Abstract: The accelerated sonophotocatalytic degradation of
Reactive Red (RR) 120 dye under visible light using dye sensitized
TiO2 activated by ultrasound has been carried out. The effect of
sonolysis, photocatalysis and sonophotocatalysis under visible light
has been examined to study the influence on the degradation rates by
varying the initial substrate concentration, pH and catalyst loading to
ascertain the synergistic effect on the degradation techniques.
Ultrasonic activation contributes degradation through cavitation
leading to the splitting of H2O2 produced by both photocatalysis and
sonolysis. This results in the formation of oxidative species, such as
singlet oxygen (1O2) and superoxide (O2
-●) radicals in the presence of
oxygen. The increase in the amount of reactive radical species which
induce faster oxidation of the substrate and degradation of
intermediates and also the deaggregation of the photocatalyst are
responsible for the synergy observed under sonication. A
comparative study of photocatalysis and sonophotocatalysis using
TiO2, Hombikat UV 100 and ZnO was also carried out.
Abstract: In this paper some results on strict stability heve beeb extended for fuzzy differential equations with impulse effect using Lyapunov functions and Razumikhin technique.
Abstract: This research was aimed at determining the impact of conservation techniques including bench terrace, stone terrace, mulching, grass strip and intercropping on soil erosion at tobacco-based farming system at Progo Hulu subwatershed, Central Java, Indonesia. Research was conducted from September 2007 to September 2009, located at Progo Hulu subwatershed, Central Java, Indonesia. Research site divided into 27 land units, and experimental fields were grouped based on the soil type and slope, ie: 30%, 45% and 70%, with the following treatments: 1) ST0= stone terrace (control); 2) ST1= stone terrace + Setaria spacelata grass strip on a 5 cm height dike at terrace lips + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 50% (7 ton/ ha); 3) ST2= stone terrace + Setaria spacelata grass strip on a 5 cm height dike at terrace lips + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 100% (14 ton/ ha); 4) ST3= stone terrace + tobacco and red bean intercropping + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 50% (7 ton/ ha). 5) BT0= bench terrace (control); 6) BT1= bench terrace + Setaria spacelata grass strip at terrace lips + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 50% (7 ton/ ha); 7) BT2= bench terrace + Setaria spacelata grass strip at terrace lips + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 100% (14 ton/ ha); 8) BT3= bench terrace + tobacco and red bean intercropping + tobacco stem mulch with dose of 50% (7 ton/ ha). The results showed that the actual erosion rates of research site were higher than that of tolerance erosion with mean value 89.08 ton/ha/year and 33.40 ton/ha/year, respectively. These resulted in 69% of total research site (5,119.15 ha) highly degraded. Conservation technique of ST2 was the most effective in suppressing soil erosion, by 42.87%, following with BT2 as much 30.63%. Others suppressed erosion only less than 21%.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to introduce a new
interface program to calculate a dose distribution with Monte Carlo method in complex heterogeneous systems such as organs or tissues
in proton therapy. This interface program was developed under
MATLAB software and includes a friendly graphical user interface
with several tools such as image properties adjustment or results display. Quadtree decomposition technique was used as an image
segmentation algorithm to create optimum geometries from Computed Tomography (CT) images for dose calculations of proton
beam. The result of the mentioned technique is a number of nonoverlapped
squares with different sizes in every image. By this way
the resolution of image segmentation is high enough in and near
heterogeneous areas to preserve the precision of dose calculations
and is low enough in homogeneous areas to reduce the number of
cells directly. Furthermore a cell reduction algorithm can be used to combine neighboring cells with the same material. The validation of this method has been done in two ways; first, in comparison with experimental data obtained with 80 MeV proton beam in Cyclotron
and Radioisotope Center (CYRIC) in Tohoku University and second, in comparison with data based on polybinary tissue calibration method, performed in CYRIC. These results are presented in this paper. This program can read the output file of Monte Carlo code while region of interest is selected manually, and give a plot of dose distribution of proton beam superimposed onto the CT images.
Abstract: Attitude Determination (AD) of a spacecraft using the
phase measurements of the Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) is an active area of research. Various attitude determination
algorithms have been developed in yester years for spacecrafts using
different sensors but the last two decades have witnessed a
phenomenal increase in research related with GPS receivers as a
stand-alone sensor for determining the attitude of satellite using the
phase measurements of the signals from GNSS. The GNSS-based
Attitude determination algorithms have been experimented in many
real missions. The problem of AD algorithms using GNSS phase
measurements has two important parts; the ambiguity resolution and
the determining of attitude. Ambiguity resolution is the widely
addressed topic in literature for implementing the AD algorithm
using GNSS phase measurements for achieving the accuracy of
millimeter level. This paper broadly overviews the different
techniques for resolving the integer ambiguities encountered in AD
using GNSS phase measurements.
Abstract: The fine structure of supercavitation in the wake of a
symmetrical cylinder is studied with high-speed video cameras. The
flow is observed in a cavitation tunnel at the speed of 8m/sec when the
sidewall and the wake are partially filled with the massive cavitation
bubbles. The present experiment observed that a two-dimensional
ripple wave with a wave length of 0.3mm is propagated in a
downstream direction, and then abruptly increases to a thicker
three-dimensional layer. IR-photography recorded that the wakes
originated from the horseshoe vortexes alongside the cylinder. The
wake was developed to inside the dead water zone, which absorbed the
bubbly wake propelled from the separated vortices at the center of the
cylinder. A remote sensing classification technique (maximum most
likelihood) determined that the surface porosity was 0.2, and the mean
speed in the mixed wake was 7m/sec. To confirm the existence of
two-dimensional wave motions in the interface, the experiments were
conducted at a very low frequency, and showed similar gravity waves
in both the upper and lower interfaces.
Abstract: A new deployment of the multiple criteria decision
making (MCDM) techniques: the Simple Additive Weighting
(SAW), and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to
Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for portfolio allocation, is demonstrated in
this paper. Rather than exclusive reference to mean and variance as in
the traditional mean-variance method, the criteria used in this
demonstration are the first four moments of the portfolio distribution.
Each asset is evaluated based on its marginal impacts to portfolio
higher moments that are characterized by trapezoidal fuzzy numbers.
Then centroid-based defuzzification is applied to convert fuzzy
numbers to the crisp numbers by which SAW and TOPSIS can be
deployed. Experimental results suggest the similar efficiency of these
MCDM approaches to selecting dominant assets for an optimal
portfolio under higher moments. The proposed approaches allow
investors flexibly adjust their risk preferences regarding higher
moments via different schemes adapting to various (from
conservative to risky) kinds of investors. The other significant
advantage is that, compared to the mean-variance analysis, the
portfolio weights obtained by SAW and TOPSIS are consistently
well-diversified.
Abstract: The main aim of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is
to produce, distribute, logistics and deliver goods and equipment in
right location, right time, right amount to satisfy costumers, with
minimum time and cost waste. So implementing techniques that
reduce project time and cost, and improve productivity and
performance is very important. Emerging technologies such as the
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are now making it possible to
automate supply chains in a real time manner and making them more
efficient than the simple supply chain of the past for tracing and
monitoring goods and products and capturing data on movements of
goods and other events. This paper considers concepts, components
and RFID technology characteristics by concentration of warehouse
and inventories management. Additionally, utilization of RFID in the
role of improving information management in supply chain is
discussed. Finally, the facts of installation and this technology-s
results in direction with warehouse and inventory management and
business development will be presented.
Abstract: Explosive forming is one of the unconventional
techniques in which, most commonly, the water is used as the
pressure transmission medium. One of the newest methods in
explosive forming is gas detonation forming which uses a normal
shock wave derived of gas detonation, to form sheet metals. For this
purpose a detonation is developed from the reaction of H2+O2
mixture in a long cylindrical detonation tube. The detonation wave
goes through the detonation tube and acts as a blast load on the steel
blank and forms it. Experimental results are compared with a finite
element model; and the comparison of the experimental and
numerical results obtained from strain, thickness variation and
deformed geometry is carried out. Numerical and experimental
results showed approximately 75 – 90 % similarity in formability of
desired shape. Also optimum percent of gas mixture obtained when
we mix 68% H2 with 32% O2.
Abstract: With rapid technology scaling, the proportion of the
static power consumption catches up with dynamic power
consumption gradually. To decrease leakage consumption is
becoming more and more important in low-power design. This paper
presents a power-gating scheme for P-DTGAL (p-type dual
transmission gate adiabatic logic) circuits to reduce leakage power
dissipations under deep submicron process. The energy dissipations of
P-DTGAL circuits with power-gating scheme are investigated in
different processes, frequencies and active ratios. BSIM4 model is
adopted to reflect the characteristics of the leakage currents. HSPICE
simulations show that the leakage loss is greatly reduced by using the
P-DTGAL with power-gating techniques.
Abstract: User-based Collaborative filtering (CF), one of the
most prevailing and efficient recommendation techniques, provides
personalized recommendations to users based on the opinions of other
users. Although the CF technique has been successfully applied in
various applications, it suffers from serious sparsity problems. The
cloud-model approach addresses the sparsity problems by
constructing the user-s global preference represented by a cloud
eigenvector. The user-based CF approach works well with dense
datasets while the cloud-model CF approach has a greater
performance when the dataset is sparse. In this paper, we present a
hybrid approach that integrates the predictions from both the
user-based CF and the cloud-model CF approaches. The experimental
results show that the proposed hybrid approach can ameliorate the
sparsity problem and provide an improved prediction quality.
Abstract: In mobile environments, unspecified numbers of transactions
arrive in continuous streams. To prove correctness of their
concurrent execution a method of modelling an infinite number of
transactions is needed. Standard database techniques model fixed
finite schedules of transactions. Lately, techniques based on temporal
logic have been proposed as suitable for modelling infinite schedules.
The drawback of these techniques is that proving the basic
serializability correctness condition is impractical, as encoding (the
absence of) conflict cyclicity within large sets of transactions results
in prohibitively large temporal logic formulae. In this paper, we show
that, under certain common assumptions on the graph structure of
data items accessed by the transactions, conflict cyclicity need only
be checked within all possible pairs of transactions. This results in
formulae of considerably reduced size in any temporal-logic-based
approach to proving serializability, and scales to arbitrary numbers
of transactions.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation of
the WebGD, a CORBA-based document classification and retrieval
system on Internet. The WebGD makes use of such techniques as Web,
CORBA, Java, NLP, fuzzy technique, knowledge-based processing
and database technology. Unified classification and retrieval model,
classifying and retrieving with one reasoning engine and flexible
working mode configuration are some of its main features. The
architecture of WebGD, the unified classification and retrieval model,
the components of the WebGD server and the fuzzy inference engine
are discussed in this paper in detail.
Abstract: This paper describes an automatic algorithm to restore
the shape of three-dimensional (3D) left ventricle (LV) models created
from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data using a geometry-driven
optimization approach. Our basic premise is to restore the LV shape
such that the LV epicardial surface is smooth after the restoration. A
geometrical measure known as the Minimum Principle Curvature (κ2)
is used to assess the smoothness of the LV. This measure is used to
construct the objective function of a two-step optimization process.
The objective of the optimization is to achieve a smooth epicardial
shape by iterative in-plane translation of the MRI slices.
Quantitatively, this yields a minimum sum in terms of the magnitude
of κ
2, when κ2 is negative. A limited memory quasi-Newton algorithm,
L-BFGS-B, is used to solve the optimization problem. We tested our
algorithm on an in vitro theoretical LV model and 10 in vivo
patient-specific models which contain significant motion artifacts. The
results show that our method is able to automatically restore the shape
of LV models back to smoothness without altering the general shape of
the model. The magnitudes of in-plane translations are also consistent
with existing registration techniques and experimental findings.
Abstract: Model Predictive Control (MPC) is increasingly being
proposed for real time applications and embedded systems. However
comparing to PID controller, the implementation of the MPC in
miniaturized devices like Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
and microcontrollers has historically been very small scale due to its
complexity in implementation and its computation time requirement.
At the same time, such embedded technologies have become an
enabler for future manufacturing enterprises as well as a transformer
of organizations and markets. Recently, advances in microelectronics
and software allow such technique to be implemented in embedded
systems. In this work, we take advantage of these recent advances
in this area in the deployment of one of the most studied and
applied control technique in the industrial engineering. In fact in
this paper, we propose an efficient framework for implementation
of Generalized Predictive Control (GPC) in the performed STM32
microcontroller. The STM32 keil starter kit based on a JTAG interface
and the STM32 board was used to implement the proposed GPC
firmware. Besides the GPC, the PID anti windup algorithm was
also implemented using Keil development tools designed for ARM
processor-based microcontroller devices and working with C/Cµ
langage. A performances comparison study was done between both
firmwares. This performances study show good execution speed and
low computational burden. These results encourage to develop simple
predictive algorithms to be programmed in industrial standard hardware.
The main features of the proposed framework are illustrated
through two examples and compared with the anti windup PID
controller.
Abstract: In this work, we developed the concept of
supercompression, i.e., compression above the compression standard
used. In this context, both compression rates are multiplied. In fact,
supercompression is based on super-resolution. That is to say,
supercompression is a data compression technique that superpose
spatial image compression on top of bit-per-pixel compression to
achieve very high compression ratios. If the compression ratio is very
high, then we use a convolutive mask inside decoder that restores the
edges, eliminating the blur. Finally, both, the encoder and the
complete decoder are implemented on General-Purpose computation
on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU) cards. Specifically, the
mentio-ned mask is coded inside texture memory of a GPGPU.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a fully-utilized, block-based 2D DWT (discrete wavelet transform) architecture, which consists of four 1D DWT filters with two-channel QMF lattice structure. The proposed architecture requires about 2MN-3N registers to save the intermediate results for higher level decomposition, where M and N stand for the filter length and the row width of the image respectively. Furthermore, the proposed 2D DWT processes in horizontal and vertical directions simultaneously without an idle period, so that it computes the DWT for an N×N image in a period of N2(1-2-2J)/3. Compared to the existing approaches, the proposed architecture shows 100% of hardware utilization and high throughput rates. To mitigate the long critical path delay due to the cascaded lattices, we can apply the pipeline technique with four stages, while retaining 100% of hardware utilization. The proposed architecture can be applied in real-time video signal processing.
Abstract: Face recognition is a technique to automatically
identify or verify individuals. It receives great attention in
identification, authentication, security and many more applications.
Diverse methods had been proposed for this purpose and also a lot of
comparative studies were performed. However, researchers could not
reach unified conclusion. In this paper, we are reporting an extensive
quantitative accuracy analysis of four most widely used face
recognition algorithms: Principal Component Analysis (PCA),
Independent Component Analysis (ICA), Linear Discriminant
Analysis (LDA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) using AT&T,
Sheffield and Bangladeshi people face databases under diverse
situations such as illumination, alignment and pose variations.
Abstract: The unanticipated brittle fracture of connection of the
steel moment resisting frame (SMRF) occurred in 1994 the Northridge
earthquake. Since then, the researches for the vulnerability of
connection of the existing SMRF and for rehabilitation of those
buildings were conducted. This paper suggests performance-based
optimal seismic retrofit technique using connection upgrade. For
optimal design, a multi-objective genetic algorithm(NSGA-II) is used.
One of the two objective functions is to minimize initial cost and
another objective function is to minimize lifetime seismic damages
cost. The optimal algorithm proposed in this paper is performed
satisfying specified performance objective based on FEMA 356. The
nonlinear static analysis is performed for structural seismic
performance evaluation. A numerical example of SAC benchmark
SMRF is provided using the performance-based optimal seismic
retrofit technique proposed in this paper
Abstract: In this paper we describe a hybrid technique of Minimax search and aggregate Mahalanobis distance function synthesis to evolve Awale game player. The hybrid technique helps to suggest a move in a short amount of time without looking into endgame database. However, the effectiveness of the technique is heavily dependent on the training dataset of the Awale strategies utilized. The evolved player was tested against Awale shareware program and the result is appealing.