Groundwater Seepage Estimation into Amirkabir Tunnel Using Analytical Methods and DEM and SGR Method

In this paper, groundwater seepage into Amirkabir tunnel has been estimated using analytical and numerical methods for 14 different sections of the tunnel. Site Groundwater Rating (SGR) method also has been performed for qualitative and quantitative classification of the tunnel sections. The obtained results of above mentioned methods were compared together. The study shows reasonable accordance with results of the all methods unless for two sections of tunnel. In these two sections there are some significant discrepancies between numerical and analytical results mainly originated from model geometry and high overburden. SGR and the analytical and numerical calculations, confirm high concentration of seepage inflow in fault zones. Maximum seepage flow into tunnel has been estimated 0.425 lit/sec/m using analytical method and 0.628 lit/sec/m using numerical method occured in crashed zone. Based on SGR method, six sections of 14 sections in Amirkabir tunnel axis are found to be in "No Risk" class that is supported by the analytical and numerical seepage value of less than 0.04 lit/sec/m.

Objective and Subjective Preconditions for Entrepreneurship – From the Point of View of Enterprise Risk Management

Established objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship, forming the business organically related whole, are the necessary condition of successful entrepreneurial activities. Objective preconditions for entrepreneurship are developed by market economy that should stimulate entrepreneurship by allowing the use of economic opportunities for all those who want to do business in respective field while providing guarantees to all owners and creating a stable business environment for entrepreneurs. Subjective preconditions of entrepreneurship are formed primarily by personal characteristics of the entrepreneur. These are his properties, abilities, skills, physiological and psychological preconditions which may be inherited, inborn or sequentially developed and obtained during his life on the basis of education and influences of surrounding environment. The paper is dealing with issues of objective and subjective preconditions for entrepreneurship and provides their analysis in view of the current situation in Slovakia. It presents risks of the business environment in Slovakia that the Slovak managers considered the most significant in 2014 and defines the dominant attributes of the entrepreneur in the current business environment in Slovakia.

Development of Star Tracker for Satellite

Much attention is paid to the development of space branch in Kazakhstan at present. Two Earth remote sensing satellites of Kazakhstan have been launched successfully. Many projects related to the development of components for satellite are carried in Kazakhstan, in particular the project related to the development of star tracker experimental model. It is planned to use the results of this project for development of star tracker prototype in the future. This article describes the main stages of development of star tracker experimental model.

Forgeability Study of Medium Carbon Micro-Alloyed Forging Steel

Micro-alloyed steel components are used in automotive industry for the necessity to make the manufacturing process cycles shorter when compared to conventional steel by eliminating heat treatment cycles, so an important saving of costs and energy can be reached by reducing the number of operations. Microalloying elements like vanadium, niobium or titanium have been added to medium carbon steels to achieve grain refinement with or without precipitation strengthening along with uniform microstructure throughout the matrix. Present study reports the applicability of medium carbon vanadium micro-alloyed steel in hot forging. Forgeability has been determined with respect to different cooling rates, after forging in a hydraulic press at 50% diameter reduction in temperature range of 900-11000C. Final microstructures, hardness, tensile strength, and impact strength have been evaluated. The friction coefficients of different lubricating conditions, viz., graphite in hydraulic oil, graphite in furnace oil, DF 150 (Graphite, Water-Based) die lubricant and dry or without any lubrication were obtained from the ring compression test for the above micro-alloyed steel. Results of ring compression tests indicate that graphite in hydraulic oil lubricant is preferred for free forging and dry lubricant is preferred for die forging operation. Exceptionally good forgeability and high resistance to fracture, especially for faster cooling rate has been observed for fine equiaxed ferrite-pearlite grains, some amount of bainite and fine precipitates of vanadium carbides and carbonitrides. The results indicated that the cooling rate has a remarkable effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties at room temperature.

Social Network Based Decision Support System for Smart U-Parking Planning

The aim of this study was to build ‘Ubi-Net’, a decision-making support system for systematic establishment in U-City planning. We have experienced various urban problems caused by high-density development and population concentrations in established urban areas. To address these problems, a U-Service contributes to the alleviation of urban problems by providing real-time information to citizens through network connections and related information. However, technology, devices, and information for consumers are required for systematic U-Service planning in towns and cities where there are many difficulties in this regard, and a lack of reference systems. Thus, this study suggests methods to support the establishment of sustainable planning by providing comprehensive information including IT technology, devices, news, and social networking services (SNS) to U-City planners through intelligent searches. In this study, we targeted Smart U-Parking Planning to solve parking problems in an ‘old’ city. Through this study, we sought to contribute to supporting advances in U-Space and the alleviation of urban problems.

True Detective as a Southern Gothic: A Study of Its Music-Lyrics

Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective offers profound mythological and philosophical ramblings for audiences with literary sensibilities. An American Sothern Gothic with its Bayon landscape of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, where two detectives Rustin Cohle and Martin Hart begin investigating the isolated murder of Dora Lange, only to discover an entrenched network of perversion and corruption, offers an existential outlook. The proposed research paper shall attempt to investigate the pervasive themes of gothic and existentialism in the music of the first season of the series.

Formal Verification of Cache System Using a Novel Cache Memory Model

Formal verification is proposed to ensure the correctness of the design and make functional verification more efficient. As cache plays a vital role in the design of System on Chip (SoC), and cache with Memory Management Unit (MMU) and cache memory unit makes the state space too large for simulation to verify, then a formal verification is presented for such system design. In the paper, a formal model checking verification flow is suggested and a new cache memory model which is called “exhaustive search model” is proposed. Instead of using large size ram to denote the whole cache memory, exhaustive search model employs just two cache blocks. For cache system contains data cache (Dcache) and instruction cache (Icache), Dcache memory model and Icache memory model are established separately using the same mechanism. At last, the novel model is employed to the verification of a cache which is module of a custom-built SoC system that has been applied in practical, and the result shows that the cache system is verified correctly using the exhaustive search model, and it makes the verification much more manageable and flexible.

The Relations of Volatile Compounds, Some Parameters and Consumer Preference of Commercial Fermented Milks in Thailand

The aim of research was to define the relations between volatile compounds, some parameters (pH, titratable acidity (TA), total soluble solid (TSS), lactic acid bacteria count) and consumer preference of commercial fermented milks. These relations tend to be used for controlling and developing new fermented milk product. Three leading commercial brands of fermented milks in Thailand were evaluated by consumers (n=71) using hedonic scale for four attributes (sweetness, sourness, flavour, and overall liking), volatile compounds using headspace-solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) GC-MS, pH, TA, TSS and LAB count. Then the relations were analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA data showed that all of four attributes liking scores were related to each other. They were also related to TA, TSS and volatile compounds. The related volatile compounds were mainly on fermented produced compounds including acetic acid, furanmethanol, furfural, octanoic acid and the volatiles known as artificial fruit flavour (beta pinene, limonene, vanillin, and ethyl vanillin). These compounds were provided the information about flavour addition in commercial fermented milk in Thailand.

A Performance Analysis of Different Scheduling Schemes in WiMAX

IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) aims to present high speed wireless access to cover wide range coverage. The base station (BS) and the subscriber station (SS) are the main parts of WiMAX. WiMAX uses either Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) or mesh topologies. In the PMP mode, the SSs connect to the BS to gain access to the network. However, in the mesh mode, the SSs connect to each other to gain access to the BS. The main components of QoS management in the 802.16 standard are the admission control, buffer management and packet scheduling. In this paper, we use QualNet 5.0.2 to study the performance of different scheduling schemes, such as WFQ, SCFQ, RR and SP when the numbers of SSs increase. We find that when the number of SSs increases, the average jitter and average end-to-end delay is increased and the throughput is reduced.

Hello Kitty's Popularity and Its Change of Representation

Since “Hello Kitty” was manufactured in the market in 1974, the manufacturer, Sanrio Co., Ltd. gains high profits not only Kitty’s products but also Kitty license, which gives us a picture of Sanrio’s sales strategy in the global market. Kitty’s history, its products, and Sanrio’s sales strategy are researched in this paper. Comparing it to American Girl, and focusing on KITTYLAB, a type of attraction where you can enjoy games with Kitty, and choose its parts to build your own Kitty, the image of the cultural icon can be altered.

A Study on Inference from Distance Variables in Hedonic Regression

In urban area, several landmarks may affect housing price and rents, and hedonic analysis should employ distance variables corresponding to each landmarks. Unfortunately, the effects of distances to landmarks on housing prices are generally not consistent with the true price. These distance variables may cause magnitude error in regression, pointing a problem of spatial multicollinearity. In this paper, we provided some approaches for getting the samples with less bias and method on locating the specific sampling area to avoid the multicollinerity problem in two specific landmarks case.

Modelling of Organic Rankine Cycle for Waste Heat Recovery Process in Supercritical Condition

Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is the most commonly used method for recovering energy from small sources of heat. The investigation of the ORC in supercritical condition is a new research area as it has a potential to generate high power and thermal efficiency in a waste heat recovery system. This paper presents a steady state ORC model in supercritical condition and its simulations with a real engine’s exhaust data. The key component of ORC, evaporator, is modelled using finite volume method, modelling of all other components of the waste heat recovery system such as pump, expander and condenser are also presented. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of mass flow rate and evaporator outlet temperature on the efficiency of the waste heat recovery process. Additionally, the necessity of maintaining an optimum evaporator outlet temperature is also investigated. Simulation results show that modification of mass flow rate is the key to changing the operating temperature at the evaporator outlet.

Fatigue Tests of New Assembly Bolt Connections for Perspective Temporary Steel Railway Bridges

The paper deals with the problems of the actual behavior, failure mechanism and load-carrying capacity of the special bolt connection developed and intended for the assembly connections of truss main girders of perspective railway temporary steel bridges. Within the framework of this problem solution, several types of structural details of assembly joints have been considered as the conceptual structural design. Based on the preliminary evaluation of advantages or disadvantages of these ones, in principle two basic structural configurations – so-called “tooth” and “splice-plate” connections have been selected for the subsequent detailed investigation. This investigation is mainly based on the experimental verification of the actual behavior, strain and failure mechanism and corresponding strength of the connection, and on its numerical modeling using FEM. This paper is focused only on the cyclic loading (fatigue) tests results of “splice-plate” connections and their evaluation, which have already been finished. Simultaneously with the fatigue tests, the static loading tests have been realized too, but these ones, as well as FEM numerical modeling, are not the subject of this paper.

Variability of Hydrological Modeling of the Blue Nile

The Blue Nile Basin is the most important tributary of the Nile River. Egypt and Sudan are almost dependent on water originated from the Blue Nile. This multi-dependency creates conflicts among the three countries Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia making the management of these conflicts as an international issue. Good assessment of the water resources of the Blue Nile is an important to help in managing such conflicts. Hydrological models are good tool for such assessment. This paper presents a critical review of the nature and variability of the climate and hydrology of the Blue Nile Basin as a first step of using hydrological modeling to assess the water resources of the Blue Nile. Many several attempts are done to develop basin-scale hydrological modeling on the Blue Nile. Lumped and semi distributed models used averages of meteorological inputs and watershed characteristics in hydrological simulation, to analyze runoff for flood control and water resource management. Distributed models include the temporal and spatial variability of catchment conditions and meteorological inputs to allow better representation of the hydrological process. The main challenge of all used models was to assess the water resources of the basin is the shortage of the data needed for models calibration and validation. It is recommended to use distributed model for their higher accuracy to cope with the great variability and complexity of the Blue Nile basin and to collect sufficient data to have more sophisticated and accurate hydrological modeling.

Rainfall and Flood Forecast Models for Better Flood Relief Plan of the Mae Sot Municipality

This research was conducted in the Mae Sot Watershed where located in the Moei River Basin at the Upper Salween River Basin in Tak Province, Thailand. The Mae Sot Municipality is the largest urban area in Tak Province and situated in the midstream of the Mae Sot Watershed. It usually faces flash flood problem after heavy rain due to poor flood management has been reported since economic rapidly bloom up in recent years. Its catchment can be classified as ungauged basin with lack of rainfall data and no any stream gaging station was reported. It was attached by most severely flood events in 2013 as the worst studied case for all those communities in this municipality. Moreover, other problems are also faced in this watershed, such shortage water supply for domestic consumption and agriculture utilizations including a deterioration of water quality and landslide as well. The research aimed to increase capability building and strengthening the participation of those local community leaders and related agencies to conduct better water management in urban area was started by mean of the data collection and illustration of the appropriated application of some short period rainfall forecasting model as they aim for better flood relief plan and management through the hydrologic model system and river analysis system programs. The authors intended to apply the global rainfall data via the integrated data viewer (IDV) program from the Unidata with the aim for rainfall forecasting in a short period of 7-10 days in advance during rainy season instead of real time record. The IDV product can be present in an advance period of rainfall with time step of 3-6 hours was introduced to the communities. The result can be used as input data to the hydrologic modeling system model (HEC-HMS) for synthesizing flood hydrographs and use for flood forecasting as well. The authors applied the river analysis system model (HEC-RAS) to present flood flow behaviors in the reach of the Mae Sot stream via the downtown of the Mae Sot City as flood extents as the water surface level at every cross-sectional profiles of the stream. Both models of HMS and RAS were tested in 2013 with observed rainfall and inflow-outflow data from the Mae Sot Dam. The result of HMS showed fit to the observed data at the dam and applied at upstream boundary discharge to RAS in order to simulate flood extents and tested in the field, and the result found satisfying. The product of rainfall from IDV was fair while compared with observed data. However, it is an appropriate tool to use in the ungauged catchment to use with flood hydrograph and river analysis models for future efficient flood relief plan and management.

Novel GPU Approach in Predicting the Directional Trend of the S&P 500

Our goal is development of an algorithm capable of predicting the directional trend of the Standard and Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500). Extensive research has been published attempting to predict different financial markets using historical data testing on an in-sample and trend basis, with many authors employing excessively complex mathematical techniques. In reviewing and evaluating these in-sample methodologies, it became evident that this approach was unable to achieve sufficiently reliable prediction performance for commercial exploitation. For these reasons, we moved to an out-ofsample strategy based on linear regression analysis of an extensive set of financial data correlated with historical closing prices of the S&P 500. We are pleased to report a directional trend accuracy of greater than 55% for tomorrow (t+1) in predicting the S&P 500.

Determining Fire Resistance of Wooden Construction Elements through Experimental Studies and Artificial Neural Network

Artificial intelligence applications are commonly used in industry in many fields in parallel with the developments in the computer technology. In this study, a fire room was prepared for the resistance of wooden construction elements and with the mechanism here, the experiments of polished materials were carried out. By utilizing from the experimental data, an artificial neural network (ANN) was modelled in order to evaluate the final cross sections of the wooden samples remaining from the fire. In modelling, experimental data obtained from the fire room were used. In the developed system, the first weight of samples (ws-gr), preliminary cross-section (pcs-mm2), fire time (ft-minute), and fire temperature (t-oC) as input parameters and final cross-section (fcs-mm2) as output parameter were taken. When the results obtained from ANN and experimental data are compared after making statistical analyses, the data of two groups are determined to be coherent and seen to have no meaning difference between them. As a result, it is seen that ANN can be safely used in determining cross sections of wooden materials after fire and it prevents many disadvantages.

Effect of Sodium Hydroxide Treatment on the Mechanical Properties of Crushed and Uncrushed Luffa cylindrica Fibre Reinforced rLDPE Composites

Sustainability and eco-friendly requirement of engineering materials are sort for in recent times, thus giving rise to the development of bio-composites. However, the natural fibres to matrix interface interactions remain a key issue in getting the desired mechanical properties from such composites. Treatment of natural fibres is essential in improving matrix to filler adhesion, hence improving its mechanical properties. In this study, investigations were carried out to determine the effect of sodium hydroxide treatment on the tensile, flexural, impact and hardness properties of crushed and uncrushed Luffa cylindrica fibre reinforced recycled low density polyethylene composites. The LC (Luffa cylindrica) fibres were treated with 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% wt. sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations for a period of 24 hours under room temperature conditions. A formulation ratio of 80/20 g (matrix to reinforcement) was maintained for all developed samples. Analysis of the results showed that the uncrushed luffa fibre samples gave better mechanical properties compared with the crushed luffa fibre samples. The uncrushed luffa fibre composites had a maximum tensile and flexural strength of 7.65 MPa and 17.08 Mpa respectively corresponding to a young modulus and flexural modulus of 21.08 MPa and 232.22 MPa for the 8% and 4% wt. NaOH concentration respectively. Results obtained in the research showed that NaOH treatment with the 8% NaOH concentration improved the mechanical properties of the LC fibre reinforced composites when compared with other NaOH treatment concentration values.

Lithium Oxide Effect on the Thermal and Physical Properties of the Ternary System Glasses (Li2O3-B2O3-Al2O3)

The borate glasses are known by their structural characterized by existence of unit’s structural composed by triangles and tetrahedrons boron in different configurations depending on the percentage of B2O3 in the glass chemical composition. In this paper, effect of lithium oxide addition on the thermal and physical properties of an alumina borate glass, was investigated. It was found that the boron abnormality has a significant effect in the change of glass properties according to the addition rate of lithium oxide.

A Trends Analysis of Dinghy Yacht Simulator

This paper describes an analysis of Yacht Simulator international trends and also explains about Yacht. The results are summarized as follows. Attached to the cockpit are sensors that feed -back information on rudder angle, boat heel angle and mainsheet tension to the computer. Energy expenditure of the sailor measure indirectly using expired gas analysis for the measurement of VO2 and VCO2. At sea course configurations and wind conditions can be preset to suit any level of sailor from complete beginner to advanced sailor.