Abstract: Background in music analysis: Traditionally, when we
think about a composer’s sketches, the chances are that we are
thinking in terms of the working out of detail, rather than the
evolution of an overall concept. Since music is a “time art,” it follows
that questions of a form cannot be entirely detached from
considerations of time. One could say that composers tend to regard
time either as a place gradually and partially intuitively filled, or they
can look for a specific strategy to occupy it. It seems that the one
thing that sheds light on Stockhausen’s compositional thinking is his
frequent use of “form schemas,” that is often a single-page
representation of the entire structure of a piece.
Background in music technology: Sonic Visualiser is a program
used to study a musical recording. It is an open source application for
viewing, analyzing, and annotating music audio files. It contains a
number of visualisation tools, which are designed with useful default
parameters for musical analysis. Additionally, the Vamp plugin
format of SV supports to provide analysis such as for example
structural segmentation.
Aims: The aim of paper is to show how SV may be used to obtain
a better understanding of the specific musical work, and how the
compositional strategy does impact on musical structures and musical
surfaces. It is known that “traditional” music analytic methods don’t
allow indicating interrelationships between musical surface (which is
perceived) and underlying musical/acoustical structure.
Main Contribution: Stockhausen had dealt with the most diverse
musical problems by the most varied methods. A characteristic which
he had never ceased to be placed at the center of his thought and
works, it was the quest for a new balance founded upon an acute
connection between speculation and intuition. In the case with
Mikrophonie I (1964) for tam-tam and 6 players Stockhausen makes
a distinction between the “connection scheme,” which indicates the
ground rules underlying all versions, and the form scheme, which is
associated with a particular version. The preface to the published
score includes both the connection scheme, and a single instance of a
“form scheme,” which is what one can hear on the CD recording. In
the current study, the insight into the compositional strategy chosen
by Stockhausen was been compared with auditory image, that is, with
the perceived musical surface. Stockhausen’s musical work is
analyzed both in terms of melodic/voice and timbre evolution.
Implications: The current study shows how musical structures
have determined of musical surface. The general assumption is this,
that while listening to music we can extract basic kinds of musical
information from musical surfaces. It is shown that interactive
strategies of musical structure analysis can offer a very fruitful way
of looking directly into certain structural features of music.
Abstract: In recent years a new method of combination
treatment for cancer has been developed and studied that has led to
significant advancements in the field of cancer therapy. Hyperthermia
is a traditional therapy that, along with a creation of a medically
approved level of heat with the help of an alternating magnetic AC
current, results in the destruction of cancer cells by heat. This paper
gives details regarding the production of the spherical nanocomposite
PVA/γ-Fe2O3 in order to be used for medical purposes such as tumor
treatment by hyperthermia. To reach a suitable and evenly distributed
temperature, the nanocomposite with core-shell morphology and
spherical form within a 100 to 200 nanometer size was created using
phase separation emulsion, in which the magnetic nano-particles γ-
Fe2O3 with an average particle size of 20 nano-meters and with
different percentages of 0.2, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 were covered by
polyvinyl alcohol. The main concern in hyperthermia and heat
treatment is achieving desirable specific absorption rate (SAR) and
one of the most critical factors in SAR is particle size. In this project
all attempts has been done to reach minimal size and consequently
maximum SAR. The morphological analysis of the spherical
structure of the nanocomposite PVA/γ-Fe2O3 was achieved by SEM
analyses and the study of the chemical bonds created was made
possible by FTIR analysis. To investigate the manner of magnetic
nanocomposite particle size distribution a DLS experiment was
conducted. Moreover, to determine the magnetic behavior of the γ-
Fe2O3 particle and the nanocomposite PVA/γ-Fe2O3 in different
concentrations a VSM test was conducted. To sum up, creating
magnetic nanocomposites with a spherical morphology that would be
employed for drug loading opens doors to new approaches in
developing nanocomposites that provide efficient heat and a
controlled release of drug simultaneously inside the magnetic field,
which are among their positive characteristics that could significantly
improve the recovery process in patients.
Abstract: Adopting Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) for the
government procurement projects has become popular in Taiwan. As
time pass by, the problems of MAT has appeared gradually. People
condemn two points that are the result might be manipulated by a
single committee member’s partiality and how to make a fair decision
when the winner has two or more. Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
proposed that the best scoring method should meet the four reasonable
criteria. According to these four criteria this paper constructed an
“Illegitimate Scores Checking Scheme” for a scoring method and used
the scheme to find out the illegitimate of the current evaluation method
of MAT. This paper also proposed a new scoring method that is called
the “Standardizing Overall Evaluated Score Method”. This method
makes each committee member’s influence tend to be identical. Thus,
the committee members can scoring freely according to their partiality
without losing the fairness. Finally, it was examined by a large-scale
simulation, and the experiment revealed that the it improved the
problem of dictatorship and perfectly avoided the situation of cyclical
majorities, simultaneously. This result verified that the Standardizing
Overall Evaluated Score Method is better than any current evaluation
method of MAT.
Abstract: In this study free vibration analysis of aluminum
honeycomb sandwich structures were carried out experimentally and
numerically. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of sandwich
structures fabricated with different configurations for clamped-free
boundary condition were determined. The effects of lower and upper
face sheet thickness, the core material thickness, cell diameter, cell
angle and foil thickness on the vibration characteristics were
examined. The numerical studies were performed with ANSYS
package. While the sandwich structures were modeled in ANSYS the
continuum model was used. Later, the numerical results were
compared with the experimental findings.
Abstract: STRIM (Statistical Test Rule Induction Method) has been proposed as a method to effectively induct if-then rules from the decision table which is considered as a sample set obtained from the population of interest. Its usefulness has been confirmed by simulation experiments specifying rules in advance, and by comparison with conventional methods. However, scope for future development remains before STRIM can be applied to the analysis of real-world data sets. The first requirement is to determine the size of the dataset needed for inducting true rules, since finding statistically significant rules is the core of the method. The second is to examine the capacity of rule induction from datasets with contaminated attribute values created by missing data and noise, since real-world datasets usually contain such contaminated data. This paper examines the first problem theoretically, in connection with the rule length. The second problem is then examined in a simulation experiment, utilizing the critical size of dataset derived from the first step. The experimental results show that STRIM is highly robust in the analysis of datasets with contaminated attribute values, and hence is applicable to real-world data
Abstract: Obesity and osteoporosis are the two diseases whose
increasing prevalence and high impact on the global morbidity and
mortality, during the two recent decades, have gained a status of
major health threats worldwide. Obesity purports to affect the bone
metabolism through complex mechanisms. Debated data on the
connection between the bone mineral density and fracture prevalence
in the obese patients are widely presented in literature. There is
evidence that the correlation of weight and fracture risk is sitespecific.
This study is aimed at determining the connection between
the bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone score (TBS)
parameters in Ukrainian women suffering from obesity. We
examined 1025 40-89-year-old women, divided them into the groups
according to their body mass index: Group A included 360 women
with obesity whose BMI was ≥30 kg/m2, and Group B – 665 women
with no obesity and BMI of
Abstract: To solve these problems, we investigated the management system of heating enterprise, including strategic planning based on the balanced scorecard (BSC), quality management in accordance with the standards of the Quality Management System (QMS) ISO 9001 and analysis of the system based on expert judgment using fuzzy inference. To carry out our work we used the theory of fuzzy sets, the QMS in accordance with ISO 9001, BSC, method of construction of business processes according to the notation IDEF0, theory of modeling using Matlab software simulation tools and graphical programming LabVIEW. The results of the work are as follows: We determined possibilities of improving the management of heat-supply plant-based on QMS; after the justification and adaptation of software tool it has been used to automate a series of functions for the management and reduction of resources and for the maintenance of the system up to date; an application for the analysis of the QMS based on fuzzy inference has been created with novel organization of communication software with the application enabling the analysis of relevant data of enterprise management system.
Abstract: Based on an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) index established by previous work that indicates the overall IEQ acceptance from the prospect of an occupant in residential buildings in terms of four IEQ factors - thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual and aural comforts, this study develops a user-friendly IEQ calculator for iOS and Android users to calculate the occupant acceptance and compare the relative performance of IEQ in apartments. “IEQ calculator” is easy to use and it preliminarily illustrates the overall indoor environmental quality on the spot. Users simply input indoor parameters such as temperature, number of people and windows are opened or closed for the mobile application to calculate the scores in four areas: the comforts of temperature, brightness, noise and indoor air quality. The calculator allows the prediction of the best IEQ scenario on a quantitative scale. Any indoor environments under the specific IEQ conditions can be benchmarked against the predicted IEQ acceptance range. This calculator can also suggest how to achieve the best IEQ acceptance among a group of residents.
Abstract: To explore how the brain may recognise objects in its
general,accurate and energy-efficient manner, this paper proposes the
use of a neuromorphic hardware system formed from a Dynamic
Video Sensor (DVS) silicon retina in concert with the SpiNNaker
real-time Spiking Neural Network (SNN) simulator. As a first step
in the exploration on this platform a recognition system for dynamic
hand postures is developed, enabling the study of the methods used
in the visual pathways of the brain. Inspired by the behaviours of
the primary visual cortex, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)
are modelled using both linear perceptrons and spiking Leaky
Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) neurons.
In this study’s largest configuration using these approaches, a
network of 74,210 neurons and 15,216,512 synapses is created and
operated in real-time using 290 SpiNNaker processor cores in parallel
and with 93.0% accuracy. A smaller network using only 1/10th of the
resources is also created, again operating in real-time, and it is able
to recognise the postures with an accuracy of around 86.4% - only
6.6% lower than the much larger system. The recognition rate of the
smaller network developed on this neuromorphic system is sufficient
for a successful hand posture recognition system, and demonstrates
a much improved cost to performance trade-off in its approach.
Abstract: The research was conducted in order to determine the
organizational socialization levels of nurses working in hospitals in
the form of a descriptive study.
The research population was composed of nurses employed in
public and private sector hospitals in the province of Konya with 0-3
years of professional experience in the hospitals (N=1200); and the
sample was composed of 495 nurses that accepted to take part in the
study voluntarily. Statistical evaluation of data was conducted in
SPSS.16 software.
The results of the study revealed that the total score taken by
nurses at the organizational socialization scale was 262.95; and this
was close to the maximum score. Particularly the departmental
socialization sub-dimension proved to be higher in comparison to the
other two dimensions (organization socialization and task
socialization). Statistically meaningful differences were found in the
levels of organization socialization in relation to the status of
organizational orientation training, level of education and age group.
Abstract: For the music composer Myriam Marbe the musical
time and memory represent 2 (complementary) phenomena with
conclusive impact on the settlement of new musical ontologies.
Summarizing the most important achievements of the contemporary
techniques of composition, her vision on the microform presented in
The Concert for Daniel Kientzy, saxophone and orchestra transcends
the linear and unidirectional time in favour of a flexible, multivectorial
speech with spiral developments, where the sound substance
is auto(re)generated by analogy with the fundamental processes of
the memory. The conceptual model is of an archetypal essence, the
music composer being concerned with identifying the mechanisms of
the creation process, especially of those specific to the collective
creation (of oral tradition). Hence the spontaneity of expression,
improvisation tint, free rhythm, micro-interval intonation, coloristictimbral
universe dominated by multiphonics and unique sound
effects, hence the atmosphere of ritual, however purged by the
primary connotations and reprojected into a wonderful spectacular
space. The Concert is a work of artistic maturity and enforces respect,
among others, by the timbral diversity of the three species of
saxophone required by the music composer (baritone, sopranino and
alt), in Part III Daniel Kientzy shows the performance of playing two
saxophones concomitantly. The score of the music composer Myriam
Marbe contains a deeply spiritualized music, full or archetypal
symbols, a music whose drama suggests a real cinematographic
movement.
Abstract: In this paper, a summary of analytical and
experimental studies into the behavior of a new hysteretic damper,
designed for seismic protection of structures is presented. The Multidirectional
Torsional Hysteretic Damper (MRSD) is a patented
invention in which a symmetrical arrangement of identical cylindrical
steel cores is so configured as to yield in torsion while the structure
experiences planar movements due to earthquake shakings. The new
device has certain desirable properties. Notably, it is characterized by
a variable and controllable-via-design post-elastic stiffness. The
mentioned property is a result of MRSD’s kinematic configuration
which produces this geometric hardening, rather than being a
secondary large-displacement effect. Additionally, the new system is
capable of reaching high force and displacement capacities, shows
high levels of damping, and very stable cyclic response. The device
has gone through many stages of design refinement, multiple
prototype verification tests and development of design guide-lines
and computer codes to facilitate its implementation in practice.
Practicality of the new device, as offspring of an academic sphere, is
assured through extensive collaboration with industry in its final
design stages, prototyping and verification test programs.
Abstract: Chitosan functionalized Fe3O4-Au core shell
nanoparticles have been prepared using a two-step wet chemical
approach using NaBH4 as reducing agent for formation of Au in
ethylene glycol. X-ray diffraction studies shows individual phases of
Fe3O4 and Au in the as prepared samples with crystallite size of 5.9
and 11.4 nm respectively. The functionalization of the core-shell
nanostructure with Chitosan has been confirmed using Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy along with signatures of octahedral
and tetrahedral sites of Fe3O4 below 600cm-1. Mössbauer
spectroscopy shows decrease in particle-particle interaction in
presence of Au shell (72% sextet) than pure oleic coated Fe3O4
nanoparticles (88% sextet) at room temperature. At 80K, oleic acid
coated Fe3O4 shows only sextets whereas the Chitosan functionalized
Fe3O4 and Chitosan functionalized Fe3O4@Au core shell show
presence of 5 and 11% doublet, respectively.
Abstract: Purpose: The study aimed to assess the depressant or
antidepressant effects of several Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory
Drugs (NSAIDs) in mice: the selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)
inhibitor meloxicam, and the non-selective COX-1 and COX-2
inhibitors lornoxicam, sodium metamizole, and ketorolac. The
current literature data regarding such effects of these agents are
scarce.
Materials and methods: The study was carried out on NMRI mice
weighing 20-35 g, kept in a standard laboratory environment. The
study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of
Medicine and Pharmacy „Carol Davila”, Bucharest. The study agents
were injected intraperitoneally, 10 mL/kg body weight (bw) 1 hour
before the assessment of the locomotor activity by cage testing (n=10
mice/ group) and 2 hours before the forced swimming tests (n=15).
The study agents were dissolved in normal saline (meloxicam,
sodium metamizole), ethanol 11.8% v/v in normal saline (ketorolac),
or water (lornoxicam), respectively. Negative and positive control
agents were also given (amitryptilline in the forced swimming test).
The cage floor used in the locomotor activity assessment was divided
into 20 equal 10 cm squares. The forced swimming test involved
partial immersion of the mice in cylinders (15/9cm height/diameter)
filled with water (10 cm depth at 28C), where they were left for 6
minutes. The cage endpoint used in the locomotor activity assessment
was the number of treaded squares. Four endpoints were used in the
forced swimming test (immobility latency for the entire 6 minutes,
and immobility, swimming, and climbing scores for the final 4
minutes of the swimming session), recorded by an observer that was
„blinded” to the experimental design. The statistical analysis used the
Levene test for variance homogeneity, ANOVA and post-hoc
analysis as appropriate, Tukey or Tamhane tests.
Results: No statistically significant increase or decrease in the
number of treaded squares was seen in the locomotor activity
assessment of any mice group. In the forced swimming test,
amitryptilline showed an antidepressant effect in each experiment, at
the 10 mg/kg bw dosage. Sodium metamizole was depressant at 100
mg/kg bw (increased the immobility score, p=0.049, Tamhane test),
but not in lower dosages as well (25 and 50 mg/kg bw). Ketorolac
showed an antidepressant effect at the intermediate dosage of 5
mg/kg bw, but not so in the dosages of 2.5 and 10 mg/kg bw,
respectively (increased the swimming score, p=0.012, Tamhane test).
Meloxicam and lornoxicam did not alter the forced swimming
endpoints at any dosage level.
Discussion: 1) Certain NSAIDs caused changes in the forced
swimming patterns without interfering with locomotion. 2) Sodium
metamizole showed a depressant effect, whereas ketorolac proved
antidepressant. Conclusion: NSAID-induced mood changes are not
class effects of these agents and apparently are independent of the
type of inhibited cyclooxygenase (COX-1 or COX-2).
Disclosure: This paper was co-financed from the European Social
Fund, through the Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013, project number POSDRU /159
/1.5 /S /138907 "Excellence in scientific interdisciplinary research,
doctoral and postdoctoral, in the economic, social and medical fields
-EXCELIS", coordinator The Bucharest University of Economic
Studies.
Abstract: Edge is variation of brightness in an image. Edge
detection is useful in many application areas such as finding forests,
rivers from a satellite image, detecting broken bone in a medical
image etc. The paper discusses about finding edge of multiple aerial
images in parallel. The proposed work tested on 38 images 37
colored and one monochrome image. The time taken to process N
images in parallel is equivalent to time taken to process 1 image in
sequential. Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Open Computing
Language (OpenCL) is used to achieve task and pixel level
parallelism respectively.
Abstract: The structures obtained with the use of sandwich
technologies combine low weight with high energy absorbing
capacity and load carrying capacity. Hence, there is a growing and
markedly interest in the use of sandwiches with aluminum foam core
because of very good properties such as flexural rigidity and energy
absorption capability. In the current investigation, the static threepoint
bending tests were carried out on the sandwiches with
aluminum foam core and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP)
skins at different values of support span distances aiming the analyses
of their flexural performance. The influence of the core thickness and
the GFRP skin type was reported in terms of peak load and energy
absorption capacity. For this purpose, the skins with two different
types of fabrics which have same thickness value and the aluminum
foam core with two different thicknesses were bonded with a
commercial polyurethane based flexible adhesive in order to combine
the composite sandwich panels. The main results of the bending tests
are: force-displacement curves, peak force values, absorbed energy,
collapse mechanisms and the effect of the support span length and
core thickness. The results of the experimental study showed that the
sandwich with the skins made of S-Glass Woven fabrics and with the
thicker foam core presented higher mechanical values such as load
carrying and energy absorption capacities. The increment of the
support span distance generated the decrease of the mechanical
values for each type of panels, as expected, because of the inverse
proportion between the force and span length. The most common
failure types of the sandwiches are debonding of the lower skin and
the core shear. The obtained results have particular importance for
applications that require lightweight structures with a high capacity
of energy dissipation, such as the transport industry (automotive,
aerospace, shipbuilding and marine industry), where the problems of
collision and crash have increased in the last years.
Abstract: The coaxial transformer-coupled push-pull circuitry
has been used widely in HF and VHF amplifiers for many decades
without significant changes in the topology of the transformers. Basic
changes over the years concerned the construction and turns ratio of
the transformers as has been imposed upon the newer technologies
active devices demands. The balun transmission line transformers
applied in push-pull amplifiers enable input/output impedance
transformation, but are mainly used to convert the balanced output
into unbalanced and the input unbalanced into balanced. A simple
and affordable alternative solution over the traditional coaxial
transformer is the coreless planar balun. A key advantage over the
traditional approach lies in the high specifications repeatability;
simplifying the amplifier construction requirements as the planar
balun constitutes an integrated part of the PCB copper layout. This
paper presents the performance analysis of a planar LDMOS
MRFE6VP5600 Push-Pull amplifier that enables robust operation in
Band III, DVB-T, DVB-T2 standards but functions equally well in
Band II, for DRM+ new generation transmitters.
Abstract: ABC classification is widely used by managers for
inventory control. The classical ABC classification is based on Pareto
principle and according to the criterion of the annual use value only.
Single criterion classification is often insufficient for a closely
inventory control. Multi-criteria inventory classification models have
been proposed by researchers in order to consider other important
criteria. From these models, we will consider a specific model in
order to make a sensitive analysis on the composite score calculated
for each item. In fact, this score, based on a normalized average
between a good and a bad optimized index, can affect the ABC-item
classification. We will focus on items differently assigned to classes
and then propose a classification compromise.
Abstract: Ulexite (Na2O.2CaO.5B2O3.16H2O) is boron mineral
that is found in large quantities in the Turkey and world. In this
study, the dissolution of this mineral in the disodium hydrogen
phosphate solutions has been studied. Temperature, concentration,
stirring speed, solid liquid ratio and particle size were selected as
parameters. The experimental results were successfully correlated by
linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were
evaluated shrinking core models for solid-fluid systems. It was
observed that increase in the reaction temperature and decrease in the
solid/liquid ratio causes an increase the dissolution rate of ulexite.
The activation energy was found to be 63.4 kJ/mol. The leaching of
ulexite was controlled by chemical reaction.
Abstract: A central element of higher education today is the
“core” or “general education” curriculum: that configuration of
courses that often encompasses the essence of liberal arts education.
Ensuring that such offerings reflect the mission and values of the
institution is a challenge faced by most college and universities, often
more than once. This paper presents an action model of program
planning designed to structure the processes of developing,
implementing and revising core curricula in a manner consistent with
key institutional goals and objectives. Through presentation of a case
study from a university in the United States, the elements of needs
assessment, stakeholder investment and collaborative compromise
are shown as key components of a planning strategy that can produce
a general education program that is comprehensive, academically
rigorous, assessable, and mission consistent. The paper concludes
with recommendations for both the implementation and evaluation of
such programs in practice.