Abstract: New nondestructive technique, namely an inverse technique based on vibration tests, to characterize nonlinear mechanical properties of adhesive layers in sandwich composites is developed. An adhesive layer is described as a viscoelastic isotropic material with storage and loss moduli which are both frequency dependent values in wide frequency range. An optimization based on the planning of experiments and response surface technique to minimize the error functional is applied to decrease considerably the computational expenses. The developed identification technique has been tested on aluminum panels and successfully applied to characterize viscoelastic material properties of 3M damping polymer ISD-112 used as a core material in sandwich panels.
Abstract: Earthquakes produce some of the most violent loading
situations that a structure can be subjected to and if a structure fails
under these loads then inevitably human life is put at risk. One of the
most common methods by which a structure fails under seismic
loading is at the connection of structural elements. The research
presented in this paper investigates the interlock systems as a novel
method for building structures. The main objective of this
experimental study wasto determine the dynamic characteristics and
the seismic behaviour of the proposed structures compared to
conventional structural systemsduring seismic motions. Results of
this study indicate that the interlock mechanism of the panels
influences the behaviour of lateral load-resisting systems of the
structures during earthquakes, contributing to better structural
flexibility and easier maintenance.
Abstract: Grid computing is a form of distributed computing
that involves coordinating and sharing computational power, data
storage and network resources across dynamic and geographically
dispersed organizations. Scheduling onto the Grid is NP-complete,
so there is no best scheduling algorithm for all grid computing
systems. An alternative is to select an appropriate scheduling
algorithm to use in a given grid environment because of the
characteristics of the tasks, machines and network connectivity. Job
and resource scheduling is one of the key research area in grid
computing. The goal of scheduling is to achieve highest possible
system throughput and to match the application need with the
available computing resources. Motivation of the survey is to
encourage the amateur researcher in the field of grid computing, so
that they can understand easily the concept of scheduling and can
contribute in developing more efficient scheduling algorithm. This
will benefit interested researchers to carry out further work in this
thrust area of research.
Abstract: The deficit of power for electricity demand reaches
almost 30% for consumers in the last few years. This reflects with
continually increasing the price of electricity, and today the price for
small industry is almost 110Euro/MWh. The high price is additional
problem for the owners in the economy crisis which is reflected with
higher price of the goods.
The paper gives analyses of the energy needs for real agro
complex in Macedonia, private vinery with capacity of over 2 million
liters in a year and with self grapes and fruits fields. The existing
power supply is from grid with 10/04 kV transformer. The
geographical and meteorological condition of the vinery location
gives opportunity for including renewable as a power supply option
for the vinery complex.
After observation of the monthly energy needs for the vinery, the
base scenario is the existing power supply from the distribution grid.
The electricity bill in small industry has three factors: electricity in
high and low tariffs in kWh and the power engaged for the
technological process of production in kW. These three factors make
the total electricity bill and it is over 110 Euro/MWh which is the
price near competitive for renewable option. On the other side
investments in renewable (especially photovoltaic (PV)) has tendency
of decreasing with price of near 1,5 Euro/W. This means that
renewable with PV can be real option for power supply for small
industry capacities (under 500kW installed power).
Therefore, the other scenarios give the option with PV and the last
one includes wind option. The paper presents some scenarios for
power supply of the vinery as the followings:
• Base scenario of existing conventional power supply from the
grid
• Scenario with implementation of renewable of Photovoltaic
• Scenario with implementation of renewable of Photovoltaic and
Wind power
The total power installed in a vinery is near 570 kW, but the
maximum needs are around 250kW. At the end of the full paper some
of the results from scenarios will be presented. The paper also
includes the environmental impacts of the renewable scenarios, as
well as financial needs for investments and revenues from renewable.
Abstract: The mathematical modeling of storm surge in sea and
coastal regions such as the South China Sea (SCS) and the Gulf of
Thailand (GoT) are important to study the typhoon characteristics.
The storm surge causes an inundation at a lateral boundary exhibiting
in the coastal zones particularly in the GoT and some part of the SCS.
The model simulations in the three dimensional primitive equations
with a high resolution model are important to protect local properties
and human life from the typhoon surges. In the present study, the
mathematical modeling is used to simulate the typhoon–induced
surges in three case studies of Typhoon Linda 1997. The results
of model simulations at the tide gauge stations can describe the
characteristics of storm surges at the coastal zones.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted to determine the effect
of the rearing system on growth performance, carcass yield,
hematological parameters, and feather pecking damage of Thai
indigenous chickens. Three hundred and sixty 1-d-old chicks were
randomly assigned to 2 treatments: indoor treatment and outdoor
access treatment. In the indoor treatment, the chickens were housed
in floor pens (5 birds/m2). In the outdoor access treatment, the
chickens were housed in a similar indoor house; in addition, they also
had an outdoor grass paddock (1 bird/m2). All birds were provided
with same diet and were raised for 16 wk of age. The results showed
that growth performance and carcass yield were not different among
treatment (P>0.05). Outdoor access had no effect on hematological
parameters (P>0.05). However, the feather pecking damage of the
chickens in the outdoor access treatment was lower than that of the
chickens in the indoor treatment (P
Abstract: The paper presents the results of research on trends in shaping of multifamily buildings in Poland on the example of Wrocław, after Polish accession to the European Union. The study is conducted within the research project: “Trends in creating of multifamily housing development since 2004, on the Wrocław study case" supported by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and will be completed in November 2011. The research involves multifamily buildings completed in the last decade, in term of fundamental urbanization factors such as: building-s coefficient area, useable area, green area (biologically active surface), intensity of building development, amount of dwellings, dwelling area, amount of parking places, numbers of floors, etc. The analysis of these indicators was conducted based on the date obtained in the study of approximately one hundred new housing units, completed in Wroclaw. The analysis attempts to formulate the main trends in creating of housing policy in Poland during the last 10 years in reference to local urban policy.
Abstract: Shrunken patterning for integrated device
manufacturing requires surface cleanliness and surface smoothness in
wet chemical processing [1]. It is necessary to control all process
parameters perfectly especially for the common cleaning technique
RCA clean (SC-1 and SC-2) [2]. In this paper the characteristic and
effect of surface preparation parameters are discussed. The properties
of RCA wet chemical processing in silicon technology is based on
processing time, temperature, concentration and megasonic power of
SC-1 and QDR. An improvement of wafer surface preparation by
the enhanced variables of the wet cleaning chemical process is
proposed.
Abstract: In recent years application of natural antimicrobials
instead of conventional ones, due to their hazardous effects on health,
has got serious attentions. On the basis of the results of different
studies, chitosan, a natural bio-degradable and non-toxic
biopolysaccharide derived from chitin, has potential to be used as a
natural antimicrobial. Chitosan has exhibited high antimicrobial
activity against a wide variety of pathogenic and spoilage
microorganisms, including fungi, and Gram-positive and Gramnegative
bacteria. The antimicrobial action is influenced by intrinsic
factors such as the type of chitosan, the degree of chitosan
polymerization and extrinsic factors such as the microbial organism,
the environmental conditions and presence of the other components.
The use of chitosan in food systems should be based on sufficient
knowledge of the complex mechanisms of its antimicrobial mode of
action. In this article we review a number of studies on the
investigation of chitosan antimicrobial properties and application of
them in culture and food mediums.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel system
recognition of human faces without using face
different color photographs is proposed. It mainly in
face detection, normalization and recognition. Foot
method of combination of Haar-like face determined
segmentation and region-based histogram stretchi
(RHST) is proposed to achieve more accurate perf
using Haar. Apart from an effective angle norm
side-face (pose) normalization, which is almost a might be important and beneficial for the prepr
introduced. Then histogram-based and photom
normalization methods are investigated and ada
retinex (ASR) is selected for its satisfactory illumin
Finally, weighted multi-block local binary pattern
with 3 distance measures is applied for pair-mat
Experimental results show its advantageous perfo
with PCA and multi-block LBP, based on a principle.
Abstract: Current mode circuits like current conveyors are
getting significant attention in current analog ICs design due to their
higher band-width, greater linearity, larger dynamic range, simpler
circuitry, lower power consumption and less chip area. The second
generation current controlled conveyor (CCCII) has the advantage of
electronic adjustability over the CCII i.e. in CCCII; adjustment of the
X-terminal intrinsic resistance via a bias current is possible. The
presented approach is based on the CMOS implementation of second
generation positive (CCCII+), negative (CCCII-) and dual Output
Current Controlled Conveyor (DOCCCII) and its application as
Universal filter. All the circuits have been designed and simulated
using 65nm CMOS technology model parameters on Cadence
Virtuoso / Spectre using 1V supply voltage. Various simulations have
been carried out to verify the linearity between output and input
ports, range of operation frequency, etc. The outcomes show good
agreement between expected and experimental results.
Abstract: Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are direct searching
methods which require little information from design space. This
characteristic beside robustness of these algorithms makes them to be
very popular in recent decades. On the other hand, while this method
is employed, there is no guarantee to achieve optimum results. This
obliged designer to run such algorithms more than one time to
achieve more reliable results. There are many attempts to modify the
algorithms to make them more efficient. In this paper, by application
of fractal dimension (particularly, Box Counting Method), the
complexity of design space are established for determination of
mutation and crossover probabilities (Pm and Pc). This methodology
is followed by a numerical example for more clarification. It is
concluded that this modification will improve efficiency of GAs and
make them to bring about more reliable results especially for design
space with higher fractal dimensions.
Abstract: This research is to design and implement a new kind
of agitators called differential agitator. The Differential Agitator is an
electro- mechanic set consists of two shafts. The first shaft is the
bearing axis while the second shaft is the axis of the quartet upper
bearing impellers group and the triple lower group which are called
as agitating group. The agitating group is located inside a cylindrical
container equipped especially to contain square directors for the
liquid entrance and square directors called fixing group for the liquid
exit. The fixing group is installed containing the agitating group
inside any tank whether from upper or lower position. The agitating
process occurs through the agitating group bearing causing a lower
pressure over the upper group leading to withdrawing the liquid from
the square directors of the liquid entering and consequently the liquid
moves to the denser place under the quartet upper group. Then, the
liquid moves to the so high pressure area under the agitating group
causing the liquid to exit from the square directors in the bottom of
the container. For improving efficiency, parametric study and shape
optimization has been carried out. A numerical analysis,
manufacturing and laboratory experiments were conducted to design
and implement the differential agitator. Knowing the material
prosperities and the loading conditions, the FEM using ANSYS11
was used to get the optimum design of the geometrical parameters of
the differential agitator elements while the experimental test was
performed to validate the advantages of the differential agitators to
give a high agitation performance of lime in the water as an example.
In addition, the experimental work has been done to express the
internal container shape in the agitation efficiency. The study ended
up with conclusions to maximize agitator performance and optimize
the geometrical parameters to be used for manufacturing the
differential agitator
Abstract: The objective of this research was to study the themes
of alcoholic beverage advertisements in Thailand after the enactment
of the 2008 Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. Data was collected
through textual analysis of 35 television and cinema advertisements
for alcoholic beverage products broadcast in Thailand. Nine themes
were identified, seven of which were themes that had previously been
used before the new law (i.e. power, competition, friendship,
Thainess, success, romance and safety) and two of which were new
themes (volunteerism and conservation) that were introduced as a
form of adaptation and negotiation in response to the new law.
Abstract: The steam cracking reactions are always accompanied with the formation of coke which deposits on the walls of the tubular reactors. The investigation has attempted to control catalytic coking by the applying aluminum, zinc and ceramic coating like aluminum-magnesium by thermal spray and pack cementation method. Rate of coke formation during steam cracking of naphtha has been investigated both for uncoated stainless steel (with different alloys) and metal coating constructed with thermal Spray and pack cementation method with metal powders of Aluminum, Aluminum-Magnesium, zinc, silicon, nickel and chromium. The results of the study show that passivating the surface of SS321 with a coating of Aluminum and Aluminum-Magnesium can significantly reduce the rate of coke deposition during naphtha pyrolysis. SEM and EDAX techniques (Philips XL Series) were used to examine the coke deposits formed by the metal-hydrocarbon reactions. Our objective was to separate the different stages by identifying the characteristic morphologies.
Abstract: Fast development of technologies, economic globalization and many other external circumstances stimulate company’s competitiveness. One of the major trends in today’s business is the shift to the exploitation of the Internet and electronic environment for entrepreneurial needs. Latest researches confirm that e-environment provides a range of possibilities and opportunities for companies, especially for micro-, small- and medium-sized companies, which have limited resources. The usage of e-tools raises the effectiveness and the profitability of an organization, as well as its competitiveness.
In the electronic market, as in the classic one, there are factors, such as globalization, development of new technology, price sensitive consumers, Internet, new distribution and communication channels that influence entrepreneurship. As a result of eenvironment development, e-commerce and e-marketing grow as well.
Objective of the paper: To describe and identify factors influencing company’s competitiveness in e-environment.
Research methodology: The authors employ well-established quantitative and qualitative methods of research: grouping, analysis, statistics method, factor analysis in SPSS 20 environment, etc. The theoretical and methodological background of the research is formed by using scientific researches and publications, such as that from mass media and professional literature; statistical information from legal institutions as well as information collected by the authors during the surveying process.
Research result: The authors detected and classified factors influencing competitiveness in e-environment.
In this paper, the authors presented their findings based on theoretical, scientific, and field research. Authors have conducted a research on e-environment utilization among Latvian enterprises.
Abstract: On-line (near infrared) spectroscopy is widely used to support the operation of complex process systems. Information extracted from spectral database can be used to estimate unmeasured product properties and monitor the operation of the process. These techniques are based on looking for similar spectra by nearest neighborhood algorithms and distance based searching methods. Search for nearest neighbors in the spectral space is an NP-hard problem, the computational complexity increases by the number of points in the discrete spectrum and the number of samples in the database. To reduce the calculation time some kind of indexing could be used. The main idea presented in this paper is to combine indexing and visualization techniques to reduce the computational requirement of estimation algorithms by providing a two dimensional indexing that can also be used to visualize the structure of the spectral database. This 2D visualization of spectral database does not only support application of distance and similarity based techniques but enables the utilization of advanced clustering and prediction algorithms based on the Delaunay tessellation of the mapped spectral space. This means the prediction has not to use the high dimension space but can be based on the mapped space too. The results illustrate that the proposed method is able to segment (cluster) spectral databases and detect outliers that are not suitable for instance based learning algorithms.
Abstract: Total liquid ventilation can support gas exchange in animal models of lung injury. Clinical application awaits further technical improvements and performance verification. Our aim was to develop a liquid ventilator, able to deliver accurate tidal volumes, and a computerized system for measuring lung mechanics. The computer-assisted, piston-driven respirator controlled ventilatory parameters that were displayed and modified on a real-time basis. Pressure and temperature transducers along with a lineal displacement controller provided the necessary signals to calculate lung mechanics. Ten newborn lambs (
Abstract: Silver nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction method. Silver nitrate was taken as the metal precursor and hydrazine hydrate as a reducing agent. The formation of the silver nanoparticles was monitored using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The UV-Vis spectroscopy revealed the formation of silver nanopart├¡cles by exhibing the typical surface plasmon absorption maxima at 418-420 nm from the UV–Vis spectrum. Comparison of theoretical (Mie light scattering theory) and experimental results showed that diameter of silver nanoparticles in colloidal solution is about 60 nm. We have used energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and, UV–Vis spectroscopy to characterize the nanoparticles obtained. The energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) of the nanoparticles dispersion confirmed the presence of elemental silver signal no peaks of other impurity were detected. The average size and morphology of silver nanoparticles were determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM photographs indicate that the nanopowders consist of well dispersed agglomerates of grains with a narrow size distribution (40 and 60 nm), whereas the radius of the individual particles are between 10 and 20 nm. The synthesized nanoparticles have been structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission high-energy electron diffraction (HEED). The peaks in the XRD pattern are in good agreement with the standard values of the face-centered-cubic form of metallic silver (ICCD-JCPDS card no. 4-0787) and no peaks of other impurity crystalline phases were detected. Additionally, the antibacterial activity of the nanopart├¡culas dispersion was measured by Kirby-Bauer method. The nanoparticles of silver showed high antimicrobial and bactericidal activity against gram positive bacteria such as Escherichia Coli, Pseudimonas aureginosa and staphylococcus aureus which is a highly methicillin resistant strain.
Abstract: In present work are considered the scheme of
evaluation the transition probability in quantum system. It is based on
path integral representation of transition probability amplitude and its
evaluation by means of a saddle point method, applied to the part of
integration variables. The whole integration process is reduced to
initial value problem solutions of Hamilton equations with a random
initial phase point. The scheme is related to the semiclassical initial
value representation approaches using great number of trajectories. In
contrast to them from total set of generated phase paths only one path
for each initial coordinate value is selected in Monte Karlo process.