Abstract: In this paper a new Joint Adaptive Block Matching
Search (JABMS) algorithm is proposed to generate motion vector
and search a best match macro block by classifying the motion vector
movement based on prediction error. Diamond Search (DS)
algorithm generates high estimation accuracy when motion vector is
small and Adaptive Rood Pattern Search (ARPS) algorithm can
handle large motion vector but is not very accurate. The proposed
JABMS algorithm which is capable of considering both small and
large motions gives improved estimation accuracy and the
computational cost is reduced by 15.2 times compared with
Exhaustive Search (ES) algorithm and is 1.3 times less compared
with Diamond search algorithm.
Abstract: In this paper fatigue crack initiation and propagation in notched plate under constant amplitude loading through tensile residual stress field of 2024 T351 Al-alloy plate were investigated. Residual stress field was generated by plastic deformation using finite element method (FEM) where isotropic hardening in Von Mises model was applied. Simulation of fatigue behavior was made on AFGROW code. It was shown that the fatigue crack initiation and propagation were affected by level of residual stress filed. In this investigation, the presence of tensile residual stresses at notch (hole) reduces considerably the total fatigue life. It was shown that the decreasing in stress reduces the fatigue crack growth rates.
Abstract: The worldwide prevalence of H3N2 influenza virus
and its increasing resistance to the existing drugs necessitates for the
development of an improved/better targeting anti-influenza drug.
H3N2 influenza neuraminidase is one of the two membrane-bound
proteins belonging to group-2 neuraminidases. It acts as key player
involved in viral pathogenicity and hence, is an important target of
anti-influenza drugs. Oseltamivir is one of the potent drugs targeting
this neuraminidase. In the present work, we have taken subtype N2
neuraminidase as the receptor and probable analogs of oseltamivir as
drug molecules to study the protein-drug interaction in anticipation of
finding efficient modified candidate compound. Oseltamivir analogs
were made by modifying the functional groups using Marvin Sketch
software and were docked using Schrodinger-s Glide. Oseltamivir
analog 10 was detected to have significant energy value (16% less
compared to Oseltamivir) and could be the probable lead molecule. It
infers that some of the modified compounds can interact in a novel
manner with increased hydrogen bonding at the active site of
neuraminidase and it might be better than the original drug. Further
work can be carried out such as enzymatic inhibition studies;
synthesis and crystallizing the drug-target complex to analyze the
interactions biologically.
Abstract: Scarcity of resources for biodiversity conservation gives rise to the need of strategic investment with priorities given to the cost of conservation. While the literature provides abundant methodological options for biodiversity conservation; estimating true cost of conservation remains abstract and simplistic, without recognising dynamic nature of the cost. Some recent works demonstrate the prominence of economic theory to inform biodiversity decisions, particularly on the costs and benefits of biodiversity however, the integration of the concept of true cost into biodiversity actions and planning are very slow to come by, and specially on a farm level. Conservation planning studies often use area as a proxy for costs neglecting different land values as well as protected areas. These literature consider only heterogeneous benefits while land costs are considered homogenous. Analysis with the assumption of cost homogeneity results in biased estimation; since not only it doesn’t address the true total cost of biodiversity actions and plans, but also it fails to screen out lands that are more (or less) expensive and/or difficult (or more suitable) for biodiversity conservation purposes, hindering validity and comparability of the results. Economies of scope” is one of the other most neglected aspects in conservation literature. The concept of economies of scope introduces the existence of cost complementarities within a multiple output production system and it suggests a lower cost during the concurrent production of multiple outputs by a given farm. If there are, indeed, economies of scope then simplistic representation of costs will tend to overestimate the true cost of conservation leading to suboptimal outcomes. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to provide first road review of the various theoretical ways in which economies of scope are likely to occur of how they might occur in conservation. Consequently, the paper addresses gaps that have to be filled in future analysis.
Abstract: Stochastic comparison has been an important
direction of research in various area. This can be done by the use of
the notion of stochastic ordering which gives qualitatitive rather than
purely quantitative estimation of the system under study. In this
paper we present applications of comparison based uncertainty
related to entropy in Reliability analysis, for example to design
better systems. These results can be used as a priori information in
simulation studies.
Abstract: Two-dimensional heat conduction within a composed solid material with a constant internal heat generation has been investigated numerically in a sector of the rotor a generator. The heat transfer between two adjacent materials is assumed to be purely conduction. Boundary conditions are assumed to be forced convection on the fluid side and adiabatic on symmetry lines. The control volume method is applied for the diffusion energy equation. Physical coordinates are transformed to the general curvilinear coordinates. Then by using a line-by-line method, the temperature distribution in a sector of the rotor has been determined. Finally, the results are normalized and the effect of cooling fluid on the maximum temperature of insulation is investigated.
Abstract: This paper shows the advantages of the material failure process simulation by improve finite elements with embedded discontinuities, using a new definition of traction vector, dependent on the discontinuity length and the angle. Particularly, two families of this kind of elements are compared: kinematically optimal symmetric and statically and kinematically optimal non-symmetric. The constitutive model to describe the behavior of the material in the symmetric formulation is a traction-displacement jump relationship equipped with softening after reaching the failure surface.
To show the validity of this symmetric formulation, representative numerical examples illustrating the performance of the proposed formulation are presented. It is shown that the non-symmetric family may over or underestimate the energy required to create a discontinuity, as this effect is related with the total length of the discontinuity, fact that is not noticed when the discontinuity path is a straight line.
Abstract: Oxide scale thickness measurements are used in assessing the life of different components operating at high temperature environment. Such measurements provide an approximation for the temperature inside components such as reheater and superheater tubes. A number of failures were encountered in one of the boilers in one of Kuwaiti power plants. These failure were mainly in the first row of the primary super heater tubes, therefore, the specialized engineer decide to replace them during the annual shutdown. As a tool for failure analysis, oxide scale thickness measurement were used to investigate the temperature distribution in these tubes. In this paper, the oxide scale thickness of these tubes were measured and used for analysis. The measurements provide an illustration of the distribution of heat transfer of the primary superheater tubes in the boiler system. Remarks and analysis about the design of the boiler are also provided.
Abstract: In this work we propose a novel Steganographic
method for hiding information within the spatial domain of the gray
scale image. The proposed approach works by dividing the cover into
blocks of equal sizes and then embeds the message in the edge of the
block depending on the number of ones in left four bits of the pixel.
The proposed approach is tested on a database consists of 100
different images. Experimental results, compared with other
methods, showed that the proposed approach hide more large
information and gave a good visual quality stego-image that can be
seen by human eyes.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed the robust mobile object
detection method for light effect in the night street image block based
updating reference background model using block state analysis.
Experiment image is acquired sequence color video from steady
camera. When suddenly appeared artificial illumination, reference
background model update this information such as street light, sign
light. Generally natural illumination is change by temporal, but
artificial illumination is suddenly appearance. So in this paper for
exactly detect artificial illumination have 2 state process. First process
is compare difference between current image and reference
background by block based, it can know changed blocks. Second
process is difference between current image-s edge map and reference
background image-s edge map, it possible to estimate illumination at
any block. This information is possible to exactly detect object,
artificial illumination and it was generating reference background
more clearly. Block is classified by block-state analysis. Block-state
has a 4 state (i.e. transient, stationary, background, artificial
illumination). Fig. 1 is show characteristic of block-state respectively
[1]. Experimental results show that the presented approach works well
in the presence of illumination variance.
Abstract: Oil debris signal generated from the inductive oil
debris monitor (ODM) is useful information for machine condition
monitoring but is often spoiled by background noise. To improve the
reliability in machine condition monitoring, the high-fidelity signal
has to be recovered from the noisy raw data. Considering that the noise
components with large amplitude often have higher frequency than
that of the oil debris signal, the integral transform is proposed to
enhance the detectability of the oil debris signal. To cancel out the
baseline wander resulting from the integral transform, the empirical
mode decomposition (EMD) method is employed to identify the trend
components. An optimal reconstruction strategy including both
de-trending and de-noising is presented to detect the oil debris signal
with less distortion. The proposed approach is applied to detect the oil
debris signal in the raw data collected from an experimental setup. The
result demonstrates that this approach is able to detect the weak oil
debris signal with acceptable distortion from noisy raw data.
Abstract: According to the mobility of the satellite network nodes and the characteristic of management domain dynamic partition in the satellite network, the login and logout mechanism of the satellite network dynamic management domain partition was proposed in the paper. In the mechanism, a ground branch-station sends the packets of login broadcasting to satellites in view. After received the packets, the SNMP agents on the satellites adopt link-delay test to respond. According to the mechanism, the SNMP primitives were extended, and the new added primitives were as follows: broadcasting, login, login confirmation,delay_testing, test responses, and logout. The definition of primitives, which followed RFC1157 criterion, could be encoded by the BER coding. The policy of the dynamic management domain partition on the basis of the login and logout mechanism, which was supported by the SNMP protocol, was realized by the design of the extended primitives.
Abstract: The Principal component regression (PCR) is a
combination of principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR). The objective of this paper is to revise the
use of PCR in shortwave near infrared (SWNIR) (750-1000nm) spectral analysis. The idea of PCR was explained mathematically and
implemented in the non-destructive assessment of the soluble solid
content (SSC) of pineapple based on SWNIR spectral data. PCR achieved satisfactory results in this application with root mean
squared error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.7611 Brix°, coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.5865 and root mean squared error of crossvalidation
(RMSECV) of 0.8323 Brix° with principal components
(PCs) of 14.
Abstract: Four different colors of cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata)
(black, white, red and black/white speckled) and red kidney bean
(Phaseolus vulgaris) were used to evaluate proximate compositions,
starch content, and pasting properties. There were no significant
differences of moisture, protein, ash, fat, and carbohydrate contents
of all bean types. The kidney bean had significantly lower amounts of
total starch and solubilized starch compared to those of other
cowpeas (p ≤ 0.05), whereas the red cowpea and red kidney bean had
highest content of resistant starch (9-10%). Decortication indicated
no significant effect on the proximate compositions of all samples,
but it significantly decreased the resistant starch content in cowpeas
and increased the solubilized starch and total starch content in all
types of cowpeas. The highest values of pasting properties, generally
observed in flours obtained from black and black/white speckled
cowpea.
Abstract: The main purpose of this research was to study how to
communicate the identity of the Amphawa district, Samut Songkram
province for sustainable tourism. The qualitative data was collected
through studying related materials, exploring the area, in-depth
interviews with three groups of people: three directly responsible
officers who were key informants of the district, twenty foreign
tourists and five Thai tourist guides. A content analysis was used to
analyze the qualitative data. The two main findings of the study were
as follows:
1. The identity of the Amphawa District, Samut Songkram
province is the area controlled by Amphawa sub district (submunicipality).
The working unit which runs and looks after
Amphawa sub district administration is known as the Amphawa
mayor. This establishment was built to be a resort for normal
people and tourists visiting the Amphawa district near the
Maekong River consisting of rest accommodations. Along the
river there is a restaurant where food and drinks are served, rich
mangrove forests, a learning center, fireflies and cork trees. The
Amphawa district was built to honor and commemorate King
Rama II and is where the greatest number of fireflies and cork
trees can be seen in Thailand from May to October each year.
2. The communication of the identity of Amphawa District, Samut
Songkram Province which the researcher could find and design
to present in English materials can be summed up in 5 items: 1)
The history of the Amphawa District, Samut Songkram province
2) The history of King Rama II Memorial Park 3) The identity of
Amphawa Floating Market 4) The Learning center of
Ecosystem: Fireflies and Cork Trees 5) How to keep Amphawa
District, Samut Songkram Province for sustainable tourism.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate twodimensional unsteady flow of a viscous incompressible fluid about stagnation point on permeable stretching sheet in presence of time dependent free stream velocity. Fluid is considered in the influence of transverse magnetic field in the presence of radiation effect. Rosseland approximation is use to model the radiative heat transfer. Using time-dependent stream function, partial differential equations corresponding to the momentum and energy equations are converted into non-linear ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained by using Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method with the help of Newton-Raphson shooting technique. In the present work the effect of unsteadiness parameter, magnetic field parameter, radiation parameter, stretching parameter and the Prandtl number on flow and heat transfer characteristics have been discussed. Skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number at the sheet are computed and discussed. The results reported in the paper are in good agreement with published work in literature by other researchers.
Abstract: Artemisinin is a potential antimalarial drug effective
against the multidrug resistant forms of Malarial Parasites. The
current production of artemisinin is insufficient to meet the global
demand. In the present study microbial biotransformation of
arteannuin B, a biogenetic precursor of artemisinin to the later has
been investigated. Screening studies carried out on several soil borne
microorganisms have yielded one novel species with the
bioconversion ability. Crude cell free extract of 72h old culture of the
isolate had shown the bioconversion activity. On incubation with the
substrate arteannuin B, crude cell free extract of the isolate had
shown a bioconversion of 18.54% to artemisinin on molar basis with
a specific activity of 0.18 units/mg.
Abstract: The operating control parameters of injection
flushing type of electrical discharge machining process on stainless
steel 304 workpiece with copper tools are being optimized
according to its individual machining characteristic i.e. material
removal rate (MRR). Lower MRR during EDM machining process
may decrease its- machining productivity. Hence, the quality
characteristic for MRR is set to higher-the-better to achieve the
optimum machining productivity. Taguchi method has been used
for the construction, layout and analysis of the experiment for each
of the machining characteristic for the MRR. The use of Taguchi
method in the experiment saves a lot of time and cost of preparing
and machining the experiment samples. Therefore, an L18
Orthogonal array which was the fundamental component in the
statistical design of experiments has been used to plan the
experiments and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to
determine the optimum machining parameters for this machining
characteristic. The control parameters selected for this
optimization experiments are polarity, pulse on duration, discharge
current, discharge voltage, machining depth, machining diameter
and dielectric liquid pressure. The result had shown that the higher
the discharge voltage, the higher will be the MRR.
Abstract: DNA microarray technology is widely used by
geneticists to diagnose or treat diseases through gene expression.
This technology is based on the hybridization of a tissue-s DNA
sequence into a substrate and the further analysis of the image
formed by the thousands of genes in the DNA as green, red or yellow
spots. The process of DNA microarray image analysis involves
finding the location of the spots and the quantification of the
expression level of these. In this paper, a tool to perform DNA
microarray image analysis is presented, including a spot addressing
method based on the image projections, the spot segmentation
through contour based segmentation and the extraction of relevant
information due to gene expression.
Abstract: The nanotechnology based on epitaxial systems
includes single or arranged misfit dislocations. In general, whatever
is the type of dislocation or the geometry of the array formed by the
dislocations; it is important for experimental studies to know exactly
the stress distribution for which there is no analytical expression [1,
2]. This work, using a numerical analysis, deals with relaxation of
epitaxial layers having at their interface a periodic network of edge
misfit dislocations. The stress distribution is estimated by using
isotropic elasticity. The results show that the thickness of the two
sheets is a crucial parameter in the stress distributions and then in the
profile of the two sheets.
A comparative study between the case of single dislocation and
the case of parallel network shows that the layers relaxed better when
the interface is covered by a parallel arrangement of misfit.
Consequently, a single dislocation at the interface produces an
important stress field which can be reduced by inserting a parallel
network of dislocations with suitable periodicity.