Abstract: In order to evaluation the effects of soil organic
matter and biofertilizer on chickpea quality and biological
nitrogen fixation, field experiments were carried out in 2007
and 2008 growing seasons. In this research the effects of
different strategies for soil fertilization were investigated on
grain yield and yield component, minerals, organic compounds
and cooking time of chickpea. Experimental units were
arranged in split-split plots based on randomized complete
blocks with three replications. Main plots consisted of (G1):
establishing a mixed vegetation of Vicia panunica and
Hordeum vulgare and (G2): control, as green manure levels.
Also, five strategies for obtaining the base fertilizer
requirement including (N1): 20 t.ha-1 farmyard manure; (N2):
10 t.ha-1 compost; (N3): 75 kg.ha-1 triple super phosphate;
(N4): 10 t.ha-1 farmyard manure + 5 t.ha-1 compost and (N5):
10 t.ha-1 farmyard manure + 5 t.ha-1 compost + 50 kg.ha-1
triple super phosphate were considered in sub plots.
Furthermoree four levels of biofertilizers consisted of (B1):
Bacillus lentus + Pseudomonas putida; (B2): Trichoderma
harzianum; (B3): Bacillus lentus + Pseudomonas putida +
Trichoderma harzianum; and (B4): control (without
biofertilizers) were arranged in sub-sub plots. Results showed
that integrating biofertilizers (B3) and green manure (G1)
produced the highest grain yield. The highest amounts of yield
were obtained in G1×N5 interaction. Comparison of all 2-way
and 3-way interactions showed that G1N5B3 was determined
as the superior treatment. Significant increasing of N, P2O5,
K2O, Fe and Mg content in leaves and grains emphasized on
superiority of mentioned treatment because each one of these
nutrients has an approved role in chlorophyll synthesis and
photosynthesis abilities of the crops. The combined application
of compost, farmyard manure and chemical phosphorus (N5)
in addition to having the highest yield, had the best grain
quality due to high protein, starch and total sugar contents, low
crude fiber and reduced cooking time.
Abstract: The size, complexity and number of databases used
for protein information have caused bioinformatics to lag behind in
adapting to the need to handle this distributed information.
Integrating all the information from different databases into one
database is a challenging problem. Our main research is to develop a
tool which can be used to access and manipulate protein information
from difference databases. In our approach, we have integrated
difference databases such as Swiss-prot, PDB, Interpro, and EMBL
and transformed these databases in flat file format into relational
form using XML and Bioperl. As a result, we showed this tool can
search different sizes of protein information stored in relational
database and the result can be retrieved faster compared to flat file
database. A web based user interface is provided to allow user to
access or search for protein information in the local database.
Abstract: An optimal power flow (OPF) based on particle swarm
optimization (PSO) was developed with more realistic generator
security constraint using the capability curve instead of only Pmin/Pmax
and Qmin/Qmax. Neural network (NN) was used in designing digital
capability curve and the security check algorithm. The algorithm is
very simple and flexible especially for representing non linear
generation operation limit near steady state stability limit and under
excitation operation area. In effort to avoid local optimal power flow
solution, the particle swarm optimization was implemented with
enough widespread initial population. The objective function used in
the optimization process is electric production cost which is
dominated by fuel cost. The proposed method was implemented at
Java Bali 500 kV power systems contain of 7 generators and 20
buses. The simulation result shows that the combination of generator
power output resulted from the proposed method was more economic
compared with the result using conventional constraint but operated
at more marginal operating point.
Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources becomes more
necessary and interesting. As wider applications of renewable energy
devices at domestic, commercial and industrial levels has not only
resulted in greater awareness, but also significantly installed
capacities. In addition, biomass principally is in the form of woods,
which is a form of energy by humans for a long time. Gasification is
a process of conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible
gas by partial combustion. Many gasifier models have various
operating conditions; the parameters kept in each model are different.
This study applied experimental data, which has three inputs, which
are; biomass consumption, temperature at combustion zone and ash
discharge rate. One output is gas flow rate. For this paper, neural
network was used to identify the gasifier system suitable for the
experimental data. In the result,neural networkis usable to attain the
answer.
Abstract: In this paper we study the use of a new code called
Random Diagonal (RD) code for Spectral Amplitude Coding (SAC)
optical Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, using
Fiber Bragg-Grating (FBG), FBG consists of a fiber segment whose
index of reflection varies periodically along its length. RD code is
constructed using code level and data level, one of the important
properties of this code is that the cross correlation at data level is
always zero, which means that Phase intensity Induced Phase (PIIN)
is reduced. We find that the performance of the RD code will be
better than Modified Frequency Hopping (MFH) and Hadamard code
It has been observed through experimental and theoretical simulation
that BER for RD code perform significantly better than other codes.
Proof –of-principle simulations of encoding with 3 channels, and 10
Gbps data transmission have been successfully demonstrated together
with FBG decoding scheme for canceling the code level from SAC-signal.
Abstract: This paper presents a new sensor-based online method for generating collision-free near-optimal paths for mobile robots pursuing a moving target amidst dynamic and static obstacles. At each iteration, first the set of all collision-free directions are calculated using velocity vectors of the robot relative to each obstacle and target, forming the Directive Circle (DC), which is a novel concept. Then, a direction close to the shortest path to the target is selected from feasible directions in DC. The DC prevents the robot from being trapped in deadlocks or local minima. It is assumed that the target's velocity is known, while the speeds of dynamic obstacles, as well as the locations of static obstacles, are to be calculated online. Extensive simulations and experimental results demonstrated the efficiency of the proposed method and its success in coping with complex environments and obstacles.
Abstract: Current image-based individual human recognition
methods, such as fingerprints, face, or iris biometric modalities
generally require a cooperative subject, views from certain aspects,
and physical contact or close proximity. These methods cannot
reliably recognize non-cooperating individuals at a distance in the
real world under changing environmental conditions. Gait, which
concerns recognizing individuals by the way they walk, is a relatively
new biometric without these disadvantages. The inherent gait
characteristic of an individual makes it irreplaceable and useful in
visual surveillance.
In this paper, an efficient gait recognition system for human
identification by extracting two features namely width vector of
the binary silhouette and the MPEG-7-based region-based shape
descriptors is proposed. In the proposed method, foreground objects
i.e., human and other moving objects are extracted by estimating
background information by a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and
subsequently, median filtering operation is performed for removing
noises in the background subtracted image. A moving target classification
algorithm is used to separate human being (i.e., pedestrian)
from other foreground objects (viz., vehicles). Shape and boundary
information is used in the moving target classification algorithm.
Subsequently, width vector of the outer contour of binary silhouette
and the MPEG-7 Angular Radial Transform coefficients are taken as
the feature vector. Next, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
is applied to the selected feature vector to reduce its dimensionality.
These extracted feature vectors are used to train an Hidden Markov
Model (HMM) for identification of some individuals. The proposed
system is evaluated using some gait sequences and the experimental
results show the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: Pakistani doctors (MBBS) are emigrating towards developed countries for professional adjustments. This study aims to highlight causes and consequences of doctors- brain drain from Pakistan. Primary data was collected from Mayo Hospital, Lahore by interviewing doctors (n=100) through systematic random sampling technique. It found that various socio-economic and political conditions are working as push and pull factors for brain drain of doctors in Pakistan. Majority of doctors (83%) declared poor remunerations and professional infrastructure of health department as push factor of doctors- brain drain. 81% claimed that continuous instability in political situation and threats of terrorism are responsible for emigration of doctors. 84% respondents considered fewer opportunities of further studies responsible for their emigration. Brain drain of doctors is affecting health sector-s policies / programs, standard doctor-patient ratios and quality of health services badly.
Abstract: It-s known that incorporating prior knowledge into support
vector regression (SVR) can help to improve the approximation
performance. Most of researches are concerned with the incorporation
of knowledge in the form of numerical relationships. Little work,
however, has been done to incorporate the prior knowledge on the
structural relationships among the variables (referred as to Structural
Prior Knowledge, SPK). This paper explores the incorporation of SPK
in SVR by constructing appropriate admissible support vector kernel
(SV kernel) based on the properties of reproducing kernel (R.K).
Three-levels specifications of SPK are studied with the corresponding
sub-levels of prior knowledge that can be considered for the method.
These include Hierarchical SPK (HSPK), Interactional SPK (ISPK)
consisting of independence, global and local interaction, Functional
SPK (FSPK) composed of exterior-FSPK and interior-FSPK. A
convenient tool for describing the SPK, namely Description Matrix
of SPK is introduced. Subsequently, a new SVR, namely Motivated
Support Vector Regression (MSVR) whose structure is motivated
in part by SPK, is proposed. Synthetic examples show that it is
possible to incorporate a wide variety of SPK and helpful to improve
the approximation performance in complex cases. The benefits of
MSVR are finally shown on a real-life military application, Air-toground
battle simulation, which shows great potential for MSVR to
the complex military applications.
Abstract: A new chelating resin is prepared by coupling Amberlite XAD-4 with 1-amino-2-naphthole through an azo spacer. The resulting sorbent has been characterized by FT-IR, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and studied for preconcentrating of Fe (II) using flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) for metal monitoring. The optimum pH value for sorption of the iron ions was 6.5. The resin was subjected to evaluation through batch binding of mentioned metal ion. Quantitative desorption occurs instantaneously with 0.5 M HNO3. The sorption capacity was found 4.1 mmol.g-1 of resin for Fe (II) in the aqueous solution. The chelating resin can be reused for 10 cycles of sorption-desorption without any significant change in sorption capacity. A recovery of 97% was obtained the metal ions with 0.5 M HNO3 as eluting agent. The method was applied for metal ions determination from industrial waste water sample.
Abstract: As nanotechnology advances, the use of nanotechnology for medical purposes in the field of nanomedicine seems more promising; the rise of nanorobots for medical diagnostics and treatments could be arriving in the near future. This study proposes a swarm intelligence based control mechanism for swarm nanorobots that operate as artificial platelets to search for wounds. The canonical particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed in this study. A simulation in the circulatory system is constructed and used for demonstrating the movement of nanorobots with essential characteristics to examine the performance of proposed control mechanism. The effects of three nanorobot capabilities including their perception range, maximum velocity and respond time are investigated. The results show that canonical particle swarm optimization can be used to control the early version nanorobots with simple behaviors and actions.
Abstract: More and more home videos are being generated with the ever growing popularity of digital cameras and camcorders. For many home videos, a photo rendering, whether capturing a moment or a scene within the video, provides a complementary representation to the video. In this paper, a video motion mining framework for creative rendering is presented. The user-s capture intent is derived by analyzing video motions, and respective metadata is generated for each capture type. The metadata can be used in a number of applications, such as creating video thumbnail, generating panorama posters, and producing slideshows of video.
Abstract: In present work, drying characteristics of fresh papaya (Carica papaya L.) was studied to understand the dehydration process and its behavior. Drying experiments were carried out by a laboratory scaled microwave-vacuum oven. The parameters affecting drying characteristics including operating modes (continuous, pulsed), microwave power (400 and 800 W), and vacuum pressure (20, 30, and 40 cmHg) were investigated. For pulsed mode, two levels of power-off time (60 and 120 s) were used while the power-on time was fixed at 60 s and the vacuum pressure was fixed at 40 cmHg. For both operating modes, the effects of drying conditions on drying time, drying rate, and effective diffusivity were investigated. The results showed high microwave power, high vacuum, and pulsed mode of 60 s-on/60 s-off favored drying rate as shown by the shorten drying time and increased effective diffusivity. The drying characteristics were then described by Page-s model, which showed a good agreement with experimental data.
Abstract: This paper proposes a specialized Web robot to automatically collect objectionable Web contents for use in an objectionable Web content classification system, which creates the URL database of objectionable Web contents. It aims at shortening the update period of the DB, increasing the number of URLs in the DB, and enhancing the accuracy of the information in the DB.
Abstract: The coalescer process is one of the methods for oily water treatment by increasing the oil droplet size in order to enhance the separating velocity and thus effective separation. However, the presence of surfactants in an oily emulsion can limit the obtained mechanisms due to the small oil size related with stabilized emulsion. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to improve the efficiency of the coalescer process for treating the stabilized emulsion. The effects of bed types, bed height, liquid flow rate and stage coalescer (step-bed) on the treatment efficiencies in term of COD values were studied. Note that the treatment efficiency obtained experimentally was estimated by using the COD values and oil droplet size distribution. The study has shown that the plastic media has more effective to attach with oil particles than the stainless one due to their hydrophobic properties. Furthermore, the suitable bed height (3.5 cm) and step bed (3.5 cm with 2 steps) were necessary in order to well obtain the coalescer performance. The application of step bed coalescer process in reactor has provided the higher treatment efficiencies in term of COD removal than those obtained with classical process. The proposed model for predicting the area under curve and thus treatment efficiency, based on the single collector efficiency (ηT) and the attachment efficiency (α), provides relatively a good coincidence between the experimental and predicted values of treatment efficiencies in this study.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the application of small
rating Capacitive Energy Storage units for the improvement of
Automatic Generation Control of a multiunit multiarea power
system. Generation Rate Constraints are also considered in the
investigations. Integral Squared Error technique is used to obtain the
optimal integral gain settings by minimizing a quadratic performance
index. Simulation studies reveal that with CES units, the deviations
in area frequencies and inter-area tie-power are considerably
improved in terms of peak deviations and settling time as compared
to that obtained without CES units.
Abstract: The stochastic nature of tool life using conventional discrete-wear data from experimental tests usually exists due to many individual and interacting parameters. It is a common practice in batch production to continually use the same tool to machine different parts, using disparate machining parameters. In such an environment, the optimal points at which tools have to be changed, while achieving minimum production cost and maximum production rate within the surface roughness specifications, have not been adequately studied. In the current study, two relevant aspects are investigated using coated and uncoated inserts in turning operations: (i) the accuracy of using machinability information, from fixed parameters testing procedures, when variable parameters situations are emerged, and (ii) the credibility of tool life machinability data from prior discrete testing procedures in a non-stop machining. A novel technique is proposed and verified to normalize the conventional fixed parameters machinability data to suit the cases when parameters have to be changed for the same tool. Also, an experimental investigation has been established to evaluate the error in the tool life assessment when machinability from discrete testing procedures is employed in uninterrupted practical machining.
Abstract: This paper presents a new heuristic algorithm useful
for long-term planning of survivable WDM networks. A multi-period
model is formulated that combines network topology design and
capacity expansion. The ability to determine network expansion
schedules of this type becomes increasingly important to the
telecommunications industry and to its customers. The solution
technique consists of a Genetic Algorithm that allows generating
several network alternatives for each time period simultaneously and
shortest-path techniques to deduce from these alternatives a least-cost
network expansion plan over all time periods. The multi-period
planning approach is illustrated on a realistic network example.
Extensive simulations on a wide range of problem instances are
carried out to assess the cost savings that can be expected by
choosing a multi-period planning approach instead of an iterative
network expansion design method.
Abstract: ISO 9000 is the most popular and widely adopted meta-standard for quality and operational improvements. However, only limited empirical research has been conducted to examine the impact of ISO 9000 on operational performance based on objective and longitudinal data. To reveal any causal relationship between the adoption of ISO 9000 and operational performance, we examined the timing and magnitude of change in time-based performance as a result of ISO 9000 adoption. We analyzed the changes in operating cycle, inventory days, and account receivable days prior and after the implementation of ISO 9000 in 695 publicly listed manufacturing firms. We found that ISO 9000 certified firms shortened their operating cycle time by 5.28 days one year after the implementation of ISO 9000. In the long-run (3 years after certification), certified firms showed continuous improvement in time-based efficiency, and experienced a shorter operating cycle time of 11 days than that of non-certified firms. There was an average of 6.5% improvement in operating cycle time for ISO 9000 certified firms. Both inventory days and account receivable days showed similar significant improvements after the implementation of ISO 9000, too.
Abstract: Recently, as information industry and mobile
communication technology are developing, this study is conducted on
the new concept of intelligent structures and maintenance techniques
that applied wireless sensor network, USN (Ubiquitous Sensor
Network), to social infrastructures such as civil and architectural
structures on the basis of the concept of Ubiquitous Computing that
invisibly provides human life with computing, along with mutually
cooperating, compromising and connecting networks each other by
having computers within all objects around us.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the capability
of wireless communication of sensor node embedded in reinforced
concrete structure with a basic experiment on an electric wave
permeability of sensor node by fabricating molding with variables of
concrete thickness and steel bars that are mostly used in constructing
structures to determine the feasibility of application to constructing
structures with USN.
At this time, with putting the pitches of steel bars, the thickness of
concrete placed, and the intensity of RF signal of a
transmitter-receiver as variables and when wireless communication
module was installed inside, the possible communication distance of
plain concrete and the possible communication distance by the pitches
of steel bars was measured in the horizontal and vertical direction
respectively. Besides, for the precise measurement of diminution of an
electric wave, the magnitude of an electric wave in the range of used
frequencies was measured by using Spectrum Analyzer. The
phenomenon of diminution of an electric wave was numerically
analyzed and the effect of the length of wavelength of frequencies was
analyzed by the properties of a frequency band area.
As a result of studying the feasibility of an application to
constructing structures with wireless sensor, in case of plain concrete,
it shows 45cm for the depth of permeability and in case of reinforced
concrete with the pitches of 5cm, it shows 37cm and 45cm for the
pitches of 15cm.