Some statistical methods for dimension reduction

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityThe aim of the work in this thesis is to carry out dimension reduction (DR) for high dimensional (HD) data by using statistical methods for variable selection, feature extraction and a combination of the two. In Chapter 2, the DR is carried out through robust feature extraction. Robust canonical correlation (RCCA) methods have been proposed. In the correlation matrix of canonical correlation analysis (CCA), we suggest that the Pearson correlation should be substituted by robust correlation measures in order to obtain robust correlation matrices. These matrices have been employed for producing RCCA. Moreover, the classical covariance matrix has been substituted by robust estimators for multivariate location and dispersion in order to get RCCA. In Chapter 3 and 4, the DR is carried out by combining the ideas of variable selection using regularisation methods with feature extraction, through the minimum average variance estimator (MAVE) and single index quantile regression (SIQ) methods, respectively. In particular, we extend the sparse MAVE (SMAVE) reported in (Wang and Yin, 2008) by combining the MAVE loss function with different regularisation penalties in Chapter 3. An extension of the SIQ of Wu et al. (2010) by considering different regularisation penalties is proposed in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the DR is done through variable selection under Bayesian framework. A flexible Bayesian framework for regularisation in quantile regression (QR) model has been proposed. This work is different from Bayesian Lasso quantile regression (BLQR), employing the asymmetric Laplace error distribution (ALD). The error distribution is assumed to be an infinite mixture of Gaussian (IMG) densities

Enhancement of Pavement Condition and Its Impact on Pavement Sustainability: Environmental and Economic Assessments

The cost saving regarding vehicles operation, travel time and road maintenance has one eye-catching benefit via increasing pavement sustainability through maintaining the material sources and reducing the emissions of gases resulted from the processing of derivative products. Furthermore, the rate of increase of traffic on unpaved road is considered as a strong indicator to construct paved roads over this area.  In the present paper, the Nasiriya-Abu Ghar road was studied. It is one of the important unpaved roads. Its importance lies in the transport of construction materials from Abu Ghar quarries to the near provinces in Iraq, such as Dhi Qar Province. Abu Ghar quarries are considered as one of the most important quarries because it contains different construction materials such as gravel, limestone and sand. These materials have high engineering properties. Thus, the absence of a paved road linking Abu Ghar quarries with the surrounding areas, especially the province of Dhi Qar, encouraged to conduct a technical and economic feasibility study to highlight it and to help the decision-makers to implement the project. The present study contributes in statement of the economic and environmental feasibility of the construction of a new suggested road over the old unpaved one. The study depends on the hypothesis that the old road has a bad condition while the new one is an asphaltic concrete pavement with a good condition. The manual counting method of traffic volume was used from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm for 7 days to determine the peak hour volume and average daily traffic. Road's construction and maintenance costs were estimated. Saving in the road user costs for both existing (old) and new-suggested roads were calculated to be considered as benefits. The economic study is achieved by comparing the discounted total road costs and their benefits to the basic year (starting year of the project). In the present study, the adopted discount rate is 8%. To find the economic feasibility, some criteria were tested. These criteria are: Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit–Cost Ratio (B/C) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). The results show that NPV has a positive value equals to 40,269,371 US$, which means that benefits are greater than costs. Furthermore, B/C ratio was 2.54; comparing with a value of 1.0, which is encouraging. Finally, the IRR was located between discount rates of 20% and 25 %, with a value of 22.9% which is higher than 8% "the recommended in the road projects". Keywords: Pavement Condition, Road User Costs, Economic Feasibility, Benefit –Cost Ratio (B/C), Pavement Sustainability

Design and Performance of Adaptive Antenna System in LTE 3GPP Transceivers Based Fourier Signals in ITU Channels

3G LTE is next generation step in mobile communications with the promise of peak download rates of at least 100 Mbit/s and upload rates 50 Mbit/s. The evolved version of Long Term Evolution is LTE-Advanced which is being developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE-Advanced will meet or go beyond the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the fourth generation (4G) radio communication standard. In this paper, we investigate the performance of Adaptive Antenna System in the LTE 3GPP Transceivers. Adaptive Antenna System (AAS) has been developed to adaptively correct antenna impedance mismatch for the LTE 3GPP Transceivers. (AAS)  has been deployed at the receiver module to reduce the fading effects caused by proposed channels model. (AAS) uses various beamforming techniques to focus the wireless beam between the base station and the subscriber station. In this work, the transmitter (SS) and receiver (BS) are fixed and AAS installed at the receiver is used to direct the main beam towards the desired LOS signal and nulls to the multipath signals. Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm is used. It has been proved through MATLAB simulations that the performance of the system significantly improves by AAS in  International Telecommunication Union (ITU) channels , where beamforming is implemented in the direction of desired user. The performance of the system more increases by increasing the number of antennas at receiver. Keywords: OFDM, LTE 3GPP, LMS, ITU, AAS

Prediction of Optimal Maintenance Alternative for Iraqi Pavement Management Based on Multi-Objective Optimization Technique and Constraint Genetic Algorithm

Pavement management systems (PMS) are widely used to assist the transportation agencies to support the decision makers to select the best maintenance alternatives. To maintain a pavement network under a performance-based efficiently and cost-effectively in a long-term horizon, the local related agencies such as SCRB, mayoralty of Baghdad and Ministry of Municipalities need to provide balance multiple objectives (e.g., cost minimum, performance maximum) which are often different from the requirements of the traditional asset preservation practices. Accordingly, the main objective of this research is to develop a multi-objective optimization model to support the multi-year decision making process of the Iraqi pavement maintenance management system. Two optimization objectives are considered; maintenance cost minimization and pavement condition maximization. This study selects the flexible pavement section (R4/B-Expressway No.1) as the study area. Different field measurements are carried out to estimate the pavement performance indicators (PPI) which included; Pavement Condition Index (PCI), International Friction Index (IFI), and International Roughness Index (IRI) to formulate multi-objective optimization models to select optimal maintenance alternative for the selected case study. Keywords: pavement management system, pavement maintenance, multi-objective optimization, genetic algorithm

Implementation of Wireless Body Area Network Based Patient Monitoring System

WBAN has gained considerable attention and became an emerging technology at health services due to its wide range of utilities and important role to improve the human health. The proposed system consists of different components, Pulse rate sensor which uses the optical technology to detect the flow of blood. Temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature from the body. Peripheral hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SpO2), blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG) are measured by the nurses. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader with passive tags is used to identify the patient. Arduino UNO microcontroller is used for data processing. The patient parameters are transmitted via Bluetooth technology to the base station. The base station which is Raspberry Pi (RPi) B model 3 used to receive the collected data and acts as the web server, so the physician accesses RPi to display different information. The obtained results from different cases prove the high performance of the system and sensor nodes that are designed. The overall system operates within different environments conditions. If one sensor node is fall down, the other nodes are still operate and do not affect. Also we improve the speed of the system response. The usage of wireless communication to send the data instead of the wired one as it provides a greater mobility to the device. The cost is also minimized by utilizing the feature of sending multiple parameters via a single node. Keywords: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Patient Monitoring, Biomedical, sensors, Microcontroller, Arduino, Raspberry Pi.

Prediction the Effect of Maintenance Alternative on Pavement Performance Indicators

A road pavement continues to deteriorate under the combined actions of traffic loading and the environment. The ability of the road to satisfy the demands of traffic and the environment over its design life is known as performance. The most common indicators of pavement performance are: pavement condition index (PCI), riding quality or (IRI) and skid resistance or (IFI). Understanding the maintenance effects can benefit pavement maintenance decision-making. Accordingly, this research presents the effect of maintenance alternative on pavment performance indicators.Using the right maintenance treatment at the right time will help to get the maximum benefit and keeping the pavement performance indicator's values in a good level. Keywords: pavement performance, pavement performance indicators, maintenance alternative, multi-objective optimization

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a road improvement proposal based on sustainability Indicators: Case study Al-Nebai-Baghdad highway

Involving the sustainability assessment in the phases of road development project has become necessary to avoid unforeseen consequences. In Iraq, there is a noticeable lack of the environmental and social assessment of the development project. The economic assessment also needs to consider the project life cycle. The unavailability of validated and comprehensive methodologies of assessment is the main obstacle. Therefore, this study aims to outline a methodology of environmental, social and economic (ESE) assessment during pre-construction stages. The rehabilitation and upgrading project of Al-Nebai-Baghdad Highway is selected for this study. The ESE indicators are selected based on the available data and techniques. The needed data; traffic volume, pavement condition, and geometric design characteristics; are collected to process the engineering and the ESE assessment through aggregating several methodologies and analyse the results using thr cost-effectiveness technique. The results of the engineering assessment showed upgrading the traffic level of service to D due to adding a lane when the pavement condition was upgraded to good condition due to a new overlay. The results of the environmental assessment in terms of vehicle emission stated that the new pavement reduced the emission by1831967 tons but the emission due to widening increased by 1046100 tons. The social assessment indicated that the road casualties reduced by 38.5% but it boosted over the service life. The economical assessment demonstrated the worthiness of the project; the Net Present Value is 76,153,580$, the B/C is 3.45 and the IRR is 35.04. It can be concluded that the ESE assessment is applicable and effective in figuring out the negative and positive consequences over the service life. However, improving the data collection system can enhance the comprehensiveness of the adopted methodologies and consider more indicators

A Combined H2/Sliding Mode Controller Design for a TORA System

In this work, the control of Translational Oscillations with a Rotational Actuator (TORA) system is presented in this paper. The optimal sliding mode controller is proposed to control the two DOF underactuated mechanical system. The nonlinear coupling from the rotational to the translational motion is the main problem that faces the controller design. The H2 sliding mode controller is designed to give a better performance if only sliding mode control is used. The results illustrate that the proposed H2 sliding mode controller can achieve the stabilization of the system with the variation in system parameters and disturbance

Improving chemical, rheological and sensory properties of commercial low-fat cream by concentrate addition of whey proteins

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of whey protein concentrate (WPC) addition on the commercial low-fat cream's chemical, rheological and sensory properties. WPC was added to the low-fat cream (10% fat)   in ratios of 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0% to represent the treatments C1, C2, and C3, respectively.In addition, a fat-rich, positive control treatment (C +) with a fat percentage of 30% and a negative low-fat control treatment (C-) with a fat percentage of 10% were investigated without adding WPC. Chemical tests were carried out, including the percentage of moisture, protein, fat, carbohydrates, total acidity, and pH, as well as rheological tests that included; hardness, springiness, and Cohesiveness. Also, a sensory evaluation was conducted. The results showed a decrease in the moisture percentage of the added treatments with the increment of the added WPC quantity. Also, a decrease in the fat percentage and pH of the WPC addition treatments was observed, combined with an increment in the percentage of protein, carbohydrates, ash, and total acidity. Regarding the microbiological properties, no bacterial or mycological contamination was observed during the manufacturing and storage periods. The results also showed the improvement of rheological and sensory characteristics by increasing the percentage of WPC addition compared with the positive and negative control treatments. The present study would be helpful in the production of low-fat cream fortified with whey proteins with high nutritional value