Volume 6, Issue 9, September 2015 Edition

Publication for Volume 6, Issue 9, September 2015.

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Application of Modified PSO in Economic Load Dispatch Problem of Thermal Generating Unit[ ]


This paper deals with the problem of economic load dispatch (ELD) in thermal generating unit. The main issue of generating unit to minimize the cost of generation so modified Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method is proposed for solving this issue. The modified PSO method was developed through simulation of a simplified social system and has been found to be robust in solving continuous nonlinear optimization problems in terms of accuracy of the solution and computation time The proposed algorithm is applied for the ELD of six unit thermal plant systems and the performance of the proposed modified PSO method is compared with the existing general PSO method and it is observed that this method is reliable, accurate and less iteration process. All results obtained through MATLAB Simulink software. The comparison of results shows that the proposed modified PSO method was indeed capable of obtaining higher quality solutions efficiently for ELD problems within less computation time.

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Utilization of Mollusc Shells for Concrete Production for Sustainable Environment[ ]


The ability to reduce, reuse and recycle mollusc shell waste for civil and construction engineering applications is an attractive component of integrated waste management scheme. This paper presents the applicability of mollusc farming residues especially the shells and shell-ash in partial or full replacement for coarse aggregate and ordinary Portland cement (OPC) respectively. The chemical constituents of mollusc shell ashes at 800oC which qualify as pozzolans are comparable with the conventional cements. The physical properties and size distribution of periwinkle, cockle and oyster shells qualify for coarse aggregate which with paste and fine aggregate produce lightweight concrete without jeopardizing strength. Finally, the durability of concrete so-produced from shell-coarse aggregate is guaranteed at a maximum temperature of 300oC and the shell ash-blended cement concrete under sulphate attack experienced the least reduction in compressive strength.

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Innovative Wireless Battery Charger- A Study[ ]


In this paper, an innovative design of a simple type wireless battery charger for portable electronic devices especially for mobile is proposed. The wireless charger will convert the RF/ microwave signal into a DC signal, and then store the power into a battery. The charger is divided into parts: transmitter, antenna, and charging circuit. A complete discussion of the specifications of the battery charger is provided after data measurements. This report also includes component lists, financial, data results, and other key information.

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Delamination analysis of carbon-glass hybrid polymer composites in drilling process[ ]


Hybrid composites of carbon-glass fibre have gained wide application in various facets of engineering due to material property enhancements. In common practices, hybrid composite are manufactured to near-net shapes; however, finishing operation that involves machining operation such as drilling is essential for assembly with other components. In this paper, the parametric effects of controlled parameters on delamination during drilling carbon/glass hybrid polymer composite are presented. Taguchi design of experiment is employed to statistically analyze the drilling performance of carbon/glass hybrid composite. The experiments were conducted to elucidate the effects of spindle speed, feed rate and tool geometry on delamination using tungsten carbide (K20) tool of 8 mm diameter. The results showed that the delamination values are greatly influenced by the feed rate and tool geometry rather than spindle speed. This is likely due to the higher thrust force exerts on the workpiece during drilling operation.

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Estimates of Aquifer Hydraulic Characteristics and Vulnerability from Surface Resistivity Data: Case Study of Ugep and Environs, Southeastern Nigeria[ ]


Detailed hydrogeophysical study of Ugep and environs was carried out to determine the aquifer hydraulic parameters using Dar-zarrock parameters. Forty (40) vertical electrical sounding (VES) data were acquired using the digital Terrameter, SAS 4000 model. The Schlumberger configuration with a maximum current electrode spacing (AB) of 1000 meters was used for data acquisition. Twelve (12) parametric soundings were carried out near existing boreholes where pumping test data were available for correlative purposes and to constrain model predictive parameters. The VES data were interpreted using the conventional partial curve matching technique to obtain initial model parameters which were later used as input data for computer iterative modelling. The layer parameters thus obtained from the analysis were combined with information from litho-logs and pumping test data from existing boreholes to estimate aquifer hydraulic parameters using Dar-Zarrouk parameters. Results of the study revealed the aquifer resistivity in the study area ranges from 34.9Ωm at VES 3 to 3920Ωm at VES 32.The depth to the water table range from 12.4m -147m with a mean value of 67.96m, while aquifer thickness varies from 5.7m to 123m with a mean value of 47.3m.The values of the Dar-Zarrock parameters revealed that the transverse resistance varies between 84992Ωm2 to 1106.33Ωm2 with a mean value of 19,817Ωm2 while the longitudinal conductance has a mean value of 0.2848mhos/m. Similarly, hydraulic conductivity in the area ranges from 0.06m/day to 83.37m/day with a mean value of 12.75m/day, while the transmissivity values ranges from 2.233m2/day to1784.83m2, with an average of 375.93m2/day. Estimates of aquifer vulnerability rating indicates that about 2.5% of the study area has a low class of groundwater vulnerability to contamination, whereas 55% of the study area indicated moderate aquifer vulnerability with DRASTIC index ranges of 107 to 140. It was also revealed that about 42.5% of the study area falls within the high aquifer vulnerability zone with a DRASTIC index value of between136-177.

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Sodium borohydride mediated one-pot synthesis of secondary amides from primary amides via reductive acetylation[ ]


A one-pot reduction followed by N-acetylation of primary amides to yield secondary amides using NaBH4/Acetic acid has been developed and the corresponding N-acetyl amides are obtained respectable yields.

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Utilization of open-source FEM software in modeling of magnetic field distribution around unusually shaped conductor[ ]


The modeling of the magnetic field distribution is required in many engineering research applications. It is crucial in simulation of transformers properties, as well as in achieving electromagnetic compatibility. Analytical solutions are suitable only in special or idealized cases. Another, more general approach is based on finite element method. Basing on FEM, approximate solutions of most cases could be calculated in acceptable time. On the other hand, many FEM softwares have significant limits on the geometry of input model of simulated elements. The following paper presents partial solution of this problem, as well as exemplary results of simulations.

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Location Information: Another Perspective of Intelligence Gathering for Minimizing Terrorism in Nigeria[ ]


Security challenges are the order of the day in some countries around the globe, Nigeria inclusive. Series of measures were proposed and even implemented, but due to population size, lack of social amenities (i.e. Power) and time factor rendered some of them insufficient enough to tackle the issue. Nigeria, as at February 2014, has recorded total number of cell phone users to be (167,371,945). Therefore, via wiretapping and imagery intelligence, this number or even more will be on surveillance over a period of time so as to pinpoint suspects through location information. To achieve this, there must be a tradeoff between citizen privacy and optimum security.

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Methodology of Correlation Analysis in Solution of a Problem of Normalization of Projective Image Transformations[ ]


Processing and interpretation of images is one of composing systems of the intellectual analysis of data. It is caused by that the significant part of information about outward things can be received on the basis of the video data analysis about images of the real world. At that, such analysis uses various methods, approaches and theories where the special place is occupied by the procedures connected with recognition of scenes or separate objects, presented on incoming images. Thus, it is necessary to consider the fact, that incoming images owing to objective factors could be subject to various geometrical distortions. Such distortions impose the restrictions and features on possibility of application of separate approaches and methods to processing and interpretation of images. Hence, a procedure of correlation normalization of images which allows to compare and recognize images is considered in this work. The work proves the possibility of representation of projective group of transformations, as one of versions of geometrical distortions of the incoming image, in the form of composition of the basic, simple transformations which are also versions of geometrical distortions of the incoming image. At the same time, the expediency of application of a partial correlation method for realization of procedure of correlation normalization of images is considered. The formalized description of the offered procedure of correlation normalization of images is given. Examples of separate steps of realization of the offered procedure are resulted.

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The goniometer on laser gyro base[ ]


The scheme of goniometer on laser gyro base and its operation algorithms are pre¬sented. Mathematical model for an angle measurement error is also presented. The analysis of measurement error components has been carried out. We paid special attention to the ef¬fect of the Earth's angular rate on the angle measurement error and showed the ways for re¬duction of this component of the error. International comparisons results are presented as wed.

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An Analysis of the Hash-Based Proof-of-Work Chain in the Bitcoin Network[ ]


A Bitcoin Is an electronic payment method that is based on cryptographic proof instead of trust [1] allowing any two users to manage their transactions without dependence on a third party organization (a financial institution). Each party can transfer Bitcoins to the other digitally by signing a previous hash along with the public key of the next owner and so on. The Bitcoin network timestamps the transactions into blocks and hashes them into a chain of a hash based proof-of-work [1] (block chain) and combining them into a block. Such a chain is known as a block chain. It is decided that the longest block chain shall serve as the proof of the sequence of transactions witnessed by the network. Also it is a proof that it came from the largest pool of computational power put in by Bitcoin Miners (people who help in generating new blocks for the proof-of-work in return for a bounty). A major issue with the Bitcoin network is the problem of attacking nodes trying to double-spend the Bitcoin transactions i.e. re-spend the money they have already spent. They can do so by trying to generate an alternate chain faster than the honest nodes. As long as these honest nodes manage the majority of computational power, the attacker node wont be able to interfere with the block chain. In this paper we see how effective the traditional bitcoin proof-of-work policy is against the attackers and what measures and methods can be adopted in order to nullify the probability of an attacker to interfere with the block chain.

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3G/4G Services Evolution in Pakistan[ ]


With the introduction of 3G/4G services by the mobile companies, there is an eminent threat to the legacy landline business because of the data services being offered by the mobile companies. Unless and until some sustainable model is not devised, the landline business might suffer immensely with declining revenues. The research thesis will cover the present telecom scenario in the country and will look at the pre and post 3G/4G licensing scenario. After doing this analysis, the landline network will be studied and a model will be developed which will take care of the threat to the landline network.

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The Effect of Wind Turbine Location on the Economic Load Dispatch Based on Particle Swarm Optimization[ ]


The economic load dispatch (ELD) represents one of the basic functions of power system operation and planning. In general, the task of ELD is to allocate optimally loads among on-line generating units in order to minimize the total operational cost subject to power balance, system reserve requirements and other system constraints. Renewable energy resources such as wind power have significant attention in recent years in power system field. It takes part to minimize the fuel consumption in the thermal units. This paper presents the influence of a wind turbine location on the optimization of ELD problem. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is presented to solve this problem. The performance of the presented method is evaluated using two standard systems, and compared with two published methods. The first is evolutionary represented by the genetic algorithm (GA) and the second is determinist represented by the interior point (IP). In addition, a comparison between results obtained of money profits in different buses is done to choose the most cost effective wind penetration site.

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Groundwater Management in Wadi El Natrun Pliocene aquifer, Egypt[ ]


Wadi El Natrun (WEN) Depression located in semi-arid area at El Behera governorate, western of Nile Delta, Egypt. The study area covers about 770 Km2. WEN Depression is very important for many aspects; agriculture, industrial, tourism and recreation investment because of high potential of groundwater, accessibility, and investment of facilities that provided by the government. During recent years, water resources of WEN have been encountered with problems due to overgrowth of exploitation establishments and agricultural processes. Thus, to evaluate the existing situation and managing a good usage of water resources, MODFLOW was used to simulate the groundwater behavior of Wadi El Natrun Pliocene Aquifer (WNPA). The calibration proses of the model parameters were applied under steady-state and transient-state conditions using the available data of 14 observation wells. Based on the MODFLOW model, four appropriate scenarios are proposed for a sustainable groundwater for prediction of the drawdown and head levels. The results of calibration appear that the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer ranges between 10 and 45 m/day. Calibrated specific storage ranges from 0.0001 to 0.1. The results of the first scenario show that the predicted total IN budget of Pliocene aquifer will be (107250) m3/day, while the OUT budget will be (107220) m3/day after simulation period (50 years).

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Effectiveness of Soil Solarization with Polyethylene Sheets & Organic Manure to Control Weeds & Fungi & to Increase the Lettuce Yield[ ]


This experiment was conducted at King Abduaziz Agricultural Research Station at Hada Al-Sham. We investigated the effect of soil solarization with polyethylene sheets (100, 200 microns and uncovered soil) and organic manure (animal manure, cabbage leaves, date palm fronds, animal manure + cabbage leaves, animal manure + date palm fronds, cabbage leaves + date palm fronds, animal manure + cabbage leaves + date palm fronds) on some soil chemical characteristics, soil fungi population, weed growth and lettuce yield during two seasons (2009-2010). The treatments caused significant increase in the soil content of N, P and K with pronounced effect of the 100 micron sheet followed by 200 micron sheet over unsolarized soil. The polyethylene sheet (100 µ) significantly decreased the weed growth and fungal count cfu g-1 dry soil compared with 200 micron sheet and unsolarized soil. The 100 and 200 microns sheets significantly improved the lettuce yield up to 347.5 and 237.2 %, respectively, over unsolarized soil. Animal manure at 30 t ha-1 increased lettuce yield by 77.6 % compared with control. Thus, soil solarization with polyethylene sheet (100 µ) with animal manure is wise approach for sustainable control of weed and soil fungi and for improving lettuce yield.

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An Affective and Adaptive E-Learning System: A Machine Learning Based Approach[ ]


E-learning has become a useful tool in today’s education used widely by independent learners, corporate organizations and educational institutions. However e-learning systems, in most cases falter because unlike a conventional teacher-student setup, e-learning environments cannot detect student moods and emotions. This often leaves way students are left on their own, with no guiding or motivating force channelizing their process of learning, increasing the dropout rates in such systems. The present work proposes a novel approach to analyze learners’ emotions using machine learning technique with no expensive equipment or questionnaire involved in the detection process. Hereby, the system on its own acts like a conventional teacher, which can predict a learner’s learning state and mood based on his actions and teaches accordingly. Here using that learning state, the learner’s emotion is instantly deduced by using Barry Kort’s spiral learning model, providing an idea of a learner’s emotional state at any given point of the learning process, which can then be used to improve the emotional state of the learner wherever required.

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Optimization of total essential oil yield of Cinnamomum zeylanicum N. by using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction[ ]


The present work deals with the extraction of essential oils from dried bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum N. Essential oil was extracted by four different methods; Traditional hydro distillation (HD), solvent extraction (SE), ultrasonication (US) and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction (SC-CO2). The optimization process was carried out using factorial design and maximum yield (3.8%) of essential oil was obtained at optimum conditions of pressure (200 bar), temperature (40 0C) and CO2 flow rate (4 g/min). Chemical composition of essential oil obtained from bark of cinnamon was analysed GCMS and FTIR and its antioxidant activity was also evaluated.

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PAPR reduction in OFDM systems via genetic algorithm[ ]


Peak average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) had been main concern upon last year's so many researchers digging for it. Many methods had been proposed for this aim. The most popular algorithms were the partial transmit sequences (PTS) method and variable to variable crossover in genetic algorithm (GA) there is also combination between the two methods for optimization PAPR reduction. Main question proposed was always targeting about what is the least value the algorithm can approach, main challenge was about max blocks to be used to get results for PAPR reduction.

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Intelligent Sorting System Based on Computer Vision for Ba-nana Industry[ ]


In this paper, an intelligent sorting system based on computer vision for banana industry has been developed. This system is designed to solve the problem facing food production industry such as low production, and inaccuracy in production. This paper is segmented into three stages which are the image pre-processing stage, image processing stage and the identification stage. The image pre-processing stage made up of the acquiring of the banana images, the image processing stage is the processing of the images to extract the features required in training the neural network at the identification stage. In the identification stage, BPNN was used to train the network and tested with feedforward neural network. The recognition rate of 98% was obtained which shows an optimal recognition rate required in the industry.

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Hand Gesture Recognition based on Digital Image Processing using MATLAB[ ]


This research work presents a prototype system that helps to recognize hand gesture to normal people in order to communicate more effectively with the special people. Aforesaid research work focuses on the problem of gesture recognition in real time that sign language used by the community of deaf people. The problem addressed is based on Digital Image Processing using Color Segmentation, Skin Detection, Image Segmentation, Image Filtering, and Template Matching techniques. This system recognizes gestures of ASL (American Sign Language) including the alphabet and a subset of its words.

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Development of Statistical Model for Prediction of Dynamic Modulus of Cement Concrete of Known Mixed Design[ ]


Dynamic modulus (E) of concrete is an important strength parameter used in the design of many civil engineering structures. It is greatly influenced by variations in mixed design, curing condition, construction practice, and time [2]. The major objective of this study was to formulate statistical model to predict the dynamic modulus by using information about the above mentioned variation. For this purpose 6x12 inch cylindrical concrete samples of different mixed design were made and tested at different ages by the impulse load test. The data obtained was used for the development of this model that provides an indirect nondestructive testing procedure. The developed model is helpful to eliminate undue construction delays of newly constructed structural members. Moreover, the model is useful for reaching a mixed design quickly without making and testing many samples of differently mixed proportions, as recommended by ACI Standard 211.1.

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Modelling and forecasting the Maintenance Cost of Roads in Anambra State[ ]


This study dealt with evaluating the maintenance cost of roads in Anambra State using the times series approach. The objective of the present study to develop a time series model for estimating maintenance cost of roads in Anambra State. Secondary data set obtained from Consolidated Construction Company (CCC) form the year 2004 to 2013 was used to evaluate the analysis. The statistical tools used include the Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin test, Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, time series analysis and descriptive analysis. The findings of the study showed that the maintenance cost of roads has an increasing trend over time. The series was found to be stationary using the Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin test. Also, it was found that the series has no unit root at the first difference using the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test. It was concluded that the series was stationary overtime which implies that the model obtained can be used to make forecast for future behaviour of the process. Hence, five years forecast on the maintenance cost of roads in Anambra State was made and it was found that in the year 2018 all things being equal the maintenance cost of roads in Anambra State is expected to be about N237,226,028. This result implies that the maintenance cost of roads in Anambra State is expected be about N237,226,028 in the year 2018.

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Prediction of phase equilibria in binary systems containing acetone using artificial neural network[ ]


In this paper, phase equilibrium of eleven binary systems containing acetone is estimated using artificial neural networks (ANN). VLE data were taken from literature for wide ranges of temperature (298.15-391.25K) and pressure (2.640 to 101.33kPa). Based on obtained results, the best structure for ANN is feed-forward network with sigmoid and linear activation functions for hidden and output layers, respectively. The network consists of seven inputs for temperature, pressure, acentric factor, critical temperature and critical pressure of the system, 19 neurons in hidden layer and two neurons in output layer corresponding to vapor and liquid compositions of acetone in binary mixture. The weights were optimized to minimize error between calculated and experimental VLE data using Levenberg-Marquardt back propagation training algorithm. Results show that optimum network architecture is able to predict equilibrium data of binary systems containing acetone with an acceptable level of accuracy AAD % of 0.815, and R2 of 0.9979.

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Feasibility of Waterfall Model to Enhance Human Resource Management System[ ]


Organisations may try to improve the effectiveness of the supply chain by managing HR across organisational boundaries. This might be a particularly effective strategy if a client organisation focuses on increasing the use of ‘good’ or high performance working practices in its suppliers, as there is considerable evidence that such practices can contribute directly to organisational success and lead to higher employee well-being. An additional advantage of such a strategy might be to help protect the client organisation’s reputation and brand image by insuring that suppliers provide employees with working conditions that customers perceive as decent. Managing HR across organisational boundaries therefore provides a mechanism by which HR practices can be diffused throughout the supply chain. Waterfall development is a widely used way of working in software development companies with a great impact on HR management.

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Review of Secure Software Development in Various Agile Models[ ]


Software whether application or system are most valuable assets of a computer system. Hardware of computer is also dependent upon software. Initially software requirements, size, complexities and operating environment were limited. There are multiple development methodologies such as waterfall, spiral, rational unified process and now the most common agile. Scrum, XP, DSDM, FDD, and Crystal are some of commonly used agile software development methodologies being used for development of software in increments. Agile facilitates quick releases, iterations and customer involvement. Weak coding practices are major cause of software vulnerabilities. Secure programming rules should be followed for writing programs in order to manage security. Interactive Static Analysis integrates static analysis in Integrated Development Environment (IDE) it assists and indicate programmer such coding mistakes.

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US-Scrum: A Methodology for Developing Software with Enhanced Correctness, Usability and Security[ ]


In this modern era customized software especially web applications are given more importance because of global and simultaneous access. Software quality is an important concern of the software developers and customers. Certain number of software quality attributes such as availability, integrity, interoperability, correctness, maintainability, performance, reliability, reusability, scalability, security, testability and usability are defined for quality assessment. Agile software development methods though flexible in coping with changes and organize the software development around functional requirements. Due to advancements in web technology security threats and usability issues have also increased. Agile involves the limelight for ensuring correctness of software while ignoring important quality attributes like security and usability. The purpose of this research is to propose a hybrid model based on Feature Driven Development (FDD) and Scrum principles to accommodate quality focus in terms of correctness, security and usability. The proposed model is organized around multiple sprints, specialized managers and specialized teams. The proposed model provides the benefits of being more user focused and increased customer satisfaction by employing comprehensive verification and validation process.

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Scrum Based Quality Enhancement Model for Supervising Final Year Projects of Computer Science[ ]


The challenges of today’s computer science courses are not the specific technical competencies, but rather organizational issues which are a hindrance in effective teaching. By introducing new teaching methodologies we can cope with them and make teaching efficient and effective and can achieve worldwide standards. The purpose of this research is to introduce the integration of agile methods in a capstone course for Bachelor of Science degree. With the integration of Scrum model into computer science teaching techniques, an educational beneficent alternate of traditional teaching methodologies is identified. Rapid prototyping and incremental development provide many opportunities for students to improve and reflect themselves. The focus of Scrum on self-organizing teams offers a podium to practice project organization, by empowering students to take the obligation for the product development process. This can enhance students’ preparation for a future career as professionals. By using it, we can reduce the gap between educational and industrial hubs and can compete with global industry. We observed some encouraging points, i.e. such as the practical nature of learning by example. The main conclusion of this research is that, a modified version of Scrum methodology is necessary to work in our academic scenario. This paper discusses a case study regarding the application of scrum model in supervising the capstone projects of students of BS(IT) classes in GPCSF.

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