Production-frame Model of Representation of Data Domain

One of the most important problems of e-learning system is studied in given paper. This problem is building of data domain model. Data domain model is based on usage of correct organizing knowledge base. In this paper production-frame model is offered, which allows structuring data domain and building flexible and understandable inference system, residing in production system.

Multibody System Mechanics: Modelling, Stability, Control, and Robustness by V. A. Konoplev and A. Cheremensky

BOOK REVIEWS Multibody System Mechanics: Modelling, Stability, Control, and Ro- bustness, by V. A. Konoplev and A. Cheremensky, Mathematics and its Appli- cations Vol. 1, Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians, Sofia, 2001, XXII + 288 pp., $ 65.00, ISBN 954-8880-09-01

Parallelization of Logical Inference for Confluent Rule-based System

* This paper was made according to the program № 14 of fundamental scientific research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the project 06-I-П14-052

Design software architecture models using ontology

Software architecture plays an essential role in the high level description of a system design, where the structure and communication are emphasized. Despite its importance in the software engineering process, the lack of formal description and automated verification hinders the development of good software architecture models. In this paper, we present an approach to support the rigorous design and verification of software architecture models using the semantic web technology. We view software architecture models as ontology representations, where their structures and communication constraints are captured by the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL). Specific configurations on the design are represented as concrete instances of the ontology, to which their structures and dynamic behaviors must conform. Furthermore, ontology reasoning tools can be applied to perform various automated verification on the design to ensure correctness, such as consistency checking, style recognition, and behavioral inference.

Semantic enabled sensor network design

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) systems have become more and more popular in our modern life. They have been widely used in many areas, such as smart homes/buildings, context-aware devices, military applications, etc. Despite the increasing usage, there is a lack of formal description and automated verification for WSN system design. In this paper, we present an approach to support the rigorous verification of WSN modeling using the Semantic Web technology We use Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) to define a meta-ontology for the modeling of WSN systems. Furthermore, we apply ontology reasoners to perform automated verification on customized WSN models and their instances. We demonstrate and evaluate our approach through a Light Control System (LCS) as the case study.

Design of an automated book reader as an assistive technology tool for blind persons

This dissertation introduces a novel automated book reader as an assistive technology tool for persons with blindness. The literature shows extensive work in the area of optical character recognition, but the current methodologies available for the automated reading of books or bound volumes remain inadequate and are severely constrained during document scanning or image acquisition processes. The goal of the book reader design is to automate and simplify the task of reading a book while providing a user-friendly environment with a realistic but affordable system design. This design responds to the main concerns of (a) providing a method of image acquisition that maintains the integrity of the source (b) overcoming optical character recognition errors created by inherent imaging issues such as curvature effects and barrel distortion, and (c) determining a suitable method for accurate recognition of characters that yields an interface with the ability to read from any open book with a high reading accuracy nearing 98%. This research endeavor focuses in its initial aim on the development of an assistive technology tool to help persons with blindness in the reading of books and other bound volumes. But its secondary and broader aim is to also find in this design the perfect platform for the digitization process of bound documentation in line with the mission of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), a nonprofit Alliance at making reading materials available in digital form. The theoretical perspective of this research relates to the mathematical developments that are made in order to resolve both the inherent distortions due to the properties of the camera lens and the anticipated distortions of the changing page curvature as one leafs through the book. This is evidenced by the significant increase of the recognition rate of characters and a high accuracy read-out through text to speech processing. This reasonably priced interface with its high performance results and its compatibility to any computer or laptop through universal serial bus connectors extends greatly the prospects for universal accessibility to documentation.

Circuit-aware design of energy-efficient massive MIMO systems

Densification is a key to greater throughput in cellular networks. The full potential of coordinated multipoint (CoMP) can be realized by massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, where each base station (BS) has very many antennas. However, the improved throughput comes at the price of more infrastructure; hardware cost and circuit power consumption scale linearly/affinely with the number of antennas. In this paper, we show that one can make the circuit power increase with only the square root of the number of antennas by circuit-aware system design. To this end, we derive achievable user rates for a system model with hardware imperfections and show how the level of imperfections can be gradually increased while maintaining high throughput. The connection between this scaling law and the circuit power consumption is established for different circuits at the BS.

The Design with Intent Method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour

Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human–technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process.

Flexible Sensor for Wearable Vital Sign Monitoring System

In modern society, the body health is a very important issue to everyone. With the development of the science and technology, the new and developed body health monitoring device and technology will play the key role in the daily medical activities. This paper focus on making progress in the design of the wearable vital sign system. A vital sign monitoring system has been proposed and designed. The whole detection system is composed of signal collecting subsystem, signal processing subsystem, short-range wireless communication subsystem and user interface subsystem. The signal collecting subsystem is composed of light source and photo diode, after emiting light of two different wavelength, the photo diode collects the light signal reflected by human body tissue. The signal processing subsystem is based on the analog front end AFE4490 and peripheral circuits, the collected analog signal would be filtered and converted into digital signal in this stage. After a series of processing, the signal would be transmitted to the short-range wireless communication subsystem through SPI, this subsystem is mainly based on Bluetooth 4.0 protocol and ultra-low power System on Chip(SoC) nRF51822. Finally, the signal would be transmitted to the user end. After proposing and building the system, this paper focus on the research of the key component in the system, that is, the photo detector. Based on the study of the perovskite materials, a low temperature processed photo detector has been proposed, designed and researched. The device is made up of light absorbing layer, electron transporting and hole blocking layer, hole transporting and electron blocking layer, conductive substrate layer and metal electrode layer. The light absorbing layer is the important part of whole device, and it is fabricated by perovskite materials. After accepting the light, the electron-hole pair would be produced in this layer, and due to the energy level difference, the electron and hole produced would be transmitted to metal electrode and conductive substrate electrode through electron transporting layer and hole transporting layer respectively. In this way the response current would be produced. Based on this structure, the specific fabrication procedure including substrate cleaning; PEDOT:PSS layer preparation; pervoskite layer preparation; PCBM layer preparation; C60, BCP, and Ag electrode layer preparation. After the device fabrication, a series of morphological characterization and performance testing has been done. The testing procedure including film-forming quality inspection, response current and light wavelength analysis, linearity and response time and other optical and electrical properties testing. The testing result shows that the membrane has been fabricated uniformly; the device can produce obvious response current to the incident light with the wavelength from 350nm to 800nm, and the response current could be changed along with the light wavelength. When the light wavelength keeps constant, there exists a good linear relationship between the intensity of the response current and the power of the incident light, based on which the device could be used as the photo detector to collect the light information. During the changing period of the light signal, the response time of the device is several microseconds, which is acceptable working as a photo detector in our system. The testing results show that the device has good electronic and optical properties, and the fabrication procedure is also repeatable, the properties of the devices has good uniformity, which illustrates the fabrication method and procedure could be used to build the photo detector in our wearable system. Based on a series of testing results, the paper has drawn the conclusion that the photo detector fabricated could be integrated on the flexible substrate and is also suitable for the monitoring system proposed, thus made some progress on the research of the wearable monitoring system and device. Finally, some future prospect in system design aspect and device design and fabrication aspect are proposed.

A Haptic System for Depicting Mathematical Graphics for Students with Visual Impairments

When teaching students with visual impairments educators generally rely on tactile tools to depict visual mathematical topics. Tactile media, such as embossed paper and simple manipulable materials, are typically used to convey graphical information. Although these tools are easy to use and relatively inexpensive, they are solely tactile and are not modifiable. Dynamic and interactive technologies such as pin matrices and haptic pens are also commercially available, but tend to be more expensive and less intuitive. This study aims to bridge the gap between easy-to-use tactile tools and dynamic, interactive technologies in order to facilitate the haptic learning of mathematical concepts. We developed an haptic assistive device using a Tanvas electrostatic touchscreen that provides the user with multimodal (haptic, auditory, and visual) output. Three methodological steps comprise this research: 1) a systematic literature review of the state of the art in the design and testing of tactile and haptic assistive devices, 2) a user-centered system design, and 3) testing of the system’s effectiveness via a usability study. The electrostatic touchscreen exhibits promise as an assistive device for displaying visual mathematical elements via the haptic modality.

Virtual-Build-to-Order as a Mass Customization Order Fulfilment Model

Virtual-build-to-order (VBTO) is a form of order fulfilment system in which the producer has the ability to search across the entire pipeline of finished stock, products in production and those in the production plan, in order to find the best product for a customer. It is a system design that is attractive to Mass Customizers, such as those in the automotive sector, whose manufacturing lead time exceeds their customers' tolerable waiting times, and for whom the holding of partly-finished stocks at a fixed decoupling point is unattractive or unworkable. This paper describes and develops the operational concepts that underpin VBTO, in particular the concepts of reconfiguration flexibility and customer aversion to waiting. Reconfiguration is the process of changing a product's specification at any point along the order fulfilment pipeline. The extent to which an order fulfilment system is flexible or inflexible reveals itself in the reconfiguration cost curve, of which there are four basic types. The operational features of the generic VBTO system are described and simulation is used to study its behaviour and performance. The concepts of reconfiguration flexibility and floating decoupling point are introduced and discussed.

Optimization of flocculation process and continuous filtration for sea water primary treatment filtration to reduce SDI for entree to reverse osmosis system

Today , Providing drinking water and process water is one of the major problems in most countries ; the surface water often need to be treated to achieve necessary quality, and in this way, technological and also financial difficulties cause great restrictions in operating the treatment units. Although water supply by simple and cheap systems has been one of the important objectives in most scientific and research centers in the world, still a great percent of population in developing countries, especially in rural areas, don't benefit well quality water. One of the big and available sources for providing acceptable water is sea water. There are two ways to treat sea water first evaporation and second reverse osmosis system. Nowadays R.O system has been used for desalination because of low budget price and easily to operate and maintenance. The sea water should be pretreated before R.O plants, because there is some difficulties in raw sea water that can decrease yield point of membranes in R.O system. The subject of this research may be useful in this way, and we hope to be able to achieve complete success in design and construction of useful pretreatment systems for R.O plant. One of the most important units in the sea water pretreatment plant is filtration, the conventional method for filtration is pressurized sand filters, and the subject of this research is about new filtration which is called continuous back wash sand filtration (CBWSF). The CBWSF designed and tested in this research may be used more economically with less difficulty. It consists two main parts first shell body and second central part comprising of airlift pump, raw water feeding pipe, air supply hose, backwash chamber and sand washer as well as inlet and outlet connections. The CBWSF is a continuously operating filter, i.e. the filter does not have to be taken out of operation for backwashing or cleaning. Inlet water is fed through the sand bed while the sand bed is moving downwards. The water gets filtered while the sand becomes dirty. Simultaneously, the dirty sand is cleaned in the sand washer and the suspended solids are discharged in backwash water. We analyze the behavior of CBWSF in pretreatment of sea water instead of pressurized sand filter. There is one important factor which is not suitable for R.O membranes, it is bio-fouling. This factor is defined by Silt Density Index (SDI).measured by SDI. In this research has been focused on decreasing of SDI and NTU. Based on this goal, the prototype of pretreatment had been designed and manufactured to test. The system design was done mainly by using the design fundamentals of CBWSF. The automatic backwash sand filter can be used in small and also big water supply schemes. In big water treatment plants, the units of filters perform the filtration and backwash stages separately, and in small treatment plants, the unit is usually compacted to achieve less energy consumption. The analysis of the system showed that it may be used feasibly for water treating, especially for limited population. The construction is rapid, simple and economic, and its performance is high enough because no mobile mechanical part is used in it, so it may be proposed as an effective method to improve the water quality and consequently the hygiene level in the remote places of the country.

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION IN VULNERABLE CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS IN MGETA, TANZANIA

Increased occurrence of drought and dry spells during the growing season have resulted in increased interest in protection of tropical water catchment areas. In Mgeta, a water catchment area in the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania, water used for vegetable and fruit production is provided through canals from the Uluguru South Forest Reserve. The clearing of forest land for cultivation in the steep slopes in the area is causing severe land degradation, which is threatening the water catchment area, livelihoods, and food security of the local communities, as well as the major population centers in the lowlands. In this paper, the economic performance of a traditional cropping-livestock system with East African (EA)-goats and pigs and extensive vegetable production is compared with a more sustainable and environmentally friendly crop-dairy goat production system. A linear programming (LP) crop-livestock model, maximizing farm income considering the environmental constraints in the area was applied for studying the economic performance of dairy goats in the production system. The model was worked out for the rainy and dry seasons and the analysis was conducted for a basic scenario representing the current situation, based on the variability in the 30 years period from 1982-2012, and in a scenario of both lower crop yields and increased crop variability due to climate change. Data obtained from a sample of 60 farmers that were interviewed using a questionnaire was used to develop and parameterize the model. The study found that in the steep slopes of the area, a crop-dairy goat system with extensive use of grass and multipurpose trees (MPTs) would do better than the traditional vegetable gardening with the EA goat production system. The crop-dairy goat system was superior both in the basic and in a climate change scenario since the yield variation of the grass and MPTs system was less affected compared to vegetable crops due to more tree cover and the use of perennial grasses. However, the goat milk production in the area was constrained by inadequate feeding and lack of an appropriate breeding program. Hence, farmers should enhance goat milk production by supplementing with more concentrate feed and by implementing goat-breeding principles. Moreover, policy measures to promote such a development are briefly discussed.

Typologies and spatialization of agricultural production systems in Rondônia, Brazil: linking land use, socioeconomics and territorial configuration.

The current Amazon landscape consists of heterogeneous mosaics formed by interactions between the original forest and productive activities. Recognizing and quantifying the characteristics of these landscapes is essential for understanding agricultural production chains, assessing the impact of policies, and in planning future actions. Our main objective was to construct the regionalization of agricultural production for Rondônia State (Brazilian Amazon) at the municipal level. We adopted a decision tree approach, using land use maps derived from remote sensing data (PRODES and TerraClass) combined with socioeconomic data. The decision trees allowed us to allocate municipalities to one of five agricultural production systems: (i) coexistence of livestock production and intensive agriculture; (ii) semi-intensive beef and milk production; (iii) semi-intensive beef production; (iv) intensive beef and milk production, and; (v) intensive beef production. These production systems are, respectively, linked to mechanized agriculture (i), traditional cattle farming with low management, with (ii) or without (iii) a significant presence of dairy farming, and to more intensive livestock farming with (iv) or without (v) a significant presence of dairy farming. The municipalities and associated production systems were then characterized using a wide variety of quantitative metrics grouped into four dimensions: (i) agricultural production; (ii) economics; (iii) territorial configuration, and; (iv) social characteristics. We found that production systems linked to mechanized agriculture predominate in the south of the state, while intensive farming is mainly found in the center of the state. Semi-intensive livestock farming is mainly located close to the southwest frontier and in the north of the state, where human occupation of the territory is not fully consolidated. This distributional pattern reflects the origins of the agricultural production system of Rondônia. Moreover, the characterization of the production systems provides insights into the pattern of occupation of the Amazon and the socioeconomic consequences of continuing agricultural expansion.

Simulador de escoamento multifásico em poços de petróleo (SEMPP)

The multiphase flow occurrence in the oil and gas industry is common throughout fluid path, production, transportation and refining. The multiphase flow is defined as flow simultaneously composed of two or more phases with different properties and immiscible. An important computational tool for the design, planning and optimization production systems is multiphase flow simulation in pipelines and porous media, usually made by multiphase flow commercial simulators. The main purpose of the multiphase flow simulators is predicting pressure and temperature at any point at the production system. This work proposes the development of a multiphase flow simulator able to predict the dynamic pressure and temperature gradient in vertical, directional and horizontal wells. The prediction of pressure and temperature profiles was made by numerical integration using marching algorithm with empirical correlations and mechanistic model to predict pressure gradient. The development of this tool involved set of routines implemented through software programming Embarcadero C++ Builder® 2010 version, which allowed the creation of executable file compatible with Microsoft Windows® operating systems. The simulator validation was conduct by computational experiments and comparison the results with the PIPESIM®. In general, the developed simulator achieved excellent results compared with those obtained by PIPESIM and can be used as a tool to assist production systems development