Abstract: Voice Over IP (VoIP) is a technology that could pass
the voice traffic and data packet form over an IP network. Network
can be used for intranet or Internet. Phone calls using VoIP has
advantages in terms of cheaper cost of PSTN phone to more than
half, because the cost is calculated by the cost of the global nature of
the Internet. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol
at the application layer which serves to establish, modify, and
terminate a multimedia session involving one or more users. This SIP
signaling has SIP message in text form that is used for session
management by the SIP components, such as User Agent, Registrar,
Redirect Server, and Proxy Server. To build a SIP communication is
required SIP Express Router (SER) to be able to receive SIP
messages, for handling the basic functions of SIP messages.
Problems occur when the NAT through which affects the voice
communication will be blocked starting from the sound that is not
sent or one side of the sound are sent (half duplex). How that could
be used to penetrate NAT is to use a given mediaproxy random RTP
port to penetrate NAT.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of
mucus production as a biomarker. This was done by exposing the
mussel Perna perna to various sublethal concentrations of Cu.
Mussels are effective as a bioindicator species as they accumulate Cu
in their tissues. Differences in mucus production rates were evaluated
at different Cu concentrations. The findings of this study indicate that
increasing Cu concentrations had a significant effect on the mucus
production rates over a 24 hour exposure. There were also significant
differences between the mucus production rates at different Cu
concentrations (p < 0.05). Thus, mucus is an essential detoxification
mechanism.
Abstract: Success is a European project that will implement several clean transport offers in three European cities and evaluate the environmental impacts. The goal of these measures is to improve urban mobility or the displacement of residents inside cities. For e.g. park and ride, electric vehicles, hybrid bus and bike sharing etc. A list of 28 criteria and 60 measures has been established for evaluation of these transport projects. The evaluation criteria can be grouped into: Transport, environment, social, economic and fuel consumption. This article proposes a decision support system based that encapsulates a hybrid approach based on fuzzy logic, multicriteria analysis and belief theory for the evaluation of impacts of urban mobility solutions. A web-based tool called DeSSIA (Decision Support System for Impacts Assessment) has been developed that treats complex data. The tool has several functionalities starting from data integration (import of data), evaluation of projects and finishes by graphical display of results. The tool development is based on the concept of MVC (Model, View, and Controller). The MVC is a conception model adapted to the creation of software's which impose separation between data, their treatment and presentation. Effort is laid on the ergonomic aspects of the application. It has codes compatible with the latest norms (XHTML, CSS) and has been validated by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). The main ergonomic aspect focuses on the usability of the application, ease of learning and adoption. By the usage of technologies such as AJAX (XML and Java Script asynchrones), the application is more rapid and convivial. The positive points of our approach are that it treats heterogeneous data (qualitative, quantitative) from various information sources (human experts, survey, sensors, model etc.).
Abstract: The level of visual abilities, language, memory
processes and intellectual functioning development affects the quality
of a written text. The following analysis will present the results of
diagnostic tests indicating the most common criterion for a group and
stating whether a person has been diagnosed with having cognitive
developmental level below the group-s average or not.The study-s
aim is to determine whether there are specific patterns of cognitive
deficits, which can be distinguished among the group of young
people with spelling disorders.
Abstract: The aim of this work is to present a multi-objective optimization method to find maximum efficiency kinematics for a flapping wing unmanned aerial vehicle. We restrained our study to rectangular wings with the same profile along the span and to harmonic dihedral motion. It is assumed that the birdlike aerial vehicle (whose span and surface area were fixed respectively to 1m and 0.15m2) is in horizontal mechanically balanced motion at fixed speed. We used two flight physics models to describe the vehicle aerodynamic performances, namely DeLaurier-s model, which has been used in many studies dealing with flapping wings, and the model proposed by Dae-Kwan et al. Then, a constrained multi-objective optimization of the propulsive efficiency is performed using a recent evolutionary multi-objective algorithm called є-MOEA. Firstly, we show that feasible solutions (i.e. solutions that fulfil the imposed constraints) can be obtained using Dae-Kwan et al.-s model. Secondly, we highlight that a single objective optimization approach (weighted sum method for example) can also give optimal solutions as good as the multi-objective one which nevertheless offers the advantage of directly generating the set of the best trade-offs. Finally, we show that the DeLaurier-s model does not yield feasible solutions.
Abstract: The excessive use of agricultural pesticides and the
resulting contamination of food and beds of rivers have been a
recurring problem nowadays. Some of these substances can cause
changes in endocrine balance and impair reproductive function of
human and animal population. In the present study, we evaluated the
possible effects of the fungicide cuprous copper oxide Sandoz® on
pregnant Wistar rats. They received a daily oral administration of 103
or 3.103 mg/kg of the fungicide from the 6th to the 15th day of
gestation. On day 21 of gestation, the maternal and fetal toxicity
parameters and indices were determined. The administration of
cuprous oxide (Copper Sandoz) in Wistar rats, the period of
organogenesis, revealed no evidence of maternal toxicity or embryo
at the studied doses.
Abstract: This work concerns on experimentally investigation
of surfactant flooding in fractured porous media. In this study a series
of water and surfactant injection processes were performed on
micromodels initially saturated with a heavy crude oil. Eight
fractured glass micromodels were used to illustrate effects of
surfactant types and concentrations on oil recovery efficiency in
presence of fractures with different properties i.e. fracture
orientation, length and number of fractures. Two different
surfactants with different concentrations were tested. The results
showed that surfactant flooding would be more efficient by using
SDS surfactant aqueous solution and also by locating injection well
in a proper position respect to fracture properties. This study
demonstrates different physical and chemical conditions that affect
the efficiency of this method of enhanced oil recovery.
Abstract: This paper proposed classification models that would
be used as a proxy for hard disk drive (HDD) functional test equitant
which required approximately more than two weeks to perform the
HDD status classification in either “Pass" or “Fail". These models
were constructed by using committee network which consisted of a
number of single neural networks. This paper also included the
method to solve the problem of sparseness data in failed part, which
was called “enforce learning method". Our results reveal that the
constructed classification models with the proposed method could
perform well in the sparse data conditions and thus the models,
which used a few seconds for HDD classification, could be used to
substitute the HDD functional tests.
Abstract: Higher education has an important role to play in
advocating environmentalism. Given this responsibility, the goal of
higher education should therefore be to develop graduates with the
knowledge, skills and values related to environmentalism. However,
research indicates that there is a lack of consciousness amongst
graduates on the need to be more environmentally aware, especially
when it comes to applying the appropriate knowledge and skills
related to environmentalism. Although institutions of higher learning
do include environmental parameters within their undergraduate and
postgraduate academic programme structures, the environmental
boundaries are usually confined to specific engineering majors within
an engineering programme. This makes environmental knowledge,
skills and values exclusive to certain quarters of the higher education
system. The incorporation of environmental literacy within higher
education institutions as a whole is of utmost pertinence if a nation-s
human capital is to be nurtured to become change agents for the
preservation of environment. This paper discusses approaches that
can be adapted by institutions of higher learning to include
environmental literacy within the graduate-s higher learning
experience.
Abstract: Motion capture devices have been utilized in
producing several contents, such as movies and video games. However,
since motion capture devices are expensive and inconvenient to use,
motions segmented from captured data was recycled and synthesized
to utilize it in another contents, but the motions were generally
segmented by contents producers in manual. Therefore, automatic
motion segmentation is recently getting a lot of attentions. Previous
approaches are divided into on-line and off-line, where on-line
approaches segment motions based on similarities between
neighboring frames and off-line approaches segment motions by
capturing the global characteristics in feature space. In this paper, we
propose a graph-based high-level motion segmentation method. Since
high-level motions consist of several repeated frames within temporal
distances, we consider all similarities among all frames within the
temporal distance. This is achieved by constructing a graph, where
each vertex represents a frame and the edges between the frames are
weighted by their similarity. Then, normalized cuts algorithm is used
to partition the constructed graph into several sub-graphs by globally
finding minimum cuts. In the experiments, the results using the
proposed method showed better performance than PCA-based method
in on-line and GMM-based method in off-line, as the proposed method
globally segment motions from the graph constructed based
similarities between neighboring frames as well as similarities among
all frames within temporal distances.
Abstract: In this paper, we study statistical multiplexing of VBR
video in ATM networks. ATM promises to provide high speed realtime
multi-point to central video transmission for telemedicine
applications in rural hospitals and in emergency medical services.
Video coders are known to produce variable bit rate (VBR) signals
and the effects of aggregating these VBR signals need to be
determined in order to design a telemedicine network infrastructure
capable of carrying these signals. We first model the VBR video
signal and simulate it using a generic continuous-data autoregressive
(AR) scheme. We carry out the queueing analysis by the Fluid
Approximation Model (FAM) and the Markov Modulated Poisson
Process (MMPP). The study has shown a trade off: multiplexing
VBR signals reduces burstiness and improves resource utilization,
however, the buffer size needs to be increased with an associated
economic cost. We also show that the MMPP model and the Fluid
Approximation model fit best, respectively, the cell region and the
burst region. Therefore, a hybrid MMPP and FAM completely
characterizes the overall performance of the ATM statistical
multiplexer. The ramifications of this technology are clear: speed,
reliability (lower loss rate and jitter), and increased capacity in video
transmission for telemedicine. With migration to full IP-based
networks still a long way to achieving both high speed and high
quality of service, the proposed ATM architecture will remain of
significant use for telemedicine.
Abstract: OLAP uses multidimensional structures, to provide
access to data for analysis. Traditionally, OLAP operations are more
focused on retrieving data from a single data mart. An exception is
the drill across operator. This, however, is restricted to retrieving
facts on common dimensions of the multiple data marts. Our concern
is to define further operations while retrieving data from multiple
data marts. Towards this, we have defined six operations which
coalesce data marts. While doing so we consider the common as well
as the non-common dimensions of the data marts.
Abstract: Microplasma welding is a less expensive alternative to
laser welding in dental technology. The aim of the study was to
highlight discontinuities present in the microplasma welded joints of
dental base metal alloys by visual analysis. Five base metal alloys
designated for fixed prostheses manufacture were selected for the
experiments. Using these plates, preliminary tests were conducted by
microplasma welding in butt joint configuration, without filler
material, bilaterally and with filler material, proper for each base
metal. Macroscopic visual inspection was performed to assess
carefully the irregularities in the welds. Electron microscopy allowed
detection of discontinuities that are not visible to the eye and
revealing details regarding location, trajectory, morphology and size
of discontinuities. Supplementing visual control with microscopic
analysis allows to detect small discontinuities, which escapes the
macroscopic control and to make a detailed study of the weld.
Abstract: A computer cluster is a group of tightly coupled
computers that work together closely so that in many respects they
can be viewed as though they are a single computer. The components
of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other
through fast local area networks. Clusters are usually deployed to
improve performance and/or availability over that provided by a
single computer, while typically being much more cost-effective than
single computers of comparable speed or availability. This paper
proposed the way to implement the Beowulf Cluster in order to
achieve high performance as well as high availability.
Abstract: Air pollution is still considered as one of the major
environmental and health issues. There is enough research evidence
to show a strong relationship between exposure to air contaminants
and respiratory illnesses among children and adults. In this paper we
used the Copula approach to study a potential relationship between
selected air pollutants (PM10 and NO2) and hospital admissions for
respiratory diseases. Kendall-s tau and Spearman-s rho rank
correlation coefficients are calculated and used in Copula method.
This paper demonstrates that copulas can be used to provide
additional information as a measure of an association when compared
to the standard correlation coefficients. The results find a significant
correlation between the selected air pollutants and hospital
admissions for most of the selected respiratory illnesses.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to present the test
results of variable air volume (VAV) air conditioning system
optimized by two objective genetic algorithm (GA). The objective
functions are energy savings and thermal comfort. The optimal set
points for fuzzy logic controller (FLC) are the supply air temperature
(Ts), the supply duct static pressure (Ps), the chilled water
temperature (Tw), and zone temperature (Tz) that is taken as the
problem variables. Supply airflow rate and chilled water flow rate are
considered to be the constraints. The optimal set point values are
obtained from GA process and assigned into fuzzy logic controller
(FLC) in order to conserve energy and maintain thermal comfort in
real time VAV air conditioning system. A VAV air conditioning
system with FLC installed in a software laboratory has been taken for
the purpose of energy analysis. The total energy saving obtained in
VAV GA optimization system with FLC compared with constant air
volume (CAV) system is expected to achieve 31.5%. The optimal
duct static pressure obtained through Genetic fuzzy methodology
attributes to better air distribution by delivering the optimal quantity
of supply air to the conditioned space. This combination enhanced
the advantages of uniform air distribution, thermal comfort and
improved energy savings potential.
Abstract: The management of the health-care wastes is one of
the most important problems in Istanbul, a city with more than 12
million inhabitants, as it is in most of the developing countries.
Negligence in appropriate treatment and final disposal of the healthcare
wastes can lead to adverse impacts to public health and to the
environment. This paper employs a fuzzy multi-criteria group
decision making approach, which is based on the principles of fusion
of fuzzy information, 2-tuple linguistic representation model, and
technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution
(TOPSIS), to evaluate health-care waste (HCW) treatment
alternatives for Istanbul. The evaluation criteria are determined
employing nominal group technique (NGT), which is a method of
systematically developing a consensus of group opinion. The
employed method is apt to manage information assessed using multigranularity
linguistic information in a decision making problem with
multiple information sources. The decision making framework
employs ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator that
encompasses several operators as the aggregation operator since it
can implement different aggregation rules by changing the order
weights. The aggregation process is based on the unification of
information by means of fuzzy sets on a basic linguistic term set
(BLTS). Then, the unified information is transformed into linguistic
2-tuples in a way to rectify the problem of loss information of other
fuzzy linguistic approaches.
Abstract: Increased energy demand and the concern about
environment friendly technology, renewable bio-fuels are better
alternative to petroleum products. In the present study linseed oil was
used as alternative source for diesel engine fuel and the results were
compared with baseline data of neat diesel. Performance parameters
such as brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and brake specific fuel
consumption (BSFC) and emissions parameters such as CO,
unburned hydro carbon (UBHC), NOx, CO2 and exhaust temperature
were compared. BTE of the engine was lower and BSFC was higher
when the engine was fueled with Linseed oil compared to diesel fuel.
Emission characteristics are better than diesel fuel. NOx formation by
using linseed oil during the experiment was lower than diesel fuel.
Linseed oil is non edible oil, so it can be used as an extender of diesel
fuel energy source for small and medium energy needs.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) constitute an emerging and pervasive technology that is attracting increasing interest in the research community for a wide range of applications. WSANs have two important requirements: coordination interactions and real-time communication to perform correct and timely actions. This paper introduces a methodology to facilitate the task of the application programmer focusing on the coordination and real-time requirements of WSANs. The methodology proposed in this model uses a real-time component model, UM-RTCOM, which will help us to achieve the design and implementation of applications in WSAN by using the component oriented paradigm. This will help us to develop software components which offer some very interesting features, such as reusability and adaptability which are very suitable for WSANs as they are very dynamic environments with rapidly changing conditions. In addition, a high-level coordination model based on tuple channels (TC-WSAN) is integrated into the methodology by providing a component-based specification of this model in UM-RTCOM; this will allow us to satisfy both sensor-actor and actor-actor coordination requirements in WSANs. Finally, we present in this paper the design and implementation of an application which will help us to show how the methodology can be easily used in order to achieve the development of WSANs applications.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present the design and
instrumentation of a new benchmark multivariable nonlinear control
laboratory. The mathematical model of this system may be used to
test the applicability and performance of various nonlinear control
procedures. The system is a two degree-of-freedom robotic arm with
soft and hard (discontinuous) nonlinear terms. Two novel
mechanisms are designed to allow the implementation of adjustable
Coulomb friction and backlash.