Abstract: The drug discovery process starts with protein
identification because proteins are responsible for many functions
required for maintenance of life. Protein identification further needs
determination of protein function. Proposed method develops a
classifier for human protein function prediction. The model uses
decision tree for classification process. The protein function is
predicted on the basis of matched sequence derived features per each
protein function. The research work includes the development of a
tool which determines sequence derived features by analyzing
different parameters. The other sequence derived features are
determined using various web based tools.
Abstract: In this study arsenate [As(V)] removal from drinking water by coagulation process was investigated. Ferric chloride (FeCl3.6H2O) and ferrous sulfate (FeSO4.7H2O) were used as coagulant. The effects of major operating variables such as coagulant dose (1–30 mg/L) and pH (5.5–9.5) were investigated. Ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate were found as effective and reliable coagulant due to required dose, residual arsenate and coagulant concentration. Optimum pH values for maximum arsenate removal for ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride were found as 8 and 7.5. The arsenate removal efficiency decreased at neutral and acidic pH values for Fe(II) and at the high acidic and high alkaline pH for Fe(III). It was found that the increase of coagulant dose caused a substantial increase in the arsenate removal. But above a certain ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate dosage, the increase in arsenate removal was not significant. Ferric chloride and ferrous sulfate dose above 8 mg/L slightly increased arsenate removal.
Abstract: The Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous Network on Chip (GALS NoC) is the most efficient solution that provides low latency transfers and power efficient System on Chip (SoC) interconnect. This study presents a GALS and generic NoC architecture based on a configurable router. This router integrates a sophisticated dynamic arbiter, the wormhole routing technique and can be configured in a manner that allows it to be used in many possible NoC topologies such as Mesh 2-D, Tree and Polygon architectures. This makes it possible to improve the quality of service (QoS) required by the proposed NoC. A comparative performances study of the proposed NoC architecture, Tore architecture and of the most used Mesh 2D architecture is performed. This study shows that Spidergon architecture is characterised by the lower latency and the later saturation. It is also shown that no matter what the number of used links is raised; the Links×Diameter product permitted by the Spidergon architecture remains always the lower. The only limitation of this architecture comes from it-s over cost in term of silicon area.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to support the application of Open Innovation practices in firms and organizations by the assessment and management of Intellectual Capital. Intellectual Capital constituents are analyzed in order to verify their capability of acting as key drivers of Open Innovation processes and, therefore, of creating value. A methodology is defined to settle a procedure which helps to select the most relevant Intellectual Capital value drivers and to provide Communities of Innovation with strategic and managerial guidelines in sustaining Open Innovation paradigm. An application of the methodology is developed within a specifically addressed project and its results are hereafter examined.
Abstract: Due to increased number of terrorist attacks in recent years, loads induced by explosions need to be incorporated in building designs. For safer performance of a structure, its foundation should have sufficient strength and stability. Therefore, prior to any reconstruction or rehabilitation of a building subjected to blast, it is important to examine adverse effects on the foundation caused by blast induced ground shocks. This paper evaluates the effects of a buried explosion on a pile foundation. It treats the dynamic response of the pile in saturated sand, using explicit dynamic nonlinear finite element software LS-DYNA. The blast induced wave propagation in the soil and the horizontal deformation of pile are presented and the results are discussed. Further, a parametric study is carried out to evaluate the effect of varying the explosive shape on the pile response. This information can be used to evaluate the vulnerability of piled foundations to credible blast events as well as develop guidance for their design.
Abstract: Despite the internet, which is one of the mass media
that has become quite common in recent years, the relationship of
Advertisement with Television and Cinema, which have always
drawn attention of researchers as basic media and where visual use is
in the foreground, have also become the subject of various studies.
Based on the assumption that the known fundamental effects of
advertisements on consumers are closely related to the creative
process of advertisements as well as the nature and characteristics of
the medium where they are used, these basic mass media (Television
and Cinema) and the consumer motivations of the advertisements
they broadcast have become a focus of study.
Given that the viewers of the mass media in question have shifted
from a passive position to a more active one especially in recent years
and approach contents of advertisements, as they do all contents, in a
more critical and “pitiless" manner, it is possible to say that
individuals make more use of advertisements than in the past and
combine their individual goals with the goals of the advertisements.
This study, which aims at finding out what the goals of these new
individual advertisement use are, how they are shaped by the distinct
characteristics of Television and Cinema, where visuality takes
precedence as basic mass media, and what kind of places they occupy
in the minds of consumers, has determined consumers- motivations
as: “Entertainment", “Escapism", “Play", “Monitoring/Discovery",
“Opposite Sex" and “Aspirations and Role Models".
This study intends to reveal the differences or similarities among
the needs and hence the gratifications of viewers who consume
advertisements on Television or at the Cinema, which are two basic
media where visuality is prioritized.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel approach is presented
for designing multiplier-free state-space digital filters. The
multiplier-free design is obtained by finding power-of-2 coefficients
and also quantizing the state variables to power-of-2
numbers. Expressions for the noise variance are derived for the
quantized state vector and the output of the filter. A “structuretransformation
matrix" is incorporated in these expressions. It
is shown that quantization effects can be minimized by properly
designing the structure-transformation matrix. Simulation
results are very promising and illustrate the design algorithm.
Abstract: The current methods of predictive controllers are
utilized for those processes in which the rate of output variations is
not high. For such processes, therefore, stability can be achieved by
implementing the constrained predictive controller or applying
infinite prediction horizon. When the rate of the output growth is
high (e.g. for unstable nonminimum phase process) the stabilization
seems to be problematic. In order to avoid this, it is suggested to
change the method in the way that: first, the prediction error growth
should be decreased at the early stage of the prediction horizon, and
second, the rate of the error variation should be penalized. The
growth of the error is decreased through adjusting its weighting
coefficients in the cost function. Reduction in the error variation is
possible by adding the first order derivate of the error into the cost
function. By studying different examples it is shown that using these
two remedies together, the closed-loop stability of unstable
nonminimum phase process can be achieved.
Abstract: Automatic detection of syllable repetition is one of the
important parameter in assessing the stuttered speech objectively.
The existing method which uses artificial neural network (ANN)
requires high levels of agreement as prerequisite before attempting to
train and test ANNs to separate fluent and nonfluent. We propose
automatic detection method for syllable repetition in read speech for
objective assessment of stuttered disfluencies which uses a novel
approach and has four stages comprising of segmentation, feature
extraction, score matching and decision logic. Feature extraction is
implemented using well know Mel frequency Cepstra coefficient
(MFCC). Score matching is done using Dynamic Time Warping
(DTW) between the syllables. The Decision logic is implemented by
Perceptron based on the score given by score matching. Although
many methods are available for segmentation, in this paper it is done
manually. Here the assessment by human judges on the read speech
of 10 adults who stutter are described using corresponding method
and the result was 83%.
Abstract: We report the electronic structure and optical
properties of NdF3 compound. Our calculations are based on density
functional theory (DFT) using the full potential linearized augmented
plane wave (FPLAPW) method with the inclusion of spin orbit
coupling. We employed the local spin density approximation (LSDA)
and Coulomb-corrected local spin density approximation, known for
treating the highly correlated 4f electrons properly, is able to
reproduce the correct insulating ground state. We find that the
standard LSDA approach is incapable of correctly describing the
electronic properties of such materials since it positions the f-bands
incorrectly resulting in an incorrect metallic ground state. On the
other hand, LSDA + U approximation, known for treating the highly
correlated 4f electrons properly, is able to reproduce the correct
insulating ground state. Interestingly, however, we do not find any
significant differences in the optical properties calculated using
LSDA, and LSDA + U suggesting that the 4f electrons do not play a
decisive role in the optical properties of these compounds. The
reflectivity for NdF3 compound stays low till 7 eV which is
consistent with their large energy gaps. The calculated energy gaps
are in good agreement with experiments. Our calculated reflectivity
compares well with the experimental data and the results are analyzed
in the light of band to band transitions.
Abstract: The boundary layer flow and heat transfer on a
stretched surface moving with prescribed skin friction is studied for
permeable surface. The surface temperature is assumed to vary
inversely with the vertical direction x for n = -1. The skin friction at
the surface scales as (x-1/2) at m = 0. The constants m and n are the
indices of the power law velocity and temperature exponent
respectively. Similarity solutions are obtained for the boundary layer
equations subject to power law temperature and velocity variation.
The effect of various governing parameters, such as the buoyancy
parameter λ and the suction/injection parameter fw for air (Pr = 0.72)
are studied. The choice of n and m ensures that the used similarity
solutions are x independent. The results show that, assisting flow (λ >
0) enhancing the heat transfer coefficient along the surface for any
constant value of fw. Furthermore, injection increases the heat
transfer coefficient but suction reduces it at constant λ.
Abstract: New methodologies for XOR-XNOR circuits are
proposed to improve the speed and power as these circuits are basic
building blocks of many arithmetic circuits. This paper evaluates and
compares the performance of various XOR-XNOR circuits. The
performance of the XOR-XNOR circuits based on TSMC 0.18μm
process models at all range of the supply voltage starting from 0.6V
to 3.3V is evaluated by the comparison of the simulation results
obtained from HSPICE. Simulation results reveal that the proposed
circuit exhibit lower PDP and EDP, more power efficient and faster
when compared with best available XOR-XNOR circuits in the
literature.
Abstract: The purposes of the study are to study and to
investigate the relationship among exposure, uses and gratifications
of television morning news among undergraduate students in
Bangkok. This study also compares differences in information
exposure, uses and gratifications of television morning news among
these students.
The research methodology employed a questionnaire as a
quantitative method. The respondents were undergraduate students at
public and private universities in Bangkok. Totally, 400 usable
questionnaires were received. Descriptive and inferential statistics
were used in data analysis.
The results indicated that information exposure of undergraduate
students in Bangkok was at a high level. Students’ uses and
gratifications were also at high level. Information exposure was
positively correlated with uses and gratifications. Uses of information
were positively correlated with satisfaction with information. The
results also showed that students with differences in sex and type of
university were not significantly different in information exposure,
and uses and gratifications.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel architecture for developing decision support systems. Unlike conventional decision support systems, the proposed architecture endeavors to reveal the decision-making process such that humans' subjectivity can be incorporated into a computerized system and, at the same time, to preserve the capability of the computerized system in processing information objectively. A number of techniques used in developing the decision support system are elaborated to make the decisionmarking process transparent. These include procedures for high dimensional data visualization, pattern classification, prediction, and evolutionary computational search. An artificial data set is first employed to compare the proposed approach with other methods. A simulated handwritten data set and a real data set on liver disease diagnosis are then employed to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach. The results are analyzed and discussed. The potentials of the proposed architecture as a useful decision support system are demonstrated.
Abstract: Computer game industry has experienced exponential
growth in recent years. A game is a recreational activity involving
one or more players. Game input is information such as data,
commands, etc., which is passed to the game system at run time from
an external source. Conversely, game outputs are information which
are generated by the game system and passed to an external target,
but which is not used internally by the game. This paper identifies a
new classification scheme for game input and output, which is based
on player-s input and output. Using this, relationship table for game
input classifier and output classifier is developed.
Abstract: The Bangnanglee Sub-district Administrative Office,
Thailand had initiated a policy to environmental protection with
encouraging household waste management in order to promote civil
responsibility for domestic hygienic. This research studied the
household behaviors on solid waste and wastewater management. A
sample population of 306 families answered a questionnaire. The
study showed that, on average, domestic activities had produced 1.93
kilograms of waste per household per day. It has been found that 79%
of the households made several attempts to reduce their own amount
of waste. 80% of the households stationed their own garbage bins.
71% managed their waste by selling recyclable products. As for the
rest of the waste, 51% burned them, while 29% disposed their waste
in the nearby public trashcans and other 13% have them buried. As
for wastewater, 60% of the households disposed it into the sewage,
whereas 30% disposed them right from their elevated house.
Abstract: For controlling urban transportations, traffic lights
show similar behavior for different kinds of vehicles at intersections.
Emergency vehicles need special behavior at intersections, so traffic
lights should behave in different manner when emergency vehicles
approach them. At the present time, intelligent traffic lights control
urban transportations intelligently. In this paper the ethical aspect of
this topic is considered. A model is proposed for adding special
component to emergency vehicles and traffic lights for controlling
traffic in ethical manner. The proposed model is simulated by JADE.
Abstract: We present an explicit expression to estimate driving voltage attenuation through RC networks representation of an ultrahigh- speed image sensor. Elmore delay metric for a fundamental RC chain is employed as the first-order approximation. By application of dimensional analysis to SPICE simulation data, we found a simple expression that significantly improves the accuracy of the approximation. Estimation error of the resultant expression for uniform RC networks is less than 2%. Similarly, another simple closed-form model to estimate 50 % delay through fundamental RC networks is also derived with sufficient accuracy. The framework of this analysis can be extended to address delay or attenuation issues of other VLSI structures.
Abstract: Keystroke authentication is a new access control system
to identify legitimate users via their typing behavior. In this paper,
machine learning techniques are adapted for keystroke authentication.
Seven learning methods are used to build models to differentiate user
keystroke patterns. The selected classification methods are Decision
Tree, Naive Bayesian, Instance Based Learning, Decision Table, One
Rule, Random Tree and K-star. Among these methods, three of them
are studied in more details. The results show that machine learning
is a feasible alternative for keystroke authentication. Compared to
the conventional Nearest Neighbour method in the recent research,
learning methods especially Decision Tree can be more accurate. In
addition, the experiment results reveal that 3-Grams is more accurate
than 2-Grams and 4-Grams for feature extraction. Also, combination
of attributes tend to result higher accuracy.
Abstract: Some of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
are the strongest known carcinogens compounds; the majority of
them are mostly produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil
fuels; Motor vehicles are a significant source of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbon (PAH) where diesel emission is one of the main sources
of such compounds available in the ambient air. There is a big
concern about the increasing concentration of PAHs in the
environment. Researchers are trying to explore optimal methods to
reduce those pollutants and improve the quality of air. Water blended
fuel is one of the possible approaches to reduce emission of PAHs
from the combustion of diesel in urban and domestic vehicles. In this
work a modeling study was conducted using CHEMKIN-PRO
software to simulate spray combustion at similar diesel engine
conditions. Surrogate fuel of (80 % n-heptane and 20 % toluene) was
used due to detailed kinetic and thermodynamic data needed for
modeling is available for this kind of fuel but not available for diesel.
An emulsified fuel with 3, 5, 8, 10 and 20 % water by volume is used
as an engine feed for this study. The modeling results show that water
has a significant effect on reducing engine soot and PAHs precursors
formation up to certain extent.