Abstract: Gas hydrates can agglomerate and block multiphase oil and gas pipelines when water is present at hydrate forming conditions. Using "Cold Flow Technology", the aim is to condition gas hydrates so that they can be transported as a slurry mixture without a risk of agglomeration. During the pipeline shut down however, hydrate particles may settle in bends and build hydrate plugs. An experimental setup has been designed and constructed to study the flow of such plugs at start up operations. Experiments have been performed using model fluid and model hydrate particles. The propagations of initial plugs in a bend were recorded with impedance probes along the pipe. The experimental results show a dispersion of the plug front. A peak in pressure drop was also recorded when the plugs were passing the bend. The evolutions of the plugs have been simulated by numerical integration of the incompressible mass balance equations, with an imposed mixture velocity. The slip between particles and carrier fluid has been calculated using a drag relation together with a particle-fluid force balance.
Abstract: Moisture is an important consideration in many
aspects ranging from irrigation, soil chemistry, golf course, corrosion
and erosion, road conditions, weather predictions, livestock feed
moisture levels, water seepage etc. Vegetation and crops always
depend more on the moisture available at the root level than on
precipitation occurrence. In this paper, design of an instrument is
discussed which tells about the variation in the moisture contents of
soil. This is done by measuring the amount of water content in soil by
finding the variation in capacitance of soil with the help of a
capacitive sensor. The greatest advantage of soil moisture sensor is
reduced water consumption. The sensor is also be used to set lower
and upper threshold to maintain optimum soil moisture saturation and
minimize water wilting, contributes to deeper plant root growth
,reduced soil run off /leaching and less favorable condition for insects
and fungal diseases. Capacitance method is preferred because, it
provides absolute amount of water content and also measures water
content at any depth.
Abstract: MC (Management Control)& IC (Internal Control) – what is the relationship? (an empirical study into the definitions between MC and IC) based on the wider considerations of Internal Control and Management Control terms, attention is focused not only on the financial aspects but also more on the soft aspects of the business, such as culture, behaviour, standards and values. The limited considerations of Management Control are focused mainly in the hard, financial aspects of business operation. The definitions of Management Control and Internal Control are often used interchangeably and the results of this empirical study reveal that Management Control is part of Internal Control, there is no causal link between the two concepts. Based on the interpretation of the respondents, the term Management Control has moved from a broad term to a more limited term with the soft aspects of the influencing of behaviour, performance measurements, incentives and culture. This paper is an exploratory study based on qualitative research and on a qualitative matrix method analysis of the thematic definition of the terms Management Control and Internal Control.
Abstract: This paper is a survey of current component-based
software technologies and the description of promotion and
inhibition factors in CBSE. The features that software components
inherit are also discussed. Quality Assurance issues in componentbased
software are also catered to. The feat research on the quality
model of component based system starts with the study of what the
components are, CBSE, its development life cycle and the pro &
cons of CBSE. Various attributes are studied and compared keeping
in view the study of various existing models for general systems and
CBS. When illustrating the quality of a software component an apt
set of quality attributes for the description of the system (or
components) should be selected. Finally, the research issues that can
be extended are tabularized.
Abstract: A novel sponge submerged membrane bioreactor
(SSMBR) was developed to effectively remove organics and
nutrients from wastewater. Sponge is introduced within the SSMBR
as a medium for the attached growth of biomass. This paper evaluates
the effects of new and acclimatized sponges for dissolved organic
carbon (DOC) removal from wastewater at different mixed liquor
suspended solids- (MLSS) concentration of the sludge. It was
observed in a series of experimental studies that the acclimatized
sponge performed better than the new sponge whilst the optimum
DOC removal could be achieved at 10g/L of MLSS with the
acclimatized sponge. Moreover, the paper analyses the relationships
between the MLSSsponge/MLSSsludge and the DOC removal efficiency
of SSMBR. The results showed a non-linear relationship between the
biomass parameters of the sponge and the sludge, and the DOC
removal efficiency of SSMBR. A second-order polynomial function
could reasonably represent these relationships.
Abstract: Lanthanum oxide is to be recovered from monazite,
which contains about 13.44% lanthanum oxide. The principal
objective of this study is to be able to extract lanthanum oxide from
monazite of Moemeik Myitsone Area. The treatment of monazite in
this study involves three main steps; extraction of lanthanum
hydroxide from monazite by using caustic soda, digestion with nitric
acid and precipitation with ammonium hydroxide and calcination of
lanthanum oxalate to lanthanum oxide.
Abstract: In order to improve control performance and eliminate steady, a coupling compensation for 6-DOF parallel robot is presented. Taking dynamic load Tank Simulator as the research object, this paper analyzes the coupling of 6-DOC parallel robot considering the degree of freedom of the 6-DOF parallel manipulator. The coupling angle and coupling velocity are derived based on inverse kinematics model. It uses the mechanism-model combined method which takes practical moving track that considering the performance of motion controller and motor as its input to make the study. Experimental results show that the coupling compensation improves motion stability as well as accuracy. Besides, it decreases the dither amplitude of dynamic load Tank Simulator.
Abstract: In policy discourse of 1990s, more inclusive spaces
have been constructed for realizing full and meaningful participation
of common people in education. These participatory spaces provide
an alternative possibility for universalizing elementary education
against the backdrop of a history of entrenched forms of social and
economical exclusion; inequitable education provisions; and
shrinking role of the state in today-s neo-liberal times. Drawing on
case-studies of bottom-up approaches to school governance, the study
examines an array of innovative ways through which poor people
gained a sense of identity and agency by evolving indigenous
solutions to issues regarding schooling of their children. In the
process, state-s institutions and practices became more accountable
and responsive to educational concerns of the marginalized people.
The deliberative participation emerged as an active way of
experiencing deeper forms of empowerment and democracy than its
passive realization as mere bearers of citizen rights.
Abstract: The fluid mechanics principle is used extensively in
designing axial flow fans and their associated equipment. This paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of air flow
distribution from a radiator axial flow fan used in an acid pump truck Tier4 (APT T4) Repower. This axial flow fan augments the transfer
of heat from the engine mounted on the APT T4.
CFD analysis was performed for an area weighted average static pressure difference at the inlet and outlet of the fan. Pressure contours, velocity vectors, and path lines were plotted for detailing
the flow characteristics for different orientations of the fan blade. The results were then compared and verified against known theoretical observations and actual experimental data. This study
shows that a CFD simulation can be very useful for predicting and understanding the flow distribution from a radiator fan for further
research work.
Abstract: The paper focuses on the enhanced stiffness modeling
of robotic manipulators by taking into account influence of the external force/torque acting upon the end point. It implements the
virtual joint technique that describes the compliance of manipulator elements by a set of localized six-dimensional springs separated by
rigid links and perfect joints. In contrast to the conventional
formulation, which is valid for the unloaded mode and small
displacements, the proposed approach implicitly assumes that the loading leads to the non-negligible changes of the manipulator posture and corresponding amendment of the Jacobian. The
developed numerical technique allows computing the static
equilibrium and relevant force/torque reaction of the manipulator for
any given displacement of the end-effector. This enables designer
detecting essentially nonlinear effects in elastic behavior of
manipulator, similar to the buckling of beam elements. It is also proposed the linearization procedure that is based on the inversion of
the dedicated matrix composed of the stiffness parameters of the
virtual springs and the Jacobians/Hessians of the active and passive
joints. The developed technique is illustrated by an application example that deals with the stiffness analysis of a parallel
manipulator of the Orthoglide family
Abstract: Detection of incipient abnormal events is important to
improve safety and reliability of machine operations and reduce losses
caused by failures. Improper set-ups or aligning of parts often leads to
severe problems in many machines. The construction of prediction
models for predicting faulty conditions is quite essential in making
decisions on when to perform machine maintenance. This paper
presents a multivariate calibration monitoring approach based on the
statistical analysis of machine measurement data. The calibration
model is used to predict two faulty conditions from historical reference
data. This approach utilizes genetic algorithms (GA) based variable
selection, and we evaluate the predictive performance of several
prediction methods using real data. The results shows that the
calibration model based on supervised probabilistic principal
component analysis (SPPCA) yielded best performance in this work.
By adopting a proper variable selection scheme in calibration models,
the prediction performance can be improved by excluding
non-informative variables from their model building steps.
Abstract: Cooperative communication scheme can be substituted
for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique when it may
not be able to support multiple antennas due to size, cost or
hardware limitations. In other words, cooperative communication
scheme is an efficient method to achieve spatial diversity without
multiple antennas. For satisfaction of rising QoS, we propose a
reliable cooperative communication scheme with M-QAM based Dual
Carrier Modulation (M-DCM), which can increase diversity gain.
Although our proposed scheme is very simple method, it gives us
frequency and spatial diversity. Simulation result shows our proposed
scheme obtains diversity gain more than the conventional cooperative
communication scheme.
Abstract: Water has always been a very precious resource.
However, many of us do not fully understand or appreciate water-s
value until there will be a shortage. We intended to analyze the water
consumption into the Spanish households to understand their
behavior according to the habitants of the house. In this research was
carried out a survey of users, asking for water consumption of their
households. The aim of this paper is get a reference value of
consumers in Spanish households to help to check their bill and
realize if their consumption is excessive, including some tips to
decrease it.
Abstract: Failure in mastery of motor skills proficiency during
childhood has been seen as a detrimental factor for children to be
physically active. Lack of motor skills proficiency tends to reduce
children’s competency and confidence level to participate in physical
activity. As a consequence of less participation in physical activity,
children will turn to be overweight and obese. It has been suggested
that children who master motor skill proficiency will be more
involved in physical activity thus preventing them from being
overweight. Obesity has become a serious childhood health issues
worldwide. Previous studies have found that children who were
overweight and obese were generally less active however these
studies focused on one gender. This study aims to compare motor
skill proficiency of underweight, normal-weight, overweight and
obese young boys as well as to determine the relationship between
motor skills proficiency and body composition. 112 boys aged
between 8 to 10 years old participated in this study. Participants were
assigned to four groups; underweight, normal-weight, overweight and
obese using BMI-age percentile chart for children. Bruininks-
Oseretsky Test Second Edition-Short Form was administered to
assess their motor skill proficiency. Meanwhile, body composition
was determined by the skinfold thickness measurement. Result
indicated that underweight and normal children were superior in
motor skills proficiency compared to overweight and obese children
(p < 0.05). A significant strong inverse correlation between motor
skills proficiency and body composition (r = -0.849) is noted. The
findings of this study could be explained by non-contributory mass
that carried by overweight and obese children leads to biomechanical
movement inefficiency which will become detrimental to motor skills
proficiency. It can be concluded that motor skills proficiency is
inversely correlated with body composition.
Abstract: Single biometric modality recognition is not able to meet the high performance supplies in most cases with its application become more and more broadly. Multimodal biometrics identification represents an emerging trend recently. This paper investigates a novel algorithm based on fusion of both fingerprint and fingervein biometrics. For both biometric recognition, we employ the Monogenic Local Binary Pattern (MonoLBP). This operator integrate the orginal LBP (Local Binary Pattern ) with both other rotation invariant measures: local phase and local surface type. Experimental results confirm that a weighted sum based proposed fusion achieves excellent identification performances opposite unimodal biometric systems. The AUC of proposed approach based on combining the two modalities has very close to unity (0.93).
Abstract: The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's
largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in
medical imaging and therapy, laboratory diagnostics, medical
information technology, and hearing aids.
Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire
range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and
early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By
optimizing clinical workflows for the most common diseases,
Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better, and more cost effective.
The optimization of clinical workflows requires a
multidisciplinary focus and a collaborative approach of e.g. medical
advisors, researchers and scientists as well as healthcare economists.
This new form of collaboration brings together experts with deep
technical experience, physicians with specialized medical knowledge
as well as people with comprehensive knowledge about health
economics.
As Charles Darwin is often quoted as saying, “It is neither the
strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the
one most responsive to change," We believe that those who can
successfully manage this change will emerge as winners, with
valuable competitive advantage.
Current medical information and knowledge are some of the core
assets in the healthcare industry. The main issue is to connect
knowledge holders and knowledge recipients from various
disciplines efficiently in order to spread and distribute knowledge.
Abstract: Human Computer Interaction (HCI) has been an
emerging field that draws in the experts from various fields to
enhance the application of computer programs and the ease of
computer users. HCI has much to do with learning and cognition and
an emerging approach to learning and problem-solving is problembased
learning (PBL). The processes of PBL involve important
cognitive functions in the various stages. This paper will illustrate
how closely related fields to HCI, PBL and cognitive psychology can
benefit from informing each other through analysing various
cognitive functions. Several cognitive functions from cognitive
function disc (CFD) would be presented and discussed in relation to
human-computer interface. This paper concludes with the
implications of bridging the gaps amongst these disciplines.
Abstract: Coal will continue to be the predominant source of
global energy for coming several decades. The huge generation of fly
ash (FA) from combustion of coal in thermal power plants (TPPs) is
apprehended to pose the concerns of its disposal and utilization. FA
application based on its typical characteristics as soil ameliorant for
agriculture and forestry is the potential area, and hence the global
attempt. The inferences drawn suffer from the variations of ash
characteristics, soil types, and agro-climatic conditions; thereby
correlating the effects of ash between various plant species and soil
types is difficult. Indian FAs have low bulk density, high water
holding capacity and porosity, rich silt-sized particles, alkaline
nature, negligible solubility, and reasonable plant nutrients. Findings
of the demonstrations trials for more than two decades from lab/pot
to field scale long-term experiments are developed as FA soil
amendment technology (FASAT) by Central Institute of Mining and
Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad. Performance of different crops
and plant species in cultivable and problematic soils, are
encouraging, eco-friendly, and being adopted by the farmers. FA
application includes ash alone and in combination with
inorganic/organic amendments; combination treatments including
bio-solids perform better than FA alone. Optimum dose being up to
100 t/ha for cultivable land and up to/ or above 200 t/ha of FA for
waste/degraded land/mine refuse, depending on the characteristics of
ash and soil. The elemental toxicity in Indian FA is usually not of
much concern owing to alkaline ashes, oxide forms of elements, and
elemental concentration within the threshold limits for soil
application. Combating toxicity, if any, is possible through
combination treatments with organic materials and phytoremediation.
Government initiatives through extension programme
involving farmers and ash generating organizations need to be
accelerated
Abstract: Jacobs, A.B. (1993) stated that "When I think of a city,
the first thing that comes to mind is the street. If the street is
interesting, the rest of the city is interesting. If the street is mundane,
the city is also mundane." In this statement, he expresses the
importance of the streetscape and the street environment. The
objective of this paper is to analyze the spatial relationships of the
streetscape that affect the general public's preference of the cityscape.
Furthermore, this research focuses on the important role that
streetscape plays in public perception of the city by the pedestrians
who experience it daily. The subject of this paper is eight of the
"Design Seoul Street."The analysis and survey results show the
preference criteria that affect the streetscape and ultimately the
cityscape. This research endeavor shows that differences in physical
form, shape, size, color, locations, and context are important.
Abstract: MBMS is a unidirectional point-to-multipoint bearer
service in which data are transmitted from a single source entity to
multiple recipients. For a mobile to support the MBMS, MBMS client
functions as well as MBMS radio protocols should be designed and
implemented. In this paper, we analyze the MBMS client functions
and describe the implementation of them in our mobile test-bed. User
operations and signaling flows between protocol entities to control the
MBMS functions are designed in detail. Service announcement
utilizing the file download MBMS service and four MBMS user
services are demonstrated in the test-bed to verify the MBMS client
functions.