Abstract: Application of hulls processing technologies, based on high-concentrated energy sources (laser and plasma technologies), allow improve shipbuilding production. It is typical for high-speed vessels construction using steel and aluminum alloys with high precision hulls required. Report describes high-performance technologies for plasma welding (using direct current of reversed polarity), laser, and hybrid laser-arc welding of hulls structures developed by JSC “SSTC”
Abstract: It is known that residual welding deformations give
negative effect to processability and operational quality of welded
structures, complicating their assembly and reducing strength.
Therefore, selection of optimal technology, ensuring minimum
welding deformations, is one of the main goals in developing a
technology for manufacturing of welded structures.
Through years, JSC SSTC has been developing a theory for
estimation of welding deformations and practical activities for
reducing and compensating such deformations during welding
process. During long time a methodology was used, based on analytic
dependence. This methodology allowed defining volumetric changes
of metal due to welding heating and subsequent cooling. However,
dependences for definition of structures deformations, arising as a
result of volumetric changes of metal in the weld area, allowed
performing calculations only for simple structures, such as units, flat
sections and sections with small curvature. In case of complex 3D
structures, estimations on the base of analytic dependences gave
significant errors.
To eliminate this shortage, it was suggested to use finite elements
method for resolving of deformation problem. Here, one shall first
calculate volumes of longitudinal and transversal shortenings of
welding joints using method of analytic dependences and further,
with obtained shortenings, calculate forces, which action is
equivalent to the action of active welding stresses. Further, a finiteelements
model of the structure is developed and equivalent forces
are added to this model. Having results of calculations, an optimal
sequence of assembly and welding is selected and special measures to
reduce and compensate welding deformations are developed and
taken.
Abstract: Roof top rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been
carried out worldwide to provide an inexpensive source of water for
many people. This research aims at evaluating the potential of roof
top rain water harvesting as a resource in Jordan. For the purpose of
this work, two case studies at Al-Jubiha and Shafa-Badran districts in
Amman city were selected. All existing rooftops in both districts
were identified by digitizing 2012 satellite images of the two districts
using Google earth and ArcGIS tools. Rational method was used to
estimate the potential volume of rainwater that can be harvested from
the digitized rooftops. Results indicated that 1.17 and 0.526 MCM/yr
can be harvested in Al-Jubiha and Shafa-Badran districts,
respectively. This study should increase the attention to the
importance of implementing RWH technique in Jordanian residences
as a viable alternative for ensuring a continued source of non-potable
water.
Abstract: This study aims to examine the role of career
advancement and job security as predictors of employee commitment
to their organization. Data was collected from 580 frontline
employees attached to two departments of 29 luxury hotels in
Peninsular Malaysia. Statistical results using Partial Least Squares
technique provided support for the proposed hypotheses. In view of
the findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Abstract: High temperature deformation behavior of cast
Fe-20Cr-5Al alloy has been investigated in this study by performing
tensile and compression tests at temperatures from 1100 to 1200oC.
Rectangular ingots of which the dimensions were 300×300×100 in
millimeter were cast using vacuum induction melting. Phase
equilibrium was calculated using the FactSage®, thermodynamic
software and database. Tensile strength of cast Fe-20Cr-5Al alloy was
4 MPa at 1200oC. With temperature decreased, tensile strength
increased rapidly and reached up to 13 MPa at 1100oC. Elongation
also increased from 18 to 80% with temperature decreased from
1200oC to 1100oC. Microstructure observation revealed that M23C6
carbide was precipitated along the grain boundary and within the
matrix.
Abstract: This paper proposes a cooperative Alamouti space time
transmission scheme with low relay complexity for the cooperative
communication systems. In the proposed scheme, the source node
combines the data symbols to construct the Alamouti-coded form at
the destination node, while the conventional scheme performs the
corresponding operations at the relay nodes. In simulation results,
it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves the second order
cooperative diversity while maintaining the same bit error rate (BER)
performance as that of the conventional scheme.
Abstract: In this paper, GSM signal strength was measured in
order to detect the type of the signal fading phenomenon using onedimensional
multilevel wavelet residual method and neural network
clustering to determine the average GSM signal strength received in
the study area. The wavelet residual method predicted that the GSM
signal experienced slow fading and attenuated with MSE of 3.875dB.
The neural network clustering revealed that mostly -75dB, -85dB and
-95dB were received. This means that the signal strength received in
the study is a weak signal.
Abstract: This paper analyzes innovation trends in South Korea
by means of the number of patent applications filed by residents and
nonresidents during the period 1965 to 2012. Making use of patent
data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), we search for the presence of multiple structural changes in
patent application series in this country. These changes may suggest
that firms’ innovative activity has been modified as a result of
implementing some science, technology and innovation (STI)
policies. Accordingly, the new regulations implemented in this
country in the last decades have influenced its innovative activity.
The question conducting this research is thus how STI policies in
South Korea have influenced its innovation activity. The results
confirm the existence of multiple structural changes in the series of
patent applications resulting from alternative STI policies
implemented during these years.
Abstract: Enzyme activity was evaluated in the intestine of
juvenile dourado (Salminus brasiliensis) fed with diets containing 0,
10 or 20% of lyophilized bovine colostrum (LBC) inclusion for either
30 or 60 days. The intestinal enzymes acid and alkaline phosphatase
(ACP and ALP, respectively), non-specific esterase (NSE), lipase
(LIP), dipeptidyl aminopeptidase IV (DAP IV) and leucine
aminopeptidase (LAP) were studied using histochemistry in four
intestinal segments (S1, S2, S3 and posterior intestine). Weak
proteolitic activity was observed in all intestinal segments for DAP
IV and LAP. The activity of NSE and LIP was also weak in all
intestines, except for the moderate activity of NSE in the S2 of 20%
LBC group after 30 days and in the S1 of 0% LBC group after 60
days. The ACP was detected only in the S2 and S3 of the 10% LBC
group after 30 days. Moderate and strong staining was observed in
the first three intestinal segments for ALP and weak activity in the
posterior intestine. The activity of DAP IV, LAP and ALP were also
present in the cytoplasm of the enterocytes. In the present results,
bovine colostrum feeding did not cause alterations in activity of
intestinal enzymes.
Abstract: Paper deals with analysis of strategic management
methods in non-profit making organization in the Czech Republic.
Strategic management represents an aggregate of methods and
approaches that can be applied for managing organizations - in this
article the organizations which associate owners and keepers of nonstate
forest properties. Authors use these methods of strategic
management: analysis of stakeholders, SWOT analysis and
questionnaire inquiries. The questionnaire was distributed
electronically via e-mail. In October 2013 we obtained data from a
total of 84 questionnaires. Based on the results the authors
recommend the using of confrontation strategy which improves the
competitiveness of non-profit making organizations.
Abstract: Thermal insulation materials based on natural fibers
represent a very promising area of materials based on natural easy
renewable row sources. These materials may be in terms of the
properties of most competing synthetic insulations, but show
somewhat higher moisture sensitivity and thermal insulation
properties are strongly influenced by the density and orientation of
fibers. The paper described the problem of hygrothermal behavior of
thermal insulation materials based on natural plant and animal fibers.
This is especially the dependence of the thermal properties of these
materials on the type of fiber, bulk density, temperature, moisture and
the fiber orientation.
Abstract: Electronic market place plays an important
intermediary role for connecting dealers and retail customers. The
main aim of this paper is to design a value co-creation model in
used-car auctions. More specifically, the study has been designed in
order to describe the process of value co-creation in used-car auctions,
to explore the co-created values in used-car auctions, and finally
conclude the paper indicating the future research directions. Our
analysis shows that economic values as well as non-economic values
are co-created in used-car auctions. In addition, this paper contributes
to the academic society broadening the view of value co-creation in
service science.
Abstract: Bureaucracy reform program drives Indonesian
government to change their management to enhance their
organizational performance. Information technology became one of
strategic plan that organization tried to improve. Knowledge
management system is one of information system that supporting
knowledge management implementation in government which
categorized as people perspective, because this system has high
dependency in human interaction and participation. Strategic plan for
developing knowledge management system can be determine using
some of information system strategic methods. This research
conducted to define type of strategic method of information system,
stage of activity each method, strength and weakness. Literature
review methods used to identify and classify strategic methods of
information system, differentiate method type, categorize common
activities, strength and weakness. Result of this research are
determine and compare six strategic information system methods,
Balanced Scorecard and Risk Analysis believe as common strategic
method that usually used and have the highest excellence strength.
Abstract: Osteoporosis is a common multifactorial disease with
a strong genetic component characterized by reduced bone mass and
increased risk of fractures. Genetic factors play an important role in
the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. The aim of our study was to
identify the genotype and allele distribution of T245G polymorphism
in OPG gene in Slovak postmenopausal women. A total of 200
unrelated Slovak postmenopausal women with diagnosed
osteoporosis and 200 normal controls were genotyped for T245G
(rs3134069) polymorphism of OPG gene. Genotyping was performed
using the Custom Taqman®SNP Genotyping assays. Genotypes and
alleles frequencies showed no significant differences (p=0.5551;
p=0.6022). The results of the present study confirm the importance of
T245G polymorphism in OPG gene in the pathogenesis of
osteoporosis.
Abstract: This paper presents the application of finite dynamic
programming, specifically the "Markov Chain" model, as part of the
decision making process of a company in the cosmetics sector located
in the vicinity of Bogota DC. The objective of this process was to
decide whether the company should completely reconstruct its
wastewater treatment plant or instead optimize the plant through the
addition of equipment. The goal of both of these options was to make
the required improvements in order to comply with parameters
established by national legislation regarding the treatment of waste
before it is released into the environment. This technique will allow
the company to select the best option and implement a solution for
the processing of waste to minimize environmental damage and the
acquisition and implementation costs.
Abstract: ‘Steganalysis’ is one of the challenging and attractive interests for the researchers with the development of information hiding techniques. It is the procedure to detect the hidden information from the stego created by known steganographic algorithm. In this paper, a novel feature based image steganalysis technique is proposed. Various statistical moments have been used along with some similarity metric. The proposed steganalysis technique has been designed based on transformation in four wavelet domains, which include Haar, Daubechies, Symlets and Biorthogonal. Each domain is being subjected to various classifiers, namely K-nearest-neighbor, K* Classifier, Locally weighted learning, Naive Bayes classifier, Neural networks, Decision trees and Support vector machines. The experiments are performed on a large set of pictures which are available freely in image database. The system also predicts the different message length definitions.
Abstract: Because of high thermal efficiency and low CO2
emission, diesel engines are being used widely in many industrial
fields although it makes many PM and NOx which give both human
health and environment a negative effect. NOx regulations for diesel
engines, however, are being strengthened and it is impossible to meet
the emission standard without NOx reduction devices such as SCR
(Selective Catalytic Reduction), LNC (Lean NOx Catalyst), and LNT
(Lean NOx Trap). Among the NOx reduction devices, urea-SCR
system is known as the most stable and efficient method to solve the
problem of NOx emission. But this device has some issues associated
with the ammonia slip phenomenon which is occurred by shortage of
evaporation and thermolysis time, and that makes it difficult to achieve
uniform distribution of the injected urea in front of monolith.
Therefore, this study has focused on the mixing enhancement between
urea and exhaust gases to enhance the efficiency of the SCR catalyst
equipped in catalytic muffler by changing inlet gas temperature and
spray conditions to improve the spray uniformity of the urea water
solution. Finally, it can be found that various parameters such as inlet
gas temperature and injector and injection angles significantly affect
the evaporation and mixing of the urea water solution with exhaust
gases, and therefore, optimization of these parameters are required.
Abstract: Second line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen is
used when patients fail their first line regimen. There are many
factors such as non-adherence, drug resistance as well as virological
and immunological failure that lead to second line highly active
antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen treatment failure. This study
was aimed at determining predictor factors to treatment failure with
second line HAART and analyzing median survival time.
An observational, retrospective study was conducted in Sungai
Buloh Hospital (HSB) to assess current status of HIV patients treated
with second line HAART regimen. Convenience sampling was used
and 104 patients were included based on the study’s inclusion and
exclusion criteria. Data was collected for six months i.e. from July
until December 2013. Data was then analysed using SPSS version 18.
Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to measure
median survival times and predictor factors for treatment failure.
The study population consisted mainly of male subjects, aged 30-
45 years, who were heterosexual, and had HIV infection for less than
6 years. The most common second line HAART regimen given was
lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r)-based combination. Kaplan-Meier
analysis showed that patients on LPV/r demonstrated longer median
survival times than patients on indinavir/ritonavir (IDV/r) based
combination (p
Abstract: Recently GPS data is used in a lot of studies to
automatically reconstruct travel patterns for trip survey. The aim is to
minimize the use of questionnaire surveys and travel diaries so as to
reduce their negative effects. In this paper data acquired from GPS and
accelerometer embedded in smart phones is utilized to predict the
mode of transportation used by the phone carrier. For prediction,
Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Adaptive boosting (AdaBoost)
are employed. Moreover a unique method to improve the prediction
results from these algorithms is also proposed. Results suggest that the
prediction accuracy of AdaBoost after improvement is relatively better
than the rest.
Abstract: We have studied a method to widen the spectrum
of optical pulses that pass through an InGaAsP waveguide for
application to broadband optical communication. In particular, we
have investigated the competitive effect between spectral broadening
arising from nonlinear refraction (optical Kerr effect) and shrinking
due to two photon absorption in the InGaAsP waveguide with
χ(3) nonlinearity. The shrunk spectrum recovers broadening by
the enhancement effect of the nonlinear refractive index near the
bandgap of InGaAsP with a bandgap wavelength of 1490 nm. The
broadened spectral width at around 1525 nm (196.7 THz) becomes
10.7 times wider than that at around 1560 nm (192.3 THz) without
the enhancement effect, where amplified optical pulses with a pulse
width of ∼ 2 ps and a peak power of 10 W propagate through a
1-cm-long InGaAsP waveguide with a cross-section of 4 (μm)2.