Abstract: Due to the call of global warming effects, city planners aim at actions for reducing carbon emission. One of the approaches is to promote the usage of public transportation system toward the transit-oriented-development. For example, rapid transit system in Taipei city and Kaohsiung city are opening. However, until November 2008 the average daily patronage counted only 113,774 passengers at Kaohsiung MRT systems, much less than which was expected. Now the crucial questions: how the public transport competes with private transport? And more importantly, what factors would enhance the use of public transport? To give the answers to those questions, our study first applied regression to analyze the factors attracting people to use public transport around cities in the world. It is shown in our study that the number of MRT stations, city population, cost of living, transit fare, density, gasoline price, and scooter being a major mode of transport are the major factors. Subsequently, our study identified successful and unsuccessful cities in regard of the public transport usage based on the diagnosis of regression residuals. Finally, by comparing transportation strategies adopted by those successful cities, our conclusion stated that Kaohsiung City could apply strategies such as increasing parking fees, reducing parking spaces in downtown area, and reducing transfer time by providing more bus services and public bikes to promote the usage of public transport.
Abstract: In this research, a latent class vector model for pairwise data is formulated. As compared to the basic vector model, this model yields consistent estimates of the parameters since the number of parameters to be estimated does not increase with the number of subjects. The result of the analysis reveals that the model was stable and could classify each subject to the latent classes representing the typical scales used by these subjects.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to a design of pattern
classification model based on the back-propagation (BP) algorithm for
decision support system. Standard BP model has done full connection
of each node in the layers from input to output layers. Therefore, it
takes a lot of computing time and iteration computing for good
performance and less accepted error rate when we are doing some
pattern generation or training the network.
However, this model is using exclusive connection in between
hidden layer nodes and output nodes. The advantage of this model is
less number of iteration and better performance compare with standard
back-propagation model. We simulated some cases of classification
data and different setting of network factors (e.g. hidden layer number
and nodes, number of classification and iteration). During our
simulation, we found that most of simulations cases were satisfied by
BP based using exclusive connection network model compared to
standard BP. We expect that this algorithm can be available to
identification of user face, analysis of data, mapping data in between
environment data and information.
Abstract: A number of competing methodologies have been developed
to identify genes and classify DNA sequences into coding
and non-coding sequences. This classification process is fundamental
in gene finding and gene annotation tools and is one of the most
challenging tasks in bioinformatics and computational biology. An
information theory measure based on mutual information has shown
good accuracy in classifying DNA sequences into coding and noncoding.
In this paper we describe a species independent iterative
approach that distinguishes coding from non-coding sequences using
the mutual information measure (MIM). A set of sixty prokaryotes is
used to extract universal training data. To facilitate comparisons with
the published results of other researchers, a test set of 51 bacterial
and archaeal genomes was used to evaluate MIM. These results
demonstrate that MIM produces superior results while remaining
species independent.
Abstract: Atmospheric stability plays the most important role in
the transport and dispersion of air pollutants. Different methods are
used for stability determination with varying degrees of complexity.
Most of these methods are based on the relative magnitude of
convective and mechanical turbulence in atmospheric motions.
Richardson number, Monin-Obukhov length, Pasquill-Gifford
stability classification and Pasquill–Turner stability classification, are
the most common parameters and methods. The Pasquill–Turner
Method (PTM), which is employed in this study, makes use of
observations of wind speed, insolation and the time of day to classify
atmospheric stability with distinguishable indices. In this study, a
model is presented to determination of atmospheric stability
conditions using PTM. As a case study, meteorological data of
Mehrabad station in Tehran from 2000 to 2005 is applied to model.
Here, three different categories are considered to deduce the pattern
of stability conditions. First, the total pattern of stability classification
is obtained and results show that atmosphere is 38.77%, 27.26%,
33.97%, at stable, neutral and unstable condition, respectively. It is
also observed that days are mostly unstable (66.50%) while nights are
mostly stable (72.55%). Second, monthly and seasonal patterns are
derived and results indicate that relative frequency of stable
conditions decrease during January to June and increase during June
to December, while results for unstable conditions are exactly in
opposite manner. Autumn is the most stable season with relative
frequency of 50.69% for stable condition, whilst, it is 42.79%,
34.38% and 27.08% for winter, summer and spring, respectively.
Hourly stability pattern is the third category that points out that
unstable condition is dominant from approximately 03-15 GTM and
04-12 GTM for warm and cold seasons, respectively. Finally,
correlation between atmospheric stability and CO concentration is
achieved.
Abstract: This experiment discusses the effects of fracture
parameters such as depth, length, width, angle and the number of the
fracture to the conductance properties of laterite using the DUK-2B
digital electrical measurement system combined with the method of
simulating the fractures. The results of experiment show that the
changes of fracture parameters produce effects to the conductance
properties of laterite. There is a clear degressive period of the
conductivity of laterite during increasing the depth, length, width, or
the angle and the quantity of fracture gradually. When the depth of
fracture exceeds the half thickness of the soil body, the conductivity of
laterite shows evidently non-linear diminishing pattern and the
amplitude of decrease tends to increase. The length of fracture has
fewer effects than the depth to the conductivity. When the width of
fracture reaches some fixed values, the change of the conductivity is
less sensitive to the change of the width, and at this time, the
conductivity of laterite maintains at a stable level. When the angle of
fracture is less than 45°, the decrease of the conductivity is more
clearly as the angle increases. But when angle is more than 45°,
change of the conductivity is relatively gentle as the angle increases.
The increasing quantity of the fracture causes the other fracture
parameters having great impact on the change of conductivity. When
moisture content and temperature were unchanged, depth and angle of
fractures are the major factors affecting the conductivity of laterite
soil; quantity, length, and width are minor influencing factors. The
sensitivity of fracture parameters affect conductivity of laterite soil is:
depth >angles >quantity >length >width.
Abstract: Optical character recognition of cursive scripts
presents a number of challenging problems in both segmentation and
recognition processes in different languages, including Persian. In
order to overcome these problems, we use a newly developed Persian
word segmentation method and a recognition-based segmentation
technique to overcome its segmentation problems. This method is
robust as well as flexible. It also increases the system-s tolerances to
font variations. The implementation results of this method on a
comprehensive database show a high degree of accuracy which meets
the requirements for commercial use. Extended with a suitable pre
and post-processing, the method offers a simple and fast framework
to develop a full OCR system.
Abstract: In this paper we present a photo mosaic smartphone
application in client-server based large-scale image databases. Photo
mosaic is not a new concept, but there are very few smartphone
applications especially for a huge number of images in the
client-server environment. To support large-scale image databases,
we first propose an overall framework working as a client-server
model. We then present a concept of image-PAA features to efficiently
handle a huge number of images and discuss its lower bounding
property. We also present a best-match algorithm that exploits the
lower bounding property of image-PAA. We finally implement an
efficient Android-based application and demonstrate its feasibility.
Abstract: The present study investigated the relationship
between personality characteristics of drivers and the number and
amount of fines they have in a year .This study was carried out on
120 male taxi drivers that worked at least seven hours in a day in
Lamerd - a city in the south of IRAN. Subjects were chosen
voluntarily among those available. Predictive variables were the NEO
–five great personality factors (1. conscientiousness 2. Openness to
Experience 3.Neuroticism4 .Extraversion 5.Agreeableness )
thecriterion variables were the number and amount of fines the
drivers have had the last three years. the result of regression analysis
showed that conscientiousness factor was able to negatively predict
the number and amount of financial fines the drivers had during the
last three years. The openness factor positively predicted the number
of fines they had in last 3 years and the amount of financial fines
during the last year. The extraversion factor both meaningfully and
positively could predict only the amount of financial fines they had
during the last year. Increasing age was associated with decreasing
driving offenses as well as financial loss.The findings can be useful
in recognizing the high-risk drivers and leading them to counseling
centers .They can also be used to inform the drivers about their
personality and it’s relation with their accident rate. Such criteria
would be of great importance in employing drivers in different places
such as companies, offices etc…
Abstract: When trying to enumerate all BIBD-s for given parameters,
their natural solution space appears to be huge and grows extremely with the number of points of the design. Therefore,
constructive enumerations are often carried out by assuming additional
constraints on design-s structure, automorphisms being mostly used ones. It remains a hard task to construct designs with trivial
automorphism group – those with no additional symmetry – although it is believed that most of the BIBD-s belong to that case. In
this paper, very many new designs with parameters 2-(13, 5, 5), 2-(16, 6, 5) and 2-(21, 6, 4) are constructed, assuming an action of an
automorphism of order 3. Even more, it was possible to construct millions of such designs with no non-trivial automorphisms.
Abstract: Fatigue behaviors of Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT)
ceramics under different amplitude of bipolar electrical loads have
been investigated. Fatigue behavior is represented by the change of
hysteresis loops and remnant polarization. Three levels of electrical
load amplitudes (1.00, 1.25 and 1.50 kV /mm) were applied in this
experimental. It was found that the remnant polarization decreased
significantly with the number of loading cycles. The degree of fatigue
degradation depends on the amplitude of electric field. The higher
amplitude exhibits the greater fatigue degradation.
Abstract: Exact expressions for bit-error probability (BEP) for
coherent square detection of uncoded and coded M-ary quadrature
amplitude modulation (MQAM) using an array of antennas with
maximal ratio combining (MRC) in a flat fading channel interference
limited system in a Nakagami-m fading environment is derived. The
analysis assumes an arbitrary number of independent and identically
distributed Nakagami interferers. The results for coded MQAM are
computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code
and compared with uncoded MQAM by plotting error probabilities
versus average signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) for various values of
order of diversity N, number of distinct symbols M, in order to
examine the effect of cochannel interferers on the performance of the
digital communication system. The diversity gains and net gains are
also presented in tabular form in order to examine the performance of
digital communication system in the presence of interferers, as the
order of diversity increases. The analytical results presented in this
paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design
and analysis of digital communication systems with space diversity
in wireless fading channels.
Abstract: In built-up structures, one of the effective ways of
dissipating unwanted vibration is to exploit the occurrence of slip at
the interfaces of structural laminates. The present work focuses on
the dynamic analysis of welded structures. A mathematical
formulation has been developed for the mechanism of slip damping
in layered and welded mild steel beams with unequal thickness
subjected to both periodic and non-periodic forces. It is observed that
a number of vital parameters such as; thickness ratio, pressure
distribution characteristics, relative slip and kinematic co-efficient of
friction at the interfaces, nature of exciting forces, length and
thickness of the beam specimen govern the damping characteristics of
these structures. Experimental verification has been carried out to
validate the analysis and study the effect of these parameters. The
developed damping model for the structure is found to be in fairly
good agreement with the measured data. Finally, the results of the
analysis are discussed and rationalized.
Abstract: In mobile computing environments, there are many
new non existing problems in the distributed system, which is
consisted of stationary hosts because of host mobility, sudden
disconnection by handoff in wireless networks, voluntary
disconnection for efficient power consumption of a mobile host, etc.
To solve the problems, we proposed the architecture of Partial
Connection Manager (PCM) in this paper. PCM creates the limited
number of mobile agents according to priority, sends them in parallel
to servers, and combines the results to process the user request rapidly.
In applying the proposed PCM to the mobile market agent service, we
understand that the mobile agent technique could be suited for the
mobile computing environment and the partial connection problem
management.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to extract sugar from
sugarcane using high electric field pulse (HELP) as a non-thermal cell permeabilization method. The result of this study showed that it
is possible to permeablize sugar cane cells using HELP at very short times (less than 10 sec.) and at room temperature. Increasing the field strength (from 0.5kV/cm to 2kV/cm) and pulse number (1 to 12) led to increasing the permeabilization of sugar cane cells. The energy
consumption during HELP treatment of sugar cane (2.4 kJ/kg) was about 100 times less compared to thermal cell disintegration at 85
Abstract: The electrokinetic flow resistance (electroviscous
effect) is predicted for steady state, pressure-driven liquid flow at
low Reynolds number in a microfluidic contraction of rectangular
cross-section. Calculations of the three dimensional flow are
performed in parallel using a finite volume numerical method. The
channel walls are assumed to carry a uniform charge density and the
liquid is taken to be a symmetric 1:1 electrolyte. Predictions are
presented for a single set of flow and electrokinetic parameters. It is
shown that the magnitude of the streaming potential gradient and the
charge density of counter-ions in the liquid is greater than that in
corresponding two-dimensional slit-like contraction geometry. The
apparent viscosity is found to be very close to the value for a
rectangular channel of uniform cross-section at the chosen Reynolds
number (Re = 0.1). It is speculated that the apparent viscosity for the
contraction geometry will increase as the Reynolds number is
reduced.
Abstract: Predictions of flow and heat transfer characteristics and shape optimization in internally finned circular tubes have been performed on three-dimensional periodically fully developed turbulent flow and thermal fields. For a trapezoidal fin profile, the effects of fin height h, upper fin widths d1, lower fin widths d2, and helix angle of fin ? on transport phenomena are investigated for the condition of fin number of N = 30. The CFD and mathematical optimization technique are coupled in order to optimize the shape of internally finned tube. The optimal solutions of the design variables (i.e., upper and lower fin widths, fin height and helix angle) are numerically obtained by minimizing the pressure loss and maximizing the heat transfer rate, simultaneously, for the limiting conditions of d1 = 0.5~1.5 mm, d2 = 0.5~1.5 mm, h= 0.5~1.5mm, ? = 10~30 degrees. The fully developed flow and thermal fields are predicted using the finite volume method and the optimization is carried out by means of the multi-objective genetic algorithm that is widely used in the constrained nonlinear optimization problem.
Abstract: Organizations face challenges supporting knowledge
workers due to their particular requirements for an environment
supportive of their self-guided learning activities which are important
to increase their productivity and to develop creative solutions to
non-routine problems. Face-to-face knowledge sharing remains
crucial in spite of a large number of knowledge management
instruments that aim at supporting a more impersonal transfer of
knowledge. This paper first describes the main criteria for a
conceptual and technical solution targeted at flexible management of
office space that aims at assigning those knowledge workers to the
same room that are most likely to thrive when being brought together
thus enhancing their knowledge work productivity. The paper
reflects on lessons learned from the implementation and operation of
such a solution in a project-focused organization and derives several
implications for future extensions that target to foster problem
solving, informal learning and personal development.
Abstract: The phylogenetic analysis using the most conservative
portions of 18S rRNA gene revealed the phylogenetic relationship
among the two populations where DNA divergence showed that the
nucleotides diversity value were -0.00838 for the Tanjung Dawai,
Kedah and -0.00708 for the Cherating, Pahang populations
respectively. The net nucleotide divergence among populations (Da)
was -0.0073 indicating a low polymorphism among the populations
studied. Total number of mutations in the Tanjung Dawai, Kedah
samples was higher than Cherating, Pahang samples, which are 73 and
59 respectively while shared mutations across the populations were 8,
and reveal the evolutionary in the genome of Malaysian T. gigas. The
tree topology of both populations inferred using Neigbour-joining
method by comparing 1791 bp of partial 18S rRNA sequence revealed
that T. gigas haplotypes were clustered into seven clades, suggesting
that they are genetically diverse among populations which derived
from a common ancestor.
Abstract: In this present work, the development of an avionics
system for flight data collection of a Raptor 30 V2 is carried out. For the data acquisition both onground and onboard avionics systems are developed for testing of a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) helicopter. The onboard avionics record the helicopter state
outputs namely accelerations, angular rates and Euler angles, in real time, and the on ground avionics system record the inputs given to
the radio controlled helicopter through a transmitter, in real time. The avionic systems are designed and developed taking into consideration
low weight, small size, anti-vibration, low power consumption, and easy interfacing. To mitigate the medium frequency vibrations
embedded on the UAV helicopter during flight, a damper is designed
and its performance is evaluated. A number of flight tests are carried
out and the data obtained is then analyzed for accuracy and repeatability and conclusions are inferred.