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The blended learning (BL) services presented for the academic accreditation process of universities and other educational institutions is a policy that has been used rapidly in the educational area. This process represents a real challenge and a need for institutions to function by the challenges in the ways of development for the attainment of faculty and student satisfaction. The need for learning management systems (LMS) becomes a real advance to control the management of technological development. The purpose of this study is to overcome these challenges and speed up the whole e-learning process in a different manner. The study revealed the existence of an important gap between the important features of blended learning applications and the control management of LMS. The finding shows a systematic analysis of existing technologies and their effects on accreditation checkpoints approval for the underlying conception of the assessment processes involve perspectives that relate to what is now considered valuable or desirable concerning the institution of higher education.

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a commonly used unsupervised exploratory analysis technique. It is also frequently used in dimensionality reduction. This preliminary paper investigates the feasibility of three variants of PCA, i.e. independent PCA (iPCA), sparse PCA (sPCA), and sparse independent PCA (siPCA) on forensic classification of paper based on their IR spectral data. After that, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) models were built using the Principal Components (PCs) produced by the PCA and the three aforementioned variants. The performances of all these four LDA models, i.e. PCA-DA, iPCA-DA, sPCA-DA and siPCA-DA, were evaluated via leave-one-out cross-validation on the data set. The results obtained show that iPCA-DA and siPCA-DA are the most effective models with 100.0% classification accuracy. Then, the effectiveness of siPCA and iPCA models was evaluated based on posterior probability used for predictions of class membership that were derived from leave-one-out cross-validation. As a conclusion, siPCA is identified as the best classification model.

Historians and librarians are interested in watermarks and mould surface patterns in historic papers, because they represent the “fingerprints” of antique papers. However, these features are usually covered or hidden by printing, writing or other media. Different techniques have been developed to extract the watermarks in the paper while avoiding interference from media on the paper. Beta radiography provides good results, but this method cannot be widely used because of radiation safety regulations and the long exposure times required due to weak isotope sources employed. In this work, two promising methods are compared which can be used to extract digital high-resolution images for paper watermarks and these are electron radiography and low energy X-ray radiography. For electron radiography a “sandwich” of a lead sheet, the paper object, and a film in a dark cassette, is formed and it is exposed at higher X-ray potentials (> 300 kV). The photoelectrons escaping from the lead sheet penetrate the paper and expose the film. After development, the film captures the watermark and mould surface pattern Images for the paper being investigated. These images are then digitized using an X-ray film digitizer. The film employed could potentially be replaced by a special type of imaging plate with a very thin protection layer to directly generate digital Images using computed radiography (CR). For the second method, a low energy X-ray source is used with the specimen paper placed on a digital detector array (DDA). This method directly generates a low energy digital radiography (DR) image. Both methods provide high quality images without interference from the printing media, and provide the potential to generate a “fingerprint” database for historical papers. There were nevertheless found to be differences in the images obtained using the two methods. The second method, using a low energy X-ray source, has the potential to be integrated in a portable device with a small footprint incorporating user safety requirements. Differences obtained using the two methods are shown and discussed.

EMG is a medical technique that measures muscle response or electrical activity in response to a nerve’s stimulation of the muscle [10]. In this paper we have classified multiple hand gestures using small number of electrodes. This report aims to review current use of EMG based control system and explain the existing challenges. The stages involved includes data acquisition, feature extraction, classification and controller. Some of the application includes Arm rehabilitation, game controller, wheel chair controllers, etc.

An algorithm for constructing super-large semantic networks has been developed in current work. Algorithm was tested using the “Cosmos” category of the Internet encyclopedia “Wikipedia” as an example. During the implementation, a parser for the syntax analysis of Wikipedia pages was developed. A graph based on list of articles and categories was formed. On the basis of the obtained graph analysis, algorithms for finding domains of high connectivity in a graph were proposed and tested. Algorithms for constructing a domain based on the number of links and the number of articles in the current subject area is considered. The shortcomings of these algorithms are shown and explained, an algorithm is developed on their joint use. The possibility of applying a combined algorithm for obtaining the final domain is shown. The problem of instability of the received domain was discovered when starting an algorithm from two neighboring vertices related to the domain.

Due to the rising difficulty of developing complex systems a lot of research has gone into the multi‐agent paradigm over the past decades, during which a vast array of approaches for developing such systems have been proposed. Despite this fact there seems to be a gap in the MAS community between solutions that provide for expressivity and those that offer generality. It is our opinion that embedding the MAS language into a functional language we can have the best out of both worlds: we can implement the desired semantics in an abstract way, allowing us to focus on the problem domain, i.e. complex, distributed MAS. Our approach is going to be layered: (i) we start from a statically typed functional language and build an EDSL that acts as an executable specification language for single agent entities; and (ii) develop a framework for workflow‐oriented coordination on top of the previous layer and investigate its use as a means of implementing agent organizations, focusing on coordination and communication.

At the 2007 Physics Education Research Conference, a workshop on publishing and refereeing was held with a panel of editors from four different publishing venues: the physics education research section of the American Journal of Physics, the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Physical Review Special Topics–Physics Education Research, and the Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. These editors answered questions from participants regarding publishing in their respective venues, as well as writing referee reports that would be useful to both journal editors and authors. This paper summarizes the discussion.

Research in the field of Telecommunication is dynamic and continuously working towards the social community of the people. Among that predicting the customer’s who likes to switch from the current network provider is the most important part of telecom industry. However, there are a lot of research has done on this topic, but still more improvements and advancements are expected. In this position paper, we put forward the comparison model of different churn mining methods that intends to help in predicting the customer churn rate in a better way. This paper provides a benchmark of various mining algorithms and its methods for prediction of customer churn rate, which makes the telecommunication industry to setup the retention policies with the increase of their profit.

This paper proposed the modelling and simulation of generator protection for power system using digital reverse power relay. The operations of the power plant are often interrupted by the reverse power generation. Therefore, generators need to be closely monitored and controlled. In this study, 11 kV synchronous generators are connected to 220 kV load through a step-up transformer, and a new model of reverse power relay is added for generator protection. The reverse power relay proposed in this paper is a digital relay with high accuracy and high reacting speed. Several cases based on various types of mechanical inputs to the generator were studied to test the operation of the reverse power relay. This simulation was done using MATLAB/Simulink. The results show that the 11 kV generator protection is successful with this new model reverse power relay. Besides, the simulation results were similar result compared to the theory result. From the simulation results, the integral output of the relay will reach the threshold value ‘L’ whenever there is a reversed power flow fault found in the system. Consequently, the relay will be triggered to provide protection for the generator. This model has been added into online resources of MATLAB Power System Tools. In addition, this model may also help the engineers to develop the analytical skills under various conditions.

Article investigates the usage of spatial logic in the process of unmanned vehicle operation. Article examines the mode of unmanned vehicle control. Unmanned transport operation is not autonomous. Structurally it represents the control scheme which includes two operating centers, the main and peripheral ones. Main operating centre fulfills “smooth” operation and the peripheral centre performs the direct operation. Article provides systematization of transport control according to the levels of automation. The usage of spatial logic for each level of automation has been shown. Paper describes the model of information situation as a basic model during unmanned operation. The role of spatial information and geodata in unmanned operation has been specified. Article features the spatial situations in transport movement which require the usage of spatial logic. Three types of spatial situations which are used in unmanned control have been described. Paper discovers the content of spatial logic used in vehicle control. The differentiation between cognitive spatial logic and analytical spatial logic has been demonstrated.

Currently, the quality management of production processes is not only an integral part of the enterprise management system, but also largely determines the ability to meet the needs of consumers with minimal production costs. In this regard, the paper considers one of the modern methods of quality management, based on the probabilistic assessment of the qualitative completion of the stages of the process under study. This approach takes into account the sequential dependence of the production stages, as well as the joint impact of measures aimed at effective process management. At the same time, the costs of the activities carried out must be minimized. The subject of this paper is a mathematical problem of operational management of multi-stage production processes with consistently interrelated stages based on a probabilistic approach to quality assessment. An algorithm for solving the problem and its software implementation in the form of an application is presented. The software product is acceptable for practical use and allows you to optimally choose the measures of influence on consistently interrelated stages of the process.

Biometric authentication is a recognition of individual according to their unique physiological and behavioural characteristics. Recently, the application of biometric is the most trending in cyber security technology such as fingerprint, facial recognition, and voice recognition. However, these biometrics have their own drawbacks which allow the unauthorized party to cybercrime and the number of cases is also increased. To encounter this kind of problem, the previous researchers proposed brain signal or electroencephalogram (EEG) as biometric trait. EEG is an electrical activity recorded via non-invasive method using electrode placed on the scalps and measured as voltages. EEG is chosen by the researchers as biometric module because EEG hold its own unique characteristics and more robust against the cybercriminals. This paper presents a review of the EEG-based biometric studies and research. The previous research was reviewed based on their signal acquisition, pre-processing, feature extraction and classification. The general knowledge of EEG and the basic operation of biometric authentication also discussed in this paper. The recent studied and research is chosen with various proposed method respect to the better performance rate. In addition, the deep learning in biometric authentication is found to be the popular among the researchers for classification step because more robust and automatically extracted feature within the network.

This paper presents a short review on terahertz imaging systems based on several types of technology used in the terahertz detection schemes. Some commercial products from ThruVision Systems Limited Company have utilized GaAs Schottky diode detector at 0.25 THz to produce passive terahertz images for public and homeland security. On the other hand, TeraSense Group Incorporated Company has developed and invented a ground-breaking technology which employs sensor consisting of a matrix of plasmonic semiconductor detectors in their latest products to generate terahertz images in the 0.1 – 1.0 THz frequency range. Recently, the utilization of two-terminal unipolar nanodiodes, known as the self-switching diodes (SSDs), as terahertz detectors has shown promising results. The planar structure of SSD not only enables the device to operate at high frequencies due to low intrinsic parasitic capacitance, but also allows the realization of the device using only a single lithography step. This makes the fabrication process of SSDs faster, more simple, and at lower cost when compared to other electronic devices such as Schottky diodes. The development and recent achievement of SSDs as terahertz detectors are also presented in this paper.

The main goal of this paper to evaluate the performance of the proposed long short-term memory (LSTM)- basis relative humidity (RH) prediction model. Computational physics learning theory is a subfield in artificial intelligence. In this paper, we use the real observed weather data of RH from synoptic station location as an important aspect and effect in weather and climate and using machine learning approach basis on the LSTM neural network, which is a type of recurrent neural network (RNN). We use a machine learning approach to compute the relative humidity basis on the LSTM model. The LSTM is trained by using two years of climate data (from January 2008 to December 2009). LSTM is capable of forecasting complex univariate relative humidity time series with strong no-stationarity. The result shows the usefulness of LSTM and out performs traditional forecasting methods in the challenging relative humidity record problem.

Picogrid is a small-scale electricity grid that is used to supply small loads such as lighting, fans, and charging batteries on a laptop or smartphone. Picogrid has some advantages such reduce the conversion losses because the load is connected directly to the power source and reduce cost with independent power source from grid. The picogrid we propose is supplied by the battery from electric vehicle which will reach their end of life cycle. Electric vehicle battery will have some capability to store and provide energy for second life application. This paper would evaluate the performance of waste battery from hybrid vehicle supplied DC picogrid. The result of this paper is to acknowledge that the waste battery still can be used for storage system.

In past several years, due to technology advancements, the costs of variable speed drives have come down sharply allowing the widespread applications of variable speed devices in building air-conditioning systems. This article presents the case study on application level of variable speed drives to the components of the air-conditioning system (VAV system) installed in Vivekanand Lecture Theatre Complex (VLTC) at MNIT Jaipur, India. After incorporating the variable speed drives to the air conditioning system, the proposed case energy performance index has been compared with the standard energy performance indexes of Energy Conservation Building Codes 2017(ECBC, ECBC+ and Super ECBC), developed by the ministry of power and Bureau of Energy Efficiency(BEE), India. The study of Hartman research paper on variable speed chiller plants has been used to learn existing algorithm for developing new operating strategies. Simulations are performed on EnergyPlusV8.8.0 (an energy analysis simulation program) for more than dozens of cases by making the variable a single and multiple combinations of HVAC equipment (AHU, Cooling Tower, Chiller, Pumps). The results show that the application of variable speed drives improved the performance of the air conditioning system substantially. At an average, the energy consumption of all variable chiller plant decreased by 40-45% compared to a constant speed chiller plant. All-variable speed chiller plant operating strategies have been developed based on the tailored specific performance characteristics of variable speed chillers and the variable flow characteristics of condenser pumps and cooling towers. The specific component-wise energy performance improvement after the incorporation of variable drives and ECBC compliance check for the proposed case has been presented in this paper.

The primary objective of this paper is to verify individuals as indicated by their finger surfaces. We propose to remove Finger Texture (FT) highlights of the two finger pictures (center, ring) from a low goal contactless hand picture utilizing LBP strategy. The utilization of Inner-Knuckle-Print (IKP) in biometric recognition is the most broadly proposed validation work. The unique characteristics of the IKP give us the requirement for recognizable proof. During the IKP filtering process, the image created by the scanner might be partially unique. This paper proposes artificial neural networks for effectively coordinating procedures to IKP validation. By utilizing the Back-Propagation method, the algorithm coordinates IKP and relates them to a novel accomplished client. After grouping, the procedure restores to the best counterpart for the given finger impression variables.

Even supposing the technology is promoting little by little, many of the industrial operations are not advance till the finishing point their depreciation epoch due to either ignorant of cost and time reserves or inattention or overlooked. A scientific suggestion not only needs to highlight for the updating the system of manufacturing, but also needs to figure-out cost of loss in all aspects for non-upgrade of the facility. It can be done in the industrial management that to form Small Group Activity team to recognize such fatalities and remedies to resolve them. This paper discusses preparation of such valid proposal for a leading industry in Tamil Nadu. The case study belongs to a proposal of replacement machines as their depreciation period got over in an assembly plant of a largest and leading automobile manufacturer. The objective this research is to prepare the valid proposal to procure the equipment with necessary upgrades. The six sigma’s ECRS methodology is employed and majorly governs for this investigation. This study included the process evaluation, conceptual design, basic engineering design, computer aided design and validation, cost analysis. The effectiveness is verified and presented in this paper. The proposed machine reduced 70.27% of processing time, 39.02% of equipment cost and 70.25% cost per piece.

The Aerostats are lighter-than-air (LTA) systems that are used to carry important payloads at specified altitudes. Tethered aerostats are connected to the ground via a tether that maintains the position and provides power. Aerostats have to operate in various atmospheric conditions depending on their mission. This paper presents a literature review on the different envelope shapes of the tethered aerostats. Aerostat envelope contains the LTA gas that provides the lift force to carry the payload in the air. This research paper presents a comprehensive literature review on the different shapes of aerostat envelopes. The review has been presented to highlight the design process of the different aerostat envelope shapes that includes sizing, aerodynamics and stability. In addition to the design factors, this paper also presents a review on the applications of different aerostat envelope shapes. Information related to the different design parameters and limitations of aerostat envelopes is also provided.

Ergonomics is all about work related with human abilities, human knowledge and human characteristics. The fourth industrial revolution systems evoked changes that created new challenges and opportunities. To overcome those challenges we must obtain a universal understanding and apply new human-pivotal practice. Cognitive ergonomics focuses primarily on human mental problems and perception. It is all about complexity between work and mind. In the field of automation new levels of social technical interaction between humans, machines, materials and objects have been created due to the tie up between integrated computation and physical components. Cognitive ergonomics standardization deals with analyzing, understanding and designing human work in the automotive industry. Due to increasing workload the mind power is used rather than body power. The main goal of this paper is to enhance the workers with improved communication skills become more self-reliant and finish their task responsibly. This paper can guide future research on solving the mental ailment of the workers and enhance the working systems and quality of work.

High voltage (HV) infrastructures are growing due to the corresponding growth in industries and population. Under certain extreme weather, the required electrical load demands might exceed the generations’ capacity, which forces the network operator to execute the load shedding to avoid unwanted blackout. The increase deployments in renewable energy micro-grids offers an opportunity to aid with the load shedding risks. The paper addresses the embedded generation system and how it can be utilized to mitigate the requirements of load shedding. Furthermore, the study also focusses on the complex power transfer with and without the aid of embedded generation with energy storage. Case study is also included.High voltage (HV) infrastructures are growing due to the corresponding growth in industries and population. Under certain extreme weather, the required electrical load demands might exceed the generations’ capacity, which forces the network operator to execute the load shedding to avoid unwanted blackout. The increase deployments in renewable energy micro-grids offers an opportunity to aid with the load shedding risks. The paper addresses the embedded generation system and how it can be utilized to mitigate the requirements of load shedding. Furthermore, the study also focusses on the complex power transfer with and without the aid of embedded generation with energy storage. Case study is also included.

Currently, a significant increase in the interest of the triangle grid stiffened plates and panels can be observed. Isogrid, which is equilateral triangle grid concept, was developed in 1964 by NASA as extremely efficient light-weight structures used in space program. Recently, development of machine tools, made it possible to reduce the costs of manufacturing and allowed for wider application of such structures. Paper presents preliminary experimental and numerical investigations of square isosceles triangle grid stiffened plate under pure shear loading condition. Different ways of FEM modeling of plate were considered and analyzed for simple load cases. Critical and post-critical states of deformation were compared to results of experiment conducted with use of 3D DIC system.Currently, a significant increase in the interest of the triangle grid stiffened plates and panels can be observed. Isogrid, which is equilateral triangle grid concept, was developed in 1964 by NASA as extremely efficient light-weight structures used in space program. Recently, development of machine tools, made it possible to reduce the costs of manufacturing and allowed for wider application of such structures. Paper presents preliminary experimental and numerical investigations of square isosceles triangle grid stiffened plate under pure shear loading condition. Different ways of FEM modeling of plate were considered and analyzed for simple load cases. Critical and post-critical states of deformation were compared to results of experiment conducted with use of 3D DIC system.

The paper deals with the assessment of the modal parameters of the washing machine heater. At first, a numerical modal analysis based on a finite element method of the heater was performed. Consequently, the experimental modal analysis of the heater was realised to verify the finite element model. As the heater’s shape and dimensions do not allow modal parameters estimation using conventional gages of acceleration, two optical approaches were applied. In both cases, the excitation was realised using Bruel&Kjaer 8206 impact hammer. In the first one, the responses of the heater were captured by Polytec PDV-100 vibrometer, which principle is based on laser Doppler vibrometry. Such a type of device allows capturing of responses in a form of velocity only in the direction of observation. To observe the responses in three mutually perpendicular directions the high-speed digital image correlation system Q-450 Dantec Dynamics was used. Mentioned correlation system uses for the full-field measurement of displacements precise digital cameras with high image resolution. As it is not adapted for modal parameters estimation, the additional software DICMAN 3D, developed at the authors’ workplace, was used. DICMAN 3D allows evaluation of a single-reference as well as a multi-reference measurement in space and for automatic estimation of natural frequencies and damping ratios comprises an advanced estimation module with several algorithms. Finally, the influence of the temperature on the modal parameters was investigated using the finite element model of the heater.The paper deals with the assessment of the modal parameters of the washing machine heater. At first, a numerical modal analysis based on a finite element method of the heater was performed. Consequently, the experimental modal analysis of the heater was realised to verify the finite element model. As the heater’s shape and dimensions do not allow modal parameters estimation using conventional gages of acceleration, two optical approaches were applied. In both cases, the excitation was realised using Bruel&Kjaer 8206 impact hammer. In the first one, the responses of the heater were captured by Polytec PDV-100 vibrometer, which principle is based on laser Doppler vibrometry. Such a type of device allows capturing of responses in a form of velocity only in the direction of observation. To observe the responses in three mutually perpendicular directions the high-speed digital image correlation system Q-450 Dantec Dynamics was used. Mentioned correlation system uses for the full-field measurement of displaceme...

The contemporary global market of the manufacturing industries thrives on customer satisfaction. The required parameters are the maintenance of the quality and on time delivery with minimum expenditure. In a competitive world, unique specialization and cooperation with customer are the primary priorities. Cloud computing manufacturing sets the paradigm for the emerging manufacturing oriented service. It further integrates and distributes manufacturing process through which complex manufacturing demands with high expectation of customer customization can be fulfilled. In this paper we studied and established a good mathematical model for customer order scheduling problem, we propose a Mixed-Integer-Linear programming model to investigate the problem size for the optimality and a heuristic based subtask scheduling algorithm is developed for solving large instances. The computational results demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method.The contemporary global market of the manufacturing industries thrives on customer satisfaction. The required parameters are the maintenance of the quality and on time delivery with minimum expenditure. In a competitive world, unique specialization and cooperation with customer are the primary priorities. Cloud computing manufacturing sets the paradigm for the emerging manufacturing oriented service. It further integrates and distributes manufacturing process through which complex manufacturing demands with high expectation of customer customization can be fulfilled. In this paper we studied and established a good mathematical model for customer order scheduling problem, we propose a Mixed-Integer-Linear programming model to investigate the problem size for the optimality and a heuristic based subtask scheduling algorithm is developed for solving large instances. The computational results demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Reliable energy supply is the artery for the development and construction of island. The off-grid island microgrid model using renewable energy and diesel generator has been paid more and more attention, and the topology of island microgrid is the basis of studying island microgrid. This paper analysises the influencing factors of topological structure design of island microgrid and designs two kinds of island microgrid topology structure. Using Minimum Cut Set Method, this paper compaperd the reliability of the new microgrid topology with the existing topology of off-grid island AC microgrid and studied the influence of the ratio of AC and DC loads on the reliability of the system. Also, this paper points out the scope of application for each microgrid topology. The results can provide some references for the topology design of the island microgrid.

In recent years many of the people are suffering from diabetics which may result damaging the human eye sights by damaging the blood vessels of the retinal by form exudates around the optic disc. In this paper, we intend to build retinal exudates from fundus image to predict the severity of diabetics resulting in blood vessels tissue damages. In order to analysis the blood vessels damage and diabetic severity initially we use appropriate image pre-processing techniques to remove any noise from the retinal funds image, to remove the noise in this paper we use wavelet transform and first order Gaussian derivative and matched filter to segment the fundus image by rotating the original image by certain angle. The filtered data is stored in the matched filter bank, then by applying k-NN clustering technique to identify minimum value in each filter bank and marking such minimum value center of k-nearest neighbor value. Further, Support vector machine a supervised learning algorithm is applied to the identified k-nearest neighbor values thereby predicting the severity of blood vessel tissue damage from the fundus image.

The KDamper is a novel passive vibration absorption concept, based essentially on the optimal combination of appropriate stiffness elements, which include a negative stiffness element. In this paper, the implementation of the KDamper as a seismic Absorption Base (KDAB) is considered. The paper proceeds to the assessment of the performance of the KDamper as seismic absorption base in a typical flexible 5-storey concrete building structure with a fundamental period of 0.5 sec. The structure is excited by artificial accelerograms, generated to be compatible with the highly demanding Eurocode 8 case C with a PGA of 0.36g, and by real earthquake records. The performance of the KDAB is compared not only to the original structure but also to the cases of conventional and highly damped base isolation systems, as well as the case of a Tuned Inerter Damper (TID). Alternative options for the selection of the KDamper natural frequency are considered, leading to two limit cases. In the first case, the nominal KDamper frequency is selected equal to the low frequency of a conventional base isolation system, resulting in a drastic improvement of the overall structural performance. However, another interesting option is revealed, which foresees the implementation of the KDAB with a nominal frequency much higher than that of the base isolation system. This choice leads to a drastic reduction of the relative base displacement, in the order of few centimeters, combined with acceptable structural performance with respect to drift and absolute acceleration. As a consequence, the KDamper can be implemented as “stiff seismic absorption base”, overcoming the disadvantages of the conventional base isolation systems, and thus leading towards alternative seismic protection technologies.

When students begin to learn how to program computers, the greatest difficulty does not consist in learning a programming language, even considering the various programming paradigms to which it may belong, but rather in the way of conceiving a solution algorithm for a given problem. In this paper methods for learning how to build better programs with iterative and recursive techniques are proposed. Instead of using the traditional and sequential method, following theoretical exposition and creation of algorithms, practical demonstration in a specific framework to write a program in a programming language, program execution and tests, a new approach is introduced where a set of tools, such as Python programming language, Runestone Interactive documents and Online Python tutor, is used to allow the production of enriched documents with text, images, videos, code implementation and execution windows, with the option of step by step running, showing the used data structures and their values evolution, all together in an - Interactive Electronic Document (IED). Students have the opportunity to learn and experience programming concepts in a single document, interactively, increasing learning achievement and level of satisfaction.When students begin to learn how to program computers, the greatest difficulty does not consist in learning a programming language, even considering the various programming paradigms to which it may belong, but rather in the way of conceiving a solution algorithm for a given problem. In this paper methods for learning how to build better programs with iterative and recursive techniques are proposed. Instead of using the traditional and sequential method, following theoretical exposition and creation of algorithms, practical demonstration in a specific framework to write a program in a programming language, program execution and tests, a new approach is introduced where a set of tools, such as Python programming language, Runestone Interactive documents and Online Python tutor, is used to allow the production of enriched documents with text, images, videos, code implementation and execution windows, with the option of step by step running, showing the used data structures and their values evolution, all to...

The research describes in this paper aims to help improve the performance of a Hydro Power plant operation and planning by analyzing the performance of its power loads. The amount of electrical energy used at certain times cannot be calculated exactly. This can lead to a lack of electricity supply on the consumer side if the generated power is less than the need electrical energy required. Increased electricity needs can also be cause problems to the quality of electric power that is delivered respectively. To overcome things, it is necessary to have a proper electric power system operation plan reliable through forecasting the electrical load in the future. In this study, carried out load forecasting for power system planning and operation of Larona Hydro Power Plant, in smelter plant Sorowako propose an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method. The ANN was implemented using tools of MATLAB. The structure of the ANN is MLP (Multi-layer Perceptron). The load forecasting conducted in simulation, proceed the data by constructing and train the neural network with this data. After the validation of neural network error rate, the network function used to estimate a short-term prediction with determination predictor parameters namely number of learning input, activation function, and learning rate. Error was calculated as MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error), the model selection criteria are based on the best RMSE values with the smallest MAPE value, and with error of about 0.957% this paper was successfully carried out.

The development of spacecraft large-sized reflectors is one of the most urgent issues for the space industry. The reflector structure is to meet such principle criteria as high accuracy in reflective surface configuration and weight. The accuracy in the reflective surface configuration during continuous operation is ensured by the control system. The authors suggest using piezo motors in the control system. The motors of such type of certain small mass-overall characteristics can create high force. This paper presents a new piezo motor design and its operation. A mathematic model of piezo motor operation modes has been worked out which became the basis for setting new designed piezo motor operation modes depending on different loads. The results of the experimental tests of the new designed piezo motor confirmed the results of the theoretical calculations.The development of spacecraft large-sized reflectors is one of the most urgent issues for the space industry. The reflector structure is to meet such principle criteria as high accuracy in reflective surface configuration and weight. The accuracy in the reflective surface configuration during continuous operation is ensured by the control system. The authors suggest using piezo motors in the control system. The motors of such type of certain small mass-overall characteristics can create high force. This paper presents a new piezo motor design and its operation. A mathematic model of piezo motor operation modes has been worked out which became the basis for setting new designed piezo motor operation modes depending on different loads. The results of the experimental tests of the new designed piezo motor confirmed the results of the theoretical calculations.

This paper proposes a new topology for DC/DC converter for battery discharging module with excellent conversion efficiency under low input voltage and high input current in ship hull cleaning robot. Under the conditions of high output power of the DC/DC converter, the low input voltage will result in high input current value, which will have a negative influence on the cost, design difficulty and stability of the system. And in consideration of the output characteristic and service life of Lithium-ion battery, which are closely related to the output current of the battery, the DC/DC converter not only should adapt to a wide input voltage range, but also be capable of preventing the battery from high output current which will reduce its service life and performance. Therefore, to meet the need of wide input voltage range and high output current of the battery, this paper proposes a new topology of DC/DC based on the Flyback topology. By analysis and experiment, such new topology is proved to be able to output constant voltage with high output power under the circumstance of low input voltage with wide range. And a case of 5KW prototype saber simulation is introduced to experimentally verify the feasibility of such proposed topology.

The rapid development of Internet affects all walks of life in our society, And the library service industry is the first to be affected, Electronic information publishers, together with Internet content providers are all competing in taking over the book information market actively, the development of the situation the Library facing is very serious, Taking advantages of the combination of library’s traditional superiority with advanced technology will be the key pose to mend matters, Needless to say that it is a very arduous task, This paper uses the method of data mining to explore how to apply the long tail theory to the library service field and put forward the concept of "library long tail service", On the basis of analyzing the applicability of the long tail theory in the field of library service, this paper puts forward the library long tail service data mining system based on the keyword text clustering, and according to the characteristics of the data generated by the library service, In the library long tail service research theory, methods and techniques, and carried out the algorithm improvement.

Every plants need an environment which is in accordance with its adaptability. However, the environment always changes so that it requires regular analysis to maintain plant fertility. Environmental data such as temperature, humidity from soil and air, rainfall, light intensity can be processed using computer algorithms in the form of a sequential (time series) matrix. The paper proposed a sequential Fuzzy Association Rule Mining (FARM) for plants environment classification using Internet of Things (IoT). FARM is used to extract association rule in form of fuzzy memberships from plant environment data that collected from sensors of IoT. Fuzzy is used to facilitate grouping of sensor data and detect changes in the environment when the degree of membership becomes irrelevant. Fuzzy membership degrees are also mapped based on time series to interpret routine environmental changes. The paper showed results of a FARM algorithm for plant environments and prototypes from IoT circuits. FARM algorithm and IoT evaluated using real time data collecting of Aglaonema costatum (Chinese Evergreen). The results shown the FARM capable to extract relevant fuzzy rules with different parameter of tolerance of dependent.Every plants need an environment which is in accordance with its adaptability. However, the environment always changes so that it requires regular analysis to maintain plant fertility. Environmental data such as temperature, humidity from soil and air, rainfall, light intensity can be processed using computer algorithms in the form of a sequential (time series) matrix. The paper proposed a sequential Fuzzy Association Rule Mining (FARM) for plants environment classification using Internet of Things (IoT). FARM is used to extract association rule in form of fuzzy memberships from plant environment data that collected from sensors of IoT. Fuzzy is used to facilitate grouping of sensor data and detect changes in the environment when the degree of membership becomes irrelevant. Fuzzy membership degrees are also mapped based on time series to interpret routine environmental changes. The paper showed results of a FARM algorithm for plant environments and prototypes from IoT circuits. FARM algorithm and IoT eval...

Locating and Sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) is an important research topic in the development of microgrids. First, this paper models the uncertainty of its two main Distributed Generation, wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation. Then, considering the economic benefits and technical requirements, three important indicators including investment benefit, network loss improvement and static voltage stability improvement are selected to optimize locating and sizing of DG, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm with inertia weight is used to solve the problem. Finally, the simulation analysis of the IEEE-37 node test feeder shows that the method can effectively improve the voltage level of the system, reduce the active power loss, and improve the static voltage stability of the system. It has certain practical value in the distribution network planning.Locating and Sizing of Distributed Generation (DG) is an important research topic in the development of microgrids. First, this paper models the uncertainty of its two main Distributed Generation, wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation. Then, considering the economic benefits and technical requirements, three important indicators including investment benefit, network loss improvement and static voltage stability improvement are selected to optimize locating and sizing of DG, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm with inertia weight is used to solve the problem. Finally, the simulation analysis of the IEEE-37 node test feeder shows that the method can effectively improve the voltage level of the system, reduce the active power loss, and improve the static voltage stability of the system. It has certain practical value in the distribution network planning.

Newly developed 3D reconstruction technology has many uses ranging from facial recognition, self-driving vehicles, and producing accurate models of samples. To utilize 3D reconstruction, a depth map of the sample must be generated from a series of images. This can be done using stereoscopic 3D, or in the case of a fixed camera (such as the 10ID On-Axis Microscope at NSLS-II used for this paper) through focus stacking. This paper will explain how focus stacking can be used to generate in-focus images at very shallow depth of fields, and merge these images to create depth maps and 3D models.

Hypertensive Retinopathy (HTR) is a disease caused by high blood pressure flowing into the retinal blood vessels, resulting in thickening of blood vessel walls and reducing blood flow in the retina. Complications arising from this disease are diverse and dangerous, ranging from retinal vein occlusion, eye nerve damage, even blindness. This paper proposed a system for hypertensive retinopathy detection by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) dan Backpropagation Neural Network (BNN). Retinal image was taken from STARE database which separated into learning and testing data with a ratio 7 to 3. PCA as fundus-image-dimension-reduction method has successfully reduced fundus image raw data by 99.9% reduction, thus cutting computation load for neural network training. This paper presented Backpropagation Neural Network (BNN) as main classification algorithm which done by setting its parameters, learning and testing the data. So the model could classify retinal image into one of two classes, namely the normal retina and retina with high blood pressure, based on the BNN output result. The proposed model result showed that testing accuracy up to 86.36%.

One of the vital components for the pebble reactor is the fuel handling system which was employed to load, recirculate and discharge the depleted fuel during the operation of reactor. The previous fuel handling design and experience of the High Temperature Reaktor 10 MWth (HTR-10) and HTR-PM were beneficial for the development of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reaktor (HTGR) in Indonesia such as for the Reaktor Daya Eksperiment (RDE) 10 MWth and PELUIT 150 MWth. One of the focus for the development especially for the control is an important factor to ensure that the reliability and the safety during operation were guarantee. Therefore, aims of this paper is to understand and develop the automatic control system of the fuel handling. The development was done by applying the logic flowchart of the fuel handling HTGR with the HTR-10 as the reference. Some modification was made considering the future application in Indonesia It was demonstrated that the automation systems with Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) can control handling systems easily because each valve can be drive to open and close immediately as requested from the sensor. It was also demostrated that the timing chart monitoring confirms the control of flowchart process description for the new fresh fuel loading.One of the vital components for the pebble reactor is the fuel handling system which was employed to load, recirculate and discharge the depleted fuel during the operation of reactor. The previous fuel handling design and experience of the High Temperature Reaktor 10 MWth (HTR-10) and HTR-PM were beneficial for the development of High Temperature Gas-cooled Reaktor (HTGR) in Indonesia such as for the Reaktor Daya Eksperiment (RDE) 10 MWth and PELUIT 150 MWth. One of the focus for the development especially for the control is an important factor to ensure that the reliability and the safety during operation were guarantee. Therefore, aims of this paper is to understand and develop the automatic control system of the fuel handling. The development was done by applying the logic flowchart of the fuel handling HTGR with the HTR-10 as the reference. Some modification was made considering the future application in Indonesia It was demonstrated that the automation systems with Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)...

The advent of Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) systems have aided the rapid manufacturing of composite aerospace structures. One of the challenges that AFP systems bring is the variability of the deposited prepreg tape layers, which are prone to gaps, overlaps and twists. The current detection method used in industry involves halting fabrication and performing a time consuming visual inspection of each tape layer. Typical AFP systems use a quartz lamp to heat the base layer to make the surface tacky as it deposits another tape layer. The innovation discussed in this paper is to use the preheated base layer as a through transmission heat source and inspect the newly added tape layer in situ using a thermographic camera mounted onto the AFP structure. Such a system would not only increase manufacturing throughput by reducing inspection times, but would also aid in process development for new structural designs or material systems. To this end, a small thermal camera was mounted onto an AFP robotic research platform at NASA, and thermal data was collected during typical and experimental layup operations. The data was post processed to reveal defects such as tow overlap/gap, wrinkling, and peel-up. Defects that would have been impossible to detect visually were also revealed in the data, such as poor/loss of adhesion between plies and the effects of vacuum debulking. This paper will cover the results of our experiments, and the recent progress on the data reduction algorithms in preparation for machine learning development.

Computational Thinking is introduced as a problem-solving ability that is important for future generations to master. The mastery of computational thinking skills from an early age prepares children to anticipate competition and pursue success in the future. Robotics devices are widely advocated as interactive learning media to facilitate Computational Thinking development. Educational robotics have grown from ideas that represent critical stages of Computational Thinking. The application of robotics in teaching computational thinking skills is increasingly used and is evident in the literature. The paper reviews the development of an innovative robotics device in facilitating understanding of computational thinking in young children in terms of several aspects of computational thinking indicators. A review was also conducted to see the advantages and disadvantages of commercially available robotics devices. This paper was prepared by applying critical analysis methods to the literature published from 1952 to 2017 in international journals and proceedings. As a recommendation for future research, this paper proposes for an educational robotic development that facilitates the of computational thinking skills, especially for early childhood education.

Based on the concept of micro-grid, this paper analyzes the advantages of micro-grid relative to large power grid and the existence of power quality problems, which makes the development of micro-grid currently limited. Then, starting from the power supply of the micro-grid, the benefits of distributed energy as a micro-grid energy are expounded.For the three types of micro-grid - DC micro-grid, AC micro-grid, AC-DC micro-grid, a brief introduction is demonstrated, and a profounder analysis is made for the DC micro-grid. In order to solve the power quality problem existing in the micro-grid, the model of the whole micro-grid system is constructed by local modeling of each component in the micro-grid. Finally,this paper introduces a kind of operation mode of micro-grid--connected operation. The problems that the micro- grid can access to the grid and the development prospects of the micro-grid are analyzed.

Electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing (e-jet printing) is one type of micro/nano scale 3D printing techniques that automatically deposit functional materials to form 3D structures on the substrate. Unlike traditional thermal or acoustic inkjet printing, e-jet printing utilizes high electrical forces for the ink to overcome surface tension at the tip of micro needles. The droplets and filaments coming out from the needle have dimensions much smaller than the dimension of the needle, thus to print geometries in micro and nano scale. E-jet printing process parameters can affect the final quality attributes of fabricated constructs. Currently, assessment of these critical geometries and attributes information must be performed offline using optical microscopy or scanning electron microscopy. This drawback affected the efficiency of micro/nano printing from translation to industrial practice. The research in this paper focused on fundamental research to enable in-situ monitoring of e-jet printing using a real-time images characterization technique. In conclusion, the study in this paper investigated using machine vision for real-time monitoring of micro/nano scale 3D printing. The method worked well for micro-filament detection in e-jet printing, and may be further implemented into feedback control system of complicated e-jet printing. However, the optical machine vision was limited to micro scale detection. One of the future research topic is to develop nano scale in-situ detection mechanism for e-jet printing.

The increasing demand for materials is a barrier to achieving a truly circular value chain. As long as the demand increases, extraction of virgin material will remain necessary. Furthermore, as we keep injecting pure virgin material in our value chain, the impurities that are added along the different life cycle stages are diluted. For this reason the real consequence of current material use and reuse is still unknown. As we move towards a circular value chain, not only the volume of reusable resources, but also the quality of those streams becomes more important to monitor. There is a need to better characterize material streams in order to identify the possibilities in the short term and to estimate the consequences in the long term. In this paper relevant data are gathered to assess the potential for a truly circular value chain. First, the concept of industrial symbiosis, that is considered a key success factor to achieve a more circular value chain, is defined. In order to facilitate the link between companies generating and receiving waste streams, a uniform material characterisation method is mandatory. Therefore, the charaterisation of input streams for manufacturing processes is discussed in a second step. The paper focusses on metals because of their economic importance and their high potential for reuse. Taking into account its relative importance in mass volume, special attention is given to steel. In a third step available information of generated waste streams is discussed and current characterisation of metal scrap is reviewed. Currently information related to metal scraps is limited to properties relevant for furnace operators such as presence of tramp elements or maximum dimension to allow direct charging. To identify potential opportunities for industrial symbiosis matchmaking additional information is required such as transparent labeling of the composition of metal waste streams and the state in which they are available.

This study aimed to provide STEM education learning activities based on student context where require problem solving in real world. The issues of floating restaurant designing will be raised in order to enhance students to learn not only content knowledge but also practice those kinds of knowledge in context. The paper will clarify the learning activities which provide through Context based STEM education learning approach. This approach consists of 7 stages including (1) Identification of social issues, (2) Identification of potential solution, (3) Need for knowledge, (4) Decision-making, (5) Development of prototype or product, (6) Test and evaluation of the solution, and (7) Socialization and completion decision stage. Identification of social issues, the construction of floating restaurant will be raised in order to enhance students to identify the problem from the context. Identification of potential solution, the five capitals related to the problem will be discussed to allow students identifying the possible solutions. The need for knowledge, learning activities for constructing meaning of buoyant force, density, sinking and floating, volume, area, geometry, and other related knowledge will be provided. The decision making stage, students will list the possible ways of constructing their floating restaurant and then make decision what kind of floating restaurant will be constructed based on their five capitals analysis. The development of prototype or product stage, students will develop their prototype of floating restaurant. Test and evaluation of the solution stage, students will discuss their conceptualization of test and evaluation for their prototype of floating restaurant and then test and evaluate it. The socialization and completion decision stage, students will socialize their ideas and improve the completed version through presentation of prototype of floating restaurant. The paper will discuss how to provide students chance to applying STEM knowledge through these activities.

This paper presents straightforward sensitivity assessment of a telecommunication tower. The analysis is set to identify the elements of the tower which may be reinforced with the greatest structural advantage. As current expert opinions on structural redesign of similar structures due to a planned addition of extra loads are mainly based on deterministic computations or engineering intuition, the probabilistic-based approach is proposed to verify and supplement the reinforcement design projects, in contrary to the existing action course. In the paper, the analysis is performed on an example of a standard, spatial telecommunication truss tower subjected to a standard set of loads, special attention is paid to wind and icing load. The cross-sectional areas of curbs and braces of each tower segment are adopted as random variables of the problem, in the form of sets of percentage increments of the initial cross-sectional area values. Joint impact is observed of individual variable change and the change imposed by groups of key variables with a similar impact on the structural load capacity. Finally, engineering-oriented conclusions are presented, of probabilistic origin. A beneficial solution of the reinforcement is proposed, maintaining the reliability of the initial tower.

A marine propeller generates adequate thrust to propel a vessel at some design speed. so, propeller is the core to optimum performance on a ship. Considerations are made to match the engine ’s power and shaft speed, as well as the size of the vessel and the ship’s operating speed, with an appropriately designed propeller. As marine propeller has complicated geometries, the flow around the propeller is complicated. In generally, the performance characteristics of a propeller is determined and analyze by experiments like open water and self-propulsion model test which are costly at the initial stage of the design. Numerical analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations could be an important alternative on this case. This study presents the investigation of marine propeller hydrodynamic performance and parameters through Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis. In this paper, a B-series propeller model is developed with respect to some design constraints such as ship speed, vessel draft etc. and analyzed the performance using CFD tools. In this analysis, we consider Realizable k-ω Turbulence Model & Multiple Reference Frame Model. Results found that all thrust coefficient (KT) and torque coefficient 10 (KQ) decreases with the increasing advance coefficient (J). The efficiency of propeller performance had also consistently showed characteristic trend of nonlinear increases to a peak an optimum value before decreasing drastically with increasing J value. The numerical results obtained from CFD Tool are compared with theoretical available publish data.A marine propeller generates adequate thrust to propel a vessel at some design speed. so, propeller is the core to optimum performance on a ship. Considerations are made to match the engine ’s power and shaft speed, as well as the size of the vessel and the ship’s operating speed, with an appropriately designed propeller. As marine propeller has complicated geometries, the flow around the propeller is complicated. In generally, the performance characteristics of a propeller is determined and analyze by experiments like open water and self-propulsion model test which are costly at the initial stage of the design. Numerical analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations could be an important alternative on this case. This study presents the investigation of marine propeller hydrodynamic performance and parameters through Computational Fluid Dynamic analysis. In this paper, a B-series propeller model is developed with respect to some design constraints such as ship speed, vessel draft etc. and analy...

We proposed the design of a respiration system based on laser reflection for an infant incubator that is able to continuously operate. The device consists of a laser diode (λ=650 nm; P=5 mW), a paper reflector, photodiode array as a detector, comparator, microcontroller Arduino UNO R3, and LCD. Also, there is a buzzer for anticipating emergency situations such as apnea. It utilizes the reflection of laser light on paper reflector attached to an infant simulator. Next, the reflection will be received by photodiode array and comparator which connects to the Arduino UNO R3. Then, the result was displayed on an LCD. From the experiment results, it was indicated that the system could measure respiratory rate from 10 up to 70 breaths per minute with an error of 2.357%.

Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is a device that amplifies an optical signal directly, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal. Furthermore, it can also be used use as a gate switch. We proposed hybrid optical switch architecture (HOSA) for data center network in our recent work which is based on fast and slow optical switches. We considered micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) for slow optical switches and SOAs for fast optical switches. We considered network layer performance of HOSA in that work. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of physical layer performance of optical switches. As MEMS technology is very much mature and it is widely used in the backbone optical network, so we focus only on the SOAs. This paper presents the characterization of SOAs to evaluate the performance in the physical layer. The main theme of this paper is to find out the best configuration of SOAs which can be considered to design an appropriate architecture of fast optical switch based on SOAs. We used VPITransmissionMaker simulation framework to evaluate the performance of SOAs. The results show that the combination of 10mA for bias and 200mA for amplitude is the best configuration of SOAs that can be considered to design a fast optical switch based on SOAs.

Acquiring efficient, economic and accurate methods for identifying the material properties of heterogeneous materials have been one of themajor objectives in the mechanical engineering community, thus, inverse methods may be considered as contributing to a very promising way of achieving the objective. This paper is concerned with an inverse method for identifying the material properties of a kenaf reinforced compositetest model. Aninitial finite element model of the composite test model is developed and normal modes analysis is carried out to calculate the modal parameters of the initial finite element model. The inverse method which is developed fromMSC Nastran SOL200 is used to update iteratively the material properties of the initial finite element model based on the comparison between the calculated modal parameters and those observed experimentally from experimental modal analysis (EMA). The objective is to acquire the most appropriate set of material properties that provide well match between the finite element model and the test model. It was found that the identified material properties are well matched with that of previous published papers in terms of the reduction in total errors, which are discussed in this paper.

The paper outlines energy management concepts using PV panels for a grid. The necessity of considering energy management as a crucial innovation in load supplying to permit a more powerful penetration of renewable energy usage with the help of solar energy at a building and metropolis level. It also significantly points out the energy savings by the consumer and helps in reduction of CO2 emissions in the process [1-2] The driving factors to enhance the current power distribution are presented, and the benefits concerning grids are underlined. In the paper, energy management analysis is assessed by taking into account all the electrical value and the demand-side management. [3] In the paper, the evaluations of ecological benefits are reported, and a cost benefit analysis of the energy management system is performed. The need of energy management in distribution systems is necessary because it helps us determine the exact energy consumed by the load as well as different sectors of the load. It also gives us perspective on how much energy is needed and the sources it can be obtained from. The study being done in this paper is at a residential society in Chennai, Tamil Nadu comprising 2 buildings of 40 flats each equipped with standard lights, fans, air conditioners and heaters.

The wheel profile of a rail vehicle is one of the key elements on which its ride dynamics depend. Even small changes in the wheel tread geometry resulting from its gradual wearing can significantly affect not only passenger comfort, but also result in a change in vehicle behavior when running on a straight track, and when running through a track curve, there is a significant change in the forces acting in the wheel-rail contact. The aim of the authors is to clarify the causes of wear by using simulation analysis of a vehicle ride and subsequent processing of the results in their own software, allowing to plot various parameters of the wheel-rail contact in relation to their location on the wheel profile. The value of the presented parameters is also interpreted in relation to the radius of the curve of the track where they occurred. The paper describes software designed by the authors as a tool for research of causes of wear, presents used algorithms and mathematical-analytical apparatus.The wheel profile of a rail vehicle is one of the key elements on which its ride dynamics depend. Even small changes in the wheel tread geometry resulting from its gradual wearing can significantly affect not only passenger comfort, but also result in a change in vehicle behavior when running on a straight track, and when running through a track curve, there is a significant change in the forces acting in the wheel-rail contact. The aim of the authors is to clarify the causes of wear by using simulation analysis of a vehicle ride and subsequent processing of the results in their own software, allowing to plot various parameters of the wheel-rail contact in relation to their location on the wheel profile. The value of the presented parameters is also interpreted in relation to the radius of the curve of the track where they occurred. The paper describes software designed by the authors as a tool for research of causes of wear, presents used algorithms and mathematical-analytical apparatus.