Abstract: Decentralized Tuple Space (DTS) implements tuple
space model among a series of decentralized hosts and provides the
logical global shared tuple repository. Replication has been introduced
to promote performance problem incurred by remote tuple access. In
this paper, we propose a replication approach of DTS allowing
replication policies self-adapting. The accesses from users or other
nodes are monitored and collected to contribute the decision making.
The replication policy may be changed if the better performance is
expected. The experiments show that this approach suitably adjusts the
replication policies, which brings negligible overhead.
Abstract: Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET) is taking more
attention in automotive industry due to the safety concern of human
lives on roads. Security is one of the safety aspects in VANET. To be
secure, network availability must be obtained at all times since
availability of the network is critically needed when a node sends any
life critical information to other nodes. However, it can be expected
that security attacks are likely to increase in the coming future due to
more and more wireless applications being developed and deployed
onto the well-known expose nature of the wireless medium. In this
respect, the network availability is exposed to many types of attacks.
In this paper, Denial of Service (DOS) attack on network availability
is presented and its severity level in VANET environment is
elaborated. A model to secure the VANET from the DOS attacks has
been developed and some possible solutions to overcome the attacks
have been discussed.
Abstract: Urbanization has been found to impact stormwater
runoff quantity and quality. A study catchment with mixed land use,
residential and industrial were investigated and the water quality
discharged from the catchment were sampled and tested for four
basic water quality parameters; BOD5, NH3-N, NO3-N and P. One
dry weather flow and several stormwater runoff were sampled.
Results were compared to the USEPA stormwater quality benchmark
values and the Interim National Water Quality Standards for
Malaysia (INWQS). The concentration of the parameters was found
to vary significantly between storms and the pollutant of concern was
found to be NO3-N.
Abstract: The move from cash accounting to accrual accounting, or rule-based to principle-based accounting, by many governments is part of an ongoing efforts in promoting a more business-like and performance-focused public sector. Using questionnaire responses from preparers of financial statements of public universities in Malaysia, this study examines the implementation challenges and benefits of principle-based accounting. Results from these responses suggest that most respondents perceived significant costs would be incurred in relation to staff training and recruitment of staffs with relevant technical knowledge. In addition, most respondents also perceived that there will be significant changes in the current accounting system and structure in order to comply with the principle-based accounting requirements. However, most respondents perceived that these changes might not result in significant benefits for management purposes, for example, financial management, budgeting and allocation of resources. Nevertheless, most respondents perceived that principle-based accounting information would facilitate the monitoring function of the board. The general perception is that adoption of principle-based accounting information is not significantly useful than rule-based accounting information is expected to change over time as preparers of the financial statements gradually understand and appreciate the benefits of principle-based accounting information. This infers that the perceived usefulness of different accounting system is a function of familiarity by the preparers.
Abstract: The protection of groundwater resources is the great
important many semiarid and arid environments. Baghan watershed
is located in the north of Kangan in the Boshehr province in Iran. The
groundwater resources have a vital role in supplying agricultural,
drinking, domestic and industrial water demand in Baghan
watershed. For our investigation into the water quality we collected
30 samples to chemical and physical analysis. The result showed the
marl and evaporation deposits that contain anhydrite and gypsum is
the main source of groundwater pollution, and one part of the
groundwater was polluted by oil and gas industrial. Another part of
the groundwater was contaminated by urban waste water. The
electrical conductivity and captions and anions increased around of
towns and gas refinery. Although the negative impact of untreated
domestic wastewater is relatively low but the results showed strongly
the negative impact of wastewater refinery is very considerable. This
negative impact increased in downstream due to shallow aquifer.
Additionally, the agents that adversely affect the quality of
groundwater come from a variety of sources, including geology,
domestic wastewater and the Jam refinery in Baghan watershed.
Abstract: To achieve competitive advantage nowadays, most of
the industrial companies are considering that success is sustained to
great product development. That is to manage the product throughout
its entire lifetime ranging from design, manufacture, operation and
destruction. Achieving this goal requires a tight collaboration
between partners from a wide variety of domains, resulting in various
product data types and formats, as well as different software tools. So
far, the lack of a meaningful unified representation for product data
semantics has slowed down efficient product development. This
paper proposes an ontology based approach to enable such semantic
interoperability. Generic and extendible product ontology is
described, gathering main concepts pertaining to the mechanical field
and the relations that hold among them. The ontology is not
exhaustive; nevertheless, it shows that such a unified representation
is possible and easily exploitable. This is illustrated thru a case study
with an example product and some semantic requests to which the
ontology responds quite easily. The study proves the efficiency of
ontologies as a support to product data exchange and information
sharing, especially in product development environments where
collaboration is not just a choice but a mandatory prerequisite.
Abstract: In this paper, an overview of the radio over fiber (RoF) technology is provided. Obstacles for reducing the capital and operational expenses in the existing systems are discussed in various perspectives. Some possible RoF deployment scenarios for WiMAX
data transmission are proposed as a means for capital and operational
expenses reduction. IEEE 802.16a standard based end-to-end physical layer model is simulated including intensity modulated direct detection RoF technology. Finally the feasibility of RoF
technology to carry WiMAX signals between the base station and the
remote antenna units is demonstrated using the simulation results.
Abstract: During the last decade some long lasting changes and
developments are shaping the global society. The world is entering a
new society which is already named as information or knowledge
society. In the paper, information/knowledge society is elaborated
first. Starting in the year 2000, European Union has initiated some
special projects such as eEurope and eEurope+ and activities such as
Bologna Process and Socrates/Erasmus Program . The paper will
review these activites in relation with information or knowledge
society . Before paper ends with a conclusion, some views relevant
to the topic are also presented.
Abstract: Swietenia mahagoni have been used in traditional
medicine for treatment of different diseases. Present study was
performed to evaluate anti-ulcerogenic activity of ethanol seed
extract against ethanol induced gastric mucosal injury in rats. Six
groups of rats were orally pre-treated respectively with
carboxymethyl cellulose, omeprazole 20 mg/kg, 50, 100, 200 and 400
mg/kg plant extract one hour before oral administration of absolute
ethanol to generate gastric mucosal injury. After additional hour, rats
were sacrificed and ulcer areas of gastric walls were determined.
Grossly, carboxymethyl cellulose group exhibited severe mucosal
injury, whereas pre-treatment with plant extract exhibited significant
protection of gastric mucosa. Histology, carboxymethyl cellulose
group exhibited severe damage of gastric mucosa; edema and
leucocytes infiltration of sub mucosa compared to plant extract which
showed gastric protection. Acute toxicity study did not manifest any
toxicological signs in rats. Conclusions, results suggest that S.
mahagoni promotes ulcer protection as ascertained grossly and
histologically.
Abstract: The significance of environmental protection is wellknown in today's world. The execution of any program depends on sufficient knowledge and required familiarity with environment and its pollutants. Taking advantage of a systematic method, as a new science, in environmental planning can solve many problems. In this article, air pollution in Tehran and its relationship with health and population growth have been analyzed using dynamic systems. Firstly, by using casual loops, the relationship between the parameters effective on air pollution in Tehran were taken into consideration, then these casual loops were turned into flow diagrams [6], and finally, they were simulated using the software Vensim [16]in order to conclude what the effect of each parameter will be on air pollution in Tehran in the next 10 years, how changing of one or more parameters influences other parameters, and which parameter among all other parameters requires to be controlled more.
Abstract: Creation and maintenance of knowledge management
systems has been recognized as an important research area.
Consecutively lack of accurate results from knowledge management
systems limits the organization to apply their knowledge
management processes. This leads to a failure in getting the right
information to the right people at the right time thus followed by a
deficiency in decision making processes. An Intranet offers a
powerful tool for communication and collaboration, presenting data
and information, and the means that creates and shares knowledge,
all in one easily accessible place. This paper proposes an archetype
describing how a knowledge management system, with the support
of intranet capabilities, could very much increase the accuracy of
capturing, storing and retrieving knowledge based processes thereby
increasing the efficiency of the system. This system will expect a
critical mass of usage, by the users, for intranet to function as
knowledge management systems. This prototype would lead to a
design of an application that would impose creation and maintenance
of an effective knowledge management system through intranet. The
aim of this paper is to introduce an effective system to handle
capture, store and distribute knowledge management in a form that
may not lead to any failure which exists in most of the systems. The
methodology used in the system would require all the employees, in
the organization, to contribute the maximum to deliver the system to
a successful arena. The system is still in its initial mode and thereby
the authors are under the process to practically implement the ideas,
as mentioned in the system, to produce satisfactory results.
Abstract: Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is well
established machining technique mainly used to machine complex
geometries on difficult-to-machine materials and high strength
temperature resistant alloys. In the present research, the objective is
to study the shape of the electrode and establish the application of
liquid nitrogen in reducing distortion of the electrode during
electrical discharge machining of M2 grade high speed steel using
copper electrodes. Study of roundness was performed on the
electrode to observe the shape of the electrode for both conventional
EDM and EDM with cryogenically cooled electrode. Scanning
Electron Microscope (SEM) has been used to study the shape of
electrode tip. The effect of various parameters such as discharge
current and pulse on time has been studied to understand the behavior
of distortion of electrode. It has been concluded that the shape
retention is better in case of liquid nitrogen cooled electrode.
Abstract: Collaborative planning, forecasting and
replenishment (CPFR) coordinates the various supply chain
management activities including production and purchase planning,
demand forecasting and inventory replenishment between supply
chain trading partners. This study proposes a systematic way of
analyzing CPFR supporting factors using fuzzy cognitive map
(FCM) approach. FCMs have proven particularly useful for solving
problems in which a number of decision variables and
uncontrollable variables are causally interrelated. Hence the FCMs
of CPFR are created to show the relationships between the factors
that influence on effective implementation of CPFR in the supply
chain.
Abstract: Web-based systems have become increasingly
important due to the fact that the Internet and the World Wide Web
have become ubiquitous, surpassing all other technological
developments in our history. The Internet and especially companies
websites has rapidly evolved in their scope and extent of use, from
being a little more than fixed advertising material, i.e. a "web
presences", which had no particular influence for the company's
business, to being one of the most essential parts of the company's
core business.
Traditional software engineering approaches with process models
such as, for example, CMM and Waterfall models, do not work very
well since web system development differs from traditional
development. The development differs in several ways, for example,
there is a large gap between traditional software engineering designs
and concepts and the low-level implementation model, many of the
web based system development activities are business oriented (for
example web application are sales-oriented, web application and
intranets are content-oriented) and not engineering-oriented.
This paper aims to introduce Increment Iterative extreme
Programming (IIXP) methodology for developing web based
systems. In difference to the other existence methodologies, this
methodology is combination of different traditional and modern
software engineering and web engineering principles.
Abstract: A novel application of neural network approach to
fault classification and fault location of Medium voltage cables is
demonstrated in this paper. Different faults on a protected cable
should be classified and located correctly. This paper presents the use
of neural networks as a pattern classifier algorithm to perform these
tasks. The proposed scheme is insensitive to variation of different
parameters such as fault type, fault resistance, and fault inception
angle. Studies show that the proposed technique is able to offer high
accuracy in both of the fault classification and fault location tasks.
Abstract: In this paper, an magnetorheological (MR) mount with
fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) is studied for vibration
suppression when the system is subject to base excitations. In recent
years, magnetorheological fluids are becoming a popular material in
the field of the semi-active control. However, the dynamic equation of
an MR mount is highly nonlinear and it is difficult to identify. FSMC
provides a simple method to achieve vibration attenuation of the
nonlinear system with uncertain disturbances. This method is capable
of handling the chattering problem of sliding mode control effectively
and the fuzzy control rules are obtained by using the Lyapunov
stability theory. The numerical simulations using one-dimension and
two-dimension FSMC show effectiveness of the proposed controller
for vibration suppression. Further, the well-known skyhook control
scheme and an adaptive sliding mode controller are also included in
the simulation for comparison with the proposed FSMC.
Abstract: The Beshar River is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems in the upstream of the Karun watershed in south of Iran which is affected by point and non point pollutant sources . This study was done in order to evaluate the effects of pollutants activities on the water quality of the Beshar river and its aquatic ecosystems. This river is approximately 190 km in length and situated at the geographical positions of 51° 20´ to 51° 48´ E and 30° 18´ to 30° 52´ N it is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad province in south-west Iran. In this research project, five study stations were selected to examine water pollution in the Beshar River systems. Human activity is now one of the most important factors affecting on hydrology and water quality of the Beshar river. Humans use large amounts of resources to sustain various standards of living, although measures of sustainability are highly variable depending on how sustainability is defined. The Beshar river ecosystems are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to human activities. Therefore, to determine the impact of human activities on the Beshar River, the most important water quality parameters such as pH, dissolve oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Total Dissolve Solids (TDS), Nitrates (NO3-N) and Phosphates (PO4) were estimated at the five stations. As the results show, the most important pollution index parameters such as BOD5, NO3 and PO4 increase and DO and pH decrease according to human activities (P
Abstract: Generalization is one of the most challenging issues
of Learning Classifier Systems. This feature depends on the
representation method which the system used. Considering the
proposed representation schemes for Learning Classifier System, it
can be concluded that many of them are designed to describe the
shape of the region which the environmental states belong and the
other relations of the environmental state with that region was
ignored. In this paper, we propose a new representation scheme
which is designed to show various relationships between the
environmental state and the region that is specified with a particular
classifier.
Abstract: Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is a secondary metabolite
produced by Penicillium brevicompactum, which has antibiotic and
immunosuppressive properties. In this study, the first, mycophenolic
acid was produced in a fermentation process by Penicillium
brevicompactum MUCL 19011 in shake flask using a base medium.
The maximum MPA production, product yield and productivity of
process were 1.379 g/L, 18.6 mg/g glucose and 4.9 mg/L. h,
respectively. Also the glucose consumption, biomass and MPA
production profiles were investigated during batch cultivation.
Obtained results showed that MPA production starts approximately
after 180 hours and reaches to a maximum at 280 h. In the next step,
the effects of some various concentrations of enzymatically
hydrolyzed casein on MPA production were evaluated. Maximum
MPA production, product yield and productivity as 3.63 g/L, 49
mg/g glucose and 12.96 mg/L.h, respectively were obtained with
using 30 g/L enzymatically hydrolyzed casein in culture medium.
These values show an enhanced MPA production, product yield and
process productivity pr as 116.8%, 132.8% and 163.2%, respectively.
Abstract: In this paper we introduced new wavelet based algorithm for speckle reduction of synthetic aperture radar images, which uses combination of undecimated wavelet transformation, wiener filter (which is an adaptive filter) and mean filter. Further more instead of using existing thresholding techniques such as sure shrinkage, Bayesian shrinkage, universal thresholding, normal thresholding, visu thresholding, soft and hard thresholding, we use brute force thresholding, which iteratively run the whole algorithm for each possible candidate value of threshold and saves each result in array and finally selects the value for threshold that gives best possible results. That is why it is slow as compared to existing thresholding techniques but gives best results under the given algorithm for speckle reduction.