Engineering Commons^™

Validation Of Trnsys Modelling For A Fixed Slope Photovoltaic Panel, Kant Kanyarusoke, Jasson Gryzagoridis, Graeme Oliver

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

TRNSYS stands for transient system simulation software. This paper describes a procedure that was used to validate a TRNSYS model for estimating electricity yields from a fixed slope photovoltaic (PV) panel. The objective was to find how close to reality predicted energy yield for a specified panel can be, at a location near one of the weather stations listed in the software's database. The software was used to predict daily total incident radiation on a horizontal plane and electrical energy yields from a 90 Wp panel when sloped at 34$^{\circ}$ facing north at a test site in Cape Town, South …

Assessment Of Energy Performance Certificate Systems: A Case Study For Residential Buildings In Turkey, Kenan Yi̇ği̇t, Bora Acarkan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The importance of sustainable development and energy efficiency efforts has increased in the construction sector. Energy-saving efforts for buildings have become more important due to the global energy crisis, and energy rating systems have been developed globally for assessment of energy performance. In this study, international green building certificate and energy performance certificate (EPC) systems are presented. The official EPC system for buildings in Turkey is illustrated with case studies. Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings are calculated using the official national software, which is called BEP-TR. The impact of lighting on the total energy performance of …

Bytewise Approximate Matching: The Good, The Bad, And The Unknown, Vikram S. Harichandran, Frank Breitinger, Ibrahim Baggili

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hash functions are established and well-known in digital forensics, where they are commonly used for proving integrity and file identification (i.e., hash all files on a seized device and compare the fingerprints against a reference database). However, with respect to the latter operation, an active adversary can easily overcome this approach because traditional hashes are designed to be sensitive to altering an input; output will significantly change if a single bit is flipped. Therefore, researchers developed approximate matching, which is a rather new, less prominent area but was conceived as a more robust counterpart to traditional hashing. Since the conception …

Security Analysis Of Mvhash-B Similarity Hashing, Donghoon Chang, Somitra Sanadhya, Monika Singh

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In the era of big data, the volume of digital data is increasing rapidly, causing new challenges for investigators to examine the same in a reasonable amount of time. A major requirement of modern forensic investigation is the ability to perform automatic filtering of correlated data, and thereby reducing and focusing the manual effort of the investigator. Approximate matching is a technique to find “closeness” between two digital artifacts. mvHash-B is a well-known approximate matching scheme used for finding similarity between two digital objects and produces a ‘score of similarity’ on a scale of 0 to 100. However, no security …

An Improved Smote Algorithm Based On Genetic Algorithm For Imbalanced Data Collection, Qiong Gu, Xian-Ming Wang, Zhao Wu, Bing Ning, Chun-Sheng Xin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Classification of imbalanced data has been recognized as a crucial problem in machine learning and data mining. In an imbalanced dataset, minority class instances are likely to be misclassified. When the synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) is applied in imbalanced dataset classification, the same sampling rate is set for all samples of the minority class in the process of synthesizing new samples, this scenario involves blindness. To overcome this problem, an improved SMOTE algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA), namely, GASMOTE was proposed. First, GASMOTE set different sampling rates for different minority class samples. A combination of the sampling rates …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2015, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Implementation Of E-Education In Africa Via Space Networks, Dimov Stojce Ilcev

UBT International Conference

In this paper is introduced an advanced E-education provision in remote dispersed communities, such as rural, remote, mobile, agriculture, mining, construction, surveying, military, tourism and so on, based on the specific needs and requirements, implies significant broadband connectivity requirements, timely and quality-assured content delivery of service, applications and interactivity. The E-education solutions of distance learning and training for remote and rural areas, which are out of range of terrestrial and short distance wireless telecommunications facilities, cannot provide the broadband access without space-enabled communication infrastructures, such as satellite constellations and Stratospheric Platform Systems (SPS) or High Altitude Platforms (HAP). The paper …

Professor Frank Breitinger's Full Bibliography, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Towards Mhealth Solutions For Asthma Patients, Nahid Negar

Master's Theses (2009 -)

With the recent, rapid growth in mobile-computing technology, mobile health (mHealth) is becoming a popular research topic. mHealth is one of several examples of how using technology in the health sector is being more advanced every day. mHealth is being applied to the care of a broad spectrum of diseases from acute to chronic, such as the flu, asthma, and cancer. Due to the easy-to-understand and friendly user interfaces, mobility and cost effectiveness; a mobile application can be a powerful tool to collect patient information. Asthma is a common disease around the globe. Collecting the proper symptom, trigger, peak-flow and …

Ad-Hoc Automated Teller Machine Failure Forecast And Field Service Optimization, Michelle L. F. Cheong, Ping Shung Koo, B. Chandra Babu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As part of its overall effort to maintain good customer service while managing operational efficiency and reducing cost, a bank in Singapore has embarked on using data and decision analytics methodologies to perform better ad-hoc ATM failure forecasting and plan the field service engineers to repair the machines. We propose using a combined Data and Decision Analytics Framework which helps the analyst to first understand the business problem by collecting, preparing and exploring data to gain business insights, before proposing what objectives and solutions can and should be done to solve the problem. This paper reports the work in analyzing …

Calculation Of Surface Leakage Currents On High Voltage Insulators By Ant Colony Algorithm-Supported Fem, Dursun Öztürk, Mehmet Cebeci̇

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The weakness of the outer insulation at high voltages is the reduction of the surface resistance as a result of the environmental pollution yielding formation of flashover due to the surface leakage currents. In this study, it was shown how to calculate the surface leakage currents resulting in flashover in polluted insulators and therefore power cuts by means of the ant colony algorithm (ACA). For this purpose, first, field distribution on the sample insulator surface in question was defined by the Laplace equation ($\nabla^{2}$V = 0). With the help of the finite element method (FEM), the Laplace equation was obtained …

The Integrated Control Of Fuzzy Logic And Model-Based Approach For Variable-Speed Wind Turbine, Jian Yang, Dongran Song, Hua Han, Pengsha Tong, Ling Zhou

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

For a variable-speed wind turbine (VSWT), the primary objective of control is to maximize power generation while maintaining the desired rotor speed and avoiding equipment overloads. To fulfill the control objectives, the classical model-based control (MBC) has been widely used, which refers to two controllers: torque controller (TC) and pitch controller (PC). In this work, the drawbacks of MBC for VSWTs are studied extensively. It reveals that there are transition issues between the TC and PC, and over-speed problems under large turbulent wind when only MBC is taken. To improve the control performance of the VSWT, an integrated control solution …

Transient Stability Analysis Of Vsc Hvdc Transmission With Power Injection On The Dc-Link, Agha Francis Nnachi, Josiah Munda, Dan Valentine Nicolae, Augustin Mabwe Mpanda

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The utilization of a DC-link transmission corridor of embedded VSC HVDC for a DC power injection from renewable energy sources to increase the power flow capability and AC network stability support is a promising technology. However, DC faults on the DC transmission line are likely to threaten the system's operation and stability, especially when the DC power injection exceeds certain limits. A DC single line-to-earth fault is the most likely fault scenario and its effect on the VSC HVDC operation will depend on the earth-loop impedance. Adding an injection point on the DC-link will reduce the earth-loop impedance, hence imposing …

Renewable Energy Integration In Smart Grids-Multicriteria Assessment Using The Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process, Aleksandar Janjic, Suzana Savic, Lazar Velimirovic, Vesna Nikolic

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Unlike the traditional way of efficiency assessment of renewable energy sources integration, the smart grid concept is introducing new goals and objectives regarding increased use of renewable electricity sources, grid security, energy conservation, energy efficiency, and deregulated energy market. Possible benefits brought by renewable sources integration are evaluated by the degree of the approach to the ideal smart grid. In this paper, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process methodology for the integration efficiency has been proposed, taking into account the presence of multiple criteria of both qualitative and quantitative nature, different performance indicators, and the uncertain environment of the smart grid. The …

Predicting Scenarios For Successful Autodissemination Of Pyriproxyfen By Malaria Vectors From Their Resting Sites To Aquatic Habitats; Description And Simulation Analysis Of A Field-Parameterizable Model, Samson Sifael Kiware, George F. Corliss, Stephen Merrill, Dickson W. Lwetoijera, Gregor J. Devine, Silas Majambere, Gerry F. Killeen

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Large-cage experiments indicate pyriproxifen (PPF) can be transferred from resting sites to aquatic habitats by Anopheles arabiensis - malaria vector mosquitoes to inhibit emergence of their own offspring. PPF coverage is amplified twice: (1) partial coverage of resting sites with PPF contamination results in far higher contamination coverage of adult mosquitoes because they are mobile and use numerous resting sites per gonotrophic cycle, and (2) even greater contamination coverage of aquatic habitats results from accumulation of PPF from multiple oviposition events.

Methods and Findings

Deterministic mathematical models are described that use only field-measurable input parameters and capture the biological …

Modeling Social Norms In Real-World Agent-Based Simulations, Rahmatollah Beheshti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studying and simulating social systems including human groups and societies can be a complex problem. In order to build a model that simulates humans' actions, it is necessary to consider the major factors that affect human behavior. Norms are one of these factors: social norms are the customary rules that govern behavior in groups and societies. Norms are everywhere around us, from the way people handshake or bow to the clothes they wear. They play a large role in determining our behaviors. Studies on norms are much older than the age of computer science, since normative studies have been a …

Quality Of Service Assessment: A Case Study On Performance Benchmarking Of Cellular Network Operators In Turkey, Rana Kadioğlu, Yaser Dalveren, Ali̇ Kara

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper presents findings on performance benchmarking of cellular network operators in Turkey. Benchmarking is based on measurements of standard key performance indicators (KPIs) in one of the metropolitan cities of Turkey, Ankara. Performance benchmarking is formulated by incorporating customer perception by conducting surveys on how important KPIs are from the user's point of view. KPIs are measured, with standard test equipment, by drive test method on specified routes. According to the performance benchmarking results, the GSM and UMTS network operators achieving the best performance were determined in Ankara. Speech qualities of network operators, as the most popular service, were …

Amorphous Core Transformers Efficiency Analysis In Turkish Electrical Distribution Systems, Fati̇h Işik, Yilmaz Uyaroğlu

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Transformers are an indispensable element in the transmission and distribution of electricity. While they are highly efficient, the increasing global demand for electrical energy has prompted efforts to improve their performance. No-load power losses constitute the majority of total losses within electrical energy distribution, especially when looking at load ratio. In recent years, some studies have found that no-load power losses of amorphous core transformers are less than those of laminated steel core transformers by as much as 60{\%} to 70{\%}. For this paper, we have manufactured an amorphous distribution transformer prototype rated 33 kV and 1 MVA. By quantifying …

Energy Economy In Regulated And Market-Based Power System: Case Study In Serbia, Mileta Zarkovic, Ivan Skokljev

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This study presents a possible process of simulating power plant generation planning. The process combines expected overall industry costs, associated cost uncertainty, and expected CO$_{2}$ emissions for different generations, variations of future fossil fuel costs, carbon prices, plant investment costs, and demand, including price elasticity impacts. Uncertainty in the decision stems from the elasticity of prices of fuel and electricity. The aim of this paper is to apply fuzzy numbers to power generation planning and to use a Monte Carlo simulation to check. Simulations are demonstrated through a case study of an electricity industry with coal and lignite, combined cycle …

Computational Intelligence Based Complex Adaptive System-Of-Systems Architecture Evolution Strategy, Siddharth Agarwal

Doctoral Dissertations

The dynamic planning for a system-of-systems (SoS) is a challenging endeavor. Large scale organizations and operations constantly face challenges to incorporate new systems and upgrade existing systems over a period of time under threats, constrained budget and uncertainty. It is therefore necessary for the program managers to be able to look at the future scenarios and critically assess the impact of technology and stakeholder changes. Managers and engineers are always looking for options that signify affordable acquisition selections and lessen the cycle time for early acquisition and new technology addition. This research helps in analyzing sequential decisions in an evolving …

A Game-Theoretic Analysis Of The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

Although nuclear non-proliferation is an almost universal human desire, in practice, the negotiated treaties appear unable to prevent the steady growth of the number of states that have nuclear weapons. We propose a computational model for understanding the complex issues behind nuclear arms negotiations, the motivations of various states to enter a nuclear weapons program and the ways to diffuse crisis situations.

A Framework For Web Object Self-Preservation, Charles L. Cartledge

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

We propose and develop a framework based on emergent behavior principles for the long-term preservation of digital data using the web infrastructure. We present the development of the framework called unsupervised small-world (USW) which is at the nexus of emergent behavior, graph theory, and digital preservation. The USW algorithm creates graph based structures on the Web used for preservation of web objects (WOs). Emergent behavior activities, based on Craig Reynolds’ “boids” concept, are used to preserve WOs without the need for a central archiving authority. Graph theory is extended by developing an algorithm that incrementally creates small-world graphs. Graph theory …

Testing And Evaluating The Harmonised Digital Forensic Investigation Process In Post Mortem Digital Investigation, Emilio R. Mumba, H. S. Venter

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Existing digital forensic investigation process models have provided guidelines for identifying and preserving potential digital evidence captured from a crime scene. However, for any of the digital forensic investigation process models developed across the world to be adopted and fully applied by the scientific community, it has to be tested. For this reason, the Harmonized Digital Forensic Investigation Process (HDFIP) model, currently a working draft towards becoming an international standard for digital forensic investigations (ISO/IEC 27043), needs to be tested.

This paper, therefore, presents the findings of a case study used to test the HDFIP model implemented in the ISO/IEC …

Generation And Handling Of Hard Drive Duplicates As Piece Of Evidence, T. Kemmerich, F. Junge, N. Kuntze, C. Rudolph, B. Endicott-Popovsky, L. Großkopf

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

An important area in digital forensics is images of hard disks. The correct production of the images as well as the integrity and authenticity of each hard disk image is essential for the probative force of the image to be used at court. Integrity and authenticity are under suspicion as digital evidence is stored and used by software based systems. Modifications to digital objects are hard or even impossible to track and can occur even accidentally. Even worse, vulnerabilities occur for all current computing systems. Therefore, it is difficult to guarantee a secure environment for forensic investigations. But intended deletions …

Awareness Of Scam E-Mails: An Exploratory Research Study, Tejashree D. Datar, Kelly A. Cole, Marcus K. Rogers

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The goal of this research was to find the factors that influence a user’s ability to identify e-mail scams. It also aimed to understand user’s awareness regarding e-mail scams and actions that need to be taken if and when victimized. This study was conducted on a university campus with 163 participants. This study presented the participants with two scam e-mails and two legitimate e-mails and asked the participants to correctly identify these e-mails as scam or legitimate. The study focused on the ability of people to differentiate between scam and legitimate e-mails. The study attempted to determine factors that influence …

Providing Flexible File-Level Data Filtering For Big Data Analytics, Lei Xu, Ziling Huang, Hong Jiang, Lei Tian, David Swanson

School of Computing: Technical Reports

The enormous amount of big data datasets impose the needs for effective data filtering technique to accelerate the analytics process. We propose a Versatile Searchable File System, VSFS, which provides a transparent, flexible and near real-time file-level data filtering service by searching files directly through the file system. Therefore, big data analytics applications can transparently utilize this filtering service without application modifications. A versatile index scheme is designed to adapt to the exploratory and ad-hoc nature of the big data analytics activities. Moreover, VSFS uses a RAM-based distributed architecture to perform file indexing. The evaluations driven by three real-world analytics …

Up-Dating Investigation Models For Smart Phone Procedures, Brian Cusack, Raymond Lutui

Australian Digital Forensics Conference

The convergence of services in Smart Technologies such as iPhones, Androids and multiple tablet work surfaces challenges the scope of any forensic investigation to include cloud environments, devices and service media. The analysis of current investigation guidelines suggests that each element in an investigation requires an independent procedure to assure the preservation of evidence. However we dispute this view and review the possibility of consolidating current investigation guidelines into a unified best practice guideline. This exploratory research proposes to fill a gap in digital forensic investigation knowledge for smart technologies used in business environments and to propose a better way …

Quantifying Relevance Of Mobile Digital Evidence As They Relate To Case Types: A Survey And A Guide For Best Practices, Shahzad Saleem, Ibrahim Baggili, Oliver Popov

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this work, a survey was conducted to help quantify the relevance of nineteen types of evidence (such as SMS) to seven types of digital investigations associated with mobile devices (MD) (such as child pornography). 97 % of the respondents agreed that every type of digital evidence has a different level of relevance to further or solve a particular investigation. From 55 serious participants, a data set of 5,772 responses regarding the relevance of nineteen types of digital evidence for all the seven types of digital investigations was obtained. The results showed that (i) SMS belongs to the most relevant …

Hybrid Power System Options For Off-Grid Rural Electrification In Northern Kenya, June M. Lukuyu, Judith Cardell

Engineering: Faculty Publications

For domestic consumers in the rural areas of northern Kenya, as in other developing countries, the typical source of electrical supply is diesel generators. However, diesel generators are associated with both CO2 emissions, which adversely affect the environment and increase diesel fuel prices, which inflate the prices of consumer goods. The Kenya government has taken steps towards addressing this issue by proposing The Hybrid Mini-Grid Project, which involves the installation of 3 MW of wind and solar energy systems in facilities with existing diesel generators. However, this project has not yet been implemented. As a contribution to this effort, this …

Effects Of The Factory Reset On Mobile Devices, Riqui Schwamm, Neil C. Rowe

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Mobile devices usually provide a “factory-reset” tool to erase user-specific data from the main secondary storage. 9 Apple iPhones, 10 Android devices, and 2 BlackBerry devices were tested in the first systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of factory resets. Tests used the Cellebrite UME-36 Pro with the UFED Physical Analyzer, the Bulk Extractor open-source tool, and our own programs for extracting metadata, classifying file paths, and comparing them between images. Two phones were subjected to more detailed analysis. Results showed that many kinds of data were removed by the resets, but much user-specific configuration data was left. Android devices did …