Abstract: Midpoint filter is quite effective in recovering the
images confounded by the short-tailed (uniform) noise. It, however,
performs poorly in the presence of additive long-tailed (impulse)
noise and it does not preserve the edge structures of the image
signals. Median smoother discards outliers (impulses) effectively, but
it fails to provide adequate smoothing for images corrupted with nonimpulse
noise. In this paper, two nonlinear techniques for image
filtering, namely, New Filter I and New Filter II are proposed based
on a nonlinear high-pass filter algorithm. New Filter I is constructed
using a midpoint filter, a highpass filter and a combiner. It suppresses
uniform noise quite well. New Filter II is configured using an alpha
trimmed midpoint filter, a median smoother of window size 3x3, the
high pass filter and the combiner. It is robust against impulse noise
and attenuates uniform noise satisfactorily. Both the filters are shown
to exhibit good response at the image boundaries (edges). The
proposed filters are evaluated for their performance on a test image
and the results obtained are included.
Abstract: Recently, the Spherical Motion Models (SMM-s) have been introduced [1]. These new models have been developed for 3D local landmark-base Autonomous Navigation (AN). This paper is revealing new arguments and experimental results to support the SMM-s characteristics. The accuracy and the robustness in performing a specific task are the main concerns of the new investigations. To analyze their performances of the SMM-s, the most powerful tools of estimation theory, the extended Kalman filter (EKF) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF), which give the best estimations in noisy environments, have been employed. The Monte Carlo validation implementations used to test the stability and robustness of the models have been employed as well.
Abstract: PROFIBUS (PROcess FIeld BUS) which is defined with international standarts (IEC61158, EN50170) is the most popular fieldbus, and provides a communication between industrial applications which are located in different control environment and location in manufacturing, process and building automation. Its communication speed is from 9.6 Kbps to 12 Mbps over distances from 100 to 1200 meters, and so it is to be often necessary to interconnect them in order to break these limits. Unfortunately this interconnection raises several issues and the solutions found so far are not very satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a new solution to interconnect PROFIBUS segments, which uses a wireless MAN based on the IEEE 802.16 standard as a backbone system. Also, the solution which is described a model for internetworking unit integrates the traffic generated by PROFIBUS segments into IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN using encapsulation technique.
Abstract: Together with the industrialization, women began to
be included in business life by peeling off of the tasks given them by
society and they have become a factor of production creating value in
economic and social sense. Thus, women have taken place in the
labor market, majority of which has been formed by men. In this
study, the experiences of women entrepreneurs, who succeed in
business activities, will be analyzed. By the study, current state of the
women entrepreneurs in the labor market of Turkey will be put down,
as a result of interferences obtained from the shared experiences of
women entrepreneurs. Findings obtained at the end of the study are
thought to light the way of future studies for increasing women
entrepreneurship.
Abstract: Language Reforms and potential use of ICTs has been a focal area of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Efforts are being accelerated to incorporate fast expanding ICTs to bring qualitative improvement in language instruction in higher education. This paper explores how university teachers are benefitting from ICTs to make their English class effective and what type of problems they face in practicing ICTs during their lectures. An in-depth qualitative study was employed to understand why language teachers tend to use ICTs in their instruction and how they are practicing it. A sample of twenty teachers from five universities located in Islamabad, three from public sector and two from private sector, was selected on non-random (Snowball) sampling basis. An interview with 15 semi-structured items was used as research instruments to collect data. The findings reveal that business English teaching is facilitated and improved through the use of ICTs. The language teachers need special training regarding the practices and implementation of ICTs. It is recommended that initiatives might be taken to equip university language teachers with modern methodology incorporating ICTs as focal area and efforts might be made to remove barriers regarding the training of language teachers and proper usage of ICTs.
Abstract: This paper presents a cold flow simulation study of a small gas turbine combustor performed using laboratory scale test rig. The main objective of this investigation is to obtain physical insight of the main vortex, responsible for the efficient mixing of fuel and air. Such models are necessary for predictions and optimization of real gas turbine combustors. Air swirler can control the combustor performance by assisting in the fuel-air mixing process and by producing recirculation region which can act as flame holders and influences residence time. Thus, proper selection of a swirler is needed to enhance combustor performance and to reduce NOx emissions. Three different axial air swirlers were used based on their vane angles i.e., 30°, 45°, and 60°. Three-dimensional, viscous, turbulent, isothermal flow characteristics of the combustor model operating at room temperature were simulated via Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) code. The model geometry has been created using solid model, and the meshing has been done using GAMBIT preprocessing package. Finally, the solution and analysis were carried out in a FLUENT solver. This serves to demonstrate the capability of the code for design and analysis of real combustor. The effects of swirlers and mass flow rate were examined. Details of the complex flow structure such as vortices and recirculation zones were obtained by the simulation model. The computational model predicts a major recirculation zone in the central region immediately downstream of the fuel nozzle and a second recirculation zone in the upstream corner of the combustion chamber. It is also shown that swirler angles changes have significant effects on the combustor flowfield as well as pressure losses.
Abstract: This paper addresses the fundamental requirements for
starting an online business. It covers the process of ideation,
conceptualization, formulation, and implementation of new venture
ideas on the Web. Using Facebook as an illustrative example, we learn
how to turn an idea into a successful electronic business and to execute
a business plan with IT skills, management expertise, a good
entrepreneurial attitude, and an understanding of Internet culture. The
personality traits and characteristics of a successful e-commerce
entrepreneur are discussed with reference to Facebook-s founder,
Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook is a social and e-commerce success. It
provides a trusted environment of which participants can conduct
business with social experience. People are able to discuss products
before, during the after the sale within the Facebook environment. The
paper also highlights the challenges and opportunities for e-commerce
entrepreneurial startups to go public and of entering the China market.
Abstract: This paper considers the robust exponential stability issues for a class of uncertain switched neutral system which delays switched according to the switching rule. The system under consideration includes both stable and unstable subsystems. The uncertainties considered in this paper are norm bounded, and possibly time varying. Based on multiple Lyapunov functional approach and dwell-time technique, the time-dependent switching rule is designed depend on the so-called average dwell time of stable subsystems as well as the ratio of the total activation time of stable subsystems and unstable subsystems. It is shown that by suitably controlling the switching between the stable and unstable modes, the robust stabilization of the switched uncertain neutral systems can be achieved. Two simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Abstract: Structured catalysts formed from the growth of
zeolites on substrates is an area of increasing interest due to the
increased efficiency of the catalytic process, and the ability to
provide superior heat transfer and thermal conductivity for both
exothermic and endothermic processes.
However, the generation of structured catalysts represents a
significant challenge when balancing the relationship variables
between materials properties and catalytic performance, with the
Na2O, H2O and Al2O3 gel composition paying a significant role in
this dynamic, thereby affecting the both the type and range of
application.
The structured catalyst films generated as part of this
investigation have been characterised using a range of techniques,
including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron microscopy (SEM),
Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric
Analysis (TGA), with the transition from oxide-on-alloy wires to
hydrothermally synthesised uniformly zeolite coated surfaces being
demonstrated using both SEM and XRD. The robustness of the
coatings has been ascertained by subjecting these to thermal cycling
(ambient to 550oC), with the results indicating that the synthesis time
and gel compositions have a crucial effect on the quality of zeolite
growth on the FeCrAlloy wires.
Finally, the activity of the structured catalyst was verified by a
series of comparison experiments with standard zeolite Y catalysts in
powdered pelleted forms.
Abstract: This paper presents the comparative study of coded
data methods for finding the benefit of concealing the natural data
which is the mercantile secret. Influential parameters of the number
of replicates (rep), treatment effects (τ) and standard deviation (σ)
against the efficiency of each transformation method are investigated.
The experimental data are generated via computer simulations under
the specified condition of the process with the completely
randomized design (CRD). Three ways of data transformation consist
of Box-Cox, arcsine and logit methods. The difference values of F
statistic between coded data and natural data (Fc-Fn) and hypothesis
testing results were determined. The experimental results indicate
that the Box-Cox results are significantly different from natural data
in cases of smaller levels of replicates and seem to be improper when
the parameter of minus lambda has been assigned. On the other hand,
arcsine and logit transformations are more robust and obviously,
provide more precise numerical results. In addition, the alternate
ways to select the lambda in the power transformation are also
offered to achieve much more appropriate outcomes.
Abstract: In the highly competitive and rapidly changing global
marketplace, independent organizations and enterprises often come
together and form a temporary alignment of virtual enterprise in a
supply chain to better provide products or service. As firms adopt the
systems approach implicit in supply chain management, they must
manage the quality from both internal process control and external
control of supplier quality and customer requirements. How to
incorporate quality management of upstream and downstream supply
chain partners into their own quality management system has recently
received a great deal of attention from both academic and practice.
This paper investigate the collaborative feature and the entities-
relationship in a supply chain, and presents an ontology of
collaborative supply chain from an approach of aligning
service-oriented framework with service-dominant logic. This
perspective facilitates the segregation of material flow management
from manufacturing capability management, which provides a
foundation for the coordination and integration of the business process
to measure, analyze, and continually improve the quality of products,
services, and process. Further, this approach characterizes the different
interests of supply chain partners, providing an innovative approach to
analyze the collaborative features of supply chain. Furthermore, this
ontology is the foundation to develop quality management system
which internalizes the quality management in upstream and
downstream supply chain partners and manages the quality in supply
chain systematically.
Abstract: A robust control approach is proposed for a high speed manipulator using a hybrid computed torque control approach in the state space. The high-speed manipulator is driven by permanent magnet dc motors to track a trajectory in the joint space in the presence of disturbances. Tracking problem is analyzed in the state space where the completed models are considered for actuators. The proposed control approach can guarantee the stability and a satisfactory tracking performance. A two-link elbow manipulator driven by electrical actuators is simulated and results are shown to satisfy conditions under technical specifications.
Abstract: This paper aims to present a framework for the
organizational knowledge management, which seeks to deploy a
standardized structure for the integrated management of knowledge is
a common language based on domains, processes and global
indicators inspired by the COBIT framework 5 (ISACA, 2012),
which supports the integration of three technologies, enterprise
information architecture (EIA), the business process modeling (BPM)
and service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Gomak Framework is a
management platform that seeks to integrate the information
technology infrastructure, the structure of applications, information
infrastructure, and business logic and business model to support a
sound strategy of organizational knowledge management, low
process-based approach and concurrent engineering. Concurrent
engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to integrated product
development that respond to customer expectations, involving all
perspectives in parallel, from the beginning of the product life cycle.
(European Space Agency, 2000).
Abstract: This paper presents a new technique of compensation
of the effect of variation parameters in the direct field oriented
control of induction motor. The proposed method uses an adaptive
tuning of the value of synchronous speed to obtain the robustness for
the field oriented control. We show that this adaptive tuning allows
having robustness for direct field oriented control to changes in rotor
resistance, load torque and rotational speed. The effectiveness of the
proposed control scheme is verified by numerical simulations. The
numerical validation results of the proposed scheme have presented
good performances compared to the usual direct-field oriented
control.
Abstract: This paper describes the development of a fully
automated measurement software for antenna radiation pattern
measurements in a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR). The
CATR has a frequency range from 2-40 GHz and the measurement
hardware includes a Network Analyzer for transmitting and
Receiving the microwave signal and a Positioner controller to control
the motion of the Styrofoam column. The measurement process
includes Calibration of CATR with a Standard Gain Horn (SGH)
antenna followed by Gain versus angle measurement of the Antenna
under test (AUT). The software is designed to control a variety of
microwave transmitter / receiver and two axis Positioner controllers
through the standard General Purpose interface bus (GPIB) interface.
Addition of new Network Analyzers is supported through a slight
modification of hardware control module. Time-domain gating is
implemented to remove the unwanted signals and get the isolated
response of AUT. The gated response of the AUT is compared with
the calibration data in the frequency domain to obtain the desired
results. The data acquisition and processing is implemented in
Agilent VEE and Matlab. A variety of experimental measurements
with SGH antennas were performed to validate the accuracy of
software. A comparison of results with existing commercial
softwares is presented and the measured results are found to be
within .2 dBm.
Abstract: This paper presents a new Hybrid Fuzzy (HF) PID type controller based on Genetic Algorithms (GA-s) for solution of the Automatic generation Control (AGC) problem in a deregulated electricity environment. In order for a fuzzy rule based control system to perform well, the fuzzy sets must be carefully designed. A major problem plaguing the effective use of this method is the difficulty of accurately constructing the membership functions, because it is a computationally expensive combinatorial optimization problem. On the other hand, GAs is a technique that emulates biological evolutionary theories to solve complex optimization problems by using directed random searches to derive a set of optimal solutions. For this reason, the membership functions are tuned automatically using a modified GA-s based on the hill climbing method. The motivation for using the modified GA-s is to reduce fuzzy system effort and take large parametric uncertainties into account. The global optimum value is guaranteed using the proposed method and the speed of the algorithm-s convergence is extremely improved, too. This newly developed control strategy combines the advantage of GA-s and fuzzy system control techniques and leads to a flexible controller with simple stricture that is easy to implement. The proposed GA based HF (GAHF) controller is tested on a threearea deregulated power system under different operating conditions and contract variations. The results of the proposed GAHF controller are compared with those of Multi Stage Fuzzy (MSF) controller, robust mixed H2/H∞ and classical PID controllers through some performance indices to illustrate its robust performance for a wide range of system parameters and load changes.
Abstract: Recently, business environment and customer needs
have become rapidly changing, hence it is very difficult to fulfill
sophisticated customer needs by product or service innovation only. In
practice, to cope with this problem, various manufacturing companies
have developed services to combine with their products. Along with
this, many academic studies on PSS (Product Service System) which is
the integrated system of products and services have been conducted
from the viewpoint of manufacturers. On the other hand, service
providers are also attempting to develop service-supporting products
to increase their service competitiveness and provide differentiated
value. However, there is a lack of research based on the service-centric
point of view. Accordingly, this paper proposes a concept generation
method for service-supporting product development from the
service-centric point of view. This method is designed to be executed
in five consecutive steps: situation analysis, problem definition,
problem resolution, solution evaluation, and concept generation. In
the proposed approach, some tools of TRIZ (Theory of Solving
Inventive Problem) such as ISQ (Innovative Situation Questionnaire)
and 40 inventive principles are employed in order to define problems
of the current services and solve them by generating
service-supporting product concepts. This research contributes to the
development of service-supporting products and service-centric PSSs.
Abstract: The concepts of knowledge creation and innovation
have a strong relationship but this relationship has not been examined
systematically. This study examines the utilization of knowledge
creation processes of the Theory of Knowledge Creation in Higher
Education Institutions. These processes consist of socialization,
externalization, combination and internalization. This study suggests
that the utilization of these processes will give impacts on innovation
in academic performance. A cross-sectional study was conducted
using survey questionnaires to collect data of the utilization of
knowledge creation processes and classroom-s innovation. The
samples are Business Management students of a Malaysian Higher
Education Institution. The results of this study could help Higher
Education Institutions to enrich the learning process of students
through knowledge creation and innovation.
Abstract: This paper presents a simple method for estimation of
additional load as a factor of the existing load that may be drawn
before reaching the point of line maximum loadability of radial
distribution system (RDS) with different realistic load models at
different substation voltages. The proposed method involves a simple
line loadability index (LLI) that gives a measure of the proximity of
the present state of a line in the distribution system. The LLI can use
to assess voltage instability and the line loading margin. The
proposed method also compares with the existing method of
maximum loadability index [10]. The simulation results show that the
LLI can identify not only the weakest line/branch causing system
instability but also the system voltage collapse point when it is near
one. This feature enables us to set an index threshold to monitor and
predict system stability on-line so that a proper action can be taken to
prevent the system from collapse. To demonstrate the validity of the
proposed algorithm, computer simulations are carried out on two bus
and 69 bus RDS.
Abstract: In this study, the effect of mechanical activation on the synthesis of Fe3Al/Al2O3 nanocomposite has been investigated by using mechanochemical method. For this purpose, Aluminum powder and hematite as precursors, with stoichiometric ratio, have been utilized and other effective parameters in milling process were kept constant. Phase formation analysis, crystallite size measurement and lattice strain were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) by using Williamson-Hall method as well as microstructure and morphology were explored by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis was used in order to probe the particle distribution. The results showed that after 30-hour milling, the reaction was started, combustibly done and completed.