Abstract: Small-scale RC models of both piles and tunnel ducts
were produced as mockups of reality and loaded under soil
confinement conditionsto investigate the damage evolution of
structural RC interacting with soil. Experimental verifications usinga
3D nonlinear FE analysis program called COM3D, which was
developed at the University of Tokyo, are introduced. This analysis
has been used in practice for seismic performance assessment of
underground ducts and in-ground LNG storage tanks in consideration
of soil-structure interactionunder static and dynamic loading. Varying
modes of failure of RCpilessubjected to different magnitudes of soil
confinement were successfully reproduced in the proposed small-scale
experiments and numerically simulated as well. Analytical simulation
was applied to RC tunnel mockups under a wide variety of depth and
soil confinement conditions, and reasonable matching was confirmed.
Abstract: In this paper, four carbazole-based D-D-π-A organic
dyes code as CCT2A, CCT3A, CCT1PA and CCT2PA were reported.
A series of these organic dyes containing identical donor and
acceptor group but different π-system. The effect of replacing of
thiophene by phenyl thiophene as π-system on the physical
properties has been focused. The structural, energetic properties and
absorption spectra were theoretically investigated by means of
Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent Density
Functional Theory (TD-DFT). The results show that nonplanar
conformation due to steric hindrance in donor part (cabazolecarbazole
unit) of dye molecule can prevent unfavorable dye
aggregation. By means of the TD-DFT method, the absorption
spectra were calculated by B3LYP and BHandHLYP to study the
affect of hybrid functional on the excitation energy (Eg). The results
revealed the increasing of thiophene units not only resulted in
decreasing of Eg, but also found the shifting of absorption spectra to
higher wavelength. TD-DFT/BHandHLYP calculated results are
more strongly agreed with the experimental data than B3LYP
functions. Furthermore, the adsorptions of CCT2A and CCT3A on the
TiO2 anatase (101) surface were carried out by mean of the chemical
periodic calculation. The result exhibit the strong adsorption energy.
The calculated results provide our new organic dyes can be
effectively used as dye for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC).
Abstract: The adverse effects of Clindamycin (Clind.) /
Ibuprofen (Ibu.) combination on liver, kidney, blood elements and the
significances of antioxidants (N-acetylcysteine and Zinc) against
these effects were evaluated. The study includes: Group I; control
n=30, Group II; patients on Clind.300mg/Ibu.400mg twice daily for a
week n=30, Group III; patients on Clind.300mg/Ibu.400mg+Nacetylcysteine
200mg twice daily for a week n=15 and Group IV;
patients on Clind.300mg/Ibu.400mg+Zinc50mg twice daily for a
week n=15. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA), alanine transferase
(ALT), aspartate transferase (AST), γ glutamyl transferase (GGT),
creatinine, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were measured. Applying one
way ANOVA followed by Tuckey Kramer post test, Group II showed
significant increase in ALT, AST, GGT, BUN and decrease in Hb,
RBCs, platelets than Group I. Group III showed significant decrease
in ALT, AST, GGT, BUN than Group II. Moreover, Group IV
showed significant decrease in ALT, AST, GGT and increase in Hb,
RBCs, and platelets than Group II. Conclusively, Adding Zinc or Nacetylcysteine
buffer the oxidative stress and improve the therapeutic
outcome of Clindamycin/Ibuprofen combination.
Abstract: A simple but effective digital watermarking scheme
utilizing a context adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC) method
is presented for wireless communication system. In the proposed
approach, the watermark bits are embedded in the final non-zero
quantized coefficient of each DCT block, thereby yielding a potential
reduction in the length of the coded block. As a result, the
watermarking scheme not only provides the means to check the
authenticity and integrity of the video stream, but also improves the
compression ratio and therefore reduces both the transmission time
and the storage space requirements of the coded video sequence. The
results confirm that the proposed scheme enables the detection of
malicious tampering attacks and reduces the size of the coded H.264
file. Therefore, the current study is feasible to apply in the video
applications of wireless communication such as 3G system
Abstract: Developers need to evaluate software's performance to make software efficient. This paper suggests a performance evaluation system for embedded software. The suggested system consists of code analyzer, testing agents, data analyzer, and report viewer. The code analyzer inserts additional code dependent on target system into source code and compiles the source code. The testing agents execute performance test. The data analyzer translates raw-level results data to class-level APIs for reporting viewer. The report viewer offers users graphical report views by using the APIs. We hope that the suggested tool will be useful for embedded-related software development,because developers can easily and intuitively analyze software's performance and resource utilization.
Abstract: Activity-Based Costing (ABC) which has become an important aspect of manufacturing/service organizations can be defined as a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects. It can be considered as an alternative paradigm to traditional cost-based accounting systems. The objective of this paper is to illustrate an application of ABC method and to compare the results of ABC with traditional costing methods. The results of the application highlight the weak points of traditional costing methods and an S-Curve obtained is used to identify the undercosted and overcosted products of the firm.
Abstract: Non-stationary trend in R-R interval series is
considered as a main factor that could highly influence the evaluation
of spectral analysis. It is suggested to remove trends in order to obtain
reliable results. In this study, three detrending methods, the
smoothness prior approach, the wavelet and the empirical mode
decomposition, were compared on artificial R-R interval series with
four types of simulated trends. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram was
used for spectral analysis of R-R interval series. Results indicated that
the wavelet method showed a better overall performance than the other
two methods, and more time-saving, too. Therefore it was selected for
spectral analysis of real R-R interval series of thirty-seven healthy
subjects. Significant decreases (19.94±5.87% in the low frequency
band and 18.97±5.78% in the ratio (p
Abstract: In the paper, the energetic features of the loaded gait
are newly analyzed depending on the trunk flexion change. To
investigate the loaded gait, walking experiments are performed for five
subjects and, the ground reaction forces and kinematic data are
measured. Based on these information, we compute the impulse,
momentum and mechanical works done on the center of body mass,
through the trunk flexion change. As a result, it is shown that the trunk
flexion change does not affect the impulses and momentums during
the step-to-step transition as well. However, the direction of the
pre-collision momentum does change depending on the trunk flexion
change, which is degenerated just after (or during) the collision period.
Abstract: Many artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are inspired
by problem-solving strategies found in nature. Robustness is a key
feature in many natural systems. This paper studies robustness in
artificial neural networks (ANNs) and proposes several novel, nature
inspired ANN architectures. The paper includes encouraging results
from experimental studies on these networks showing increased
robustness.
Abstract: The evaluation of the contribution of professional
baseball starting pitchers is a complex decision-making problem that
includes several quantitative attributes. It is considered a type of
multi-attribute or multi-criteria decision making (MADM/MCDM)
problem. This study proposes a model using the Grey Relational
Analysis (GRA) to evaluate the starting pitcher contribution for teams
of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. The GRA calculates the
individual grey relational degree of each alternative to the positive
ideal alternative. An empirical analysis was conducted to show the use
of the model for the starting pitcher contribution problem. The results
demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model.
Abstract: Genetically modified (GM) technology in food
production continued to generate controversies. Consumers were
concerned with the GM foods about the healthy and environmental
risks. While consumers- acceptance was a critical factor affecting how
widely this technology be used. According to the research review,
consumers- lack of information was one of the reasons to explain
consumers- low acceptance toward GM foods. The objective for this
study wanted to find out would informative product package affect
consumers- behavior toward GM foods. An experiment was designed
to investigate consumer behavior toward different product package
information. The results indicated that the product package
information influenced consumer product trust toward GM foods.
Compared with the traceability production system information, the
information about the GM rice was approved by authorized
organizations could increase consumers product trust in GM foods.
Consumers in Taiwan saw the information provided by authorized
organizations more credible than other information.
Abstract: In this work a software simulation model has been
proposed for two driven wheels mobile robot path planning; that can
navigate in dynamic environment with static distributed obstacles.
The work involves utilizing Bezier curve method in a proposed N
order matrix form; for engineering the mobile robot path. The Bezier
curve drawbacks in this field have been diagnosed. Two directions:
Up and Right function has been proposed; Probability Recursive
Function (PRF) to overcome those drawbacks.
PRF functionality has been developed through a proposed;
obstacle detection function, optimization function which has the
capability of prediction the optimum path without comparison
between all feasible paths, and N order Bezier curve function that
ensures the drawing of the obtained path.
The simulation results that have been taken showed; the mobile
robot travels successfully from starting point and reaching its goal
point. All obstacles that are located in its way have been avoided.
This navigation is being done successfully using the proposed PRF
techniques.
Abstract: A manufacturing feature can be defined simply as a
geometric shape and its manufacturing information to create the shape.
In a feature-based process planning system, feature library plays an
important role in the extraction of manufacturing features with their
proper manufacturing information. However, to manage the
manufacturing information flexibly, it is important to build a feature
library that is easy to modify. In this paper, a Wiki-based feature
library is proposed.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to identify the conditions of
implementation for reconfigurability in summarizing past flexible
manufacturing systems (FMS) research by drawing overall
conclusions from many separate High Performance Manufacturing
(HPM) studies. Meta-analysis will be applied to links between HPM
programs and their practices related to FMS and manufacturing
performance with particular reference to responsiveness performance.
More specifically, an application of meta-analysis will be made with
reference to two of the main steps towards the development of an
empirically-tested theory: testing the adequacy of the measurement of
variables and testing the linkages between the variables.
Abstract: An inverse problem of doubly center matrices is discussed. By translating the constrained problem into unconstrained problem, two iterative methods are proposed. A numerical example illustrate our algorithms.
Abstract: Road authorities have confronted problems to
maintaining the serviceability of road infrastructure systems by using
various traditional methods of contracting. As a solution to these
problems, many road authorities have started contracting out road
maintenance works to the private sector based on performance
measures. This contracting method is named Performance-Based
Maintenance Contracting (PBMC). It is considered more costeffective
than other traditional methods of contracting. It has a
substantial success records in many developed and developing
countries over the last two decades. This paper discusses and
analyses the potential issues to be considered before the introduction
of PBMC in a country.
Abstract: In this paper, an efficient technique is proposed to manage the cache memory. The proposed technique introduces some modifications on the well-known set associative mapping technique. This modification requires a little alteration in the structure of the cache memory and on the way by which it can be referenced. The proposed alteration leads to increase the set size virtually and consequently to improve the performance and the utilization of the cache memory. The current mapping techniques have accomplished good results. In fact, there are still different cases in which cache memory lines are left empty and not used, whereas two or more processes overwrite the lines of each other, instead of using those empty lines. The proposed algorithm aims at finding an efficient way to deal with such problem.
Abstract: Learning is the acquisition of new mental schemata, knowledge, abilities and skills which can be used to solve problems potentially more successfully. The learning process is optimum when it is assisted and personalized. Learning is not a single activity, but should involve many possible activities to make learning become meaningful. Many e-learning applications provide facilities to support teaching and learning activities. One way to identify whether the e-learning system is being used by the learners is through the number of hits that can be obtained from the e-learning system's log data. However, we cannot rely solely to the number of hits in order to determine whether learning had occurred meaningfully. This is due to the fact that meaningful learning should engage five characteristics namely active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative. This paper aims to analyze the e-learning activities that is meaningful to learning. By focusing on the meaningful learning characteristics, we match it to the corresponding Moodle e-learning activities. This analysis discovers the activities that have high impact to meaningful learning, as well as activities that are less meaningful. The high impact activities is given high weights since it become important to meaningful learning, while the low impact has less weight and said to be supportive e-learning activities. The result of this analysis helps us categorize which e-learning activities that are meaningful to learning and guide us to measure the effectiveness of e-learning usage.
Abstract: This paper focuses on assessment of air pollution in Umm-Alhyman, Kuwait, which is located south to oil refineries, power station, oil field, and highways. The measurements were made over a period of four days in March and July in 2001, 2004, and 2008. The measured pollutants included methanated and nonmethanated hydrocarbons (MHC, NMHC), CO, CO2, SO2, NOX, O3, and PM10. Also, meteorological parameters were measured, which includes temperature, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. Over the study period, data analysis showed increase in measured SO2, NOX and CO by factors of 1.2, 5.5 and 2, respectively. This is explained in terms of increase in industrial activities, motor vehicle density, and power generation. Predictions of the measured data were made by the ISC-AERMOD software package and by using the ISCST3 model option. Finally, comparison was made between measured data against international standards.
Abstract: This study investigated the effect of cross sectional
geometry on sediment transport rate. The processes of sediment
transport are generally associated to environmental management,
such as pollution caused by the forming of suspended sediment in the
channel network of a watershed and preserving physical habitats and
native vegetations, and engineering applications, such as the
influence of sediment transport on hydraulic structures and flood
control design. Many equations have been proposed for computing
the sediment transport, the influence of many variables on sediment
transport has been understood; however, the effect of other variables
still requires further research. For open channel flow, sediment
transport capacity is recognized to be a function of friction slope,
flow velocity, grain size, grain roughness and form roughness, the
hydraulic radius of the bed section and the type and quantity of
vegetation cover. The effect of cross sectional geometry of the
channel on sediment transport is one of the variables that need
additional investigation. The width-depth ratio (W/d) is a
comparative indicator of the channel shape. The width is the total
distance across the channel and the depth is the mean depth of the
channel. The mean depth is best calculated as total cross-sectional
area divided by the top width. Channels with high W/d ratios tend to
be shallow and wide, while channels with low (W/d) ratios tend to be
narrow and deep. In this study, the effects of the width-depth ratio on
sediment transport was demonstrated theoretically by inserting the
shape factor in sediment continuity equation and analytically by
utilizing the field data sets for Yalobusha River. It was found by
utilizing the two approaches as a width-depth ratio increases the
sediment transport decreases.