Abstract: We have studied the migration of a charged permeable aggregate in electrolyte under the influence of an axial electric field and pressure gradient. The migration of the positively charged aggregate leads to a deformation of the anionic cloud around it. The hydrodynamics of the aggregate is governed by the interaction of electroosmotic flow in and around the particle, hydrodynamic friction and electric force experienced by the aggregate. We have computed the non-linear Nernest-Planck equations coupled with the Dracy- Brinkman extended Navier-Stokes equations and Poisson equation for electric field through a finite volume method. The permeability of the aggregate enable the counterion penetration. The penetration of counterions depends on the volume charge density of the aggregate and ionic concentration of electrolytes at a fixed field strength. The retardation effect due to the double layer polarization increases the drag force compared to an uncharged aggregate. Increase in migration sped from the electrophretic velocity of the aggregate produces further asymmetry in charge cloud and reduces the electric body force exerted on the particle. The permeability of the particle have relatively little influence on the electric body force when Double layer is relatively thin. The impact of the key parameters of electrokinetics on the hydrodynamics of the aggregate is analyzed.
Abstract: Land shortage for burials is one of many issues that emerge out of accelerated urban growth in most developing Asian cities, including Kuala Lumpur. Despite actions taken by the federal government and local authorities in addressing this issue, there is no strategic solution being formulated. Apart from making provisions for land to be developed as new cemeteries, the future plan is merely to allocate reserve land to accommodate the increasing demands of burial grounds around the city. This paper examines problems that arise from the traditional practices of Malay funerary as well as an insight to current urban practices in managing Muslim burial spaces around Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region. This paper will also provide some solutions through design approach that can be applied to counter the existing issues.
Abstract: A perfect secret-sharing scheme is a method to distribute a secret among a set of participants in such a way that only qualified subsets of participants can recover the secret and the joint share of participants in any unqualified subset is statistically independent of the secret. The collection of all qualified subsets is called the access structure of the perfect secret-sharing scheme. In a graph-based access structure, each vertex of a graph G represents a participant and each edge of G represents a minimal qualified subset. The average information ratio of a perfect secret-sharing scheme realizing the access structure based on G is defined as AR = (Pv2V (G) H(v))/(|V (G)|H(s)), where s is the secret and v is the share of v, both are random variables from and H is the Shannon entropy. The infimum of the average information ratio of all possible perfect secret-sharing schemes realizing a given access structure is called the optimal average information ratio of that access structure. Most known results about the optimal average information ratio give upper bounds or lower bounds on it. In this present structures based on bipartite graphs and determine the exact values of the optimal average information ratio of some infinite classes of them.
Abstract: S-Curves are commonly used in technology forecasting. They show the paths of product performance in relation to time or investment in R&D. It is a useful tool to describe the inflection points and the limit of improvement of a technology. Companies use this information to base their innovation strategies.
However inadequate use and some limitations of this technique lead
to problems in decision making. In this paper first technology
forecasting and its importance for company level strategies will be
discussed. Secondly the S-Curve and its place among other
forecasting techniques will be introduced. Thirdly its use in
technology forecasting will be discussed based on its advantages,
disadvantages and limitations. Finally an application of S-curve on
3D TV technology using patent data will also be presented and the
results will be discussed.
Abstract: The genetic algorithm (GA) based solution techniques
are found suitable for optimization because of their ability of
simultaneous multidimensional search. Many GA-variants have been
tried in the past to solve optimal power flow (OPF), one of the
nonlinear problems of electric power system. The issues like
convergence speed and accuracy of the optimal solution obtained
after number of generations using GA techniques and handling
system constraints in OPF are subjects of discussion. The results
obtained for GA-Fuzzy OPF on various power systems have shown
faster convergence and lesser generation costs as compared to other
approaches. This paper presents an enhanced GA-Fuzzy OPF (EGAOPF)
using penalty factors to handle line flow constraints and load
bus voltage limits for both normal network and contingency case
with congestion. In addition to crossover and mutation rate
adaptation scheme that adapts crossover and mutation probabilities
for each generation based on fitness values of previous generations, a
block swap operator is also incorporated in proposed EGA-OPF. The
line flow limits and load bus voltage magnitude limits are handled by
incorporating line overflow and load voltage penalty factors
respectively in each chromosome fitness function. The effects of
different penalty factors settings are also analyzed under contingent
state.
Abstract: Severe symptoms, such as dissociation, depersonalization, self-mutilation, suicidal ideations and gestures, are the main reasons for a person to be diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and admitted to an inpatient Psychiatric Hospital. However, these symptoms are also indicators of a severe traumatic history as indicated by the extensive research on the topic. Unfortunately patients with such clinical presentation often are treated repeatedly only for their symptomatic behavior, while the main cause for their suffering, the trauma itself, is usually left unaddressed therapeutically. All of the highly structured, replicable, and manualized treatments lack the recognition of the uniqueness of the person and fail to respect his/her rights to experience and react in an idiosyncratic manner. Thus the communicative and adaptive meaning of such symptomatic behavior is missed. Only its pathological side is recognized and subjected to correction and stigmatization, and the message that the person is damaged goods that needs fixing is conveyed once again. However, this time the message would be even more convincing for the victim, because it is sent by mental health providers, who have the credibility to make such a judgment. The result is a revolving door of very expensive hospitalizations for only a temporary and patchy fix. In this way the patients, once victims of abuse and hardship are left invalidated and thus their re-victimization is perpetuated in their search for understanding and help. Keywordsborderline personality disorder (BPD), complex PTSD, integrative treatment of trauma, re-victimization of trauma victims.
Abstract: Simulation accuracy by recent dynamic vehicle
simulation multidimensional expression significantly has progressed
and acceptable results not only for passive vehicles but also for
active vehicles normally equipped with advanced electronic
components is also provided. Recently, one of the subjects that has it
been considered, is increasing the safety car in design. Therefore,
many efforts have been done to increase vehicle stability especially
in the turn. One of the most important efforts is adjusting the camber
angle in the car suspension system. Optimum control camber angle in
addition to the vehicle stability is effective in the wheel adhesion on
road, reducing rubber abrasion and acceleration and braking. Since
the increase or decrease in the camber angle impacts on the stability
of vehicles, in this paper, a car suspension system mechanism is
introduced that could be adjust camber angle and the mechanism is
application and also inexpensive. In order to reach this purpose, in
this paper, a passive double wishbone suspension system with
variable camber angle is introduced and then variable camber
mechanism designed and analyzed for study the designed system
performance, this mechanism is modeled in Visual Nastran software
and kinematic analysis is revealed.
Abstract: Rough set theory is a very effective tool to deal with granularity and vagueness in information systems. Covering-based rough set theory is an extension of classical rough set theory. In this paper, firstly we present the characteristics of the reducible element and the minimal description covering-based rough sets through downsets. Then we establish lattices and topological spaces in coveringbased rough sets through down-sets and up-sets. In this way, one can investigate covering-based rough sets from algebraic and topological points of view.
Abstract: Due to urbanization, trees and plants which covered a great land mass of the earth and are an excellent carbon dioxide (CO2) absorber through photosynthesis are being replaced by several concrete based structures. It is therefore important to have these cement based structures absorb the large volume of carbon dioxide which the trees would have removed from the atmosphere during their useful lifespan. Hence the need for these cement based structures to be designed to serve other useful purposes in addition to shelter. This paper reviews the properties of Sodium carbonate and sugar as admixtures in concrete with respect to improving carbon sequestration in concrete.
Abstract: The heat storage capacity of concrete in building shells is a major reason for excessively large electricity consumption induced by indoor air conditioning. In this research, the previously developed Smart Temperature Information Material (STIM) is embedded in two groups of exterior wall specimens (the control group contains reinforced concrete exterior walls and the experimental group consists of tiled exterior walls). Long term temperature measurements within the concrete are taken by the embedded STIM. Temperature differences between the control group and the experimental group in walls facing the four cardinal directions (east, west, south, and north) are evaluated. This study aims to provide a basic reference for the design of exterior walls and the selection of heat insulation materials.
Abstract: In the past few years, the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) potentially increased in applications such as intrusion detection, forest fire detection, disaster management and battle field. Sensor nodes are generally battery operated low cost devices. The key challenge in the design and operation of WSNs is to prolong the network life time by reducing the energy consumption among sensor nodes. Node clustering is one of the most promising techniques for energy conservation. This paper presents a novel clustering algorithm which maximizes the network lifetime by reducing the number of communication among sensor nodes. This approach also includes new distributed cluster formation technique that enables self-organization of large number of nodes, algorithm for maintaining constant number of clusters by prior selection of cluster head and rotating the role of cluster head to evenly distribute the energy load among all sensor nodes.
Abstract: In the past, there were more researches of recommendation system in applied electronic commerce. However, because all circles promote information technology integrative instruction actively, the quantity of instruction resources website is more and more increasing on the Internet. But there are less website including recommendation service, especially for teachers. This study established an instruction resource recommendation website that analyzed teaching style of teachers, then provided appropriate instruction resources for teachers immediately. We used the questionnaire survey to realize teacher-s suggestions and satisfactions with the instruction resource contents and recommendation results. The study shows: (1)The website used “Transactional Ability Inventory" that realized teacher-s style and provided appropriate instruction resources for teachers in a short time, it reduced the step of data filter. (2)According to the content satisfaction of questionnaire survey, four styles teachers were almost satisfied with the contents of the instruction resources that the website recommended, thus, the conception of developing instruction resources with different teaching style is accepted. (3) According to the recommendation satisfaction of questionnaire survey, four styles teachers were almost satisfied with the recommendation service of the website, thus, the recommendation strategy that provide different results for teachers in different teaching styles is accepted.
Abstract: This paper presents a design of source encoding
calculator software which applies the two famous algorithms in the
field of information theory- the Shannon-Fano and the Huffman
schemes. This design helps to easily realize the algorithms without
going into a cumbersome, tedious and prone to error manual
mechanism of encoding the signals during the transmission. The
work describes the design of the software, how it works, comparison
with related works, its efficiency, its usefulness in the field of
information technology studies and the future prospects of the
software to engineers, students, technicians and alike. The designed
“Encodia" software has been developed, tested and found to meet the
intended requirements. It is expected that this application will help
students and teaching staff in their daily doing of information theory
related tasks. The process is ongoing to modify this tool so that it can
also be more intensely useful in research activities on source coding.
Abstract: For about two decades scientists have been
developing techniques for enhancing the quality of medical images
using Fourier transform, DWT (Discrete wavelet transform),PDE
model etc., Gabor wavelet on hexagonal sampled grid of the images
is proposed in this work. This method has optimal approximation
theoretic performances, for a good quality image. The computational
cost is considerably low when compared to similar processing in the
rectangular domain. As X-ray images contain light scattered pixels,
instead of unique sigma, the parameter sigma of 0.5 to 3 is found to
satisfy most of the image interpolation requirements in terms of high
Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) , lower Mean Squared Error
(MSE) and better image quality by adopting windowing technique.
Abstract: The performance of Advection Upstream Splitting
Method AUSM schemes are evaluated against experimental flow
fields at different Mach numbers and results are compared with
experimental data of subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flow fields.
The turbulent model used here is SST model by Menter. The
numerical predictions include lift coefficient, drag coefficient and
pitching moment coefficient at different mach numbers and angle of
attacks. This work describes a computational study undertaken to
compute the Aerodynamic characteristics of different air vehicles
configurations using a structured Navier-Stokes computational
technique. The CFD code bases on the idea of upwind scheme for the
convective (convective-moving) fluxes. CFD results for GLC305
airfoil and cone cylinder tail fined missile calculated on above
mentioned turbulence model are compared with the available data.
Wide ranges of Mach number from subsonic to hypersonic speeds are
simulated and results are compared. When the computation is done
by using viscous turbulence model the above mentioned coefficients
have a very good agreement with the experimental values. AUSM
scheme is very efficient in the regions of very high pressure gradients
like shock waves and discontinuities. The AUSM versions simulate
the all types of flows from lower subsonic to hypersonic flow without
oscillations.
Abstract: In the last decade, carbohydrates have attracted great
attention as renewable resources for the chemical industry.
Carbohydrates are abundantly found in nature in the form of
monomers, oligomers and polymers, or as components of
biopolymers and other naturally occurring substances. As natural
products, they play important roles in conferring certain physical,
chemical, and biological properties to their carrier molecules.The
synthesis of this particular carbohydrate glycomonomer is part of our
work to obtain biodegradable polymers. Our current paper describes
the synthesis and characterization of a novel carbohydrate
glycomonomer starting from D-glucose, in several synthesis steps,
that involve the protection/deprotection of the D-glucose ring via
acetylation, tritylation, then selective deprotection of the aromaticaliphatic
protective group, in order to obtain 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl-
6-O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose. The glycomonomer was then obtained
by the allylation in drastic conditions of 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl-6-Oallyl-
β-D-glucopyranose with allylic alcohol in the presence of
stannic chloride, in methylene chloride, at room temperature. The
proposed structure of the glycomonomer, 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1,6-di-
O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose, was confirmed by FTIR, NMR and
HPLC-MS spectrometry. This glycomonomer will be further
submitted to copolymerization with certain acrylic or methacrylic
monomers in order to obtain competitive plastic materials for
applications in the biomedical field.
Abstract: Multimedia security is an incredibly significant area of concern. The paper aims to discuss a robust image watermarking scheme, which can withstand geometric attacks. The source image is initially moment normalized in order to make it withstand geometric attacks. The moment normalized image is wavelet transformed. The first level wavelet transformed image is segmented into blocks if size 8x8. The product of mean and standard and standard deviation of each block is computed. The second level wavelet transformed image is divided into 8x8 blocks. The product of block mean and the standard deviation are computed. The difference between products in the two levels forms the watermark. The watermark is inserted by modulating the coefficients of the mid frequencies. The modulated image is inverse wavelet transformed and inverse moment normalized to generate the watermarked image. The watermarked image is now ready for transmission. The proposed scheme can be used to validate identification cards and financial instruments. The performance of this scheme has been evaluated using a set of parameters. Experimental results show the effectiveness of this scheme.
Abstract: The goal of steganography is to avoid drawing
suspicion to the transmission of a hidden message. If suspicion is
raised, steganography may fail. The success of steganography
depends on the secrecy of the action. If steganography is detected,
the system will fail but data security depends on the robustness of the
applied algorithm. In this paper, we propose a novel plausible
deniability scheme in steganography by using a diversionary message
and encrypt it with a DES-based algorithm. Then, we compress the
secret message and encrypt it by the receiver-s public key along with
the stego key and embed both messages in a carrier using an
embedding algorithm. It will be demonstrated how this method can
support plausible deniability and is robust against steganalysis.
Abstract: An accurate optimal design of laminated composite
structures may present considerable difficulties due to the complexity
and multi-modality of the functional design space. The Big Bang
– Big Crunch (BB-BC) optimization method is a relatively new
technique and has already proved to be a valuable tool for structural
optimization. In the present study the exceptional efficiency of the
method is demonstrated by an example of the lay-up optimization
of multilayered anisotropic cylinders based on a three-dimensional
elasticity solution. It is shown that, due to its simplicity and speed,
the BB-BC is much more efficient for this class of problems when
compared to the genetic algorithms.
Abstract: This paper reviews the greenhouse gas emissions of prefabrication elements for residential development in Hong Kong. Prefabrication becomes a common practice in residential development in Hong Kong and is considered as a green approach. In Hong Kong, prefabrication took place at factories in Pearl River Delta. Although prefabrication reduces construction wastage, it might generate more greenhouse gas emission from transportation and manufacturing processes. This study attempts to measure the “cradle to site" greenhouse gas emission from prefabrication elements for a public housing development in Kai Tak area. The findings could help further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through process improvement.