Abstract: Studies regarding the determination of population
trend of Lipaphis erysimi (kalt.) and its associated natural enemies in
different Brassica lines along with the effect of gamma radiation on
their population were conducted at Agricultural Research Farm,
Malakandher, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University
Peshawar during spring 2006. Three different Brassica lines F6B3,
F6B6 and F6B7 were used, which were replicated four times in
Randomized Complete Block Design. The data revealed that aphid
infestation invariably stated in all three varieties during last week of
February 2006 (1st observation). The peak population of 4.39 aphids
leaf-1 was s recorded during 2nd week of March and lowest population
of 1.02 aphids leaf-1 was recorded during 5th week of March. The
species of lady bird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) and Syrphid
fly (Syrphus balteatus) first appeared on 24th February with a mean
number of 0.40 lady bird beetle leaf-1 and 0.87 Syrphid fly leaf-1,
respectively. At the time when aphid population started to increase
the peak population of C. septempunctata (0.70 lady bird beetle leaf-
1) and S. balteatus (1.04 syrphid fly leaf-1) was recorded on the 2nd
week of March. Chrysoperla carnea appeared in the 1st week of
March and their peak population was recorded during the 3rd week of
March with mean population of 1.46 C. carnea leaf-1. Among all the
Brassica lines, F6B7 showed comparatively more resistance as
compared to F6B3 F6B6. F6B3 showed least resistance against L.
erysimi, which was found to be the most susceptible cultivar. F6B7
was also found superior in terms of natural enemies. Maximum
number of all natural enemies was recorded on this variety followed
by F6B6. Lowest number of natural enemies was recorded in F6B3.
No significant effect was recorded for the effect of gamma radiation
on the population of aphids, natural enemies and on the varieties.
Abstract: Leo Breimans Random Forests (RF) is a recent
development in tree based classifiers and quickly proven to be one of
the most important algorithms in the machine learning literature. It
has shown robust and improved results of classifications on standard
data sets. Ensemble learning algorithms such as AdaBoost and
Bagging have been in active research and shown improvements in
classification results for several benchmarking data sets with mainly
decision trees as their base classifiers. In this paper we experiment to
apply these Meta learning techniques to the random forests. We
experiment the working of the ensembles of random forests on the
standard data sets available in UCI data sets. We compare the
original random forest algorithm with their ensemble counterparts
and discuss the results.
Abstract: Prediction of benzene transport in soil and volatilization from soil to the atmosphere is important for the preservation of human health and management of contaminated soils. The adequacy of a simple numerical model, assuming two-phase diffusion and equilibrium of liquid/solid adsorption, was investigated by experimental data of benzene concentration in a flux chamber (with headspace) where Andosol and sand were filled. Adsorption experiment for liquid phase was performed to determine an adsorption coefficient. Furthermore, adequacy of vapor phase adsorption was also studied through two runs of experiment using sand with different water content. The results show that the model adequately predicted benzene transport and volatilization from Andosol and sand with water content of 14.0%. In addition, the experiment additionally revealed that vapor phase adsorption should be considered in diffusion model for sand with very low water content.
Abstract: The paper presents a detailed calculation of characteristic of five different topology permanent magnet machines for high performance traction including hybrid -electric vehicles using finite element analysis (FEA) method. These machines include V-shape single layer interior PM, W-shape single-layer interior PM, Segment interior PM and surface PM on the rotor and with distributed winding on the stator. The performance characteristics which include the back-emf voltage and its harmonic, magnet mass, iron loss and ripple torque are compared and analyzed. One of a 7.5kW IPM prototype was tested and verified finite-element analysis results. The aim of the paper is given some guidance and reference for machine designer which are interested in IPM machine selection for high performance traction application.
Abstract: The research objective aims to search information about storytelling and fable associated with fireflies in Amphawa community, in order to design and create a story book which is appropriate for the interests of children in early childhood. This book should help building the development of learning about the natural environment, imagination, and creativity among children, which then, brings about the promotion of the development, conservation and dissemination of cultural values and uniqueness of the Amphawa community. The population used in this study were 30 students in early childhood aged between 6-8 years-old, grade 1-3 from the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The method used for this study was purposive sampling and the research conducted by the query and analysis of data from both the document and the narrative field tales and fable associated with the fireflies of Amphawa community. Then, using the results to synthesize and create a conceptual design in a form of 8 visual images which were later applied to 1 illustrated children’s book and presented to the experts to evaluate and test this media.
Abstract: The present contribution deals with the
thermophoretic deposition of nanoparticles over a rapidly rotating
permeable disk in the presence of partial slip, magnetic field, thermal
radiation, thermal-diffusion, and diffusion-thermo effects. The
governing nonlinear partial differential equations such as continuity,
momentum, energy and concentration are transformed into nonlinear
ordinary differential equations using similarity analysis, and the
solutions are obtained through the very efficient computer algebra
software MATLAB. Graphical results for non-dimensional
concentration and temperature profiles including thermophoretic
deposition velocity and Stanton number (thermophoretic deposition
flux) in tabular forms are presented for a range of values of the
parameters characterizing the flow field. It is observed that slip
mechanism, thermal-diffusion, diffusion-thermo, magnetic field and
radiation significantly control the thermophoretic particles deposition
rate. The obtained results may be useful to many industrial and
engineering applications.
Abstract: The dominant judgment for earthquake damaged reinforced concrete (RC) structures is to rebuild them with the new ones. Consequently, this paper estimates if there is chance to repair earthquake RC beams and obtain economical contribution to modern day society. Therefore, the totally damaged (damaged in shear under cyclic load) reinforced concrete (RC) beams repaired and strengthened by externally bonded carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips in this study. Four specimens, apart from the reference beam, were separated into two distinct groups. Two experimental beams in the first group primarily tested up to failure then appropriately repaired and strengthened with CFRP strips. Two undamaged specimens from the second group were not repaired but strengthened by the identical strengthening scheme as the first group for comparison. This study studies whether earthquake damaged RC beams that have been repaired and strengthened will validate similar strength and behavior to equally strengthened, undamaged RC beams. Accordingly, a strength correspondence according to strengthened specimens was acquired for the repaired and strengthened specimens. Test results confirmed that repair and strengthening, which were estimated in the experimental program, were effective for the specimens with the cracking patterns considered in the experimental program.
Abstract: We demonstrate a 40Gbps downstream PON
transmission based on PM-QPSK modulation using commercial DFB
lasers without optical amplifier in the ODN, obtaining 40dB power
budget. We discuss this solution within NG-PON2 architectures.
Abstract: We report a lithography-free approach to fabricate the
biomimetics, quasi-beehive Si nanostructures (QBSNs), on
Si-substrates. The self-assembled SiGe nanoislands via the strain
induced surface roughening (Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability) during
in-situ annealing play a key role as patterned sacrifice regions for
subsequent reactive ion etching (RIE) process performed for
fabricating quasi-beehive nanostructures on Si-substrates. As the
measurements of field emission, the bare QBSNs show poor field
emission performance, resulted from the existence of the native oxide
layer which forms an insurmountable barrier for electron emission. In
order to dramatically improve the field emission characteristics, the
platinum nanopillars (Pt-NPs) were deposited on QBSNs to form
Pt-NPs/QBSNs heterostructures. The turn-on field of Pt-NPs/QBSNs
is as low as 2.29 V/μm (corresponding current density of 1 μA/cm2),
and the field enhancement factor (β-value) is significantly increased to
6067. More importantly, the uniform and continuous electrons excite
light emission, due to the surrounding filed emitters from
Pt-NPs/QBSNs, can be easily obtained. This approach does not require
an expensive photolithographic process and possesses great potential
for applications.
Abstract: Bicycle configuration is not as large as those of motorcycles or automobiles, while it indeed composes a complicated dynamic system. People-s requirements on comfortability, controllability and safety grow higher as the research and development technologies improve. The shock absorber affects the vehicle suspension performances enormously. The absorber takes the vibration energy and releases it at a suitable time, keeping the wheel under a proper contact condition with road surface, maintaining the vehicle chassis stability. Suspension design for mountain bicycles is more difficult than that of city bikes since it encounters dynamic variations on road and loading conditions. Riders need a stiff damper as they exert to tread on the pedals when climbing, while a soft damper when they descend downhill. Various switchable shock absorbers are proposed in markets, however riders have to manually switch them among soft, hard and lock positions. This study proposes a novel design of the bicycle shock absorber, which provides automatic smooth tuning of the damping coefficient, from a predetermined lower bound to theoretically unlimited. An automatic quick releasing valve is involved in this design so that it can release the peak pressure when the suspension fork runs into a square-wave type obstacle and prevent the chassis from damage, avoiding the rider skeleton from injury. This design achieves the automatic tuning process by innovative plunger valve and fluidic passage arrangements without any electronic devices. Theoretical modelling of the damper and spring are established in this study. Design parameters of the valves and fluidic passages are determined. Relations between design parameters and shock absorber performances are discussed in this paper. The analytical results give directions to the shock absorber manufacture.
Abstract: Data of wave height and wind speed were collected
from three existing oil fields in South China Sea – offshore
Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah regions. Extreme values
and other significant data were employed for analysis. The data were
recorded from 1999 until 2008. The results show that offshore
structures are susceptible to unacceptable motions initiated by wind
and waves with worst structural impacts caused by extreme wave
heights. To protect offshore structures from damage, there is a need
to quantify descriptive statistics and determine spectra envelope of
wind speed and wave height, and to ascertain the frequency content
of each spectrum for offshore structures in the South China Sea
shallow waters using measured time series. The results indicate that
the process is nonstationary; it is converted to stationary process by
first differencing the time series. For descriptive statistical analysis,
both wind speed and wave height have significant influence on the
offshore structure during the northeast monsoon with high mean wind
speed of 13.5195 knots ( = 6.3566 knots) and the high mean wave
height of 2.3597 m ( = 0.8690 m). Through observation of the
spectra, there is no clear dominant peak and the peaks fluctuate
randomly. Each wind speed spectrum and wave height spectrum has
its individual identifiable pattern. The wind speed spectrum tends to
grow gradually at the lower frequency range and increasing till it
doubles at the higher frequency range with the mean peak frequency
range of 0.4104 Hz to 0.4721 Hz, while the wave height tends to
grow drastically at the low frequency range, which then fluctuates
and decreases slightly at the high frequency range with the mean
peak frequency range of 0.2911 Hz to 0.3425 Hz.
Abstract: The recent development in learning technologies leads
to emerge many learning management systems (LMS). In this study,
we concentrate on the specifications and characteristics of LMSs.
Furthermore, this paper emphasizes on the feature of e-learning
management systems. The features take on the account main
indicators to assist and evaluate the quality of e-learning systems.
The proposed indicators based of ten dimensions.
Abstract: Following harvest, fresh produce needs to be cooled
immediately in a room where the air temperature and the relative air
humidity are controlled to maintain the produce quality. In this paper,
an experimental study for forced air cooling of fresh produce
(cauliflower) is performed using a pilot developed within our
laboratory. Furthermore, a numerical simulation of spherical
produces, taking into account the aerodynamic aspect and also the
heat transfer in the produce and in the air, was carried out using a
finite element method. At the end of this communication,
experimental results are presented and compared with the simulation.
Abstract: The uses of road map in daily activities are numerous
but it is a hassle to construct and update a road map whenever there
are changes. In Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, research on Automatic
Road Extraction (ARE) was explored to solve the difficulties in
updating road map. The research started with using Satellite Image
(SI), or in short, the ARE-SI project. A Hybrid Simple Colour Space
Segmentation & Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm
was developed to extract roads automatically from satellite-taken
images. In order to extract the road network accurately, the satellite
image must be analyzed prior to the extraction process. The
characteristics of these elements are analyzed and consequently the
relationships among them are determined. In this study, the road
regions are extracted based on colour space elements and edge details
of roads. Besides, edge detection method is applied to further filter
out the non-road regions. The extracted road regions are validated by
using a segmentation method. These results are valuable for building
road map and detecting the changes of the existing road database.
The proposed Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation and Edge
Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm can perform the tasks
fully automatic, where the user only needs to input a high-resolution
satellite image and wait for the result. Moreover, this system can
work on complex road network and generate the extraction result in
seconds.
Abstract: SQL injection on web applications is a very popular
kind of attack. There are mechanisms such as intrusion detection
systems in order to detect this attack. These strategies often rely on
techniques implemented at high layers of the application but do not
consider the low level of system calls. The problem of only
considering the high level perspective is that an attacker can
circumvent the detection tools using certain techniques such as URL
encoding. One technique currently used for detecting low-level
attacks on privileged processes is the tracing of system calls. System
calls act as a single gate to the Operating System (OS) kernel; they
allow catching the critical data at an appropriate level of detail. Our
basic assumption is that any type of application, be it a system
service, utility program or Web application, “speaks” the language of
system calls when having a conversation with the OS kernel. At this
level we can see the actual attack while it is happening. We conduct
an experiment in order to demonstrate the suitability of system call
analysis for detecting SQL injection. We are able to detect the attack.
Therefore we conclude that system calls are not only powerful in
detecting low-level attacks but that they also enable us to detect highlevel
attacks such as SQL injection.
Abstract: A new, simple and highly sensitive kinetic
spectrophotometric method was developed for the determination of
trace amounts of Ru(III) in the range of 0.06-20 ng/ml .The method
is based on the inhibitory effect of ruthenium(III) on the oxidation of
Rhodamine B by bromate in acidic and micellar medium. The
reaction was monitored spectrophotometrically by measuring the
decreasing in absorbance of Rhodamine B at 554 nm with a fixedtime
method..The limit of detection is 0.04 ng/ml Ru(III).The relative
standard deviation of 5 and 10 ng/ml Ru(III) was 2.3 and 2.7 %,
respectively. The method was applied to the determination of
ruthenium in real water samples
Abstract: This paper proposes a robot able to climb Columns.
This robot is not dependent on the diameter and material of the
columns. Some climbing robots have been designed up to now but
Koala robot was designed and fabricated for climbing columns
exclusively. Simple kinematics of climbing in the nature inspired us
to design this robot. We used two linear mechanisms to grip the
column. The gripper consists of a DC motor and a power screw
mechanism with a linear bushing as a guide. This mechanism
provides enough force to grip the column. In addition we needed an
actuator for climbing the column; hence, two pneumatic jacks were
used. All the mechanical parts were designed according to the
exerted forces and operational condition. The prototype can be
simply installed and controlled on the column by an inexperienced
operator. This robot is intended for inspection and surveillance of
pipes in oil industries and power poles in electric industries.
Abstract: This paper deals with rheological behavior of tomato
paste from the view point of time independent properties inclusive of
processing variables such as sample temperature which influence on
rheological properties as well as breaking temperature and
concentration which beside the rheological properties, influence on
the quality of final product. With this aim 10 tomato paste samples at
various concentrations (17-25%) and breaking temperatures (65-
85 C o ) have been produced. The experimental results showed tomato
paste behaves as a non-Newtonian semi-fluid which follows power
law model that consistency coefficient (K) is supposed function of
breaking temperature, concentration and sample temperature with
consideration to superimpose function.
Abstract: Stress Concentration Factors are significant in
machine design as it gives rise to localized stress when any change in
the design of surface or abrupt change in the cross section occurs.
Almost all machine components and structural members contain
some form of geometrical or microstructural discontinuities. These
discontinuities are very dangerous and lead to failure. So, it is very
much essential to analyze the stress concentration factors for critical
applications like Turbine Rotors. In this paper Finite Element
Analysis (FEA) with extremely fine mesh in the vicinity of the
blades of Steam Turbine Rotor is applied to determine stress
concentration factors. A model of Steam Turbine Rotor is shown in
Fig. 1.
Abstract: A novel design of two-wheeled robotic vehicle with moving payload is presented in this paper. A mathematical model describing the vehicle dynamics is derived and simulated in Matlab Simulink environment. Two control strategies were developed to stabilise the vehicle in the upright position. A robust Proportional- Integral-Derivative (PID) control strategy has been implemented and initially tested to measure the system performance, while the second control strategy is to use a hybrid fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The results are given on a comparative basis for the system performance in terms of disturbance rejection, control algorithms robustness as well as the control effort in terms of input torque.