Abstract: The copper flotation tailings from Konkola Copper
mine in Nchanga, Zambia were used in the study. The purpose of this
study was to determine the leaching characteristics of the tailings
material prior and after the physical beneficiation process is
employed. The Knelson gravity concentrator (KC-MD3) was used for
the beneficiation process. The copper leaching efficiencies and
impurity co-extraction percentages in both the upgraded and the raw
feed material were determined at different pH levels and temperature.
It was observed that the copper extraction increased with an increase
in temperature and a decrease in pH levels. In comparison to the raw
feed sample, the upgraded sample reported a maximum copper
extraction of 69% which was 9%, higher than raw feed % extractions.
The impurity carry over was reduced from 18% to 4 % on the
upgraded sample. The reduction in impurity co-extraction was as a
result of the removal of the reactive gangue elements during the
upgrading process, this minimized the number of side reaction
occurring during leaching.
Abstract: In this paper, FinFET devices are analyzed with
emphasis on sub-threshold leakage current control. This is achieved
through proper biasing of the back gate, and through the use of
asymmetric work functions for the four terminal FinFET devices. We
are also examining different configurations of multiplexers and XOR
gates using transistors of symmetric and asymmetric work functions.
Based on extensive characterization data for MUX circuits, our
proposed configuration using symmetric devices lead to leakage
current and delay improvements of 65% and 47% respectively
compared to results in the literature. For XOR gates, a 90%
improvement in the average leakage current is achieved by using
asymmetric devices. All simulations are based on a 25nm FinFET
technology using the University of Florida UFDG model.
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of transmission codes on the
performance of coherent square M-ary quadrature amplitude
modulation (CSMQAM) under hybrid selection/maximal-ratio
combining (H-S/MRC) diversity is analysed. The fading channels are
modeled as frequency non-selective slow independent and identically
distributed Rayleigh fading channels corrupted by additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN). The results for coded MQAM are
computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code
and compared with uncoded MQAM under H-S/MRC diversity by
plotting error probabilities versus average signal to noise ratio (SNR)
for various values L and N in order to examine the improvement in
the performance of the digital communications system as the number
of selected diversity branches is increased. The results for no
diversity, conventional SC and Lth order MRC schemes are also
plotted for comparison. Closed form analytical results derived in this
paper are sufficiently simple and therefore can be computed
numerically without any approximations. The analytical results
presented in this paper are expected to provide useful information
needed for design and analysis of digital communication systems
over wireless fading channels.
Abstract: There are two major variants of the Simplex
Algorithm: the revised method and the standard, or tableau method.
Today, all serious implementations are based on the revised method
because it is more efficient for sparse linear programming problems.
Moreover, there are a number of applications that lead to dense linear
problems so our aim in this paper is to present some computational
results on parallel implementation of dense Simplex Method. Our
implementation is implemented on a SMP cluster using C
programming language and the Message Passing Interface MPI.
Preliminary computational results on randomly generated dense
linear programs support our results.
Abstract: In the past 20 years the economy of the Czech
Republic has experienced substantial changes. In the 1990s the
development was affected by the transformation which sought to
establish the right conditions for privatization and creation of
elementary market relations. In the last decade the characteristic
elements such as private ownership and corresponding institutional
framework have been strengthened. This development was marked by
the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU. The Czech Republic
is striving to reduce the difference between its level of economic
development and the quality of institutional framework in
comparison with other developed countries. The process of finding
the adequate solutions has been hampered by the negative impact of
the world financial crisis on the Czech Republic and the standard of
living of its inhabitants. This contribution seeks to address the
question of whether and to which extent the economic development
of the transitive Czech economy is affected by the change in
behaviour of households and their tendency to consumption, i.e. in
the sense of reduction or increase in demand for goods and services.
It aims to verify whether the increasing trend of household
indebtedness and decreasing trend of saving pose a significant risk in
the Czech Republic. At a general level the analysis aims to contribute
to finding an answer to the question of whether the debt increase of
Czech households is connected to the risk of "eating through" the
borrowed money and whether Czech households risk falling into a
debt trap. In addition to household indebtedness risks in the Czech
Republic the analysis will focus on identification of specifics of the
transformation phase of the Czech economy in comparison with the
EU countries, or selected OECD countries.
Abstract: The number of the companies accepting RFID in Korea
has been increased continuously due to the domestic development of
information technology. The acceptance of RFID by companies in
Korea enabled them to do business with many global enterprises in a
much more efficient and effective way. According to a survey[33,
p76], many companies in Korea have used RFID for inventory or
distribution manages. But, the use of RFID in the companies in Korea
is in the early stages and its potential value hasn-t fully been realized
yet. At this time, it would be very important to investigate the factors
that affect RFID acceptance. For this study, many previous studies
were referenced and some RFID experts were interviewed. Through
the pilot test, four factors were selected - Security Trust, Employee
Knowledge, Partner Influence, Service Provider Trust - affecting
RFID acceptance and an extended technology acceptance
model(e-TAM) was presented with those factors. The proposed model
was empirically tested using data collected from employees in
companies or public enterprises. In order to analyze some
relationships between exogenous variables and four variables in TAM,
structural equation modeling(SEM) was developed and SPSS12.0 and
AMOS 7.0 were used for analyses. The results are summarized as
follows: 1) security trust perceived by employees positively
influences on perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; 2)
employee-s knowledge on RFID positively influences on only
perceived ease of use; 3) a partner-s influence for RFID acceptance
positively influences on only perceived usefulness; 4) service provider
trust very positively influences on perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use 5) the relationships between TAM variables are the same as
the previous studies.
Abstract: P16/INK4A is tumor suppressor protein that plays a critical role in cell cycle regulation. Loss of P16 protein expression has been implicated in pathogenesis of many cancers, including lymphoma. Therefore, we sought to investigate if loss of P16 protein expression is associated with lymphoma and/or any specific lymphoma subtypes (Hodgkin-s lymphoma (HL) and nonHodgkin-s lymphoma (NHL)). Fifty-five lymphoma cases consisted of 30 cases of HL and 25 cases of NHL, with an age range of 3 to 78 years, were examined for loss of P16 by immunohistochemical technique using a specific antibody reacting against P16. In total, P16 loss was seen in 33% of all lymphoma cases. P16 loss was identified in 47.7% of HL cases. In contrast, only 16% of NHL showed loss of P16. Loss of P16 was seen in 67% of HL patients with 50 years of age or older, whereas P16 loss was found in only 42% of HL patients with less than 50 years of age. P16 loss in HL is somewhat higher in male (55%) than in female (30%). In subtypes of HL, P16 loss was found exclusively in all cases of lymphocyte depletion, lymphocyte predominance and unclassified cases, whereas P16 loss was seen in 39% of mixed cellularity and 29% of nodular sclerosis cases. In low grade NHL patients, P16 loss was seen in approximately one-third of cases, whereas no or very rare of P16 loss was found in intermediate and high grade cases. P16 loss did not show any correlation with age or gender of NHL patients. In conclusion, the high rate of P16 loss seen in our study suggests that loss of P16 expression plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of lymphoma, particularly with HL.
Abstract: this paper focuses on designing of PSS and SVC
controller based on chaos and PSO algorithms to improve the
stability of power system. Single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system
with SVC located at the terminal of generator has been considered to
evaluate the proposed controllers where both SVC and PSS have the
same controller. The coefficients of PSS and SVC controller have
been optimized by chaos and PSO algorithms. Finally the system
with proposed controllers has been simulated for the special
disturbance in input power of generator, and then the dynamic
responses of generator have been presented. The simulation results
showed that the system composed with recommended controller has
outstanding operation in fast damping of oscillations of power system.
Abstract: In this study, hydrogels consisted of polyvinyl alcohol,
propylene glycol and β-glucan were developed by radiation technique
for wound dressing. The prepared hydrogels were characterized by
examining of physical properties such as gel fraction and absorption
ratio. The gel fraction and absorption ratio were dependent on the
crosslinking density. On observing the wound healing of rat skin, the
resulting hydrogels accelerated the wound healing comparing to cotton
gauze. Therefore, the PVA/propylene glycol/β-glucan blended
hydrogels can greatly accelerate the healing without causing irritation.
Abstract: According to the conception of personnel
management, human resource management requires efficient use of
human resources. This is ensured by various activities directed
towards the area of management. Among these activities there are for
example the recruitment of employees, development, strengthening
of relations, mutual inspiring, implementation of correct working
processes and systems used by individuals or groups.
Abstract: In this contribution, a way to enhance the performance of the classic Genetic Algorithm is proposed. The idea of restarting a Genetic Algorithm is applied in order to obtain better knowledge of the solution space of the problem. A new operator of 'insertion' is introduced so as to exploit (utilize) the information that has already been collected before the restarting procedure. Finally, numerical experiments comparing the performance of the classic Genetic Algorithm and the Genetic Algorithm with restartings, for some well known test functions, are given.
Abstract: The experimental thermal performance of two heat
exchangers in closed-wet cooling tower (CWCT) was investigated in
this study. The test sections are heat exchangers which have multi path
that is used as the entrance of cooling water and are consisting of
bare-type copper tubes between 15.88mm and 19.05mm. The process
fluids are the cooling water that flows from top part of heat exchanger
to bottom side in the inner side of tube, and spray water that flows
gravitational direction in the outer side of it. Air contacts its outer side
of that as it counterflows. Heat and mass transfer coefficients and
cooling capacity were calculated with variations of process fluids,
multi path and different diameter tubes to figure out the performance
of characteristics of CWCT.
The main results were summarized as follows: The results show this
experiment is reliable with values of heat and mass transfer
coefficients comparing to values of correlations. Heat and mass
transfer coefficients and cooling capacity of two paths are higher than
these with one path using 15.88 and 19.05mm tubes. Cooling capacity
per unit volume with 15.88mm tube using one and two paths are
higher than 19.05mm tube due to increase of surface area per unit
volume.
Abstract: This study investigated the presence of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the sediments of the Musa Bay
(around the PETZONE coastal area) from Feb 2010 to Jun 2010.
Concentrations of PAHs recorded in the Musa Bay sediments ranged
from 537.89 to 26,659.06 ng/g dry weight with a mean value of
3990.74 ng/g. the highest concentration of PAHs was observed at
station 4, which is located near the aromatic outlet of Imam
Khomeini petrochemical company (station 4: BI-PC Aromatic
effluent outlet) in which its concentration level was more than the
NOAA sediment quality guideline value (ERL= 4022 ng/g dry
weight). Owing to the concentration of PAHs in the study area, its
concentration level was still meet the NOAA sediment quality
guideline value (ERL: 4022 ng/g dry weight); however, according to
the PELq factor, slightly adverse biological effects are associated
with the exposure to PAHs levels in the study area (0.1< PELq= 0.24
> 0.5).
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to derive optimal shapes of
a body located in viscous flows by the finite element method using the
acoustic velocity and the four-step explicit scheme. The formulation
is based on an optimal control theory in which a performance function
of the fluid force is introduced. The performance function should be
minimized satisfying the state equation. This problem can be transformed
into the minimization problem without constraint conditions
by using the adjoint equation with adjoint variables corresponding to
the state equation. The performance function is defined by the drag
and lift forces acting on the body. The weighted gradient method
is applied as a minimization technique, the Galerkin finite element
method is used as a spatial discretization and the four-step explicit
scheme is used as a temporal discretization to solve the state equation
and the adjoint equation. As the interpolation, the orthogonal basis
bubble function for velocity and the linear function for pressure
are employed. In case that the orthogonal basis bubble function is
used, the mass matrix can be diagonalized without any artificial
centralization. The shape optimization is performed by the presented
method.
Abstract: In this paper, a technique is proposed to implement
an artificial voltage-controlled capacitance or inductance which can
replace the well-known varactor diode in many applications. The
technique is based on injecting the current of a voltage-controlled
current source onto a fixed capacitor or inductor. Then, by controlling
the transconductance of the current source by an external bias voltage,
a voltage-controlled capacitive or inductive reactance is obtained.
The proposed voltage-controlled reactance devices can be designed
to work anywhere in the frequency spectrum. Practical circuits for the
proposed voltage-controlled reactances are suggested and simulated.
Abstract: The purposes of this research were to study the citizen
participation in preventing illegal drugs in one of a poor and small
community of Bangkok, Thailand and to compare the level of
participation and concern of illegal drugs problem by using
demographic variables. This paper drew upon data collected from a
local citizens survey conducted in Bangkok, Thailand during summer
of 2012. A total of 200 respondents were elicited as data input for,
and one way ANOVA test. The findings revealed that the overall
citizen participation was in the level of medium. The mean score
showed that benefit from the program was ranked as the highest and
the decision to participate was ranked as second while the follow-up
of the program was ranked as the lowest.
In terms of the difference in demographic such as gender, age,
level of education, income, and year of residency, the hypothesis
testing’s result disclosed that there were no difference in their level
of participation. However, difference in occupation showed a
difference in their level of participation and concern which was
significant at the 0.05 confidence level.
Abstract: Traditional principal components analysis (PCA)
techniques for face recognition are based on batch-mode training
using a pre-available image set. Real world applications require that
the training set be dynamic of evolving nature where within the
framework of continuous learning, new training images are
continuously added to the original set; this would trigger a costly
continuous re-computation of the eigen space representation via
repeating an entire batch-based training that includes the old and new
images. Incremental PCA methods allow adding new images and
updating the PCA representation. In this paper, two incremental
PCA approaches, CCIPCA and IPCA, are examined and compared.
Besides, different learning and testing strategies are proposed and
applied to the two algorithms. The results suggest that batch PCA is
inferior to both incremental approaches, and that all CCIPCAs are
practically equivalent.
Abstract: Recent research on seeds of bio-diesel plants like
Jatropha curcas, constituting 40-50% bio-crude oil indicates its
potential as one of the most promising alternatives to conventional
sources of energy. Also, limited studies on utilization of de-oiled cake
have revealed that Jatropha bio-waste has good potential to be used as
organic fertilizers produced via aerobic and anaerobic treatment.
However, their commercial exploitation has not yet been possible. The
present study aims at developing appropriate bio-processes and
formulations utilizing Jatropha seed cake as organic fertilizer, for
improving the growth of Polianthes tuberose L. (Tuberose). Pot
experiments were carried out by growing tuberose plants on soil
treated with composted formulations of Jatropha de-oiled cake, Farm
Yard Manure (FYM) and inorganic fertilizers were also blended in
soil. The treatment was carried out through soil amendment as well as
foliar spray. The growth and morphological parameters were
monitored for entire crop cycle.
The growth Length and number of leaves, spike length, rachis
length, number of bulb per plant and earliness of sprouting of bulb and
yield enhancement were comparable to that achieved under inorganic
fertilizer. Furthermore, performance of inorganic fertilizer also showed
an improvement when blended with composted bio-waste. These
findings would open new avenues for Jatropha based bio-wastes to be
composted and used as organic fertilizers for commercial floriculture.
Abstract: The fixed partial dentures are mainly used in the frontal
part of the dental arch because of their great esthetics. There are
several factors that are associated with the stress state created in
ceramic restorations, including: thickness of ceramic layers,
mechanical properties of the materials, elastic modulus of the
supporting substrate material, direction, magnitude and frequency of
applied load, size and location of occlusal contact areas, residual
stresses induced by processing or pores, restoration-cement
interfacial defects and environmental defects. The purpose of this
study is to evaluate the capability of Polarization Sensitive Optical
Coherence Tomography (PSOCT) in detection and analysis of
possible material defects in metal-ceramic and integral ceramic fixed
partial dentures. As a conclusion, it is important to have a non
invasive method to investigate fixed partial prostheses before their
insertion in the oral cavity in order to satisfy the high stress
requirements and the esthetic function.
Abstract: Railway Stations are prone to emergency due to
various reasons and proper monitor of railway stations are of
immense importance from various angles. A Petri-net representation
of a web-service-based Emergency management system has been
proposed in this paper which will help in monitoring situation of
train, track, signal etc. and in case of any emergency, necessary
resources can be dispatched.