Abstract: In developing countries located in monsoon areas like
Thailand where rainwater is currently of no value for urban dwellers
due to easily access to piped water supply at each household, studies
in rainwater harvesting for domestic use are of low interest. However
it is needed to undertake research to find out appropriate rainwater
harvesting systems particularly for small urban communities that are
recently developed from a full rural structure to urban context. As a
matter of fact, in such transitional period, relying on only common
water resources is risky. With some specific economic settings, land
use patterns, and historical and cultural context that dominate
perceptions of water users in the study area, the level of service in
this study may certainly be different from megacities or cities located
in industrial zone. The overviews of some available technologies and
background of rainwater harvesting including alternate resource are
included in this paper. Among other sources of water supply, ground
water use as the water resource of Thailand and also in the study area.
Abstract: In this paper, the translation surfaces in 3-dimensional
Euclidean space generated by two space curves have been
investigated. It has been indicated that Scherk surface is not only
minimal translation surface.
Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources incl. biogas has become topical in accordance with the increasing demand for energy, decrease of fossil energy resources and the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to increase energy independence from the territories where fossil energy resources are available.
As the technologies of biogas production from agricultural biomass develop, risk assessment and risk management become necessary for farms producing such a renewable energy. The need for risk assessments has become particularly topical when discussions on changing the biogas policy in the EU take place, which may influence the development of the sector in the future, as well as the operation of existing biogas facilities and their income level.
The current article describes results of the risk assessment for farms producing biomass from agriculture biomass in Latvia, the risk assessment system included 24 risks, that affect the whole biogas production process and the obtained results showed the high significance of political and production risks.
Abstract: Automated operations based on voice commands will become more and more important in many applications, including robotics, maintenance operations, etc. However, voice command recognition rates drop quite a lot under non-stationary and chaotic noise environments. In this paper, we tried to significantly improve the speech recognition rates under non-stationary noise environments. First, 298 Navy acronyms have been selected for automatic speech recognition. Data sets were collected under 4 types of noisy environments: factory, buccaneer jet, babble noise in a canteen, and destroyer. Within each noisy environment, 4 levels (5 dB, 15 dB, 25 dB, and clean) of Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) were introduced to corrupt the speech. Second, a new algorithm to estimate speech or no speech regions has been developed, implemented, and evaluated. Third, extensive simulations were carried out. It was found that the combination of the new algorithm, the proper selection of language model and a customized training of the speech recognizer based on clean speech yielded very high recognition rates, which are between 80% and 90% for the four different noisy conditions. Fourth, extensive comparative studies have also been carried out.
Abstract: In the present work, we introduce the particle swarm optimization called (PSO in short) to avoid the Runge-s phenomenon occurring in many numerical problems. This new approach is tested with some numerical examples including the generalized integral quadrature method in order to solve the Volterra-s integral equations
Abstract: The analytical solutions for geodesic acoustic
eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas with circular concentric magnetic
surfaces are found. In the frame of ideal magnetohydrodynamics the
dispersion relation taking into account the toroidal coupling between
electrostatic perturbations and electromagnetic perturbations with
poloidal mode number |m| = 2 is derived. In the absence of such
a coupling the dispersion relation gives the standard continuous
spectrum of geodesic acoustic modes. The analysis of the existence
of global eigenmodes for plasma equilibria with both off-axis
and on-axis maximum of the local geodesic acoustic frequency is
performed.
Abstract: Missing data is a persistent problem in almost all
areas of empirical research. The missing data must be treated very
carefully, as data plays a fundamental role in every analysis.
Improper treatment can distort the analysis or generate biased results.
In this paper, we compare and contrast various imputation techniques
on missing data sets and make an empirical evaluation of these
methods so as to construct quality software models. Our empirical
study is based on NASA-s two public dataset. KC4 and KC1. The
actual data sets of 125 cases and 2107 cases respectively, without
any missing values were considered. The data set is used to create
Missing at Random (MAR) data Listwise Deletion(LD), Mean
Substitution(MS), Interpolation, Regression with an error term and
Expectation-Maximization (EM) approaches were used to compare
the effects of the various techniques.
Abstract: As computer network technology becomes
increasingly complex, it becomes necessary to place greater
requirements on the validity of developing standards and the
resulting technology. Communication networks are based on large
amounts of protocols. The validity of these protocols have to be
proved either individually or in an integral fashion. One strategy for
achieving this is to apply the growing field of formal methods.
Formal methods research defines systems in high order logic so that
automated reasoning can be applied for verification. In this research
we represent and implement a formerly announced multicast protocol
in Prolog language so that certain properties of the protocol can be
verified. It is shown that by using this approach some minor faults in
the protocol were found and repaired. Describing the protocol as
facts and rules also have other benefits i.e. leads to a process-able
knowledge. This knowledge can be transferred as ontology between
systems in KQML format. Since the Prolog language can increase its
knowledge base every time, this method can also be used to learn an
intelligent network.
Abstract: Nanocrystalline thin film of Na0.1V2O5.nH2O xerogel
obtained by sol gel synthesis was used as gas sensor. Gas sensing
properties of different gases such as hydrogen, petroleum and
humidity were investigated. Applying XRD and TEM the size of the
nanocrystals is found to be 7.5 nm. SEM shows a highly porous
structure with submicron meter-sized voids present throughout the
sample. FTIR measurement shows different chemical groups
identifying the obtained series of gels. The sample was n-type
semiconductor according to the thermoelectric power and electrical
conductivity. It can be seen that the sensor response curves from
130oC to 150oC show a rapid increase in sensitivity for all types of
gas injection, low response values for heating period and the rapid
high response values for cooling period. This result may suggest that
this material is able to act as gas sensor during the heating and
cooling process.
Abstract: A method is presented for using thermo-mechanical fatigue analysis as a tool in the design of automotive heat exchangers. Use of infra-red thermography to measure the real thermal history in the heat exchanger reduces the time necessary for calculating design parameters and improves prediction accuracy. Thermal shocks are the primary cause of heat exchanger damage. Thermo-mechanical simulation is based on the mean behavior of the aluminum tubes used in the heat exchanger. An energetic fatigue criterion is used to detect critical zones.
Abstract: Water quality is a subject of ongoing concern.
Deterioration of water quality has initiated serious management
efforts in many countries. This study endeavors to automatically
classify water quality. The water quality classes are evaluated using 6
factor indices. These factors are pH value (pH), Dissolved Oxygen
(DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Nitrate Nitrogen
(NO3N), Ammonia Nitrogen (NH3N) and Total Coliform (TColiform).
The methodology involves applying data mining
techniques using multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network
models. The data consisted of 11 sites of canals in Dusit district in
Bangkok, Thailand. The data is obtained from the Department of
Drainage and Sewerage Bangkok Metropolitan Administration
during 2007-2011. The results of multilayer perceptron neural
network exhibit a high accuracy multilayer perception rate at 96.52%
in classifying the water quality of Dusit district canal in Bangkok
Subsequently, this encouraging result could be applied with plan and
management source of water quality.
Abstract: The paper presents a modelling methodology for
small scale multi-source renewable energy systems. Using historical
site-specific weather data, the relationships of cost, availability and
energy form are visualised as a function of the sizing of photovoltaic
arrays, wind turbines, and battery capacity. The specific dependency
of each site on its own particular weather patterns show that unique
solutions exist for each site. It is shown that in certain cases the
capital component cost can be halved if the desired theoretical
demand availability is reduced from 100% to 99%.
Abstract: This work aims to describe the process of developing
services and applications of seamless communication within a
Telecom Italia long-term research project, which takes as central aim
the design of a wearable communication device. In particular, the
objective was to design a wrist phone integrated into everyday life of
people in full transparency. The methodology used to design the
wristwatch was developed through several subsequent steps also
involving the Personas Layering Framework. The data collected in
this phases have been very useful for designing an improved version
of the first two concepts of wrist phone going to change aspects
related to the four critical points expressed by the users.
Abstract: Texture classification is an important image processing
task with a broad application range. Many different techniques for
texture classification have been explored. Using sparse approximation
as a feature extraction method for texture classification is a relatively
new approach, and Skretting et al. recently presented the Frame
Texture Classification Method (FTCM), showing very good results on
classical texture images. As an extension of that work the FTCM is
here tested on a real world application as detection of abnormalities
in mammograms. Some extensions to the original FTCM that are
useful in some applications are implemented; two different smoothing
techniques and a vector augmentation technique. Both detection of
microcalcifications (as a primary detection technique and as a last
stage of a detection scheme), and soft tissue lesions in mammograms
are explored. All the results are interesting, and especially the results
using FTCM on regions of interest as the last stage in a detection
scheme for microcalcifications are promising.
Abstract: Buyer coalition with a combination of items is a group of buyers joining together to purchase a combination of items with a larger discount. The primary aim of existing buyer coalition with a combination of items research is to generate a large total discount. However, the aim is hard to achieve because this research is based on the assumption that each buyer completely knows other buyers- information or at least one buyer knows other buyers- information in a coalition by exchange of information. These assumption contrast with the real world environment where buyers join a coalition with incomplete information, i.e., they concerned only with their expected discounts. Therefore, this paper proposes a new buyer community coalition formation with a combination of items scheme, called the Community Compromised Combinatorial Coalition scheme, under such an environment of incomplete information. In order to generate a larger total discount, after buyers who want to join a coalition propose their minimum required saving, a coalition structure that gives a maximum total retail prices is formed. Then, the total discount division of the coalition is divided among buyers in the coalition depending on their minimum required saving and is a Pareto optimal. In mathematical analysis, we compare concepts of this scheme with concepts of the existing buyer coalition scheme. Our mathematical analysis results show that the total discount of the coalition in this scheme is larger than that in the existing buyer coalition scheme.
Abstract: The effect of artificial pozzolan (waste brick) on the
physico-chemical properties of cement manufactured was
investigated. The waste brick is generated by the manufacture of
bricks. It was used in the proportions of 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%
by mass of cement to study its effect on the physico-chemical
properties of cement incorporating artificial pozzolan. The physicochemical
properties of cement at anhydrous state and the hydrated
state (chemical composition, specific weight, fineness, consistency of
the cement paste and setting times) were studied. The experimental
results obtained show that the quantity of pozzolanic admixture
(waste brick) of cement manufactured is the principal parameter who
influences on the variation of the physico-chemical properties of the
cement tested.
Abstract: Green supply chain management is an increasingly recognized practice among companies that are seeking to improve environmental performance. Of particular concern is how to arouse organizational awareness and put green activities into practice in
order to enhance manufacturing performances. This paper investigates the correlation of green supply chain practices and
manufacturing performances in Malaysian certified MS ISO 14000 manufacturing firms. The findings shows that green supply chain
practices which that can be denominated product recycling, environmental compliance and optimization have significant influence to some of the manufacturing performances.
Abstract: Annotation of a protein sequence is pivotal for the understanding of its function. Accuracy of manual annotation provided by curators is still questionable by having lesser evidence strength and yet a hard task and time consuming. A number of computational methods including tools have been developed to tackle this challenging task. However, they require high-cost hardware, are difficult to be setup by the bioscientists, or depend on time intensive and blind sequence similarity search like Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. This paper introduces a new method of assigning highly correlated Gene Ontology terms of annotated protein sequences to partially annotated or newly discovered protein sequences. This method is fully based on Gene Ontology data and annotations. Two problems had been identified to achieve this method. The first problem relates to splitting the single monolithic Gene Ontology RDF/XML file into a set of smaller files that can be easy to assess and process. Thus, these files can be enriched with protein sequences and Inferred from Electronic Annotation evidence associations. The second problem involves searching for a set of semantically similar Gene Ontology terms to a given query. The details of macro and micro problems involved and their solutions including objective of this study are described. This paper also describes the protein sequence annotation and the Gene Ontology. The methodology of this study and Gene Ontology based protein sequence annotation tool namely extended UTMGO is presented. Furthermore, its basic version which is a Gene Ontology browser that is based on semantic similarity search is also introduced.
Abstract: As product life cycle becomes less and less every day,
having flexible manufacturing processes for any companies seems more demanding. In the assembling of closures, i.e. opening parts in
car body, hemming process is the one which needs more attention. This paper focused on the robot roller hemming process and how to
reduce its cycle time by introducing a fast roller hemming process. A
robot roller hemming process of a tailgate of Saab 93 SportCombi
model is investigated as a case study in this paper. By applying task
separation, robot coordination, and robot cell configuration principles in the roller hemming process, three alternatives are
proposed, developed, and remarkable reduction in cycle times achieved [1].
Abstract: The objective of this research seeks to transmit a distance training model to the community in the upper northeastern region. The group sampling consists of 60 community leaders in the municipality of sub-district Kumphawapi, Kumphawapi Disrict, Udonthani Province. The research tools rely on the following instruments, they are : 1) the achievement test of community leaders- training and 2) the satisfaction questionnaires of community leaders. The statistics used in data analysis takes the statistical mean, percentage, standard deviation, and statistical T-test. The resulted findings reveal : 1) the efficiency of the distance training developed by the researcher for the community leaders joining in the training received the average score between in-training and post-training period higher than the setup criterion, 2) the two groups of participants in the training achieved higher knowledge than their pre-training state, 3) the comparison of the achievements between the two group presented no different results, 4) the community leaders obtained the high-to-highest satisfaction.