10,359 research outputs found
Multivariate time series analysis for short-term forecasting of ground level ozone (O3) in Malaysia
The declining of air quality mostly affects the elderly, children, people with asthma,
as well as a restriction on outdoor activities. Therefore, there is an importance to
provide a statistical modelling to forecast the future values of surface layer ozone (O3)
concentration. The objectives of this study are to obtain the best multivariate time
series (MTS) model and develop an online air quality forecasting system for O3
concentration in Malaysia. The implementations of MTS model improve the recent
statistical model on air quality for short-term prediction. Ten air quality monitoring
stations situated at four (4) different types of location were selected in this study. The
first type is industrial represent by Pasir Gudang, Perai, and Nilai, second type is urban
represent by Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu, and Alor Setar. The third is suburban
located in Banting, Kangar, and Tanjung Malim, also the only background station at
Jerantut. The hourly record data from 2010 to 2017 were used to assess the
characteristics and behaviour of O3 concentration. Meanwhile, the monthly record data
of O3, particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2),
carbon monoxide (CO), temperature (T), wind speed (WS), and relative humidity (RH)
were used to examine the best MTS models. Three methods of MTS namely vector
autoregressive (VAR), vector moving average (VMA), and vector autoregressive
moving average (VARMA), has been applied in this study. Based on the performance
error, the most appropriate MTS model located in Pasir Gudang, Kota Bharu and
Kangar is VAR(1), Kuala Terengganu and Alor Setar for VAR(2), Perai and Nilai for
VAR(3), Tanjung Malim for VAR(4) and Banting for VAR(5). Only Jerantut obtained
the VMA(2) as the best model. The lowest root mean square error (RMSE) and
normalized absolute error is 0.0053 and <0.0001 which is for MTS model in Perai and
Kuala Terengganu, respectively. Meanwhile, for mean absolute error (MAE), the
lowest is in Banting and Jerantut at 0.0013. The online air quality forecasting system
for O3 was successfully developed based on the best MTS models to represent each
monitoring station
Enhanced Artificial Bee Colony, Square Root Raised Cosine Precoding, and Mu law Compandor for Optimization of MIMO-OFDM System
The efficiency and high-speed data transfer rate of the communication system are increased based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). The existing research in OFDM involves applying optimization methods to improve the system's efficiency. The high Peak Average Power Ratio (PAPR) value is a major limitation in the OFDM system, and this provides distortion due to the non-linear High-Power Amplifier (HPA). Local optima trap and lower convergence are two main limitations in existing optimization methods. This research proposes Enhanced Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimization method with a precoding-compandor technique to increase the efficiency of the OFDM system. Enhanced ABC method is applied with Boltzmann search to increase the exploitation capacity of the optimization efficiency. The selective mapping technique is applied to transform the candidate signal in the system. The ABC method increases exploration, and Boltzmann search increases exploitation. The enhanced ABC method increases the exploitation process that helps to overcome local optima traps and lower convergence. Square Root Raised Cosine (SRRC) precoding and Mu law compandor techniques were applied to reduce the PAPR. The Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) technique is applied for domain conversion in the OFDM system. The proposed method has a convergence rate of 6.4069, and the existing one has a 6.4033 convergence rate. The enhanced ABC method provides higher efficiency in the MIMO-OFDM system regarding Symbol Error Rate (SER), PAPR, and Bit Error Rate (BER)
Mechanical properties of the concrete containing porcelain waste as sand
The demand of concrete have been increases on a daily bases which consume a lot of natural resource such as sand and gravel, there is an immediate need for finding suitable alternative which can be used to replace sand partially with another materials with high propor-tion . Ceramic waste is one of the strongest research areas that include the activity of replacement in all the sides of construction materi-als. This research aims to improve the performance of concrete using ceramic waste, and demonstrate the performance of mechanical properties to the concrete with partial replacement of sand by using waste porcelain. For these, we analyzed the mechanical properties of the concrete such as compressive strength, split tensile and flexural strength, the specimen were measured based on 10% ,20% ,30% ,40%, and 50% weight ratio of replace sand with waste porcelain at different time under water for 7 days , 28 days , 60 days . The optimum consideration were given to mechanical properties of the concrete, at different amount of ceramic waste as sand
Causative factors of construction and demolition waste generation in Iraq Construction Industry
The construction industry has hurt the environment from the waste generated during
construction activities. Thus, it calls for serious measures to determine the causative
factors of construction waste generated. There are limited studies on factors causing
construction, and demolition (C&D) waste generation, and these limited studies only
focused on the quantification of construction waste. This study took the opportunity to
identify the causative factors for the C&D waste generation and also to determine the
risk level of each causal factor, and the most important minimization methods to
avoiding generating waste. This study was carried out based on the quantitative
approach. A total of 39 factors that causes construction waste generation that has been
identified from the literature review were considered which were then clustered into 4
groups. Improved questionnaire surveys by 38 construction experts (consultants,
contractors and clients) during the pilot study. The actual survey was conducted with
a total of 380 questionnaires, received with a response rate of 83.3%. Data analysis
was performed using SPSS software. Ranking analysis using the mean score approach
found the five most significant causative factors which are poor site management, poor
planning, lack of experience, rework and poor controlling. The result also indicated
that the majority of the identified factors having a high-risk level, in addition, the better
minimization method is environmental awareness. A structural model was developed
based on the 4 groups of causative factors using the Partial Least Squared-Structural
Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. It was found that the model fits due to the
goodness of fit (GOF ≥ 0.36= 0.658, substantial). Based on the outcome of this study,
39 factors were relevant to the generation of construction and demolition waste in Iraq.
These groups of factors should be avoided during construction works to reduce the
waste generated. The findings of this study are helpful to authorities and stakeholders
in formulating laws and regulations. Furthermore, it provides opportunities for future
researchers to conduct additional research’s on the factors that contribute to
construction waste generation
Signatures of a globally optimal searching strategy in the three-dimensional foraging flights of bumblebees
Simulated annealing is a powerful stochastic search algorithm for locating a global maximum that is hidden among many poorer local maxima in a search space. It is frequently implemented in computers working on complex optimization problems but until now has not been directly observed in nature as a searching strategy adopted by foraging animals. We analysed high-speed video recordings of the three-dimensional searching flights of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) made in the presence of large or small artificial flowers within a 0.5 m3 enclosed arena. Analyses of the three-dimensional flight patterns in both conditions reveal signatures of simulated annealing searches. After leaving a flower, bees tend to scan back-and forth past that flower before making prospecting flights (loops), whose length increases over time. The search pattern becomes gradually more expansive and culminates when another rewarding flower is found. Bees then scan back and forth in the vicinity of the newly discovered flower and the process repeats. This looping search pattern, in which flight step lengths are typically power-law distributed, provides a relatively simple yet highly efficient strategy for pollinators such as bees to find best quality resources in complex environments made of multiple ephemeral feeding sites with nutritionally variable rewards
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