Multicriteria sustainability evaluation of transport networks for selected European countries

As an essential economic activity, transportation has complex interactions with the environment and society. Since the concept of sustainable development has become one of the top priorities for nations, there has been a growing interest in evaluating the performance of transport systems with respect to sustainability issues. The main purpose of this study is to introduce a decision making framework to assess the sustainability of the transport networks in a multidimensional setting and a technique to identify non-compromise alternatives. We also propose an elucidation technique to identify according to which criteria a system needs to be improved and how much improvement is required to attain a certain level of sustainability. The proposed methods are applied to a set of selected European countries within a case study

A Buffer Stocks Model for Stabilizing Price of Staple Food with Considering the Expectation of Non Speculative Wholesaler

This paper is a study of price stabilization in the staple food distribution system. All stakeholders experience market risks due to some possibility causes of price volatility. Many models of price stabilization had been developed by employing several approaches such as floor-ceiling prices, buffer funds, export or import taxes, and subsidies. In the previous researches, the models were expanded to increase the purchasing price for producer and decrease the selling price for consumer. Therefore, the policy can influence the losses for non-speculative wholesaler that is reflected by the descending of selling quantity and ascending of the stocks. The objective of this model is not only to keep the expectation of both producer and consumer, but also to protect non-speculative wholesaler from the undesirable result of the stabilization policy. A nonlinear programming model was addressed to determine the instruments of intervention program. Moreover, the result shows that the wholesaler behavior affects the intervention costs. Index Terms Buffer stocks, Price stabilization, Nonlinear programming, Wholesaler behavior

Improving the performance of cascade correlation neural networks on multimodal functions

Intrinsic qualities of the cascade correlation algorithm make it a popular choice for many researchers wishing to utilize neural networks. Problems arise when the outputs required are highly multimodal over the input domain. The mean squared error of the approximation increases significantly as the number of modes increases. By applying ensembling and early stopping, we show that this error can be reduced by a factor of three. We also present a new technique based on subdivision that we call patchworking. When used in combination with early stopping and ensembling the mean improvement in error is over 10 in some cases

Capacity Integration into a Microgrid, a Tool for Electrical Energy Supply Cost Reduction in Nigeria- Covenant University as a Case Study

The cost implication of running a cluster of stand-alone power generating plants was investigated using the generating capacities of the generators and consumption (load) profile obtained from a campus based substation. Analysis of the results revealed a lot of unused available capacity within the system which invariably increases the operating cost of power generation within the campus. Integrating the power generators into a microgrid was suggested where there will be a common pool of energy sources and all loads attached to the network. The proposed network model seeks to reduce power plant engagement by integrating the generating power plants into a microgrid system. To overcome the challenge of synchronization in the AC platform as the power generators are dissimilar, the network is designed to operate as a DC microgrid where the AC generating plants and loads will be interfaced by converters (rectifiers) and inverters respectively. This method reduced the unused capacity being wasted by reducing power plant engagement and consequently reducing the running cost of power generation in the campus

Optimizing Hydroelectric Power Generation: The Case of Shiroro Dam

Abstract—Hydroelectric power, one of the most important sources of mass generation of electric power, is a renewable source of energy. The amount of electricity that can be produced by a hydro-electricity generating system depends on systemic variables viz; plant efficiency, volumetric water flow through the turbine and the head of the water from the water surface to the turbine. The availability of the Water in the reservoir is a function of some hydrological variables principal among which are rainfall, reservoir inflows and evaporation. Understanding the dynamics of these variables, and the correlation between them are core to proper planning and management of a hydroelectric power station. In this Study, simple mathematical methods that include linear programming and statistical analysis based on simulation techniques were used to evaluate vital parameters based on the hydrologic data obtained from the Hydrologic Units of the Shiroro Power Stations in Nigeria. The overall aim of the study is to idealize power generation at Shiroro dam in and out of rain season so as to ensure optimum generation of electricity all year round in order to achieve energy sufficiency in Nigeria

Experimental investigation of heat transfer effectiveness on finned-tube thermoacoustic heat exchanger

Heat exchangers are some of the most important parts in thermoacoustic devices. In an oscillatory flow condition, the flow and temperature fields around the heat exchangers can be quite complex and it may significantly affect their heat transfer behaviour. As a result, one cannot directly apply the heat transfer correlations for a steady flow to the design of heat exchangers operating in oscillatory flow conditions. However, the fundamental knowledge of heat transfer in oscillatory flow is still not well established. The aim of the current work is to establish the heat transfer correlation for a few selected finned-tube heat exchangers, by measuring the heat transfer from the heat exchangers to the oscillatory flow in a range of operating conditions. Among the main parameters considered are fin spacing, fin length, thermal penetration depth, and gas displacement amplitude, and their effect on the thermal performance of heat exchangers. The results are presented in term of heat transfer effectiveness, which is the ratio of actual heat transfer rate to the maximum possible heat transfer rate. The correlations are proposed between the heat transfer effectiveness and the ratios of the fin length to the displacement amplitude and the fin spacing to the thermal penetration depth. The uncertainties associated with all the measurement data are also considered

The experimental and numerical approach of two-phase flows by wall jets on rough beds in open channel flow

YesThis paper presents the results of investigations carried out to study the effect of horizontal wall jets on a fixed rough bed in an open channel. The study used both numerical and experimental approaches. The numerical and experimental studies are compared for validation. The main objective of this study is to understand the effect of wall jets on a horizontal fixed rough bed in an open channel. The experimental study investigated the effect of wall jets on a fixed horizontal bed, with a known roughness in an open channel flume. A sid-looking Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry (ADV) was used to measure the velocity profile of the flow at different flow zones. The wave monitor was used to measure the free surface during the experiments. Computational fluid dynamics CFD simulations were conducted in a rectangular channel to compare with the laboratory tests using the volume of fluid VOF multiphase method and K- ࢿ model. The two phase (water and air) was used in this study. Computer simulations for the model were used to predict the fluid horizontal velocity (u) revealing the characteristics of the wall jet over different flow zones (developing, fully developed and recovering zones). The results showed that the velocity profiles distribution in the stream wise direction in the channel were reasonable. The reverse velocity was close to the wall jet and the maximum reverse velocity was observed near the water surface. Also the results showed that the depression was close to the wall jet. The agreement between the results obtained from the numerical and the experimental data were reasonable

Liver CT enhancement using Fractional Differentiation and Integration

In this paper, a digital image filter is proposed to enhance the Liver CT image for improving the classification of tumors area in an infected Liver. The enhancement process is based on improving the main features within the image by utilizing the Fractional Differential and Integral in the wavelet sub-bands of an image. After enhancement, different features were extracted such as GLCM, GRLM, and LBP, among others. Then, the areas/cells are classified into tumor or non-tumor, using different models of classifiers to compare our proposed model with the original image and various established filters. Each image is divided into 15x15 non-overlapping blocks, to extract the desired features. The SVM, Random Forest, J48 and Simple Cart were trained on a supplied dataset, different from the test dataset. Finally, the block cells are identified whether they are classified as tumor or not. Our approach is validated on a group of patients’ CT liver tumor datasets. The experiment results demonstrated the efficiency of enhancement in the proposed technique