Abstract: As a vital activity for companies, new product
development (NPD) is also a very risky process due to the high
uncertainty degree encountered at every development stage and the
inevitable dependence on how previous steps are successfully
accomplished. Hence, there is an apparent need to evaluate new
product initiatives systematically and make accurate decisions under
uncertainty. Another major concern is the time pressure to launch a
significant number of new products to preserve and increase the
competitive power of the company. In this work, we propose an
integrated decision-making framework based on neural networks and
fuzzy logic to make appropriate decisions and accelerate the
evaluation process. We are especially interested in the two initial
stages where new product ideas are selected (go/no go decision) and
the implementation order of the corresponding projects are
determined. We show that this two-staged intelligent approach allows
practitioners to roughly and quickly separate good and bad product
ideas by making use of previous experiences, and then, analyze a
more shortened list rigorously.
Abstract: The significant effects of the interactions between the
system boundaries and the near wall molecules in miniaturized
gaseous devices lead to the formation of the Knudsen layer in which
the Navier-Stokes-Fourier (NSF) equations fail to predict the correct
associated phenomena. In this paper, the well-known lattice
Boltzmann method (LBM) is employed to simulate the fluid flow and
heat transfer processes in rarefied gaseous micro media. Persuaded
by the problematic deficiency of the LBM in capturing the Knudsen
layer phenomena, present study tends to concentrate on the effective
molecular mean free path concept the main essence of which is to
compensate the incapability of this mesoscopic method in dealing
with the momentum and energy transport within the above mentioned
kinetic boundary layer. The results show qualitative and quantitative
accuracy comparable to the solutions of the linearized Boltzmann
equation or the DSMC data for the Knudsen numbers of O (1) .
Abstract: Natural gas usually includes H2S component which is
very toxic, hazardous and corrosive to environment, human being and
process equipments, respectively. Therefore, sweetening of the gas
(separation of H2S) is inevitable. To achieve this purpose, using
packed-bed columns with liquid absorbents such as MEA or DEA is
very common. Due to some problems of usual packed columns
especially high pressure drop of gas phase, a novel kind of them
called wetted-wire column (WWC) has been invented. The column
decreases the pressure drop significantly and improves the absorption
efficiency. The packings are very thin rods (like wire) and as long as
column. The column has 100 wires with a triangular arrangement and
counter current flows of gas and liquid phases. The observation
showed that at the same conditions, the absorption performance was
quite comparable to conventional packed-bed towers and a very low
pressure drop.
Abstract: This study reports results of a meta-analytic path analysis e-learning Acceptance Model with k = 27 studies, Databases searched included Information Sciences Institute (ISI) website. Variables recorded included perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward behavior, and behavioral intention to use e-learning. A correlation matrix of these variables was derived from meta-analytic data and then analyzed by using structural path analysis to test the fitness of the e-learning acceptance model to the observed aggregated data. Results showed the revised hypothesized model to be a reasonable, good fit to aggregated data. Furthermore, discussions and implications are given in this article.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between urban
and rural ozone concentrations and quantified the extent to which
ambient rural conditions and the concentrations of other pollutants
can be used to predict urban ozone concentrations. The study
describes the variations of ozone in weekday and weekends as well as
the daily maximum recorded at selected monitoring stations. The
results showed that Putrajaya station had the highest concentrations
of O3 on weekend due the titration of NO during the weekday.
Additionally, Jerantut had the lowest average concentration with a
reading value high on Wednesdays. The comparisons of average and
maximum concentrations of ozone for the three stations showed that
the strongest significant correlation is recorded in Jerantut station
with the value R2= 0.769. Ozone concentrations originating from a
neighbouring urban site form a better predictor to the urban ozone
concentrations than widespread rural ozone at some levels of
temporal averaging. It is found that in urban and rural of Malaysian
peninsular, the concentration of ozone depends on the concentration
of NOx and seasonal meteorological factors. The HYSPLIT Model
(the northeast monsoon) showed that the wind direction can also
influence the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere in the studied
areas.
Abstract: This paper proposes a method which reduces power consumption in single-error correcting, double error-detecting checker circuits that perform memory error correction code. Power is minimized with little or no impact on area and delay, using the degrees of freedom in selecting the parity check matrix of the error correcting codes. The genetic algorithm is employed to solve the non linear power optimization problem. The method is applied to two commonly used SEC-DED codes: standard Hamming and odd column weight Hsiao codes. Experiments were performed to show the performance of the proposed method.
Abstract: In this work, we present a comparison between
different techniques of image compression. First, the image is
divided in blocks which are organized according to a certain scan.
Later, several compression techniques are applied, combined or
alone. Such techniques are: wavelets (Haar's basis), Karhunen-Loève
Transform, etc. Simulations show that the combined versions are the
best, with minor Mean Squared Error (MSE), and higher Peak Signal
to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and better image quality, even in the presence
of noise.
Abstract: This study uses simulated meta-analysis to assess the effects of publication bias on meta-analysis estimates and to evaluate the efficacy of the trim and fill method in adjusting for these biases. The estimated effect sizes and the standard error were evaluated in terms of the statistical bias and the coverage probability. The results demonstrate that if publication bias is not adjusted it could lead to up to 40% bias in the treatment effect estimates. Utilization of the trim and fill method could reduce the bias in the overall estimate by more than half. The method is optimum in presence of moderate underlying bias but has minimal effects in presence of low and severe publication bias. Additionally, the trim and fill method improves the coverage probability by more than half when subjected to the same level of publication bias as those of the unadjusted data. The method however tends to produce false positive results and will incorrectly adjust the data for publication bias up to 45 % of the time. Nonetheless, the bias introduced into the estimates due to this adjustment is minimal
Abstract: Functional gastrointestinal disorders affect millions of people spread all age regardless of race and sex. There are, however, rare diagnostic methods for the functional gastrointestinal disorders because functional disorders show no evidence of organic and physical causes. Our research group identified recently that the gastrointestinal tract well in the patients with the functional gastrointestinal disorders becomes more rigid than healthy people when palpating the abdominal regions overlaying the gastrointestinal tract. Aim of this study is, therefore, to develop a diagnostic system for the functional gastrointestinal disorders based on ultrasound technique, which can quantify the characteristic above related to the rigidity of the gastrointestinal tract well. Ultrasound system was designed. The system consisted of transmitter, ultrasonic transducer, receiver, TGC, and CPLD, and verified via a phantom test. For the phantom test, ten soft-tissue specimens were harvested from porcine. Five of them were then treated chemically to mimic a rigid condition of gastrointestinal tract well, which was induced by functional gastrointestinal disorders. Additionally, the specimens were tested mechanically to identify if the mimic was reasonable. The customized ultrasound system was finally verified through application to human subjects with/without functional gastrointestinal disorders (Normal and Patient Groups). It was identified from the mechanical test that the chemically treated specimens were more rigid than normal specimen. This finding was favorably compared with the result obtained from the phantom test. The phantom test also showed that ultrasound system well described the specimen geometric characteristics and detected an alteration in the specimens. The maximum amplitude of the ultrasonic reflective signal in the rigid specimens (0.2±0.1Vp-p) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly higher than that in the normal specimens (0.1±0.0Vp-p). Clinical tests using our customized ultrasound system for human subject showed that the maximum amplitudes of the ultrasonic reflective signals near to the gastrointestinal tract well for the patient group (2.6±0.3Vp-p) were generally higher than those in normal group (0.1±0.2Vp-p). Here, maximum reflective signals was appeared at 20mm depth approximately from abdominal skin for all human subjects, corresponding to the location of the boundary layer close to gastrointestinal tract well. These results suggest that newly designed diagnostic system based on ultrasound technique may diagnose enough the functional gastrointestinal disorders.
Abstract: This study was aimed to study the probability about
the production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin as binding agent. The durian rind underwent the
boiling process with NaOH [7], [8] and then the fiber from durian
rind was formed into fiberboard through heat press. This means that
durian rind could be used as replacement for plywood in plywood
industry by using durian fiber as composite material with adhesive
substance. This research would study the probability about the
production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin as binding agent. At first, durian rind was split,
exposed to light, boiled and steamed in order to gain durian fiber.
Then, fiberboard was tested with the density of 600 Kg/m3 and 800
Kg/m3. in order to find a suitable ratio of durian fiber and latex.
Afterwards, mechanical properties were tested according to the
standards of ASTM and JIS A5905-1994. After the suitable ratio was
known, the test results would be compared with medium density
fiberboard (MDF) and other related research studies. According to
the results, fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin at the density of 800 Kg/m3 at ratio of 1:1, the
moisture was measured to be 5.05% with specific gravity (ASTM D
2395-07a) of 0.81, density (JIS A 5905-1994) of 0.88 g/m3, tensile
strength, hardness (ASTM D2240), flexibility or elongation at break
yielded similar values as the ones by medium density fiberboard
(MDF).
Abstract: Route bus system is the fundamental public transportation
system and has an important role in every province. To improve
the usability of it greatly, we develop an AR application for "Bus-
Net". The Bus-Net system is the shortest path planning system.
Bus-Net supports bus users to make a plan to change buses by
providing them with information about the direction. However, with
Bus-Net, these information are provided in text-base. It is difficult
to understand them for the person who does not know the place. We
developed the AR application for Bus-Net. It supports the action of
a bus user in an innovative way by putting information on a camera
picture and leading the way to a bus stop. The application also inform
the user the correct bus to get, the direction the bus takes and the
fare, which ease many anxieties and worries people tend to feel when
they take buses.
Abstract: Whit the increasing of traffic, noise emanated from
motor vehicles increases as well, which subsequently causes adding
to the stress of modern city. Thus, it is needed to look for most
critical areas in terms of environmental and social impact of noise.
There are several critical situations for noise emanated from motor
vehicles such as stop and go situation which usually occurs near
junctions or at-grade intersections. This study was conducted in two
locations, most common types of intersections, crossroads and Tjunctions.
The highest average noise levels are recorded during Go
phase for T-junction, 64.4 dB, and Drive phase for crossroad, 64 dB.
It implies that the existence of intersection caused the noise level to
increase. The vehicles starting to move produce more sound than
when they travel at a constant speed along the intersection. It is
suggested that special considerations and priority of allocating funds
should be given to these critical spots.
Abstract: The Kansei engineering is a technology which
converts human feelings into quantitative terms and helps designers
develop new products that meet customers- expectation. Standard
Kansei engineering procedure involves finding relationships between
human feelings and design elements of which many researchers have
found forward and backward relationship through various soft
computing techniques. In this paper, we proposed the framework of
Kansei engineering linking relationship not only between human
feelings and design elements, but also the whole part of product, by
constructing association rules. In this experiment, we obtain input
from emotion score that subjects rate when they see the whole part of
the product by applying semantic differentials. Then, association
rules are constructed to discover the combination of design element
which affects the human feeling. The results of our experiment
suggest the pattern of relationship of design elements according to
human feelings which can be derived from the whole part of product.
Abstract: Diagnostic goal of transformers in service is to detect the winding or the core in fault. Transformers are valuable equipment which makes a major contribution to the supply security of a power system. Consequently, it is of great importance to minimize the frequency and duration of unwanted outages of power transformers. So, Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) is found to be a useful tool for reliable detection of incipient mechanical fault in a transformer, by finding winding or core defects. The authors propose as first part of this article, the coupled circuits method, because, it gives most possible exhaustive modelling of transformers. And as second part of this work, the application of FRA in low frequency in order to improve and simplify the response reading. This study can be useful as a base data for the other transformers of the same categories intended for distribution grid.
Abstract: This paper looks at transgender identities and the law in the context of marriage. It particularly focuses on the role of language and definition in classifying transgendered individuals into a legal category. Two lines of cases in transgender jurisprudence are examined. The former cases decided the definition of 'man' and 'woman' on the basis of biological criteria while the latter cases held that biological factors should not be the sole criterion for defining a man or a woman. Three categories were found to classify transgender people, namely male, female and "monstrous". Since transgender people challenge the core gender distinction that the law stresses, they are often regarded as problematic and monstrous which caused them to be subjected to severe legal consequences. This paper discusses these issues by analyzing and comparing different cases in transgender jurisprudence as well as examining how these issues play out in contemporary Hong Kong.
Abstract: The approach based on the wavelet transform has
been widely used for image denoising due to its multi-resolution
nature, its ability to produce high levels of noise reduction and the
low level of distortion introduced. However, by removing noise, high
frequency components belonging to edges are also removed, which
leads to blurring the signal features. This paper proposes a new
method of image noise reduction based on local variance and edge
analysis. The analysis is performed by dividing an image into 32 x 32
pixel blocks, and transforming the data into wavelet domain. Fast
lifting wavelet spatial-frequency decomposition and reconstruction is
developed with the advantages of being computationally efficient and
boundary effects minimized. The adaptive thresholding by local
variance estimation and edge strength measurement can effectively
reduce image noise while preserve the features of the original image
corresponding to the boundaries of the objects. Experimental results
demonstrate that the method performs well for images contaminated
by natural and artificial noise, and is suitable to be adapted for
different class of images and type of noises. The proposed algorithm
provides a potential solution with parallel computation for real time
or embedded system application.
Abstract: Classification is an interesting problem in functional
data analysis (FDA), because many science and application problems
end up with classification problems, such as recognition, prediction,
control, decision making, management, etc. As the high dimension
and high correlation in functional data (FD), it is a key problem to
extract features from FD whereas keeping its global characters, which
relates to the classification efficiency and precision to heavens. In this
paper, a novel automatic method which combined Genetic Algorithm
(GA) and classification algorithm to extract classification features is
proposed. In this method, the optimal features and classification model
are approached via evolutional study step by step. It is proved by
theory analysis and experiment test that this method has advantages in
improving classification efficiency, precision and robustness whereas
using less features and the dimension of extracted classification
features can be controlled.
Abstract: Frequency domain independent component analysis has
a scaling indeterminacy and a permutation problem. The scaling
indeterminacy can be solved by use of a decomposed spectrum. For
the permutation problem, we have proposed the rules in terms of gain
ratio and phase difference derived from the decomposed spectra and
the source-s coarse directions.
The present paper experimentally clarifies that the gain ratio and
the phase difference work effectively in a real environment but their
performance depends on frequency bands, a microphone-space and
a source-microphone distance. From these facts it is seen that it is
difficult to attain a perfect solution for the permutation problem in a
real environment only by either the gain ratio or the phase difference.
For the perfect solution, this paper gives a solution to the problems
in a real environment. The proposed method is simple, the amount of
calculation is small. And the method has high correction performance
without depending on the frequency bands and distances from source
signals to microphones. Furthermore, it can be applied under the real
environment. From several experiments in a real room, it clarifies
that the proposed method has been verified.
Abstract: Different pseudo-random or pseudo-noise (PN) as well as orthogonal sequences that can be used as spreading codes for code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular networks or can be used for encrypting speech signals to reduce the residual intelligence are investigated. We briefly review the theoretical background for direct sequence CDMA systems and describe the main characteristics of the maximal length, Gold, Barker, and Kasami sequences. We also discuss about variable- and fixed-length orthogonal codes like Walsh- Hadamard codes. The equivalence of PN and orthogonal codes are also derived. Finally, a new PN sequence is proposed which is shown to have certain better properties than the existing codes.
Abstract: In this work the effects of uniaxial mechanical stress on a pixel readout circuit are theoretically analyzed. It is the effects of mechanical stress on the in-pixel transistors do not arise at the output, when a correlated double sampling circuit is used. However, mechanical stress effects on the photodiode will directly appear at the readout chain output. Therefore, compensation techniques are needed to overcome this situation. Moreover simulation technique of mechanical stress is proposed and diverse layout as well as design recommendations are put forward, in order to minimize stress related effects on the output of a circuit. he shown, that wever, Moreover, a out