32 research outputs found
Hydraulic simulations to evaluate and predict design and operation of the Chashma Right Bank Canal
No full textIrrigation systems / Irrigation canals / Flow control / Velocity / Canal regulation techniques / Hydraulics / Simulation models / Design / Operations / Crop-based irrigation / Distributary canals / Water delivery / Policy / Protective irrigation / Water allocation / Water requirements / Sedimentation / Water distribution / Equity / Water conveyance / Pakistan / Chashma Right Bank Canal
Dislocation and Silence: A Quest to Break Transgenerational Patriarchal Chain in Bapsi Sidhwa's The Pakistani Bride
No full textEnergy management of smart homes over fog-based IoT architecture
No full textExisting research studies on home automation systems mostly conserve energy by modeling the occupancy of users within home. Some others apply statistical approaches on the survey data about usage of appliances. Consequently, these research works either reduce wastage of electricity through automation or achieve energy efficiency based on appliances’ usage estimations. However, they do not provide energy consumption modeling which is human comfort centric and also validated through practical implementation in real-world smart homes. We present a Markov-chain-based probabilistic model to obtain users stochastic activity patterns which are used to forecast the energy consumption in a smart home environment. These predictions are then leveraged by our novel comfort aware energy saving mechanism named as prediction- and feedback-based proactive energy conservation (PF-PEC) algorithm. The PF-PEC algorithm reduces the total energy consumption while ensuring standard human comfort. Furthermore, a fog-based Internet of Things (IoT) architecture is implemented and deployed in a smart home to efficiently incorporate the proposed algorithm in real-world scenarios. Experimental results show up to 36% energy conservation, marking substantial reduction in daily electricity usage.</p
Decentralization, local government elections and voter turnout in Pakistan:
No full text"Decentralization has the potential to improve the accountability of government and lead to a more efficient provision of public services. However, accountability requires broad groups of people to participate in local government. Thus, voter turnout at local government elections is an important component of government accountability. This study used survey data on the 2005 local government elections in Pakistan to analyze the impact of electoral mechanisms, the credibility of elections, and voters' socioeconomic characteristics on voter turnout. The rational-choice perspective is applied to develop the specifications of the empirical model. The empirical analysis is based on a series of standard and multilevel random-intercept logistic models. Our important findings reveal that (1) voter turnout is strongly associated with the personal and social gratifications people derive from voting; (2) the preference-matching ability of candidates for local government positions is marginal; and (3) the introduction of direct elections of the district nazims—a key position in local government—might improve electoral participation and thus create a precondition for better local government accountability. The findings also suggest that less educated people, farmers, and rural people are more likely to vote." Authors' AbstractDecentralization, local government elections, political participation, voter turnout, Public service provision, Governance,
Design analysis and optimization of ground grid mesh of extra high voltage substation using an intelligent software
No full text
Computing the Metric Dimension of Gear Graphs
No full textLet G = (V, E) be a connected graph and d(u, v) denote the distance between the vertices u and v in G. A set of vertices W resolves a graph G if every vertex is uniquely determined by its vector of distances to the vertices in W. A metric dimension of G is the minimum cardinality of a resolving set of G and is denoted by dim(G). Let J2n,m be a m-level gear graph obtained by m-level wheel graph W2n,m ≅ mC2n + k1 by alternatively deleting n spokes of each copy of C2n and J3n be a generalized gear graph obtained by alternately deleting 2n spokes of the wheel graph W3n. In this paper, the metric dimension of certain gear graphs J2n,m and J3n generated by wheel has been computed. Also this study extends the previous result given by Tomescu et al. in 2007
The Digital Tug-of-War: Self-Regulated Learning as a Buffer against Digital Distractions for University Students in Pakistan
No full textHigher education Digital transformation has become a universal problem: how to keep students focused in the face of overwhelming digital distractions. This paper explores the perceived levels of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), Digital Distractions (DD), and Academic Performance (AP) in the poorly studied setting of Pakistani universities. The survey was a descriptive quantitative survey conducted on a sample of undergraduate students at the University of Sargodha, Pakistan, where 297 valid responses were analyzed. Although students have reported high rates of digital distractions (e.g., more than 80 per cent of them admitted using social media when studying), their levels of SRL use (Means 3.49-3.92), and academic performance (Means 3.69-3.94 were also moderately high. These results indicate that SRL strategies could be utilized as an imperative buffer because they allow students to continue to maintain their academic performance despite the ubiquitous distractions of digital devices. The research ends with some practical suggestions that can be undertaken to include SRL training in educational curricula to promote academic resilience in technology-driven learning experiences
A paper based inkjet printed real time location tracking TAG
No full textThis paper presents, for the first time, an inkjet printed, wearable, low-cost, light weight and miniaturized real time locating TAG on an ordinary photo-paper. The 29 grams, 9 cm×8 cm×0.5 cm TAG integrates a GPS/GSM module, a microcontroller with on-paper GPS and GSM antennas. A novel monopole antenna with an L shaped slit is introduced to achieve the required circular polarization for the GPS band. Issues related to integration of active components (e.g. BGA chip) on inkjet-printed paper substrates are discussed. The system enables location tracking through a user-friendly interface accessible through all internet enabled devices. Field tests show an update interval of 15 sec, stationary position error of 6.2m and real time tracking error of 4.7m which is 4 times better than the state-of-the-art. Due to the flexible nature of the paper substrate, the TAG can be designed for different shapes such as a wrist band for child tracking or a collar band for pet tracking applications. © 2013 IEEE
Water quality management using hybrid machine learning and data mining algorithms : an indexing approach
No full textOne of the key functions of global water resource management authorities is river water quality (WQ) assessment. A water quality index (WQI) is developed for water assessments considering numerous quality-related variables. WQI assessments typically take a long time and are prone to errors during sub-indices generation. This can be tackled through the latest machine learning (ML) techniques renowned for superior accuracy. In this study, water samples were taken from the wells in the study area (North Pakistan) to develop WQI prediction models. Four standalone algorithms, i.e., random trees (RT), random forest (RF), M5P, and reduced error pruning tree (REPT), were used in this study. In addition, 12 hybrid data-mining algorithms (a combination of standalone, bagging (BA), cross-validation parameter selection (CVPS), and randomizable filtered classification (RFC)) were also used. Using the 10-fold cross-validation technique, the data were separated into two groups (70:30) for algorithm creation. Ten random input permutations were created using Pearson correlation coefficients to identify the best possible combination of datasets for improving the algorithm prediction. The variables with very low correlations performed poorly, whereas hybrid algorithms increased the prediction capability of numerous standalone algorithms. Hybrid RT-Artificial Neural Network (RT-ANN) with RMSE = 2.319, MAE = 2.248, NSE = 0.945, and PBIAS = -0.64 outperformed all other algorithms. Most algorithms overestimated WQI values except for BA-RF, RF, BA-REPT, REPT, RFC-M5P, RFC-REPT, and ANN- Adaptive Network-Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). © 2013 IEEE
