Abstract: The efficiency of chitosan beads processed from 4
marine animal shells; white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), mud
crab (Scylla sp.), horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda),
and cuttlefish bone (Sepia sp.), for the adsorption experiments of
ammonia and formaldehyde were investigated. The porosities of
chitosan from the shells looked like beads were distinctly examined
under SEM. The original pores of those shells on the surface areas
compose of evenly fine pores. The shell beads of cuttlefish bone and
horseshoe crab show the larger probably even porosity, while on
those white leg shrimp and mud crab contain various large and fine
pores. The best adsorption at pH 9 in 18 mg/l ammonia at 2 hours
yield on cuttlefish bone, horseshoe crab, mud crab and white leg
shrimp with the average percent of 59.12, 51.45, 45.66 and 43.52,
respectively. Within 30 minutes the formaldehyde absorbers (at pH 5
in 8 μg/ml) revealed 46.27, 26.56, and 18.04 percent capacities in
cuttlefish bone, mud crab and white leg shrimp beads; while 22.44
percent in the horseshoe crab at pH 7. The adsorption capacities and
the amounts of beads showed a positive correlation. The adsorption
capacity relationship between pH and the gas concentrations were
affected by these qualities of chitosan beads.
Abstract: This paper aims to argue that religion and Faith-based
Organizations (FBOs) contribute to building democratic process
through the provision of education in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone
experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002 and about 70 percent of the
population lives in poverty. While the government has been in the
process of rebuilding the nation, many forms of Civil Society
Organizations (CSOs), including FBOs, have played a significant role
in promoting social development. Education plays an important role in
supporting people-s democratic movements through knowledge
acquisition, spiritual enlightenment and empowerment. This paper
discusses religious tolerance in Sierra Leone and how FBOs have
contributed to the provision of primary education in Sierra Leone. This
study is based on the author-s field research, which involved
interviews with teachers and development stakeholders, notably
government officials, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
FBOs, as well as questionnaires completed by pupils, parents and
teachers.
Abstract: The draw solute separation process in Forward
Osmosis desalination was simulated in Aspen Plus chemical process
modeling software, to estimate the energy consumption and compare
it with other desalination processes, mainly the Reverse Osmosis
process which is currently most prevalent. The electrolytic chemistry
for the system was retrieved using the Elec – NRTL property method
in the Aspen Plus database. Electrical equivalent of energy required
in the Forward Osmosis desalination technique was estimated and
compared with the prevalent desalination techniques.
Abstract: In this paper the vibration behaviors of a structure equipped with a tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) under a harmonic type of earthquake loading are studied. However, due to inherent nonlinear liquid damping, it is no doubt that a great deal of computational effort is required to search the optimum parameters of the TLCD, numerically. Therefore by linearization the equation of motion of the single degree of freedom structure equipped with the TLCD, the closed form solutions of the TLCD-structure system are derived. To find the reliability of the analytical method, the results have been compared with other researcher and have good agreement. Further, the effects of optimal design parameters such as length ratio and mass ratio on the performance of the TLCD for controlling the responses of a structure are investigated by using the harmonic type of earthquake excitation. Finally, the Citicorp Center which has a very flexible structure is used as an example to illustrate the design procedure for the TLCD under the earthquake excitation.
Abstract: This paper presents a new spread-spectrum
watermarking algorithm for digital images in discrete wavelet
transform (DWT) domain. The algorithm is applied for embedding
watermarks like patient identification /source identification or
doctors signature in binary image format into host digital
radiological image for potential telemedicine applications.
Performance of the algorithm is analysed by varying the gain factor,
subband decomposition levels, and size of watermark. Simulation
results show that the proposed method achieves higher watermarking
capacity.
Abstract: Real-time 3D applications have to guarantee
interactive rendering speed. There is a restriction for the number of
polygons which is rendered due to performance of a graphics hardware
or graphics algorithms. Generally, the rendering performance will be
drastically increased when handling only the dynamic 3d models,
which is much fewer than the static ones. Since shapes and colors of
the static objects don-t change when the viewing direction is fixed, the
information can be reused. We render huge amounts of polygon those
cannot handled by conventional rendering techniques in real-time by
using a static object image and merging it with rendering result of the
dynamic objects. The performance must be decreased as a
consequence of updating the static object image including removing
an static object that starts to move, re-rending the other static objects
being overlapped by the moving ones. Based on visibility of the object
beginning to move, we can skip the updating process. As a result, we
enhance rendering performance and reduce differences of rendering
speed between each frame. Proposed method renders total
200,000,000 polygons that consist of 500,000 dynamic polygons and
the rest are static polygons in about 100 frames per second.
Abstract: Global Solar Radiation (H) for Dubai and Sharjah,
Latitude 25.25oN, Longitude 55oE and 25.29oN, Longitude 55oE
respectively have been studied using sunshine hour data (n) of the
areas using various methods. These calculated global solar radiation
values are then compared to the measured values presented by
NASA. Furthermore, the extraterrestrial (H0), diffuse (Hd) and beam
radiation (Hb) are also calculated. The diffuse radiation is calculated
using methods proposed by Page and Liu and Jordan (L-J). Diffuse
Radiation from the Page method is higher than the L-J method.
Moreover, the clearness index (KT) signifies a clear sky almost all
year round. Rainy days are hardly a few in a year and limited in the
months December to March. The temperature remains between 25oC
in winter to 44oC in summer and is desirable for thermal applications
of solar energy. From the estimated results, it appears that solar
radiation can be utilized very efficiently throughout the year for
photovoltaic and thermal applications.
Abstract: The authors present a mixed method for reducing the order of the large-scale dynamic systems. In this method, the denominator polynomial of the reduced order model is obtained by using the modified pole clustering technique while the coefficients of the numerator are obtained by Pade approximations. This method is conceptually simple and always generates stable reduced models if the original high-order system is stable. The proposed method is illustrated with the help of the numerical examples taken from the literature.
Abstract: After allowing direct flights from Mainland China to
Taiwan, Chinese tourists increased according to Tourism
Bureaustatistics. There are from 0.19 to 2 million tourists from 2008 to
2011. Mainland China has become the main source of Taiwan
developing tourism industry. Taiwanese government should know
more about comments from Chinese tourists to Taiwan in order
toproperly market Taiwan tourism and enhance the overall quality of
tourism. In order to understand Chinese visitors’ comments, this study
adopts content analysis to analyze electronic word-of-mouth on Web.
This study collects 375 blog articles of Chinese tourists from
Ctrip.com as a database during 2009 to 2011. Through the qualitative
data analysis the traveling destination imagesis divided into seven
dimensions, such as senic spots, shopping, food and beverages,
accommodations, transportation, festivals and recreation activities.
Finally, this study proposes some practical managerial implication to
know both positive and negative images of the seven dimensions from
Chinese tourists, providing marketing strategies and suggestions to
traveling agency industry.
Abstract: In this paper, the modelling and design of artificial neural network architecture for load forecasting purposes is investigated. The primary pre-requisite for power system planning is to arrive at realistic estimates of future demand of power, which is known as Load Forecasting. Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF) helps in determining the economic, reliable and secure operating strategies for power system. The dependence of load on several factors makes the load forecasting a very challenging job. An over estimation of the load may cause premature investment and unnecessary blocking of the capital where as under estimation of load may result in shortage of equipment and circuits. It is always better to plan the system for the load slightly higher than expected one so that no exigency may arise. In this paper, a load-forecasting model is proposed using a multilayer neural network with an appropriately modified back propagation learning algorithm. Once the neural network model is designed and trained, it can forecast the load of the power system 24 hours ahead on daily basis and can also forecast the cumulative load on daily basis. The real load data that is used for the Artificial Neural Network training was taken from LDC, Gujarat Electricity Board, Jambuva, Gujarat, India. The results show that the load forecasting of the ANN model follows the actual load pattern more accurately throughout the forecasted period.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with motion recognition based fuzzy WP(Wavelet Packet) feature extraction approach from Vicon physical data sets. For this purpose, we use an efficient fuzzy mutual-information-based WP transform for feature extraction. This method estimates the required mutual information using a novel approach based on fuzzy membership function. The physical action data set includes 10 normal and 10 aggressive physical actions that measure the human activity. The data have been collected from 10 subjects using the Vicon 3D tracker. The experiments consist of running, seating, and walking as physical activity motion among various activities. The experimental results revealed that the presented feature extraction approach showed good recognition performance.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive voltage control strategy for boost converter via Inverse LQ Servo-Control. Our presented strategy is based on an analytical formula of Inverse Linear Quadratic (ILQ) design method, which is not necessary to solve Riccati’s equation directly. The optimal and adaptive controller of the voltage control system is designed. The stability and the robust control are analyzed. Whereas, we can get the analytical solution for the optimal and robust voltage control is achieved through the natural angular velocity within a single parameter and we can change the responses easily via the ILQ control theory. Our method provides effective results as the stable responses and the response times are not drifted even if the condition is changed widely.
Abstract: The process of constructing a scale measuring the attitudes of youth toward violence on televisions is reported. A 30-item draft attitude scale was applied to a working group of 232 students attending the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Ankara University between the years 2005-2006. To introduce the construct validity and dimensionality of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the data. Results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale had three factors that accounted for 58,44% (22,46% for the first, 22,15% for the second and 13,83% for the third factor) of the common variance. It is determined that the first factor considered issues related individual effects of violence on televisions, the second factor concerned issues related social effects of violence on televisions and the third factor concerned issues related violence on television programs. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that all the items under each factor are fitting the concerning factors structure. An alpha reliability of 0,90 was estimated for the whole scale. It is concluded that the scale is valid and reliable.
Abstract: This paper is to explore the relationship and the level
of stock market integration of the Asian countries, primarily
concentrating on Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea,
with the world from January 1997 to December 2009. The degree of
short-run and long-run stock market integration of those Asian
countries are analyzed in order to determine the significance of series
of regional and world financial crises, liberalization policies and
other financial reforms in influencing the level of stock market
integration. To test for cointegration, this paper applies coefficient
correlation, univariate regression analyses, cointegration tests, and
vector autoregressive models (VAR) by using the four Asian stock
markets main indices and the MSCI World index. The empirical
findings from this work reveal that there is no long-run stock market
integration for the four countries and the world market. However,
there is short run integration.
Abstract: The inability to implement the principles of good
corporate governance (GCG) as demonstrated in the surveys is due to
a number of constraints which can be classified into three; namely internal constraints, external constraints, and constraints coming
from the structure of ownership. The issues in the internal constraints
mentioned are related to the function of several elements of the company. As a business organization, corporation is unable to
achieve its goal to successfully implement GCG principles since it is
not support by its internal elements- functions. Two of several numbers of internal elements of a company are ethical work climate
and leadership style of the top management.
To prove the correlation between internal function of organization
(in this case ethical work climate and transformational leadership)
and the successful implementation of GCG principles, this study
proposes two hypotheses to be empirically tested on thirty surveyed organizations; eleven of which are state-owned companies and
nineteen are private companies. These thirty corporations are listed in
the Jakarta Stock Exchange. All state-owned companies in the
samples are those which have been privatized.
The research showed that internal function of organization give
support to the successful implementation of GCG principle. In this
research we can prove that : (i) ethical work climate has positive
significance of correlation with the successful implementation of
social awareness principle (one of principles on GCG) and, (ii) only
at the state-owned companies, transformational leadership have
positive significance effect to forming the ethical work climate.
Abstract: Proteins levels produced by bacteria may be increased
in stressful surroundings, such as in the presence of antibiotics. It
appears that many antimicrobial agents or antibiotics, when used at
low concentrations, have in common the ability to activate or repress
gene transcription, which is distinct from their inhibitory effect.
There have been comparatively few studies on the potential of
antibiotics or natural compounds in nature as a specific chemical
signal that can trigger a variety of biological functions. Therefore,
this study was focusing on the effect of essential oils from
Cymbopogon flexuosus and C. nardus in regulating proteins
production by Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21332. The Minimum
Inhibition Concentrations (MICs) of both essential oils on B. subtilis
were determined by using microdilution assay, resulting 0.2% and
1.56% for each C. flexuosus and C. nardus subsequently. The
bacteria were further exposed to each essential oils at concentration
of 0.01XMIC for 2 days. The proteins were then isolated and
analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Protein profile showed that a band
with approximate size of 250 kD was appeared for the treated
bacteria with essential oils. Thus, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21332 in
stressful condition with the presence of essential oils at low
concentration could induce the protein production.
Abstract: Communication is an important factor and a prop in
directing corporate activities efficiently, in ensuring the flow of
knowledge which is necessary for the continuity of the institution, in
creating a common language in the institution, in transferring
corporate culture and ultimately in corporate success. The idea of
transmitting the knowledge among the workers in a healthy manner
has revived knowledge communication. Knowledge communication
can be defined as the act of mutual creation and communication of
intuitions, assessments, experiences and capabilities, as long as
maintained effectively, can provide advantages such as corporate
continuity, access to corporate objectives and making true
administrative decisions. Although the benefits of the knowledge
communication to corporations are known, and the necessary worth
and care is given, some hardships may arise which makes it difficult
or even block it. In this article, difficulties that prevent knowledge
communication will be discussed and solutions will be proposed.
Abstract: In pattern recognition applications the low level
segmentation and the high level object recognition are generally
considered as two separate steps. The paper presents a method that
bridges the gap between the low and the high level object
recognition. It is based on a Bayesian network representation and
network propagation algorithm. At the low level it uses hierarchical
structure of quadratic spline wavelet image bases. The method is
demonstrated for a simple circuit diagram component identification
problem.
Abstract: Within the framework of a method of the information
theory it is offered statistics and probabilistic model for definition of
cause-and-effect relations in the coupled multicomponent
subsystems. The quantitative parameter which is defined through
conditional and unconditional entropy functions is introduced. The
method is applied to the analysis of the experimental data on
dynamics of change of the chemical elements composition of plants
organs (roots, reproductive organs, leafs and stems). Experiment is
directed on studying of temporal processes of primary soil formation
and their connection with redistribution dynamics of chemical
elements in plant organs. This statistics and probabilistic model
allows also quantitatively and unambiguously to specify the
directions of the information streams on plant organs.
Abstract: Majority of Business Software Systems (BSS)
Development and Enhancement Projects (D&EP) fail to meet criteria
of their effectiveness, what leads to the considerable financial losses.
One of the fundamental reasons for such projects- exceptionally low
success rate are improperly derived estimates for their costs and time.
In the case of BSS D&EP these attributes are determined by the work
effort, meanwhile reliable and objective effort estimation still appears
to be a great challenge to the software engineering. Thus this paper is
aimed at presenting the most important synthetic conclusions coming
from the author-s own studies concerning the main factors of
effective BSS D&EP work effort estimation. Thanks to the rational
investment decisions made on the basis of reliable and objective
criteria it is possible to reduce losses caused not only by abandoned
projects but also by large scale of overrunning the time and costs of
BSS D&EP execution.