Abstract: Many studies have been conducted for derivation of
attenuation relationships worldwide, however few relationships have
been developed to use for the seismic region of Iranian plateau and
only few of these studies have been conducted for derivation of
attenuation relationships for parameters such as uniform duration.
Uniform duration is the total time during which the acceleration is
larger than a given threshold value (default is 5% of PGA). In this
study, the database was same as that used previously by Ghodrati
Amiri et al. (2007) with same correction methods for earthquake
records in Iran. However in this study, records from earthquakes with
MS< 4.0 were excluded from this database, each record has
individually filtered afterward, and therefore the dataset has been
expanded. These new set of attenuation relationships for Iran are
derived based on tectonic conditions with soil classification into rock
and soil. Earthquake parameters were chosen to be
hypocentral distance and magnitude in order to make it easier to use
the relationships for seismic hazard analysis. Tehran is the capital
city of Iran wit ha large number of important structures. In this study,
a probabilistic approach has been utilized for seismic hazard
assessment of this city. The resulting uniform duration against return
period diagrams are suggested to be used in any projects in the area.
Abstract: The operational behavior of a six-phase squirrel cage
induction machine with faulted stator terminals is presented in this
paper. The study is carried out using the derived mathematical model
of the machine in the arbitrary reference frame. Tests are conducted
on a 1 kW experimental machine.
Steady-state and dynamic performance are analyzed for the
machine unloaded and loaded conditions. The results shows that with
one of the stator phases experiencing either an open- circuit or short
circuit fault the machine still produces starting torque, albeit the
running performance is significantly derated.
Abstract: Whilst there is growing evidence that activity across the lifespan is beneficial for improved health, there are also many changes involved with the aging process and subsequently the potential for reduced indices of health. Data gathered on a subsample of 535 football code athletes, aged 31-72 yrs ( = 47.4, s = ±7.1), competing at the Sydney World Masters Games (2009) demonstrated a significantly (p < 0.001), reduced classification of obesity using Body Mass Index (BMI) when compared to the general Australian population. This evidence of improved classification in one index of health (BMI < 30) for master athletes (when compared to the general population) implies there are either improved levels of this index of health due to adherence to sport or possibly the reduced BMI is advantageous and contributes to this cohort adhering (or being attracted) to masters sport. Demonstration of this proportionately under-investigated World Masters Games population having improved health over the general population is of particular interest.
Abstract: Observations and long-term trends indicate that climate
change impacts would be significant and affects Taiwan directly and
severely. Taiwan engages not only in mitigation, but also in adaptation.
However, there are cognitive gaps on adaptation between government
and populace. Besides, a vision of zero-carbon and renewable energy
100% will be adopted in future. Therefore, the objectives of this
article are to 1) hold a National Forum for knowing differences
between the strategies of zero-carbon and renewable energy 100% and
cognitions of general populace, and 2) plan a clear roadmap for the
vision, strategy, and measures. In this forum, we set 5 group topics, 5
presumed themes, and issues mentioned review for concluding the
critical issues. Finally, there are 4 strategies and 14 critical issues
which correlate with the vision and strategy of government and the
cognition of the general populace.
Abstract: Green incentives are included in the “American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" (ARRA). It is, however,
unclear how these government incentives can be carried out most
effectively according to market-based principles and if they can serve
as a catalyst for an accelerated green transformation and an ultimate
solution to the current U.S. and global economic and financial crisis.
The article will compare the existing U.S. green economic policies
with those in Germany, identify problems, and suggest improvements
to allow the green stimulus incentives to achieve the best results in
the process of an accelerated green transformation. The author argues
that the current U.S. green stimulus incentives can only be most
successful if they are carried out as part of a visionary,
comprehensive, long-term, and consistent strategy of the green
economic transformation.
Abstract: A new class of percolation model in complex networks,
in which nodes are characterized by hidden variables reflecting the
properties of nodes and the occupied probability of each link is
determined by the hidden variables of the end nodes, is studied
in this paper. By the mean field theory, the analytical expressions
for the phase of percolation transition is deduced. It is determined
by the distribution of the hidden variables for the nodes and the
occupied probability between pairs of them. Moreover, the analytical
expressions obtained are checked by means of numerical simulations
on a particular model. Besides, the general model can be applied
to describe and control practical diffusion models, such as disease
diffusion model, scientists cooperation networks, and so on.
Abstract: Modernizing legacy applications is the key issue facing IT managers today because there's enormous pressure on organizations to change the way they run their business to meet the new requirements. The importance of software maintenance and reengineering is forever increasing. Understanding the architecture of existing legacy applications is the most critical issue for maintenance and reengineering. The artifacts recovery can be facilitated with different recovery approaches, methods and tools. The existing methods provide static and dynamic set of techniques for extracting architectural information, but are not suitable for all users in different domains. This paper presents a simple and lightweight pattern extraction technique to extract different artifacts from legacy systems using regular expression pattern specifications with multiple language support. We used our custom-built tool DRT to recover artifacts from existing system at different levels of abstractions. In order to evaluate our approach a case study is conducted.
Abstract: In this study, the sorption of Malachite green (MG) on Hydrilla verticillata biomass, a submerged aquatic plant, was investigated in a batch system. The effects of operating parameters such as temperature, adsorbent dosage, contact time, adsorbent size, and agitation speed on the sorption of Malachite green were analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM). The proposed quadratic model for central composite design (CCD) fitted very well to the experimental data that it could be used to navigate the design space according to ANOVA results. The optimum sorption conditions were determined as temperature - 43.5oC, adsorbent dosage - 0.26g, contact time - 200min, adsorbent size - 0.205mm (65mesh), and agitation speed - 230rpm. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data. The maximum monolayer coverage capacity of Hydrilla verticillata biomass for MG was found to be 91.97 mg/g at an initial pH 8.0 indicating that the optimum sorption initial pH. The external and intra particle diffusion models were also applied to sorption data of Hydrilla verticillata biomass with MG, and it was found that both the external diffusion as well as intra particle diffusion contributes to the actual sorption process. The pseudo-second order kinetic model described the MG sorption process with a good fitting.
Abstract: We developed a method based on quasi-molecular
modelling to simulate the fall of water drops on horizontally smooth
and rough surfaces. Each quasi-molecule was a group of particles
that interacted in a fashion entirely analogous to classical Newtonian
molecular interactions. When a falling water droplet was simulated at
low impact velocity on both smooth and rough surfaces, the droplets
moved periodically (i.e. the droplets moved up and down for a
certain period, finally they stopped moving and reached a steady
state), spreading and recoiling without splash or break-up. Spreading
rates of falling water droplets increased rapidly as time increased
until the spreading rate reached its steady state at time t ~ 0.25 s for
rough surface and t ~ 0.40 s for smooth surface. The droplet height
above both surfaces decreased as time increased, remained constant
after the droplet diameter attained a maximum value and reached its
steady state at time t ~ 0.4 s. However, rough surface had higher
spreading rates of falling water droplets and lower height on the
surface than smooth one.
Abstract: The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.
Abstract: In recent years, the number of natural disasters in the world has occurred frequently. After a strong earthquake occurs, multiple disasters due to tsunami, strong aftershocks or heavy snow can possible to occur. To prevent a secondary disaster and to save a life, the quick inspection of the damaged building is necessary. This paper investigated on a possibility of post earthquake quick inspection of damaged building by ordinary people which used the European Macro- Seismic Scale 1998 (EMS-98).
Abstract: Sol-gel method has been used to fabricate
nanocomposite films on glass substrates composed halloysite clay
mineral and nanocrystalline TiO2. The methodology for the synthesis
involves a simple chemistry method utilized nonionic surfactant
molecule as pore directing agent along with the acetic acid-based solgel
route with the absence of water molecules. The thermal treatment
of composite films at 450oC ensures elimination of organic material
and lead to the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles onto the surface of
the halloysite nanotubes. Microscopy techniques and porosimetry
methods used in order to delineate the structural characteristics of the
materials. The nanocomposite films produced have no cracks and
active anatase crystal phase with small crystallite size were deposited
on halloysite nanotubes. The photocatalytic properties for the new
materials were examined for the decomposition of the Basic Blue 41
azo dye in solution. These, nanotechnology based composite films
show high efficiency for dye’s discoloration in spite of different
halloysite quantities and small amount of halloysite/TiO2 catalyst
immobilized onto glass substrates. Moreover, we examined the
modification of the halloysite/TiO2 films with silver particles in order
to improve the photocatalytic properties of the films. Indeed, the
presence of silver nanoparticles enhances the discoloration rate of the
Basic Blue 41 compared to the efficiencies obtained for unmodified
films.
Abstract: The effect of Alumina nanoparticle size on thermophysical
properties, heat transfer performance and pressure loss characteristics of
Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF)-Al2O3 nanofluids is studied experimentally for
the proposed application of regenerative cooling of semi-cryogenic rocket
engine thrust chambers. Al2O3 particles with mean diameters of 50 nm or 150
nm are dispersed in ATF. At 500C and 0.3% particle volume concentration,
the bigger particles show increases of 17% in thermal conductivity and 55% in
viscosity, whereas the smaller particles show corresponding increases of 21%
and 22% for thermal conductivity and viscosity respectively. Contrary to these
results, experiments to study the heat transfer performance and pressure loss
characteristics show that at the same pumping power, the maximum
enhancement in heat transfer coefficient at 500C and 0.3% concentration is
approximately 47% using bigger particles, whereas it is only 36% using
smaller particles.
Abstract: Multicast transmissions allow an host (the source) to send only one flow bound for a group of hosts (the receivers). Any equipment eager to belong to the group may explicitly register itself to that group via its multicast router. This router will be given the responsibility to convey all information relating to the group to all registered hosts. However in an environment in which the final receiver or the source frequently moves, the multicast flows need particular treatment. This constitutes one of the multicast transmissions problems around which several proposals were made in the Mobile IPv6 case in general. In this article, we describe the problems involved in this IPv6 multicast mobility and the existing proposals for their resolution. Then architecture will be proposed aiming to satisfy and optimize these transmissions in the specific case of a mobile multicast receiver in NC-HMIPv6 environment.
Abstract: If science is supposed to gain greater social
relevance and acceptance, researchers must not only relate to
the broader public, but also promote intercourse within the
ivory tower itself. The latter process has been under way
successfully for a number of years in the form of
transdisciplinary research initiatives. What is still lacking is a
broad debate about the necessity to look around properly and
face up to opposing views on one and the same topic within
our own discipline.
Abstract: The notions of intuitionistic fuzzy h-ideal and normal
intuitionistic fuzzy h-ideal in Γ-hemiring are introduced and some
of the basic properties of these ideals are investigated. Cartesian
product of intuitionistic fuzzy h-ideals is also defined. Finally a
characterization of intuitionistic fuzzy h-ideals in terms of fuzzy
relations is obtained.
Abstract: The daily increase of organic waste materials resulting
from different activities in the country is one of the main factors for
the pollution of environment. Today, with regard to the low level of
the output of using traditional methods, the high cost of disposal
waste materials and environmental pollutions, the use of modern
methods such as anaerobic digestion for the production of biogas has
been prevailing. The collected biogas from the process of anaerobic
digestion, as a renewable energy source similar to natural gas but
with a less methane and heating value is usable. Today, with the help
of technologies of filtration and proper preparation, access to biogas
with features fully similar to natural gas has become possible. At
present biogas is one of the main sources of supplying electrical and
thermal energy and also an appropriate option to be used in four
stroke engine, diesel engine, sterling engine, gas turbine, gas micro
turbine and fuel cell to produce electricity. The use of biogas for
different reasons which returns to socio-economic and environmental
advantages has been noticed in CHP for the production of energy in
the world. The production of biogas from the technology of anaerobic
digestion and its application in CHP power plants in Iran can not only
supply part of the energy demands in the country, but it can
materialize moving in line with the sustainable development. In this
article, the necessity of the development of CHP plants with biogas
fuels in the country will be dealt based on studies performed from the
economic, environmental and social aspects. Also to prove the
importance of the establishment of these kinds of power plants from
the economic point of view, necessary calculations has been done as
a case study for a CHP power plant with a biogas fuel.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a texture feature-based
language identification using wavelet-domain BDIP (block difference
of inverse probabilities) and BVLC (block variance of local
correlation coefficients) features and FFT (fast Fourier transform)
feature. In the proposed method, wavelet subbands are first obtained
by wavelet transform from a test image and denoised by Donoho-s
soft-thresholding. BDIP and BVLC operators are next applied to the
wavelet subbands. FFT blocks are also obtained by 2D (twodimensional)
FFT from the blocks into which the test image is
partitioned. Some significant FFT coefficients in each block are
selected and magnitude operator is applied to them. Moments for each
subband of BDIP and BVLC and for each magnitude of significant
FFT coefficients are then computed and fused into a feature vector. In
classification, a stabilized Bayesian classifier, which adopts variance
thresholding, searches the training feature vector most similar to the
test feature vector. Experimental results show that the proposed
method with the three operations yields excellent language
identification even with rather low feature dimension.
Abstract: This article discusses the questions concerning of creating small packet networks for energy companies with application of high voltage power line carrier equipment (PLC) with functionality of IP traffic transmission. The main idea is to create converged PLC links between substations and dispatching centers where packet data and voice are transmitted in one data flow. The article contents description of basic conception of the network, evaluation of voice traffic transmission parameters, and discussion of header compression techniques in relation to PLC links. The results of exploration show us, that convergent packet PLC links can be very useful in the construction of small packet networks between substations in remote locations, such as deposits or low populated areas.
Abstract: Today-s Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs) face increasing design challenges as the number of transistors in microprocessors increases per Moore-s Law. These challenges have recently become even more demanding as microprocessors operate at sub voltage range at significantly high current. This paper presents a new multiphase topology with cell configuration for improved performance in low voltage and high current applications. A lab scale hardware prototype of the new topology was design and constructed. Laboratory tests were performed on the proposed converter and compared with a commercially available VRM. Results from the proposed topology exhibit improved performance compared to the commercially available counterpart.