Abstract: The world-s largest Pre-stressed Concrete Cylinder
Pipe (PCCP) water supply project had a series of pipe failures which
occurred between 1999 and 2001. This has led the Man-Made River
Authority (MMRA), the authority in charge of the implementation
and operation of the project, to setup a rehabilitation plan for the
conveyance system while maintaining the uninterrupted flow of
water to consumers. At the same time, MMRA recognized the need
for a long term management tool that would facilitate repair and
maintenance decisions and enable taking the appropriate preventive
measures through continuous monitoring and estimation of the
remaining life of each pipe. This management tool is known as the
Pipe Risk Management System (PRMS) and now in operation at
MMRA. Both the rehabilitation plan and the PRMS require the
availability of complete and accurate pipe construction and
manufacturing data
This paper describes a systematic approach of data collection,
analysis, evaluation and correction for the construction and
manufacturing data files of phase I pipes which are the platform for
the PRMS database and any other related decision support system.
Abstract: Whole genome duplication (WGD) increased the
number of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomes from 8 to
16. In spite of retention the number of chromosomes in the genome
of this organism after WGD to date, chromosomal rearrangement
events have caused an evolutionary distance between current genome
and its ancestor. Studies under evolutionary-based approaches on
eukaryotic genomes have shown that the rearrangement distance is an
approximable problem. In the case of S. cerevisiae, we describe that
rearrangement distance is accessible by using dedoubled adjacency
graph drawn for 55 large paired chromosomal regions originated
from WGD. Then, we provide a program extracted from a C program
database to draw a dedoubled genome adjacency graph for S.
cerevisiae. From a bioinformatical perspective, using the duplicated
blocks of current genome in S. cerevisiae, we infer that genomic
organization of eukaryotes has the potential to provide valuable
detailed information about their ancestrygenome.
Abstract: Power cables are vulnerable to failure due to aging or
defects that occur with the passage of time under continuous
operation and loading stresses. PD detection and characterization
provide information on the location, nature, form and extent of the
degradation. As a result, PD monitoring has become an important
part of condition based maintenance (CBM) program among power
utilities. Online partial discharge (PD) localization of defect sources
in power cable system is possible using the time of flight method.
The information regarding the time difference between the main and
reflected pulses and cable length can help in locating the partial
discharge source along the cable length. However, if the length of
the cable is not known and the defect source is located at the extreme
ends of the cable or in the middle of the cable, then double ended
measurement is required to indicate the location of PD source. Use of
multiple sensors can also help in discriminating the cable PD or local/
external PD. This paper presents the experience and results from
online partial discharge measurements conducted in the laboratory
and the challenges in partial discharge source localization.
Abstract: In this study, effects of premixed and equivalence
ratios on CO and HC emissions of a dual fuel HCCI engine are
investigated. Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder engine with
compression ratio of 17.5. Premixed gasoline is provided by a
carburetor connected to intake manifold and equipped with a screw
to adjust premixed air-fuel ratio, and diesel fuel is injected directly
into the cylinder through an injector at pressure of 250 bars. A heater
placed at inlet manifold is used to control the intake charge
temperature. Optimal intake charge temperature results in better
HCCI combustion due to formation of a homogeneous mixture,
therefore, all tests were carried out over the optimum intake
temperature of 110-115 ºC. Timing of diesel fuel injection has a great
effect on stratification of in-cylinder charge and plays an important
role in HCCI combustion phasing. Experiments indicated 35 BTDC
as the optimum injection timing. Varying the coolant temperature in
a range of 40 to 70 ºC, better HCCI combustion was achieved at 50
ºC. Therefore, coolant temperature was maintained 50 ºC during all
tests. Simultaneous investigation of effective parameters on HCCI
combustion was conducted to determine optimum parameters
resulting in fast transition to HCCI combustion. One of the
advantages of the method studied in this study is feasibility of easy
and fast transition of typical diesel engine to a dual fuel HCCI
engine. Results show that increasing premixed ratio, while keeping
EGR rate constant, increases unburned hydrocarbon (UHC)
emissions due to quenching phenomena and trapping of premixed
fuel in crevices, but CO emission decreases due to increase in CO to
CO2 reactions.
Abstract: In the recent years multimedia traffic and in particular
VoIP services are growing dramatically. We present a new algorithm
to control the resource utilization and to optimize the voice codec
selection during SIP call setup on behalf of the traffic condition
estimated on the network path.
The most suitable methodologies and the tools that perform realtime
evaluation of the available bandwidth on a network path have
been integrated with our proposed algorithm: this selects the best
codec for a VoIP call in function of the instantaneous available
bandwidth on the path. The algorithm does not require any explicit
feedback from the network, and this makes it easily deployable over
the Internet. We have also performed intensive tests on real network
scenarios with a software prototype, verifying the algorithm
efficiency with different network topologies and traffic patterns
between two SIP PBXs.
The promising results obtained during the experimental validation
of the algorithm are now the basis for the extension towards a larger
set of multimedia services and the integration of our methodology
with existing PBX appliances.
Abstract: Due to growing environmental concerns of the cement
industry, alternative cement technologies have become an area of
increasing interest. It is now believed that new binders are
indispensable for enhanced environmental and durability
performance. Self-compacting Geopolymer concrete is an innovative
method and improved way of concreting operation that does not
require vibration for placing it and is produced by complete
elimination of ordinary Portland cement.
This paper documents the assessment of the compressive strength
and workability characteristics of low-calcium fly ash based selfcompacting
geopolymer concrete. The essential workability
properties of the freshly prepared Self-compacting Geopolymer
concrete such as filling ability, passing ability and segregation
resistance were evaluated by using Slump flow, V-funnel, L-box and
J-ring test methods. The fundamental requirements of high
flowability and segregation resistance as specified by guidelines on
Self Compacting Concrete by EFNARC were satisfied. In addition,
compressive strength was determined and the test results are included
here. This paper also reports the effect of extra water, curing time and
curing temperature on the compressive strength of self-compacting
geopolymer concrete. The test results show that extra water in the
concrete mix plays a significant role. Also, longer curing time and
curing the concrete specimens at higher temperatures will result in
higher compressive strength.
Abstract: An innovative tri-axes micro-power receiver is
proposed. The tri-axes micro-power receiver consists of two sets 3-D
micro-solenoids and one set planar micro-coils in which iron core is
embedded. The three sets of micro-coils are designed to be orthogonal
to each other. Therefore, no matter which direction the flux is present
along, the magnetic energy can be harvested and transformed into
electric power. Not only dead space of receiving power is mostly
reduced, but also transformation efficiency of electromagnetic energy
to electric power can be efficiently raised. By employing commercial
software, Ansoft Maxwell, the preliminary simulation results verify
that the proposed micro-power receiver can efficiently pick up the
energy transmitted by magnetic power source.
As to the fabrication process, the isotropic etching technique is
employed to micro-machine the inverse-trapezoid fillister so that the
copper wire can be successfully electroplated. The adhesion between
micro-coils and fillister is much enhanced.
Abstract: Visually impaired people find it extremely difficult to
acquire basic and vital information necessary for their living.
Therefore, they are at a very high risk of being socially excluded as a
result of poor access to information. In recent years, several attempts
have been made in improving the communication methods for
visually impaired people which involve tactile sensation such as
finger Braille, manual alphabets and the print on palm method and
several other electronic devices. But, there are some problems which
arise in such methods such as lack of privacy and lack of
compatibility to computer environment. This paper describes a low
cost Braille hand glove for blind people using slot sensors and
vibration motors with the help of which they can read and write emails,
text messages and read e-books. This glove allows the person
to type characters based on different Braille combination using six
slot sensors. The vibration in six different positions of the glove
which matches to the Braille code allows them to read characters.
Abstract: This paper aims to perform the second law analysis of
thermodynamics on the laminar film condensation of pure saturated
vapor flowing in the direction of gravity on an ellipsoid with variable
wall temperature. The analysis provides us understanding how the
geometric parameter- ellipticity and non-isothermal wall temperature
variation amplitude “A." affect entropy generation during film-wise
condensation heat transfer process. To understand of which
irreversibility involved in this condensation process, we derived an
expression for the entropy generation number in terms of ellipticity
and A. The result indicates that entropy generation increases with
ellipticity. Furthermore, the irreversibility due to finite temperature
difference heat transfer dominates over that due to condensate film
flow friction and the local entropy generation rate decreases with
increasing A in the upper half of ellipsoid. Meanwhile, the local
entropy generation rate enhances with A around the rear lower half of
ellipsoid.
Abstract: Any rotation of a 3-dimensional object can be performed by three consecutive rotations over Euler angles. Intrinsic rotations produce the same result as extrinsic rotations in transformation. Euler rotations are the movement obtained by changing one of the Euler angles while leaving the other two constant. These Euler rotations are applied in a simple two-axis gimbals set mounted on an automotives. The values of Euler angles are [π/4, π/4, π/4] radians inside the angles ranges for a given coordinate system and these actual orientations can be directly measured from these gimbals set of moving automotives but it can occur the gimbals lock in application at [π/2.24, 0, 0] radians. In order to avoid gimbals lock, the values of quaternion must be [π/4.8, π/8.2, 0, π/4.8] radians. The four-gimbals set can eliminate gimbals lock.
Abstract: Physical urban form is recognized to be the media for
human transactions. It directly influences the travel demand of people
in a specific urban area and the amount of energy used for
transportation. Distorted, sprawling form often creates sustainability
problems in urban areas. It is declared in EU strategic planning
documents that compact urban form and mixed land use pattern must
be given the main focus to achieve better sustainability in urban
areas, but the methods to measure and compare these characteristics
are still not clear.
This paper presents the simple methods to measure the spatial
characteristics of urban form by analyzing the location and
distribution of objects in an urban environment. The extended CA
(cellular automata) model is used to simulate urban development
scenarios.
Abstract: Medical negligence disputes in Malaysia are mainly resolved through litigation by using the tort system. The tort system, being adversarial in nature has subjected parties to litigation hazards such as delay, excessive costs and uncertainty of outcome. The dissatisfaction of the tort system in compensating medically injured victims has created various alternatives to litigation. Amongst them is the implementation of a no-fault compensation system which would allow compensation to be given without the need of proving fault on the medical personnel. Instead, the community now bears the burden of compensating and at the end, promotes collective responsibility. For Malaysia, introducing a no-fault system would provide a tempting solution and may ultimately, achieve justice for the medical injured victims. Nevertheless, such drastic change requires a great deal of consideration to determine the suitability of the system and whether or not it will eventually cater for the needs of the Malaysian population
Abstract: This paper focuses on wormhole attacks detection in wireless sensor networks. The wormhole attack is particularly challenging to deal with since the adversary does not need to compromise any nodes and can use laptops or other wireless devices to send the packets on a low latency channel. This paper introduces an easy and effective method to detect and locate the wormholes: Since beacon nodes are assumed to know their coordinates, the straight line distance between each pair of them can be calculated and then compared with the corresponding hop distance, which in this paper equals hop counts × node-s transmission range R. Dramatic difference may emerge because of an existing wormhole. Our detection mechanism is based on this. The approximate location of the wormhole can also be derived in further steps based on this information. To the best of our knowledge, our method is much easier than other wormhole detecting schemes which also use beacon nodes, and to those have special requirements on each nodes (e.g., GPS receivers or tightly synchronized clocks or directional antennas), ours is more economical. Simulation results show that the algorithm is successful in detecting and locating wormholes when the density of beacon nodes reaches 0.008 per m2.
Abstract: In first stage of each microwave receiver there is Low
Noise Amplifier (LNA) circuit, and this stage has important rule in
quality factor of the receiver. The design of a LNA in Radio
Frequency (RF) circuit requires the trade-off many importance
characteristics such as gain, Noise Figure (NF), stability, power
consumption and complexity. This situation Forces desingners to
make choices in the desing of RF circuits. In this paper the aim is to
design and simulate a single stage LNA circuit with high gain and
low noise using MESFET for frequency range of 5 GHz to 6 GHz.
The desing simulation process is down using Advance Design
System (ADS). A single stage LNA has successfully designed with
15.83 dB forward gain and 1.26 dB noise figure in frequency of 5.3
GHz. Also the designed LNA should be working stably In a
frequency range of 5 GHz to 6 GHz.
Abstract: This paper presents three models which enable the
customisation of Universal Description, Discovery and Integration
(UDDI) query results, based on some pre-defined and/or real-time
changing parameters. These proposed models detail the requirements,
design and techniques which make ranking of Web service discovery
results from a service registry possible. Our contribution is two fold:
First, we present an extension to the UDDI inquiry capabilities. This
enables a private UDDI registry owner to customise or rank the query
results, based on its business requirements. Second, our proposal
utilises existing technologies and standards which require minimal
changes to existing UDDI interfaces or its data structures. We believe
these models will serve as valuable reference for enhancing the
service discovery methods within a private UDDI registry
environment.
Abstract: The Non-Rotating Adjustable Stabilizer / Directional
Solution (NAS/DS) is the imitation of a mechanical process or an
object by a directional drilling operation that causes a respond
mathematically and graphically to data and decision to choose the
best conditions compared to the previous mode.
The NAS/DS Auto Guide rotary steerable tool is undergoing final
field trials. The point-the-bit tool can use any bit, work at any
rotating speed, work with any MWD/LWD system, and there is no
pressure drop through the tool. It is a fully closed-loop system that
automatically maintains a specified curvature rate.
The Non–Rotating Adjustable stabilizer (NAS) can be controls
curvature rate by exactly positioning and run with the optimum bit,
use the most effective weight (WOB) and rotary speed (RPM) and
apply all of the available hydraulic energy to the bit. The directional
simulator allowed to specify the size of the curvature rate
performance errors of the NAS tool and the magnitude of the random
errors in the survey measurements called the Directional Solution
(DS).
The combination of these technologies (NAS/DS) will provide
smoother bore holes, reduced drilling time, reduced drilling cost and
incredible targeting precision. This simulator controls curvature rate
by precisely adjusting the radial extension of stabilizer blades on a
near bit Non-Rotating Stabilizer and control process corrects for the
secondary effects caused by formation characteristics, bit and tool
wear, and manufacturing tolerances.
Abstract: Seaweed farming is emerging as a viable alternative
activity in the Indonesian fisheries sector. This paper aims to
investigate people-s perceptions of seaweed farming, to analyze its
social and economic impacts and to identify the problems and
obstacles hindering its continued development. Structured and
semi-structured questionnaires were prepared to obtain qualitative
data, and interviews were conducted with fishermen who also plant
seaweed. The findings showed that fishermen in the Laikang Bay were
enthusiastic about cultivating seaweeds and that seaweed plays a major
role in supporting the household economy of fishermen. However,
current seaweed drying technologies cannot support increased
seaweed production on a farm or plot, especially in the rainy season.
Additionally, variable monsoon seasons and long marketing channels
are still major constraints on the development of the industry. Finally,
capture fisheries, the primary economic livelihood of fishermen of
older generations, is being slowly replaced by seaweed farming.
Abstract: In this paper we present a soft timing phase estimation (STPE) method for wireless mobile receivers operating in low signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Discrete Polyphase Matched (DPM) filters, a Log-maximum a posterior probability (MAP) and/or a Soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) are combined to derive a new timing recovery (TR) scheme. We apply this scheme to wireless cellular communication system model that comprises of a raised cosine filter (RCF), a bit-interleaved turbo-coded multi-level modulation (BITMM) scheme and the channel is assumed to be memory-less. Furthermore, no clock signals are transmitted to the receiver contrary to the classical data aided (DA) models. This new model ensures that both the bandwidth and power of the communication system is conserved. However, the computational complexity of ideal turbo synchronization is increased by 50%. Several simulation tests on bit error rate (BER) and block error rate (BLER) versus low SNR reveal that the proposed iterative soft timing recovery (ISTR) scheme outperforms the conventional schemes.
Abstract: Knowledge Discovery of Databases (KDD) is the
process of extracting previously unknown but useful and significant
information from large massive volume of databases. Data Mining is
a stage in the entire process of KDD which applies an algorithm to
extract interesting patterns. Usually, such algorithms generate huge
volume of patterns. These patterns have to be evaluated by using
interestingness measures to reflect the user requirements.
Interestingness is defined in different ways, (i) Objective measures
(ii) Subjective measures. Objective measures such as support and
confidence extract meaningful patterns based on the structure of the
patterns, while subjective measures such as unexpectedness and
novelty reflect the user perspective. In this report, we try to brief the
more widely spread and successful subjective measures and propose
a new subjective measure of interestingness, i.e. shocking.
Abstract: Green Lean Total Quality Management (TQM)
System is a system comprises of Environmental Management System
(EMS) practices which is integrated to TQM with Lean
Manufacturing (LM) principles. The ultimate goal of this system is to
focus on achieving total customer satisfaction and environmental care 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
SPSS v.17. It was found out that some vendors have been practicing TQM and LM while some have started to implement EMS. This
study is only focusing on highly active companies that have been involved in MAJAICO Program and Proton Vendor Development
Program. This is the first study conducted to know the current status of TQM, LM and EMS practices in highly active automotive companies in Malaysia. It was found out that EMS has been
practiced by 16 companies out of 30. Within these 16 companies the
approach is more holistic and green. This is a preliminary study that combined 4 awards practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production
System SAEJ4000, MAJAICO Lean Production System and EMS.