Abstract: In this paper, we develop quartic nonpolynomial
spline method for the numerical solution of third order two point
boundary value problems. It is shown that the new method gives
approximations, which are better than those produced by other spline
methods. Convergence analysis of the method is discussed through
standard procedures. Two numerical examples are given to illustrate
the applicability and efficiency of the novel method.
Abstract: In this work we study the effect of several covariates X on a censored response variable T with unknown probability distribution. In this context, most of the studies in the literature can be located in two possible general classes of regression models: models that study the effect the covariates have on the hazard function; and models that study the effect the covariates have on the censored response variable. Proposals in this paper are in the second class of models and, more specifically, on least squares based model approach. Thus, using the bootstrap estimate of the bias, we try to improve the estimation of the regression parameters by reducing their bias, for small sample sizes. Simulation results presented in the paper show that, for reasonable sample sizes and censoring levels, the bias is always smaller for the new proposals.
Abstract: As the mobile Internet has become widespread in
recent years, communication based on mobile networks is increasing.
As a result, security threats have been posed with regard to the
abnormal traffic of mobile networks, but mobile security has been
handled with focus on threats posed by mobile malicious codes, and
researches on security threats to the mobile network itself have not
attracted much attention. In mobile networks, the IP address of the data
packet is a very important factor for billing purposes. If one mobile
terminal use an incorrect IP address that either does not exist or could
be assigned to another mobile terminal, billing policy will cause
problems. We monitor and analyze 3G mobile data networks traffics
for a period of time and finds some abnormal IP packets. In this paper,
we analyze the reason for abnormal IP packets on 3G Mobile Data
Networks. And we also propose an algorithm based on IP address table
that contains addresses currently in use within the mobile data network
to detect abnormal IP packets.
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: Coal tar is a liquid by-product of the process of coal
gasification and carbonation. This liquid oil mixture contains various
kinds of useful compounds such as phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol.
These compounds are widely used as raw material for insecticides,
dyes, medicines, perfumes, coloring matters, and many others.
This research needed to be done that given the optimum conditions
for the separation of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from the coal tar
by solvent extraction process. The aim of the present work was to
study the effect of two kinds of aqueous were used as solvents:
methanol and acetone solutions, the effect of temperature (298, 306,
and 313K) and mixing (30, 35, and 40rpm) for the separation of
phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar by solvent extraction.
Results indicated that phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol in coal tar
were selectivity extracted into the solvent phase and these
components could be separated by solvent extraction. The aqueous
solution of methanol, mass ratio of solvent to feed, Eo/Ro=1,
extraction temperature 306K and mixing 35 rpm were the most
efficient for extraction of phenol, o-cresol, and p-cresol from coal tar.
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: Designing and implementing intelligent systems has become a crucial factor for the innovation and development of better products of space technologies. A neural network is a parallel system, capable of resolving paradigms that linear computing cannot. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) is a digital device that owns reprogrammable properties and robust flexibility. For the neural network based instrument prototype in real time application, conventional specific VLSI neural chip design suffers the limitation in time and cost. With low precision artificial neural network design, FPGAs have higher speed and smaller size for real time application than the VLSI and DSP chips. So, many researchers have made great efforts on the realization of neural network (NN) using FPGA technique. In this paper, an introduction of ANN and FPGA technique are briefly shown. Also, Hardware Description Language (VHDL) code has been proposed to implement ANNs as well as to present simulation results with floating point arithmetic. Synthesis results for ANN controller are developed using Precision RTL. Proposed VHDL implementation creates a flexible, fast method and high degree of parallelism for implementing ANN. The implementation of multi-layer NN using lookup table LUT reduces the resource utilization for implementation and time for execution.
Abstract: This paper details a new concept of using compressed air as a potential zero pollution power source for motorbikes. In place of an internal combustion engine, the motorbike is equipped with an air turbine transforms the energy of the compressed air into shaft work. The mathematical modeling and performance evaluation of a small capacity compressed air driven vaned type novel air turbine is presented in this paper. The effect of isobaric admission and adiabatic expansion of high pressure air for different rotor diameters, casing diameters and ratio of rotor to casing diameters of the turbine have been considered and analyzed. It is concluded that the work output is found optimum for some typical values of rotor / casing diameter ratios. In this study, the maximum power works out to 3.825 kW (5.20 HP) for casing diameter of 200 mm and rotor to casing diameter ratio of 0.65 to 0.60 which is sufficient to run motorbike.
Abstract: The present study was conducted to observe the effect
of Plantago psyllium on blood glucose and cholesterol levels in
normal and alloxan induced diabetic rats. To investigate the effect of
Plantago psyllium 40 rats were included in this study divided into
four groups of ten rats in each group. One group A was normal,
second group B was diabetic, third group C was non diabetic and
hypercholesterolemic and fourth group D was diabetic and
hypercholesterolemic. Two groups B and D were made diabetic by
intraperitonial injection of alloxan dissolved in 1mL distilled water at
a dose of 125mg/Kg of body weight. Two groups C and D were
made hypercholesterolemic by oral administration of powder
cholesterol (1g/Kg of body weight). The blood samples from all the
rats were collected from coccygial vein on 1st day, then on 21st and
42nd day respectively. All the samples were analyzed for blood
glucose and cholesterol level by using enzymatic kits. The blood
glucose and cholesterol levels of treated groups of rats showed
significant reduction after 7 weeks of treatment with Plantago
psyllium. By statistical analysis of results it was found that Plantago
psyllium has anti-diabetic and hypocholesterolemic activity in
diabetic and hypercholesterolemic albino rats.
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: A hybrid learning automata-genetic algorithm (HLGA) is proposed to solve QoS routing optimization problem of next generation networks. The algorithm complements the advantages of the learning Automato Algorithm(LA) and Genetic Algorithm(GA). It firstly uses the good global search capability of LA to generate initial population needed by GA, then it uses GA to improve the Quality of Service(QoS) and acquiring the optimization tree through new algorithms for crossover and mutation operators which are an NP-Complete problem. In the proposed algorithm, the connectivity matrix of edges is used for genotype representation. Some novel heuristics are also proposed for mutation, crossover, and creation of random individuals. We evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed HLGA-based algorithm in comparison with other existing heuristic and GA-based algorithms by the result of simulation. Simulation results demonstrate that this paper proposed algorithm not only has the fast calculating speed and high accuracy but also can improve the efficiency in Next Generation Networks QoS routing. The proposed algorithm has overcome all of the previous algorithms in the literature.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to provide an efficient tool for delineating brain tumors in three-dimensional magnetic resonance images. To achieve this goal, we use basically a level-sets approach to delineating three-dimensional brain tumors. Then we introduce a compression plan of 3D brain structures based for the meshes simplification, adapted for time to the specific needs of the telemedicine and to the capacities restricted by network communication. We present here the main stages of our system, and preliminary results which are very encouraging for clinical practice.
Abstract: The following study aims to outline, whether the
perceptions of entrepreneurs about their entrepreneurial activities and
the underlying meanings of their activities are universal or whether
they vary systematically across cultures. In contrast to previous
studies, the phenomenographical approach and the resulting findings
of this study provide new insights into what constitutes
entrepreneurship by drawing an inference from the perceptions of
entrepreneurs in the United States and in Germany. Culture is shown
to have an important impact on entrepreneurship, since the
underlying meanings of entrepreneurship vary significantly among
the two sample groups. Furthermore, the study sheds more light on
the culturally contingent 'why' of entrepreneurship by looking at the
internal motivations of individuals instead of exclusively focusing on
character traits or external influences of the respective economic
environments.
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: Today, people are more interested in the foods
beneficial on their health. However, there are still lacks of accurate
knowledge in the field of biological properties, functional properties,
including the application of legume in foods. This study focused on
antioxidant activity of soybean (SB) and fermented soybean (FSB)
crude extracts evaluating to have more information in fortification SB
and FSB crude extracts in food products and/or dietary supplement.
SB and FSB crude extracts were prepared by infusion with water and
ethanol. The antioxidant activity of crude extracts was studied with
DPPH and ABTS assay including commercial standard. From both
DPPH and ABTS assay, the antioxidant activity of SB and FSB water
crude extract showed higher antioxidant activity than ethanol crude
extract, and FSB crude extract showed higher antioxidant activity
than SB crude extract. In DPPH assay, BHT and vitamin C showed
IC50 values at 0.241, 0.039 mg/ml, in ABTS assay. In addition,
Trolox showed IC50 at 0.058 mg/ml respectively. FSB water crude
extract showed high antioxidant activity. Finally, the functional
properties study of both water and ethanol crude extracts should be
done for beneficial in application of these extracts in food products
and dietary supplement in the near future.
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to find out the efficacy
of selected mobility exercises and participation in special games on psychomotor abilities, functional abilities and skill performance
among intellectually disabled children of age group under 14. Thirty male students who were studying in Balar Kalvi Nilayam and YMCA
College Special School, Chennai, acted as subjects for the study.
They were only mild and moderate in intellectual disability. These
students did not undergo any special training or coaching programme apart from their regular routine physical activity classes as a part of
the curriculum in the school. They were attached at random, based on
age in which 30 belonged to under 14 age group, which was divided
into three equal group of ten for each experimental treatment. 10
students (Treatment group I) underwent calisthenics and special
games participation, 10 students (Treatment group II) underwent
aquatics and special games participation, 10 students (Treatment
group III) underwent yoga and special games participation. The subjects were tested on selected criterion variables prior (pre test)
and after twelve weeks of training (post test). The pre and post test
data collected from three groups on functional abilities(self care,
learning, capacity for independent living), psychomotor
variables(static balance, eye hand coordination, simple reaction time
test) and skill performance (bocce skill, badminton skill, table tennis
skill) were statistically examined for significant difference, by
applying the analysis ANACOVA. Whenever an 'F' ratio for
adjusted test was found to be significant for adjusted post test means,
Scheffe-s test was followed as a post-hoc test to determine which of
the paired mean differences was significant. The result of the study
showed that among under 14 age groups there was a significant improvement on selected criterion variables such as, Balance,
Coordination, self-care and learning and also in Bocce, Badminton & Table Tennis skill performance, due to mobility exercises and
participation in special games. However there were no significant
differences among the groups.
Abstract: Appeared toward 1986, the object-oriented databases
management systems had not known successes knew five years after
their birth. One of the major difficulties is the query optimization.
We propose in this paper a new approach that permits to enrich
techniques of query optimization existing in the object-oriented
databases. Seen success that knew the query optimization in the
relational model, our approach inspires itself of these optimization
techniques and enriched it so that they can support the new concepts
introduced by the object databases.
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: Detection of player identity is challenging task in sport video content analysis. In case of soccer video player number recognition is effective and precise solution. Jersey numbers can be considered as scene text and difficulties in localization and recognition appear due to variations in orientation, size, illumination, motion etc. This paper proposed new method for player number localization and recognition. By observing hue, saturation and value for 50 different jersey examples we noticed that most often combination of low and high saturated pixels is used to separate number and jersey region. Image segmentation method based on this observation is introduced. Then, novel method for player number localization based on internal contours is proposed. False number candidates are filtered using area and aspect ratio. Before OCR processing extracted numbers are enhanced using image smoothing and rotation normalization.