Abstract: Evaluation of the excavation-induced ground
movements is an important design aspect of support systems in urban
areas. Geological and geotechnical conditions of an excavation area
have significant effects on excavation-induced ground movements and
the related damage. This paper is aimed at studying the performance of
excavation walls supported by nails in jointed rock medium. The
performance of nailed walls is investigated based on evaluating the
excavation-induced ground movements. For this purpose, a set of
calibrated 2D finite element models are developed by taking into
account the nail-rock-structure interactions, the anisotropic properties
of jointed rock, and the staged construction process. The results of this
paper highlight effects of different parameters such as joint
inclinations, anisotropy of rocks and nail inclinations on deformation
parameters of excavation wall supported by nails.
Abstract: Clustering is a process of grouping objects and data
into groups of clusters to ensure that data objects from the same
cluster are identical to each other. Clustering algorithms in one of the
area in data mining and it can be classified into partition, hierarchical,
density based and grid based. Therefore, in this paper we do survey
and review four major hierarchical clustering algorithms called
CURE, ROCK, CHAMELEON and BIRCH. The obtained state of
the art of these algorithms will help in eliminating the current
problems as well as deriving more robust and scalable algorithms for
clustering.
Abstract: An analytical 4-DOF nonlinear model of a de Laval
rotor-stator system based on Energy Principles has been used
theoretically and experimentally to investigate fault symptoms in a
rotating system. The faults, namely rotor-stator-rub, crack and
unbalance are modeled as excitations on the rotor shaft. Mayes
steering function is used to simulate the breathing behaviour of the
crack. The fault analysis technique is based on waveform signal,
orbits and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) derived from simulated and
real measured signals. Simulated and experimental results manifest
considerable mutual resemblance of elliptic-shaped orbits and FFT
for a same range of test data.
Abstract: Nonlinear evolution of broadband ultrasonic pulses
passed through the rock specimens is studied using the apparatus
“GEOSCAN-02M”. Ultrasonic pulses are excited by the pulses of Qswitched
Nd:YAG laser with the time duration of 10 ns and with the
energy of 260 mJ. This energy can be reduced to 20 mJ by some light
filters. The laser beam radius did not exceed 5 mm. As a result of the
absorption of the laser pulse in the special material – the optoacoustic
generator–the pulses of longitudinal ultrasonic waves are excited with
the time duration of 100 ns and with the maximum pressure
amplitude of 10 MPa. The immersion technique is used to measure
the parameters of these ultrasonic pulses passed through a specimen,
the immersion liquid is distilled water. The reference pulse passed
through the cell with water has the compression and the rarefaction
phases. The amplitude of the rarefaction phase is five times lower
than that of the compression phase. The spectral range of the
reference pulse reaches 10 MHz. The cubic-shaped specimens of the
Karelian gabbro are studied with the rib length 3 cm. The ultimate
strength of the specimens by the uniaxial compression is (300±10)
MPa. As the reference pulse passes through the area of the specimen
without cracks the compression phase decreases and the rarefaction
one increases due to diffraction and scattering of ultrasound, so the
ratio of these phases becomes 2.3:1. After preloading some horizontal
cracks appear in the specimens. Their location is found by one-sided
scanning of the specimen using the backward mode detection of the
ultrasonic pulses reflected from the structure defects. Using the
computer processing of these signals the images are obtained of the
cross-sections of the specimens with cracks. By the increase of the
reference pulse amplitude from 0.1 MPa to 5 MPa the nonlinear
transformation of the ultrasonic pulse passed through the specimen
with horizontal cracks results in the decrease by 2.5 times of the
amplitude of the rarefaction phase and in the increase of its duration
by 2.1 times. By the increase of the reference pulse amplitude from 5
MPa to 10 MPa the time splitting of the phases is observed for the
bipolar pulse passed through the specimen. The compression and
rarefaction phases propagate with different velocities. These features
of the powerful broadband ultrasonic pulses passed through the rock
specimens can be described by the hysteresis model of Preisach-
Mayergoyz and can be used for the location of cracks in the optically
opaque materials.
Abstract: The hydrodynamic and thermal behaviors of fluid
flow in wavy microchannel are investigated numerically. Effects of
Reynolds number on the hydrodynamics and thermal behaviors are
investigated. Three cases of Reynolds number (580, 1244, and 1910)
are adopted in this study. It is found that the separation zone begin
appears when Reynolds number is greater than 1910 at the endsection
of the wave. Also it is found that dimensionless maximum
velocity at the mid-section of the wave decreases and becomes as a
turbulent behavior as Reynolds numbers increases. The maximum
temperature at the center line at the mid-section of the wave increases
as Reynolds number increases until it reaches the turbulent behavior
when Reynolds number is equal or greater than 1244, while this
behavior will be achieved at very high velocities at the end section of
the wave.
Abstract: Si-Ge solid solutions (bulk poly- and mono-crystalline
samples, thin films) are characterized by high perspectives for
application in semiconductor devices, in particular, optoelectronics
and microelectronics. From this point of view, complex studying of
structural state of the defects and structural-sensitive physical
properties of Si-Ge solid solutions depending on the contents of Si
and Ge components is very important. Present work deals with the
investigations of microstructure, microhardness, internal friction and
shear modulus of Si1-xGex(x≤0,02) bulk monocrystals conducted at
room temperature. Si-Ge bulk crystals were obtained by Czochralski
method in [111] crystallographic direction. Investigated
monocrystalline Si-Ge samples are characterized by p-type
conductivity and carriers’ concentration 5.1014-1.1015cm-3.
Microhardness was studied on Dynamic Ultra Micro hardness Tester
DUH-201S with Berkovich indenter. Investigate samples are characterized with 0,5x0,5x(10-15)mm3
sizes, oriented along [111] direction at torsion oscillations ≈1Hz,
multistage changing of internal friction and shear modulus has been
revealed in an interval of strain amplitude of 10-5-5.10-3. Critical
values of strain amplitude have been determined at which hysteretic
changes of inelastic characteristics and microplasticity are observed. The critical strain amplitude and elasticity limit values are also
determined. Dynamic mechanical characteristics decreasing trend is
shown with increasing Ge content in Si-Ge solid solutions. Observed
changes are discussed from the point of view of interaction of various
dislocations with point defects and their complexes in a real structure
of Si-Ge solid solutions.
Abstract: The need to merge software artifacts seems inherent
to modern software development. Distribution of development over
several teams and breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable
pieces are an effective means to deal with the kind of complexity. In
each case, the separately developed artifacts need to be assembled as
efficiently as possible into a consistent whole in which the parts still
function as described. In addition, earlier changes are introduced into
the life cycle and easier is their management by designers.
Interaction-based specifications such as UML sequence diagrams
have been found effective in this regard. As a result, sequence
diagrams can be used not only for capturing system behaviors but
also for merging changes in order to create a new version. The
objective of this paper is to suggest a new approach to deal with the
problem of software merging at the level of sequence diagrams by
using the concept of dependence analysis that captures, formally, all
mapping, and differences between elements of sequence diagrams
and serves as a key concept to create a new version of sequence
diagram.
Abstract: Urinary Tract Infections are considered as one of the
most common bacterial infections with an estimated annual global
incidence of 150 million. Antimicrobial drug resistance is one of the
major threats due to wide spread usage of uncontrolled antibiotics. In
this study, a total number of 9149 urine samples were collected from
R.H Patiala and processed in the Department of Microbiology G. M.
C Patiala (January 2013 to December 2013). Urine samples were
inoculated on MacConkey’s and blood agar plates and incubated at
370C for 24 hrs. The organisms were identified by colony characters,
Gram’s staining, and biochemical reactions. Antimicrobial
susceptibility of the isolates was determined against various
antimicrobial agents (Hi – Media Mumbai India) by Kirby Bauer
DISK diffusion method on Muller Hinton agar plates. Maximum patients were in the age group of 21-30 yrs followed by
31-40 yrs. Males (34%) are less prone to urinary tract infections than
females (66%). Culture was positive in 25% of the samples.
Escherichia coli was the most common isolate 60.3% followed by
Klebsiella pneumoniae 13.5%, Proteus spp. 9% and Staphylococcus
aureus 7.6%. Most of the urinary isolates were sensitive to,
carbepenems, Aztreonam, Amikacin, and Piperacillin + Tazobactum.
All the isolates showed a good sensitivity towards Nitrofurantoin
(82%). ESBL production was found to be 70.6% in Escherichia coli
and 29.4% in Klebsiella pneumonia. Susceptibility of ESBL
producers to Imipenem, Nitrofurantoin and Amikacin were found to
be 100%, 76%, and 75% respectively. Uropathogens are increasingly
showing resistance to many antibiotics making empiric management
of outpatient UTIs challenging. Ampicillin, Cotrimoxazole and
Ciprofloxacin should not be used in empiric treatment. Nitrofurantoin
could be used in lower urinary tract infection. Knowledge of
uropathogens and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern in a
geographical region will help in appropriate and judicious antibiotic
usage in a health care setup.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a comparative study of three
methods of 2D face recognition system such as: Iso-Geodesic Curves
(IGC), Geodesic Distance (GD) and Geodesic-Intensity Histogram
(GIH). These approaches are based on computing of geodesic
distance between points of facial surface and between facial curves.
In this study we represented the image at gray level as a 2D surface in
a 3D space, with the third coordinate proportional to the intensity
values of pixels. In the classifying step, we use: Neural Networks
(NN), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machines
(SVM). The images used in our experiments are from two wellknown
databases of face images ORL and YaleB. ORL data base was
used to evaluate the performance of methods under conditions where
the pose and sample size are varied, and the database YaleB was used
to examine the performance of the systems when the facial
expressions and lighting are varied.
Abstract: Heart is the most important part in the body of living
organisms. It affects and is affected by any factor in the body.
Therefore, it is a good detector for all conditions in the body. Heart
signal is a non-stationary signal; thus, it is utmost important to study
the variability of heart signal. The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) has
attracted considerable attention in psychology, medicine and has
become important dependent measure in psychophysiology and
behavioral medicine. The standards of measurements, physiological
interpretation and clinical use for HRV that are most often used were
described in many researcher papers, however, remain complex
issues are fraught with pitfalls. This paper presents one of the nonlinear
techniques to analyze HRV. It discusses many points like, what
Poincaré plot is and how Poincaré plot works; also, Poincaré plot's
merits especially in HRV. Besides, it discusses the limitation of
Poincaré cause of standard deviation SD1, SD2 and how to overcome
this limitation by using complex correlation measure (CCM). The
CCM is most sensitive to changes in temporal structure of the
Poincaré plot as compared toSD1 and SD2.
Abstract: The problem of degradation of agricultural residues
from palm oil industry is increasing due to its expansion.
Lignocelloulosic waste from these industry represent large amount of
unutilized resources, this is due to their high lignin content. Since
white rot fungi are capable of degrading lignin, its potential for the
degradation of lignocelloulosic waste from palm oil industry was
accessed. The lignocellluloses content was measured before and after
biodegradation and the rate of reduction was determined. From the
results of the biodegradation, it was observed that hemicellulose
reduces by 22.62%, cellulose by 20.97% and lignin by 10.65% from
the initials lignocelluloses contents. Thus, to improve the digestibility
of palm oil mesocarp fibre, treatment by white rot-fungi is
recommended.
Abstract: This research was conducted in an automotive company in Indonesia to overcome the problem of high logistics cost. The problem causes high of additional truck delivery. From the breakdown of the problem, chosen one route, which has the highest gap value, namely for RE-04. Research methodology will be started from calculating the ideal condition, making simulation, calculating the ideal logistic cost, and proposing an improvement. From the calculation of the ideal condition, box arrangement was done on the truck has efficiency with three trucks delivery per day. Route simulation making uses Tecnomatix Plant Simulation software as a visualization for the company about how the system is occurred on route RE-04 in ideal condition. The last step is proposing improvements on the area of route RE-04. The route arrangement is done by Saving Method and sequence of each supplier with the Nearest Neighbor. The results of the proposed improvements are three new route groups, where was expected to decrease logistics cost and increase the average of the truck efficiency per day.
Abstract: This paper aims to determine Fundamental Natural
Frequency (FNF) of a structural composite floor system known as
Chromite. To achieve this purpose, FNFs of studied panels are
determined by development of Finite Element Models (FEMs) in
ABAQUS program. American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)
code in Steel Design Guide Series 11 presents a fundamental formula
to calculate FNF of a steel framed floor system. This formula has
been used to verify results of the FEMs. The variability in the FNF of
the studied system under various parameters such as dimensions of
floor, boundary conditions, rigidity of main and secondary beams
around the floor, thickness of concrete slab, height of composite
joists, distance between composite joists, thickness of top and bottom
flanges of the open web steel joists, and adding tie beam
perpendicular on the composite joists, is determined. The results
show that changing in dimensions of the system, its boundary
conditions, rigidity of main beam, and also adding tie beam,
significant changes the FNF of the system up to 452.9%, 50.8%, -
52.2%, %52.6%, respectively. In addition, increasing thickness of
concrete slab increases the FNF of the system up to 10.8%.
Furthermore, the results demonstrate that variation in rigidity of
secondary beam, height of composite joist, and distance between
composite joists, and thickness of top and bottom flanges of open
web steel joists insignificant changes the FNF of the studied system
up to -0.02%, -3%, -6.1%, and 0.96%, respectively. Finally, the
results of this study help designer predict occurrence of resonance,
comfortableness, and design criteria of the studied system.
Abstract: Ocean current is always available around the
surrounding of SHELL Sabah Water Platform and data are collected
every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, for a period of 365 days. Due to
low current speed, conventional hydrokinetic power generation is not
feasible, thus leading to the study of low current enabled vortex
induced vibration power generation application. In this case, the
design of a vortex induced vibration application is studied to obtain
an optimum design for the VIV oscillator. Power output is then
determined to study the feasibility of the VIV application in low
current condition.
Abstract: Due to the fast and flawless technological innovation
there is a tremendous amount of data dumping all over the world in
every domain such as Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, Spatial
Data Mining, Image Analysis, Fraudulent Analysis, World Wide
Web etc., This issue turns to be more essential for developing several
tools for data mining functionalities. The major aim of this paper is to
analyze various tools which are used to build a resourceful analytical
or descriptive model for handling large amount of information more
efficiently and user friendly. In this survey the diverse tools are
illustrated with their extensive technical paradigm, outstanding
graphical interface and inbuilt multipath algorithms in which it is
very useful for handling significant amount of data more indeed.
Abstract: This paper presents comparative analysis of
photovoltaic systems (PVS) and propose practical techniques to
improve operational efficiency of the PVS. The best engineering and
construction practices for PVS are identified and field oriented
recommendation are made. Comparative analysis of central and
string inverter based, as well as 600 and 1000VDC PVS are
performed. In addition, direct current (DC) and alternating current
(AC) photovoltaic (PV) module based systems are compared.
Comparison shows that 1000V DC String Inverters based PVS is the
best choice.
Abstract: New and more powerful communications technologies
continue to emerge at a rapid pace and their uses in education are
widespread and the impact remarkable in the developing societies.
This study investigates Mobile Collaboration Learning Technique
(MCLT) on learners’ outcome among students in tertiary institutions
of developing nations (a case of Nigeria students). It examines the
significance of retention achievement scores of students taught using
mobile collaboration and conventional method. The sample consisted
of 120 students using Stratified random sampling method. Five
research questions and hypotheses were formulated, and tested at
0.05 level of significance. A student achievement test (SAT) was
made of 40 items of multiple-choice objective type, developed and
validated for data collection by professionals. The SAT was
administered to students as pre-test and post-test. The data were
analyzed using t-test statistic to test the hypotheses. The result
indicated that students taught using MCLT performed significantly
better than their counterparts using the conventional method of
instruction. Also, there was no significant difference in the post-test
performance scores of male and female students taught using MCLT.
Based on the findings, the following submissions was made that:
Mobile collaboration system be encouraged in the institutions to
boost knowledge sharing among learners, workshop and training
should be organized to train teachers on the use of this technique,
schools and government should consistently align curriculum
standard to trends of technological dictates and formulate policies
and procedures towards responsible use of MCLT.
Abstract: It has been known that a characteristic
Burst-Suppression (BS) pattern appears in EEG during the early
recovery period following Cardiac Arrest (CA). Here, to explore the
relationship between cortical and subcortical neural activities
underlying BS, extracellular activity in the parietal cortex and the
centromedian nucleus of the thalamus and extradural EEG were
recorded in a rodent CA model. During the BS, the cortical firing rate
is extraordinarily high, and that bursts in EEG correlate to dense spikes
in cortical neurons. Newly observed phenomena are that 1) thalamic
activity reemerges earlier than cortical activity following CA, and 2)
the correlation coefficient of cortical and thalamic activities rises
during BS period. These results would help elucidate the underlying
mechanism of brain recovery after CA injury.
Abstract: The authors conducted a study for the sample size of
75 HR managers from an Indian IT company through systematic
sampling method. This study identifies that the female employees are
facing lesser conflict than the male employees against their managers
within the organization. There is a positive correlation between
gender and conflict management with the superior towards the work.
There is a significant variance between age and response towards
appraisal system, succession planning and employee engagement.
The education qualification plays a major role in determining the
compensation factor for the employees working in the organization.
The study determines the impact of demographic profile on strategic
HRM practices and its challenges faced by HR managers in IT firm,
India.
Abstract: Health of a person plays a vital role in the collective
health of his community and hence the well-being of the society as a
whole. But, in today’s fast paced technology driven world, health
issues are increasingly being associated with human behaviors – their
lifestyle. Social networks have tremendous impact on the health
behavior of individuals. Many researchers have used social network
analysis to understand human behavior that implicates their social
and economic environments. It would be interesting to use a similar
analysis to understand human behaviors that have health
implications. This paper focuses on concepts of those behavioural
analyses that have health implications using social networks analysis
and provides possible algorithmic approaches. The results of these
approaches can be used by the governing authorities for rolling out
health plans, benefits and take preventive measures, while the
pharmaceutical companies can target specific markets, helping health
insurance companies to better model their insurance plans.