Prevention of Marine Life Ingression into the Sea Water Intake Systems of Power Plants Using Few Innovative Mechanical Solutions

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

The Variation of Total Suspended Sediments Due to the Change in Sea Water Depth, Tidal Phase and Elevation of Sea Water Sample Collection in Khor Sabiya Inlet of Arabian Gulf, Kuwait

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Blind Deconvolution of Ultrasonic Signals Using High-Order Spectral Analysis and Wavelets

Defect detection by ultrasonic method is limited by the pulse width. Resolution can be improved through a deconvolution process with a priori information of the pulse or by its estimation. In this paper a regularization of the Wiener filter using wavelet shrinkage is presented for the estimation of the reflectivity function. The final result shows an improved signal to noise ratio with better axial resolution.Comment: 8 pages, CIARP 2005, LNCS 377

Exploration of adolescent sexuality and pregnancy in Sri Lanka : A quantitative approach.

Rigorous research into the patterns and determinants of adolescent pregnancy in Sri Lanka is scarce. Compared to many Western populations and other South Asian countries, levels of adolescent pregnancy are low in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, anecdotal evidence indicates that pregnancies outside of marriage are stigmatized among large sections of the population and that unwanted adolescent pregnancies, illegal abortions and suicides linked to adolescent pregnancy are a concern. Evidence shows low levels of knowledge and restricted access to contraception for adolescents in Sri Lanka. There is a need for more reliable data on adolescent sexuality and pregnancy encompassing a wider range of views in order to shape a culturally appropriate policy and practice response to meeting the reproductive health needs of Sri Lankan adolescents. To understand the context and patterns of adolescent pregnancy and sexual behaviour in a district in Sri Lanka. Population based questionnaire surveys of random samples of pregnant adolescents (n=450, interviewer-administered), their partners (n=150, interviewer-administered) and school going adolescents (n=2,020, self-completion). Descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed for each sample separately, followed by an integration of the data across the three data sources. Out of the 450 pregnant adolescents, 409 (91%) were in their first pregnancy. From this 409; 121(30%) were 18 years old. 263 (64%) pregnant adolescents reported that they had planned their pregnancies and 146 (36%) had not planned. Among the 150 partners, 100 (67%) reported they had planned the pregnancy and 50 (33%) had not planned the pregnancy. Among the 2,020 school adolescents (521 boys and 1,499 girls), just 1.5% of the girls and 8.8% of the boys reported experience of a sexual relationship, and only 0.3% of girls and 5.7% of boys had experienced an intimate sexual relationship.Adolescent pregnancies, whether planned or unplanned, were found to be largely welcomed, and adolescent pregnant girls were living within stable and supportive family environments. Pregnant adolescents parents' low education level, parents having married earlier than 18 years, and pregnant adolescents' siblings having children were more apparent compared to the school adolescent girls hinting that pregnant adolescents are from a subculture within which early childbearing is the norm. Findings confirm that pre-marital adolescent sexual activity was not generally condoned and remains rare. Relationships are predominantly monogamous. Gender difference in sexual activity exists. Reproductive health knowledge was very low across the samples and requires attention. Although the majority of pregnancies were planned and welcomed, given the inter-generational consequences of early childbearing, policy makers must find ways to tackle the structural and cultural factors that hamper a shift towards later childbearing among certain sections of the population. A proper collaboration between the education, health and community action can harness a long-term sustainable adolescent risk reduction and adolescent development. The difference of the age of consent (16 years) and the legal age of marriage (18 years) require policy debate

Modeling studies on the behavior of single and double rubble mound breakwaters using genetic programming tool

Experimental investigation on wave transmission, reflection and dissipation characteristics of rubble mound breakwater models are time consuming and expensive. However, such studies are required for designing the rubble mound breakwaters for marine structures in an optimal condition. In order to overcome such problems many researchers used various soft computing techniques such as Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Interference System (ANFIS), Genetic Programming (GP), Support Vector Machine (SVM) etc, in order to predict the design factors in the field of coastal engineering. The current work proposes Genetic Programming (GP) as a modeling tool to evolve mathematical models for the behavior of single and double breakwaters. Based on the detailed experimental data, GP models were performed to predict the reflected wave height (Hr), wave height on the breakwater (H5) and transmitted wave height (Ht) by considering with and without trigonometric effects of those breakwaters. The quality of predictability of the present model is measured by the statistical parameter, RMSE (Root Mean Square Error). Since the waves were more complex in nature, it is very essential in considering the trigonometric function’s effect in the modeling aspects. It is evident that, the GP model accurately described the non linear complex effects

3-D deconvolution of hyper-spectral astronomical data

In this paper we present a general forward fitting method for multichannel image restoration based on regularized chi2. We introduce separable regularizations that account for the dynamic of the model and take advantage of the continuities present in the data, leaving only two hyper-parameters to tune. We illustrate a practical implementation of this method in the context of host galaxy subtraction for the Nearby SuperNova factory. We show that the image restoration obtained fulfills the stringent requirements on bias and photometricity needed by this program. The reconstruction yields sub-percent integrated residuals in all the synthetic filters considered both on real and simulated data. Even though our implementation is tied to the SNfactory data, the method translates to any hyper-spectral data. As such, it is of direct relevance to several new generation instruments like MUSE. Also, this technique could be applied to multi-band astronomical imaging for which image reconstruction is important, for example to increase image resolution for weak lensing surveys.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Subareal wave pressures, layer thicknesses, run-up and run-down velocity on sea walls

299-309Wave pressures, layer thickness, run-up and run-down velocities were measured on the splash/subareal zone (the part of the seawall which is partially in water during run up and partially in the air during run down) of plane seawalls for a wide range of hydrodynamic parameters and seawall slopes. The complete wave breaking range (spilling, plunging, collapsing and surging) is covered in the study. The maximum wave pressure in the subareal region can be as high as 1.2 times the static pressure due to water column equal to the incident wave height. The maximum wave pressure at any point is higher than the water pressure induced by the layer thickness due to the dynamic contribution of the flowing water on the seawall. The maximum run up and run down velocity can be as high as 25 times the maximum horizontal water particle velocity in deep water. The run-down velocity is found to be higher than the run-up velocity for the same input condition. Using the measured data, empirical formulae are proposed to predict the subareal wave pressures, layer thicknesses, and run-up and run-down velocities. The proposed formulae incorporate the surf similarity parameter and relative elevation of the location on the subareal region of the seawall. The empirical equations are simple, reliable and hence can be used for the optimal design of plane seawalls