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Modern Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems collect any available data from the systems they monitor and control. Some of the data available in modern SCADA systems include types of the data that can be used for centralized monitoring of transformers. Paper presents possible advanced analysis and reports for monitored transformer units using available SCADA data to be used for monitoring of the life of the transformer and help to schedule regular, predictive and corrective types of maintenance. Paper shows which type of data is available, and what percentage of transformers has the kind of data used for monitoring. Examples of measurement data collected are shown for representative transformers. There is an overview on tap changer position moves and its impact on transformer lifetime and servicing interval. For transformers with available temperature of winding an annualized relative ageing rate is calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A research of approaches with the purpose of the assessment of the impact of environmental regulations on the site selection for construction is presented in this paper. The approaches of the environmental air monitoring in Russia and abroad, and particularly the collection and interpretation of data are also studied. The authors obtained data archives of the environmental air monitoring. This data is interpreted using the Russian method (maximum permissible concentration) and the main foreign one (air quality index). Discrepancies in the interpretation of the environmental air monitoring data are found. In many cases, according to the Russian method, the air quality was considered acceptable but the foreign methodology recommends to limit a long-term outdoor presence of citizens from the risk groups. The deficiencies of the Russian standards in the environmental air monitoring are found and described in the paper. Improvements to the Russian methodology are also proposed by authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction cost estimation, which is normally labor-intensive and error-prone, is one of the most important works in the architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management industry during a project's lifecycle. With the development of information technology, it is expected that the efficiency and accuracy of cost estimation for tendering of building projects (TBP cost estimation for short hereafter) can be greatly improved if it can be carried out automatically based on the design results using building information modeling (BIM-based design results for short hereafter). One of the major obstacle to realize the automatic TBP cost estimation is the acquisition of the construction information (e.g. construction method, equipment), which are necessary for TBP cost estimation but often not included in the design results. This paper aims to establish an approach to identify and acquire the construction information systematically in order to facilitate the automatic TBP cost estimation based on BIM-based design results. First, the process of TBP cot estimation based on BQ method in China is introduced and the related specifications are classified. Then a typical specification for TBP cost estimation is analyzed to identify the construction information that are required in TBP cost estimation and a typical specification for the requirement on design detail fulfillment is analyzed to identify the construction information that can be obtained from the design result. Next, based on the above results, the construction information that need to be established during TBP cost estimation are highlighted and an approach to acquire them based on BIM-based design results are presented. Finally, the applicability of the approach is discussed. For simplicity, the scope for the analysis is confined to TBP cost estimation of concrete construction of reinforced concrete structures in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction cost estimation, which is normally labor-intensive and error-prone, is one of the most important works in the architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management industry during a project's lifecycle. With the development of information technology, it is expected that the efficiency and accuracy of cost estimation for tendering of building projects (TBP cost estimation for short hereafter) can be greatly improved if it can be carried out automatically based on the design results using building information modeling (BIM-based design results for short hereafter). One of the major obstacle to realize the automatic TBP cost estimation is the acquisition of the construction information (e.g. construction method, equipment), which are necessary for TBP cost estimation but often not included in the design results. This paper aims to establish an approach to identify and acquire the construction information systematically in order to facilitate the automatic TBP cost estimation based on BIM-based design results. First, the process of TBP cot estimation based on BQ method in China is introduced and the related specifications are classified. Then a typical specification for TBP cost estimation is analyzed to identify the construction information that are required in TBP cost estimation and a typical specification for the requirement on design detail fulfillment is analyzed to identify the construction information that can be obtained from the design result. Next, based on the above results, the construction information that need to be established during TBP cost estimation are highlighted and an approach to acquire them based on BIM-based design results are presented. Finally, the applicability of the approach is discussed. For simplicity, the scope for the analysis is confined to TBP cost estimation of concrete construction of reinforced concrete structures in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication network stands as the backbone of modern transport systems and is responsible for fast and reliable information transfer between connected devices, especially in critical applications. Data collection, information transfer, information services are all based on communication technologies. Consequently, the communication quality of service (QoS) becomes crucial. In highly radio congested environment, such as dense urban areas (and especially in road junctions), the implementation and fine tuning of the communication system presents usually a certain degree of difficulty, taking into account interferences, reflections etc.. The location of antennas, radio channels, signal propagation and the transmission protocols must be optimised in order to determine the best communication network setup, inducing higher QoS. When developing communication systems designed to work in urban areas, different solutions must be chosen, depending on the specific environment. In this paper a first analysis is done for determining an optimal communication set-up solution, by comparing different signal modulation types and error rates, having in mind the test of using ZigBee protocol. Charts were plotted in order to reveal the error rate dependency against signal-to-noise ratio of the modulated signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a research framework for evaluating the relationship between motivation and owner commitment for improving the delivery performance of green building projects in the construction industry. The research framework can generate knowledge in a positivistic manner, and the quantitative methodology for planning and devising the survey method of data collection and the structural equation modelling technique of data analysis. Theoretically, the research framework can be modified or extended by other researchers for investigating the delivery performance of green building projects, while in practical terms, it will help in identifying how to increase project owners’ commitment for improving the delivery performance of green building projects in the construction industry. Finally, a research agenda is proposed towards achieving the aim of establishing empirical relationship between motivation and owner commitment for improving the delivery performance of green building projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author according to ISO13485:2003, YY / T 0287-2003 quality management system for medical device regulatory requirements, and process validation guidance document GHTF-SG3-N99-10-2004, combined with the actual implementation process in the enterprise, detailed the process and applications of process validation. Then share some the statistical methods of data collection and analysis, describe how to do Design of Experiment experiments by Minitab software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, submerged floating tunnel still stays in scientific research stage, while many submerged tunnels have been built by use of borehole-blasting method, shield method, immersed tube method and other traditional construction methods. This paper, through wide literature research and engineering data collection, analyzes construction environment limits and typical operating diseases of submerged tunnels for various traditional construction methods, and, specific to the eight typical major water areas including Taiwan Strait, Qiongzhou Strait, Bohai Strait, Bering Strait, and Messina Strait, discusses and analyzes enlightenment to floating tunnel project of existing submerged tunnel: (1) For submerged tunnels using traditional construction method, only from the point of view of construction environment limits, existing construction experience and technology have already been not suitable for 50∼87.5% of typical major water areas, technical breakthrough or innovation is required, while floating runnel will be one of the effective options for these water areas. (2) For construction of submerged tunnels in part of major water area, combination of traditional construction method+floating method will be one effective method. (3) Water leakage, lining material degradation and rebar corrosion and expansion and other diseases and specific difficulties in maintainability and durability of structure and connection components for submerged tunnels using traditional construction method will be main operating diseases for floating tunnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor productivity has a profound impact on construction management. The accurate prediction of productivity is essential to effectively plan operations that depend on time and cost and is critical for the success of a construction project for both the contractor and the owner. However, predicting productivity of operations is challenging due to the multiple characteristics of workers, the interrelationships between workers, and the site conditions that impact the performance of crews and affect project goals. This paper proposes a methodology to quantify the factors that affect productivity in masonry construction. We have considered three factors: compatibility, suitability, and craft. Standardized data-collection techniques are used to consolidate data from three masonry sites and mathematically define a productivity function that relates workers characteristics and crews with site conditions. The function, increasing in its arguments, determines the factors that most affect masonry productivity and the factor's effects. The most interesting part is to be able to identify the convexity properties of this function because its theoretical interpretation will have implications on the impact of the superintendent's decisions when forming crews. The proposed mathematical function can enable superintendents to better plan, schedule, and manage masonry crews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to present problems concerning the exploitation and maintenance of irrigation facilities in an operating local irrigation system in western Romania. The data were collected from a hydroameliorative complex arrangement located in Aranca plain, Timis County, Romania. Irrigation facilities are relatively new and overlaps with Aranca drainage system, compartment IV. The main aspect taken into consideration is the application of irrigation analyzing the irrigation uniformity for different types of modern sprinkler irrigation systems in operation, respectively linear sprinkler irrigation installations and pivot sprinkler irrigation installations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and rapid urbanization have become a hot issue in the contemporary urban development process. City resources’ over-concentration and the environmental problems bring new pressure to urban infrastructure. So the study of green infrastructure planning under the background of eco-city is imminent. From the medium scale of green community, the ecological infrastructure planning is the way of constructing urban ecological grid and its scope of application most focus on metropolis, cities and towns. Compared to large scale, it will has more research significance as its ecological infrastructure carrier distribution is more scattered and random causing from the urban land's fragmentation. The paper studies the multi-functional connotation and four planning principles of ecological infrastructure through the research methods of data collection, case analysis and field research starting from the medium scale of city. The ecological infrastructure planning of green block scale is multi-function and multi-dimensional. In the process of green infrastructure planning, it should be based on the planning principles of multi-disciplinary, multi-level, integrity and sustainability. Finally the article based on the example of Philadelphia ecological storm water infrastructure planning successfully build and implement a Philadelphia's green stormwater infrastructure grid and improve the ecological outlook through the measure of the combination of different groups in the city, the incentive policy guidance, the multidisciplinary planning system and putting forward the concept of measuring quantify of ecological infrastructure - “Greened Acre”. Ecological infrastructure planning method is no longer constrained by the ecological protection but tend to be more functional and multi-dimensional in order to solving complex problems in city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speed-density relations play a major role in dynamic macroscopic modeling. These relations are also used for estimating the other important macroscopic relations. This paper makes an attempt to understand the effect of field data collection procedures on the estimated model parameters. The issues in getting appropriate speed-density data with respect to heterogeneous traffic stream are discussed using the field observations. Greenshields linear speed-density model has been utilized for understanding the issues related to the parameter estimation. From the results, the jam density corresponding to the speed-density model estimated based on the data obtained using conventional methodologies is way lower than the jam density that can be accommodated by the road section. An approach proposed by Cassidy for identifying suitable observation periods was found to be useful in getting a relatively better speed-density model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how the TRIZ concept of Ideality was used to inform the development and deployment of a ‘free-to-use’ TRIZ database of scientific and physical effects. The TRIZ ‘Time and Scale’ framework (also known as Nine Boxes, Nine Windows or System Operator) is used to structure the narrative based on three phases: Pre-Development, Development and Post-Development. In the Pre-Development phase it was recognized that most comprehensive effects databases tend to be commercial products providing excellent content but at a price presenting a potential barrier to their use, especially by those new to TRIZ. The few ‘free-to-use’ effects databases that were available tended to be less comprehensive than the best of their commercial rivals. This led to an Ideal Outcome (or Ideal Final Result) for the effects database: “delivery of complete and perfect results to any user without restriction or cost”. This highlighted a contradiction between the performance of the system (primarily represented by the quality and quantity of the results it produces) and the cost of delivery (primarily represented by the cost of developing the database infrastructure and collecting and collating the database content). As the project moved into the Development Phase this contradiction was tackled using a three-pronged Ideality-based strategy of: focus on delivering only the essential Benefits, reduction of Harms that detract from the essential Benefits and finally reduction of Costs by using existing and/or low-cost resources. Focusing on essential Benefits resulted in the selection of a simple database design that minimised the data required to populate the database. The principle Harm (where Harm is an output that is not useful) considered was that of an inaccuracy in the results delivered to the User. A taxonomy of database inaccuracies was compiled and each identified inaccuracy type considered in terms of its influence on the Ideality of the database system. This revealed, somewhat surprisingly, that inaccuracies were not only inevitable but were also not critical to the overall usefulness of the system. The principle resources used for cost reduction were: open-source database development tools, available internet resources and people. The Post-Development Phase was triggered in October 2011 with the deployment of the database on the Oxford Creativity website ( www.triz.co.uk ). The principle activity since that time has been a series of content updates. In addition consideration has been given (somewhat belatedly) to other aspects of the Post-Development column of the Nine Box model. The User's perception of Ideality has shifted from “Can I have more results” to “There are a lot of suggestions here – can they be filtered in some way?” This is a useful reminder that (in common with most systems) the database falls short of delivering the Ideal Outcome of complete and perfect results. Some candidate routes towards the realization of this Ideal are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-improvement tools aim at identifying the most critical areas of a product life cycle, thanks to eco-assessment techniques like LCA. The designer is then encouraged to intervene by modifying the product or the manufacturing process characteristics. However, even a slight change of the product life cycle can seriously affect other parts of the cycle itself. Usually, this influences are hard to predict. Only an expert of LCA could effectively anticipate the major repercussions of a life cycle alteration. However, with the introduction of abridged aLCA, life cycle analysis has become a tool for the common designer, which usually doesn’t have the expertise to identify the great number of interdependences involved. In these cases, the designer's efforts in reducing product environmental impacts can be ineffective or even counterproductive. This paper proposes a method and tool, called contradiction prompter, which integrates TRIZ in Life Cycle Assessment. Once environmental criticalities are defined by LCA, a set of guidelines are suggested to intervene on the product. The contradiction prompter collects a set of predefined typical contradictions that can arise when adopting a specific guideline. This can limit the typical trial and error approach and reduce the risk of ineffective redesigns. The framework has been clarified through an exemplary case study, dealing with the redesign of a moped wheel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An appropriate monitoring and control system of the HVAC system is necessary to reduce its energy consumption on the premise of ensure the users’ comfort. A suite of wireless data acquisition system for HVAC system have been developed in this paper to resolve the cabling difficulties existing in the installation process of the sensors distributed at the end of the HVAC system. The acquisition system utilized a low-power and high-performance stm32f103RBT6 microcontroller as the MCU and a wireless transceiver module nRF24L01 and an Ethernet transceiver module W5100 to transfer data. Then the data will be stored in the SQL database and can be observed online. The working process and the practical applications of the acquisition system have been introduced. Finally an acquisition experiment based on the water system of an actual air conditioning system is conducted and the result shows that the wireless data acquisition system works stably and can overcome the difficulties in cabling and signal attenuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, 20 to 40% of water is being wasted due to poor infrastructure, consumer negligence and lack of proper resource management. Effective and efficient management of water resources requires a holistic approach considering all the stages of water usage, which includes the application of ICT technologies that are capable of transmitting and analysing water data to deliver actionable insights to end-users. A primary requirement for ICT-based water innovations is the ability to collect and process water data from disparate locations. In this paper, we present a cloud-based cross-site data collection system, which is being developed as part of an EU funded research project named Waternomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply systems in the United States connect raw water sources to hundreds of millions of water consumers through humongous infrastructure that include approximately one million miles of buried water mains and service connections and thousands of treatment facilities and appurtenances. This enormous set-up is currently operated by more than 170,000 public water systems. Sustainability of the water supply system faces several imminent challenges such as: 1) increasing water main breaks, 2) decreasing fresh water resources, 3) untraceable non-revenue water use, and 4) increasing water demands. However, current water supply management practices are not capable of providing fundamental solutions to the issues identified above. Big Data is a new technical concept to collect massive amounts of relevant data from sensors installed to monitor structural condition, usage, and system performance. This Big Data concept can be realized by deploying Internet of Things (IoT) technology throughout the water supply infrastructure and consumers’ usage. This paper presents a schematic development of IoT application for Big Data collection through a myriad of water clients. The scheme consists of downstream and upstream data collection using Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technologies connecting to IoT. Downstream data shall provide water usage and performance data to clients and upstream data is similar to traditional SCADA and Automated Meter Reading (AMR) systems. Ultimately, all data will be converged to build a Big Data collection system where data mining identifies 1) local and system performances including pressure and flow, 2) non-revenue and illegitimate water consumption, and 3) locations and quantity of water breaks and water losses. The goal of this development is to enable both utilities and consumers to proactively manage their water usage and achieve higher levels of sustainability in water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enhanced commitment to achieving gender equality, women's rights and women's empowerment in the post-2015 development framework is important. Gender data gaps exist because gender biases have inhibited and altered data collection resulting in policy formation that has insufficiently addressed gender issues. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is an effective statistical tool used to estimate correlational relations using limited input data confined to a hypothetical, researcher-specified framework of relationship. This paper highlights the use of SEM to evaluate progress on gender equality and women's empowerment during the period of the first 1,000 days of life (from pregnancy through 2 years of age for infants). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enhanced commitment to achieving gender equality, women's rights and women's empowerment in the post-2015 development framework is important. Gender data gaps exist because gender biases have inhibited and altered data collection resulting in policy formation that has insufficiently addressed gender issues. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is an effective statistical tool used to estimate correlational relations using limited input data confined to a hypothetical, researcherspecified framework of relationship. This paper highlights the use of SEM to evaluate progress on gender equality and women's empowerment during the period of the first 1,000 days of life (from pregnancy through 2 years of age for infants). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the reactive nature of disaster relief efforts, the response time of NGO's and humanitarian organizations is critical. Organizations cannot predict the next crisis, nor can they build a catch all solution for any future problem. Consequently, the quicker a system is in place following a crisis, the more data can be collected to improve the relief efforts. Data is vital in assessing the severity of a crisis, informing organizations on how to prepare or give aid, and informing the community about an event. Mobile phones in general, and smartphones in particular, are an ideal tool for the collection of this valuable data. The development effort required to create smartphone applications is usually substantial. There are technical barriers to entry, and usually lengthy development times. Because of this, traditional mobile application development has been limited in its ability to help disaster relief. The Punya framework, presented in this paper, drastically shortens the development time required for Android applications, while supporting the communication and sensor features needed to acquire data during a crisis scenario. Punya's advanced sensor functionality, as well as its data capture and reporting components, allow organizations to build mobile applications quickly that can gather both user and context data as well as visualize results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision to work abroad is influenced from a great number of factors, including cultural, social and psychological ones, which are also critical for a successful adjustment to the host country. The decision should be the outcome of a very delicate decision-making process, which, however, is currently not available as both literature and practice clearly indicate. This paper attempts to identify and analyze those factors with an impact on the selection of the country to work abroad in the case of engineers. An extensive literature review revealed all the factors related to the expatriation and relocation issues of an expatriate focusing rather on the socio-cultural and personal dimensions, than those of the working environment and job satisfaction, which are related to the job's description. Based on the findings of the literature review an international questionnaire survey for engineers was prepared and conducted aiming at: a) evaluating these factors, in terms of importance for the potential expatriate and b) deciding on their use in a formal methodology for the selection of a country to work abroad. The collected data were statistically analyzed and the correlations between the factors were investigated to identify those among them that are critical to include in a formal country selection process. A major finding of this research is that the field's literature highlights a different set of critical factors compared to those indicated by the questionnaire survey. Furthermore, a second important finding is that the critical factors present very loose correlations, which indicates that any model aiming at supporting the decision-making process for selecting the country to work abroad should introduce them very carefully. The two findings lead to the conclusion that a proper selection of the factors to incorporate into a country selection method process is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The actual level of water demand is the driving force behind the hydraulic dynamics in water distribution systems. Consequently, it is crucial to estimate it as accurately as possible in order to result in reliable simulation models. In this paper, a copula-based multivariate analysis has been proposed and used for demand prediction for given return period. The analysis is applied to water consumption data collected in the water distribution network of Palermo (Italy). The approach showed to produce consisted demand patterns and to be a powerful tool to be coupled with water distribution network models for design or analysis problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most forecasting techniques for repetitive construction operations use deterministic approaches or stochastic approaches that are based on historical data of similar past projects. Utilizing such data impacts the accuracy of simulation results as it does not account for the unique characteristics of the construction operation being considered. This paper presents an automated tool for earthmoving operations that performs adaptive Discrete Event Simulation (DES) through utilizing actual captured data. Adaptation is curried out utilizing actual captured data from earthmoving operations to forecast productivity and consequently time and cost of these operations. The data was captured by GPS mounted on earthmoving hauling trucks then transferred wirelessly to a central server. A specially designed relational database was developed to store the captured data in addition to the characteristics of the earthmoving operation. The captured data implicitly accounts for factors that give rise to uncertainty such as weather. The durations captured for loading, hauling, dumping and returning activities are used to generate representative Probability Distribution Functions (PDF). DES is used to forecast fleet productivity and consequently the forecasted activity's duration and cost. In this research “StroboScope” DES engine was integrated with the relational database and Oracle Crystal Ball in standalone software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyses the static resistance, as well as the fatigue resistance, of the main section of a fast patrol boat designed and manufactured in Portugal. The ship under study is a high-speed lightweight craft that was mainly fabricated with two types of aluminium series alloys, namely the 5083-H111 and the 6082-T6 alloys, which are commonly used in shipbuilding. The structural response of the critical section of the ship was obtained using the Finite Element Method (FEM), when the structure was submitted to different loading conditions, such as the hydrodynamic and hydrostatic sea loads, the longitudinal sagging or hogging, or the loads on fuel oil tanks. Results obtained for the load cases considered showed that the Von Mises equivalent stresses do not exceed the Yield Strength of the aluminium alloys used in the manufacturing of the ship. In addition, strain gages were placed on the main ship's bulkhead, near a structural detail in its bottom, and real-time acquisition strain data was collected using a computer code routine written in LabView. The Rainflow cycle counting method was applied to load spectrum gathered in order to obtain the Rainflow matrix and to predict the fatigue life of the critical main section of the ship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Data for water distribution systems (WDS) are often not available or of poor quality. One promising approach for improving these is collecting data sets with strong coherences to the WDS and reconstructing possible WDS by using these data sets. An example for such a strongly correlated data set is the street network which can easily be accessed (e.g. open street map). The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze the impact of data improvement from alternative sources for creating WDS models. Investigations showed that hydraulic WDS models with a mean pressure error of three meters can be created by knowing 30% of pipes with a diameter ≥250mm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reliable water forecasting provides the basis for making operational, tactical and strategic decisions for water utilities. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a spatial and temporal forecasting of water consumption patterns that has been carried out at the District Metered Area (DMA) level. Flow, infrastructure and billing data were collected from water utilities and combined with recently published census data. Results include empiric relations for estimating design and operational parameters for different seasonal and weekday scenarios, as well as average demand patterns for different consumer profiles taking into consideration key variables. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Transient pressures occur in water distribution systems (WDS) and have the potential to cause structural damage to assets, such as bursts and leakage which can also have impacts on surrounding infrastructure. Transients also have the potential to adversely affect aspects of potable water quality, including inducing low or negative pressure events with the potential to cause contaminant intrusion or through shock loadings which can mobilise otherwise stable material layers from the pipe wall. This paper outlines a transient source location methodology. The basis of the method considers the varying transit times of a transient pressure primary wave front to different locations of a pipeline or network. The method relies on a comparison between determined wave front arrival times at multiple, time synchronised pressure data acquisition locations and estimated wave transit times calculated from system connectivity and known or estimated pipe parameters and characteristics, to estimate transient source locations. Validation of the method is provided by data from a laboratory based physical model which explores transient pressure propagation in a looped and branched pipe network. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Mining data from a web database becomes more challenging in recent years due to the exploding size of data, the rising of dynamic web, and the increasing performance of web security. Mining data from a web database differs from mining data from web sites because it is intended to collect specific data from a single web site. Collecting a very large data in a limited time tends to be detected as a cyber attack and will be banned from connecting into the web server. To avoid the problem, this paper proposes a crawling method to mine web database faster and cheaper than conventional web crawlers. The method used is to run hundreds of threads from a single web crawler in a single computer and to distribute the threads into hundreds or thousands publicly available proxy servers. This web crawler strategy highly increases the speed of mining and is more secure than using single thread of web crawler. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes PSALM, a recently developed software tool for business intelligence and its functionality through several case studies. Patent Search and Analysis for Landscaping and Management (PSALM) tool assembles patent data from publicly available data bases, collects and analyses bibliographic parameters of patents but also does text mining. High-dimensional data contained in the patent documents are transformed into much lower dimensionality space (2D or 3D), clustered and visualized. The PSALM functionality and usability is demonstrated through three case studies of analyzing, comparing and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of different patent portfolios. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes an alternative statistical approach that can significantly characterise the fatigue strength property of metallic material. In this study, a simple impulsive excitation technique based on ASTM E1876 is conducted to measure the vibro-acoustic signal simultaneously using data acquisition consisted of an accelerometer-microphone configuration. The considered metallic material in the proposed design is composed of rectangular bar in cross section of medium carbon steel S50C, stainless steel AISI 304, cast iron FCD 500 and brass with a similar size of dimension as a specimen. To take into account the effect of noise existance, an alternative Z-stem filter de-noising technique is derived and applied to minimise the noise frequency components. Moreover, the effectiveness of this filtering technique is calculated. The filtered vibro-acoustic signal has been statistically analysed using an alternative time domain analysis method known as Mesokurtosis Zonal Nonparametric (M-Z-N). The accurate curve fitting equation for every metallic material is obtained using the combination of the calculated M-Z-N coefficient for vibration and acoustic impulse signals. The fatigue strength characterisation is carried out by the comparison of the experimental results with fatigue strength properties obtained in the literature. Correlation between the slopes of the curve fitting and fatigue strength values validate the proposed method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: On field monitoring of athlete performance is a growing area of interest in elite, professional and even some amateur sports. Metrics routinely monitored can be tactical, physiological and biomechanical, some methods are more labor intensive than others such as bloods and video coded and hand scored performance data. More recently the introduction of wearable sensors and GPS have allowed comparatively large amounts of data to be collected. These sensors are changing the way athletes are assessed, and today are routinely used by a number of professional football codes. Near real time systems, have been shown to enable the information to be accessed more quickly and thus the data can be used tactically, for workload management during game play, in addition to post game analysis. On e of the major challenges is to have robust wireless network solutions for this challenging environment. This paper implements a number of player based network topologies and protocols in a simulation environment to test various scenarios, as a tool for future development. Performance limitations to throughput and goodput are used to identify potential bottlenecks. Because the construction of physical hardware devices for athletes and networks, simulation is an attractive process that can shorten development time, identify and solve design problems more rapidly. These tests are intended as an input to designing better devices, networks and thus optimizing ambulatory systems for range, battery life and size reduction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Curling is a winter sport played by over one million people in at least 33 countries. As with other sports, strategy and teamwork play an important role in winning a curling game. Various strategies, such as when you have (or don’t have) the last stone, can be applied based on the situations. In curling games, it is widely known that the team throwing the last stone in the opening end is likely to win. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the outcome of the game based on the possession of first stone or last stone per end. For the analysis, data was collected from statistics and results of the WCF (World Curling Federation). 628 games (309 men's games and 319 women's games) which ended exactly at the tenth end were used. Binary logistic regression in SPSS 20.0 was applied for the analysis. A dependent variable was the game outcome, and ten independent variables were the possessions of the last stone per end. As a result, it is found that there was a statistical significance (p< 0.05) between the game outcome and the possession of the last stone from the first end to the tenth end, except the second end. Specifically, the possession of the first or last stone in the ninth end was more closely related to winning the game than other ends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Time lost due to injury or illness requiring rehabilitation is a major problem. Activity is an important part of rehabilitation, however compliance and adherence can be challenging. This paper addresses this issue by presenting an automatic system for monitoring activity allowing objective assessment of the activity. The system consisted of a smartphone based activity capture platform connected wirelessly to back-end server for analysis and storage and a web server to provide a user-friendly interface for feedback and education purposes. The system was validated by comparison with 3 accepted standard measuring devices and found to match their results well. The system also monitored the data of the participants over a continuous period of a number of days. It is evident that human factors play a part in both of the data collection strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The quality of concrete used in current and past 20 construction projects were examined based mainly on the concrete compressive strength achieved. The projects are different in nature and are at various levels of completeness. In Libya, concrete compressive strength was usually obtained from test results of a 150mm standard cube mold. Data collected from all 20 projects showed that the 28-day concrete compressive strength follow in general Normal Distribution pattern. The study dealt with concrete quality aspects such as: quality control, strength range, data standard deviation, data scatter, and ratio of minimum strength to design strength. Site quality control for these projects ranged from very good to poor according to ACI214 criteria. The ranges (Rg) of the strength (max. strength – min. strength) divided by average strength are from 34% to 160%. Data scatter is measured as the range (Rg) divided by standard deviation (σ) and is found to be (1.82 to 11.04), indicating that the range is ±3σ. In lieu of national unified procedure, international construction companies working in Libya are free to use the assessment criteria for concrete compressive strength that suit them. Therefore, the study reveals that concrete quality assessments conducted by these construction companies usually meet their adopted (internal) standards, but sometimes fail to meet internationally known standard requirements. The assessment of concrete presented in this paper is based on ACI, British standards and proposed Libyan concrete strength assessment criteria. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]