Abstract: The aim of this study is to discuss the relationship between tourist awareness of environmental issues and their own recreational behaviors in the Taipei Guandu Wetland. A total of 392 questionnaires were gathered for data analysis using descriptive statistics, t-testing, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc comparisons. The results showed that most of the visitors there enjoying the beautiful scenery are 21 to 30 years old with a college education. The means and standard deviations indicate that tourists express a positive degree of cognition of environmental issues and recreational behaviors. They suggest that polluting the environment is harmful to the natural ecosystem and that the natural resources of ecotourism are fragile, as well as expressing a high degree of recognition of the need to protect wetlands. Most of respondents are cognizant of the regulations proposed by the Guandu Wetland administration which asks that users exercise self-control and follow recommended guidelines when traveling the wetland. There were significant differences in the degree of cognition related to the variables of age, number of visits and reasons for visiting. We found that most respondents with relatively high levels of education would like to learn more about the wetland and are supportive of its conservation.
Abstract: Since polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been
invented, it has emerged as a powerful tool in genetic analysis. The
PCR products are closely linked with thermal cycles. Therefore, to
reduce the reaction time and make temperature distribution uniform in
the reaction chamber, a novel oscillatory thermal cycler is designed.
The sample is placed in a fixed chamber, and three constant isothermal
zones are established and lined in the system. The sample is oscillated
and contacted with three different isothermal zones to complete
thermal cycles. This study presents the design of the geometric
characteristics of the chamber. The commercial software
CFD-ACE+TM is utilized to investigate the influences of various
materials, heating times, chamber volumes, and moving speed of the
chamber on the temperature distributions inside the chamber. The
chamber moves at a specific velocity and the boundary conditions
with time variations are related to the moving speed. Whereas the
chamber moves, the boundary is specified at the conditions of the
convection or the uniform temperature. The user subroutines compiled
by the FORTRAN language are used to make the numerical results
realistically. Results show that the reaction chamber with a rectangular
prism is heated on six faces; the effects of various moving speeds of
the chamber on the temperature distributions are examined. Regarding
to the temperature profiles and the standard deviation of the
temperature at the Y-cut cross section, the non-uniform temperature
inside chamber is found as the moving speed is larger than 0.01 m/s.
By reducing the heating faces to four, the standard deviation of the
temperature of the reaction chamber is under 1.4×10-3K with the range
of velocities between 0.0001 m/s and 1 m/s. The nature convective
boundary conditions are set at all boundaries while the chamber moves
between two heaters, the effects of various moving velocities of the
chamber on the temperature distributions are negligible at the assigned
time duration.
Abstract: The autonomic nervous system has a regulatory
structure that helps people adapt to changes in their environment by
adjusting or modifying some functions in response to stress, and regulating involuntary function of human organs. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the effect of combined stimulation, both
far-infrared heating and chiropractic, on the autonomic nervous system
activities using thermal image and heart rate variability. Six healthy subjects participated in this test. We compared the before and after
autonomic nervous system activities through obtaining thermal image
and photoplethysmogram signal. The thermal images showed that the
combined stimulation changed subject-s body temperature more
highly and widely than before. The result of heart rate variability
indicated that LF/HF ratio decreased. We concluded that combined
stimulation activates autonomic nervous system, and expected other
possibilities of this combined stimulation.
Abstract: Supplementation of palm vitamin E has been reported
to prevent loss of bone density in ovariectomised female rats. The
mechanism by which palm vitamin E exerts these effects is still
unknown. We hypothesized that palm vitamin E may act by
preventing the protein expression changes. Two dimensional poly
acyrilamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) and PD Quest software
genomic solutions Investigator (proteomics) was used to analyze the
differential protein expression profile in femoral and humeri bones
harvested from three groups of rats; sham-operated rats (SO),
ovariectomised rats (Ovx) and ovariectomised rats supplemented for
2 months with palm vitamin E. The results showed that there were
over 300 valued spot on each of the groups PVE and OVX as
compared to about 200 in SO. Comparison between the differential
protein expression between OVX and PVE groups showed that ten
spots were down –regulated in OVX but up-regulated in PVE. The
ten differential spots were separately named P1-P10. The
identification and understanding of the pathway of the differential
protein expression among the groups is ongoing and may account for
the molecular mechanism through which palm vitamin E exert its
anti-osteoporotic effect.
Abstract: This paper presents a solution for ceramic cutting tools availability in interrupted machining. Experiments were performed on a special fixture – the interrupted cut simulator. This fixture was constructed at our Department of Machining and Assembly within the scope of a project by the Czech Science Foundation. The goals of the tests were to contribute to the wider usage of these cutting materials in machining, especially in interrupted machining. Through the centuries, producers of ceramic cutting tools have taken big steps forward. Namely, increasing durability in maintaining high levels of strength and hardness lends an advantage. Some producers of these materials advise cutting inserts for interrupted machining at the present time [1, 2].
Abstract: Twenty seven tektites from the Wenchang area, Hainan
province (south China) and five tektites from the Khon Kaen area
(northeast Thailand) were analyzed for major and trace element
contents and Rb-Sr isotopic compositions. All the samples studied are
splash-form tektites. Tektites of this study are characterized by high
SiO2 contents ranging from 71.95 to 74.07 wt% which is consistent
with previously published analyses of Australasian tektites. The trace
element ratios Ba/Rb (avg. 3.89), Th/Sm (avg. 2.40), Sm/Sc (avg.
0.45), Th/Sc (avg. 0.99) and the rare earth elements (REE) contents of
tektites of this study are similar to the average upper continental crust.
Based on the chemical composition, it is suggested that tektites in this
study are derived from similar parental material and are similar to the
post-Archean upper crustal rocks. The major and trace element
abundances of tektites analyzed indicate that the parental material of
tektites may be a terrestrial sedimentary deposit. The tektites from the
Wenchang area, Hainan Island have high positive εSr(0)
values-ranging from 184.5~196.5 which indicate that the parental
material for these tektites have similar Sr isotopic compositions to old
terrestrial sedimentary rocks and they were not dominantly derived
from recent young sediments (such as soil or loess). Based on Rb-Sr
isotopic data, it has been suggested by Blum (1992) [1]that the
depositional age of sedimentary target materials is close to 170Ma
(Jurassic). According to the model suggested by Ho and Chen
(1996)[2], mixing calculations for various amounts and combinations
of target rocks have been carried out. We consider that the best fit for
tektites from the Wenchang area is a mixture of 47% shale, 23%
sandstone, 25% greywacke and 5% quartzite, and the other tektites
from Khon Kaen area is a mixture of 46% shale, 2% sandstone, 20%
greywacke and 32% quartzite.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new design of spatial FIR
filter to automatically detect water level from a video signal of
various river surroundings. A new approach in this report applies
"addition" of frames and a "horizontal" edge detector to distinguish
water region and land region. Variance of each line of a filtered
video frame is used as a feature value. The water level is recognized
as a boundary line between the land region and the water region.
Edge detection filter essentially demarcates between two distinctly
different regions. However, the conventional filters are not
automatically adaptive to detect water level in various lighting
conditions of river scenery. An optimized filter is purposed so that
the system becomes robust to changes of lighting condition. More
reliability of the proposed system with the optimized filter is
confirmed by accuracy of water level detection.
Abstract: The launching nose plays an important role in the
incremental launching construction. The parameters of the launching
nose essentially affect the internal forces of the girder during the
construction. The appropriate parameters can decrease the internal
forces in the girder and save the material and reduce the cost. The
simplified structural model, which is made with displacement method
according to the characteristic of incremental launching construction
and the variation rule of the internal forces, calculates and analyzes the
effect of the length, the rigidity and weight of launch nose on the
internal forces of girder during the incremental launching
construction. The method, which can calculate the launching nose
parameters for the optimum incremental launching construction, is
achieved. This method is simple, reliable and easy for practical use.
Abstract: This paper deals with dynamic load balancing using PVM. In distributed environment Load Balancing and Heterogeneity are very critical issues and needed to drill down in order to achieve the optimal results and efficiency. Various techniques are being used in order to distribute the load dynamically among different nodes and to deal with heterogeneity. These techniques are using different approaches where Process Migration is basic concept with different optimal flavors. But Process Migration is not an easy job, it impose lot of burden and processing effort in order to track each process in nodes. We will propose a dynamic load balancing technique in which application will intelligently balance the load among different nodes, resulting in efficient use of system and have no overheads of process migration. It would also provide a simple solution to problem of load balancing in heterogeneous environment.
Abstract: The wisest economic decision of United States in the
20th century was establishing the favorable international monetary
system, and capturing the leadership position in it. This decision gave
economic hegemony to the US for the next more than 7 decades. The
continuation of this hegemony till the next decade seems difficult as
the US economy is under continuous streams of recessions since
2007. On the other hand, Chinese economy is progressing with a
very fast speed and is estimated to pass the US economy till 2025, in
various aspects. Will the US be able to continue its leadership in the
IMS? Will China replace US in the international monetary system?
The answers to these questions have been explored by comparing the
economic competitiveness of US and China, with respect to each
other. The paper concludes that the change in global economic
environment will compel US to share the leadership of international
monetary system with China. This sharing will solve most problems
of the current IMS, but will also birth some new problems.
Abstract: Wavelet transforms are multiresolution
decompositions that can be used to analyze signals and images.
Image compression is one of major applications of wavelet
transforms in image processing. It is considered as one of the most
powerful methods that provides a high compression ratio. However,
its implementation is very time-consuming. At the other hand,
parallel computing technologies are an efficient method for image
compression using wavelets. In this paper, we propose a parallel
wavelet compression algorithm based on quadtrees. We implement
the algorithm using MatlabMPI (a parallel, message passing version
of Matlab), and compute its isoefficiency function, and show that it is
scalable. Our experimental results confirm the efficiency of the
algorithm also.
Abstract: Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) has
been reported to develop after a hymenoptera sting, but its
pathogenesis is not known in detail. Myelin basic protein (MBP)-
specific T cells have been detected in the blood of patients with
ADEM, and a proportion of these patients develop multiple sclerosis
(MS). In an attempt to understand the mechanisms underlying
ADEM, molecular mimicry between hymenoptera venom peptides
and the human immunodominant MBP peptide was scrutinized,
based on the sequence and structural similarities, whether it was the
root of the disease. The results suggest that the three wasp venom
peptides have low sequence homology with the human
immunodominant MBP residues 85-99. Structural similarity analysis
among the three venom peptides and the MS-related HLA-DR2b
(DRA, DRB1*1501)-associated immunodominant MHC
binding/TCR contact residues 88-93, VVHFFK showed that
hyaluronidase residues 7-12, phospholipase A1 residues 98-103, and
antigen 5 residues 109-114 showed a high degree of similarity
83.3%, 100%, and 83.3% respectively. In conclusion, some wasp
venom peptides, particularly phospholipase A1, may potentially act
as the molecular motifs of the human 3HLA-DR2b-associated
immunodominant MBP88-93, and possibly present a mechanism for
induction of wasp sting-associated ADEM.
Abstract: This research work proposes a model of network security systems aiming to prevent production system in a data center from being attacked by intrusions. Conceptually, we introduce a decoy system as a part of the security system for luring intrusions, and apply network intrusion detection (NIDS), coupled with the decoy system to perform intrusion prevention. When NIDS detects an activity of intrusions, it will signal a redirection module to redirect all malicious traffics to attack the decoy system instead, and hence the production system is protected and safe. However, in a normal situation, traffic will be simply forwarded to the production system as usual. Furthermore, we assess the performance of the model with various bandwidths, packet sizes and inter-attack intervals (attacking frequencies).
Abstract: Today, the preferences and participation of the TD groups such as the elderly and disabled is still lacking in decision-making of transportation planning, and their reactions to certain type of policies are not well known. Thus, a clear methodology is needed. This study aimed to develop a method to extract the preferences of the disabled to be used in the policy-making stage that can also guide to future estimations. The method utilizes the combination of cluster analysis and data filtering using the data of the Arao city (Japan). The method is a process that follows: defining the TD group by the cluster analysis tool, their travel preferences in tabular form from the household surveys by policy variableimpact pairs, zones, and by trip purposes, and the final outcome is the preference probabilities of the disabled. The preferences vary by trip purpose; for the work trips, accessibility and transit system quality policies with the accompanying impacts of modal shifts towards public mode use as well as the decreasing travel costs, and the trip rate increase; for the social trips, the same accessibility and transit system policies leading to the same mode shift impact, together with the travel quality policy area leading to trip rate increase. These results explain the policies to focus and can be used in scenario generation in models, or any other planning purpose as decision support tool.
Abstract: A considerable progress has been achieved in transient
stability analysis (TSA) with various FACTS controllers. But, all
these controllers are associated with single transmission line. This
paper is intended to discuss a new approach i.e. a multi-line FACTS
controller which is interline power flow controller (IPFC) for TSA of
a multi-machine power system network. A mathematical model of
IPFC, termed as power injection model (PIM) presented and this
model is incorporated in Newton-Raphson (NR) power flow
algorithm. Then, the reduced admittance matrix of a multi-machine
power system network for a three phase fault without and with IPFC
is obtained which is required to draw the machine swing curves. A
general approach based on L-index has also been discussed to find
the best location of IPFC to reduce the proximity to instability of a
power system. Numerical results are carried out on two test systems
namely, 6-bus and 11-bus systems. A program in MATLAB has
been written to plot the variation of generator rotor angle and speed
difference curves without and with IPFC for TSA and also a simple
approach has been presented to evaluate critical clearing time for test
systems. The results obtained without and with IPFC are compared
and discussed.
Abstract: In this paper, we present an algorithm for computing a
Schur factorization of a real nonsymmetric matrix with ordered diagonal
blocks such that upper left blocks contains the largest magnitude
eigenvalues. Especially in case of multiple eigenvalues, when matrix
is non diagonalizable, we construct an invariant subspaces with few
additional tricks which are heuristic and numerical results shows the
stability and accuracy of the algorithm.
Abstract: This paper presents the theoretical background and
the real implementation of an automated computer system to
introduce machine vision in flower, fruit and vegetable processing
for recollection, cutting, packaging, classification, or fumigation
tasks. The considerations and implementation issues presented in this
work can be applied to a wide range of varieties of flowers, fruits and
vegetables, although some of them are especially relevant due to the
great amount of units that are manipulated and processed each year
over the world. The computer vision algorithms developed in this
work are shown in detail, and can be easily extended to other
applications. A special attention is given to the electromagnetic
compatibility in order to avoid noisy images. Furthermore, real
experimentation has been carried out in order to validate the
developed application. In particular, the tests show that the method
has good robustness and high success percentage in the object
characterization.
Abstract: Presented herein is an assessment of current nonlinear
static procedures (NSPs) for seismic evaluation of bucklingrestrained
braced frames (BRBFs) which have become a favorable
lateral-force resisting system for earthquake resistant buildings. The
bias and accuracy of modal, improved modal pushover analysis
(MPA, IMPA) and mass proportional pushover (MPP) procedures
are comparatively investigated when they are applied to BRBF
buildings subjected to two sets of strong ground motions. The
assessment is based on a comparison of seismic displacement
demands such as target roof displacements, peak floor/roof
displacements and inter-story drifts. The NSP estimates are compared
to 'exact' results from nonlinear response history analysis (NLRHA).
The response statistics presented show that the MPP
procedure tends to significantly overestimate seismic demands of
lower stories of tall buildings considered in this study while MPA
and IMPA procedures provide reasonably accurate results in
estimating maximum inter-story drift over all stories of studied BRBF
systems.
Abstract: India recognizes the personal laws of the various
religious communities that reside in the country. At the same time all
the institutions of the state in India are committed to the value of
secularism. This paper has been developed on the basis of a case
study that indicates the dynamics of religion in the working of the
lower judiciary in India. Majority of the commentary on religion and
the judiciary has focused on debates surrounding the existence and
application of personal laws. This paper, through a case study in the
lower judiciary, makes an attempt to examine whether the interface
between religion and the judiciary goes beyond personal laws.
The first part of this paper explains the history and application of
personal laws in social, political and legal contexts in India. The
second part examines the case study located in two courts of first
instance, following into the third part which provides an analysis of
the empirical evidence. The fourth part focuses on preliminary
observations about why there is a hesitancy to speak about religion in
relation to the working of the judicial system.
Abstract: In order to meet the limits imposed on automotive
emissions, engine control systems are required to constrain air/fuel
ratio (AFR) in a narrow band around the stoichiometric value, due to
the strong decay of catalyst efficiency in case of rich or lean mixture.
This paper presents a model of a sample spark ignition engine and
demonstrates Simulink-s capabilities to model an internal combustion
engine from the throttle to the crankshaft output. We used welldefined
physical principles supplemented, where appropriate, with
empirical relationships that describe the system-s dynamic behavior
without introducing unnecessary complexity. We also presents a PID
tuning method that uses an adaptive fuzzy system to model the
relationship between the controller gains and the target output
response, with the response specification set by desired percent
overshoot and settling time. The adaptive fuzzy based input-output
model is then used to tune on-line the PID gains for different
response specifications. Experimental results demonstrate that better
performance can be achieved with adaptive fuzzy tuning relative to
similar alternative control strategies. The actual response
specifications with adaptive fuzzy matched the desired response
specifications.