributed to
deficient and outdated farming practices that were in turn rooted in
poor extension programs and irrational water charges.
Abstract: Development, calibration and validation of a threedimensional
model of the Legform impactor for pedestrian crash with
bumper are presented. Lower limb injury is becoming an increasingly
important concern in vehicle safety for both occupants and
pedestrians. In order to prevent lower extremity injuries to a
pedestrian when struck by a car, it is important to elucidate the
loadings from car front structures on the lower extremities and the
injury mechanism caused by these loadings. An impact test
procedure with a legform addressing lower limb injuries in car
pedestrian accidents has been proposed by EEVC/WG17. In this
study a modified legform impactor is introduced and validated
against EEVC/WG17 criteria. The finite element model of this
legform is developed using LS-DYNA software. Total mass of
legform impactor is 13.4 kg.Technical specifications including the
mass and location of the center of gravity and moment of inertia
about a horizontal axis through the respective centre of gravity in
femur and tibia are determined. The obtained results of legform
impactor static and dynamic tests are as specified in the
EEVC/WG17.
Abstract: This work presents a new algorithm based on a combination of fuzzy (FUZ), Dynamic Programming (DP), and Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach for capacitor allocation in distribution feeders. The problem formulation considers two distinct objectives related to total cost of power loss and total cost of capacitors including the purchase and installation costs. The novel formulation is a multi-objective and non-differentiable optimization problem. The proposed method of this article uses fuzzy reasoning for sitting of capacitors in radial distribution feeders, DP for sizing and finally GA for finding the optimum shape of membership functions which are used in fuzzy reasoning stage. The proposed method has been implemented in a software package and its effectiveness has been verified through a 9-bus radial distribution feeder for the sake of conclusions supports. A comparison has been done among the proposed method of this paper and similar methods in other research works that shows the effectiveness of the proposed method of this paper for solving optimum capacitor planning problem.
Abstract: The main objective of this research was to investigate
the biosorption capacity for biofilms of sulphate reducing bacteria
(SRB) to remove heavy metals, such as Zn, Pb and Cd from
rainwater using laboratory-scale reactors containing mixed support
media. Evidence showed that biosorption had contributed to removal
of heavy metals including Zn, Pb and Cd in presence of SRB and
SRB were also found in the aqueous samples from reactors.
However, the SRB and specific families (Desulfobacteriaceae and
Desulfovibrionaceae) were found mainly in the biomass samples
taken from all reactors at the end of the experiment. EDX-analysis
of reactor solids at end of experiment showed that heavy metals Zn,
Pb and Cd had also accumulated in these precipitates.