Abstract: People usually have a telephone voice, which means
they adjust their speech to fit particular situations and to blend in with
other interlocutors. The question is: Do we speak differently to
different people? This possibility has been suggested by social
psychologists within Accommodation Theory [1]. Converging toward
the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech
strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor
can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence [2].
The present study sets out to investigate such processes in the course
of everyday telephone conversations. Using Joos-s [3] model of
formality in spoken English, the researchers try to explore
convergence to or divergence from the addressee. The results
propound the actuality that lexical choice, and subsequently, patterns
of style vary intriguingly in concordance with the person being
addressed.
Abstract: In rotating machinery one of the critical components
that is prone to premature failure is the rolling bearing.
Consequently, early warning of an imminent bearing failure is much
critical to the safety and reliability of any high speed rotating
machines. This study is concerned with the application of Recurrence
Quantification Analysis (RQA) in fault detection of rolling element
bearings in rotating machinery. Based on the results from this study it
is reported that the RQA variable, percent determinism, is sensitive
to the type of fault investigated and therefore can provide useful
information on bearing damage in rolling element bearings.
Abstract: The availability of broadband internet and increased
access to computers has been instrumental in the rise of internet
literacy in Malaysia. This development has led to the adoption of
online shopping by many Malaysians. On another note, the
Government has supported the development and production of local
herbal products. This has resulted in an increase in the production and
diversity of products by SMEs. The purpose of this study is to
evaluate the influence of the Malaysian demographic factors and
selected attitudinal characteristics in relation to the online purchasing
of herbal products. In total, 1054 internet users were interviewed
online and Chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationship
between demographic variables and different aspects of online
shopping for herbal products. The overall results show that the
demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, income
and ethnicity were significant when considering the online shopping
antecedents of trust, quality of herbal products, perceived risks and
perceived benefits.
Abstract: The growing outsourcing of logistics services
resulting from the ongoing current in firms of costs
reduction/increased efficiency means that it is becoming more and
more important for the companies doing the outsourcing to carry out
a proper evaluation.
The multiple definitions and measures of logistics service
performance found in research on the topic create a certain degree of
confusion and do not clear the way towards the proper measurement
of their performance. Do a model and a specific set of indicators exist
that can be considered appropriate for measuring the performance of
logistics services outsourcing in industrial environments? Are said
indicators in keeping with the objectives pursued by outsourcing? We
aim to answer these and other research questions in the study we have
initiated in the field within the framework of the international High
Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project of which this paper
forms part.
As the first stage of this research, this paper reviews articles
dealing with the topic published in the last 15 years with the aim of
detecting the models most used to make this measurement and
determining which performance indicators are proposed as part of
said models and which are most used. The first steps are also taken in
determining whether these indicators, financial and operational, cover
the aims that are being pursued when outsourcing logistics services.
The findings show there is a wide variety of both models and
indicators used. This would seem to testify to the need to continue
with our research in order to try to propose a model and a set of
indicators for measuring the performance of logistics services
outsourcing in industrial environments.
Abstract: Scale defects are common surface defects in hot steel rolling. The modelling of such defects is problematic and their causes are not straightforward. In this study, we investigated genetic algorithms in search for a mathematical solution to scale formation. For this research, a high-dimensional data set from hot steel rolling process was gathered. The synchronisation of the variables as well as the allocation of the measurements made on the steel strip were solved before the modelling phase.
Abstract: To investigate the behavior of sheet metals during
forming tailor welded blanks (TWB) of various thickness made via
Co2 Laser welding are under consideration. These blanks are formed
used two different forming methods of rubber as well as the
conventional punch and die methods. The main research objective is
the effects of using a rubber die instead of a solid one the
displacement of the weld line and the press force needed for forming.
Specimens with thicknesses of 0.5, 0.6, 0.8 and 1mm are subjected to
Erichsen two dimensional tests and the resulted force for each case
are compared. This is followed by a theoretical and numerical study
of press force and weld line displacement. It is concluded that using
rubber pad forming (RPF) causes a reduction in weld line
displacement and an increase in the press force.
Abstract: carrot is one of the important root vegetable crops,
and it is highly nutritious as it contains appreciable amount of
vitamins, minerals and β-carotene. The major objective of current
research was to evaluate the chemical composition of carrot variety
'Nante' hybrids in general and to select the best samples for fresh-cut
salad production. The research was accomplished on fresh in Latvia
cultivated carrots harvested in Zemgale region in the first part of
October, 2011 and immediately used for experiments. Late-bearing
variety 'Nante' hybrid carrots were used for analysis:
'Nante/Berlikum', 'Nante/Maestro', 'Nante/Forto', 'Nante/Bolero'
and 'Nante/Champion'. The quality parameters as moisture, soluble
solid, firmness, b-carotene, carotenoid, color, polyphenols, total
phenolic compounds and total antioxidant capacity were analyzed
using standard methods. For fresh-cut salad production as more
applicable could be recommended hybrids 'Nante/Forto' and
'Nante/Berlikum' - mainly because it-s higher nutritive value, as
higher total phenolic compounds, polyphenols and pronounced
antioxidant capacity.
Abstract: Ratio and regression type estimators have been used by previous authors to estimate a population mean for the principal variable from samples in which both auxiliary x and principal y variable data are available. However, missing data are a common problem in statistical analyses with real data. Ratio and regression type estimators have also been used for imputing values of missing y data. In this paper, six new ratio and regression type estimators are proposed for imputing values for any missing y data and estimating a population mean for y from samples with missing x and/or y data. A simulation study has been conducted to compare the six ratio and regression type estimators with a previous estimator of Rueda. Two population sizes N = 1,000 and 5,000 have been considered with sample sizes of 10% and 30% and with correlation coefficients between population variables X and Y of 0.5 and 0.8. In the simulations, 10 and 40 percent of sample y values and 10 and 40 percent of sample x values were randomly designated as missing. The new ratio and regression type estimators give similar mean absolute percentage errors that are smaller than the Rueda estimator for all cases. The new estimators give a large reduction in errors for the case of 40% missing y values and sampling fraction of 30%.
Abstract: Methods of contemporary mathematical physics such
as chaos theory are useful for analyzing and understanding the
behavior of complex biological and physiological systems. The three
dimensional model of HIV/AIDS is the basis of active research since
it provides a complete characterization of disease dynamics and the
interaction of HIV-1 with the immune system. In this work, the
behavior of the HIV system is analyzed using the three dimensional
HIV model and a chaotic measure known as the Hurst exponent.
Results demonstrate that Hurst exponents of CD4, CD8 cells and
viral load vary nonlinearly with respect to variations in system
parameters. Further, it was observed that the three dimensional HIV
model can accommodate both persistent (H>0.5) and anti-persistent
(H
Abstract: This paper presents the investigation results of UV
measurement at different level of altitudes and the development of a
new portable instrument for measuring UV. The rapid growth of
industrial sectors in developing countries including Malaysia, brings
not only income to the nation, but also causes pollution in various
forms. Air pollution is one of the significant contributors to global
warming by depleting the Ozone layer, which would reduce the
filtration of UV rays. Long duration of exposure to high to UV rays
has many devastating health effects to mankind directly or indirectly
through destruction of the natural resources. This study aimed to
show correlation between UV and altitudes which indirectly can help
predict Ozone depletion. An instrument had been designed to
measure and monitors the level of UV. The instrument comprises of
two main blocks namely data logger and Graphic User Interface
(GUI). Three sensors were used in the data logger to detect changes
in the temperature, humidity and ultraviolet. The system has
undergone experimental measurement to capture data at two different
conditions; industrial area and high attitude area. The performance of
the instrument showed consistency in the data captured and the
results of the experiment drew a significantly high reading of UV at
high altitudes.
Abstract: The paper evaluates several hundred one-day-ahead
VaR forecasting models in the time period between the years 2004
and 2009 on data from six world stock indices - DJI, GSPC, IXIC,
FTSE, GDAXI and N225. The models model mean using the ARMA
processes with up to two lags and variance with one of GARCH,
EGARCH or TARCH processes with up to two lags. The models are
estimated on the data from the in-sample period and their forecasting
accuracy is evaluated on the out-of-sample data, which are more
volatile. The main aim of the paper is to test whether a model
estimated on data with lower volatility can be used in periods with
higher volatility. The evaluation is based on the conditional coverage
test and is performed on each stock index separately. The primary
result of the paper is that the volatility is best modelled using a
GARCH process and that an ARMA process pattern cannot be found
in analyzed time series.
Abstract: In the present work, the performance of the particle
swarm optimization and the genetic algorithm compared as a typical
geometry design problem. The design maximizes the heat transfer
rate from a given fin volume. The analysis presumes that a linear
temperature distribution along the fin. The fin profile generated using
the B-spline curves and controlled by the change of control point
coordinates. An inverse method applied to find the appropriate fin
geometry yield the linear temperature distribution along the fin
corresponds to optimum design. The numbers of the populations, the
count of iterations and time to convergence measure efficiency.
Results show that the particle swarm optimization is most efficient
for geometry optimization.
Abstract: Control of commutation of switched reluctance (SR)
motor has been an area of interest for researchers for sometime now
with mixed successes in addressing the inherent challenges. New
technologies, processing schemes and methods have been adopted to
make sensorless SR drive a reality. There are a number of
conceptual, offline, analytical and online solutions in literature that
have varying complexities and achieved equally varying degree of
robustness and accuracies depending on the method used to address
the challenges and the SR drive application. Magnetic coupling is
one such challenge when using active probing techniques to
determine rotor position of a SR motor from stator winding. This
paper studies the effect of back-of-core saturation on the detected
rotor position and presents results on measurement made on a 4-
phase SR motor. The results shows that even for a four phase motor
which is excited one phase at a time and using the electrically
opposite phase for active position probing, the back-of-core
saturation effects should not be ignored.
Abstract: Mitochondria are dynamic organelles, capable to
interact with each other. While the number of mitochondria in a cell
varies, their quality and functionality depends on the operation of
fusion, fission, motility and mitophagy. Nowadays, several
researches declare as an important factor in neurogenerative diseases
the disruptions in the regulation of mitochondrial dynamics. In this
paper a stochastic model in BioAmbients calculus is presented,
concerning mitochondrial fusion and its distribution in the renewal of
mitochondrial population in a cell. This model describes the
successive and dependent stages of protein synthesis, protein-s
activation and merging of two independent mitochondria.
Abstract: We investigate properties of convective solutions of the
Boussinesq thermal convection in a moderately rotating spherical
shell allowing the inner and outer sphere rotation due to the viscous
torque of the fluid. The ratio of the inner and outer radii of the
spheres, the Prandtl number and the Taylor number are fixed to 0.4,
1 and 5002, respectively. The inertial moments of the inner and outer
spheres are fixed to about 0.22 and 100, respectively. The Rayleigh
number is varied from 2.6 × 104 to 3.4 × 104. In this parameter
range, convective solutions transit from equatorially symmetric quasiperiodic
ones to equatorially asymmetric chaotic ones as the Rayleigh
number is increased. The transition route in the system allowing
rotation of both the spheres is different from that in the co-rotating
system, which means the inner and outer spheres rotate with the
same constant angular velocity: the convective solutions transit as
equatorially symmetric quasi-periodic solution → equatorially symmetric
chaotic solution → equatorially asymmetric chaotic solution
in the system allowing both the spheres rotation, while equatorially
symmetric quasi-periodic solution → equatorially asymmetric quasiperiodic
solution → equatorially asymmetric chaotic solution in the
co-rotating system.
Abstract: A shaft-type activated sludge reactor has been
developed in order to study the feasibility of high-rate wastewater
treatment. The reactor having volume of about 14.5 L was operated
with the acclimated mixed activated sludge under batch and
continuous mode using a synthetic wastewater as feed. The batch
study was performed with varying chemical oxygen demand (COD)
concentrations of 1000–3500 mg·L-1 for a batch period up to 9 h. The
kinetic coefficients: Ks, k, Y and kd were obtained as 2040.2 mg·L-1
and 0.105 h-1, 0.878 and 0.0025 h-1 respectively from Monod-s
approach. The continuous study showed a stable and steady state
operation for a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h and influent
COD of about 1000 mg·L-1. A maximum COD removal efficiency of
about 80% was attained at a COD loading rate and food-tomicroorganism
(F/M) ratio (COD basis) of 3.42 kg·m-3d-1 and 1.0
kg·kg-1d-1 respectively under a HRT of 8 h. The reactor was also
found to handle COD loading rate and F/M ratio of 10.8 kg·m-3d-1
and 2.20 kg·kg-1d-1 respectively showing a COD removal efficiency
of about 46%.
Abstract: Thermally insulating ceramic coatings also known as
thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been essential technologies to
improve the performance and efficiency of advanced gas turbines in
service at extremely high temperatures. The damage mechanisms of
air-plasma sprayed YSZ thermal barrier coatings (TBC) with various
microstructures were studied by microscopic techniques after thermal
cycling. The typical degradation of plasma TBCs that occurs during
cyclic furnace testing of an YSZ and alumina coating on a Titanium
alloy are analyzed. During the present investigation the effects of
topcoat thickness, bond coat oxidation, thermal cycle lengths and test
temperature are investigated using thermal cycling. These results
were correlated with stresses measured by a spectroscopic technique
in order to understand specific damage mechanism. The failure
mechanism of former bond coats was found to involve fracture
initiation at the thermally grown oxide (TGO) interface and at the
TGO bond coat interface. The failure mechanism of the YZ was
found to involve combination of fracture along the interface between
TGO and bond coat.
Abstract: Each year many people are reported missing in most of the countries in the world owing to various reasons. Arrangements have to be made to find these people after some time. So the investigating agencies are compelled to make out these people by using manpower. But in many cases, the investigations carried out to find out an absconding for a long time may not be successful. At a time like that it may be difficult to identify these people by examining their old photographs, because their facial appearance might have changed mainly due to the natural aging process. On some occasions in forensic medicine if a dead body is found, investigations should be held to make sure that this corpse belongs to the same person disappeared some time ago. With the passage of time the face of the person might have changed and there should be a mechanism to reveal the person-s identity. In order to make this process easy, we must guess and decide as to how he will look like by now. To address this problem this paper presents a way of synthesizing a facial image with the aging effects.
Abstract: In this project cadmium ions were adsorbed from
aqueous solutions onto either date pits; a cheap agricultural and nontoxic
material, or chemically activated carbon prepared from date pits
using phosphoric acid. A series of experiments were conducted in a
batch adsorption technique to assess the feasibility of using the
prepared adsorbents. The effects of the process variables such as
initial cadmium ions concentration, contact time, solution pH and
adsorbent dose on the adsorption capacity of both adsorbents were
studied. The experimental data were tested using different isotherm
models such as Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Dubinin-
Radushkevich. The results showed that although the equilibrium data
could be described by all models used, Langmuir model gave slightly
better results when using activated carbon while Freundlich model,
gave better results with date pits.
Abstract: Most of the drugs used for pharmaceutical purposes
are poorly water-soluble drugs. About 40% of all newly discovered
drugs are lipophilic and the numbers of lipophilic drugs seem to
increase more and more. Drug delivery systems such as
nanoparticles, micelles or liposomes are applied to improve their
solubility and thus their bioavailability. Besides various techniques of
solubilization, oil-in-water emulsions are often used to incorporate
lipophilic drugs into the oil phase. To stabilize emulsions surface
active substances (surfactants) are generally used. An alternative
method to avoid the application of surfactants was of great interest.
One possibility is to develop O/W-emulsion without any addition of
surface active agents or the so called “surfactant-free emulsion or
SFE”. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize SFE as a
drug carrier by varying the production conditions. Lidocaine base
was used as a model drug. The injection method was developed.
Effects of ultrasound as well as of temperature on the properties of
the emulsion were studied. Particle sizes and release were
determined. The long-term stability up to 30 days was performed.
The results showed that the surfactant-free O/W emulsions with
pharmaceutical oil as drug carrier can be produced.