Abstract: Gaharu that produced by Aquilaria spp. is classified as
one of the most valuable forest products traded internationally as it is
very resinous, fragrant and highly valuable heartwood. Gaharu has
been widely used in aromatheraphy, medicine, perfume and religious
practices. This work aimed to determine the factors affecting solid
liquid extraction of gaharu oil using hexane as solvent under
experimental condition. The kinetics of extraction was assumed and
verified based on a second-order mechanism. The effect of three
main factors, which were temperature, reaction time and solvent to
solid ratio were investigated to achieve maximum oil yield. The
optimum condition were found at temperature 65°C, 9 hours reaction
time and solvent to solid ratio of 12:1 with 14.5% oil yield. The
kinetics experimental data agrees and well fitted with the second
order extraction model. The initial extraction rate (h) was 0.0115
gmL-1min-1; the extraction capacity (Cs) was 1.282gmL-1; the second
order extraction constant (k) was 0.007 mLg-1min-1 and coefficient of
determination, R2 was 0.945.
Abstract: XML is becoming a de facto standard for online data exchange. Existing XML filtering techniques based on a publish/subscribe model are focused on the highly structured data marked up with XML tags. These techniques are efficient in filtering the documents of data-centric XML but are not effective in filtering the element contents of the document-centric XML. In this paper, we propose an extended XPath specification which includes a special matching character '%' used in the LIKE operation of SQL in order to solve the difficulty of writing some queries to adequately filter element contents using the previous XPath specification. We also present a novel technique for filtering a collection of document-centric XMLs, called Pfilter, which is able to exploit the extended XPath specification. We show several performance studies, efficiency and scalability using the multi-query processing time (MQPT).
Abstract: In this paper, by constructing a special set and utilizing fixed point index theory, we study the existence of solution for the boundary value problem of second-order singular differential equations in Banach space, which improved and generalize the result of related paper.
Abstract: Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fibre-reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced Composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. Sisal fibre has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18 and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fibre reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibres were manufactured using a cast hand lay up technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively.
Abstract: This paper presents a multi-objective model for addressing two main objectives in designing rural roads networks: minimization of user operation costs and maximization of population covered. As limited budgets often exist, a reasonable trade-off must be obtained in order to account for both cost and social benefits in this type of networks. For a real-world rural road network, the model is solved, where all non-dominated solutions were obtained. Afterwards, an analysis is made on the (possibly) most interesting solutions (the ones providing better trade-offs). This analysis, coupled with the knowledge of the real world scenario (typically provided by decision makers) provides a suitable method for the evaluation of road networks in rural areas of developing countries.
Abstract: This study aims to specify to what extent students
understand topology during the lesson and to determine possible
misconceptions. 14 teacher trainees registered at Secondary School
Mathematics education department were observed in the topology
lessons throughout a semester and data collected at the first topology
lesson is presented here. Students- knowledge was evaluated using a
written test right before and after the topology lesson. Thus, what the
students learnt in terms of the definition and examples of topologic
space were specified as well as possible misconceptions. The
findings indicated that students did not fully comprehend the topic
and misunderstandings were due to insufficient pre-requisite
knowledge of abstract mathematical topics and mathematical
notation.
Abstract: High power laser – total emissivity method (HPL-TE method) for determination of coatings relative total emissivity dependent on the temperature is introduced. Method principle, experimental and evaluation parts of the method are described. Computer model of HPL-TE method is employed to perform the sensitivity analysis of the effect of method parameters on the sample surface temperature in the positions where the surface temperature and radiation heat flux are measured.
Abstract: Advertising today has already become an integral part
of human life as a building block of the consumer community. A
component of the value chain of the media, advertising sector is
struggling increasingly harder to find new methods to reach
consumers. The tendency towards experimental marketing practices
is increasing day by day, especially to divert consumers from the idea
“They are selling something to me.” It is therefore considered a good
idea to investigate the trust in ad media of consumers, who are today
exposed to a great bulk of information from advertising sector.
In this study, the current value of ad media for the young
consumer will be investigated. Data on various ad media reliability
will be comparatively analyzed and young consumers will be traced
by including university students in the study. In this research, which
will be performed on students studying at the Selçuk University
(Turkey) by random sampling method, data will be obtained by
survey technique and evaluated by a statistical analysis.
Abstract: This paper presents a rule-based text- to- speech
(TTS) Synthesis System for Standard Malay, namely SMaTTS. The
proposed system using sinusoidal method and some pre- recorded
wave files in generating speech for the system. The use of phone
database significantly decreases the amount of computer memory
space used, thus making the system very light and embeddable. The
overall system was comprised of two phases the Natural Language
Processing (NLP) that consisted of the high-level processing of text
analysis, phonetic analysis, text normalization and morphophonemic
module. The module was designed specially for SM to overcome
few problems in defining the rules for SM orthography system before
it can be passed to the DSP module. The second phase is the Digital
Signal Processing (DSP) which operated on the low-level process of
the speech waveform generation. A developed an intelligible and
adequately natural sounding formant-based speech synthesis system
with a light and user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) is
introduced. A Standard Malay Language (SM) phoneme set and an
inclusive set of phone database have been constructed carefully for
this phone-based speech synthesizer. By applying the generative
phonology, a comprehensive letter-to-sound (LTS) rules and a
pronunciation lexicon have been invented for SMaTTS. As for the
evaluation tests, a set of Diagnostic Rhyme Test (DRT) word list was
compiled and several experiments have been performed to evaluate
the quality of the synthesized speech by analyzing the Mean Opinion
Score (MOS) obtained. The overall performance of the system as
well as the room for improvements was thoroughly discussed.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preexercise glycerol hyperhydration on endurance performance in a heat chamber designed to simulate the World Championship Distance (WCD) duathlon (10km run, 40km ride, 5 km run). Duathlons are often performed in hot and humid conditions and as a result hydration is a major issue. Glycerol enhances the body’s capacity for fluid retention by inducing hyperhydration, which is theorized to improve thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses, and thereby improve performance. Six well-trained athletes completed the testing protocol in a heat chamber at the La Trobe University Exercise Physiology Laboratory. Each testing session was approximately 4.5 hours in duration (2 hours of pre-exercise glycerol hyper-hydration followed by approximately 2.5 hours of exercise). The results showed an increased water retention pre-exercise and an improved overall performance of 2.04% was achieved by subjects ingesting the glycerol solution.
Abstract: recurrent neural network (RNN) is an efficient tool for
modeling production control process as well as modeling services. In
this paper one RNN was combined with regression model and were
employed in order to be checked whether the obtained data by the
model in comparison with actual data, are valid for variable process
control chart. Therefore, one maintenance process in workshop of
Esfahan Oil Refining Co. (EORC) was taken for illustration of
models. First, the regression was made for predicting the response
time of process based upon determined factors, and then the error
between actual and predicted response time as output and also the
same factors as input were used in RNN. Finally, according to
predicted data from combined model, it is scrutinized for test values
in statistical process control whether forecasting efficiency is
acceptable. Meanwhile, in training process of RNN, design of
experiments was set so as to optimize the RNN.
Abstract: Lightweight ceramic materials in the form of bricks
and blocks are widely used in modern construction. They may be
obtained by adding of rice husk, rye straw, etc, as porous forming
materials. Rice husk is a major by-product of the rice milling
industry. Its utilization as a valuable product has always been a
problem. Various technologies for utilization of rice husk through
biological and thermochemical conversion are being developed.
The purpose of this work is to develop lightweight ceramic
materials with clay matrix and filler of rice husk and examine their
main physicomechanical properties. The results obtained allow to
suppose that the materials synthesized on the basis of waste materials
can be used as lightweight materials for construction purpose.
Abstract: This paper reports a new application of material accounting techniques to characterise and quantify material stocks and flows at the “neighbourhood" scale. The study area is the main campus of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The system boundary is defined by the urban structural unit (USU), a typological construct devised to facilitate assessment of the metabolism of urban systems. A streamlined material flow analysis (MFA) was applied to quantify the stocks and flows of key construction materials within the campus USU over time, drawing on empirical data from a major campus development project. The results are reviewed to assess the efficacy of the method in supporting urban environmental evaluation and design practice, for example to facilitate estimation of significant impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions. It is concluded that linking a service (in this case, teaching students) enabled by a given product (university buildings) to the amount of materials used in creating that product offers a potential way to reduce the environmental impact of that service, through more efficient use of materials.
Abstract: The objective of this contribution is to study the
performances in terms of bit error rate, of space-time code algorithms
applied to MIMO communication in tunnels. Indeed, the channel
characteristics in a tunnel are quite different than those of urban or
indoor environment, due to the guiding effect of the tunnel.
Therefore, MIMO channel matrices have been measured in a straight
tunnel, in a frequency band around 3GHz. Correlation between array
elements and properties of the MIMO matrices are first studied as a
function of the distance between the transmitter and the receiver.
Then, owing to a software tool simulating the link, predicted values
of bit error rate are given for VLAST, OSTBC and QSTBC
algorithms applied to a MIMO configuration with 2 or 4 array
elements. Results are interpreted from the analysis of the channel
properties.
Abstract: In this work, we treat the problems related to chemical and petrochemical plants of a certain complex process taking the centrifugal compressor as an example, a system being very complex by its physical structure as well as its behaviour (surge phenomenon). We propose to study the application possibilities of the recent control approaches to the compressor behaviour, and consequently evaluate their contribution in the practical and theoretical fields. Facing the studied industrial process complexity, we choose to make recourse to fuzzy logic for analysis and treatment of its control problem owing to the fact that these techniques constitute the only framework in which the types of imperfect knowledge can jointly be treated (uncertainties, inaccuracies, etc..) offering suitable tools to characterise them. In the particular case of the centrifugal compressor, these imperfections are interpreted by modelling errors, the neglected dynamics, no modelisable dynamics and the parametric variations. The purpose of this paper is to produce a total robust nonlinear controller design method to stabilize the compression process at its optimum steady state by manipulating the gas rate flow. In order to cope with both the parameter uncertainty and the structured non linearity of the plant, the proposed method consists of a linear steady state regulation that ensures robust optimal control and of a nonlinear compensation that achieves the exact input/output linearization.
Abstract: The environmental performance of rapeseed oil (RO)
and rapeseed methyl ester(RME) from winter rape as fuels produced
in Romanian agroclimate is analyzed in this paper. The proposed
methodology is life cycle assessment (LCA) and takes into
consideration the influence of grain production and agroclimatic
conditions. This study shows favorable results first for RO and then
for RME. When compared to diesel fuel, both studied biofuels show
better results in the following impact categories: Abiotic depletion
potential (ADP), Ozone layer depletion (ODP) and Photochemical
ozone creation potential (POCP).Furthermore, the environmental
performance of the two biofuels studied can be improved by
changing the type of fertilizer used and also by using biofuels instead
of diesel in the field works.
Abstract: This research is to explore the satisfaction for senior
citizens on continuing education in Taiwan. The purpose of this
research aims at the difference on teacher-s teaching, personal
relationship, learning result, materials and environment. Through
different sexual and living area as the background variables, a
questionnaire is adopted as the methodology in this research. Three
results are found in this research. In overall, senior citizens taking
continuing education put the most important attention on personal
relationship but materials and leaning environment put the least. There
is a significant difference on personal relationship, teacher-s teaching
and research result between different sexes. Female senior citizens
attach more importance to teacher-s teaching and learning results but
male senior citizens value on personal relationship. Another
significant difference is shown on teacher-s teaching and personal
relationship because of senior citizens living area. Urban senior
citizens put importance on personal relationship and rural senior
citizens respect teacher-s teaching more.
Abstract: Regarding the multi-media property of internet and the facilities that can be provided for the users, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the users- behavioral patterns and the impact of internet on taboos of marriage. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 403 students of governmental guidance schools of city of Mashhad in country of Iran were considered. The results showed, the process of using various internet environments depends on the degree of the users- familiarity with these sites. In order to clarify the effects of the Internet on the taboos of marriage, the non – internet parameters also considered to be controlled. The ttest held among the internet users and non-users, indicated that internet users possess lower taboos of marriage. Extraction of the effects of internet via considering the effects of non-internet parameters, indicate that addiction to the internet, creating a cordial atmosphere, emotional communication, and message attractive factors have significant effects on the family's traditional values.
Abstract: Worldwide conventional resources of fossil fuel are depleting very fast due to large scale increase in use of transport vehicles every year, therefore consumption rate of oil in transport sector alone has gone very high. In view of this, the major thrust has now been laid upon the search of alternative energy source and also for cost effective energy conversion system. The air converted into compressed form by non conventional or conventional methods can be utilized as potential working fluid for producing shaft work in the air turbine and thus offering the capability of being a zero pollution energy source. This paper deals with the mathematical modeling and performance evaluation of a small capacity compressed air driven vaned type novel air turbine. Effect of expansion action and steady flow work in the air turbine at high admission air pressure of 6 bar, for varying injection to vane angles ratios 0.2-1.6, at the interval of 0.2 and at different vane angles such as 30o, 45o, 51.4o, 60o, 72o, 90o, and 120o for 12, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3 vanes respectively at speed of rotation 2500 rpm, has been quantified and analyzed here. Study shows that the expansion power has major contribution to total power, whereas the contribution of flow work output has been found varying only up to 19.4%. It is also concluded that for variation of injection to vane angle ratios from 0.2 to 1.2, the optimal power output is seen at vane angle 90o (4 vanes) and for 1.4 to 1.6 ratios, the optimal total power is observed at vane angle 72o (5 vanes). Thus in the vaned type novel air turbine the optimum shaft power output is developed when rotor contains 4-5 vanes for almost all situations of injection to vane angle ratios from 0.2 to 1.6.
Abstract: Platinum oxide nanoparticles were prepared by a
simple hydrothermal route and chemical reduction using
carbohydrates (Fructose and sucrose) as the reducing and
stabilizing agents. The crystallite size of these nanoparticles was
evaluated from X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy
(AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and was
found to be 10 nm as shown in figure 1, which is the
demonstration of EM bright field and transmission electron
microscopy. The effect of carbohydrates on the morphology of the
nanoparticles was studied using TEM (Figure 1). The
nanoparticles (100 μg/ml) were administered to the Pseudomonas
Stutzeri and Lactobacillus cultures and the incubation was done at
35 oC for 24 hours. The nanocomposites exhibited interesting
inhibitory as well as bactericidal activity against P. Stutzeri and
and Lactobacillus species. Incorporation of nanoparticles also
increased the thermal stability of the carbohydrates.