A Numerical Study on Heat Transfer in Laminar Pulsed Slot Jets Impinging on a Surface

Numerical simulations are performed for laminar continuous and pulsed jets impinging on a surface in order to investigate the effects of pulsing frequency on the heat transfer characteristics. The time-averaged Nusselt number of pulsed jets is larger in the impinging jet region as compared to the continuous jet, while it is smaller in the outer wall jet region. At the stagnation point, the mean and RMS Nusselt numbers become larger and smaller, respectively, as the pulsing frequency increases. Unsteady behaviors of vortical fluid motions and temperature field are also investigated to understand the underlying mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement.

On Unburned Carbon in Coal Ash from Various Combustion Units

Work is focused to the study of unburned carbon in ash from coal (and wastes) combustion in 8 combustion tests at 3 fluidised-bed power station, at co-combustion of coal and wastes (also at fluidized bed) and at bench-scale unit simulating coal combustion in small domestic furnaces. The attention is paid to unburned carbon contents in bottom ashes and fly ashes at these 8 combustion tests and to morphology of unburned carbons. Specific surface area of coals, unburned carbons and ashes and the relation of specific surface area of unburned carbon and the content of volatile combustibles in coal were studied as well.

The Synthetic T2 Quality Control Chart and its Multi-Objective Optimization

In some real applications of Statistical Process Control it is necessary to design a control chart to not detect small process shifts, but keeping a good performance to detect moderate and large shifts in the quality. In this work we develop a new quality control chart, the synthetic T2 control chart, that can be designed to cope with this objective. A multi-objective optimization is carried out employing Genetic Algorithms, finding the Pareto-optimal front of non-dominated solutions for this optimization problem.

Knowledge Sharing Behaviour among Academic Staff at a Public Higher Education Institution in Malaysia

This study applied Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain the knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff at a Public Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Malaysia. The main objectives of this study are; to identify the components that influence knowledge sharing behaviour and to determine the levels of knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff. A total of 200 respondents were participated in answering questionnaires. The findings of this study revealed that level of perceiving and implementing knowledge sharing behaviour among academic staff at a Public HEI in Malaysia exist but not openly or strongly practiced. The findings were discussed and recommendations for the future research were also addressed.

Genetic Algorithms with Oracle for the Traveling Salesman Problem

By introducing the concept of Oracle we propose an approach for improving the performance of genetic algorithms for large-scale asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problems. The results have shown that the proposed approach allows overcoming some traditional problems for creating efficient genetic algorithms.

Properties of Bricks Produced With Recycled Fine Aggregate

The main aim of this research is to study the possible use of recycled fine aggregate made from waste rubble wall to substitute partially for the natural sand used in the production of cement and sand bricks. The bricks specimens were prepared by using 100% natural sand; they were then replaced by recycled fine aggregate at 25, 50, 75, and 100% by weight of natural sand. A series of tests was carried out to study the effect of using recycled aggregate on the physical and mechanical properties of bricks, such as density, drying shrinkage, water absorption characteristic, compressive and flexural strength. Test results indicate that it is possible to manufacture bricks containing recycled fine aggregate with good characteristics that are similar in physical and mechanical properties to those of bricks with natural aggregate, provided that the percentage of recycled fine aggregates is limited up to 50-75%.

Enhancing K-Means Algorithm with Initial Cluster Centers Derived from Data Partitioning along the Data Axis with the Highest Variance

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to compute initial cluster centers for K-means clustering. Data in a cell is partitioned using a cutting plane that divides cell in two smaller cells. The plane is perpendicular to the data axis with the highest variance and is designed to reduce the sum squared errors of the two cells as much as possible, while at the same time keep the two cells far apart as possible. Cells are partitioned one at a time until the number of cells equals to the predefined number of clusters, K. The centers of the K cells become the initial cluster centers for K-means. The experimental results suggest that the proposed algorithm is effective, converge to better clustering results than those of the random initialization method. The research also indicated the proposed algorithm would greatly improve the likelihood of every cluster containing some data in it.

A Comparison between Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Gas Flow Model in Slurry Bubble Column Reactor for Direct Synthesis of DME

In the present study, a heterogeneous and homogeneous gas flow dispersion model for simulation and optimisation of a large-scale catalytic slurry reactor for the direct synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) from syngas and CO2, using a churn-turbulent regime was developed. In the heterogeneous gas flow model the gas phase was distributed into two bubble phases: small and large, however in the homogeneous one, the gas phase was distributed into only one large bubble phase. The results indicated that the heterogeneous gas flow model was in more agreement with experimental pilot plant data than the homogeneous one.

Soil Improvement using Cement Dust Mixture

Day by day technology increases and problems associated with this technology also increase. Several researches were carried out to investigate the deployment of such material safely in geotechnical engineering in particular and civil engineering in general. However, different types of waste material have such as cement duct, fly ash and slag been proven to be suitable in several applications. In this research cement dust mixed with different percentages of sand will be used in some civil engineering application as will be explained later in this paper throughout filed and laboratory test. The used mixer (waste material with sand) prove high performance, durability to environmental condition, low cost and high benefits. At higher cement dust ratio, small cement ratio is valuable for compressive strength and permeability. Also at small cement dust ratio higher cement ratio is valuable for compressive strength.

Performance Analysis of HSDPA Systems using Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC)Coding as Compared to Turbo Coding

HSDPA is a new feature which is introduced in Release-5 specifications of the 3GPP WCDMA/UTRA standard to realize higher speed data rate together with lower round-trip times. Moreover, the HSDPA concept offers outstanding improvement of packet throughput and also significantly reduces the packet call transfer delay as compared to Release -99 DSCH. Till now the HSDPA system uses turbo coding which is the best coding technique to achieve the Shannon limit. However, the main drawbacks of turbo coding are high decoding complexity and high latency which makes it unsuitable for some applications like satellite communications, since the transmission distance itself introduces latency due to limited speed of light. Hence in this paper it is proposed to use LDPC coding in place of Turbo coding for HSDPA system which decreases the latency and decoding complexity. But LDPC coding increases the Encoding complexity. Though the complexity of transmitter increases at NodeB, the End user is at an advantage in terms of receiver complexity and Bit- error rate. In this paper LDPC Encoder is implemented using “sparse parity check matrix" H to generate a codeword at Encoder and “Belief Propagation algorithm "for LDPC decoding .Simulation results shows that in LDPC coding the BER suddenly drops as the number of iterations increase with a small increase in Eb/No. Which is not possible in Turbo coding. Also same BER was achieved using less number of iterations and hence the latency and receiver complexity has decreased for LDPC coding. HSDPA increases the downlink data rate within a cell to a theoretical maximum of 14Mbps, with 2Mbps on the uplink. The changes that HSDPA enables includes better quality, more reliable and more robust data services. In other words, while realistic data rates are only a few Mbps, the actual quality and number of users achieved will improve significantly.

A Secure Mobile OTP Authentication Scheme for User Mobility Cloud VDI Environment

Since Cloud environment has appeared as the most powerful keyword in the computing industry, the growth in VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) became remarkable in domestic market. In recent years, with the trend that mobile devices such as smartphones and pads spread so rapidly, the strengths of VDI that allows people to access and perform business on the move along with companies' office needs expedite more rapid spread of VDI. In this paper, mobile OTP (One-Time Password) authentication method is proposed to secure mobile device portability through rapid and secure authentication using mobile devices such as mobile phones or pads, which does not require additional purchase or possession of OTP tokens of users. To facilitate diverse and wide use of Services in the future, service should be continuous and stable, and above all, security should be considered the most important to meet advanced portability and user accessibility, the strengths of VDI.

Myotonometry Method for Assessment Muscle Performance

The aim of this paper is to present the role of myotonometry in assessment muscle viscoelasticity by measurement of force index (IF) and stiffness (S) at thigh muscle groups. The results are used for improve the muscle training. The method is based on mechanic impulse on the muscle group, that involve a muscle response like acceleration, speed and amplitude curves. From these we have information about elasticity, stiffness beginning from mechanic oscillations of muscle tissue. Using this method offer the possibility for monitoring the muscle capacity for produce mechanic energy, that allows a efficiency of movement with a minimal tissue deformation.

An ACO Based Algorithm for Distribution Networks Including Dispersed Generations

With Power system movement toward restructuring along with factors such as life environment pollution, problems of transmission expansion and with advancement in construction technology of small generation units, it is expected that small units like wind turbines, fuel cells, photovoltaic, ... that most of the time connect to the distribution networks play a very essential role in electric power industry. With increase in developing usage of small generation units, management of distribution networks should be reviewed. The target of this paper is to present a new method for optimal management of active and reactive power in distribution networks with regard to costs pertaining to various types of dispersed generations, capacitors and cost of electric energy achieved from network. In other words, in this method it-s endeavored to select optimal sources of active and reactive power generation and controlling equipments such as dispersed generations, capacitors, under load tapchanger transformers and substations in a way that firstly costs in relation to them are minimized and secondly technical and physical constraints are regarded. Because the optimal management of distribution networks is an optimization problem with continuous and discrete variables, the new evolutionary method based on Ant Colony Algorithm has been applied. The simulation results of the method tested on two cases containing 23 and 34 buses exist and will be shown at later sections.

Micro-Controller Based Oxy-Fuel Profile Cutting System

In today-s era of plasma and laser cutting, machines using oxy-acetylene flame are also meritorious due to their simplicity and cost effectiveness. The objective to devise a Computer controlled Oxy-Fuel profile cutting machine arose from the increasing demand for metal cutting with respect to edge quality, circularity and lesser formation of redeposit material. The System has an 8 bit micro controller based embedded system, which assures stipulated time response. A new window based Application software was devised which takes a standard CAD file .DXF as input and converts it into numerical data required for the controller. It uses VB6 as a front end whereas MS-ACCESS and AutoCAD as back end. The system is designed around AT89C51RD2, powerful 8 bit, ISP micro controller from Atmel and is optimized to achieve cost effectiveness and also maintains the required accuracy and reliability for complex shapes. The backbone of the system is a cleverly designed mechanical assembly along with the embedded system resulting in an accuracy of about 10 microns while maintaining perfect linearity in the cut. This results in substantial increase in productivity. The observed results also indicate reduced inter laminar spacing of pearlite with an increase in the hardness of the edge region.

Use of GIS for the Performance Evaluation of Canal Irrigation System in Rice Wheat Cropping Zone

The research study evaluated the performance of irrigation system by using special scientific tools like Remote Sensing and GIS technology, so that proper measurements could be taken for the sustainable agriculture and water management. Different performance evaluation parameters had been calculated for the purposed data was gathered from field investigation and different government and private organizations. According to the calculations, organic matter ranges from 0.19% (low value) to 0.76% (high value). In flat irrigation system for wheat yield ranges from 3347.16 to 5260.39 kg/ha, while the total water applied to wheat crop ranges from 252.94 to 279.19 mm and WUE ranges from 13.07 to 18.37 kg/ha/mm. For rice yield ranges from 3347.47 to 5433.07 kg/ha with total water supplied to rice crop ranges from 764.71 to 978.15 mm and WUE ranges from 3.49 to 5.71 kg/ha/mm. Similarly, in raised bed system wheat yield ranges from 4569.13 to 6008.60 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 158.87 to 185.09 mm and WUE ranges from 27.20 to 33.54 kg/ha/mm while in rice crop, yield ranges from 5285.04 to 6716.69 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 600.72 to 755.06 mm and WUE ranges from 6.41 to 10.05 kg/ha/mm. Almost 51.3% water saving is observed in bed irrigation system as compared to flat system. Less water supplied to beds is more affective as its WUE value is higher than flat system where more water is supplied in both the seasons. Similarly, RWS values show that maximum water deficit while minimum area is getting adequate water supply. Greater yield is recorded in bed system as plant per square meter is more in bed system in comparison of flat system Thus, the integration of GIS tools to regularly compute performance indices could provide irrigation managers with the means for managing efficiently the irrigation system.

A Retrospective of Wind Turbine Architectural Integration in the Built Environment

Since the European renewable energy directives set the target for 22.1% of electricity generation to be supplied by 2010 [1], there has been increased interest in using green technologies also within the urban enviroment. The most commonly considered installations are solar thermal and solar photovoltaics. Nevertheless, as observed by Bahaj et al. [2], small scale turbines can reduce the built enviroment related CO2 emissions. Thus, in the last few years, an increasing number of manufacturers have developed small wind turbines specifically designed for the built enviroment. The present work focuses on the integration into architectural systems of such installations and presents a survey of successful case studies.

Modified Diffie-Hellman Protocol By Extend The Theory of The Congruence

This paper is introduced a modification to Diffie- Hellman protocol to be applicable on the decimal numbers, which they are the numbers between zero and one. For this purpose we extend the theory of the congruence. The new congruence is over the set of the real numbers and it is called the “real congruence" or the “real modulus". We will refer to the existing congruence by the “integer congruence" or the “integer modulus". This extension will define new terms and redefine the existing terms. As the properties and the theorems of the integer modulus are extended as well. Modified Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol is produced a sharing, secure and decimal secret key for the the cryptosystems that depend on decimal numbers.

Value of Sharing: Viral Advertisement

Sharing motivations of viral advertisements by consumers and the impacts of these advertisements on the perceptions for brand will be questioned in this study. Three fundamental questions are answered in the study. These are advertisement watching and sharing motivations of individuals, criteria of liking viral advertisement and the impact of individual attitudes for viral advertisement on brand perception respectively. This study will be carried out via a viral advertisement which was practiced in Turkey. The data will be collected by survey method and the sample of the study consists of individuals who experienced the practice of sample advertisement. Data will be collected by online survey method and will be analyzed by using SPSS statistical package program. Recently traditional advertisement mind have been changing. New advertising approaches which have significant impacts on consumers have been argued. Viral advertising is a modernist advertisement mind which offers significant advantages to brands apart from traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and magazines. Viral advertising also known as Electronic Word-of- Mouth (eWOM) consists of free spread of convincing messages sent by brands among interpersonal communication. When compared to the traditional advertising, a more provocative thematic approach is argued. The foundation of this approach is to create advertisements that are worth sharing with others by consumers. When that fact is taken into consideration, in a manner of speaking it can also be stated that viral advertising is media engineering. The content worth sharing makes people being a volunteer spokesman of a brand and strengthens the emotional bonds among brand and consumer. Especially for some sectors in countries which are having traditional advertising channel limitations, viral advertising creates vital advantages.

Effect of Helium-Argon Mixtures on the Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Gas Tungsten Arc Welding

A transient finite element model has been developed to study the heat transfer and fluid flow during spot Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) on stainless steel. Temperature field, fluid velocity and electromagnetic fields are computed inside the cathode, arc-plasma and anode using a unified MHD formulation. The developed model is then used to study the influence of different helium-argon gas mixtures on both the energy transferred to the workpiece and the time evolution of the weld pool dimensions. It is found that the addition of helium to argon increases the heat flux density on the weld axis by a factor that can reach 6.5. This induces an increase in the weld pool depth by a factor of 3. It is also found that the addition of only 10% of argon to helium decreases considerably the weld pool depth, which is due to the electrical conductivity of the mixture that increases significantly when argon is added to helium.

Evaluation of Newly Developed Dot-ELISA Test for Identification of Naja-naja sumantrana and Calloselasma rhodostoma Venom Antigens

Snake bite cases in Malaysia most often involve the species Naja-naja and Calloselasma rhodostoma. In keeping with the need for a rapid snake venom detection kit in a clinical setting, plate and dot-ELISA test for the venoms of Naja-naja sumatrana, Calloselasma rhodostoma and the cobra venom fraction V antigen was developed. Polyclonal antibodies were raised and further used to prepare the reagents for the dot-ELISA test kit which was tested in mice, rabbit and virtual human models. The newly developed dot- ELISA kit was able to detect a minimum venom concentration of 244ng/ml with cross reactivity of one antibody type. The dot-ELISA system was sensitive and specific for all three snake venom types in all tested animal models. The lowest minimum venom concentration detectable was in the rabbit model, 244ng/ml of the cobra venom fraction V antigen. The highest minimum venom concentration was in mice, 1953ng/ml against a multitude of venoms. The developed dot-ELISA system for the detection of three snake venom types was successful with a sensitivity of 95.8% and specificity of 97.9%.