Abstract: Structure-borne noise is an important aspect of
offshore platform sound field. It can be generated either directly by
vibrating machineries induced mechanical force, indirectly by the
excitation of structure or excitation by incident airborne noise.
Therefore, limiting of the transmission of vibration energy
throughout the offshore platform is the key to control the structureborne
noise. This is usually done by introducing damping treatment
to the steel structures. Two types of damping treatment using onboard
are presented. By conducting a Statistical Energy Analysis
(SEA) simulation on a jack-up rig, the noise level in the source room,
the neighboring rooms, and remote living quarter cabins are
compared before and after the damping treatments been applied. The
results demonstrated that, in the source neighboring room and living
quarter area, there is a significant noise reduction with the damping
treatment applied, whereas in the source room where air-borne sound
predominates that of structure-borne sound, the impact is not
obvious. The conclusion on effective damping treatment in the
offshore platform is made which enable acoustic professionals to
implement noise control during the design stage for offshore crews’
hearing protection and habitant comfortability.
Abstract: The spindle system is one of the most important
components of machine tool. The dynamic properties of the spindle
affect the machining productivity and quality of the work pieces.
Thus, it is important and necessary to determine its dynamic
characteristics of spindles in the design and development in order to
avoid forced resonance. The finite element method (FEM) has been
adopted in order to obtain the dynamic behavior of spindle system.
For this reason, obtaining the Campbell diagrams and determining the
critical speeds are very useful to evaluate the spindle system
dynamics. The unbalance response of the system to the center of
mass unbalance at the cutting tool is also calculated to investigate the
dynamic behavior. In this paper, we used an ANSYS Parametric
Design Language (APDL) program which based on finite element
method has been implemented to make the full dynamic analysis and
evaluation of the results. Results show that the calculated critical
speeds are far from the operating speed range of the spindle, thus, the
spindle would not experience resonance, and the maximum
unbalance response at operating speed is still with acceptable limit.
ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL) can be used by spindle
designer as tools in order to increase the product quality, reducing
cost, and time consuming in the design and development stages.
Abstract: This study analyzes the critical gaps in the
architecture of European stability and the expected role of the
banking union as the new important step towards completing the
Economic and Monetary Union that should enable the creation of
safe and sound financial sector for the euro area market. The single
rulebook together with the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the
Single Resolution Mechanism - as two main pillars of the banking
union, should provide a consistent application of common rules and
administrative standards for supervision, recovery and resolution of
banks – with the final aim of replacing the former bail-out practice
with the bail-in system through which possible future bank failures
would be resolved by their own funds, i.e. with minimal costs for
taxpayers and real economy. In this way, the vicious circle between
banks and sovereigns would be broken. It would also reduce the
financial fragmentation recorded in the years of crisis as the result of
divergent behaviors in risk premium, lending activities and interest
rates between the core and the periphery. In addition, it should
strengthen the effectiveness of monetary transmission channels, in
particular the credit channels and overflows of liquidity on the money
market which, due to the fragmentation of the common financial
market, has been significantly disabled in period of crisis. However,
contrary to all the positive expectations related to the future
functioning of the banking union, major findings of this study
indicate that characteristics of the economic system in which the
banking union will operate should not be ignored. The euro area is an
integration of strong and weak entities with large differences in
economic development, wealth, assets of banking systems, growth
rates and accountability of fiscal policy. The analysis indicates that
low and unbalanced economic growth remains a challenge for the
maintenance of financial stability and this problem cannot be
resolved just by a single supervision. In many countries bank assets
exceed their GDP by several times and large banks are still a matter
of concern, because of their systemic importance for individual
countries and the euro zone as a whole. The creation of the Single
Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism is a
response to the European crisis, which has particularly affected
peripheral countries and caused the associated loop between the
banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, but has also influenced
banks’ balance sheets in the core countries, as the result of crossborder
capital flows. The creation of the SSM and the SRM should
prevent the similar episodes to happen again and should also provide
a new opportunity for strengthening of economic and financial
systems of the peripheral countries. On the other hand, there is a
potential threat that future focus of the ECB, resolution mechanism
and other relevant institutions will be extremely oriented towards
large and significant banks (whereby one half of them operate in the
core and most important euro area countries), and therefore it remains
questionable to what extent will the common resolution funds will be used for rescue of less important institutions. Recent geopolitical
developments will be the optimal indicator to show whether the
previously established mechanisms are sufficient enough to maintain
the adequate financial stability in the euro area market.
Abstract: The use of engineered nanomaterials has increased as
a result of their positive impact on many sectors of the economy,
including agriculture. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are now used to
enhance seed germination, plant growth, and photosynthetic quantum
efficiency and as antimicrobial agents to control plant diseases. In
this study, we examined the effect of AgNP dosage on the seed
germination of three plant species: corn (Zea mays L.), watermelon
(Citrullus lanatus [Thunb.] Matsum. & Nakai) and zucchini
(Cucurbita pepo L.). This experiment was designed to study the
effect of AgNPs on germination percentage, germination rate, mean
germination time, root length and fresh and dry weight of seedlings
for the three species. Seven concentrations (0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2
and 2.5 mg/ml) of AgNPs were examined at the seed germination
stage. The three species had different dose responses to AgNPs in
terms of germination parameters and the measured growth
characteristics. The germination rates of the three plants were
enhanced in response to AgNPs. Significant enhancement of the
germination percentage values was observed after treatment of the
watermelon and zucchini plants with AgNPs in comparison with
untreated seeds. AgNPs showed a toxic effect on corn root
elongation, whereas watermelon and zucchini seedling growth were
positively affected by certain concentrations of AgNPs. This study
showed that exposure to AgNPs caused both positive and negative
effects on plant growth and germination.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between
corporate governance rating and stock prices of 26 Turkish firms
listed in Turkish stock exchange (Borsa Istanbul) by using panel data
analysis over five-year period. The paper also investigates the stock
performance of firms with governance rating with regards to the
market portfolio (i.e. BIST 100 Index) both prior and after
governance scoring began. The empirical results show that there is no
relation between corporate governance rating and stock prices when
using panel data for annual variation in both rating score and stock
prices. Further analysis indicates surprising results that while the
selected firms outperform the market significantly prior to rating, the
same performance does not continue afterwards.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider some integrable Heisenberg
Ferromagnet Equations with self-consistent potentials. We study
their Lax representations. In particular we derive their equivalent
counterparts in the form of nonlinear Schr¨odinger type equations.
We present the integrable reductions of the Heisenberg Ferromagnet
Equations with self-consistent potentials. These integrable Heisenberg
Ferromagnet Equations with self-consistent potentials describe
nonlinear waves in ferromagnets with some additional physical fields.
Abstract: In this study, nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy and nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopy
parameters of 14N (Nitrogen in imidazole ring) in N–H…O hydrogen
bonding for Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate were calculated via
density functional theory. We considered a five-molecule model
system of Histidine hydrochloride monohydrate. Also we examined
the trends of environmental effect on hydrogen bonds as well as
cooperativity. The functional used in this research is M06-2X which
is a good functional and the obtained results has shown good
agreement with experimental data. This functional was applied to
calculate the NMR and NQR parameters. Some correlations among
NBO parameters, NMR and NQR parameters have been studied
which have shown the existence of strong correlations among them.
Furthermore, the geometry optimization has been performed using
M062X/6-31++G(d,p) method. In addition, in order to study
cooperativity and changes in structural parameters, along with
increase in cluster size, natural bond orbitals have been employed.
Abstract: In this paper, influence of harmonics on medium
voltage distribution system of Bogazici Electricity Distribution Inc.
(BEDAS) which takes place at Istanbul/Turkey is investigated. A ring
network consisting of residential loads is taken into account for this
study. Real system parameters and measurement results are used for
simulations. Also, probable working conditions of the system are
analyzed for 50%, 75%, and 100% loading of transformers with
similar harmonic contents. Results of the study are exhibited the
influence of nonlinear loads on %THDV, P.F. and technical losses of
the medium voltage distribution system.
Abstract: Numerical studies have been carried out using a
validated two-dimensional standard k-omega turbulence model for
the design optimization of a thrust vector control system using shock
induced self-impinging supersonic secondary double jet. Parametric
analytical studies have been carried out at different secondary
injection locations to identifying the highest unsymmetrical
distribution of the main gas flow due to shock waves, which produces
a desirable side force more lucratively for vectoring. The results from
the parametric studies of the case on hand reveal that the shock
induced self-impinging supersonic secondary double jet is more
efficient in certain locations at the divergent region of a CD nozzle
than a case with supersonic single jet with same mass flow rate. We
observed that the best axial location of the self-impinging supersonic
secondary double jet nozzle with a given jet interaction angle, built-in
to a CD nozzle having area ratio 1.797, is 0.991 times the primary
nozzle throat diameter from the throat location. We also observed
that the flexible steering is possible after invoking ON/OFF facility to
the secondary nozzles for meeting the onboard mission requirements.
Through our case studies we concluded that the supersonic self-impinging
secondary double jet at predesigned jet interaction angle
and location can provide more flexible steering options facilitating
with 8.81% higher thrust vectoring efficiency than the conventional
supersonic single secondary jet without compromising the payload
capability of any supersonic aerospace vehicle.
Abstract: Residential buildings consume significant amounts of
energy and produce large amount of emissions and waste. However,
there is a substantial potential for energy savings in this sector which
needs to be evaluated over the life cycle of residential buildings. Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been employed to study
the primary energy uses and associated environmental impacts of
different phases (i.e., product, construction, use, end of life, and
beyond building life) for residential buildings. Four different
alternatives of residential buildings in Vancouver (BC, Canada) with
a 50-year lifespan have been evaluated, including High Rise
Apartment (HRA), Low Rise Apartment (LRA), Single family
Attached House (SAH), and Single family Detached House (SDH).
Life cycle performance of the buildings is evaluated for embodied
energy, embodied environmental impacts, operational energy,
operational environmental impacts, total life-cycle energy, and total
life cycle environmental impacts. Estimation of operational energy
and LCA are performed using DesignBuilder software and Athena
Impact estimator software respectively.
The study results revealed that over the life span of the buildings,
the relationship between the energy use and the environmental
impacts are identical. LRA is found to be the best alternative in terms
of embodied energy use and embodied environmental impacts; while,
HRA showed the best life-cycle performance in terms of minimum
energy use and environmental impacts. Sensitivity analysis has also
been carried out to study the influence of building service lifespan
over 50, 75, and 100 years on the relative significance of embodied
energy and total life cycle energy. The life-cycle energy requirements
for SDH are found to be a significant component among the four
types of residential buildings. The overall disclose that the primary
operations of these buildings accounts for 90% of the total life cycle
energy which far outweighs minor differences in embodied effects
between the buildings.
Abstract: Several parameters are established in order to measure
biodiesel quality. One of them is the iodine value, which is an
important parameter that measures the total unsaturation within a
mixture of fatty acids. Limitation of unsaturated fatty acids is
necessary since warming of higher quantity of these ones ends in
either formation of deposits inside the motor or damage of lubricant.
Determination of iodine value by official procedure tends to be very
laborious, with high costs and toxicity of the reagents, this study uses
artificial neural network (ANN) in order to predict the iodine value
property as an alternative to these problems. The methodology of
development of networks used 13 esters of fatty acids in the input
with convergence algorithms of back propagation of back
propagation type were optimized in order to get an architecture of
prediction of iodine value. This study allowed us to demonstrate the
neural networks’ ability to learn the correlation between biodiesel
quality properties, in this caseiodine value, and the molecular
structures that make it up. The model developed in the study reached
a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.99 for both network validation and
network simulation, with Levenberg-Maquardt algorithm.
Abstract: This paper presents a new automatic vehicle detection
method from very high resolution aerial images to measure traffic
density. The proposed method starts by extracting road regions from
image using road vector data. Then, the road image is divided into
equal sections considering resolution of the images. Gradient vectors
of the road image are computed from edge map of the corresponding
image. Gradient vectors on the each boundary of the sections are
divided where the gradient vectors significantly change their
directions. Finally, number of vehicles in each section is carried out
by calculating the standard deviation of the gradient vectors in each
group and accepting the group as vehicle that has standard deviation
above predefined threshold value. The proposed method was tested in
four very high resolution aerial images acquired from Istanbul,
Turkey which illustrate roads and vehicles with diverse
characteristics. The results show the reliability of the proposed
method in detecting vehicles by producing 86% overall F1 accuracy
value.
Abstract: This article aims to analyze the static stability and
pseudostatic slope by using different methods such as: Bishop
method, Junbu, Ordinary, Morgenstern-price and GLE. The two
dimensional modeling of slope stability under various loading as: the
earthquake effect, the water level and road mobile charges. The
results show that the slope is stable in the static case without water,
but in other cases, the slope lost its stability and give unstable. The
calculation of safety factor is to evaluate the stability of the slope
using the limit equilibrium method despite the difference between the
results obtained by these methods that do not rely on the same
assumptions. In the end, the results of this study illuminate well the
influence of the action of water, moving loads and the earthquake on
the stability of the slope.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel heuristic algorithm that aims to determine the best size and location of distributed generators in unbalanced distribution networks. The proposed heuristic algorithm can deal with the planning cases where power loss is to be optimized without violating the system practical constraints. The distributed generation units in the proposed algorithm is modeled as voltage controlled node with the flexibility to be converted to constant power factor node in case of reactive power limit violation. The proposed algorithm is implemented in MATLAB and tested on the IEEE 37 -node feeder. The results obtained show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Abstract: This study was conducted to determine that carrot powder obtain by different drying methods (oven and vacuum-freeze dryer) of carrot unfit for human consumption that whether feed additives in animal nutrition or not. Carrots randomly divided 2 groups. First group was dried by using oven, second group was by using vacuum freeze dryer methods. Dried carrot prepared from fresh carrot was analysed nutrient matter (energy, crude protein, crude oil, crude ash, beta carotene, mineral concentration and colour). The differences between groups in terms of energy, crude protein, ash, Ca and Mg was not significant (P>0,05). Crude oil, P, beta carotene content and colour values (L, a, b) with vacuum-freeze dryer group was greater than oven group (P
Abstract: This paper introduces a video sharing platform based
on WiFi, which consists of camera, mobile phone and PC server. This
platform can receive wireless signal from the camera and show the live
video on the mobile phone captured by camera. In addition, it is able to
send commands to camera and control the camera’s holder to rotate.
The platform can be applied to interactive teaching and dangerous
area’s monitoring and so on. Testing results show that the platform can
share the live video of mobile phone. Furthermore, if the system’s PC
server and the camera and many mobile phones are connected
together, it can transfer photos concurrently.
Abstract: This paper presents an optimization method for
reducing the number of input channels and the complexity of the
feed-forward NARX neural network (NN) without compromising the
accuracy of the NN model. By utilizing the correlation analysis
method, the most significant regressors are selected to form the input
layer of the NN structure. An application of vehicle dynamic model
identification is also presented in this paper to demonstrate the
optimization technique and the optimal input layer structure and the
optimal number of neurons for the neural network is investigated.
Abstract: Potassium borates, which are widely used in welding
and metal refining industry, as a lubricating oil additive, cement
additive, fiberglass additive and insulation compound, are one of the
important groups of borate minerals. In this study the production of a
potassium borate mineral via hydrothermal method is aimed. The
potassium source of potassium nitrate (KNO3) was used along with a
sodium source of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and boron source of
boric acid (H3BO3). The constant parameters of reaction temperature
and reaction time were determined as 80°C and 1 h, respectively. The
molar ratios of 1:1:3 (as KNO3:NaOH:H3BO3), 1:1:4, 1:1:5, 1:1:6
and 1:1:7 were used. Following the synthesis the identifications of
the produced products were conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD),
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman
Spectroscopy. The results of the experiments and analysis showed in
the ratio of 1:1:6, the Santite mineral with powder diffraction file
number (pdf no.) of 01-072-1688, which is known as potassium
pentaborate (KB5O8·4H2O) was synthesized as best.
Abstract: This paper describes an optimization tool-based
design strategy for a Current Mode Logic CML divide-by-2 circuit.
Representing a building block for output frequency generation in a
RFID protocol based-frequency synthesizer, the circuit was designed
to minimize the power consumption for driving of multiple loads
with unbalancing (at transceiver level). Implemented with XFAB
XC08 180 nm technology, the circuit was optimized through
MunEDA WiCkeD tool at Cadence Virtuoso Analog Design
Environment ADE.
Abstract: In statistics parameter theory, usually the
parameter estimations have two kinds, one is the least-square
estimation (LSE), and the other is the best linear unbiased
estimation (BLUE). Due to the determining theorem of
minimum variance unbiased estimator (MVUE), the parameter
estimation of BLUE in linear model is most ideal. But since
the calculations are complicated or the covariance is not
given, people are hardly to get the solution. Therefore, people
prefer to use LSE rather than BLUE. And this substitution
will take some losses. To quantize the losses, many scholars
have presented many kinds of different relative efficiencies in
different views. For the linear weighted regression model, this
paper discusses the relative efficiencies of LSE of β to BLUE
of β. It also defines two new relative efficiencies and gives
their lower bounds.