Abstract: In this study, structural, mechanical, thermal and
electrical properties of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanocomposites with
low-loaded (0-1.5 wt%) untreated, heat and nitric acid treated multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. Among the
composites, untreated 0.5 wt % MWCNTs and acid-treated 1.0 wt%
MWCNTs reinforced PLA show the tensile strength and modulus
values higher than the others. These two samples along with pure
PLA exhibit the stable orthorhombic α-form, whilst other samples
reveal the less stable orthorhombic β-form, as demonstrated by X-ray
diffraction study. Differential scanning calorimetry reveals the
evolution of the mentioned different phases by controlled cooling and
discloses an enhancement of PLA crystallization by nanotubes
incorporation. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the MWCNTs
loaded sample degraded faster than PLA. Surface resistivity of the
nanocomposites is found to be dropped drastically by a factor of 1013
with a low loading of MWCNTs (1.5 wt%).
Abstract: The nanotechnology based on epitaxial systems
includes single or arranged misfit dislocations. In general, whatever
is the type of dislocation or the geometry of the array formed by the
dislocations; it is important for experimental studies to know exactly
the stress distribution for which there is no analytical expression [1,
2]. This work, using a numerical analysis, deals with relaxation of
epitaxial layers having at their interface a periodic network of edge
misfit dislocations. The stress distribution is estimated by using
isotropic elasticity. The results show that the thickness of the two
sheets is a crucial parameter in the stress distributions and then in the
profile of the two sheets.
A comparative study between the case of single dislocation and
the case of parallel network shows that the layers relaxed better when
the interface is covered by a parallel arrangement of misfit.
Consequently, a single dislocation at the interface produces an
important stress field which can be reduced by inserting a parallel
network of dislocations with suitable periodicity.
Abstract: This paper examines ethical and social issues which
have proved important when initiating and creating educational spaces within a virtual environment. It focuses on one project, identifying the key decisions made, the barriers to new practice
encountered and the impact these had on the project. It demonstrates
the importance of the 'backstage' ethical and social issues involved in
the creation of a virtual education community and offers conclusions,
and questions, which will inform future research and practice in this
area. These ethical issues are considered using Knobel-s framework
of front-end, in-process and back-end concerns, and include
establishing social practices for the islands, allocating access rights,
considering personal safety and supporting researchers appropriately
within this context.
Abstract: Different types of Islamic debts have been
increasingly utilized as preferred means of debt funding by
Malaysian private firms in recent years. This study examines the
impact of Islamic debts announcement on private firms- stock
returns. Our sample includes forty five listed companies on Bursa
Malaysia involved in issuing of Islamic debts during 2005 to 2008.
The abnormal returns and cumulative average abnormal returns are
calculated and tested using standard event study methodology. The
results show that a significant, negative abnormal return occurs one
day before announcement date. This negative abnormal return is
representing market participant-s adverse attitude toward Islamic
private debt announcement during the research period.
Abstract: Bridge is an architectural symbol in Iran as Badgir
(wind catcher); fire temples and arch are vaults are such. Therefore, from the very old ages, construction of bridges in Iran has mixed with
architecture, social customs, alms and charity and holiness. Since long ago, from Mad, Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid times which construction of bridges got an inseparable relation with social dependency and architecture, based on those dependency bridges and
dams got holy names; as Dokhtar castle and Dokhtar bridges were constructed. This method continued even after Islam and whenever
Iranians got free from political fights and the immunity of roads were established the bridge construction did also prospered. In ancient
times bridge construction passes through it growing and completion process and in Sassanid time in some way it reached to the peak of art
and glory; as after Islam especially during 4th. century (Arab calendar) it put behind a period of glory and in Safavid time it
reached to an exceptional glory and magnificence by constructing
glorious bridges on Zayandeh Roud River in Isfahan.
Having a combined style and changeability into bridge barrier, some of these bridges develop into magnificent constructions. The
sustainable structures, mentioned above, are constructed for various
reasons as follows: connecting two sides of a river, storing water,
controlling floods, using water energy to operate water windmills, making lanes of streams for farms- use, and building recreational
places for people, etc. These studies carried in bridges reveals the fact
that in construction and designing mentioned above, lots of
technological factors have been taken into consideration such as
exceeding floods in the rives, hydraulic and hydrology of the rivers and bridges, geology, foundation, structure, construction material, and adopting appropriate executing methods, all of which are being analyzed in this article.
Abstract: In this paper, a planar antenna for UWB applications
has been proposed. The antenna consists of a square patch, a partial
ground plane and a slot on the ground plane. The proposed antenna is
easy to be integrated with microwave circuitry for low manufacturing
cost. The flat type antenna has a compact structure and the total size
is 14.5×14.5mm2. The result shows that the impedance bandwidth
(VSWR≤ 2) of the proposed antenna is 12.49 GHz (2.95 to 15.44
GHz), which is equivalent to 135.8%. Details of the proposed
compact planar UWB antenna design is presented and discussed.
Abstract: A two-dimensional numerical simulation of crossflow
around four cylinders in an in-line rectangular configuration is
studied by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Special
attention is paid to the effect of the spacing between the cylinders.
The Reynolds number ( Re ) is chosen to be e 100 R = and the
spacing ratio L / D is set at 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0, 9.0
and 10.0. Results show that, as in the case of four cylinders in an inline
rectangular configuration , flow fields show four different
features depending on the spacing (single square cylinder, stable
shielding flow, wiggling shielding flow and a vortex shedding flow)
are observed in this study. The effects of spacing ratio on physical
quantities such as mean drag coefficient, Strouhal number and rootmean-
square value of the drag and lift coefficients are also presented.
There is more than one shedding frequency at small spacing ratios.
The mean drag coefficients for downstream cylinders are less than
that of the single cylinder for all spacing ratios. The present results
using the LBM are compared with some existing experimental data
and numerical studies. The comparison shows that the LBM can
capture the characteristics of the bluff body flow reasonably well and
is a good tool for bluff body flow studies.
Abstract: Developed tool is one of system tools for easier access to various scientific areas and real time interactive learning between
lecturer and for hearing impaired students. There is no demand for the lecturer to know Sign Language (SL). Instead, the new software
tools will perform the translation of the regular speech into SL, after
which it will be transferred to the student. On the other side, the
questions of the student (in SL) will be translated and transferred to
the lecturer in text or speech. One of those tools is presented tool. It-s
too for developing the correct Speech Visemes as a root of total communication method for hearing impared students.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between the principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of Physical Education in two brasilian laws: National Curriculum Guidelines (PCNs) for the Elementary and Middle School Levels and the Guidelines and Basis Legislation (LDB). The method used was the survey analysis in order to determine the practices present in, or the opinions of, a specific population. The instrument used in this research was a questionnaire. After a broad review of the bibliography and according to the methodological procedures, the aim was to set the relationships between the Principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of Physical Education, according to the Brazilian Law (LDB) and National Curriculum Guidelines (PCNs) in a table made under the analysis of a group of specialists. As the relation between the principles of Educational Sport and the objectives of School Physical Education have shown, we can state that School Physical Education has gained pedagogical security for the potential use of Educational Sport as part of its contents.
Abstract: The springs located in urban areas are the outpouring
of surface water, which can serve as water supply, effluent receptors
and important local macro-drainage elements. With unplanned
occupation, non-compliance with environmental legislation and the
importance of these water bodies, it is vital to analyze the springs
within urban areas, considering the Brazilian forest code. This paper
submits an analysis and discussion methodology proposal of
environmental compliance functions of urban springs, by means of
G.I.S. - Geographic Information System analysis - and in situ
analysis. The case study included two springs which exhibit a history
of occupation along its length, with different degrees of impact. The
proposed method is effective and easy to apply, representing a
powerful tool for analyzing the environmental conditions of springs
in urban areas.
Abstract: The Implementation of the Union law faces major
challenges today. If for a long period of time, the Community and the
Union have persevered in their legislative vocation, now one can
notice that this large legislative quantity has complicated the task of
knowledge and of application the European standards. Under these
circumstances, it became necessary, in order to give effectiveness to
the European legislation, the development of some operational
application criteria and the generation of some new implementation
tools. The correct application of the European Union legislation by
the national public administrations was considered by the European
Commission as being crucial for further integration and proper
functioning of the internal market. Among the initiatives launched in
the past years to promote the exchange of good administrative
practices in the correct application of European Union legislation,
SOLVIT net has proved to be one of the most effective.
Abstract: Least Development Countries (LDC) like
Bangladesh, whose 25% revenue earning is achieved from Textile
export, requires producing less defective textile for minimizing
production cost and time. Inspection processes done on these
industries are mostly manual and time consuming. To reduce error
on identifying fabric defects requires more automotive and
accurate inspection process. Considering this lacking, this research
implements a Textile Defect Recognizer which uses computer
vision methodology with the combination of multi-layer neural
networks to identify four classifications of textile defects. The
recognizer, suitable for LDC countries, identifies the fabric defects
within economical cost and produces less error prone inspection
system in real time. In order to generate input set for the neural
network, primarily the recognizer captures digital fabric images by
image acquisition device and converts the RGB images into binary
images by restoration process and local threshold techniques.
Later, the output of the processed image, the area of the faulty
portion, the number of objects of the image and the sharp factor of
the image, are feed backed as an input layer to the neural network
which uses back propagation algorithm to compute the weighted
factors and generates the desired classifications of defects as an
output.
Abstract: By utilizing the system of the recurrence equations, containing two parameters, the dynamics of two antagonistically interconnected populations is studied. The following areas of the system behavior are detected: the area of the stable solutions, the area of cyclic solutions occurrence, the area of the accidental change of trajectories of solutions, and the area of chaos and fractal phenomena. The new two-dimensional diagram of the dynamics of the solutions change (the fractal cabbage) has been obtained. In the cross-section of this diagram for one of the equations the well-known Feigenbaum tree of doubling has been noted.Keywordsbifurcation, chaos, dynamics of populations, fractals
Abstract: The study of soil for agriculture purposes has
remained the main focus of research since the beginning of civilization as humans- food related requirements remained closely linked with the soil. The study of soil has generated an interest
among the researchers for very similar other reasons including transmission, reflection and refraction of signals for deploying
wireless underground sensor networks or for the monitoring of objects on (or in ) soil in the form of better understanding of soil
electromagnetic characteristics properties. The moisture content has
been very instrumental in such studies as it decides on the resistance of the soil, and hence the attenuation on signals traveling through soil
or the attenuation the signals may suffer upon their impact on soil. This work is related testing and characterizing a measurement circuit
meant for the detection of moisture level content in soil.
Abstract: Surface currents play a major role in the distribution
of contaminants, the connectivity of marine populations, and can
influence the vertical and horizontal distribution of nutrients within
the water column. This paper aims to determine the effects of sea
breeze-wind patterns on the climatology of the surface currents on the
continental shelf surrounding Rottnest Island, WA Australia. The
alternating wind patterns allow for full cyclic rotations of wind
direction, permitting the interpretation of the effect of the wind on the
surface currents. It was found that the surface currents only clearly
follow the northbound Capes Current in times when the Fremantle
Doctor sets in. Surface currents react within an hour to a change of
direction of the wind, allowing southerly currents to dominate during
strong northerly sea breezes, often followed by mixed currents
dominated by eddies in the inter-lying times.
Abstract: Numerous facts evidence the increasing religiosity of
the population and the intensification of religious movements in
various countries in the last decade of the 20th century. The number
of international religious institutions and foundations; religious
movements; parties and sects operating worldwide is increasing as
well. Some ethnic and inter-state conflicts are obviously of a
religious origin. All of this make a number of analysts to conclude
that the religious factor is becoming an important part of international
life, including the formation and activities of terrorist organizations.
Most of all is said and written about Islam, the second, after
Christianity, world religions professed according to various estimates
by 1.5 bln. individuals in 127 countries.
Abstract: In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D) numerical
model for the tidal currents simulation in Persian Gulf is presented.
The model is based on the depth averaged equations of shallow water
which consider hydrostatic pressure distribution. The continuity
equation and two momentum equations including the effects of bed
friction, the Coriolis effects and wind stress have been solved. To
integrate the 2D equations, the Alternative Direction Implicit (ADI)
technique has been used. The base of equations discritization was
finite volume method applied on rectangular mesh. To evaluate the
model validation, a dam break case study including analytical
solution is selected and the comparison is done. After that, the
capability of the model in simulation of tidal current in a real field is
represented by modeling the current behavior in Persian Gulf. The
tidal fluctuations in Hormuz Strait have caused the tidal currents in
the area of study. Therefore, the water surface oscillations data at
Hengam Island on Hormoz Strait are used as the model input data.
The check point of the model is measured water surface elevations at
Assaluye port. The comparison between the results and the
acceptable agreement of them showed the model ability for modeling
marine hydrodynamic.
Abstract: Hazard rate estimation is one of the important topics
in forecasting earthquake occurrence. Forecasting earthquake
occurrence is a part of the statistical seismology where the main
subject is the point process. Generally, earthquake hazard rate is
estimated based on the point process likelihood equation called the
Hazard Rate Likelihood of Point Process (HRLPP). In this research,
we have developed estimation method, that is hazard rate single
decrement HRSD. This method was adapted from estimation method
in actuarial studies. Here, one individual associated with an
earthquake with inter event time is exponentially distributed. The
information of epicenter and time of earthquake occurrence are used
to estimate hazard rate. At the end, a case study of earthquake hazard
rate will be given. Furthermore, we compare the hazard rate between
HRLPP and HRSD method.
Abstract: This contribution aims to outline some topics around the process of introduction of compulsory electronic exchange of documents (so called e-Boxes) in public administration. The research was conducted in order to gauge the difference between the expectation of those using internal email and their experience in reality. Both qualitative and quantitative research is employed to lead also to an estimation of the willingness and readiness of government bodies, business units and citizens to adopt new technologies. At the same time the most potent barriers to successful e-communication through the e-Boxes are identified.
Abstract: Market segmentation is one of the most
fundamental strategic marketing concepts. The better the
segment which is chosen for targeting by a particular
organisation, the more successful the organisation is assumed to
be in the marketplace. Also higher education institutions have to
improve their marketing tools for attracting foreign students,
particularly when demanding tuition fees. This contribution
aims at demonstrating the proper usage of the cluster analysis
for segmentation (represented by students' willingness to study
abroad) and also, based on large international survey, offers
some practical marketing implications.