Abstract: Using the numerical and experimental methods, this paper discusses some primary studies on the vibration and cooling performances of the piezoelectric cooling fan with the rectangular blade. When the fan works at its natural frequency, the vibrating displacement is largest and the cooling performance is best. Due to the vibration behavior, the cooling performance is affected by the geometry, material property, and working frequency of the piezoelectric cooling fan.
Abstract: The present study focuses on the environmental performance of the companies in the electricity-producing sector and its relationship with their financial performance. We will review the major studies that examined the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of firms in various industries. While the classical economic debates consider the environmental friendly activities costly and harmful to a firm’s profitability, it is claimed that firms will be rewarded with higher profitability in long run through the investments in environmental friendly activities. In this context, prior studies have examined the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of firms operating in different industry sectors. Our study will employ an environmental indicator to increase the accuracy of the results and be employed as an independent variable in our developed econometric model to evaluate the impact of the financial performance of the firms on their environmental friendly activities in the context of companies operating in the Australian electricity-producing sector. As a result, we expect our methodology to contribute to the literature and the findings of the study will help us to provide recommendations and policy implications to the electricity producers.
Abstract: Understanding factors that influence employee
performance is very important. By finding the significant factors,
organization could intervene to improve the employee performance
that simultaneously will affect organization itself. In this research,
four aspects consist of PCCD training, education level, corrective
action, and work location were tested to identify their influence on
employee performance. By using correlation analysis and T-Test, it
was found that employee performance significantly influenced by
PCCD training, work location, and corrective action. Meanwhile the
education level did not influence employee performance.
Abstract: Since the heart of the hybrid system is the fuel cell and it has vital impact on efficiency and performance of cycle, in this study, the major modeling of electrochemical reaction within the fuel cell is analyzed. Also, solid oxide fuel cell is integrated with the gas turbine and thermodynamic analysis on different elements of hybrid system is applied. Next, in predefined operational points of hybrid cycle, the simulation results are obtained. Then, different source of irreversibility in fuel cell is modeled and influence of different major parameters on different irreversibility is computed and applied. Then, the effect of important parameters such as thickness and surface of electrolyte fuel cell are simulated in fuel cell and its dependency to these parameters is explained. At the end of the paper, different impact of parameters on fuel cell with a gas turbine and current density and voltage of fuel cell are simulated.
Abstract: Web service adaptation involves the creation of adapters that solve Web services incompatibilities known as mismatches. Since the importance of Web services adaptation is increasing because of the frequent implementation and use of online Web services, this paper presents a literature review of web services to investigate the main methods of adaptation, their theoretical underpinnings and the metrics used to measure adapters performance. Eighteen publications were reviewed independently by two researchers. We found that adaptation techniques are needed to solve different types of problems that may arise due to incompatibilities in Web service interfaces, including protocols, messages, data and semantics that affect the interoperability of the services. Although adapters are non-invasive methods that can improve Web services interoperability and there are current approaches for service adaptation; there is, however, not yet one solution that fits all types of mismatches. Our results also show that only a few research projects incorporate theoretical frameworks and that metrics to measure adapters’ performance are very limited. We conclude that further research on software adaptation should improve current adaptation methods in different layers of the service interoperability and that an adaptation theoretical framework that incorporates a theoretical underpinning and measures of qualitative and quantitative performance needs to be created.
Abstract: Effective statistical feature extraction and classification are important in image-based automatic inspection and analysis. An automatic wood species recognition system is designed to perform wood inspection at custom checkpoints to avoid mislabeling of timber which will results to loss of income to the timber industry. The system focuses on analyzing the statistical pores properties of the wood images. This paper proposed a fuzzy-based feature extractor which mimics the experts’ knowledge on wood texture to extract the properties of pores distribution from the wood surface texture. The proposed feature extractor consists of two steps namely pores extraction and fuzzy pores management. The total number of statistical features extracted from each wood image is 38 features. Then, a backpropagation neural network is used to classify the wood species based on the statistical features. A comprehensive set of experiments on a database composed of 5200 macroscopic images from 52 tropical wood species was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed feature extractor. The advantage of the proposed feature extraction technique is that it mimics the experts’ interpretation on wood texture which allows human involvement when analyzing the wood texture. Experimental results show the efficiency of the proposed method.
Abstract: Data mining is the procedure of determining interesting patterns from the huge amount of data. With the intention of accessing the data faster the most supporting processes needed is clustering. Clustering is the process of identifying similarity between data according to the individuality present in the data and grouping associated data objects into clusters. Cluster ensemble is the technique to combine various runs of different clustering algorithms to obtain a general partition of the original dataset, aiming for consolidation of outcomes from a collection of individual clustering outcomes. The performances of clustering ensembles are mainly affecting by two principal factors such as diversity and quality. This paper presents the overview about the different cluster ensemble algorithm along with their methods used in cluster ensemble to improve the diversity and quality in the several cluster ensemble related papers and shows the comparative analysis of different cluster ensemble also summarize various cluster ensemble methods. Henceforth this clear analysis will be very useful for the world of clustering experts and also helps in deciding the most appropriate one to determine the problem in hand.
Abstract: Allocating limited budget to maintain bridge networks and selecting effective maintenance strategies for each bridge represent challenging tasks for maintenance managers and decision makers. In Egypt, bridges are continuously deteriorating. In many cases, maintenance works are performed due to user complaints. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical and reliable framework to manage the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities of Bridges network considering performance and budget limits. The model solves an optimization problem that maximizes the average condition of the entire network given the limited available budget using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The framework contains bridge inventory, condition assessment, repair cost calculation, deterioration prediction, and maintenance optimization. The developed model takes into account multiple parameters including serviceability requirements, budget allocation, element importance on structural safety and serviceability, bridge impact on network, and traffic. A questionnaire is conducted to complete the research scope. The proposed model is implemented in software, which provides a friendly user interface. The framework provides a multi-year maintenance plan for the entire network for up to five years. A case study of ten bridges is presented to validate and test the proposed model with data collected from Transportation Authorities in Egypt. Different scenarios are presented. The results are reasonable, feasible and within acceptable domain.
Abstract: Parallel Compressor Model (PCM) is a simplified approach to predict compressor performance with inlet distortions. In PCM calculation, it is assumed that the sub-compressors’ outlet static pressure is uniform and therefore simplifies PCM calculation procedure. However, if the compressor’s outlet duct is not long and straight, such assumption frequently induces error ranging from 10% to 15%. This paper provides a revised calculation method of PCM that can correct the error. The revised method employs energy equation, momentum equation and continuity equation to acquire needed parameters and replace the equal static pressure assumption. Based on the revised method, PCM is applied on two compression system with different blades types. The predictions of their performance in non-uniform inlet conditions are yielded through the revised calculation method and are employed to evaluate the method’s efficiency. Validating the results by experimental data, it is found that although little deviation occurs, calculated result agrees well with experiment data whose error ranges from 0.1% to 3%. Therefore, this proves the revised calculation method of PCM possesses great advantages in predicting the performance of the distorted compressor with limited exhaust duct.
Abstract: Knowledge management focuses on the development, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information and expertise. It has become an important tool to improve performance in tourism enterprises. This includes improving decision-making, developing customer services, and increasing sales and profits. Knowledge management adoption depends on human, organizational and technological factors. This study aims to explore the concept of knowledge management in travel agents in Egypt. It explores the requirements of adoption and its impact on performance in these agencies. The study targets Category A travel agents in Egypt. The population of the study encompasses Category A travel agents having online presence. An online questionnaire is used to collect data from managers of travel agents. This study is useful for travel agents who are in urgent need to restructure their intermediary role and support their survival in the global travel market. The study sheds light on the requirements of adoption and the expected impact on performance. This could help travel agents identify their situation and the determine the extent to which they are ready to adopt knowledge management. This study is contributing to knowledge by providing insights from the tourism sector in a developing country where the concept of knowledge management is still in its infancy stages.
Abstract: The aim of this research paper is to conceptualize, discuss, analyze and propose alternate design methodologies for futuristic Black Box for flight safety. The proposal also includes global networking concepts for real time surveillance and monitoring of flight performance parameters including GPS parameters. It is expected that this proposal will serve as a failsafe real time diagnostic tool for accident investigation and location of debris in real time. In this paper, an attempt is made to improve the existing methods of flight data recording techniques and improve upon design considerations for futuristic FDR to overcome the trauma of not able to locate the block box. Since modern day communications and information technologies with large bandwidth are available coupled with faster computer processing techniques, the attempt made in this paper to develop a failsafe recording technique is feasible. Further data fusion/data warehousing technologies are available for exploitation.
Abstract: Compressor fans in modern aircraft engines are of considerate importance, as they provide majority of thrust required by the aircraft. Their challenging environment is frequently subjected to non-uniform inflow conditions. These conditions could be either due to the flight operating requirements such as take-off and landing, wake interference from aircraft fuselage or cross-flow wind conditions. So, in highly maneuverable flights regimes of fighter aircrafts affects the overall performance of an engine. Since the flow in compressor of an aircraft application is highly sensitive because of adverse pressure gradient due to different flow orientations of the aircraft. Therefore, it is prone to unstable operations. This paper presents the study that focuses on axial compressor response to inlet flow orientations for the range of angles as 0 to 15 degrees. For this purpose, NASA Rotor-37 was taken and CFD mesh was developed. The compressor characteristics map was generated for the design conditions of pressure ratio of 2.106 with the rotor operating at rotational velocity of 17188.7 rpm using CFD simulating environment of ANSYS-CFX®. The grid study was done to see the effects of mesh upon computational solution. Then, the mesh giving the best results, (when validated with the available experimental NASA’s results); was used for further distortion analysis. The flow in the inlet nozzle was given angle orientations ranging from 0 to 15 degrees. The CFD results are analyzed and discussed with respect to stall margin and flow separations due to induced distortions.
Abstract: The paper presents a PD controller for the Networked Control Systems (NCS) with delay. The major challenges in this networked control system (NCS) are the delay of the data transmission throughout the communication network. The comparative performance analysis is carried out for different delays network medium. In this paper, simulation is carried out on Ac servo motor control system using CAN Bus as communication network medium. The True Time toolbox of MATLAB is used for simulation to analyze the effect of different delays.
Abstract: This study involves the modeling and monitoring of an ammonia synthesis fixed-bed reactor using partial least squares (PLS) and its variants. The process exhibits complex dynamic behavior due to the presence of heat recycling and feed quench. One limitation of static PLS model in this situation is that it does not take account of the process dynamics and hence dynamic PLS was used. Although it showed, superior performance to static PLS in terms of prediction, the monitoring scheme was inappropriate hence adaptive PLS was considered. A limitation of adaptive PLS is that non-conforming observations also contribute to the model, therefore, a new adaptive approach was developed, robust adaptive dynamic PLS. This approach updates a dynamic PLS model and is robust to non-representative data. The developed methodology showed a clear improvement over existing approaches in terms of the modeling of the reactor and the detection of faults.
Abstract: As DNA microarray data contain relatively small
sample size compared to the number of genes, high dimensional
models are often employed. In high dimensional models, the selection
of tuning parameter (or, penalty parameter) is often one of the crucial
parts of the modeling. Cross-validation is one of the most common
methods for the tuning parameter selection, which selects a parameter
value with the smallest cross-validated score. However, selecting a
single value as an ‘optimal’ value for the parameter can be very
unstable due to the sampling variation since the sample sizes of
microarray data are often small. Our approach is to choose multiple candidates of tuning parameter
first, then average the candidates with different weights depending
on their performance. The additional step of estimating the weights
and averaging the candidates rarely increase the computational cost,
while it can considerably improve the traditional cross-validation. We
show that the selected value from the suggested methods often lead to
stable parameter selection as well as improved detection of significant
genetic variables compared to the tradition cross-validation via real
data and simulated data sets.
Abstract: This work presents a study about a retaining structure designed for the duplication of the rail FEPASA on the 74th km between Santos and São Paulo. This structure, an anchored retaining wall, was instrumented in the anchors heads with strain gauges in order to monitor its loads. The load measurements occurred during the performance test, locking and also after the works were concluded. A decrease on anchors loads is noticed at the moment immediately after the locking, during construction and after the works finished. It was observed that a loss of load in the anchors occurred to a maximum of 54%.
Abstract: The paper presents a simulation study of the electrical
characteristic of Bulk Planar Junctionless Transistor (BPJLT) using
spacer. The BPJLT is a transistor without any PN junctions in the
vertical direction. It is a gate controlled variable resistor. The
characteristics of BPJLT are analyzed by varying the oxide material
under the gate. It can be shown from the simulation that an ideal
subthreshold slope of ~60 mV/decade can be achieved by using highk
dielectric. The effects of variation of spacer length and material on
the electrical characteristic of BPJLT are also investigated in the
paper. The ION / IOFF ratio improvement is of the order of 107 and the
OFF current reduction of 10-4 is obtained by using gate dielectric of
HfO2 instead of SiO2.
Abstract: In present study, an approach is adopted where photovoltaic thermal flat plate collector is integrated with compound parabolic concentrator. Analytical expression of temperature dependent electrical efficiency of N number of partially covered Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) - Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) water collector connected in series has been derived with the help of basic thermal energy balance equations. Analysis has been carried for winter weather condition at Delhi location, India. Energy and exergy performance of N - partially covered Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) - Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) Water collector system has been compared for two cases: (i) 25% area of water collector covered by PV module, (ii) 75% area of water collector covered by PV module. It is observed that case (i) has been best suited for thermal performance and case (ii) for electrical energy as well as overall exergy.
Abstract: This paper considers people’s driving skills
diagnosis under real driving conditions. In that sense, this research
presents an approach that uses GPS signals which have a direct
correlation with driving maneuvers. Besides, it is presented a novel
expert-driving-criteria approximation using fuzzy logic which
seeks to analyze GPS signals in order to issue an intelligent driving
diagnosis.
Based on above, this works presents in the first section the
intelligent driving diagnosis system approach in terms of its own
characteristics properties, explaining in detail significant
considerations about how an expert-driving-criteria approximation
must be developed. In the next section, the implementation of our
developed system based on the proposed fuzzy logic approach is
explained. Here, a proposed set of rules which corresponds to a
quantitative abstraction of some traffics laws and driving secure
techniques seeking to approach an expert-driving- criteria
approximation is presented.
Experimental testing has been performed in real driving
conditions. The testing results show that the intelligent driving
diagnosis system qualifies driver’s performance quantitatively with
a high degree of reliability.
Abstract: A human’s hand localization is revised by using radar cross section (RCS) measurements with a minimum root mean square (RMS) error matching algorithm on a touchless keypad mock-up model. RCS and frequency transfer function measurements are carried out in an indoor environment on the frequency ranged from 3.0 to 11.0 GHz to cover federal communications commission (FCC) standards. The touchless keypad model is tested in two different distances between the hand and the keypad. The initial distance of 19.50 cm is identical to the heights of transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) antennas, while the second distance is 29.50 cm from the keypad. Moreover, the effects of Rx angles relative to the hand of human factor are considered. The RCS input parameters are compared with power loss parameters at each frequency. From the results, the performance of the RCS input parameters with the second distance, 29.50 cm at 3 GHz is better than the others.