Parametric Urban Comfort Envelope an Approach toward a Responsive Sustainable Urban Morphology

By taking advantage of computer-s processing power, an unlimited number of variations and parameters in both spatial and environmental can be provided while following the same set of rules and constraints. This paper focuses on using the tools of parametric urbanism towards a more responsive environmental and sustainable urban morphology. It presents an understanding to Parametric Urban Comfort Envelope (PUCE) as an interactive computational assessment urban model. In addition, it investigates the applicability potentials of this model to generate an optimized urban form to Borg El Arab city (a new Egyptian Community) concerning the human comfort values specially wind and solar envelopes. Finally, this paper utilizes its application outcomes -both visual and numerical- to extend the designer-s limitations by decrease the concern of controlling and manipulation of geometry, and increase the designer-s awareness about the various potentials of using the parametric tools to create relationships that generate multiple geometric alternatives.

A Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Solution to Ramping Rate Constrained Dynamic Economic Dispatch

This paper presents the application of an enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) combined with Gaussian Mutation (GM) for solving the Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED) problem considering the operating constraints of generators. The EPSO consists of the standard PSO and a modified heuristic search approaches. Namely, the ability of the traditional PSO is enhanced by applying the modified heuristic search approach to prevent the solutions from violating the constraints. In addition, Gaussian Mutation is aimed at increasing the diversity of global search, whilst it also prevents being trapped in suboptimal points during search. To illustrate its efficiency and effectiveness, the developed EPSO-GM approach is tested on the 3-unit and 10-unit 24-hour systems considering valve-point effect. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that the proposed EPSO-GM provides, the accurate solution, the efficiency, and the feature of robust computation compared with other algorithms under consideration.

Optimal Planning of Ground Grid Based on Particle Swam Algorithm

This paper presents an application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to the grounding grid planning which compares to the application of genetic algorithm (GA). Firstly, based on IEEE Std.80, the cost function of the grounding grid and the constraints of ground potential rise, step voltage and touch voltage are constructed for formulating the optimization problem of grounding grid planning. Secondly, GA and PSO algorithms for obtaining optimal solution of grounding grid are developed. Finally, a case of grounding grid planning is shown the superiority and availability of the PSO algorithm and proposal planning results of grounding grid in cost and computational time.

Mixtures of Monotone Networks for Prediction

In many data mining applications, it is a priori known that the target function should satisfy certain constraints imposed by, for example, economic theory or a human-decision maker. In this paper we consider partially monotone prediction problems, where the target variable depends monotonically on some of the input variables but not on all. We propose a novel method to construct prediction models, where monotone dependences with respect to some of the input variables are preserved by virtue of construction. Our method belongs to the class of mixture models. The basic idea is to convolute monotone neural networks with weight (kernel) functions to make predictions. By using simulation and real case studies, we demonstrate the application of our method. To obtain sound assessment for the performance of our approach, we use standard neural networks with weight decay and partially monotone linear models as benchmark methods for comparison. The results show that our approach outperforms partially monotone linear models in terms of accuracy. Furthermore, the incorporation of partial monotonicity constraints not only leads to models that are in accordance with the decision maker's expertise, but also reduces considerably the model variance in comparison to standard neural networks with weight decay.

Modeling the Vapor Pressure of Biodiesel Fuels

The composition, vapour pressure, and heat capacity of nine biodiesel fuels from different sources were measured. The vapour pressure of the biodiesel fuels is modeled assuming an ideal liquid phase of the fatty acid methyl esters constituting the fuel. New methodologies to calculate the vapour pressure and ideal gas and liquid heat capacities of the biodiesel fuel constituents are proposed. Two alternative optimization scenarios are evaluated: 1) vapour pressure only; 2) vapour pressure constrained with liquid heat capacity. Without physical constraints, significant errors in liquid heat capacity predictions were found whereas the constrained correlation accurately fit both vapour pressure and liquid heat capacity.

A Study of Filmmakers Interaction through Social Exchange Theory

Film, as an art form playing a vital role and is a powerful tool in documenting, influencing and shaping the society. Films are the collective creation of a large number of separate individuals, each contributing with creative input, unique talents, and technical expertise to the project. Recently, the Malaysian Independent (or “Indie") filmmakers have made their presence felt by winning awards at various international film festivals. Working in the digital video (DV) format, a number of independent filmmakers really hit their stride with a range of remarkably strong titles and international recognition has been quick in coming and their works are now regularly in exhibition or in competition, winning many top prizes at prestigious festivals around the world. The interaction factors among crewmembers are emphasized as imperative for group success. An in-depth interview is conducted to analyze the social interactions and exchanges between filmmakers through Social Exchanges Theory (SET). Certainly the new millennium that was marked as the digital technology revolution has changed the face of filmmaking in Malaysia. There is a clear need to study the Malaysian independent cinema especially from the perspective of understanding what causes the independent filmmakers to work so well given all of the difficulties and constraints.

Gabriel-constrained Parametric Surface Triangulation

The Boundary Representation of a 3D manifold contains FACES (connected subsets of a parametric surface S : R2 -! R3). In many science and engineering applications it is cumbersome and algebraically difficult to deal with the polynomial set and constraints (LOOPs) representing the FACE. Because of this reason, a Piecewise Linear (PL) approximation of the FACE is needed, which is usually represented in terms of triangles (i.e. 2-simplices). Solving the problem of FACE triangulation requires producing quality triangles which are: (i) independent of the arguments of S, (ii) sensitive to the local curvatures, and (iii) compliant with the boundaries of the FACE and (iv) topologically compatible with the triangles of the neighboring FACEs. In the existing literature there are no guarantees for the point (iii). This article contributes to the topic of triangulations conforming to the boundaries of the FACE by applying the concept of parameterindependent Gabriel complex, which improves the correctness of the triangulation regarding aspects (iii) and (iv). In addition, the article applies the geometric concept of tangent ball to a surface at a point to address points (i) and (ii). Additional research is needed in algorithms that (i) take advantage of the concepts presented in the heuristic algorithm proposed and (ii) can be proved correct.

Application of Hermite-Rodriguez Functions to Pulse Shaping Analog Filter Design

In this paper, we consider the design of pulse shaping filter using orthogonal Hermite-Rodriguez basis functions. The pulse shaping filter design problem has been formulated and solved as a quadratic programming problem with linear inequality constraints. Compared with the existing approaches reported in the literature, the use of Hermite-Rodriguez functions offers an effective alternative to solve the constrained filter synthesis problem. This is demonstrated through a numerical example which is concerned with the design of an equalization filter for a digital transmission channel.

Induction Motor Design with Limited Harmonic Currents Using Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents an optimal design of poly-phase induction motor using Quadratic Interpolation based Particle Swarm Optimization (QI-PSO). The optimization algorithm considers the efficiency, starting torque and temperature rise as objective function (which are considered separately) and ten performance related items including harmonic current as constraints. The QI-PSO algorithm was implemented on a test motor and the results are compared with the Simulated Annealing (SA) technique, Standard Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO), and normal design. Some benchmark problems are used for validating QI-PSO. From the test results QI-PSO gave better results and more suitable to motor-s design optimization. Cµ code is used for implementing entire algorithms.

A Software-Supported Methodology for Designing General-Purpose Interconnection Networks for Reconfigurable Architectures

Modern applications realized onto FPGAs exhibit high connectivity demands. Throughout this paper we study the routing constraints of Virtex devices and we propose a systematic methodology for designing a novel general-purpose interconnection network targeting to reconfigurable architectures. This network consists of multiple segment wires and SB patterns, appropriately selected and assigned across the device. The goal of our proposed methodology is to maximize the hardware utilization of fabricated routing resources. The derived interconnection scheme is integrated on a Virtex style FPGA. This device is characterized both for its high-performance, as well as for its low-energy requirements. Due to this, the design criterion that guides our architecture selections was the minimal Energy×Delay Product (EDP). The methodology is fully-supported by three new software tools, which belong to MEANDER Design Framework. Using a typical set of MCNC benchmarks, extensive comparison study in terms of several critical parameters proves the effectiveness of the derived interconnection network. More specifically, we achieve average Energy×Delay Product reduction by 63%, performance increase by 26%, reduction in leakage power by 21%, reduction in total energy consumption by 11%, at the expense of increase of channel width by 20%.

Moving From Problem Space to Solution Space

Extracting and elaborating software requirements and transforming them into viable software architecture are still an intricate task. This paper defines a solution architecture which is based on the blurred amalgamation of problem space and solution space. The dependencies between domain constraints, requirements and architecture and their importance are described that are to be considered collectively while evolving from problem space to solution space. This paper proposes a revised version of Twin Peaks Model named Win Peaks Model that reconciles software requirements and architecture in more consistent and adaptable manner. Further the conflict between stakeholders- win-requirements is resolved by proposed Voting methodology that is simple adaptation of win-win requirements negotiation model and QARCC.

Cost Optimized CO2 Pipeline Transportation Grid: A Case Study from Italian Industries

This paper presents the feasibility study of CO2 sequestration from the sources to the sinks in the prospective of Italian Industries. CO2 produced at these sources captured, compressed to supercritical pressures, transported via pipelines and stored in underground geologic formations such as depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs, un-minable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. In this work, we present the optimized pipeline infrastructure for the CO2 with appropriate constraints to find lower cost system by the use of nonlinear optimization software LINGO 11.0. This study was conducted on CO2 transportation complex network of Italian Industries, to find minimum cost network for transporting the CO2 from sources to the sinks.

Economical Operation of Hydro-Thermal Power System based on Multi-path Adaptive Tabu Search

An economic operation scheduling problem of a hydro-thermal power generation system has been properly solved by the proposed multipath adaptive tabu search algorithm (MATS). Four reservoirs with their own hydro plants and another one thermal plant are integrated to be a studied system used to formulate the objective function under complicated constraints, eg water managements, power balance and thermal generator limits. MATS with four subsearch units (ATSs) and two stages of discarding mechanism (DM), has been setting and trying to solve the problem through 25 trials under function evaluation criterion. It is shown that MATS can provide superior results with respect to single ATS and other previous methods, genetic algorithms (GA) and differential evolution (DE).

Confronting the Uncertainty of Systemic Innovation in Public Welfare Services

Faced with social and health system capacity constraints and rising and changing demand for welfare services, governments and welfare providers are increasingly relying on innovation to help support and enhance services. However, the evidence reported by several studies indicates that the realization of that potential is not an easy task. Innovations can be deemed inherently complex to implement and operate, because many of them involve a combination of technological and organizational renewal within an environment featuring a diversity of stakeholders. Many public welfare service innovations are markedly systemic in their nature, which means that they emerge from, and must address, the complex interplay between political, administrative, technological, institutional and legal issues. This paper suggests that stakeholders dealing with systemic innovation in welfare services must deal with ambiguous and incomplete information in circumstances of uncertainty. Employing a literature review methodology and case study, this paper identifies, categorizes and discusses different aspects of the uncertainty of systemic innovation in public welfare services, and argues that uncertainty can be classified into eight categories: technological uncertainty, market uncertainty, regulatory/institutional uncertainty, social/political uncertainty, acceptance/legitimacy uncertainty, managerial uncertainty, timing uncertainty and consequence uncertainty.

An Efficient and Optimized Multi Constrained Path Computation for Real Time Interactive Applications in Packet Switched Networks

Quality of Service (QoS) Routing aims to find path between source and destination satisfying the QoS requirements which efficiently using the network resources and underlying routing algorithm and to fmd low-cost paths that satisfy given QoS constraints. One of the key issues in providing end-to-end QoS guarantees in packet networks is determining feasible path that satisfies a number of QoS constraints. We present a Optimized Multi- Constrained Routing (OMCR) algorithm for the computation of constrained paths for QoS routing in computer networks. OMCR applies distance vector to construct a shortest path for each destination with reference to a given optimization metric, from which a set of feasible paths are derived at each node. OMCR is able to fmd feasible paths as well as optimize the utilization of network resources. OMCR operates with the hop-by-hop, connectionless routing model in IP Internet and does not create any loops while fmding the feasible paths. Nodes running OMCR not necessarily maintaining global view of network state such as topology, resource information and routing updates are sent only to neighboring nodes whereas its counterpart link-state routing method depend on complete network state for constrained path computation and that incurs excessive communication overhead.

Combining the Description Features of UMLRT and CSP+T Specifications Applied to a Complete Design of Real-Time Systems

UML is a collection of notations for capturing a software system specification. These notations have a specific syntax defined by the Object Management Group (OMG), but many of their constructs only present informal semantics. They are primarily graphical, with textual annotation. The inadequacies of standard UML as a vehicle for complete specification and implementation of real-time embedded systems has led to a variety of competing and complementary proposals. The Real-time UML profile (UML-RT), developed and standardized by OMG, defines a unified framework to express the time, scheduling and performance aspects of a system. We present in this paper a framework approach aimed at deriving a complete specification of a real-time system. Therefore, we combine two methods, a semiformal one, UML-RT, which allows the visual modeling of a realtime system and a formal one, CSP+T, which is a design language including the specification of real-time requirements. As to show the applicability of the approach, a correct design of a real-time system with hard real time constraints by applying a set of mapping rules is obtained.

Nonlinear Observer Design and Sliding Mode Control of Four Rotors Helicopter

In this paper; we are interested in dynamic modelling of quadrotor while taking into account the high-order nonholonomic constraints as well as the various physical phenomena, which can influence the dynamics of a flying structure. These permit us to introduce a new state-space representation and new control scheme. We present after the development and the synthesis of a stabilizing control laws design based on sliding mode in order to perform best tracking results. It ensures locally asymptotic stability and desired tracking trajectories. Nonlinear observer is then synthesized in order to estimate the unmeasured states and the effects of the external disturbances such as wind and noise. Finally simulation results are also provided in order to illustrate the performances of the proposed controllers.

Distributed Generator Placement for Loss Reduction and Improvement in Reliability

Distributed Power generation has gained a lot of attention in recent times due to constraints associated with conventional power generation and new advancements in DG technologies .The need to operate the power system economically and with optimum levels of reliability has further led to an increase in interest in Distributed Generation. However it is important to place Distributed Generator on an optimum location so that the purpose of loss minimization and voltage regulation is dully served on the feeder. This paper investigates the impact of DG units installation on electric losses, reliability and voltage profile of distribution networks. In this paper, our aim would be to find optimal distributed generation allocation for loss reduction subjected to constraint of voltage regulation in distribution network. The system is further analyzed for increased levels of Reliability. Distributed Generator offers the additional advantage of increase in reliability levels as suggested by the improvements in various reliability indices such as SAIDI, CAIDI and AENS. Comparative studies are performed and related results are addressed. An analytical technique is used in order to find the optimal location of Distributed Generator. The suggested technique is programmed under MATLAB software. The results clearly indicate that DG can reduce the electrical line loss while simultaneously improving the reliability of the system.

High Level Synthesis of Kahn Process Networks(KPN) for Streaming Applications

Streaming Applications usually run in parallel or in series that incrementally transform a stream of input data. It poses a design challenge to break such an application into distinguishable blocks and then to map them into independent hardware processing elements. For this, there is required a generic controller that automatically maps such a stream of data into independent processing elements without any dependencies and manual considerations. In this paper, Kahn Process Networks (KPN) for such streaming applications is designed and developed that will be mapped on MPSoC. This is designed in such a way that there is a generic Cbased compiler that will take the mapping specifications as an input from the user and then it will automate these design constraints and automatically generate the synthesized RTL optimized code for specified application.

Impact of MAC Layer on the Performance of Routing Protocols in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Mobile Ad hoc Networks is an autonomous system of mobile nodes connected by multi-hop wireless links without centralized infrastructure support. As mobile communication gains popularity, the need for suitable ad hoc routing protocols will continue to grow. Efficient dynamic routing is an important research challenge in such a network. Bandwidth constrained mobile devices use on-demand approach in their routing protocols because of its effectiveness and efficiency. Many researchers have conducted numerous simulations for comparing the performance of these protocols under varying conditions and constraints. Most of them are not aware of MAC Protocols, which will impact the relative performance of routing protocols considered in different network scenarios. In this paper we investigate the choice of MAC protocols affects the relative performance of ad hoc routing protocols under different scenarios. We have evaluated the performance of these protocols using NS2 simulations. Our results show that the performance of routing protocols of ad hoc networks will suffer when run over different MAC Layer protocols.