Abstract: Categorical data based on description of the
agricultural landscape imposed some mathematical and analytical
limitations. This problem however can be overcome by data
transformation through coding scheme and the use of non-parametric
multivariate approach. The present study describes data
transformation from qualitative to numerical descriptors. In a
collection of 103 random soil samples over a 60 hectare field,
categorical data were obtained from the following variables: levels of
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, pH, hue, chroma, value and data on
topography, vegetation type, and the presence of rocks. Categorical
data were coded, and Spearman-s rho correlation was then calculated
using PAST software ver. 1.78 in which Principal Component
Analysis was based. Results revealed successful data transformation,
generating 1030 quantitative descriptors. Visualization based on the
new set of descriptors showed clear differences among sites, and
amount of variation was successfully measured. Possible applications
of data transformation are discussed.
Abstract: A handful of propagation textbooks that discuss radio frequency (RF) propagation models merely list out the models and perhaps discuss them rather briefly; this may well be frustrating for the potential first time modeller who's got no idea on how these models could have been derived. This paper fundamentally provides an overture in modelling the radio channel. Explicitly, for the modelling practice discussed here, signal strength field measurements had to be conducted beforehand (this was done at 469 MHz); to be precise, this paper primarily concerns empirically/statistically modelling the radio channel, and thus provides results obtained from empirically modelling the environments in question. This paper, on the whole, proposes three propagation models, corresponding to three experimented environments. Perceptibly, the models have been derived by way of making the most use of statistical measures. Generally speaking, the first two models were derived via simple linear regression analysis, whereas the third have been originated using multiple regression analysis (with five various predictors). Additionally, as implied by the title of this paper, both indoor and outdoor environments have been experimented; however, (somewhat) two of the environments are neither entirely indoor nor entirely outdoor. The other environment, however, is completely indoor.
Abstract: The role of the pollen grain, with to the reproductive
process of higher plants, is to deliver the spermatic cells to the
embryo sac for egg fertilization. The aim of this project was study
the effect of electromagnetic fields on structure and pollen grains
development in Chenopodium album. Anthers of Chenopodium
album L. were collected at different stages of development from
control (without electromagnetic field) and plants grown at 10m from
the field sources. Structure and development of pollen grains were
studied and compared. The studying pollen structure by Light and
Scanning electron microscopy showed that electromagnetic fields
reduction of pollen grains number and male sterility, thus , in some
anthers, pollen grains were attached together and deformed compared
to control ones. The data presented suggest that prolonged exposures
of plants to magnetic field may cause different biological effects at
the cellular tissue and organ levels.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel objective nonreference
performance assessment algorithm for image fusion. It takes
into account local measurements to estimate how well the important
information in the source images is represented by the fused image.
The metric is based on the Universal Image Quality Index and uses
the similarity between blocks of pixels in the input images and the
fused image as the weighting factors for the metrics. Experimental
results confirm that the values of the proposed metrics correlate well
with the subjective quality of the fused images, giving a significant
improvement over standard measures based on mean squared error
and mutual information.
Abstract: Sensors possess several properties of physical
measures. Whether devices that convert a sensed signal into an
electrical signal, chemical sensors and biosensors, thus all these
sensors can be considered as an interface between the physical and
electrical equipment. The problem is the analysis of the multitudes of
saved settings as input variables. However, they do not all have the
same level of influence on the outputs. In order to identify the most
sensitive parameters, those that can guide users in gathering
information on the ground and in the process of model calibration
and sensitivity analysis for the effect of each change made.
Mathematical models used for processing become very complex.
In this paper a fuzzy rule-based system is proposed as a solution
for this problem. The system collects the available signals
information from sensors. Moreover, the system allows the study of
the influence of the various factors that take part in the decision
system. Since its inception fuzzy set theory has been regarded as a
formalism suitable to deal with the imprecision intrinsic to many
problems. At the same time, fuzzy sets allow to use symbolic models.
In this study an example was applied for resolving variety of
physiological parameters that define human health state. The
application system was done for medical diagnosis help. The inputs
are the signals expressed the cardiovascular system parameters, blood
pressure, Respiratory system paramsystem was done, it will be able
to predict the state of patient according any input values.
Abstract: The blood ducts must be occluded to avoid loss of
blood from vessels in laparoscopic surgeries. This paper presents a
locking mechanism to be used in a ligation laparoscopic procedure
(LigLAP I), as an alternative solution for a stapling procedure.
Currently, stapling devices are being used to occlude vessels. Using
these devices may result in some problems, including injury of bile
duct, taking up a great deal of space behind the vessel, and bile leak.
In this new procedure, a two-layer suture occludes a vessel. A
locking mechanism is also required to hold the suture. Since there is
a limited space at the device tip, a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)
actuator is used in this mechanism. Suitability for cleanroom
applications, small size, and silent performance are among the
advantages of SMA actuators in biomedical applications. An
experimental study is conducted to examine the function of the
locking mechanism. To set up the experiment, a prototype of a
locking mechanism is built using nitinol, which is a nickel-titanium
shape memory alloy. The locking mechanism successfully locks a
polymer suture for all runs of the experiment. In addition, the effects
of various surface materials on the applied pulling forces are studied.
Various materials are mounted at the mechanism tip to compare the
maximum pulling forces applied to the suture for each material. The
results show that the various surface materials on the device tip
provide large differences in the applied pulling forces.
Abstract: The effect of varying holding temperature on hatching success, occurrence of deformities and mortality rates were investigated for goldlined seabream eggs. Wild broodstock (600 g) were stocked at a 2:1 male-female ratio in a 2 m3 fiberglass tank supplied with filtered seawater (37 g L-1 salinity, temp. range 24±0.5 oC [day] and 22±1 oC [night], DO2 in excess of 5.0mg L-1). Females were injected with 200 IU kg-1 HCG between 08.00 and 10.00 h and returned to tanks to spawn following which eggs were collected by hand using a 100μm net. Fertilized eggs at the gastrulation stage (120 L-1) were randomly placed into one of 12 experimental 6 L aerated (DO2 5 mg L-1) plastic containers with water temperatures maintained at 24±0.5 oC (ambient), 26±0.5 oC, 28± 0.5 oC and 30±0.5 oC using thermostats. Each treatment was undertaken in triplicate using a 12:12 photophase:scotophase photoperiod. No differences were recorded between eggs reared at 24 and 26 oC with respect to viability, deformity, mortality or unhatched egg rates. Increasing temperature reduced the number of viable eggs with those at 30 oC returning poorest performance (P < 0.05). Mortality levels were lowest for eggs incubated at 24 and 26 oC. The greatest level of deformities recorded was that for eggs reared at 28 oC.
Abstract: In this paper, a Smart Home Service Robot, McBot II,
which performs mess-cleanup function etc. in house, is designed much
more optimally than other service robots. It is newly developed in
much more practical system than McBot I which we had developed
two years ago. One characteristic attribute of mobile platforms
equipped with a set of dependent wheels is their omni- directionality
and the ability to realize complex translational and rotational
trajectories for agile navigation in door. An accurate coordination of
steering angle and spinning rate of each wheel is necessary for a
consistent motion. This paper develops trajectory controller of
3-wheels omni-directional mobile robot using fuzzy azimuth estimator.
A specialized anthropomorphic robot manipulator which can be
attached to the housemaid robot McBot II, is developed in this paper.
This built-in type manipulator consists of both arms with 3 DOF
(Degree of Freedom) each and both hands with 3 DOF each. The
robotic arm is optimally designed to satisfy both the minimum
mechanical size and the maximum workspace. Minimum mass and
length are required for the built-in cooperated-arms system. But that
makes the workspace so small. This paper proposes optimal design
method to overcome the problem by using neck joint to move the arms
horizontally forward/backward and waist joint to move them
vertically up/down. The robotic hand, which has two fingers and a
thumb, is also optimally designed in task-based concept. Finally, the
good performance of the developed McBot II is confirmed through
live tests of the mess-cleanup task.
Abstract: Analysis of blood vessel mechanics in normal and
diseased conditions is essential for disease research, medical device
design and treatment planning. In this work, 3D finite element
models of normal vessel and atherosclerotic vessel with 50% plaque
deposition were developed. The developed models were meshed
using finite number of tetrahedral elements. The developed models
were simulated using actual blood pressure signals. Based on the
transient analysis performed on the developed models, the parameters
such as total displacement, strain energy density and entropy per unit
volume were obtained. Further, the obtained parameters were used to
develop artificial neural network models for analyzing normal and
atherosclerotic blood vessels. In this paper, the objectives of the
study, methodology and significant observations are presented.
Abstract: In this paper we used data mining techniques to
identify outlier patients who are using large amount of drugs over a
long period of time. Any healthcare or health insurance system
should deal with the quantities of drugs utilized by chronic diseases
patients. In Kingdom of Bahrain, about 20% of health budget is spent
on medications. For the managers of healthcare systems, there is no
enough information about the ways of drug utilization by chronic
diseases patients, is there any misuse or is there outliers patients. In
this work, which has been done in cooperation with information
department in the Bahrain Defence Force hospital; we select the data
for Cardiac patients in the period starting from 1/1/2008 to
December 31/12/2008 to be the data for the model in this paper. We
used three techniques for finding the drug utilization for cardiac
patients. First we applied a clustering technique, followed by
measuring of clustering validity, and finally we applied a decision
tree as classification algorithm. The clustering results is divided into
three clusters according to the drug utilization, for 1603 patients, who
received 15,806 prescriptions during this period can be partitioned
into three groups, where 23 patients (2.59%) who received 1316
prescriptions (8.32%) are classified to be outliers. The classification
algorithm shows that the use of average drug utilization and the age,
and the gender of the patient can be considered to be the main
predictive factors in the induced model.
Abstract: Three reactor types were explored and successfully
used for pigment production by Monascus: shake flasks, and shaken
and stirred miniaturized reactors. Also, the use of dielectric
spectroscopy for the on-line measurement of biomass levels was
explored. Shake flasks gave good pigment yields, but scale up is
difficult, and they cannot be automated. Shaken bioreactors were less
successful with pigment production than stirred reactors.
Experiments with different impeller speeds in different volumes of
liquid in the reactor confirmed that this is most likely due oxygen
availability. The availability of oxygen appeared to affect biomass
levels less than pigment production; red pigment production in
particular needed very high oxygen levels. Dielectric spectroscopy
was effectively used to continuously measure biomass levels during
the submerged fungal fermentation in the shaken and stirred
miniaturized bioreactors, despite the presence of the solid substrate
particles. Also, the capacitance signal gave useful information about
the viability of the cells in the culture.
Abstract: Construction cost in India is increasing at around 50
per cent over the average inflation levels. It have registered increase
of up to 15 per cent every year, primarily due to cost of basic
building materials such as steel, cement, bricks, timber and other
inputs as well as cost of labour. As a result, the cost of construction
using conventional building materials and construction is becoming
beyond the affordable limits particularly for low-income groups of
population as well as a large cross section of the middle - income
groups. Therefore, there is a need to adopt cost-effective construction
methods either by up-gradation of traditional technologies using local
resources or applying modern construction materials and techniques
with efficient inputs leading to economic solutions. This has become
the most relevant aspect in the context of the large volume of housing
to be constructed in both rural and urban areas and the consideration
of limitations in the availability of resources such as building
materials and finance. This paper makes an overview of the housing
status in India and adoption of appropriate and cost effective
technologies in the country.
Abstract: Information Retrieval has the objective of studying
models and the realization of systems allowing a user to find the
relevant documents adapted to his need of information. The
information search is a problem which remains difficult because the
difficulty in the representing and to treat the natural languages such
as polysemia. Intentional Structures promise to be a new paradigm to
extend the existing documents structures and to enhance the different
phases of documents process such as creation, editing, search and
retrieval. The intention recognition of the author-s of texts can reduce
the largeness of this problem. In this article, we present intentions
recognition system is based on a semi-automatic method of
extraction the intentional information starting from a corpus of text.
This system is also able to update the ontology of intentions for the
enrichment of the knowledge base containing all possible intentions
of a domain. This approach uses the construction of a semi-formal
ontology which considered as the conceptualization of the intentional
information contained in a text. An experiments on scientific
publications in the field of computer science was considered to
validate this approach.
Abstract: Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is a well-known
hepatotoxin and exposure to this chemical is known to induce
oxidative stress and causes liver injury by the formation of free
radicals. Flacourtia indica commonly known as 'Baichi' has been
reported as an effective remedy for the treatment of a variety of
diseases. The objective of this study was to investigate the
hepatoprotective activity of aqueous extract of leaves of Flacourtia
indica against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity. Animals were pretreated
with the aqueous extract of Flacourtia indica (250 & 500 mg/kg
body weight) for one week and then challenged with CCl4 (1.5 ml/kg
bw) in olive oil (1:1, v/v) on 7th day. Serum marker enzymes (ALP,
AST, ALT, Total Protein & Total Bilirubin) and TBARS level
(Marker for oxidative stress) were estimated in all the study groups.
Alteration in the levels of biochemical markers of hepatic damage
like AST, ALT, ALP, Total Protein, Total Bilirubin and lipid
peroxides (TBARS) were tested in both CCl4 treated and extract
treated groups. CCl4 has enhanced the AST, ALT, ALP and the
Lipid peroxides (TBARS) in liver. Treatment of aqueous extract of
Flacourtia indica leaves (250 & 500 mg/kg) exhibited a significant
protective effect by altering the serum levels of AST, ALT, ALP,
Total Protein, Total Bilirubin and liver TBARS. These biochemical
observations were supported by histopathological study of liver
sections. From this preliminary study it has been concluded that the
aqueous extract of the leaves of Flacourtia indica protects liver
against oxidative damages and could be used as an effective protector
against CCl4 induced hepatic damage. Our findings suggested that
Flacourtia indica possessed good hepatoprotective activity
Abstract: In this study, the effects of biogas fuels on the performance of an annular micro gas turbine (MGT) were assessed experimentally and numerically. In the experiments, the proposed MGT system was operated successfully under each test condition; minimum composition to the fuel with the biogas was roughly 50% CH4 with 50% CO2. The power output was around 170W at 85,000 RPM as 90% CH4 with 10% CO2 was used and 70W at 65,000 RPM as 70% CH4 with 30% CO2 was used. When a critical limit of 60% CH4 was reached, the power output was extremely low. Furthermore, the theoretical Brayton cycle efficiency and electric efficiency of the MGT were calculated as 23% and 10%, respectively. Following the experiments, the measured data helped us identify the parameters of dynamic model in numerical simulation. Additionally, a numerical analysis of re-designed combustion chamber showed that the performance of MGT could be improved by raising the temperature at turbine inlet. This study presents a novel distributed power supply system that can utilize renewable biogas. The completed micro biogas power supply system is small, low cost, easy to maintain and suited to household use.
Abstract: In this study, The physico-chemical and nutritional
properties of `Musmula` Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) fruit and
seed grown in Northeast Anatolia was investigated. In the fruit,
length, width, thickness, weight, total soluble solids, colour (1),
colour (2) [L, a, b values], protein, crude ash, crude fiber, crude oil,
texture and pH were determinated as 4.34 cm, 4.22 cm, 3.67 cm,
38.36 g, 23.97 %, S60O60Y41,, [53.85, 17.15, 33.75], 1.06 %, 0.79 %,
4.24 %, 0.005 %, 1.21 kg/cm2 and 4.26 respectively. Also, pulp ratio,
seed ratio and pulp/seed ratio were found to be 92.88 %, 7.11 % and
14.07 %, respectively. In addition, the mineral composition of medlar
fruit in Northeast Anatolia was studied. In the fruit, 23 minerals were
analyzed and 19 minerals were present at detectable levels. The
medlar fruit was richest in potassium (6962 ppm), calcium (1186.378
ppm), magnesium (1070.08 ppm) and phosphor (763.425 ppm).
Abstract: Recently, nanomaterials are developed in the form of nano-films, nano-crystals and nano-pores. Lanthanide phosphates as a material find extensive application as laser, ceramic, sensor, phosphor, and also in optoelectronics, medical and biological labels, solar cells and light sources. Among the different kinds of rare-earth orthophosphates, yttrium orthophosphate has been shown to be an efficient host lattice for rare earth activator ions, which have become a research focus because of their important role in the field of light display systems, lasers, and optoelectronic devices. It is in this context that the 4fn- « 4fn-1 5d transitions of rare earth in insulating materials, lying in the UV and VUV, are the aim of large number of studies .Though there has been a few reports on Eu3+, Nd3+, Pr3+,Er3+, Ce3+, Tm3+ doped YPO4. The 4fn- « 4fn-1 5d transitions of the rare earth dependent to the host-matrix, several matrices ions were used to study these transitions, in this work we are suggesting to study on a very specific class of inorganic material that are orthophosphate doped with rare earth ions. This study focused on the effect of Ce3+ concentration on the structural and optical properties of Ce3+ doped YPO4 yttrium orthophosphate with powder form prepared by the Sol Gel method.
Abstract: Accurately predicting non-peak traffic is crucial to
daily traffic for all forecasting models. In the paper, least squares
support vector machines (LS-SVMs) are investigated to solve such a
practical problem. It is the first time to apply the approach and analyze
the forecast performance in the domain. For comparison purpose, two
parametric and two non-parametric techniques are selected because of
their effectiveness proved in past research. Having good
generalization ability and guaranteeing global minima, LS-SVMs
perform better than the others. Providing sufficient improvement in
stability and robustness reveals that the approach is practically
promising.
Abstract: Cognitive Science appeared about 40 years ago,
subsequent to the challenge of the Artificial Intelligence, as common
territory for several scientific disciplines such as: IT, mathematics,
psychology, neurology, philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. The
new born science was justified by the complexity of the problems
related to the human knowledge on one hand, and on the other by the
fact that none of the above mentioned sciences could explain alone
the mental phenomena. Based on the data supplied by the
experimental sciences such as psychology or neurology, models of
the human mind operation are built in the cognition science. These
models are implemented in computer programs and/or electronic
circuits (specific to the artificial intelligence) – cognitive systems –
whose competences and performances are compared to the human
ones, leading to the psychology and neurology data reinterpretation,
respectively to the construction of new models. During these
processes if psychology provides the experimental basis, philosophy
and mathematics provides the abstraction level utterly necessary for
the intermission of the mentioned sciences.
The ongoing general problematic of the cognitive approach
provides two important types of approach: the computational one,
starting from the idea that the mental phenomenon can be reduced to
1 and 0 type calculus operations, and the connection one that
considers the thinking products as being a result of the interaction
between all the composing (included) systems. In the field of
psychology measurements in the computational register use classical
inquiries and psychometrical tests, generally based on calculus
methods. Deeming things from both sides that are representing the
cognitive science, we can notice a gap in psychological product
measurement possibilities, regarded from the connectionist
perspective, that requires the unitary understanding of the quality –
quantity whole. In such approach measurement by calculus proves to
be inefficient. Our researches, deployed for longer than 20 years,
lead to the conclusion that measuring by forms properly fits to the
connectionism laws and principles.
Abstract: Robots- visual perception is a field that is gaining
increasing attention from researchers. This is partly due to emerging
trends in the commercial availability of 3D scanning systems or
devices that produce a high information accuracy level for a variety of
applications. In the history of mining, the mortality rate of mine workers
has been alarming and robots exhibit a great deal of potentials to
tackle safety issues in mines. However, an effective vision system
is crucial to safe autonomous navigation in underground terrains.
This work investigates robots- perception in underground terrains
(mines and tunnels) using statistical region merging (SRM) model.
SRM reconstructs the main structural components of an imagery
by a simple but effective statistical analysis. An investigation is
conducted on different regions of the mine, such as the shaft, stope
and gallery, using publicly available mine frames, with a stream of
locally captured mine images. An investigation is also conducted on a
stream of underground tunnel image frames, using the XBOX Kinect
3D sensors. The Kinect sensors produce streams of red, green and
blue (RGB) and depth images of 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per
second. Integrating the depth information to drivability gives a strong
cue to the analysis, which detects 3D results augmenting drivable and
non-drivable regions in 2D. The results of the 2D and 3D experiment
with different terrains, mines and tunnels, together with the qualitative
and quantitative evaluation, reveal that a good drivable region can be
detected in dynamic underground terrains.