Abstract: In this paper, we analyze and test a scheme for the
estimation of electrical fundamental frequency signals from the
harmonic load current and voltage signals.
The scheme was based on using two different Multi Layer
Artificial Neural Networks (ML-ANN) one for the current and the
other for the voltage.
This study also analyzes and tests the effect of choosing the
optimum artificial neural networks- sizes which determine the quality
and accuracy of the estimation of electrical fundamental frequency
signals.
The simulink tool box of the Matlab program for the simulation of
the test system and the test of the neural networks has been used.
Abstract: In this research, effect of combustion reaction
mechanism on direct initiation of detonation has been studied
numerically. For this purpose, reaction mechanism has been
simulated by using a three-step chemical kinetics model. The reaction
scheme consists sequentially of a chain-initiation and chainbranching
step, followed by a temperature -independent chaintermination.
In a previous research, the effect of chain-branching on
the direct initiation of detonation is studied. In this research effect of
chain-initiation on direct initiation of detonation is investigated. For
the investigation, first a characteristic time (τ) for each step of
mechanism, which includes effect of different kinetics parameters, is
defined. Then the effect of characteristic time of chain-initiation (τI)
on critical initiation energy is studied. It is seen that increasing τI,
causes critical initiation energy to be increased. Drawing detonation's
shock pressure diagrams for different cases, shows that in small value
of τI , kinetics has more important effect on the behavior of the wave.
Abstract: One of the approaches enabling people with amputated
limbs to establish some sort of interface with the real world includes
the utilization of the myoelectric signal (MES) from the remaining
muscles of those limbs. The MES can be used as a control input to a
multifunction prosthetic device. In this control scheme, known as the
myoelectric control, a pattern recognition approach is usually utilized
to discriminate between the MES signals that belong to different
classes of the forearm movements. Since the MES is recorded using
multiple channels, the feature vector size can become very large. In
order to reduce the computational cost and enhance the generalization
capability of the classifier, a dimensionality reduction method is
needed to identify an informative yet moderate size feature set. This
paper proposes a new fuzzy version of the well known Fisher-s
Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) feature projection technique.
Furthermore, based on the fact that certain muscles might contribute
more to the discrimination process, a novel feature weighting scheme
is also presented by employing Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
for estimating the weight of each feature. The new method, called
PSOFLDA, is tested on real MES datasets and compared with other
techniques to prove its superiority.
Abstract: This paper introduces a measure of similarity between
two clusterings of the same dataset produced by two different
algorithms, or even the same algorithm (K-means, for instance, with
different initializations usually produce different results in clustering
the same dataset). We then apply the measure to calculate the
similarity between pairs of clusterings, with special interest directed
at comparing the similarity between various machine clusterings and
human clustering of datasets. The similarity measure thus can be used
to identify the best (in terms of most similar to human) clustering
algorithm for a specific problem at hand. Experimental results
pertaining to the text categorization problem of a Portuguese corpus
(wherein a translation-into-English approach is used) are presented, as well as results on the well-known benchmark IRIS dataset. The
significance and other potential applications of the proposed measure
are discussed.
Abstract: The aim of this qualitative case study is to examine how school principals perform their new roles and responsibilities defined in accordance with the new curriculum. Of ten primary schools that the new curriculum was piloted in Istanbul in school year of 2004-2005, one school was randomly selected as the sample of the study. The participants of the study were comprised of randomly-selected 26 teachers working in the case school. To collect data, an interview schedule was developed based on the new role definitions for school principals by the National Ministry of Education. Participants were interviewed on one-to-one basis in February and March 2007. Overall results showed that the school principal was perceived to be successful in terms of the application of the new curriculum in school. According to the majority of teachers, the principal has done his best to establish the infrastructure that is necessary for successful application of the new program. In addition to these, the principal was reported to adopt a collegial and participatory leadership style by creating a positive school atmosphere that enables the school community (teachers, parents and students) to involve school more than before. Keywordscase study, curriculum implementation, school principals and curriculum
Abstract: A pressure-based implicit procedure to solve Navier-
Stokes equations on a nonorthogonal mesh with collocated finite
volume formulation is used to simulate flow around the smart and
conventional flaps of spoiler under the ground effect. Cantilever
beam with uniformly varying load with roller support at the free end
is considered for smart flaps. The boundedness criteria for this
procedure are determined from a Normalized Variable diagram
(NVD) scheme. The procedure incorporates es the k -ε eddyviscosity
turbulence model. The method is first validated against
experimental data. Then, the algorithm is applied for turbulent
aerodynamic flows around a spoiler section with smart and
conventional flaps for different attack angle, flap angle and ground
clearance where the results of two flaps are compared.
Abstract: This work investigated the phenology of Parah tree
(Elateriospermum tapos) using the General Purpose Atmosphere
Plant Soil Simulator (GAPS model) to determine the amount of Plant
Available Water (PAW) in the soil. We found the correlation
between PAW and the timing of budburst and flower burst at Khao
Nan National Park, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. PAW from the
GAPS model can be used as an indicator of soil water stress. The low
amount of PAW may lead to leaf shedding in Parah trees.
Abstract: The trend of growing density on chips has increases not
only the temperature in chips but also the gradient of the temperature
depending on locations. In this paper, we propose the balanced skew
tree generation technique for minimizing the clock skew that is
affected by the temperature gradients on chips. We calculate the
interconnect delay using Elmore delay equation, and find out the
optimal balanced clock tree by modifying the clock trees generated
through the Deferred Merge Embedding(DME) algorithm. The
experimental results show that the distance variance of clock insertion
points with and without considering the temperature gradient can be
lowered below 54% and we confirm that the skew is remarkably
decreased after applying the proposed technique.
Abstract: This study investigates CO2 mitigation by methanol
synthesis from flue gas CO2 and H2 generation through water
electrolysis. Electrolytic hydrogen generation is viable provided that
the required electrical power is supplied from renewable energy
resources; whereby power generation from renewable resources is yet
commercial challenging. This approach contribute to zero-emission,
moreover it produce oxygen which could be used as feedstock for
chemical process. At ZPC, however, oxygen would be utilized
through partial oxidation of methane in autothermal reactor (ATR);
this makes ease the difficulties of O2 delivery and marketing. On the
other hand, onboard hydrogen storage and consumption; in methanol
plant; make the project economically more competitive.
Abstract: In this paper we report a study aimed at determining
the effects of animation on usability and appeal of educational
software user interfaces. Specifically, the study compares 3
interfaces developed for the Mathsigner™ program: a static
interface, an interface with highlighting/sound feedback, and an
interface that incorporates five Disney animation principles. The
main objectives of the comparative study were to: (1) determine
which interface is the most effective for the target users of
Mathsigner™ (e.g., children ages 5-11), and (2) identify any Gender
and Age differences in using the three interfaces. To accomplish
these goals we have designed an experiment consisting of a
cognitive walkthrough and a survey with rating questions. Sixteen
children ages 7-11 participated in the study, ten males and six
females. Results showed no significant interface effect on user task
performance (e.g., task completion time and number of errors);
however, interface differences were seen in rating of appeal, with
the animated interface rated more 'likeable' than the other two.
Task performance and rating of appeal were not affected
significantly by Gender or Age of the subjects.
Abstract: Age at first marriage is a basic temporal term that is
culturally constructed for marriage relationship between an adult
male and an adult female intended to have sex, to reproduce and to
adapt to environment from one generation to another around the
world. Cross-cultural evidences suggest that age at first marriage for
both male and female not only varies across the cultures, but also
varies among the subcultures of the same society. The purpose of the
study was to compare age at first marriage for husband and wife
including age differences between them between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. For this we hypothesized that (1)
there were significant differences in age at first marriage and age
interval between husband and wife between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. In so doing, 288 couples (145 pairs
of couples for Muslim and 143 pairs of couples for Santal) were
selected by cluster random sampling from the Kalna village situated
in the Tanore Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh, whose
current mean age range was 36.59 years for husband and 28.85 years
for wife for the Muslim and 31.74 years for husband and 25.21 years
for wife for the Santal respectively. The results of Independent
Sample t test showed that mean age at first marriage for the Muslim
samples was 23.05 years for husbands and 15.11 years for wives,
while mean age at first marriage for the Santal samples was 20.71
years for husbands and 14.34 years for wives respectively that were
significantly different at p0.05) among the selected husbands
and wives between the two communities. This study recommends
that further cross-cultural researches should be done on the causeeffect
relationships between socio-cultural factors and age at
marriage between the two communities in Bangladesh.
Abstract: Frequent pattern discovery over data stream is a hard
problem because a continuously generated nature of stream does not
allow a revisit on each data element. Furthermore, pattern discovery
process must be fast to produce timely results. Based on these
requirements, we propose an approximate approach to tackle the
problem of discovering frequent patterns over continuous stream.
Our approximation algorithm is intended to be applied to process a
stream prior to the pattern discovery process. The results of
approximate frequent pattern discovery have been reported in the
paper.
Abstract: This paper presents a linear stability analysis of
natural convection in a horizontal layer of a viscoelastic
nanofluid. The Oldroyd B model was utilized to describe the
rheological behavior of a viscoelastic nanofluid. The model
used for the nanofluid incorporated the effects of Brownian
motion and thermophoresis. The onset criterion for stationary
and oscillatory convection was derived analytically. The effects
of the Deborah number, retardation parameters, concentration
Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, and Lewis number on the
stability of the system were investigated. Results indicated that
there was competition among the processes of thermophoresis,
Brownian diffusion, and viscoelasticity which caused
oscillatory rather than stationary convection to occur.
Oscillatory instability is possible with both bottom- and
top-heavy nanoparticle distributions. Regimes of stationary and
oscillatory convection for various parameters were derived and
are discussed in detail.
Abstract: Successive event of explosion earthquake and harmonic tremor recorded at Semeru volcano were analyzed to investigate the dynamical system regarding to their eruptive mechanism. The eruptive activity at Semeru volcano East Java, Indonesia is intermittent emission of ash and bombs with Strombolian style which occurred at interval of 15 to 45 minutes. The explosive eruptions accompanied by explosion earthquakes and followed by volcanic tremor which generated by continuous emission of volcanic ash. The spectral and Lyapunov exponent of successive event of explosion and harmonic tremor were analyzed. Peak frequencies of explosion earthquakes range 1.2 to 1.9 Hz and those of the harmonic tremor have peak frequency range 1.5 — 2.2 Hz. The phase space is reconstructed and evaluated based on the Lyapunov exponents. Harmonic tremors have smaller Lyapunov exponent than explosion earthquakes. It can be considerably as correlated complexity of the mechanism from the variance of spectral and fractal dimension and can be concluded that the successive event of harmonic tremor and explosions are chaotic.
Abstract: Huge losses in apple production are caused by pathogens that cannot be seen shortly after harvest. After-harvest thermotherapy treatments can considerably improve control of storage diseases on apples and become an alternative to chemical pesticides. In the years 2010-2012 carried out research in this area. Apples of 'Topaz' cultivar were harvested at optimal maturity time for long storage and subject to water bath treatment at 45, 50, 52, 55°C for 60, 120, 180 and 240 seconds. The control was untreated fruits. After 12 and 24 weeks and during so called simulated trade turnover the fruits were checked for their condition and the originators of diseases were determined by using the standard phytopathological methods. The most common originator of 'Topaz' apple infection during storage were the fungi of genus Gloeosporium. In this paper it was proven that for effective protection of 'Topaz' apples against diseases, thermotherapy by using water treatments at temperature range of 50-52°C is quite sufficient.
Abstract: Rise/span ratio has been mentioned as one of the
reasons which contribute to the lower buckling load as compared to
the Classical theory buckling load but this ratio has not been quantified
in the equation. The purpose of this study was to determine a more
realistic buckling load by quantifying the effect of the rise/span ratio
because experiments have shown that the Classical theory
overestimates the load. The buckling load equation was derived based
on the theorem of work done and strain energy. Thereafter, finite
element modeling and simulation using ABAQUS was done to
determine the variables that determine the constant in the derived
equation. The rise/span was found to be the determining factor of the
constant in the buckling load equation. The derived buckling load
correlates closely to the load obtained from experiments.
Abstract: Since supply chains highly impact the financial
performance of companies, it is important to optimize and analyze
their Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The synergistic combination
of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Monte Carlo simulation is
applied to determine the optimal reorder point of warehouses in
supply chains. The goal of the optimization is the minimization of the
objective function calculated as the linear combination of holding and
order costs. The required values of service levels of the warehouses
represent non-linear constraints in the PSO. The results illustrate that
the developed stochastic simulator and optimization tool is flexible
enough to handle complex situations.
Abstract: This paper presents the modeling of a MEMS based accelerometer in order to detect the presence of a wheel flat in the railway vehicle. A haversine wheel flat is assigned to one wheel of a 5 DOF pitch plane vehicle model, which is coupled to a 3 layer track model. Based on the simulated acceleration response obtained from the vehicle-track model, an accelerometer is designed that meets all the requirements to detect the presence of a wheel flat. The proposed accelerometer can survive in a dynamic shocking environment with acceleration up to ±150g. The parameters of the accelerometer are calculated in order to achieve the required specifications using lumped element approximation and the results are used for initial design layout. A finite element analysis code (COMSOL) is used to perform simulations of the accelerometer under various operating conditions and to determine the optimum configuration. The simulated results are found within about 2% of the calculated values, which indicates the validity of lumped element approach. The stability of the accelerometer is also determined in the desired range of operation including the condition under shock.
Abstract: Preliminary results for a new flat plate test
facility are presented here in the form of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), flow visualisation, pressure measurements and thermal anemometry. The results from the CFD and flow
visualisation show the effectiveness of the plate design, with the trailing edge flap anchoring the stagnation point on the working surface and reducing the extent of the leading edge separation. The flow visualization technique demonstrates the
two-dimensionality of the flow in the location where the
thermal anemometry measurements are obtained.
Measurements of the boundary layer mean velocity profiles compare favourably with the Blasius solution, thereby allowing for comparison of future measurements with the
wealth of data available on zero pressure gradient Blasius
flows. Results for the skin friction, boundary layer thickness,
frictional velocity and wall shear stress are shown to agree well with the Blasius theory, with a maximum experimental deviation from theory of 5%. Two turbulence generating grids
have been designed and characterized and it is shown that the turbulence decay downstream of both grids agrees with established correlations. It is also demonstrated that there is
little dependence of turbulence on the freestream velocity.
Abstract: Integrated Total Quality Management (TQM) with
Lean Manufacturing (LM) is a system comprises of TQM with LM
principles and is associated with financial and nonfinancial
performance measurement indicators. The ultimate goal of this
system is to focus on achieving total customer satisfaction by
removing eight wastes available in any process in an organization.
A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 30 highly
active automotive vendors in Malaysia and analyzed by PASW
Statistics 18. It was found out that these vendors have been
practicing and measuring the effectiveness TQM and LM
implementation. More involvement of all Malaysian automotive
vendors will represent the exact status of current Malaysian
automotive industry in implementing TQM and LM and can
determine whether the industry is ready for integrated TQM and
LM system. This is the first study that combined 4 awards
practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production System and
SAEJ4000.