VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2, FEBRUARY 2016

Abstract: Voids may be natural or manmade .The calcareous sediment rocks contain voids as they are susceptible to water dissolution. The voids could also be the result of activities like mining, tunnelling etc .These voids either continuous or discrete, impose a hitch in the smooth designing of foundations. The problem is further aggravated as the foundation is to be designed to withstand seismic forces. The systematic scientific study of the effect of underground voids on the stability of foundation began by mid eighties of the last Century as some laboratory level investigations were initiated in conjunction with numerical studies using Finite Element Method. A series of investigations led to the conclusion that the depth and eccentricity of voids play a vital role in the analysis of stability of foundation. There exists a critical depth and a critical eccentricity beyond which the effect of a void becomes insignificant. Efforts were on to reduce the magnitude of the critical depth and eccentricity. A certain depth of top weak soil can be replaced by a layer of granular fill and the footing made to rest on this prepared layer. The performance can be further improved by reinforcing the granular fill with geo-synthetics .The geo-synthetic reinforcement possess the inherent drawback of excessive settlement during the initial stages of loading which adversely affects the performance of footing over voids. Recent developments in laboratory investigations reveal that this issue can be overcome by using pre-stressed reinforced granular beds, which reduces the initial settlement considerably. The challenge in the present scenario is the economical application of laboratory findings in in-situ activities giving due share to the durability aspects of the Pre-stressed Reinforced Granular Bed.

Keywords: Underground Void , Critical depth , Critical Eccentricity , Multiple Voids , Granular Bed , Prestressed Reinforced Granular Bed.

Abstract: In this paper the results of a series of finite element analyses carried out to investigate the improvement in bearing capacity of a strip footing resting on a weak clayey soil with voids due to the addition of a Reinforced Foundation Bed are presented. The results of finite element analyses are validated by carrying out laboratory scale load tests. From the results of finite element analyses it is seen that the effect of void is considerable only when it is located within a critical depth and critical eccentricity. The critical eccentricity is found to reduce with depth of void from the base of footing. It is observed that the addition of Foundation Bed (FB) and Reinforced Foundation Bed (RFB) significantly improves the load-settlement behaviour. It is also observed that there is considerable stress concentration near the underground void.

Keywords: Underground void, Reinforced Foundation Bed, Finite Element Analyses, Stress Concentration.

Abstract: Civil infrastructure systems such as highways, bridges, buildings represent the skeleton of any nation. The deterioration of bridges in many countries in the last few decades calls for effective methods for condition evaluation and maintenance. Since there is increasing dependency of the society on infrastructure systems such as bridges, proper design and timely monitoring and maintenance is essential. However, various factors such as neglect, overuse and lack of proper inspection and monitoring has led to accelerated deterioration of bridges, Often, unsatisfactory inspection and monitoring leads to detection of damage only at the critical state where repair cost becomes comparable with replacement cost. Assessing the extent of damage and its speedy restoration essentially requires information about the current and previous states of health of the structure. Hence there is a need for continuous monitoring of the health of the structure. This has resulted in the development of several non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques for monitoring their performance. The concept of non destructive testing (NDT) is to obtain material properties of in place specimens without the destruction of the specimen or the structure from which it is taken. It can provide knowledge that may not be possible to deduce from visual observation alone. Successful NDT tests allow locating and characterizing material conditions which might not be visible on the surface but which affects the structural durability or performance. This paper reviews various NDT methods that are currently being used in conjunction with the condition assessment of bridge component when subject to cracking, fracture and other unseen damage cases, specifically focusing on Rebound hammer Test and ultrasonic pulse velocity Test. Also this paper reviews three case studies conducted in India, Malaysia and Turkey. The case study from India determines the quality and strength of a T-beam girder bridge. 75 concrete bridges under the supervision of Public Works Department, Malaysia and 10 out of 200 reinforced concrete bridges (i.e. 10 most deficient bridges) in Turkey were selected to determine the strength and to establish a correlation between visual inspection rating and the non-destructive testing results. The investigation shows that the use of non-destructive testing methods can help reduce the backlog of deficient bridges in two ways. First, these techniques will allow inspectors to get a more accurate view of the condition of a bridge. The second way is by allowing inspectors to locate damages earlier. The studies also show that Ultrasonic pulse velocity Test is the ideal NDT method to predict the deterioration in the structures and to determine the service life of the structures. And there exists a correlation between results of non-destructive tests and condition states based on visual inspections.

Keywords: non-destructive testing, rebound hammer test, Ultrasonic Pulse velocity method, Case Studies.

Abstract: Reinforced soil is being extensively used for various Ground Improvement applications due to its effectiveness and durability. The load-settlement behaviour of Reinforced Soil depends upon the interaction between the reinforcement and surrounding granular soil. This paper investigates the effect of gradation of surrounding soil on the interface shear parameters, by carrying out a series of large scale direct shear tests using a shear box of dimensions 300 x 300 x 200mm.Tests were conducted on five no coarse aggregate (CA) and sand (S) with varying mix ratio of 1:0.5, 1:1, 1:1.5 and 1:2and separately for coarse aggregate and sand also. It is observed that gradation of soil, shear parameters and aperture of Geogrid considerably influences the interface shear parameters between the Geogrid and surrounding soil.

Keywords: Reinforced Soil, Load-Settlement Behaviour, Gradation, Interface Shear Parameters.

Abstract: The present study involves the assessment of water quality modelling w.r.t surface water sources especially rivers. Water Quality Index (WQI) provides a single number like a grade that expresses the overall water quality at a location and at a specific time based on several water quality parameters. A model is a small object usually built to scale, that represents another larger object. Such a model of water quality can be represented generally as a function of physico-chemical and biological characteristics of water. Water quality modelling has developed appreciably since its innovation in the early years of the twentieth century. Several statistical methods viz., Factor Analysis (FA), Discriminant Analysis (DA), Cluster Analysis (CA), Prinicipal Component Analysis (PCA) etc can be effectively in the studies related water quality modelling.

Keywords: Water Quality Index (WQI), Factor Analysis (FA), Cluster Analysis (CA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Discriminant Analysis (DA).

Abstract: Genetic engineering technologies allow mass production of proteins for a variety of applications mainly in the biopharmaceutical industry. FcγRIIa (CD32a) and FcγRIIIa (CD16a) are antibodies cell surface receptors that mediate important immune functions. Fcγ receptors are currently the focus in developing novel therapeutic antibodies. Herein, we report the production at a high yields of genetically engineered soluble forms of the extracellular domain of the main genetic variants of CD16a (158F/V) (1.5mg/ml, 0.75mg/ml) and CD32a (131H/R) (5.8mg/ml, 0.9mg/ml) by the yeast Pichia pastoris. The Proteins were produced following induction using 1% methanol. SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis of the protein purified on Ni+ column showed bands of ~45 kDa and ~25 kDa corresponding to CD16a and CD32a respectively. The production at a high yield of good quality recombinant Fcγ receptors in yeast is an important outcome because of their importance in the development of third generation therapeutic antibodies.

Keywords: FcγRIIa (CD32a), FcγRIIIa (CD16a), recombinant protein, Pichia pastoris, pPICZαA.

Abstract: With increasing popularity in microblogging sites, we are in the era of information explosion. As of June 2011, about 200 million tweets are being generated every day. Spurred by that growth, companies and media organizations are increasingly seeking ways to mine Twitter for information about what people think and feel about their products and services. One advantage of this data, over previously used data-sets, is that the tweets are collected in a streaming fashion and therefore represent a true sample of actual tweets in terms of language use and content. Although Twitter provides a list of most popular topics people tweet about known as trending topics in real time, it is often hard to understand what these trending topics are about and it becomes difficult to classify them based on the emotions that each tweet is trying to portray. Therefore a question arises as to what happens when you combine the social networking power of Twitter with the usefulness of Google Maps? The result can contain some rather innovative and intriguing applications. With Twitter and Google Maps mashup's here, it's all about taking advantage of both the Google Maps and Twitter API to create a mashup that's unique, practical, and highly efficient. The aim of our project is to display real time globally trending tweets on google maps and perform sentiment analysis on the tweets related to the topic.This paper primarily focuses on the trend detection and sentiment analysis techniques and the applications of using a Twitter and Google maps mashup. Further, we analyze the sentiments expressed within a particular sentence, paragraph or document etc. The analysis based on sentiments can pave way for automatic trend analysis, topic recognition and opinion mining etc. Furthermore, we can fairly estimate the degree of positivity and negativity of the opinions and sentiments based on the content obtained from a particular social media.

Keywords: Trend Analysis, Sentiment Analysis, Data analysis, Geocoding, microblogs, trend detection, Twitter, Google maps.

Abstract: Cloud computing provides an opportunity to scale the computing resources dynamically on the internet. Sharing these resources, in a secure and efficient manner with others, is an open challenge. In order to overcome these issues, we proposed an optimized and secure data sharing (OSDS) approach for data outsourcing onto the cloud. In our proposed work, we used chaotic standard map with proxy re-encryption to provide fast and easy data sharing. Chaotic standard map reduce the computational time cost of encryption and decryption, while proxy re-encryption (PRE) reduce heavy computation at the side of data holder and make the data sharing flexible and easy. Earlier, to preserve the confidentiality of user's data against cloud server, generally cryptographic methods are applied. However, these cryptographic methods possess computation overhead on the data holder for key distribution and data management. An existing approach named as EFADS, provide good solution for this but its computational time cost is more as compared to our proposed OSDS approach. We compared proposed OSDS method with EFADS data sharing approach and found that our proposed approach is 1.5 times efficient than EFADS. Our OSDS approach consumes approximately 66% less computational time cost as compared to previous approach.

Keywords: Chaotic Standard Map, Cloud computing, EFADS, OSDS, Proxy Re-Encryption.

Abstract: Land-use change in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) area since the 18th century has led to the degradation of the water quality and a loss of the goods and services it provides. Here we perform an in-depth analysis of water quality with a data bank of 3 decades using dissolved oxygen (DO) as the indicator. The loss of head water feed from the River Hooghly, the gradual siltation of the River Bidyadhari, the rapid urbanization of the city of Kolkata and generation of huge quantum of waste water has degraded the water quality to a great extent as revealed from the gradual lowering of the DO level in the selected water body. The WQI has also decreased simultaneously except during premonsoon 2009 when the super cyclone Aila hit the study area and deviate the values of DO and WQI from the normal trend.

Keywords: East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Water Quality Index (WQI).

Abstract: This paper introduces a kind of design method about the digital decimation filter design for Sigma-delta ADC with high performance, analyze its features of frequency and high pass filter, and give the results of simulation. The decimation filter can be applied to 1 bit, 128 times the rate of oversampling for S-? modulator, and can form a complete S-? A/D converter with S-? modulator. The area of this device is small, and the power consumption is very low with high precision. It can be easily realized with hardware in the SOC ASIC design and suitable for audio system.

Keywords: A/D Converter, Decimation Filter, FIR Filter.

Abstract: Aircraft maintenance can be described as a set of tasks that are carried out on an aircraft in order to keep it in an airworthy condition. Aircraft operators aim to achieve profitability and this happens only when the aircraft is flying. Operators can improve their fleet availability by reducing the maintenance time which in turn reduces the overall downtime of the aircraft. This is directly influenced by a number of factors such as availability of tools and spares, availability of labour, time required for maintenance etc. This paper presents a potential method to reduce the overall maintenance time by eliminating duplication of tasks thereby improving the maintenance efficiency. An information support tool will be used to determine whether the maintenance tasks can be grouped together or not. Hence, components maybe maintained simultaneously thereby reducing the number of times an access panel would undergo an opening/closing sequence. Potential gains include reduced work load on the maintenance crew, reduced wear and tear on access panels and reduced maintenance times amongst others.

Keywords: Aircraft Maintenance, Information support tool, Access Panel, Duplication of tasks.

Abstract: Quadcopter, Quadrotor, Drones, Unmanned aerial vehicle various names, various aspects and various implementations given to the single device. A device that can be controlled from a remote location, monitor it, get a video or image data, process it and act according to it. The various quadcopters designed are to be focused on their weight, designing, application etc. The quadcopter that we are ahead to develop mainly emphasis on the cost effectiveness and the sensors implemented in it. Most of the quadcopters are application oriented they are limited to their own application. The efforts from us are made to erase these problems and derive a feasible solution that is going to overcome all these problems.

Keywords: Quadcopter, Autonomous Flight, UAV, PyQuadSim.

Abstract: Modelling and prediction of pressure drop across a staggered tube bundle for a liquid flow is an emerging development in the area of computational fluid dynamics. The present work discuss about the predictionof pressure drop using CFD and compared with theoretically estimated values using well known empirical friction factor correlations for model validation.Turbulence modelssuch asa standard k-epsilon, a standard k-omegaand a k-omega basedshear stress transportwereused for predicting the pressure drop in the tube bundleat same grid density. The primary objective of the present work is to find out which of these turbulence models predicts pressure drop values close to empirical correlations developed based on experiments similar to the present study. Transverse pitch ratio of2.5and longitudinal pitch ratio of 0.7 with 30o tube angle arrangement is chosen for thisstudy.For accurate prediction of pressure drop across the bundle fine grids were created around the tube portions. Grid independent study has been carried out for identifying suitable grid size for simulation.

Keywords: k-epsilon, k-omega, k-omega based shear stress transport, Pitch ratio, staggered tube bundle, Fluent 14.0.0

Abstract: In the present era of information age, access to a variety of information is easy which has resulted in a rampant increase in crime rate. Criminals are using technology for improving the traditional crime modus operandi. Though law enforcers have knowledge of the misuse of such technology but they are lagging behind in adapting to technology to curb crime. Hence, there is a huge difference in adapting to technology between the two, criminals and law enforcement agencies. In order to reduce the crime rate, there is a need to analyse crime and prevent those crimes. In this paper, we describe a system to analyse crime and how we are going to increase the accuracy of crime prediction to prevent crime. We consider various crime factors to accurately predict crime if a similar crime pattern is observed.

Keywords: Naive Bayes classifier, Apriori Algorithm, Decision Tree, Mongo DB, Web Crawler, Crime Class, Crime Factors.

Abstract: Mobile phones are widely used devices around. Android, Windows Mobile, and the iPhone, mobile phones are different brands which have changed the way we look at mobile computing. Many applications like games, social networking, and bank transactions are used on mobile today. Today, everyone is using mobile phones, including the farmers. Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has an important role in day to day life of farmers. Agriculture sector contributes in daily needs of population in India and is main backbone of GDP of Indian Economy. Farmers are the main element of Agriculture. Farmers are not able to cope up with complications occurring due to crop diseases. They have to depend on Plant Biologist to resolve these problems. Examining the plant affected by disease through a Plant Biologist manually is a time consuming process. Plant affected by the disease is not diagnosed within time then it can affect the quality of the plant. A System can be provided which can involuntarily obtain significant features of the plant affected by disease and computing the uploaded diseased plant image. It will easily help the Plant Biologist to diagnose the disease of plant and provide the farmers to take initial precautionary measures. Acknowledging the significance and dominance of Agriculture sector, System based on Content Based Image Retrieval techniques and k-means algorithm is proposed for diagnosing the plant disease is proposed.

Keywords: Feature extraction, Image retrieval, CBIR techniques, K-means, Colour histogram.

Abstract: Facility location problems (FLP) are strategic decision making problems for selecting best geographical location to start the operations of a new facility or for expansion of existing facilities. These are long term investment decision involving many factors that may be conflicting in nature. Properly selected location provides better economical benefits and improved service to consumers. FLP is a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem in which best location has to be selected from a set of alternatives. Taking into consideration a number of Criteria and sub-criteria. In this article Extent Fuzzy AHP based method has been proposed to solve a real time facility location problem.

Keywords: Facility location, Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), Fuzzy AHP, FAHP, Extent FAHP.

Abstract: Arti?cial pancreas technology, involving ''closed-loop'' controls with real-time blood glucose monitoring, has been increasing in reliability as its potential for clinical use and application grows. Prandial glucose regulation is a major challenge for the arti?cial pancreas using subcutaneous insulin (without a feed forward bolus) due to insulin's slow absorption-peak (50-60 min). Intra peritoneal insulin, with a fast absorption peak (20-25 min), has been suggested as an alternative to address these limitations. An arti?cial pancreas using intra peritoneal insulin was designed and evaluated on 100 in silico subjects and compared with two designs using subcutaneous insulin with and without a feed forward bolus, following the three meal (40-70g-carbohydrates) evaluation protocol.

Keywords: Artificial, Closed, Pancreas, Automated, Diabetes.

Abstract: This paper describes the development and implementation of an automatic speaker recognition system. The system uses text independent speaker verification with MFCC features and GMM based speaker modelling for authenticating the user. The developed system has been used by the 52 samples of students on a regular basis. The system tends to have a very high accuracy of 99% with only 7.6 seconds per sample response time for a 10 second voice. The system only needed 10-20 seconds sample to accurately predict the user and also verify if the sample is from known voice or unknown voice also.

Keywords: User Identification, Speaker Identification, GMM.

Abstract: This paper presents the aspects of lightweight concrete durability in view of reinforcement corrosion and its implications on the integrity of structural concrete members. Mechanisms of deterioration related to the heterogeneous nature of concrete are discussed. Modern techniques for inspection, durability assessment procedures, maintenance & restoration programs, as well as preventative systems are demonstrated.

Keywords: reinforcement corrosion, Lightweight concrete, Ultrasonic pulse velocity.

Abstract: Voting is the most important process for revealing the public's opinion in selecting a government or on any issue under consideration. As a result, traditional voting systems based on paper ballots are being replaced by electronic voting machines. Voting is a decision-making mechanism in a society, and security is an important component of voting. The term "electronic voting" refers to the use of electronic voting methods to ensure voting security, reliability, and transparency. Electronic voting systems, which play a critical role in determining the outcome of an election, should be developed with the utmost care and security. Electronic voting machines assist blind voters by reading the instructions aloud through headphones and provide critical tools to assist people with disabilities. Voting machines are a combination of mechanical and electronic equipment used for voting and displaying election results.

Keywords: Electronic Voting Machine, EVM, microcontroller, lcd screen, led, switch, voltage regulator

Abstract: A new algorithm for the determination of the solar position is proposed. The importance of tracking accurately the position of the sun is evident when considering high concentration thermal systems. In the literature are found many fast algorithms for the determination of the sun position within 0.01, and complex astronomical algorithms that allow a precision of 0.0003but at the price of a large amount of calculation. The algorithm proposed in this work has a precision that is half-way between the two cases (maximal error 0.0027), that should be sufficient for all the applications in solar engineering, with a computational cost comparable to the cost of the fast algorithm.

Keywords: Solar, Shading, Energy, Algorithm.

Abstract: Customer expectations have shifted as a result of changing and improving product variety and evolving technology. This has resulted in significant growth in the printing industry, particularly in the packaging sector. The food industry, as well as the increasing need to preserve food for long periods of time, has necessitated the development of methods for preserving the freshness and safety of food products during their shelf-life. As a result, packaging systems were given special consideration in order to facilitate food processing, preserve food quality, extend shelf-life, and keep food from spoiling. Because of these systems, packaging has evolved beyond simply acting as a barrier between the food and the environment, and has also taken on roles such as releasing protective agents or removing unwanted matter. Microbial growth is one of the most important causes of food spoilage. Although heating, drying, fermentation, freezing, and adding antimicrobial agents have previously been tried to solve the problem, there are limitations, particularly when used with fresh food. A new generation of technologies is being introduced today to monitor the condition of products using a tiny sensor or label placed on the packaging. Smart packaging is a type of packaging that not only improves the basic functions of a product, but also responds to stimuli in its environment. Intelligent packaging and active packaging are the two main types of smart packaging. The purpose of this research is to investigate the concept of smart packaging, which has emerged as a result of increased competitiveness, digital interaction and consumer awareness, changes in consumer behaviour and expectations, and increased interest in product safety. As a result, it is obvious that cutting-edge smart packaging, which can connect to the Internet and has many channels of interaction, will create new business models and customer experiences, and will eventually replace conventional packaging, which has no interactions.

Keywords: Micro Fabrication, Packaging technology, smart packaging, intelligent packaging, smart packaging, RFID system.

Abstract: In this paper, Engineering project management process is discussed. two case studies of non-for-profit organizations that work for people with disabilities. These cases elucidate how the project management practices can solve the issues of immense human significance. Persons with disabilities face severe conditions regarding getting accessible educational environment and employment opportunities, which is more in the developing countries than the developed ones. It has been revealed that children with disabilities are less unlikely to pursue their educational journey after primary school completion. The organizations mentioned in this case should adopt a more robust project management tool, which is globally recognized among the non-for-profit and it is called Logical Framework Approach. Following the logical framework, approach ensures that the project manager has split the deliverables based on measurable indicators.

Keywords: Engineering, Management, Study, Project.

Abstract: The fiber reinforced concrete is relatively a new construction material developed through extensive research and development works. The addition of fibers in to concrete has been found to improve several properties like tensile strength, crack resistance, impact strength and wear resistance etc. In this article an approach has been made to study strength properties of FRC with metakoline. The mix adopted was 1:1.63:3.313 by mass and w/c of 0.5 with inclusion of 1% fiber content by volume. The study mainly oriented towards the replacement of cement by metakaolin with different percentages. Also test have been conducted to study the effect of super plasticizer on fiber reinforced metakaolin concrete. From the results it is observed that, the use of super plasticizer improves the compressive, split and flexural strengths and 10% metakaolin mix shown superior performance among different mixes.

Keywords: Compressive strength, Split tensile strength, Flexural strength, Fibers, Metakaolin