Abstract: In this study, we discussed the effects on the thermal
comfort of super high-rise residences that how effected by the high
thermal capacity structural components. We considered different
building orientations, structures, and insulation methods. We used the
dynamic simulation software THERB (simulation of the thermal
environment of residential buildings). It can estimate the temperature,
humidity, sensible temperature, and heating/cooling load for multiple
buildings. In the past studies, we examined the impact of
air-conditioning loads (hereinafter referred to as AC loads) on the
interior structural parts and the AC-usage patterns of super-high-rise
residences.
Super-high-rise residences have more structural components such
as pillars and beams than do ordinary apartment buildings. The
skeleton is generally made of concrete and steel, which have high
thermal-storage capacities. The thermal-storage capacity of
super-high-rise residences is considered to have a larger impact on the
AC load and thermal comfort than that of ordinary residences.
We show that the AC load of super-high-rise units would be
reduced by installing insulation on the surfaces of interior walls that
are not usually insulated in Japan.
Abstract: This paper proposes an efficient learning method for the layered neural networks based on the selection of training data and input characteristics of an output layer unit. Comparing to recent neural networks; pulse neural networks, quantum neuro computation, etc, the multilayer network is widely used due to its simple structure. When learning objects are complicated, the problems, such as unsuccessful learning or a significant time required in learning, remain unsolved. Focusing on the input data during the learning stage, we undertook an experiment to identify the data that makes large errors and interferes with the learning process. Our method devides the learning process into several stages. In general, input characteristics to an output layer unit show oscillation during learning process for complicated problems. The multi-stage learning method proposes by the authors for the function approximation problems of classifying learning data in a phased manner, focusing on their learnabilities prior to learning in the multi layered neural network, and demonstrates validity of the multi-stage learning method. Specifically, this paper verifies by computer experiments that both of learning accuracy and learning time are improved of the BP method as a learning rule of the multi-stage learning method. In learning, oscillatory phenomena of a learning curve serve an important role in learning performance. The authors also discuss the occurrence mechanisms of oscillatory phenomena in learning. Furthermore, the authors discuss the reasons that errors of some data remain large value even after learning, observing behaviors during learning.
Abstract: Web sites are rapidly becoming the preferred media
choice for our daily works such as information search, company
presentation, shopping, and so on. At the same time, we live in a
period where visual appearances play an increasingly important
role in our daily life. In spite of designers- effort to develop a web
site which be both user-friendly and attractive, it would be difficult
to ensure the outcome-s aesthetic quality, since the visual
appearance is a matter of an individual self perception and opinion.
In this study, it is attempted to develop an automatic system for
web pages aesthetic evaluation which are the building blocks of
web sites. Based on the image processing techniques and artificial
neural networks, the proposed method would be able to categorize
the input web page according to its visual appearance and aesthetic
quality. The employed features are multiscale/multidirectional
textural and perceptual color properties of the web pages, fed to
perceptron ANN which has been trained as the evaluator. The
method is tested using university web sites and the results
suggested that it would perform well in the web page aesthetic
evaluation tasks with around 90% correct categorization.
Abstract: Validity is an overriding consideration in language testing. If a test score is intended for a particular purpose, this must be supported through empirical evidence. This article addresses the validity of a multiple-choice achievement test (MCT). The test is administered at the end of each semester to decide about students' mastery of a course in general English. To provide empirical evidence pertaining to the validity of this test, two criterion measures were used. In so doing, a Cloze test and a C-test which are reported to gauge general English proficiency were utilized. The results of analyses show that there is a statistically significant correlation among participants' scores on the MCT, Cloze, and Ctest. Drawing on the findings of the study, it can be cautiously deduced that these tests measure the same underlying trait. However, allowing for the limitations of using criterion measures to validate tests, we cannot make any absolute claim as to the validity of this MCT test.
Abstract: It is well known that the abrasive particles in the
abrasive water suspension has significant effect on the erosion
characteristics of the inside surface of the nozzle. Abrasive particles
moving with the flow cause severe skin friction effect, there by
altering the nozzle diameter due to wear which in turn reflects on the
life of the nozzle for effective machining. Various commercial
abrasives are available for abrasive water jet machining. The erosion
characteristic of each abrasive is different. In consideration of this
aspect, in the present work, the effect of abrasive materials namely
garnet, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide on skin friction
coefficient due to wall shear stress and jet kinetic energy has been
analyzed. It is found that the abrasive material of lower density
produces a relatively higher skin friction effect and higher jet exit
kinetic energy.
Abstract: In Algeria, now, the oil pumping plants are fed with electric power by independent local sources. This type of feeding has many advantages (little climatic influence, independent operation). However it requires a qualified maintenance staff, a rather high frequency of maintenance and repair and additional fuel costs. Taking into account the increasing development of the national electric supply network (Sonelgaz), a real possibility of transfer of the local sources towards centralized sources appears.These latter cannot only be more economic but more reliable than the independent local sources as well. In order to carry out this transfer, it is necessary to work out an optimal strategy to rebuilding these networks taking in account the economic parameters and the indices of reliability.
Abstract: This paper describes the smart energy monitoring system with a wireless sensor network for monitoring of electrical usage in smart house. Proposed system is composed of wireless plugs and energy control wallpad server. The wireless plug integrates an AC power socket, a relay to switch the socket ON/OFF, a Hall effect sensor to sense current of load appliance and a Kmote. The Kmote is a wireless communication interface based on TinyOS. We evaluated wireless plug in a laboratory, analyzed and presented energy consumption data from electrical appliances for 3 months in home.
Abstract: To offer a large variety of products while maintaining
low costs, high speed, and high quality in a mass customization
product development environment, platform based product
development has much benefit and usefulness in many industry fields.
This paper proposes a product configuration strategy by similarity
measure, incorporating the knowledge engineering principles such as
product information model, ontology engineering, and formal concept
analysis.
Abstract: A retrospective study was undertaken to record the
occurrence and pattern of fractures in small animals (dogs and cats)
from year 2005 to 2010. A total of 650 cases were presented in small
animal surgery unit out of which of 116 (dogs and cats) were
presented with history of fractures of different bones. A total of
17.8% (116/650) cases were of fractures which constituted dogs 67%
while cats were 23%. The majority of animals were intact. Trauma in
the form of road side accident was the principal cause of fractures in
dogs whereas as in cats it was fall from height. The ages of the
fractured dog ranged from 4 months to 12 years whereas in cat it was
from 4 weeks to 10 years. The femoral fractures represented 37.5%
and 25% respectively in dogs and cats. Diaphysis, distal metaphyseal
and supracondylar fractures were the most affected sites in dog and
cats. Tibial fracture in dogs and cats represented 21.5% and 10%
while humoral fractures were 7.9% and 14% in dogs and cats
respectively. Humoral condyler fractures were most commonly seen
in puppies aged 4 to 6 months. Fractured radius-ulna incidence was
19% and 14% in dogs and cats respectively. Other fractures recorded
were of lumbar vertebrae, mandible and metacarpals etc. The
management comprised of external and internal fixation in both the
species. The most common internal fixation technique employed was
Intramedullary fixation in long followed by other methods like stack
or cross pinning, wiring etc as per findings in the cases. The cast
bandage was used majorly as mean for external coaptation. The
paper discusses the outcome of the case as per the technique
employed.
Abstract: Nowadays, we are facing with network threats that
cause enormous damage to the Internet community day by day. In
this situation, more and more people try to prevent their network
security using some traditional mechanisms including firewall,
Intrusion Detection System, etc. Among them honeypot is a versatile
tool for a security practitioner, of course, they are tools that are meant
to be attacked or interacted with to more information about attackers,
their motives and tools. In this paper, we will describe usefulness of
low-interaction honeypot and high-interaction honeypot and
comparison between them. And then we propose hybrid honeypot
architecture that combines low and high -interaction honeypot to
mitigate the drawback. In this architecture, low-interaction honeypot
is used as a traffic filter. Activities like port scanning can be
effectively detected by low-interaction honeypot and stop there.
Traffic that cannot be handled by low-interaction honeypot is handed
over to high-interaction honeypot. In this case, low-interaction
honeypot is used as proxy whereas high-interaction honeypot offers
the optimal level realism. To prevent the high-interaction honeypot
from infections, containment environment (VMware) is used.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyze influence of
differences of heat insulation methods on indoor thermal environment and comfort of apartment buildings.
This study analyzes indoor thermal environment and comfort on units of apartment buildings using calculation software "THERB" and
compares three different kinds of heat insulation methods. Those are
outside insulation on outside walls, inside insulation on outside walls and interior insulation. In terms of indoor thermal environment, outside insulation is the best to stabilize room temperature. In winter, room temperature on
outside insulation after heating is higher than other and it is kept 3-5 degrees higher through all night. But the surface temperature with
outside insulation did not dramatically increase when heating was used, which was 3 to 5oC lower than the temperature with other
insulation. The PMV of interior insulation fall nearly range of comfort when the heating and cooling was use.
Abstract: A 1.2 V, 0.61 mA bias current, low noise amplifier
(LNA) suitable for low-power applications in the 2.4 GHz band is
presented. Circuit has been implemented, laid out and simulated using
a UMC 130 nm RF-CMOS process. The amplifier provides a 13.3 dB
power gain a noise figure NF< 2.28 dB and a 1-dB compression point
of -15.69 dBm, while dissipating 0.74 mW. Such performance make
this design suitable for wireless sensor networks applications such as
ZigBee.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative analysis of a new
unsupervised PCA-based technique for steel plates texture segmentation
towards defect detection. The proposed scheme called Variance
Based Component Analysis or VBCA employs PCA for feature
extraction, applies a feature reduction algorithm based on variance of
eigenpictures and classifies the pixels as defective and normal. While
the classic PCA uses a clusterer like Kmeans for pixel clustering,
VBCA employs thresholding and some post processing operations to
label pixels as defective and normal. The experimental results show
that proposed algorithm called VBCA is 12.46% more accurate and
78.85% faster than the classic PCA.
Abstract: In this paper a novel method was presented for
evaluating the fabric pills using digital image processing techniques. This work provides a novel technique for
detecting pills and also measuring their heights, surfaces and
volumes. Surely, measuring the intensity of defects by human vision is an inaccurate method for quality control; as a result, this problem became a motivation for employing digital image processing techniques for detection of defects of fabric
surface. In the former works, the systems were just limited to measuring of the surface of defects, but in the presented
method the height and the volume of defects were also
measured, which leads to a more accurate quality control. An algorithm was developed to first, find pills and then measure their average intensity by using three criteria of height, surface
and volume. The results showed a meaningful relation
between the number of rotations and the quality of pilled fabrics.
Abstract: The main objectives of this paper are to measure
pollutants concentrations in the oil refinery area in Kuwait over three
periods during one year, obtain recent emission inventory for the
three refineries of Kuwait, use AERMOD and the emission inventory
to predict pollutants concentrations and distribution, compare model
predictions against measured data, and perform numerical
experiments to determine conditions at which emission rates and the
resulting pollutant dispersion is below maximum allowable limits.
Abstract: The 'wind-rain' house has a courtyard with glazed
roof, which allows more direct sunlight to come into indoor spaces
during the winter. The glazed roof can be partially opened or closed
and automatically controlled to provide natural ventilation in order to
adjust for indoor thermal conditions and the roof area can be shaded
by reflective insulation materials during the summer. Two field
studies for evaluating indoor thermal conditions of the two 'windrain'
houses have been carried out by author in 2009 and 2010.
Indoor and outdoor air temperature and relative humidity adjacent to
floor and ceiling of the two sample houses were continuously tested
at 15-minute intervals, 24 hours a day during the winter months.
Based on field study data, this study investigates relationships
between building design and indoor thermal condition of the 'windrain'
house to improve the future house design for building thermal
comfort and energy efficiency
Abstract: A large number of semantic web service composition
approaches are developed by the research community and one is
more efficient than the other one depending on the particular
situation of use. So a close look at the requirements of ones particular
situation is necessary to find a suitable approach to use. In this paper,
we present a Technique Recommendation System (TRS) which using
a classification of state-of-art semantic web service composition
approaches, can provide the user of the system with the
recommendations regarding the use of service composition approach
based on some parameters regarding situation of use. TRS has
modular architecture and uses the production-rules for knowledge
representation.
Abstract: Knowledge about the magnetic quantities in a magnetic circuit is always of great interest. On the one hand, this information is needed for the simulation of a transformer. On the other hand, parameter studies are more reliable, if the magnetic quantities are derived from a well established model. One possibility to model the 3-phase transformer is by using a magnetic equivalent circuit (MEC). Though this is a well known system, it is often not an easy task to set up such a model for a large number of lumped elements which additionally includes the nonlinear characteristic of the magnetic material. Here we show the setup of a solver for a MEC and the results of the calculation in comparison to measurements taken. The equations of the MEC are based on a rearranged system of the nodal analysis. Thus it is possible to achieve a minimum number of equations, and a clear and simple structure. Hence, it is uncomplicated in its handling and it supports the iteration process. Additional helpful tasks are implemented within the solver to enhance the performance. The electric circuit is described by an electric equivalent circuit (EEC). Our results for the 3-phase transformer demonstrate the computational efficiency of the solver, and show the benefit of the application of a MEC.
Abstract: A theoretical study is conducted to design and explore
the effect of different parameters such as heat loads, the tube size of
piping system, wick thickness, porosity and hole size on the
performance and capability of a Loop Heat Pipe(LHP). This paper
presents a steady state model that describes the different phenomena
inside a LHP. Loop Heat Pipes(LHPs) are two-phase heat transfer
devices with capillary pumping of a working fluid. By their original
design comparing with heat pipes and special properties of the
capillary structure, they-re capable of transferring heat efficiency for
distances up to several meters at any orientation in the gravity field,
or to several meters in a horizontal position. This theoretical model is
described by different relations to satisfy important limits such as
capillary and nucleate boiling. An algorithm is developed to predict
the size of the LHP satisfying the limitations mentioned above for a
wide range of applied loads. Finally, to assess and evaluate the
algorithm and all the relations considered, we have used to design a
new kind of LHP to recover the heat from the exhaust of an actual
Gas Turbine. By finding the results, it showed that we can use the
LHP as a very high efficient device to recover the heat even in high
amount of loads(exhaust of a gas turbine). The sizes of all parts of the
LHP were obtained using the developed algorithm.
Abstract: Effective employee selection is a critical component
of a successful organization. Many important criteria for personnel
selection such as decision-making ability, adaptability, ambition, and
self-organization are naturally vague and imprecise to evaluate. The
rough sets theory (RST) as a new mathematical approach to
vagueness and uncertainty is a very well suited tool to deal with
qualitative data and various decision problems. This paper provides
conceptual, descriptive, and simulation results, concentrating chiefly
on human resources and personnel selection factors. The current
research derives certain decision rules which are able to facilitate
personnel selection and identifies several significant features based
on an empirical study conducted in an IT company in Iran.