Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering and Technology

6

Authors: Chandio A.D., Abro S.H.

The βNiAl coating was deposited onto Nickel based CMSX-4 superalloy by in-situ CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) method. Main focus of this contribution was to study the influence of aluminizing time and temperature on the microstructure and thickness of the coating; this was followed by examination by XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), electron microscope. Results suggest that an incremental variation in temperature alters the coating activities from HA (High Activity) to LA (Low Activity). This is exhibited by the resultant CT (Coating Thickness) since HA coatings are thicker than LA counterparts. The microstructure of the coating formed at low temperature (or HA ones) showed a large amount of α-Cr precipitates while one formed at high temperature (or LA ones) exhibited lower amounts of such precipitates. Moreover, incremental aluminizing time showed linear trend of CT at initial stage, thereafter (10 hrs) it leveled off. Whereas it does not affect microstructure of the coating

10

Authors: Demircan S., Kahramanli H.

ER (Emotion Recognition) from speech signals has been among the attractive subjects lately. As known feature extraction and feature selection are most important process steps in ER from speech signals. The aim of present study is to select the most relevant spectral feature subset. The proposed method is based on feature selection with optimization algorithm among the features obtained from speech signals. Firstly, MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients) were extracted from the EmoDB. Several statistical values as maximum, minimum, mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis and median were obtained from MFCC. The next process of study was feature selection which was performed in two stages: In the first stage ABM (Agent-Based Modelling) that is hardly applied to this area was applied to actual features. In the second stageOpt-aiNET optimization algorithm was applied in order to choose the agent group giving the best classification success. The last process of the study is classification. ANN (Artificial Neural Network) and 10 cross-validations were used for classification and evaluation. A narrow comprehension with three emotions was performed in the application. As a result, it was seen that the classification accuracy was rising after applying proposed method. The method was shown promising performance with spectral features.

10

Authors: Masood N., Jabeen G.

Schema merging is a process of integrating multiple data sources into a GCS (Global Conceptual Schema). It is pivotal to various application domains, like data ware housing and multi-databases. Schema merging requires the identification of corresponding elements, which is done through schema matching process. In this process, corresponding elements across multiple data sources are identified after the comparison of these data sources with each other. In this way, for a given set of data sources and the correspondence between them, different possibilities for creating GCS can be achieved. In applications like multi-databases and data warehousing, new data sources keep joining in and GCS relations are usually expanded horizontally or vertically. Schema merging approaches usually expand GCS relations horizontally or vertically as new data sources join in. As a result of such expansions, an unbalanced GCS is created which either produces too much NULL values in response to global queries or a result of too many Joins causes poor query processing. In this paper, a novel approach, TuSMe (Tuned Schema Merging) technique is introduced to overcome the above mentioned issue via developing a balanced GCS, which will be able to control both vertical and horizontal expansion of GCS relations. The approach employs a weighting mechanism in which the weights are assigned to individual attributes of GCS. These weights reflect the connectedness of GCS attributes in accordance with the attributes of the principle data sources. Moreover, the overall strength of the GCS could be scrutinized by combining these weights. A prototype implementation of TuSMe shows significant improvement against other contemporary state-of-the-art approaches.

10

Authors: Muhammad G., Marri A.,Shar A.M.

Thermal conductivity displays a key role in design of engineering structures where, thermal stresses resulting from heat and temperatures are of concern. Significant efforts were made to measure the thermal conductivity of different materials. For thermal conductivity characterization of soil samples it is essential to have very flexible set-up. Hence, this paper provides details about indigenously developed experimental setup for thermal conductivity measurement. The design of this newly developed setup is based on the basic principle of steady state heat flow. This experimental setup is designed in order to measure the thermal conductivity of various materials such as soils, rocks, concrete and any type of unbonded and bonded materials. In this paper, initially the theoretical background of the measurement techniques and the principle of heat flow are described, followed by design description and working procedure. The design has been kept very simple, adjustable for varying type and size of specimens and easy to operate with excellent level of accuracy as evident from system calibration. The accuracy and precision of the newly developed setup was verified by testing reference materials of known thermal conductivity and in the test results a high correlation coefficient (R^2 = 0.999) between experimental data and fitting curve was achieved.

12

Authors: Khoso S.A., Abro M.I., Agheem M.H.

Liberation size plays a significant role to select a correct and successful concentration method for natural iron ores. This paper aims to evaluate the liberation size of two newly discovered iron ores, namely Zard Koh and Kulli Koh, existing in Chagai region of Pakistan. Zard Koh iron ore is mainly composed of maghemite along with the pyrite, chlorite, grossular and admontite as gangue minerals, whereas, Kulli Koh iron ore is comprised of hematite mostly with quartz, dravite and kaolinite as the gangue minerals. The representative samples of ores were pulverized and sieved to different size fractions. The liberation size of iron bearing minerals and gangues was investigated by analyzing the different size fractions of each ore using XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) attached with EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscope). The XRF results revealed that the most probable liberation size of Zard Koh and Kulli Koh ores is most likely existing at -75+45 and -150+106 m, respectively. In order to confirm this liberation size, further evidences were collected using SEM and EDS examinations. It is interesting to note that the results obtained from SEM and EDS were quite in agreement with XRF results.

14

Authors: Iqbal A., Touqir I., Ashfaque A., Khan N., Ashraf F.

WT (Wavelet Transform) is considered as landmark for image compression because it represents a signal in terms of functions which are localized both in frequency and time domain. Wavelet sub-band coding exploits the self-similarity of pixels in images and arranges resulting coefficients in different sub-bands. A much simpler and fully embedded codec algorithm SPIHT (Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees) is widely used for the compression of wavelet transformed images. It encodes the transformed coefficients depending upon their significance comparative to the given threshold. Statistical analysis reveals that the output bit-stream of SPIHT comprises of long trail of zeroes that can be further compressed, therefore SPIHT is not advocated to be used as sole mean of compression. In this paper, wavelet transformed images have been initially compressed by using SPIHT technique and to attain more compression, the output bit streams of SPIHT are then fed to entropy encoders; Huffman and Arithmetic encoders, for further de-correlation. The comparison of two concatenations has been carried out by evaluating few factors like Bit Saving Capability, PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio), Compression Ratio and Elapsed Time. The experimental results of these cascading demonstrate that SPIHT combined with Arithmetic coding yields better compression ratio as compared to SPIHT cascaded with Huffman coding. Whereas, SPIHT once combined with Huffman coding is proved to be comparatively efficient.

14

Authors: Noor S., Vali Uddin

Identifying activities of daily living is an important area of research with applications in smart-homes and healthcare for elderly people. It is challenging due to reasons like human self-occlusion, complex natural environment and the human behavior when performing a complicated task. From psychological studies, we know that human gaze is closely linked with the thought process and we tend to “look” at the objects before acting on them. Hence, we have used the object information present in gaze images as the context and formed the basis for activity prediction. Our system is based on HMM (Hidden Markov Models) and trained using ANN (Artificial Neural Network). We begin with extracting motion information from TPV (Third Person Vision) streams and object information from FPV (First Person Vision) cameras. The advantage of having FPV is that the object information forms the context of the scene. When context is included as input to the HMM for activity recognition, the precision increases. For testing, we used two standard datasets from TUM (Technische Universitaet Muenchen) and GTEA Gaze+ (Georgia Tech Egocentric Activities). In the first round, we trained our ANNs only with activity information and in the second round added the object information as well. We saw a significant increase in the precision (and accuracy) of predicted activities from 55.21% (respectively 85.25%) to 77.61% (respectively 93.5%). This confirmed our initial hypothesis that including the focus of attention of the actor in the form of object seen in FPV can help in predicting activities better.

14

Authors: Siyal A.A., Lakhair I., Babar M.M., Siyal P., Solangi G.S

The effluent water brought by RBOD (Right Bank Outfall Drain) is not only threat to the aquatic life of Manchar Lake but also the fertile agricultural lands which are being cultivated by use of lake water through Danastar Wah are at risk of salinization. The farming community of the area is scary of continual use of irrigation waters received through the Danastar Wah; they are of the view that the constant use of this water will ruin their fertile lands into salt-affected soils. Thus, keeping in view the fears of the farmers of the command area of Danastar Wah, a study was carried out to investigate the water quality of the Manchar Lake, RBOD MNV (Main Nara Valley) drain and Danastar Wah, and to examine soil salinity status of the area using Geo-referenced field and satellite imagery data for Kharif season of the year 2015. The results of the study showed that the EC (Electrical Conductivity) of the Danastar Wah water was below 1.2 dS/m. Thus, the water was suitable for irrigation purpose. In all the water samples, Na+, Ca2+ + Mg2+ and CO3 concentrations were found within the permissible limits, while no concentration of HCO3 was found in any of the water samples. In the command area, clay texture was dominant down to a depth of 60 cm soil profile. In the area about 37, 28, and 30% of the soils were normal (non-saline), saline and sodic, respectively; while only 5% of soils were saline-sodic. The cotton crop was identified as the major Kharif crop, occupying about 13.76% (2,844 ha) of the total command area, followed by rice crop grown on about 5.21% (1,078 ha) of the command area. The overall accuracy of image classification was 90% with a kappa coefficient of 0.86. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the water of the Danastar Wah can be used for irrigation purpose during Kharif season only with the condition that adequate land drainage is maintained. It is also suggested that before using the water of Manchar Lake, RBOD and Danastar Wah for Rabi season, analysis for water quality be conducted. GeoInformatics (GIS and RS) tools can be employed for spatial and temporal monitoring of water quality of the Manchar Lake.

16

Authors: Gul Z., Hafeez Y., Hashmi A.S, Ali S., Iqbal N.

Collaborative effort is required in DSD (Distributed Software Development) in order to develop software in manageable components. Immense effort is taking place due to the cultural, geographical and temporal distances among project teams in Pakistani Software Industry to this end. The purpose of this study is to propose a solution during DSD that will help the distributed teams in coordinating their activities. Our solution enhances the management associated activities and assists in optimal usage of team coordination in dispersed settings. The method that we used is single case study type, which involved distributed software business to assess the usefulness and efficiency related to Pakistan’s DSD industries, and has shown strong tendency of participants towards the effectiveness of proposed team coordination framework. Results indicate that the predictable solution will look up the group management, which is considered as a vigorous issue of Pakistani DSD industry. Furthermore, it will assist in resolving the problems of team coordination in distributed situation. One of the most significant current discussion about the proposed solution suggested that it helps in human communication methods team coordination in a distributed environment.

18

Authors: Jabbar M., Javaid Q., Arif M., Munir A., Ali J.,

Recommender Systems are valuable tools to deal with the problem of overloaded information faced by most of the users in case of making purchase decision to buy any item. Recommender systems are used to provide recommendations in many domains such as movies, books, digital equipment’s, etc. The massive collection of available books online presents a great challenge for users to select the relevant books that meet their preferences. Users usually read few pages or contents to decide whether to buy a certain book or not. Recommender systems provide different value addition factors such as similar user ratings, users past history, user profiles, etc. to facilitate the users in terms of providing relevant recommendations according to their preferences. Recommender systems are broadly categorized into content based approach and collaborative filtering approach. Content based or collaborative filtering approaches alone are not sufficient to provide most accurate and relevant recommendations under diverse scenarios. Therefore, hybrid approaches are also designed by combining the features of both the content based and collaborative filtering approaches to provide more relevant recommendations. This paper proposes an efficient hybrid recommendation scheme for mobile platform that includes the traits of content based and collaborative filtering approaches in addition of the context based approach that is included to provide the latest books recommendations to user.Objective and subjective evaluation measures are used to compute the performance of the proposed system. Experimental results are promising and signify the effectiveness of our proposed hybrid scheme in terms of most relevant and latest books recommendations.

6

Authors: Abro S.H., Chandio A.D., Aftab U.

CHQ (Cold Heading Quality) steels are assumed to be non-heat treatable so strengthened by cold forming which is a quick and mass production makes it low cost manufacturing process. In this study, microstructure and phase transformation in steels is a fundamental aspect of governing the properties. A large number of studies are dedicated on the subject phase transformations owing to availability of several commercial steel grades. Due to several grades of steels commercially available shows differently behavior so it is hard to conclude that phase transformation is universally understood completely. In this study the influence of heating rate on the development of microstructure of CHQ steel has been studied thoroughly by using different heating techniques.For characterization, optical microscope connected with high resolution camera and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) was utilized to interpret the microstructural results. In addition, heat treatment methods have been utilized as to vary the microstructure in the steel under experimentation. It was found that heating rate could have major effect on phase transformation of CHQ steel (under study). Rate of heating enhances the austenite development kinetics with respect to dwell time and such austenite has been changed to martensite upon cooling. In addition, heating rate also promotes nucleation sites for the formation of austenite phase of CHQ steel.

8

Authors: Bhutto A., Hussain D.M.A.

The world is tilting more and more towards technology and the use of mobile devices is getting usual day by day. The majority of the user who use these gadgets are younger in age and belong to student class mostly as the mature the age is the learning curve is less responsive; that makes the equipment very evident for the learning. The aim of the proposed application is to promote the positive use of smart phones in the classroom to motivate students towards effective learning, where the goal of learning is achieved through the environment and fellows. By using the inquiry-based learning approach, the application provides a platform for the students to design, share and discuss their own questions with their class fellows. Technology-enabled active learning is a learning format that boosts the factors that affect the overall learning environment. The process starts in between them the eagerness to learn through their own interest and the environment they create amongst their institutes. The android application allows the users to access quiz, forum, view each other’s profile, including their statistics and ranking; while the web-based activity management application allows the administrator to manage, monitor, and control different aspects of the system.

8

Authors: Pathan A., Balal R., Memon T.D., Memon S.A.

The optimized implantation of digital filters has remained one of the challenging tasks, for FPGA (Field- Programmable Gate Array) based system designers, due to the involvement of very complex circuitry for multiplication. The multiplier consumes more recourse and hence results in less speed, being not the single step arithmetic operation. One way to carry out these implementations effectively is; to reduce the word length that will increase throughput in view of that. Since decays, SDM (Sigma-Delta Modulation) isused to convert the word length from multi-bit to single bit recurrently. This work is an extension of current trends of using SDM, in the design of Digital FIR (Finite Impulse Response) Filter, which is the most attractive component of DSP (Digital Signal Processor) In this work, we have presented single-bit ternary (0,+1,-1) and multi-bit FIR filterdesign, using the Booth multiplier technique, on small commercially used FPGA family, provided by Altera. Also, the performance analysis of designed filter with SWL (Short Word Length) using SDM and the conventional one (Multi-bit FIR Filter using general booth multiplier) is carried out. The results indicate that with consuming the resources one third of the conventional design, the sigma delta modulation based multiplier results six times more efficient in terms of achieved frequency, hence sum up the reason of using the sigma delta modulation in about all DSP applications.

8

Authors: Qureshi S., Shaikh J.M., Memon S.A.

The attributes of the built environment may influence walking in neighbourhood. The objective of this study is to find the association between objectively assessed and perceived built environment attributes. To achieve the objective of the study three neighbourhood of Putrajaya, Malaysia Precinct 8, 9 and 18 were selected. This study used NEWS (Neighbourhood Environment Walkability Scale) abbreviated version for the comparison of the residents’ perceptions regarding attributes of three neighbourhoods of Putrajaya in Malaysia that differ on objective measures derived from a GIS (Geographical Information System) data basis and Putrajaya master plan. High-walkable neighbourhood residents reported built environment attributes ratings persistently higher as compared to the residents of the moderate and lowwalkable neighbourhood. Results from the high walkable neighborhood shows that on a 5-point Likert scale most residents perceived high ratings of within the range of “3” except for residential density as there is a different scoring procedure for it. There are lowest ratings perceived within the range of “1” for the attribute crime and according to the scoring procedure for crime lowest score reflects the highest level of walking.There is no significant difference found in the ratings for traffic hazards. Subjective measures of built environment attributes had moderate to high alpha () value. Hence theneighbourhood environment walkability scale can be used for subjective assessment in the tropical context.

10

Authors: Kamran M., Bilal M., Zaib Z.J.

Though intermittent, solar energy is a clean and eternal source of energy. PV (Photovoltaic) cell is one of the technology to harness the solar energy and use it as electricity. In recent years rising cost of electricity and environmental concerns have made the solar PV technology a rising research field. In this research field the efficiency improvement is the focal point for the researchers. Because of intermittent weather conditions the output power of the solar cell varies directly to the irradiance level and inversely to the cell temperature and cell never operates at its maximum power. In this paper the characteristics of the sun power A-300 solar cell is simulated in a novel way in LabVIEW using MathScript RT Module along with a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) using variable step sized incremental conductance algorithm that operates the cell at its maximum power without oscillating at maximum power point. Impacts of changing solar insolation and cell temperature on output curves are also discussed graphically and numerically. The results of the simulation verify the data sheet parameters of sun power A-300 solar cell. Graphs of output power of MPPT indicate the accuracy of the variable step sized InC (Incremental Conductance) algorithm for constant and varying solar irradiance with fast tracking and elimination of steady state oscillations about the MPP which is comparatively better than the conventional MPPT algorithms as compared in the results.

10

Authors: Khoso A.R., Memon A.H., Pathan A.A., Akhund M.A.

Solid waste is a great threat not only to the economy of any country but for the environment too. The public through various sources generate tons of solid waste regularly. In the era of globalization, one of the rising issues of developing and under developed countries is handling such huge masses of solid waste. Hyderabad is the 2nd largest city of Sindh and 6th in Pakistan. Unfortunately, it does not poses proper solid waste management system right from collection up to its proper disposal. Most of those uncollected wastage poses a highrisk to the public through blockage of drains and formation of stagnant ponds which provide a breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes with a high risk of diseases. The public role and awareness can reduce this enormous load from Government. This research aims to uncover the reasons for solid waste generation in Hyderabad city. For data collection, various dumping sites in the city have been visited. Interviews were conducted with municipal officers of city for more precise data and possible causes of waste generation. Finally, a questionnaire survey has been conducted to list out top most significant causes of poor work management in the city. The data was analyzed in SPSS 24.0 with the help of average index technique. From the analysis of data, the top critical causes have been identified for Hyderabad city and discussed with the field expert for their possible solution.

12

Authors: Talpur M.A.H., Ali T.H.A., Chandio I.A., Shaikh F.A.

Transport sector can be considered as a backbone of the national and regional economies. Well-arranged transportation facilities are essential for the movement of people and goods, which can make nations agile and strong to face ever-increasing global and local socioeconomic problems. However, most of the developing countries were facing acute transport-related problems, i.e. absence of transport policies, inaccessibility, the proper road network hierarchy and unavailability of low-cost transportation services, especially for rural dwellers. Hence, the aim of this research is to propose policy implications by reviewing suitable literature associated with regional transportation planning, which can be essential to upsurge accessibility standards and abolish the transport-related problems of the rural sub-regions of developing countries. This research article is intended for the planned development and socioeconomic well-being of depressed sub-regions, which are struggling with the problem of transportation inaccessibility over the years. It was found that accessibility is a dominant element of transportation studies in rural subregions, if addressed by the concerned authorities or planning agencies; the deprived sub-regions can flourish and prosper with the passage of time.

14

Authors: Ali S., Iqbal N., Hafeez Y.

Software development globally an important business nowadays and also there are different issues related to software development process especially in change management process when there is change in requirement due to lack of communication, coordination and expert knowledge not properly manage. The aim of this paper is to provide and proposed framework to manage RCM (Requirement Change Management) using CBR (Cased Based Reasoning) technique effectively and intelligently. CBR to solve change in requirement on the base of previous knowledge and experience evaluated the proposed framework through experimental study. The experimental study depicted that proposed framework improved requirement change management in GSD (Globally Software Development) instead of other methods for change management of requirements in globally dispersed environment effectively.

16

Authors: Kafi N., Shaikh Z.A., Shaikh M.S.

KG (Knowledge Generation) and understanding has traditionally been a Human-centric activity. KE (Knowledge Engineering) and KM (Knowledge Management) have tried to augment human knowledge on two separate planes: the first deals with machine interpretation of knowledge while the later explores interactions in human networks for KG and understanding. However, both remain computercentric. Crowdsourced HC (Human Computations) have recently utilized human cognition and memory to generate diverse knowledge streams on specific tasks, which are mostly easy for humans to solve but remain challenging for machine algorithms. Literature shows little work on KM frameworks for citizen crowds, which gather input from the diverse category of Humans, organize that knowledge with respect to tasks and knowledge categories and recreate new knowledge as a computer-centric activity. In this paper, we present an attempt to create a framework by implementing a simple solution, called ExamCheck, to focus on the generation of knowledge, feedback on that knowledge and recording the results of that knowledge in academic settings. Our solution, based on HC, shows that a structured KM framework can address a complex problem in a context that is important for participants themselves.

18

Authors: Hussain S., Kamal M.A., Hafeez I.

The purpose of research is to model and correlate the laboratory rutting behavior of indigenous asphalt mixtures, prior to placing in the field. Extensive laboratory testing was carried out on thirty representative wearing course mixtures using two types of rutting performance tests i.e. CWTT (Cooper Wheel Tracking Tests), and APA (Asphalt Pavement Analyzer) tests. The mixture ranking is consistent for both laboratory performance tests at the tested temperature conditions of 40and 50oC. Laboratory rutting prediction models have been developed by non-linear regression analysis technique. Significant independent variables involved in the model are temperature, number of passes in case of CWTT or number of cycles in case of APA tests, bitumen penetration value, and Flakiness index of coarse aggregates fraction. A strong relationship has been observed between measured and predicted values of rut depth in terms of R2 value of 0.92 and 0.95 for CWTT and APA tests, respectively. A reasonable empirical quadratic function correlation (R^2 = 0.69) has been developed between rut depth of CWTT and rut depth in APA test.

4

Authors: Ramzan M., Ahmed Y., Mufti M.R.

This paper is devoted to explore the RICCI and MCs (Matter Collineations of the Som-Ray Chaudhary spacetime. The spacetime under consideration is one of the spatially homogeneous and rotating spacetimes. Collineations are the some kinds of the Lie symmetries. To discuss the required collineations we have used the RICCI and energy momentum tensors. As the RICCI tensor is formulated from the metric tensor, it must possess its symmetries. RCs (RICCI Collineations) leads to conservation laws. On the other hand for the distribution of matter in the spacetimes, the symmetries of energy momentum tensor or MCs provides conservation laws on matter field. Throughout this paper, these collineations are discussed by vanishing Lie derivative of RICCI and energy momentum tensors respectively. Complete solution of the RCs and MCs equations, which are formed in the result of vanishing Lie derivative are explored. Studying all these collineations in the said spacetime, it has been shown that RCs of the spacetime form an infinite dimensional vector space where as MCs are Killing vector fields

8

Authors: Ahmad I., Khan A.

The ride quality including comfort and safety is the primary factor that is targeted in the design of an effective suspension system. The parametric behavior of suspension system is non-linear but for simplicity most of the researchers have assumed it as linear. The emphasis of this study is to analyze the non-linear behavior of basic components of the suspension system. Anon-linear mathematical model for semi-active suspension system equipped with MR (Magnetorheological) damper is developed based on a two degrees of freedom quarter vehicle model. Matlab/Simulink is used for simulation of the proposed model for different types of road disturbances. Transient response characteristics of the proposed non-linear model is compared with linear semi-active suspension model which show the difference between the responses of these models.

8

Authors: Aftab U., Abro M.I., Chandio A.D., Akhtar W., Ahmed S.

Sacrificial anodes possessing higher electrochemical efficiency is the demand of marine, oil and gas industries. Due to high energy capability and long life light weight aluminum based anodes are more favorable as compare to magnesium and zinc based anodes to protect the engineering structures from corrosion. In present study an attempt was made to develop Al-5% Zn based composite with nano-ceria. The effect of nano-ceria on physiognomies of Al-5% Zn anode was determined through weight loss, CPR (Corrosion Penetration Rate) and emf study in CCP (Close Circuit Potential) conditions. The results indicated that by incorporating the ceria in the matrix of Al-5% Zn anode the corrosion inhibition efficiency and hardness were increased significantly.

8

Authors: Mangi M.Y., Chandio I.A., Talpur M.A.H., Shaikh F.A.

Land use planning is a technical approach for developing and managing the land into various public interests to endorse sustainable socio-economic development. This paper focuses on socio-economic problems by improper allocations of urban land uses particularly in vertical development (High rise buildings). Taluka Qasimabad Town was selected as a case study to observe the existing urban land use trends. Spatial and Quantitative data were collected through detailed land use survey and formal interviews. The ArcGIS and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) online software were used to analyze spatial and quantitative data. LRM (Linear Regression Model) was used for predicting urban land use change particularly in vertical development by the year 2050. In this context, yearly code and land use change variables were applied in LRM to predict land use change since 2007. The results were found that rapid change in land uses occurred in the study area, by which inhabitants are facing problems like privacy, insecurity, property devaluation, and orientation nearby their accommodations. This research can lead to suggest several ways to improve and enhance urban land use planning approaches for betterment of urban communities.

10

Authors: Khan R., Khattak R.W., Khan M.S., Mushtaq M.T.

FSOL (Free-Space Optical Links) are becoming very popular due to the inherent advantages of high data rates, rapid deployment, portability, cost effective and immunity to electromagnetic interference. FSOL is a line-of-sight technology that uses a modulated beam of light to transmit and receive the data of multiple of Giga Bit per second. FSOL uses the free space or atmosphere as a communication channel. Optical signal launched at transmitter end, travels through the atmosphere and reaches to the receiver, is severely affected by the local atmospheric conditions. Atmosphere contains different atmospheric particulates like fog, rain, snow, smog, clouds and haze. These atmospheric particulates, particularly fog, effect the propagation of optical signal passing through the atmosphere and cause significant amount of optical attenuation. In order to deploy FSO system, a detailed analysis of local weather condition is much more important. Here, we present the measured visibility data for analysis of optical attenuation. Visibility data was measured at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology from 2009-2012. Percentage CDF (Cumulative Distribution Function) is used to find out the detailed insight about the optical attenuation of FSOL. Yearly based CDFs is compared with each other whic

10

Authors: Unar S., Jalbani A.H., Jawaid M.M., Shaikh M., Chandio A.A.

In current era of technology, information acquisition from images and videos become most important task due to the rapid development of data mining and machine learning.The information can be either textual, visual, or combination of these. Text appearing in images or videos is a significant source of information and plays a vital role to perceive it. Developing a unified method to detect the text is hard, as textual properties (i.e. font, size, color, illumination, orientation, etc.) may vary with the complex background. So far, multimedia and computer vision community unable yet to standardize any ideal approach to extract the text smoothly. In this paper, a novel method is proposed to detect and localize artificial Urdu text in individual video frames. Firstly, Sobel and Canny edge detection operators are applied to input frame and are merged with MSER (Maximally Stable Extremal Region) detected regions. Next, geometric constraints are applied to eliminate obvious non-text regions with large and small variations. Further refining of non-text regions is achieved by stroke width transform. SVM (Support Vector Machine) classifier is trained to classify text and non-text objects. Finally, bounding boxes are used to localize the text.Experimental results show that the proposed method is robust and efficient than state-of-the-art methods.

12

Authors: Baloch Z.A.K., Qureshi A.L., Sahito A.R., Baloch A.

The steady–state analytical and numerical solutions are obtained for the mixing of effluent with Newtonian fluid in subsurface. The problem presented in this research work is flow through a channel packed by homogeneous porous media, associated to environmental sciences. Simulations are performed employing a time–marching scheme. Numerical method used in the study is a finite element method, while, the frame of reference is Cartesian coordinate system. Adopted algorithm follow semi-implicit technique through Taylor-Galerkin/Pressure-correction scheme. Analytical solution is Obtained and compared with the numerical predictions. Impact of Darcy’s number, influence of change in diffusion coefficient of effluent concentration and time dependent effects of velocity profile is investigated. Numerical predictions are compared against both steady–state and time–dependent analytical solutions obtained in the present study, and observed very good agreement. Various interesting features of the flow are reported. The numerical results exhibit that with increasing fluid inertia, the effluent disperses immediately in flow field when entering from same direction with the flow of fluid. While, increasing dispersion coefficient of effluent at fixed rate of inertia the effluent disperses faster and occupy large area of upstream.

14

Authors: Saeed S., Shaikh A., Naqvi S. M.R.

A speculation-based resource organising technique aids agencies in routing information across many industrial components. Organisation functions through IT (Information Technology) with the use of the latest technology helps HR (Human Resources) increase gross sales and beyond. The problem associated with an industry organizational tool is that it needs to share data from the MRP (Material Requirements Planning) system with financial accounting, customer relationships, the supply chain or other applications with the use of the latest technologies. Organisations cannot easily acquire choices, whatever ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) devices are made for their organisation.In this research paper, we performedand maintained QA (Quality Assurance) using two ERPs are Microsoft Design AX and SAP (Software and Application). Selecting the best ERP technique is never easy. These sort of options are likely to be a really expensive investment decision along with lifetime costs which include a huge amount of money. In this research article, we have highlighted the important elements of the investigation tasks – the biological materials or groupings, steps, treatment options or applications, and also strategies within the assignment. This study can be a resourceful approach to get the essential details through the most effective way possible. This is caused by truth migration; you can use technique personalisation and employee education thoroughly, making use of the types of programs and talks that take a couple of months to more comprehensive period of time to perform. This research study hasfound that ERP is better than the currently used Supply Chain module.

16

Authors: Javaid Q., Yasmeen H., Shah M.A., Kamran M., Sohail A.

Human beings reflect nomadic behaviour as they keep on travelling place to place whole day for personal or organizational purposes. The inception of modern networking technologies and the advent of wide range of applications in terms of services and resources have facilitated the users in many ways. The advancements in numerous areas such as embedded systems, WN (Wireless Networks), mobile and context-aware computing, anticipated pervasive computing dominated the human communication at large. Pervasive computing refers to the environment where information is accessible anywhere and anytime while existing system is invisible to the user. On the other hand, the invisibility of pervasive computing is also a problem in its adoption as users are unaware when and what devices collect their personal data and how it is being used. It has caused new security chaos as the more information about user is collected the more privacy and security concerns it raises, thus, the pervasive computing applications became key concern for user. This paper is aimed at analyzing the security and protection issues that arise while traveling from place to place connected with wireless mobile networks. The paper reviews many existing systems that offer possible security to pervasive users. An easy, precise and relative analysis and evaluation of surveyed pervasive systems are presented and some future directions are highlighted.

18

Authors: Enam R.N., Tahir M., Qureshi R., Ahmed S.

WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) is an emerging technology that has unlimited potential for numerous application areas including military, crisis management, environmental, transportation, medical, home/ city automations and smart spaces. But energy constrained nature of WSNs necessitates that their architecture and communicating protocols to be designed in an energy aware manner. Sensor data collection through clustering mechanisms has become a common strategy in WSN. This paper presents a survey report on the major perspectives with which energy conservation mechanisms has been proposed in dynamic cluster based WSNs so far. All the solutions discussed in this paper focus on the cluster based protocols only.We have covered a vast scale of existing energy efficient protocols and have categorized them in six categories. In the beginning of this paper the fundamentals of the energy constraint issues of WSNs have been discussed and an overview of the causes of energy consumptions at all layers of WSN has been given. Later in this paper several previously proposed energy efficient protocols of WSNs are presented.

6

Authors: Awan S.A., Abro Z.H., Jalbani A.H., Hakro D.N., Hameed M.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a technology in which text image is used to understand and write text by machines. The work on languages containing isolated characters such as German, English, French and others is at its peak. The OCR and ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) research in Sindhi script is currently at in starting stages and not sufficient work have been cited in this area even though Sindhi language is rich in culture and history. This paper presents one of the initial steps in recognizing Sindhi handwritten characters. The isolated characters of Sindhi script written by the subjects have been recognized. The various subjects were asked to write Sindhi characters in unconstrained form and then the written samples were collected and scanned through a flatbed scanner. The scanned documents were preprocessed with the help of binary conversion, removing noise by pepper noise and the lines were segmented with the help of horizontal profile technique. The segmented lines were used to extract characters from scanned pages.This character segmentation was done by vertical projection. The extracted characters have been used to extract features so that the characters can be classified easily. Zoning was used for the feature extraction technique. For the classification, neural network has been used. The recognized characters converted into editable text with an average accuracy of 85%.

8

Authors: Bashir R., Bari M., Mustafa G.

This article deals with general formulae of parametric and non parametric bivariate subdivision scheme with four parameters. By assigning specific values to those parameters we get some special cases of existing tensor product schemes as well as a new proposed scheme. The behavior of schemes produced by the general formulae is interpolating, approximating and relaxed. Approximating bivariate subdivision schemes produce some other surfaces as compared to interpolating bivariate subdivision schemes. Polynomial reproduction and polynomial generation are desirable properties of subdivision schemes. Capability of polynomial reproduction and polynomial generation is strongly connected with smoothness, sum rules, convergence and approximation order. We also calculate the polynomial generation and polynomial reproduction of 9-point bivariate approximating subdivision scheme.Comparison of polynomial reproduction, polynomial generation and continuity of existing and proposed schemes has also been established. Some numerical examples are also presented to show the behavior of bivariate schemes.

10

Authors: Solangi G.S., Katbar N.M., Khokhar J.I., Panhwer S., Bhatti N.B.

Looming water scarcity could be curtailed with intelligent water losses control. Present study was designed to assess the relative effect of watercourse lining in prospect of seepage minimization.Qualitative as well as quantitative analysis was undertaken using water conveyance efficiency, annual water saving, increase in cropping intensities, time and land saving along with labor saving indictors over Gadeji minor in Sindh, Pakistan. Primary data was collected from field measurements while secondary data was gathered from NPIW (National Program for Improvement of Watercourses),Irrigation Department, personal interviews and site survey. The analysis revealed that lining of 30%initial portion of watercourses resulted average annual water saving of 10.32 hectare-m. Similarly, the cropping intensity increased 15% in Rabi and 14% in Kharif seasons. Crop yield increased by 17%for wheat crop, 14% for cotton crop, 12% for sugarcane, 17% for chilies, 11% for onion crop and 20%for rice crop after lining the selected watercourses. Thus, it is concluded that watercourse lining has noticeable effect for seepage control which yielded a significant water saving. In future, economic viability of watercourse lining may be assessed for obtaining optimum benefits.

10

Authors: Waqas M., Khan M.A.

In the current era where multi-core technologies are very common in use, the existing web browsers are unable to fully utilize the capability of multi-core processors.The web browsers execute the Java Script code locally in order to produce an efficient response of web pages. This responsiveness is however limited by the fact that the JavaScript code is uni-threaded, and consequently, the efficiency of the code degrades if it involves a large number of computations.In this paper, we propose a framework called JSOPT (JavaScript Optimizer) which generates an efficient Java Script code to effectively utilize multi-core architectures. The framework uses a template containing constructs for communication & synchronization, and subsequently generates optimized code to be executed on the multi-core architectures. Multiple instances of templates are then generated with different implementations of the code and the best instance is selected to be incorporated in the library. With the optimized code generated using JSOPT, our results show a significant improvement in the performance of several benchmarks involving intensive computations based matrix operations on the Mozilla Firefox web browser

10

Authors: Soomro I.A., Abro M.I., Baloch M.M

Mechanical properties of DP (Dual Phase) steels are greatly influenced by the microstructural features such as grain size, morphology and martensite volume fraction (Vm%). These microstructural features can be altered by changing the soaking time and temperature within intercritical zone. Present study aims to study the effect of intercritical annealing temperature and soaking time on Vm% and its effects on mechanical properties of plain low carbon steel grade (AISI 1020) steel having ferritemartensitemicrostructure. Nine DP steel specimens with various amount of martensite were produced via intercritical heat treatment. Mechanical properties including TS (Tensile Strength), hardness and toughness were characterized and co-related with martensite volume fraction. It was found that increasing the intercritical annealing temperature and soaking time increases the Vm%. The optimum TS and hardness were found at 64Vm% and then decrease with further increase in Vm%. The toughness was found to have linear relationship with Vm%.

10

Authors: Yousaf M.M., Sadiq M.M., Aslam L., Waqar ul Qounain, Sarwar S.

The edit distance between two sequences is the minimum number of weighted transformation-operations that are required to transform one string into the other. The weighted transformation-operations are insert, remove, and substitute. Dynamic programming solution to find edit distance exists but it becomes computationally intensive when the lengths of strings become very large. This work presents a novel parallel algorithm to solve edit distance problem of string matching. The algorithm is based on resolving dependencies in the dynamic programming solution of the problem and it is able to compute each row of edit distance table in parallel. In this way, it becomes possible to compute the complete table in min(m,n) iterations for strings of size m and n whereas state-of-the-art parallel algorithm solves the problem in max(m,n) iterations. The proposed algorithm also increases the amount of parallelism in each of its iteration. The algorithm is also capable of exploiting spatial locality while its implementation. Additionally, the algorithm works in a load balanced way that further improves its performance. The algorithm is implemented for multicore systems having shared memory. Implementation of the algorithm in OpenMP shows linear speedup and better execution time as compared to state-of-the-art parallel approach. Efficiency of the algorithm is also proven better in comparison to its competitor.

12

Authors: Gul N., Babar M.M., Sarki A., Shaikh I.A., Mangrio M.A.

An experimental study was carried out on a Lysimeter with the aim of partially meeting WRs (Water Requirements) of the Okra crop through SWT (Shallow Water Table) while maintaining the SWT at various levels below the ground surface. Under the study, CWR (Crop Water Requirement), yield, water productivity, salt accrual and contribution of SWTs towards meeting the CWR are assessed. The study was designed in accordance with the principles of CRD (Complete Randomized Design) with three treatments and four replications. The treatments; viz. T1, T2, and T3 consisted of maintaining the WTDs (Water Table Depths) at 45, 60 and 75 cm, respectively, below the ground surface. The crop was irrigated with a good quality water having ECw = 0.50 dS m-1 and pH = 7.3. The results of the study showed that the crop consumed the maximum amount of water under T1 treatment, followed by T2 and then by T3 treatment. Accordingly, the contribution of SWTs towards the CWR is 94.8, 93.2 and 42.9% of the total CWR under the T1, T2, and T3 treatments, respectively. Maximum yield is attained under T3 treatment, followed by T2 treatment and then by T1 treatment. Likewise, maximum water productivity is achieved under T3 treatment, followed by T2 treatment and then by T1 treatment. The dry bulk density (ρd) of the soil, under T1 and T2 treatments, increased slightly; however, it remained unchanged under the T3 treatment. The ECse (Electrical Conductivity) of the soil increased, whereas, the pH value of the soil decreased under all the treatments. Statistically, significant difference (p < 0.05) is observed in CWR, yield, water productivity, contribution of SWT towards crop water use, plant height and weight of the Okra pod; whereas, the difference in ρd, ECse, pH and length of the pod is observed as not significant (p > 0.05) under the three treatments. Accordingly, to make profitable use of SWTs, improve WUE and productivity, and maintain soil fertility, the depth of SWT be controlled at 75 cm for growing of the Okra crop. Adapting to this guideline will help in availing the maximum contribution of SWTs towards meeting the CWR and achieve the larger aim of water conservation.

14

Authors: Nawaz M.S., Iqbal Z., Lali M.I., Mustafa Raza Ul

Research regarding MAT (Mobile Application Testing) in Pakistan is hard to discover and to the best of our knowledge, no work has been done in surveying MAT in Pakistan. In this work, we have examined the current trend and status of MAT in Pakistan. Main objective was to investigate to what extent MAT is currently applied in Pakistan software companies and what experience the companies have with using MAT. Furthermore, efforts were made to find out what testers think about MAT, e.g. issue, advantages and disadvantages of MAT, what factors affects MAT and how they plan to improve MAT. In order to achieve our objectives, we used a comprehensive online survey so we converted our research questions into correspondence survey questions. We served a questionnaire of the survey to 66 testing relevant officials of leading software companies in different cities of Pakistan to develop a model study about general trend and status of MAT which can be generalized all over Pakistan. We received 56 replies in total after over 2 months. After that, we used SPSS tool to analyze the replies of this questionnaire. Cross-Tabulation Analysis and Pearson Chi-square tests have been computed to examine the results. We found some interesting results on current status and practice of MAT in Pakistan software companies.

14

Authors: Iqbal F., Kumar A., Murtaza A

Subgrade is a most important part of a pavement structure, which should have a reasonable stiffness modulus and shear strength. CBR (California Bearing Ratio) test is performed to evaluate stiffness modulus and shear strength of subgrade soils. However, CBR test is laborious and time consuming, particularly when soil is highly plastic like Jamshoro soil. In order to overcome this limitation, it may be appropriate to correlate CBR value of soil with its index properties like grain size analysis, Atterberg limits, and compaction characteristics such as MDD (Maximum Dry Density) and OMC (Optimum Moisture Content). This paper expresses the correlations between CBR value of Jamshoro soil and its index properties. SLRA (Single Linear Regression Analysis) and MLRA(Multiple Linear Regression) based Models were utilized. It is seen that MLRA gave better correlations up to R2 of about 0.984. It is observed that the Soaked CBR value can be predicted with confidence from LL (Liquid Limit), PI (Plasticity Index) and percent finer while the un-soaked CBR value can be obtained from LL, plasticity index and MDD.

18

Authors: Akram B.A., Zafar A., Akbar A.H., Wajid B., Chaudhry S.A

The VIoT (Visual Internet of Things) connects virtual information world with real world objects using sensors and pervasive computing. For video surveillance in VIoT, ChD (Change Detection) is a critical component. ChD algorithms identify regions of change in multiple images of the same scene recorded at different time intervals for video surveillance. This paper presents performance comparison of histogram thresholding and classification ChD algorithms using quantitative measures for video surveillance in VIoT based on salient features of datasets. The thresholding algorithms Otsu, Kapur,Rosin and classification methods k-means, EM (Expectation Maximization) were simulated in MATLAB using diverse datasets. For performance evaluation, the quantitative measures used include OSR(Overall Success Rate), YC (Yule’s Coefficient) and JC (Jaccard’s Coefficient), execution time and memory consumption. Experimental results showed that Kapur’s algorithm performed better for both indoor and outdoor environments with illumination changes, shadowing and medium to fast moving objects. However, it reflected degraded performance for small object size with minor changes. Otsu algorithm showed better results for indoor environments with slow to medium changes and nomadic object mobility. k-means showed good results in indoor environment with small object size producing slow change, no shadowing and scarce illumination changes

6

Authors: Alam N., Sarim M., Shaikh A.B.

Image matting is a technique in which a foreground is separated from the background of a given image along with the pixel wise opacity. This foreground can then be seamlessly composited in a different background to obtain a novel scene. This paper presents a global non-parametric sampling algorithm over image patches and utilizes a dimension reduction technique known as NMF (Non-Negative Matrix Factorization). Although some existing non-parametric approaches use large nearby foreground and background regions to sample patches but these approaches fail to take the whole image to sample patches. It is because of the high memory and computational requirements. The use of NMF in the proposed algorithm allows the dimension reduction which reduces the computational cost and memory requirement. The use of NMF also allow the proposed approach to use the whole foreground and background region in the image and reduces the patch complexity and help in efficient patch sampling. The use of patches not only allows the incorporation of the pixel colour but also the local image structure. The use of local structures in the image is important to estimate a high-quality alpha matte especially in the images which have regions containing high texture. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on the standard data set and obtained results are comparable to the state-of-the-art matting techniques.

6

Authors: Siddiqi A.A., Narejo G.B., Khan A.M., Tariq M.

The research is done to provide appropriate detection technique for skin tumor detection. The work is done by using the image processing toolbox of MATLAB. Skin tumors are unwanted skin growth with different causes and varying extent of malignant cells. It is a syndrome in which skin cells mislay the ability to divide and grow normally. Early detection of tumor is the most important factor affecting the endurance of a patient. Studying the pattern of the skin cells is the fundamental problem in medical image analysis. The study of skin tumor has been of great interest to the researchers. DIP (Digital Image Processing) allows the use of much more complex algorithms for image processing, and hence, can offer both more sophisticated performance at simple task, and the implementation of methods which would be impossibly by analog means. It allows much wider range of algorithms to be applied to the input data and can avoid problems such as build up of noise and signal distortion during processing. The study shows that few works has been done on cellular scale for the images of skin. This research allows few checks for the early detection of skin tumor using microscopic images after testing and observing various algorithms. After analytical evaluation the result has been observed that the proposed checks are time efficient techniques and appropriate for the tumor detection. The algorithm applied provides promising results in lesser time with accuracy. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) that is generated for the algorithm makes the system user friendly.

8

Authors: Haque M.I., Qadri M.T., Siddiqui N.

This research proposes a RR (Reduced Reference) DIQAM (Detailed Image Quality Assessment Meter) for DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) based compressed images. DCT technique divides image in sub blocks to achieve image compression.Therefore, it degrades the IQ (Image Quality) by introducing the distortions called blockiness and blurriness in the compressed image.In the telecommunication systems scenario, the systems available bandwidth is limited. The proposed IQ assessment technique requires fewer image details parameters called RR parameters at the receiver, rather than the complete reference image. This paper suggests a method for receiving end to estimate the objective quality of the received image in frequency domain.The proposed IQ meter starts by taking the image through edge detection method, then converting it into frequency domain by Fourier transform and estimating the image details. The image details calculations include the vertical and horizontal ac harmonics as well as all other ac coefficients present in the image. It has been shown in the presented work that using dc coefficients with the other ac coefficients further improves the quality assessment.The calculated strength of coded image details at receiver is compared with the received RR parameter for the estimation of distortions, blockiness and blurriness. The accuracy of the designed RR DIQAM algorithm is proved by correlating the estimated objective values of the distortions with the LIVE image database2 subjective DMOS values of blockiness and blurriness. The results obtained by the proposed technique are well matched with the LIVE database values and provide 94-96% correlation.

8

Authors: Memon N.A., Abbasi F., Zardari S.

A computer can read and write multiple languages and today?s computers are capable of understanding various human languages. A computer can be given instructions through various input methods but OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and handwritten character recognition are the input methods in which a scanned page containing text is converted into written or editable text. The change in language text available on scanned page demands different algorithm to recognize text because every language and script pose varying number of challenges to recognize text. The Latin language recognition pose less difficulties compared to Arabic script and languages that use Arabic script for writing and OCR systems for these Latin languages are near to perfection. Very little work has been done on regional languages of Pakistan. In this paper the Sindhi glyphs are identified and the number of characters and connected components are identified for this regional language of Pakistan. A graphical user interface has been created to perform identification task for glyphs and characters of Sindhi language. The glyphs of characters are successfully identified from scanned page and this information can be used to recognize characters. The language glyph identification can be used to apply suitable algorithm to identify language as well as to achieve a higher recognition rate.

8

Authors: Hafiz Q.A., Farooq A., Ahmed M.

Treatment efficiency of the sewage stabilization ponds at Chokera, Faisalabad was carried out with respect to the parameters (i.e. BOD5 (Five Days Biochemical Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), pH, Turbidity, TS (Total Solids), TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), Copper, Lead, etc.). Parameters under investigation were monitored at six different locations (i.e. Influent of treatment plant, Influent of anaerobic Ponds, Effluent of Anaerobic Ponds, Effluent of Facultative Ponds, Drain before disposal of treated sewage and Drain after mixing with treated sewage). The testing was done during the low flow season i.e. from December 2015 to January 2016 in Environmental Engineering Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Lahore, Pakistan. BOD5 removal efficiency of the treatment plant was found 30.08 against designed value of 90% removal. The removal efficiency of COD, TS, TDS, pH, Turbidity, lead and Copper was found 36.56, 22.43, 30.40, 3.43, 73.50, 34.13 and 41.15%, respectively. The maximum removal was of turbidity which is 73.50% but still none of the parameters of the effluent were meeting the PEQS (Punjab Environmental Quality Standards) 2012 except pH and TS. The reasons of low efficiency included lack of funds by government for operation and maintenance of the ponds, increased population, mixing of industrial sewage with domestic and less attention to maintain the performance of Ponds.

8

Authors: Khoso S.A., Abro M.I., Agheem M.H.

Zard Koh and Kulli Koh are two recently discovered iron ore deposits, existing in the Chagai district, Balochistan, Pakistan. PSM (Pakistan Steel Mill Limited) is interested to utilize these ore deposits at priority. Purpose of the present study was to assess the mineralogy of the Zard Koh and Kulli Koh iron ore deposits, as it plays a vital role in the selection of an appropriate processing method. The mineralogical study of ore deposits was carried out by XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) attached with EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscope) and SM (Stereomicroscope) techniques. Results indicated that the Zard Koh ore is mainly composed of 60.15% maghemite, 23.57% pyrite, 4.07% chlorite, 10.30% grossular and 1.65% admontite minerals. The chemical analysis revealed that Zard Koh iron ore contains an average of 54.27% Fe, 12.73% S, 8.70% Si, 3.07% Al, 4.07% Ca, and 2.16% Mg. Similarly, the mineralogical study of the Kulli Koh iron ore indicated that, ore is containing 51.16% hematite, 29.24% quartz, 8.89% dravite, and 8.76% kaolinite minerals. Elemental analysis of different samples indicated that Kulli Koh iron ore contains an average composition of 40.23% Fe, 20.67% Si, 3.44% Ca, 3.81% Al and 3.25% Mg. Mineralogical study of the Zard Koh and Kulli Koh iron ore deposits suggested that these ore deposits can be beneficiated costeffectively by using magnetic separation techniques.

10

Authors: Javaid Q., Zafar A., Awais M., Shah M.A.

Caching strategies can improve the overall performance of a system by allowing the fast processor and slow memory to at a same pace. One important factor in caching is the replacement policy. Advancement in technology results in evolution of a huge number of techniques and algorithms implemented to improve cache performance. In this paper, analysis is done on different cache optimization techniques as well as replacement algorithms. Furthermore this paper presents a comprehensive statistical comparison of cache optimization techniques.To the best of our knowledge there is no numerical measure which can tell us the rating of specific cache optimization technique. We tried to come up with such a numerical figure. By statistical comparison we find out which technique is more consistent among all others. For said purpose we calculated mean and CV (Coefficient of Variation). CV tells us about which technique is more consistent. Comparative analysis of different techniques shows that victim cache has more consistent technique among all.

10

Authors: Mahmood N., Burney S.M.A., Rizwan K.,Shah A., Nadeem A.

Everything in this world is encapsulated by space and time fence. Our daily life activities are utterly linked and related with other objects in vicinity. Therefore, a strong relationship exist with our current location, time (including past, present and future) and event through with we are moving as an object also affect our activities in life. Ontology development and its integration with database are vital for the true understanding of the complex systems involving both spatial and temporal dimensions. In this paper we propose a conceptual framework for building spatio-temporal database model based on ontological approach. We have used relational data model for modelling spatio-temporal data content and present our methodology with spatio-temporal ontological accepts and its transformation into spatio-temporal database model. We illustrate the implementation of our conceptual model through a case study related to cultivated land parcel used for agriculture to exhibit the spatio-temporal behaviour of agricultural land and related entities. Moreover, it provides a generic approach for designing spatiotemporal databases based on ontology. The proposed model is capable to understand the ontological and somehow epistemological commitments and to build spatio-temporal ontology and transform it into a spatio-temporal data model. Finally, we highlight the existing and future research challenges.

10

Authors: Memon S.A., Qureshi I.A., Latif A.

Multicarrier transmission technique has become a prominent transmission technique in high-speed wireless communication systems. It is due to its frequency diversity,small inter-symbol interference in the multipath fading channel, simple equalizer structure, and high bandwidth efficiency. Nevertheless, in thetime domain, multicarrier transmission signal has high PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) thatinterprets to low power amplifier efficiencies. To decrease the PAPR, a CCSLM (Convolutional Code Selective Mapping) scheme for multicarrier transmission with a high number of subcarriers is proposed in this paper. Proposed scheme is based on SLM method and employs interleaver and convolutional coding. Related works on the PAPR reduction have considered either 128 or 256 number of subcarriers. However, PAPR of multicarrier transmission signal will increase as a number of subcarriers increases. The proposed method achieves significant PAPR reduction for ahigher number of subcarriers as well as better power amplifier efficiency. Simulation outcomes validate the usefulness of projected scheme.

12

Authors: Ali H.M.K., Sultan A., Rana B.B.

Based on the prevailing energy crisis, it is reasonable for the Cement industry of Pakistan to look for alternate sources of electricity generation. The decision of selecting a CPP (Captive Power Plant) depends on a broad variety of parameters which may be conflicting to each other. A comparative evaluation of these CPP?s should be helpful for industry, particularly if the applied methodology can handle with the real world ambiguities and imprecisions associated with the data pools and expert opinions. This paper utilizes an F-AHP (Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process) based multi-attribute framework to prioritize the affecting parameters and assign rankings to the CPP alternatives. The CPP?s recommended by experts for this study are RDF-CPP (Refused Derived Fuel CPP), CF-CPP (Coal Fired CPP) and WHR-CPP (Waste Heat Recovery CPP). The factors affecting the decision of selecting the optimum CPP are prioritized by the experts using our F-AHP approach. Real world quantitative data is extracted from different online resources and financial reports of cement companies in Pakistan. The F-AHP model is flexible enough to deal with a variety of inputs including qualitative scales, crisp values and standard fuzzy numbers. The model is solved and a sensitivity analysis is performed in respective software. This study shows that non-conventional CPPs are highly demanded for cement industry in Pakistan and while selecting these CPPs, management gives high priority to factors like 'automation' and 'environment' whereas associated ?initial cost? is not given much weight in decision making.

12

Authors: Mehmood S., Shah M., Rana B.B., Anjum N.A., Sultan A

EDMed (Electric Discharge Machined) surfaces are unique in their appearance and metallurgical characteristics, which depend on different parameter such as electric parameters, flushing method, and dielectric type. Conventionally, in static workpiece method the EDM (Electric Discharge Machining) is performed by submerging both of the tool and workpiece in dielectric liquid and side flushing is provided by impinging pressurized dielectric liquid into the gap. Another flushing method has been investigated in this study, in which, instead of side flushing the rotation motion is provided to the workpiece. Surface characteristics for both flushing methods are determined and compared in this study. The investigated surface characteristics are: surface roughness, crater size, surface morphology, white layer thickness and composition. These investigations are performed using optical and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope). Statistical confidence limits are determined for scattered data of surface roughness. It is found that the white layer thickness and surface roughness are directly proportional to discharge current for both flushing methods. The comparison has shown that the side flushing of statics workpiece gives thicker white layer and lower surface finish as compared to the flushing caused by the rotation of workpiece.

12

Authors: Ali H.Q., Farooq A., Ahmed M.

Software size is one of the most important inputs of many software cost and effort estimation models. Early estimation of software plays an important role at the time of project inception. An accurate estimate of software size is, therefore, crucial for planning, managing, and controlling software development projects dealing with the development of software games. However, software size is unavailable during early phase of software development. This research determines the utility of CK (Chidamber and Kemerer) metrics, a well-known suite of object-oriented metrics, in estimating the size of software applications using the information from its UML (Unified Modeling Language) class diagram. This work focuses on a small subset dealing with board-based software games. Almost sixty games written using an object-oriented programming language are downloaded from open source repositories, analyzed and used to calibrate a regression-based size estimation model. Forward stepwise MLR (Multiple Linear Regression) is used for model fitting. The model thus obtained is assessed using a variety of accuracy measures such as MMRE (Mean Magnitude of Relative Error), Prediction of x(PRED(x)), MdMRE (Median of Relative Error) and validated using K-fold cross validation. The accuracy of this model is also compared with an existing model tailored for size estimation of board games. Based on a small subset of desktop games developed in various object-oriented languages, we obtained a model using CK metrics and forward stepwise multiple linear regression with reasonable estimation accuracy as indicated by the value of the coefficient of

12

Authors: Bhatti Z.A., Qureshi K., Bhatti I., Unar I.N., Khuhawar M.Y.

As (Arsenic) is one of the lethal element present at the various locations of the world, putting human beings in danger by polluting the water. Arsenic Kit and atomic absorption spectrometer were used to determine As in ground water of Sindh province, Pakistan. Twenty-Four (24) districts both on the left and right bank of RI (River Indus) were analyzed. It was observed from the results that highest As concentration 200 ppb (parts per billion) i.e. above the WHO (World Health Organization) limit (10 ppb) was observed in Sakrand, district Shaheed Benazirabad followed by Hala, Matairi, TMK (Tando Mohammad Khan) and Nasarpur regions. It was further found that ground water of regions on the left bank of RIwas more contaminated than the right bank. Contour map was created using OriginPro and coordinate systems to highlight the elevated arsenic in the studied area. HRA (Health Risk Assessment) of these areas was carried out to calculate EDI (Estimated Daily Intake), TQH (Target Hazard Quotient) and CR (Cancer Risk). 45% of the total ground water samples analyzed were above the permissible limit for As in water and mostly these are located on the left bank of RI. The local wells in Sindh have never been tested for metal concentration former to use. These results provide baselines for researchers, NGO?s (Non-Governmental Organizations) and government to apply arsenic treatment technologies in those areas

14

Authors: Kandhar I.A., Khaskheli G.B., Sahito A.R., Mahar R.B.

This study was conducted at lab scale to determine the performance of the canal-bed for the removal of turbidity and microorganisms TC (Total Coliforms) from surface water. The canal-bed sediments were collected and analyzed for the characteristics of sediments for grain size distribution, hydraulic conductivity and the POM (Particulate Organic Matter) percent. Canal-bed sediments were containing fine particles<0.075mm in the range of 40-58%, with hydraulic conductivity averaged 7ft/day, and the POM 2.75%. The water samples collected from the canal-water have shown average POM 3.6%. Theremoval-reduction in turbidity and TC were determined through the column experiments on the canal-bed sediments. Three columns were prepared at lab-scale by using prepared canal-bed sediment as a filter-bed in the columns for the filtration of raw water samples. Fine particles of the canal-bed grain size D10 0.2 and D10 0.1mm were selected for the filter-bed formation. The prepared concentrated and diluted influent water samples containing turbidity and TC were passed through the washed filter-bed into the columns for 8-weeks filter run. The frequency of sampling and analysis were followedafter the interval of one-week run, the influent (raw water) and effluent (filtered) water samples were collected and analyzed for the turbidity and TC concentrations. The performance of the grain size D10 0.1mm have shown 95-99.95% reduction in turbidity and TC compared to the larger grain size having D10 0.2mm particles.

16

Authors: Zaidi S.M.K., Junejo F., Syed B.M

The application of robots or robotic systems for painting parts is becoming increasingly conventional; to improve reliability, productivity, consistency and to decrease waste. However, in Pakistan only highend Industries are able to afford the luxury of a robotic system for various purposes. In this study we propose an economical Painting Robot that a small-scale industry can install in their plant with ease. The importance of this robot is that being cost effective, it can easily be replaced in small manufacturing industries and therefore, eliminate health problems occurring to the individual in charge of painting parts on an everyday basis. To achieve this aim, the robot is made with local parts with only few exceptions, to cut costs; and the programming language is kept at a mediocre level. Image processing is used to establish object recognition and it can be programmed to paint various simple geometries. The robot is placed on a conveyer belt to maximize productivity. A four DoF (Degree of Freedom) arm increases the working envelope and accessibility of painting different shaped parts with ease. This robot is capable of painting up, front, back, left and right sides of the part with a single colour. Initially CAD (Computer Aided Design) models of the robot were developed which were analyzed, modified and improved to withstand loading condition and perform its task efficiently. After design selection, appropriate motors and materials were selected and the robot was developed. Throughout the development phase, minor problems and errors were fixed accordingly as they arose. Lastly the robot was integrated with the computer and image processing for autonomous control. The final results demonstrated that the robot is economical and reduces paint wastage.