Abstract: PARIS (Personal Archiving and Retrieving Image
System) is an experiment personal photograph library, which includes
more than 80,000 of consumer photographs accumulated within a
duration of approximately five years, metadata based on our proposed
MPEG-7 annotation architecture, Dozen Dimensional Digital Content
(DDDC), and a relational database structure. The DDDC architecture
is specially designed for facilitating the managing, browsing and
retrieving of personal digital photograph collections. In annotating
process, we also utilize a proposed Spatial and Temporal Ontology
(STO) designed based on the general characteristic of personal
photograph collections. This paper explains PRAIS system.
Abstract: Several trillion cigarettes produced worldwide annually lead to many thousands of kilograms of toxic waste. Cigarette butts (CBs) accumulate in the environment due to the poor biodegradability of the cellulose acetate filters. This paper presents some of the results from a continuing study on recycling CBs into fired clay bricks. Physico-mechanical properties of fired clay bricks manufactured with different percentages of CBs are reported and discussed. The results show that the density of fired bricks was reduced by up to 30 %, depending on the percentage of CBs incorporated into the raw materials. Similarly, the compressive strength of bricks tested decreased according to the percentage of CBs included in the mix. The thermal conductivity performance of bricks was improved by 51 and 58 % for 5 and 10 % CBs content respectively. Leaching tests were carried out to investigate the levels of possible leachates of heavy metals from the manufactured clay-CB bricks. The results revealed trace amounts of heavy metals.
Abstract: Experiments were conducted to characterize fire
properties of wood exposed to the certain external heat flux and
under variety of wood moisture content. Six kinds of Indonesian
wood: keruing, sono, cemara, kamper, pinus, and mahoni were
exposed to radiant heat from a conical heater, result in appearance of
a stable flame on the wood surface caused by spontaneous ignition. A
thermocouple K-type was used to measure the wood surface
temperature. Temperature histories were recorded throughout each
experiment at 1 s intervals using a TC-08. Data of first ignition time
and temperature, end ignition time and temperature, and charring rate
have been successfully collected. It was found that the ignition
temperature and charring rate depend on moisture content of wood.
Abstract: This paper focuses on sovereign credit risk meaning a
hot topic related to the current Eurozone crisis. In the light of the
recent financial crisis, market perception of the creditworthiness of
individual sovereigns has changed significantly. Before the outbreak
of the financial crisis, market participants did not differentiate
between credit risk born by individual states despite different levels
of public indebtedness. In the proceeding of the financial crisis, the
market participants became aware of the worsening fiscal situation in
the European countries and started to discriminate among
government issuers. Concerns about the increasing sovereign risk
were reflected in surging sovereign risk premium. The main of this
paper is to shed light on the characteristics of the sovereign risk with
the special attention paid to the mutual relation between credit spread
and the CDS premium as the main measures of the sovereign risk
premium.
Abstract: With the fast evolution of digital data exchange, security information becomes much important in data storage and transmission. Due to the increasing use of images in industrial process, it is essential to protect the confidential image data from unauthorized access. In this paper, we analyze the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and we add a key stream generator (A5/1, W7) to AES to ensure improving the encryption performance; mainly for images characterised by reduced entropy. The implementation of both techniques has been realized for experimental purposes. Detailed results in terms of security analysis and implementation are given. Comparative study with traditional encryption algorithms is shown the superiority of the modified algorithm.
Abstract: The value of overall oxygen transfer Coefficient
(KLa), which is the best measure of oxygen transfer in water through
aeration, is obtained by a simple approach, which sufficiently
explains the utility of the method to eliminate the discrepancies due
to inaccurate assumption of saturation dissolved oxygen
concentration. The rate of oxygen transfer depends on number of
factors like intensity of turbulence, which in turns depends on the
speed of rotation, size, and number of blades, diameter and
immersion depth of the rotor, and size and shape of aeration tank, as
well as on physical, chemical, and biological characteristic of water.
An attempt is made in this paper to correlate the overall oxygen
transfer Coefficient (KLa), as an independent parameter with other
influencing parameters mentioned above. It has been estimated that
the simulation equation developed predicts the values of KLa and
power with an average standard error of estimation of 0.0164 and
7.66 respectively and with R2 values of 0.979 and 0.989 respectively,
when compared with experimentally determined values. The
comparison of this model is done with the model generated using
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and both the models were
found to be in good agreement with each other.
Abstract: The zinc and iron environments in different growth
stages have been studied with EXAFS and XANES with Brookhaven
Synchrotron Light Source. Tissue samples included meat, organ,
vegetable, leaf, and yeast. The project studied the EXAFS and
XANES of tissue samples using Zn and Fe K-edges. Duck embryo
samples show that brain and intestine would contain shorter EXFAS
determined Zn-N/O bond; as with the cases of fresh yeast versus
reconstituted live yeast and green leaf versus yellow leaf. The
XANES Fourier transform characteristic-length would be useful as a
functionality index for selected types of tissue samples in various
physical states. The extension to the development of functional
synchrotron imaging for tissue engineering application based on
spectroscopic technique is discussed.
Abstract: The proposed paper examines strategies whose aim is
to counter the all too often sighted process of abandonment that
characterizes contemporary cities. The city of Nicosia in Cyprus is
used as an indicative case study, whereby several recent projects are
presented as capitalizing on traditional cultural assets to revive the
downtown. The reuse of existing building stock as museums,
performing arts centers and theaters but also as in the form of various
housing typologies is geared to strengthen the ranks of local residents
and to spur economic growth. Unlike the examples from the 1960s,
the architecture of more recent adaptive reuse for urban regeneration
seems to be geared in reinforcing a connection to the city where the
buildings often reflect the characteristics of their urban context.
Abstract: Some physico-chemical characteristics and mineral
composition of 'Karayemis' (Prunus laurocerasus L.) fruits which
grown naturally in Norteast Turkey was studied. 28 minerals ( Al,
Mg, B, Mn, Co, Na, Ca, Ni, Cd, P, Cr, Pb, Cu, S, Fe, Zn, K, Sr, Li,
As, V, Ag, Ba, Br, Ga, In, Se, Ti) were analyzed and 19 minerals
were present at ascertainable levels. Karayemis fruit was richest in
potassium (7938.711 ppm), magnesium (1242.186 ppm) and calcium
(1158.853 ppm). And some physico-chemical characteristics of
Karayemis fruit was investigated. Fruit length, fruit width, fruit
thickness, fruit weight, total soluble solids, colour, protein, crude ash,
crude fiber, crude oil values were determined as 2.334 cm, 1.884 cm,
2.112 cm, 5.35 g, 20.1 %, S99M99Y99, 0.29 %, 0.22 %, 6.63 % and
0.001 %, respectively. The seed of fruit mean weight, length, width
and thickness were found to be 0.41 g, 1.303 cm, 0.921 cm and
0.803, respectively.
Abstract: This paper presents a linear-elastic finite element method based flattening algorithm for three dimensional triangular surfaces. First, an intrinsic characteristic preserving method is used to obtain the initial developing graph, which preserves the angles and length ratios between two adjacent edges. Then, an iterative equation is established based on linear-elastic finite element method and the flattening result with an equilibrium state of internal force is obtained by solving this iterative equation. The results show that complex surfaces can be dealt with this proposed method, which is an efficient tool for the applications in computer aided design, such as mould design.
Abstract: The lifelong learning is a crucial element in the
modernization of European education and training systems. The most
important actors in the development process of the lifelong learning
are the trainers, whose professional characteristics need new
competences and skills in the current labour market. The main
objective of this paper is to establish an importance ranking of the
new competences, capabilities and skills that the lifelong learning
Spanish trainers must possess nowadays. A wide study of secondary
sources has allowed the design of a questionnaire that organizes the
trainer-s skills and competences. The e-Delphi method is used for
realizing a creative, individual and anonymous evaluation by experts
on the importance ranking that presents the criteria, sub-criteria and
indicators of the e-Delphi questionnaire. Twenty Spanish experts in
the lifelong learning have participated in two rounds of the e-
DELPHI method. In the first round, the analysis of the experts-
evaluation has allowed to establish the ranking of the most
importance criteria, sub-criteria and indicators and to eliminate the
least valued. The minimum level necessary to reach the consensus
among experts has been achieved in the second round.
Abstract: Rarefied gas flows are often occurred in micro electro
mechanical systems and classical CFD could not precisely anticipate
the flow and thermal behavior due to the high Knudsen number.
Therefore, the heat transfer and the fluid dynamics characteristics of
rarefied gas flows in both a two-dimensional simple microchannel
and geometry similar to single Knudsen compressor have been
investigated with a goal of increasing performance of a actual
Knudsen compressor by using a particle simulation method. Thermal
transpiration and thermal creep, which are rarefied gas dynamic
phenomena, that cause movement of the flow from less to higher
temperature is generated by using two different longitude temperature
gradients (Linear, Step) along the walls of the flow microchannel. In
this study the influence of amount of temperature gradient and
governing pressure in various Knudsen numbers and length-to-height
ratios have been examined.
Abstract: A simple and dexterous in situ method was introduced to load CdS nanocrystals into organofunctionalized mesoporous, which used an ion-exchange method. The products were extensively characterized by combined spectroscopic methods. X- ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) demonstrated both the maintenance of pore symmetry (space group p6mm) of SBA-15 and the presence of CdS nanocrystals with uniform sizes of about 6 - 8 nm inside the functionalized SBA-15 channels. These mesoporous silica-supported CdS composites showed room temperature photoluminescence properties with a blue shift, indicating the quantum size effect of nanocrystalline CdS.
Abstract: Hepatitis C is an infectious disease transmitted by
blood and due to hepatitis C virus (HCV), which attacks the liver.
The infection is characterized by liver inflammation (hepatitis) that is
often asymptomatic but can progress to chronic hepatitis and later
cirrhosis and liver cancer. Our problem tends to highlight on the one
hand the prevalence of infectious disease in the population of the
region of Batna and on other hand the biological characteristics of
this disease by a screening and a specific diagnosis based on
serological tests, liver checkup (measurement of haematological and
biochemical parameters).
The results showed:
The serology of hepatitis C establishes the diagnosis of infection
with hepatitis C. In this study and with the serological test, 24 cases
of the disease of hepatitis C were found in 1000 suspected cases (7
cases with normal transaminases and 17 cases with elevated
transaminases). The prevalence of this disease in this study
population was 2.4%.
The presence of hepatitis C disrupts liver function including the
onset of cytolysis, cholestasis, jaundice, thrombocytopenia, and
coagulation disorders.
Abstract: The mineral having chemical compositional formula MgAl2O4 is called “spinel". The ferrites crystallize in spinel structure are known as spinel-ferrites or ferro-spinels. The spinel structure has a fcc cage of oxygen ions and the metallic cations are distributed among tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (B) interstitial voids (sites). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) intensity of each Bragg plane is sensitive to the distribution of cations in the interstitial voids of the spinel lattice. This leads to the method of determination of distribution of cations in the spinel oxides through XRD intensity analysis. The computer program for XRD intensity analysis has been developed in C language and also tested for the real experimental situation by synthesizing the spinel ferrite materials Mg0.6Zn0.4AlxFe2- xO4 and characterized them by X-ray diffractometry. The compositions of Mg0.6Zn0.4AlxFe2-xO4(x = 0.0 to 0.6) ferrites have been prepared by ceramic method and powder X-ray diffraction patterns were recorded. Thus, the authenticity of the program is checked by comparing the theoretically calculated data using computer simulation with the experimental ones. Further, the deduced cation distributions were used to fit the magnetization data using Localized canting of spins approach to explain the “recovery" of collinear spin structure due to Al3+ - substitution in Mg-Zn ferrites which is the case if A-site magnetic dilution and non-collinear spin structure. Since the distribution of cations in the spinel ferrites plays a very important role with regard to their electrical and magnetic properties, it is essential to determine the cation distribution in spinel lattice.
Abstract: Since the 1980s, banks and financial service institutions have been running in an endless race of innovation to cope with the advancing technology, the fierce competition, and the more sophisticated and demanding customers. In order to guide their innovation efforts, several researches were conducted to identify the success and failure factors of new financial services. These mainly included organizational factors, marketplace factors and new service development process factors. They almost all emphasized the importance of customer and market orientation as a response to the highly perceptual and intangible characteristics of financial services. However, they deemphasized the critical characteristics of high involvement of risk and close correlation with the economic conditions, a factor that heavily contributed to the Global financial Crisis of 2008. This paper reviews the success and failure factors of new financial services. It then adds new perspectives emerging from the analysis of the role of innovation in the global financial crisis.
Abstract: Gene expression profiling is rapidly evolving into a
powerful technique for investigating tumor malignancies. The
researchers are overwhelmed with the microarray-based platforms
and methods that confer them the freedom to conduct large-scale
gene expression profiling measurements. Simultaneously,
investigations into cross-platform integration methods have started
gaining momentum due to their underlying potential to help
comprehend a myriad of broad biological issues in tumor diagnosis,
prognosis, and therapy. However, comparing results from different
platforms remains to be a challenging task as various inherent
technical differences exist between the microarray platforms. In this
paper, we explain a simple ratio-transformation method, which can
provide some common ground for cDNA and Affymetrix platform
towards cross-platform integration. The method is based on the
characteristic data attributes of Affymetrix- and cDNA- platform. In
the work, we considered seven childhood leukemia patients and their
gene expression levels in either platform. With a dataset of 822
differentially expressed genes from both these platforms, we carried
out a specific ratio-treatment to Affymetrix data, which subsequently
showed an improvement in the relationship with the cDNA data.
Abstract: Herein, we report the different types of surface morphology due to the interaction between the pure protein Insulin (INS) and catanionic surfactant mixture of Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) and Cetyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide (CTAB) at air/water interface obtained by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. We characterized the aggregations by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in LB films. We found that the INS adsorption increased in presence of catanionic surfactant at air/water interface. The presence of small amount of surfactant induces two-stage growth kinetics due to the pure protein absorption and protein-catanionic surface micelle interaction. The protein remains in native state in presence of small amount of surfactant mixture. Smaller amount of surfactant mixture with INS is producing surface micelle type structure. This may be considered for drug delivery system. On the other hand, INS becomes unfolded and fibrillated in presence of higher amount of surfactant mixture. In both the cases, the protein was successfully immobilized on a glass substrate by the LB technique. These results may find applications in the fundamental science of the physical chemistry of surfactant systems, as well as in the preparation of drug-delivery system.
Abstract: It is well known that a linear dynamic system including
a delay will exhibit limit cycle oscillations when a bang-bang sensor
is used in the feedback loop of a PID controller. A similar behaviour
occurs when a delayed feedback signal is used to train a neural
network. This paper develops a method of predicting this behaviour
by linearizing the system, which can be shown to behave in a manner
similar to an integral controller. Using this procedure, it is possible
to predict the characteristics of the neural network driven limit cycle
to varying degrees of accuracy, depending on the information known
about the system. An application is also presented: the intelligent
control of a spark ignition engine.
Abstract: A dent is a gross distortion of the pipe cross-section.
Dent depth is defined as the maximum reduction in the diameter of
the pipe compared to the original diameter. Pipeline dent finite
element (FE) simulation and theoretical analysis are conducted in this
paper to develop an understanding of the geometric characteristics
and strain distribution in the pressurized dented pipe. Based on the
results, the magnitude of the denting force increases significantly
with increasing the internal pressure, and the maximum
circumferential and longitudinal strains increase by increasing the
internal pressure and the dent depth. The results can be used for
characterizing dents and ranking their risks to the integrity of a
pipeline.