Abstract: This work was to study batch biosorption of Pb(II)
ions from aqueous solution by Luffa charcoal. The effect of operating
parameters such as adsorption contact time, initial pH solution and
different initial Pb(II) concentration on the sorption of Pb(II) were
investigated. The results showed that the adsorption of Pb(II) ions
was initially rapid and the equilibrium time was 10 h. Adsorption
kinetics of Pb(II) ions onto Luffa charcoal could be best described by
the pseudo-second order model. At pH 5.0 was favorable for the
adsorption and removal of Pb(II) ions. Freundlich adsorption
isotherm model was better fitted for the adsorption of Pb(II) ions than
Langmuir and Timkin isotherms, respectively. The highest monolayer
adsorption capacity obtained from Langmuir isotherm model was
51.02 mg/g. This study demonstrated that Luffa charcoal could be
used for the removal of Pb(II) ions in water treatment.
Abstract: Active power filter continues to be a powerful tool to control harmonics in power systems thereby enhancing the power quality. This paper presents a fuzzy tuned PID controller based shunt active filter to diminish the harmonics caused by non linear loads like thyristor bridge rectifiers and imbalanced loads. Here Fuzzy controller provides the tuning of PID, based on firing of thyristor bridge rectifiers and variations in input rms current. The shunt APF system is implemented with three phase current controlled Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and is connected at the point of common coupling for compensating the current harmonics by injecting equal but opposite filter currents. These controllers are capable of controlling dc-side capacitor voltage and estimating reference currents. Hysteresis Current Controller (HCC) is used to generate switching signals for the voltage source inverter. Simulation studies are carried out with non linear loads like thyristor bridge rectifier along with unbalanced loads and the results proved that the APF along with fuzzy tuned PID controller work flawlessly for different firing angles of non linear load.
Abstract: The paper proposes a unified model for multimedia data retrieval which includes data representatives, content representatives, index structure, and search algorithms. The multimedia data are defined as k-dimensional signals indexed in a multidimensional k-tree structure. The benefits of using the k-tree unified model were demonstrated by running the data retrieval application on a six networked nodes test bed cluster. The tests were performed with two retrieval algorithms, one that allows parallel searching using a single feature, the second that performs a weighted cascade search for multiple features querying. The experiments show a significant reduction of retrieval time while maintaining the quality of results.
Abstract: This study describes the methodology for the development of a validated in-vitro in-vivo correlation (IVIVC) for metoprolol tartrate modified release dosage forms with distinctive release rate characteristics. Modified release dosage forms were formulated by microencapsulation of metoprolol tartrate into different amounts of ethylcellulose by non-solvent addition technique. Then in-vitro and in-vivo studies were conducted to develop and validate level A IVIVC for metoprolol tartrate. The values of regression co-efficient (R2-values) for IVIVC of T2 and T3 formulations were not significantly (p
Abstract: This paper reports the feasibility of the ARMA model
to describe a bursty video source transmitting over a AAL5 ATM link
(VBR traffic). The traffic represents the activity of the action movie
"Lethal Weapon 3" transmitted over the ATM network using the Fore
System AVA-200 ATM video codec with a peak rate of 100 Mbps
and a frame rate of 25. The model parameters were estimated for a
single video source and independently multiplexed video sources. It
was found that the model ARMA (2, 4) is well-suited for the real data
in terms of average rate traffic profile, probability density function,
autocorrelation function, burstiness measure, and the pole-zero
distribution of the filter model.
Abstract: Automatic reusability appraisal could be helpful in
evaluating the quality of developed or developing reusable software
components and in identification of reusable components from
existing legacy systems; that can save cost of developing the software
from scratch. But the issue of how to identify reusable components
from existing systems has remained relatively unexplored. In this
paper, we have mentioned two-tier approach by studying the
structural attributes as well as usability or relevancy of the
component to a particular domain. Latent semantic analysis is used
for the feature vector representation of various software domains. It
exploits the fact that FeatureVector codes can be seen as documents
containing terms -the idenifiers present in the components- and so
text modeling methods that capture co-occurrence information in
low-dimensional spaces can be used. Further, we devised Neuro-
Fuzzy hybrid Inference System, which takes structural metric values
as input and calculates the reusability of the software component.
Decision tree algorithm is used to decide initial set of fuzzy rules for
the Neuro-fuzzy system. The results obtained are convincing enough
to propose the system for economical identification and retrieval of
reusable software components.
Abstract: The main thrust of this paper is to assess the level of disclosure in the annual reports of non-financial Greek firms and to empirically investigate the hypothesized impact of several firm characteristics on the extent of mandatory disclosure. A disclosure checklist consisting of 100 mandatory items was developed to assess the level of disclosure in the 2009 annual reports of 43 Greek companies listed at the Athens stock exchange. The association between the level of disclosure and some firm characteristics was examined using multiple linear regression analysis. The study reveals that Greek companies on general have responded adequately to the mandatory disclosure requirements of the regulatory bodies. The findings also indicate that firm size was significant positively associated with the level of disclosure. The remaining variables such as age, profitability, liquidity, and board composition were found to be insignificant in explaining the variation of mandatory disclosures. The outcome of this study is undoubtedly of great concern to the investment community at large to assist in evaluating the extent of mandatory disclosure by Greek firms and explaining the variation of disclosure in light of firm-specific characteristics.
Abstract: In this paper a new Genetic Algorithm based on a heuristic operator and Centre of Mass selection operator (CMGA) is designed for the unbounded knapsack problem(UKP), which is NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problem. The proposed genetic algorithm is based on a heuristic operator, which utilizes problem specific knowledge. This center of mass operator when combined with other Genetic Operators forms a competitive algorithm to the existing ones. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of obtaining high quality solutions for problems of standard randomly generated knapsack instances. Comparative study of CMGA with simple GA in terms of results for unbounded knapsack instances of size up to 200 show the superiority of CMGA. Thus CMGA is an efficient tool of solving UKP and this algorithm is competitive with other Genetic Algorithms also.
Abstract: Gabor-based face representation has achieved enormous success in face recognition. This paper addresses a novel algorithm for face recognition using neural networks trained by Gabor features. The system is commenced on convolving a face image with a series of Gabor filter coefficients at different scales and orientations. Two novel contributions of this paper are: scaling of rms contrast and introduction of fuzzily skewed filter. The neural network employed for face recognition is based on the multilayer perceptron (MLP) architecture with backpropagation algorithm and incorporates the convolution filter response of Gabor jet. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been justified over a face database with images captured at different illumination conditions.
Abstract: Number of documents being created increases at an
increasing pace while most of them being in already known topics
and little of them introducing new concepts. This fact has started a
new era in information retrieval discipline where the requirements
have their own specialties. That is digging into topics and concepts
and finding out subtopics or relations between topics. Up to now IR
researches were interested in retrieving documents about a general
topic or clustering documents under generic subjects. However these
conventional approaches can-t go deep into content of documents
which makes it difficult for people to reach to right documents they
were searching. So we need new ways of mining document sets
where the critic point is to know much about the contents of the
documents. As a solution we are proposing to enhance LSI, one of
the proven IR techniques by supporting its vector space with n-gram
forms of words. Positive results we have obtained are shown in two
different application area of IR domain; querying a document
database, clustering documents in the document database.
Abstract: Logic based methods for learning from structured data
is limited w.r.t. handling large search spaces, preventing large-sized
substructures from being considered by the resulting classifiers. A
novel approach to learning from structured data is introduced that
employs a structure transformation method, called finger printing, for
addressing these limitations. The method, which generates features
corresponding to arbitrarily complex substructures, is implemented in
a system, called DIFFER. The method is demonstrated to perform
comparably to an existing state-of-art method on some benchmark
data sets without requiring restrictions on the search space.
Furthermore, learning from the union of features generated by finger
printing and the previous method outperforms learning from each
individual set of features on all benchmark data sets, demonstrating
the benefit of developing complementary, rather than competing,
methods for structure classification.
Abstract: Modern culture, based on disinhibition of cultural trends and on heterodirection, is promoting openmindedness attitudes towards ethnic diversity, but on the other hand also new forms of social representations of the foreigner. Social representation is situated between the psychic field and the social one; it is the representation of oneself and of the other one, hanging between social categories and individual inner world. We will produce the results of a research on the representation of the foreigner, built on the type of prejudice prevailing among middle-low or middle-high educational qualification subjects, in which prejudicial attitudes seem to descend from precise mental images of the foreigner.
Abstract: Supersonic open and closed cavity flows are investigated experimentally and computationally. Free stream Mach number of two is set. Schlieren imaging is used to visualise the flow behaviour showing stark differences between open and closed. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate open cavity of flow with aspect ratio of 4. A rear wall treatment is implemented in order to pursue a simple passive control approach. Good qualitative agreement is achieved between the experimental flow visualisation and the CFD in terms of the expansion-shock waves system. The cavity oscillations are shown to be dominated by the first and third Rossister modes combining to high fluctuations of non-linear nature above the cavity rear edge. A simple rear wall treatment in terms of a hole shows mixed effect on the flow oscillations, RMS contours, and time history density fluctuations are given and analysed.
Abstract: In this paper, the problem of asymptotical stability of neutral systems with nonlinear perturbations is investigated. Based on a class of novel augment Lyapunov functionals which contain freeweighting matrices, some new delay-dependent asymptotical stability criteria are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) by using new inequality analysis technique. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the derived condition are much less conservative than those given in the literature.
Abstract: Internet application in China has maintained a constant
development tendency in the past decade. China is now one of the
most populous countries in terms of internet user population. While
offering enormous opportunities, the dramatic digitalization also
brings about a series of challenges that demand urgent attention.
Digital divide is one of the challenges that affect China as well as other
countries in the world. This paper examines digital divide in the
Chinese context from the perspective of development communication.
Through a case study of a rural township under the backdrop of the
rapid internet development in China, the paper discusses the
economic, psychological and cultural roots of digital divide; and
explores development communication strategies addressing the roots
of digital divide. It is argued that development communication must be
responsive to the potentialities and preferences of the specific society
and serve the purposes of participation and sustainability.
Abstract: In this article, some methods are mentioned for developing the theatrical language by giving information of “theatrical language" since the arising of the language in obsolete terms, and today, and also by examining the problems. Being able to talk meaningfully in the theater stage is a skillful art. Maybe, to be able to convey the idea of the poet, his/her world outlook and his/her feelings from the bottom of the heart as such, also conveying the speech norms without breaking them to the ear of audience in a fascinating way in adverse of a repellent way is the most difficult one. Because of this, “the word is the mirror of the idea". The importance of the theatrical language should not be perceived as only a post, it is “as the yarn that the culture carpet is weaved from". Thereby, it is a tool which transposes our culture and our life style from generation to generation. At the time of creativeness, the “word" comes out from the poet, “the word and feeling" art comes out from the actor. If it was not so, the audience could read the texts of the work himself/herself instead of going to the theater in order to see the performance. The fundamental works by the Turkish, Kazakh and English scientists have been taken as a basis for the research done.
Abstract: This paper investigates several factors affecting the
cost of capital for listed Romanian companies. Although there is a
large amount of literature investigating the drivers of the cost of
capital internationally, there is currently little evidence from
emergent markets. Based on a sample of 19 Romanian listed
companies followed by financial analysts for the years 2008-2010,
according to Thomson Reuters- I/B/E/S data base, the paper confirms
the international trends, showing that size, corporate governance
policies, and growth are negatively correlated with the cost of capital.
Abstract: According to celebrated Hurwitz theorem, there exists
four division algebras consisting of R (real numbers), C (complex
numbers), H (quaternions) and O (octonions). Keeping in view
the utility of octonion variable we have tried to extend the three
dimensional vector analysis to seven dimensional one. Starting with
the scalar and vector product in seven dimensions, we have redefined
the gradient, divergence and curl in seven dimension. It is shown
that the identity n(n - 1)(n - 3)(n - 7) = 0 is satisfied only
for 0, 1, 3 and 7 dimensional vectors. We have tried to write all
the vector inequalities and formulas in terms of seven dimensions
and it is shown that same formulas loose their meaning in seven
dimensions due to non-associativity of octonions. The vector formulas
are retained only if we put certain restrictions on octonions and split
octonions.
Abstract: This article explores the self-identity of the Kazakh
people by way of identifying the roots of self-understanding in
Kazakh culture. Unfortunately, Western methods of ethno
psychology cannot fully capture what is unique about identity in
Kazakh culture. Although Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in
terms of geographical space, Kazakh cultural identity is not wellknown
in the West. In this article we offer an account of the national
psychological features of the Kazakh people, in order to reveal the
spiritual, mental, ethical dimensions of modern Kazakhs. These
factors play a central role in the revival of forms of identity that are
central to the Kazakh people.
Abstract: Since the presentation of the backpropagation algorithm, a vast variety of improvements of the technique for training a feed forward neural networks have been proposed. This article focuses on two classes of acceleration techniques, one is known as Local Adaptive Techniques that are based on weightspecific only, such as the temporal behavior of the partial derivative of the current weight. The other, known as Dynamic Adaptation Methods, which dynamically adapts the momentum factors, α, and learning rate, η, with respect to the iteration number or gradient. Some of most popular learning algorithms are described. These techniques have been implemented and tested on several problems and measured in terms of gradient and error function evaluation, and percentage of success. Numerical evidence shows that these techniques improve the convergence of the Backpropagation algorithm.