Abstract: The aim of this work is to present a multi-objective optimization method to find maximum efficiency kinematics for a flapping wing unmanned aerial vehicle. We restrained our study to rectangular wings with the same profile along the span and to harmonic dihedral motion. It is assumed that the birdlike aerial vehicle (whose span and surface area were fixed respectively to 1m and 0.15m2) is in horizontal mechanically balanced motion at fixed speed. We used two flight physics models to describe the vehicle aerodynamic performances, namely DeLaurier-s model, which has been used in many studies dealing with flapping wings, and the model proposed by Dae-Kwan et al. Then, a constrained multi-objective optimization of the propulsive efficiency is performed using a recent evolutionary multi-objective algorithm called є-MOEA. Firstly, we show that feasible solutions (i.e. solutions that fulfil the imposed constraints) can be obtained using Dae-Kwan et al.-s model. Secondly, we highlight that a single objective optimization approach (weighted sum method for example) can also give optimal solutions as good as the multi-objective one which nevertheless offers the advantage of directly generating the set of the best trade-offs. Finally, we show that the DeLaurier-s model does not yield feasible solutions.
Abstract: The use of plastic materials in agriculture causes
serious hazards to the environment. The introduction of biodegradable materials, which can be disposed directly into the soil
can be one possible solution to this problem. In the present research results of experimental tests carried out on biodegradable film
fabricated from natural waste (corn husk) are presented. The film was
characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR),
differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermal gravimetric analysis
(TGA) and atomic force microscope (AFM) observation. The film is
shown to be readily degraded within 7-9 months under controlled soil
conditions, indicating a high biodegradability rate. The film
fabricated was use to produce biodegradable pot (BioPot) for
seedlings plantation. The introduction and the expanding use of
biodegradable materials represent a really promising alternative for
enhancing sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural
activities.
Abstract: Researches on the general rules of temperature field
changing and their effects on the bridge in construction are necessary.
This paper investigated the rules of temperature field changing and its
effects on bridge using onsite measurement and computational
analysis. Guanyinsha Bridge was used as a case study in this research.
The temperature field was simulated in analyses. The effects of certain
boundary conditions such as sun radiance, wind speed, and model
parameters such as heat factor and specific heat on temperature field
are investigated. Recommended values for these parameters are
proposed. The simulated temperature field matches the measured
observations with high accuracy. At the same time, the stresses and
deflections of the bridge computed with the simulated temperature
field matches measured values too. As a conclusion, the temperature
effect analysis of reinforced concrete box girder can be conducted
directly based on the reliable weather data of the concerned area.
Abstract: The excessive use of agricultural pesticides and the
resulting contamination of food and beds of rivers have been a
recurring problem nowadays. Some of these substances can cause
changes in endocrine balance and impair reproductive function of
human and animal population. In the present study, we evaluated the
possible effects of the fungicide cuprous copper oxide Sandoz® on
pregnant Wistar rats. They received a daily oral administration of 103
or 3.103 mg/kg of the fungicide from the 6th to the 15th day of
gestation. On day 21 of gestation, the maternal and fetal toxicity
parameters and indices were determined. The administration of
cuprous oxide (Copper Sandoz) in Wistar rats, the period of
organogenesis, revealed no evidence of maternal toxicity or embryo
at the studied doses.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to propose a model designed to achieve Total Knowledge Transfer in the public health sector. The Total Knowledge Transfer Model integrated four essential organizational factors which have been under examined in totality in the literature. The research design was inductive in nature and used a case study for accomplishing the research objectives. The researcher investigated the factors that created a base to design a framework for total knowledge transfer in the public health sector. The results of this study are drawn from a fairly large sample in only two hospitals. A further research can be conducted to cover more responses from a wider health sector. The Total Knowledge Transfer Model is essential to improve the transfer and application of total common health knowledge.
Abstract: Higher education has an important role to play in
advocating environmentalism. Given this responsibility, the goal of
higher education should therefore be to develop graduates with the
knowledge, skills and values related to environmentalism. However,
research indicates that there is a lack of consciousness amongst
graduates on the need to be more environmentally aware, especially
when it comes to applying the appropriate knowledge and skills
related to environmentalism. Although institutions of higher learning
do include environmental parameters within their undergraduate and
postgraduate academic programme structures, the environmental
boundaries are usually confined to specific engineering majors within
an engineering programme. This makes environmental knowledge,
skills and values exclusive to certain quarters of the higher education
system. The incorporation of environmental literacy within higher
education institutions as a whole is of utmost pertinence if a nation-s
human capital is to be nurtured to become change agents for the
preservation of environment. This paper discusses approaches that
can be adapted by institutions of higher learning to include
environmental literacy within the graduate-s higher learning
experience.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a matrix game-theoretic cross-layer optimization formulation to maximize the network lifetime in wireless ad hoc networks with network coding. To this end, we introduce a cross-layer formulation of general NUM (network utility maximization) that accommodates routing, scheduling, and stream control from different layers in the coded networks. Specifically, for the scheduling problem and then the objective function involved, we develop a matrix game with the strategy sets of the players corresponding to hyperlinks and transmission modes, and design the payoffs specific to the lifetime. In particular, with the inherit merit that matrix game can be solved with linear programming, our cross-layer programming formulation can benefit from both game-based and NUM-based approaches at the same time by cooperating the programming model for the matrix game with that for the other layers in a consistent framework. Finally, our numerical example demonstrates its performance results on a well-known wireless butterfly network to verify the cross-layer optimization scheme.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks consist of inexpensive, low power sensor nodes deployed to monitor the environment and collect
data. Gathering information in an energy efficient manner is a critical aspect to prolong the network lifetime. Clustering algorithms have an advantage of enhancing the network lifetime. Current clustering algorithms usually focus on global re-clustering and local re-clustering separately. This paper, proposed a combination of those two reclustering methods to reduce the energy consumption of the network. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm can apply to homogeneous as well as heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. In addition, the cluster head rotation happens, only when its energy drops below a dynamic threshold value computed by the algorithm. The simulation result shows that the proposed algorithm prolong the network lifetime compared to existing algorithms.
Abstract: A high-performance Monte Carlo simulation, which
simultaneously takes diffusion-controlled and chain-length-dependent
bimolecular termination reactions into account, is developed to
simulate atom transfer radical copolymerization of styrene and nbutyl
acrylate. As expected, increasing initial feed fraction of styrene
raises the fraction of styrene-styrene dyads (fAA) and reduces that of
n-butyl acrylate dyads (fBB). The trend of variation in randomness
parameter (fAB) during the copolymerization also varies significantly.
Also, there is a drift in copolymer heterogeneity and the highest drift
occurs in the initial feeds containing lower percentages of styrene, i.e.
20% and 5%.
Abstract: In this paper, we study statistical multiplexing of VBR
video in ATM networks. ATM promises to provide high speed realtime
multi-point to central video transmission for telemedicine
applications in rural hospitals and in emergency medical services.
Video coders are known to produce variable bit rate (VBR) signals
and the effects of aggregating these VBR signals need to be
determined in order to design a telemedicine network infrastructure
capable of carrying these signals. We first model the VBR video
signal and simulate it using a generic continuous-data autoregressive
(AR) scheme. We carry out the queueing analysis by the Fluid
Approximation Model (FAM) and the Markov Modulated Poisson
Process (MMPP). The study has shown a trade off: multiplexing
VBR signals reduces burstiness and improves resource utilization,
however, the buffer size needs to be increased with an associated
economic cost. We also show that the MMPP model and the Fluid
Approximation model fit best, respectively, the cell region and the
burst region. Therefore, a hybrid MMPP and FAM completely
characterizes the overall performance of the ATM statistical
multiplexer. The ramifications of this technology are clear: speed,
reliability (lower loss rate and jitter), and increased capacity in video
transmission for telemedicine. With migration to full IP-based
networks still a long way to achieving both high speed and high
quality of service, the proposed ATM architecture will remain of
significant use for telemedicine.
Abstract: Job stress is one of the most important concepts for
the today-s corporate as well as institutional world. The current study
is conducted to identify the causes of faculty stress at Higher
Education in Pakistan. For the purpose, Public & Private Business
Schools of Punjab is selected as representative of Pakistan. A sample
of 300 faculty members (214 males, 86 females) responded to the
survey. Regression analysis shows that the Workload, Student
Related issues and Role Conflicts are the major sources contributing
significantly towards producing stress. The study also revealed that
Private sector faculty members experienced more stress as compared
to faculty in Public sector Business Schools. Moreover, females,
younger ages, lower designation & low qualification faculty
members experience more stress as compared to males, older ages,
higher designation and high qualification. The study yield many
significant results for the policy makers of Business Institutions.
Abstract: Power line channel is proposed as an alternative for broadband data transmission especially in developing countries like Tanzania [1]. However the channel is affected by stochastic attenuation and deep notches which can lead to the limitation of channel capacity and achievable data rate. Various studies have characterized the channel without giving exactly the maximum performance and limitation in data transfer rate may be this is due to complexity of channel modeling being used. In this paper the channel performance of medium voltage, low voltage and indoor power line channel is presented. In the investigations orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with phase shift keying (PSK) as carrier modulation schemes is considered, for indoor, medium and low voltage channels with typical ten branches and also Golay coding is applied for medium voltage channel. From channels, frequency response deep notches are observed in various frequencies which can lead to reduce the achievable data rate. However, is observed that data rate up to 240Mbps is realized for a signal to noise ratio of about 50dB for indoor and low voltage channels, however for medium voltage a typical link with ten branches is affected by strong multipath and coding is required for feasible broadband data transfer.
Abstract: FAQ system can make user find answer to the problem that puzzles them. But now the research on Chinese FAQ system is still on the theoretical stage. This paper presents an approach to semantic inference for FAQ mining. To enhance the efficiency, a small pool of the candidate question-answering pairs retrieved from the system for the follow-up work according to the concept of the agriculture domain extracted from user input .Input queries or questions are converted into four parts, the question word segment (QWS), the verb segment (VS), the concept of agricultural areas segment (CS), the auxiliary segment (AS). A semantic matching method is presented to estimate the similarity between the semantic segments of the query and the questions in the pool of the candidate. A thesaurus constructed from the HowNet, a Chinese knowledge base, is adopted for word similarity measure in the matcher. The questions are classified into eleven intension categories using predefined question stemming keywords. For FAQ mining, given a query, the question part and answer part in an FAQ question-answer pair is matched with the input query, respectively. Finally, the probabilities estimated from these two parts are integrated and used to choose the most likely answer for the input query. These approaches are experimented on an agriculture FAQ system. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach outperformed the FAQ-Finder system in agriculture FAQ retrieval.
Abstract: A robust still image face localization algorithm
capable of operating in an unconstrained visual environment is
proposed. First, construction of a robust skin classifier within a
shifted HSV color space is described. Then various filtering
operations are performed to better isolate face candidates and
mitigate the effect of substantial non-skin regions. Finally, a novel
Bhattacharyya-based face detection algorithm is used to compare
candidate regions of interest with a unique illumination-dependent
face model probability distribution function approximation.
Experimental results show a 90% face detection success rate despite
the demands of the visually noisy environment.
Abstract: Accurate software cost estimates are critical to both
developers and customers. They can be used for generating request
for proposals, contract negotiations, scheduling, monitoring and
control. The exact relationship between the attributes of the effort
estimation is difficult to establish. A neural network is good at
discovering relationships and pattern in the data. So, in this paper a
comparative analysis among existing Halstead Model, Walston-Felix
Model, Bailey-Basili Model, Doty Model and Neural Network
Based Model is performed. Neural Network has outperformed the
other considered models. Hence, we proposed Neural Network
system as a soft computing approach to model the effort estimation
of the software systems.
Abstract: This paper analysis the tourism development on the
Red Sea in Egypt (west bank) and the needed ongoing action toward
a sustainable approach. It addresses, at the first, the development's
evolution occurred in the coastal area, the environmental effects it
left, and how to minimize those impacts in the future. The second
main point is dealing with the most important issues that hinder the
achievement of sustainable tourism development on the Red Sea
coast and how we can overcome them in the future.
Abstract: The article considers religious aspects of Kazakh
society pre-Soviet times. Studying the mental, political and spiritual
content of Islam, the reasons for its wide distribution among the ancestors of the Kazakhs is analyzed. Interested Russians since the
accession of the Kazakh Khanate to the Russian Empire more than
once pointed out that Islam is a synthesis of Islam and Shamanism.
But shamanism is a generalization of the name of religion, which
took place prior to Islam in the land of the Kazakh people. Here we can see the elements of Zoroastrianism, Tengrianism, etc. This shows
that the ancestors of the Kazakhs - Turkic people - not renounced the
ancient beliefs completely and leave some portion of these religions
as an integral part of the worldview of the people, by the device.
Therefore, the founder of the Turkic Sufi Yasaui still has a huge impact on the religiosity of the Kazakhs. He managed elements of the
ancient religion, which formed the basis of the Kazakhs world, interpreted in the Muslim perspective. The Russian authorities tried
to quell by Islamization Kazakh people. But it was Islam that has
revived the national consciousness of the Kazakh people.
Abstract: A multi-agent type robot for disaster response in calamity scene is proposed in this paper. The proposed grouped rescue robots can perform cooperative reconnaissance and surveillance to achieve a given rescue mission. The multi-agent rescue of dual set robot consists of one master set and three slave units. The research for this rescue robot system is going to detect at harmful environment where human is unreachable, such as the building is infected with virus or the factory has hazardous liquid in effluent. As a dual set robot, with Bluetooth and communication network, the master set can connect with slave units and send information back to computer by wireless and monitor. Therefore, rescuer can be informed the real-time information in a calamity area. Furthermore, each slave robot is able to obstacle avoidance by ultrasonic sensors, and encodes distance and location by compass. The master robot can integrate every devices information to increase the efficiency of prospected and research unknown area.
Abstract: Novel nitrogen removal technologies via nitrite
pathway attract increasing interest in recent years. In this study,
batch experiments were performed to investigate nitrite accumulation
characteristics and shifts in nitrifying community structure at
different growth environments including ammonia concentration, pH
and alkalinity. It was found that nitrite accumulation ratios were
maintained at around 95% at studied conditions, and the optimum pH
and Alk/N (ratio between alkalinity and nitrogen) for ammonium
oxidization were 8.5 and 8.33, respectively. Fluorescence in situ
hybridization analysis of nitrifying bacteria showed that high free
ammonia (from influent ammonium or caused by high pH)
significantly altered the structure of nitrifying community, leading to
abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), especially
Nitrososmonas, and inhibition of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB).
The results suggest that free ammonia plays more important role than
other studied conditions on nitrite accumulation.
Abstract: Because of the requirement for low sulfur content of
fuel oils, it is necessary to develop alternative methods for desulfurization of heavy fuel oil. Due to the disadvantages of HDS
technologies such as costs, safety and green environment, new
methods have been developed. Among these methods is ultrasoundassisted
oxidative desulfurization. Using ultrasound-assisted
oxidative desulfurization, compounds such as benzothiophene and
dibenzothiophene can be oxidized. As an alternative method is sulfur
elimination of heavy fuel oil by using of activated carbon in a packed column in batch condition. The removal of sulfur compounds in this
case to reach about 99%. The most important property of activated carbon is ability of it for adsorption, which is due to high surface area
and pore volume of it.