Abstract: The photoluminescence (PL) at 1.55 μm from
semiconducting β-FeSi2 has attracted a noticeable interest for
silicon-based optoelectronic applications. Moreover, its high optical
absorption coefficient (higher than 105 cm-1 above 1.0 eV) allows this
semiconducting material to be used as photovoltanics devices.
A clear PL spectrum for β-FeSi2 was observed by Cu or Au coating
on Si(001). High-crystal-quality β-FeSi2 with a low-level nonradiative
center was formed on a Cu- or Au- reated Si layer. This method of
deposition can be applied to other materials requiring high crystal
quality.
Abstract: This research is aimed to compare the percentages of correct classification of Empirical Bayes method (EB) to Classical method when data are constructed as near normal, short-tailed and long-tailed symmetric, short-tailed and long-tailed asymmetric. The study is performed using conjugate prior, normal distribution with known mean and unknown variance. The estimated hyper-parameters obtained from EB method are replaced in the posterior predictive probability and used to predict new observations. Data are generated, consisting of training set and test set with the sample sizes 100, 200 and 500 for the binary classification. The results showed that EB method exhibited an improved performance over Classical method in all situations under study.
Abstract: Planning community has been long discussing emerging paradigms within the planning theory in the face of the changing conditions of the world order. The paradigm shift concept was introduced by Thomas Kuhn, in 1960, who claimed the necessity of shifting within scientific knowledge boundaries; and following him in 1970 Imre Loktas also gave priority to the emergence of multi-paradigm societies [24]. Multi-paradigm is changing our predetermined lifeworld through uncertainties. Those uncertainties are reflected in two sides, the first one is uncertainty as a concept of possibility and creativity in public sphere and the second one is uncertainty as a risk. Therefore, it is necessary to apply a resilience planning approach to be more dynamic in controlling uncertainties which have the potential to transfigure present time and space definitions. In this way, stability of system can be achieved. Uncertainty is not only an outcome of worldwide changes but also a place-specific issue, i.e. it changes from continent to continent, a country to country; a region to region. Therefore, applying strategic spatial planning with respect to resilience principle contributes to: control, grasp and internalize uncertainties through place-specific strategies. In today-s fast changing world, planning system should follow strategic spatial projects to control multi-paradigm societies with adaptability capacities. Here, we have selected two alternatives to demonstrate; these are; 1.Tehran (Iran) from the Middle East 2.Bath (United Kingdom) from Europe. The study elaborates uncertainties and particularities in their strategic spatial planning processes in a comparative manner. Through the comparison, the study aims at assessing place-specific priorities in strategic planning. The approach is to a two-way stream, where the case cities from the extreme end of the spectrum can learn from each other. The structure of this paper is to firstly compare semi-periphery (Tehran) and coreperiphery (Bath) cities, with the focus to reveal how they equip to face with uncertainties according to their geographical locations and local particularities. Secondly, the key message to address is “Each locality requires its own strategic planning approach to be resilient.--
Abstract: In recent years, rapid advances in software and hardware in the field of information technology along with a digital imaging revolution in the medical domain facilitate the generation and storage of large collections of images by hospitals and clinics. To search these large image collections effectively and efficiently poses significant technical challenges, and it raises the necessity of constructing intelligent retrieval systems. Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) consists of retrieving the most visually similar images to a given query image from a database of images[5]. Medical CBIR (content-based image retrieval) applications pose unique challenges but at the same time offer many new opportunities. On one hand, while one can easily understand news or sports videos, a medical image is often completely incomprehensible to untrained eyes.
Abstract: The problem of natural convection about a cone embedded in a porous medium at local Rayleigh numbers based on the boundary layer approximation and the Darcy-s law have been studied before. Similarity solutions for a full cone with the prescribed wall temperature or surface heat flux boundary conditions which is the power function of distance from the vertex of the inverted cone give us a third-order nonlinear differential equation. In this paper, an approximate method for solving higher-order ordinary differential equations is proposed. The approach is based on a rational Chebyshev Tau (RCT) method. The operational matrices of the derivative and product of rational Chebyshev (RC) functions are presented. These matrices together with the Tau method are utilized to reduce the solution of the higher-order ordinary differential equations to the solution of a system of algebraic equations. We also present the comparison of this work with others and show that the present method is applicable.
Abstract: Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is one of the
serious problems in most electrical and electronic appliances
including fluorescent lamps. The electronic ballast used to regulate
the power flow through the lamp is the major cause for EMI. The
interference is because of the high frequency switching operation of
the ballast. Formerly, some EMI mitigation techniques were in
practice, but they were not satisfactory because of the hardware
complexity in the circuit design, increased parasitic components and
power consumption and so on. The majority of the researchers have
their spotlight only on EMI mitigation without considering the other
constraints such as cost, effective operation of the equipment etc. In
this paper, we propose a technique for EMI mitigation in fluorescent
lamps by integrating Frequency Modulation and Evolutionary
Programming. By the Frequency Modulation technique, the
switching at a single central frequency is extended to a range of
frequencies, and so, the power is distributed throughout the range of
frequencies leading to EMI mitigation. But in order to meet the
operating frequency of the ballast and the operating power of the
fluorescent lamps, an optimal modulation index is necessary for
Frequency Modulation. The optimal modulation index is determined
using Evolutionary Programming. Thereby, the proposed technique
mitigates the EMI to a satisfactory level without disturbing the
operation of the fluorescent lamp.
Abstract: This paper proposes a copyright protection scheme for color images using secret sharing and wavelet transform. The scheme contains two phases: the share image generation phase and the watermark retrieval phase. In the generation phase, the proposed scheme first converts the image into the YCbCr color space and creates a special sampling plane from the color space. Next, the scheme extracts the features from the sampling plane using the discrete wavelet transform. Then, the scheme employs the features and the watermark to generate a principal share image. In the retrieval phase, an expanded watermark is first reconstructed using the features of the suspect image and the principal share image. Next, the scheme reduces the additional noise to obtain the recovered watermark, which is then verified against the original watermark to examine the copyright. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can resist several attacks such as JPEG compression, blurring, sharpening, noise addition, and cropping. The accuracy rates are all higher than 97%.
Abstract: Erroneous computer entry problems [here: 'e'errors] in hospital labs threaten the patients-–health carers- relationship, undermining the health system credibility. Are e-errors random, and do lab professionals make them accidentally, or may they be traced through meaningful determinants? Theories on internal causality of mistakes compel to seek specific causal ascriptions of hospital lab eerrors instead of accepting some inescapability. Undeniably, 'To Err is Human'. But in view of rapid global health organizational changes, e-errors are too expensive to lack in-depth considerations. Yet, that efunction might supposedly be entrenched in the health carers- job description remains under dispute – at least for Hellenic labs, where e-use falls behind generalized(able) appreciation and application. In this study: i) an empirical basis of a truly high annual cost of e-errors at about €498,000.00 per rural Hellenic hospital was established, hence interest in exploring the issue was sufficiently substantiated; ii) a sample of 270 lab-expert nurses, technicians and doctors were assessed on several personality, burnout and e-error measures, and iii) the hypothesis that the Hardiness vs Alienation personality construct disposition explains resistance vs proclivity to e-errors was tested and verified: Hardiness operates as a resilience source in the encounter of high pressures experienced in the hospital lab, whereas its 'opposite', i.e., Alienation, functions as a predictor, not only of making e-errors, but also of leading to burn-out. Implications for apt interventions are discussed.
Abstract: With the growth of modern civilization and
industrialization in worldwide, the demand for energy is increasing
day by day. Majority of the world-s energy needs are met through
fossil fuels and natural gas. As a result the amount of fossil fuels is
on diminishing from year to year. Since the fossil fuel is nonrenewable,
so fuel price is gouging as a consequence of spiraling
demand and diminishing supply. At present the power generation of
our country is mainly depends on imported fossil fuels. To reduce the
dependency on imported fuel, the use of renewable sources has
become more popular. In Bangladesh coconut is widely growing tree.
Especially in the southern part of the country a large area will be
found where coconut tree is considered as natural asset. So, our
endeavor was to use the coconut oil as a renewable and alternative
fuel. This article shows the prospect of coconut oil as a renewable
and alternative fuel of diesel fuel. Since diesel engine has a versatile
uses including small electricity generation, an experimental set up is
then made to study the performance of a small diesel engine using
different blends of bio diesel converted from coconut oil. It is found
that bio diesel has slightly different properties than diesel. With
biodiesel the engine is capable of running without difficulty.
Different blends of bio diesel (i.e. B80, B60, and B 50 etc.) have
been used to avoid complicated modification of the engine or the fuel
supply system. Finally, a comparison of engine performance for
different blends of biodiesel has been carried out to determine the
optimum blend for different operating conditions.
Abstract: Titanium oxide hollow microspheres were synthesized from organic precursor titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) using continuous spray pyrolysis reactor. Effects of precursor concentration, applied voltage and annealing have been investigated. It was observed that the annealing of the as-synthesized TiO2 hollow microspheres at 2500C, which had an average external diameter of 200 nm, leads to an increase in the size and also more spherical shape. The precursor concentration was found to have a direct impact on the size of the microspheres, which is also evident in the absorption spectrum. The as-prepared TiO2 hollow microspheres exhibited good photocatalytic activity for the degradation of MO.
Abstract: In present study, two kinds of thermal power plant ashes; one the fly ash and the other waste ash are mixed with adhesive tragacanth and cement to produce new composite materials. 48 new samples are produced by varying the percentages of the fly ash, waste ash, cement and tragacanth. The new samples are subjected to some tests to find out their properties such as thermal conductivity, compressive strength, tensile strength and sucking capability of water. It is found that; the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing amount of tragacanth in the mixture. The compressive, tensile strength increases when the rate of tragacanth is up to 1%, whilst as the amount of tragacanth increases up to 1.5%, the compressive, tensile strength decreases slightly. The rate of water absorption of samples was more than 30%. From this result, it is concluded that these materials can not be used as external plaster or internal plaster material that faces to water. They can be used in internal plaster unless touching water and they can be used as cover plaster under roof and riprap material in sandwich panels. It is also found that, these materials can be cut with saw, drilled with screw and painted with any kind of paint.
Abstract: If a possibility distribution and a probability distribution
are describing values x of one and the same system or process
x(t), can they relate to each other? Though in general the possibility
and probability distributions might be not connected at all, we
can assume that in some particular cases there is an association linked
them.
In the presented paper, we consider distributions of bloodstream
concentrations of physiologically active substances and propose that
the probability to observe a concentration x of a substance X can be
produced from the possibility of the event X = x .
The proposed assumptions and resulted theoretical distributions
are tested against the data obtained from various panel studies of the
bloodstream concentrations of the different physiologically active
substances in patients and healthy adults as well.
Abstract: An analysis is made of the flow of an incompressible viscoelastic fluid (of small memory) over a porous plate subject to suction or blowing. It is found that velocity at a point increases with increase in the elasticity in the fluid. It is also shown that wall shear stress depends only on suction and is also independent of the material of fluids. No steady solution for velocity distribution exists when there is blowing at the plate. Temperature distribution in the boundary layer is determined and it is found that temperature at a point decreases with increase in the elasticity in the fluid.
Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to determine the level of reading habit of future classroom teachers, to discuss the obtained results according to their socio-demographic features and to define the factors which are influential on taking up reading in the context of future teachers experiences. The target population of the study consists of the fourth grade students at 62 faculties of education, department of classroom teaching from Turkish state universities. The sampling of the study consists of the fourth grade students from seven faculties of education, department of classroom teaching from each region. In the study, in the first and the second aspects, there will be a questionnaire to be developed concerning the measurement of future teachers level of reading habits and their socio-demographic features. The questionnaire was applied to all the students in the sample.
Abstract: The present work deals with the stabilisation of
organic clay using hydrated lime. Artificial organic clays were
prepared by adding kaolin and different humic acid contents. Results
given by physical testing show that the presence of humic acid has a
drawback effect on the untreated organic clay. The decrease in
specific gravity value was accompanied by a decrease in dry density
and plasticity of clay at higher humic acid contents. Significant
increase in shear strength at 7 days of curing period is observed in the
lime-treated samples up to 5% lime content. However shear strength
of lime-treated organic clay decreases at longer curing periods. The
results given by laboratory testing is further verified by
microstructure analysis. Based on the results obtained in this study, it
can be concluded that the presence of more than 1.5% humic acid
reduces significantly the efficiency of lime stabilization in organic
clays.
Abstract: A Vehicle-s door wireing harness arrangement structure is provided. In vehicle-s door wiring harness(W/H) system is more toward to arrange a passenger compartment than a hinge and a weatherstrip. This article gives some insight into the dimensioning process, with special focus on large deflection analysis of wiring harness(W/H) in vehicle-s door structures for durability problem. An Finite elements analysis for door wiring harness(W/H) are used for residual stresses and dimensional stability with bending flexible. Durability test data for slim test specimens were compared with the numerical predicted fatigue life for verification. The final lifing of the component combines the effects of these microstructural features with the complex stress state arising from the combined service loading and residual stresses.
Abstract: The radiative exchange method is introduced as a
numerical method for the simulation of radiative heat transfer in an
absorbing, emitting and isotropically scattering media. In this
method, the integro-differential radiative balance equation is solved
by using a new introduced concept for the exchange factor. Even
though the radiative source term is calculated in a mesh structure that
is coarser than the structure used in computational fluid dynamics,
calculating the exchange factor between different coarse elements by
using differential integration elements makes the result of the method
close to that of integro-differential radiative equation. A set of
equations for calculating exchange factors in two and threedimensional
Cartesian coordinate system is presented, and the
method is used in the simulation of radiative heat transfer in twodimensional
rectangular case and a three-dimensional simple cube.
The result of using this method in simulating different cases is
verified by comparing them with those of using other numerical
radiative models.
Abstract: Biometrics methods include recognition techniques
such as fingerprint, iris, hand geometry, voice, face, ears and gait. The gait recognition approach has some advantages, for example it
does not need the prior concern of the observed subject and it can
record many biometric features in order to make deeper analysis, but
most of the research proposals use high computational cost. This
paper shows a gait recognition system with feature subtraction on a
bundle rectangle drawn over the observed person. Statistical results
within a database of 500 videos are shown.
Abstract: The intermittent nature of solar energy and the energy
requirements of buildings necessitate the storage of thermal energy.
In this paper a hybrid system of storing solar energy has been
analyzed. Adding a LHS medium to a commercial solar water heater,
the required energy for heating a small room was obtained in
addition to preparing hot water. In other words, the suggested hybrid
storage system consists of two tanks: a water tank as a SHS medium;
and a paraffin tank as a LHS medium. A computing program was
used to find the optimized time schedule of charging the storage
tanks during each day, according to the solar radiation conditions.
The results show that the use of such system can improve the
capability of energy gathering comparing to the individual water
storage tank during the cold months of the year. Of course, because
of the solar radiation angles and shorten daylight in December &
January, the performance will be the same as the simple solar water
heaters (in the northern hemisphere). But the extra energy stored in
November, February, March & April, can be useful for heating a
small room for 3 hours during the cold days.
Abstract: This paper addresses one important aspect of
combustion system analysis, the spray evaporation and
dispersion modeling. In this study we assume an empty
cylinder which is as a simulator for a ramjet engine and the
cylinder has been studied by cold flow. Four nozzles have the
duties of injection which are located in the entrance of
cylinder. The air flow comes into the cylinder from one side
and injection operation will be done. By changing injection
velocity and entrance air flow velocity, we have studied
droplet sizing and efficient mass fraction of fuel vapor near
and at the exit area. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside
the flammability limit as the efficient mass fraction. Further,
we decreased the initial temperature of fuel droplets and we
have repeated the investigating again. To fulfill the calculation
we used a modified version of KIVA-3V.