Abstract: Microbial oil was produced by soil isolated
oleaginous yeast YU5/2 in flask-batch fermentation. The yeast was
identified by molecular genetics technique based on sequence
analysis of the variable D1/D2 domain of the large subunit (26S)
ribosomal DNA and it was identified as Torulaspora globosa. T.
globosa YU5/2 supported maximum values of 0.520 g/L/d, 0.472 g
lipid/g cells, 4.16 g/L, and 0.156 g/L/d for volumetric lipid
production rate, and specific yield of lipid, lipid concentration, and
specific rate of lipid production respectively, when culture was
performed in nitrogen-limiting medium supplemented with 80g/L
glucose. Among the carbon sources tested, maximum cell yield
coefficient (YX/S, g/L), maximum specific yield of lipid (YP/X, g
lipid/g cells) and volumetric lipid production rate (QP, g/L/d) were
found of 0.728, 0.237, and 0.619, respectively, using sweet potato
tubers hydrolysates as carbon source.
Abstract: A new hybrid coding method for compressing
animated polygonal meshes is presented. This paper assumes
the simplistic representation of the geometric data: a temporal
sequence of polygonal meshes for each discrete frame of the
animated sequence. The method utilizes a delta coding and an
octree-based method. In this hybrid method, both the octree
approach and the delta coding approach are applied to each
single frame in the animation sequence in parallel. The
approach that generates the smaller encoded file size is chosen
to encode the current frame. Given the same quality
requirement, the hybrid coding method can achieve much
higher compression ratio than the octree-only method or the
delta-only method. The hybrid approach can represent 3D
animated sequences with higher compression factors while
maintaining reasonable quality. It is easy to implement and have
a low cost encoding process and a fast decoding process, which
make it a better choice for real time application.
Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to investigate thelong-run equilibrium and short-run dynamics of international housing prices when macroeconomic variables change. We apply the Pedroni’s, panel cointegration, using the unbalanced panel data analysis of 33 countries over the period from 1980Q1 to 2013Q1, to examine the relationships among house prices and macroeconomic variables. Our empirical results of panel data cointegration tests support the existence of a cointegration among these macroeconomic variables and house prices. Besides, the empirical results of panel DOLS further present that a 1% increase in economic activity, long-term interest rates, and construction costs cause house prices to respectively change 2.16%, -0.04%, and 0.22% in the long run.Furthermore, the increasing economic activity and the construction cost would cause strongerimpacts on the house prices for lower income countries than higher income countries.The results lead to the conclusion that policy of house prices growth can be regarded as economic growth for lower income countries. Finally, in America region, the coefficient of economic activity is the highest, which displays that increasing economic activity causes a faster rise in house prices there than in other regions. There are some special cases whereby the coefficients of interest rates are significantly positive in America and Asia regions.
Abstract: The Institute of Product Development is dealing
with the development, design and dimensioning of micro components
and systems as a member of the Collaborative Research
Centre 499 “Design, Production and Quality Assurance of
Molded micro components made of Metallic and Ceramic Materials".
Because of technological restrictions in the miniaturization
of conventional manufacturing techniques, shape and
material deviations cannot be scaled down in the same proportion
as the micro parts, rendering components with relatively
wide tolerance fields. Systems that include such components
should be designed with this particularity in mind, often requiring
large clearance. On the end, the output of such systems
results variable and prone to dynamical instability. To save
production time and resources, every study of these effects
should happen early in the product development process and
base on computer simulation to avoid costly prototypes. A
suitable method is proposed here and exemplary applied to a
micro technology demonstrator developed by the CRC499. It
consists of a one stage planetary gear train in a sun-planet-ring
configuration, with input through the sun gear and output
through the carrier. The simulation procedure relies on ordinary
Multi Body Simulation methods and subsequently adds
other techniques to further investigate details of the system-s
behavior and to predict its response. The selection of the relevant
parameters and output functions followed the engineering
standards for regular sized gear trains. The first step is to
quantify the variability and to reveal the most critical points of
the system, performed through a whole-mechanism Sensitivity
Analysis. Due to the lack of previous knowledge about the system-s
behavior, different DOE methods involving small and
large amount of experiments were selected to perform the SA.
In this particular case the parameter space can be divided into
two well defined groups, one of them containing the gear-s profile
information and the other the components- spatial location.
This has been exploited to explore the different DOE techniques
more promptly. A reduced set of parameters is derived for
further investigation and to feed the final optimization process,
whether as optimization parameters or as external perturbation
collective. The 10 most relevant perturbation factors and 4 to 6
prospective variable parameters are considered in a new, simplified
model. All of the parameters are affected by the mentioned
production variability. The objective functions of interest
are based on scalar output-s variability measures, so the
problem becomes an optimization under robustness and reliability constrains. The study shows an initial step on the development
path of a method to design and optimize complex micro
mechanisms composed of wide tolerated elements accounting
for the robustness and reliability of the systems- output.
Abstract: In this study Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) is employed to investigate free vibration of an Euler beam with variable stiffness resting on an elastic foundation. HPM is an easy-to-use and very efficient technique for the solution of linear or nonlinear problems. HPM produces analytical approximate expression which is continuous in the solution domain. This work shows that HPM is a promising method for free vibration analysis of nonuniform Euler beams on elastic foundation. Several case problems have been solved by using the technique and solutions have been compared with those available in the literature.
Abstract: Integral Abutment Bridges (IAB) are defined as
simple or multiple span bridges in which the bridge deck is cast
monolithically with the abutment walls. This kind of bridges are
becoming very popular due to different aspects such as good
response under seismic loading, low initial costs, elimination of
bearings, and less maintenance. However the main issue related to
the analysis of this type of structures is dealing with soil-structure
interaction of the abutment walls and the supporting piles. Various
soil constitutive models have been used in studies of soil-structure
interaction in this kind of structures by researchers. This paper is an
effort to review the implementation of various finite elements model
which explicitly incorporates the nonlinear soil and linear structural
response considering various soil constitutive models and finite
element mesh.
Abstract: This paper presents a research conducted to investigate the effect of mixing process on polypropylene (PP) modified bitumen mixed with well graded aggregate to form modified bituminous concrete mix. Two mode of mixing, namely dry and wet with different concentration of polymer polypropylene was used with 80/100 pen bitumen, to evaluate the bituminous concrete mix properties. Three percentages of polymer varying from 1-3% by the weight of bitumen was used in this study. Three mixes namely control mix, wet mix and dry mix were prepared. Optimum binder content was calculated considering Marshall Stability, flow, air voids and Marshall Quotient at different bitumen content varying from 4% - 6.5% for control, dry and wet mix. Engineering properties thus obtained at the calculated optimum bitumen content revealed that wet mixing process is advantageous in comparison to dry mixing as it increases the stiffness of the mixture with the increase in polymer content in bitumen. Stiffness value for wet mix increases with the increase in polymer content which is beneficial in terms of rutting. 1% PP dry mix also shows enhanced stiffness, with the air void content limited to 4%.The flow behaviour of dry mix doesn't indicate any major difference with the increase in polymer content revealing that polymer acting as an aggregate only without affecting the viscosity of the binder in the mix. Polypropylene (PP) when interacted with 80 pen base bitumen enhances its performance characteristics which were brought about by altered rheological properties of the modified bitumen. The decrease in flow with the increase in binder content reflects the increase in viscosity of binder which induces the plastic flow in the mix. Workability index indicates that wet mix were easy to compact up to desired void ratio in comparison to dry mix samples.
Abstract: This paper starts with a critical view of beautiful female images in the mass media being frequently generated by a stereotypical Korean concept of beauty. Several female beauty myths have evolved in Korea during the present decade. Nearly all of them have formed due to a deeply-ingrained androcentric ideology which objectifies women. Mass media causes the public to hold a distorted concept about female beauty. There is a huge gap between women in reality and representative women in the mass media. It is essential to have an unbiased perception of female images presented in the mass media. Due to cosmetic advertisements projecting contemporary images of female beauty to promote products, cosmetics images will be examined in regard to female beauty myths portrayed by the mass media. This paper will analyze features of female beauty myths in Korea and their intrinsic characteristics.
Abstract: This paper focuses on reducing the power consumption
of wireless sensor networks. Therefore, a communication protocol
named LEACH (Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) is modified.
We extend LEACHs stochastic cluster-head selection algorithm
by a modifying the probability of each node to become cluster-head
based on its required energy to transmit to the sink. We present
an efficient energy aware routing algorithm for the wireless sensor
networks. Our contribution consists in rotation selection of clusterheads
considering the remoteness of the nodes to the sink, and then,
the network nodes residual energy. This choice allows a best distribution
of the transmission energy in the network. The cluster-heads
selection algorithm is completely decentralized. Simulation results
show that the energy is significantly reduced compared with the
previous clustering based routing algorithm for the sensor networks.
Abstract: Turbine blade cooling is considered as the most
effective way of maintaining high operating temperature making use
of the available materials, and turbine systems with wet compression
have a potential for future power generation because of high efficiency
and high specific power with a relatively low cost. In this paper
performance analysis of wet-compression gas turbine cycle with
turbine blade cooling is carried out. The wet compression process is
analytically modeled based on non-equilibrium droplet evaporation.
Special attention is paid for the effects of pressure ratio and water
injection ratio on the important system variables such as ratio of
coolant fluid flow, fuel consumption, thermal efficiency and specific
power. Parametric studies show that wet compression leads to
insignificant improvement in thermal efficiency but significant
enhancement of specific power in gas turbine systems with turbine
blade cooling.
Abstract: Westudy a dual-channel supply chain under
decentralized setting in which manufacturer sells to retailer and to
customers directly usingan online channel. A customer chooses the
purchase-channel based on price and service quality. Also, to buy
product from the retail store, the customer incurs a transportation cost
influenced by the fluctuating gasoline cost. Both companies are under
the revenue sharing contract. In this contract the retailer share a
portion of the revenue to the manufacturer while the manufacturer
will charge the lower wholesales price. The numerical result shows
that the effects of gasoline costs, the revenue sharing ratio and the
wholesale price play an important role in determining optimal prices.
The result shows that when the gasoline price fluctuatesthe optimal
on-line priceis relatively stable while the optimal retail price moves
in the opposite direction of the gasoline prices.
Abstract: Proprietary sensor network systems are typically expensive, rigid and difficult to incorporate technologies from other vendors. When using competing and incompatible technologies, a non-proprietary system is complex to create because it requires significant technical expertise and effort, which can be more expensive than a proprietary product. This paper presents the Sensor Abstraction Layer (SAL) that provides middleware architectures with a consistent and uniform view of heterogeneous sensor networks, regardless of the technologies involved. SAL abstracts and hides the hardware disparities and specificities related to accessing, controlling, probing and piloting heterogeneous sensors. SAL is a single software library containing a stable hardware-independent interface with consistent access and control functions to remotely manage the network. The end-user has near-real-time access to the collected data via the network, which results in a cost-effective, flexible and simplified system suitable for novice users. SAL has been used for successfully implementing several low-cost sensor network systems.
Abstract: This paper presents a numerical approach for the static
and dynamic analysis of hydrodynamic radial journal bearings. In the
first part, the effect of shaft and housing deformability on pressure
distribution within oil film is investigated. An iterative algorithm that
couples Reynolds equation with a plane finite elements (FE)
structural model is solved. Viscosity-to-pressure dependency (Vogel-
Barus equation) is also included. The deformed lubrication gap and
the overall stress state are obtained. Numerical results are presented
with reference to a typical journal bearing configuration at two
different inlet oil temperatures. Obtained results show the great
influence of bearing components structural deformation on oil
pressure distribution, compared with results for ideally rigid
components. In the second part, a numerical approach based on
perturbation method is used to compute stiffness and damping
matrices, which characterize the journal bearing dynamic behavior.
Abstract: In this paper three different approaches for person
verification and identification, i.e. by means of fingerprints, face and
voice recognition, are studied. Face recognition uses parts-based
representation methods and a manifold learning approach. The
assessment criterion is recognition accuracy. The techniques under
investigation are: a) Local Non-negative Matrix Factorization
(LNMF); b) Independent Components Analysis (ICA); c) NMF with
sparse constraints (NMFsc); d) Locality Preserving Projections
(Laplacianfaces). Fingerprint detection was approached by classical
minutiae (small graphical patterns) matching through image
segmentation by using a structural approach and a neural network as
decision block. As to voice / speaker recognition, melodic cepstral
and delta delta mel cepstral analysis were used as main methods, in
order to construct a supervised speaker-dependent voice recognition
system. The final decision (e.g. “accept-reject" for a verification
task) is taken by using a majority voting technique applied to the
three biometrics. The preliminary results, obtained for medium
databases of fingerprints, faces and voice recordings, indicate the
feasibility of our study and an overall recognition precision (about
92%) permitting the utilization of our system for a future complex
biometric card.
Abstract: This study investigates the use of genetic algorithms
in information retrieval. The method is shown to be applicable to
three well-known documents collections, where more relevant
documents are presented to users in the genetic modification. In this
paper we present a new fitness function for approximate information
retrieval which is very fast and very flexible, than cosine similarity
fitness function.
Abstract: Enterprise applications are complex systems that are hard to develop and deploy in organizations. Although software application development tools, frameworks, methodologies and patterns are rapidly developing; many projects fail by causing big costs. There are challenging issues that programmers and designers face with while working on enterprise applications. In this paper, we present the three of the significant issues: Architectural, technological and performance. The important subjects in each issue are pointed out and recommendations are given. In architectural issues the lifecycle, meta-architecture, guidelines are pointed out. .NET and Java EE platforms are presented in technological issues. The importance of performance, measuring performance and profilers are explained in performance issues.
Abstract: The move towards internationalization of accounting encountered a great boost, when in 2002 EU delegated the IASB to provide the accounting standards to be applied inside its frontiers. Among the incentives of the standardization of accounting on the international level, is the reduction of the cost of capital. Romania made the move towards IFRS before EU, when the country was not yet a member of it. Even if this made Romania a special case, it was scarcely approached. The leak of real data is usually the reason for avoiding. The novelty of this paper is that it offers an insight from the reality of Romanian companies and their view regarding the IFRS. The paper is based on a survey that the authors made among the companies listed on the first two tiers of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), which are basically, the most important companies in the country.
Abstract: A mobile ad hoc network is a network of mobile nodes
without any notion of centralized administration. In such a network,
each mobile node behaves not only as a host which runs applications
but also as a router to forward packets on behalf of others. Clustering
has been applied to routing protocols to achieve efficient
communications. A CH network expresses the connected relationship
among cluster-heads. This paper discusses the methods for
constructing a CH network, and produces the following results: (1)
The required running costs of 3 traditional methods for constructing a
CH network are not so different from each other in the static
circumstance, or in the dynamic circumstance. Their running costs in
the static circumstance do not differ from their costs in the dynamic
circumstance. Meanwhile, although the routing costs required for the
above 3 methods are not so different in the static circumstance, the
costs are considerably different from each other in the dynamic
circumstance. Their routing costs in the static circumstance are also
very different from their costs in the dynamic circumstance, and the
former is one tenths of the latter. The routing cost in the dynamic
circumstance is mostly the cost for re-routing. (2) On the strength of
the above results, we discuss new 2 methods regarding whether they
are tolerable or not in the dynamic circumstance, that is, whether the
times of re-routing are small or not. These new methods are revised
methods that are based on the traditional methods. We recommended
the method which produces the smallest routing cost in the dynamic
circumstance, therefore producing the smallest total cost.
Abstract: this article proposed a methodology for computer
numerical control (CNC) machine scoring. The case study company
is a manufacturer of hard disk drive parts in Thailand. In this
company, sample of parts manufactured from CNC machine are
usually taken randomly for quality inspection. These inspection data
were used to make a decision to shut down the machine if it has
tendency to produce parts that are out of specification. Large amount
of data are produced in this process and data mining could be very
useful technique in analyzing them. In this research, data mining
techniques were used to construct a machine scoring model called
'machine priority assessment model (MPAM)'. This model helps to
ensure that the machine with higher risk of producing defective parts
be inspected before those with lower risk. If the defective prone
machine is identified sooner, defective part and rework could be
reduced hence improving the overall productivity. The results
showed that the proposed method can be successfully implemented
and approximately 351,000 baht of opportunity cost could have
saved in the case study company.
Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) systems provides a viable means of
power generation for applications like powering residential
appliances, electrification of villages in rural areas, refrigeration and
water pumping. Photovoltaic-power generation is reliable. The
operation and maintenance costs are very low. Since Myanmar is a
land of plentiful sunshine, especially in central and southern regions
of the country, the solar energy could hopefully become the final
solution to its energy supply problem in rural area.