Abstract: Noble metal participation in nanostructured
semiconductor catalysts has drawn much interest because of their
improved properties. Recently, it has been discussed by many
researchers that Ag participation in TiO2, CuO, ZnO semiconductors
showed improved photocatalytic and optical properties. In this
research, Ag/ZnO nanocomposite particles were prepared by
Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis(USP) Method. 0.1M silver and zinc
nitrate aqueous solutions were used as precursor solutions. The
Ag:Zn atomic ratio of the solution was selected 1:1. Experiments
were taken place under constant air flow of 400 mL/min at 800°C
furnace temperature. Particles were characterized by X-Ray
Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and
Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The crystallite sizes of Ag
and ZnO in composite particles are 24.6 nm, 19.7 nm respectively.
Although, spherical nanocomposite particles are in a range of 300-
800 nm, these particles are formed by the aggregation of primary
particles which are in a range of 20-60 nm.
Abstract: In this paper we consider a nonlinear feedback control
called augmented automatic choosing control (AACC) for nonlinear
systems with constrained input using weighted gradient optimization
automatic choosing functions. Constant term which arises from
linearization of a given nonlinear system is treated as a coefficient of
a stable zero dynamics. Parameters of the control are suboptimally
selected by maximizing the stable region in the sense of Lyapunov
with the aid of a genetic algorithm. This approach is applied to a
field excitation control problem of power system to demonstrate the
splendidness of the AACC. Simulation results show that the new
controller can improve performance remarkably well.
Abstract: Several methods are available for weight and shape
optimization of structures, among which Evolutionary Structural
Optimization (ESO) is one of the most widely used methods. In ESO,
however, the optimization criterion is completely case-dependent.
Moreover, only the improving solutions are accepted during the
search. In this paper a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm is used
for structural optimization problem. This algorithm differs from other
random search methods by accepting non-improving solutions. The
implementation of SA algorithm is done through reducing the
number of finite element analyses (function evaluations).
Computational results show that SA can efficiently and effectively
solve such optimization problems within short search time.
Abstract: This paper presents an exact pruning algorithm with
adaptive pruning interval for general dynamic neural networks
(GDNN). GDNNs are artificial neural networks with internal dynamics.
All layers have feedback connections with time delays to the
same and to all other layers. The structure of the plant is unknown, so
the identification process is started with a larger network architecture
than necessary. During parameter optimization with the Levenberg-
Marquardt (LM) algorithm irrelevant weights of the dynamic neural
network are deleted in order to find a model for the plant as
simple as possible. The weights to be pruned are found by direct
evaluation of the training data within a sliding time window. The
influence of pruning on the identification system depends on the
network architecture at pruning time and the selected weight to be
deleted. As the architecture of the model is changed drastically during
the identification and pruning process, it is suggested to adapt the
pruning interval online. Two system identification examples show
the architecture selection ability of the proposed pruning approach.
Abstract: The paper deals with hydrodynamics of liquid-gas
layers under gas streaming through liquid layer on perforated plates
in column apparatuses. The plates with large apertures have been
investigated especially. It was shown that hydrodynamic regularities
for these plates are essentially different from known laws for foam
forming on fine-perforated plates. Main regularities of liquid-gas
interaction on plates with large apertures have been established.
Abstract: This paper presents the enhanced frame-based video coding scheme. The input source video to the enhanced frame-based video encoder consists of a rectangular-size video and shapes of arbitrarily-shaped objects on video frames. The rectangular frame texture is encoded by the conventional frame-based coding technique and the video object-s shape is encoded using the contour-based vertex coding. It is possible to achieve several useful content-based functionalities by utilizing the shape information in the bitstream at the cost of a very small overhead to the bitrate.
Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to establish Professional Competency Contents for International Marketer in Taiwan. To establish these contents a set of interviews with international marketing managers and three rounds of Delphi Technique surveys were employed. Five international marketing managers were interviewed for discussions on definitions, framework, and items of international marketing competency. A questionnaire for the " Delphi Technique Survey " was developed based on the results acquired from the interviews. The resulting questionnaire was distributed to another group of 30 international marketer of trading companies in Taiwan. After three rounds of Delphi Technique Survey with these participants, the "Contents of Professional Competency for International Marketer " was established. Five dimensions and thirty indicators were identified. It is hoped that the proposed contents could be served as a self-evaluation tool for international marketer as well as the basis for staffing and training programs for international marketer in Taiwan.
Abstract: In this paper challenges associated with a new
generation of Computer Science students are examined. The mode of
education in tertiary institutes has progressed slowly while the needs
of students have changed rapidly in an increasingly technological
world. The major learning paradigms and learning theories within
these paradigms are studied to find a suitable strategy for educating
modern students. These paradigms include Behaviourism,
Constructivism, Humanism and Cogntivism. Social Learning theory
and Elaboration theory are two theories that are further examined and
a survey is done to determine how these strategies will be received by
students. The results and findings are evaluated and indicate that
students are fairly receptive to a method that incorporates both Social
Learning theory and Elaboration theory, but that some aspects of all
paradigms need to be implemented to create a balanced and effective
strategy with technology as foundation.
Abstract: Through the course of this paper we outline how
mobile Business Intelligence (m-BI) can help businesses to work
smarter and to improve their agility. When we analyze the industry
from the usage perspective or how interaction with the enterprise BI
system happens via mobile devices, we may easily understand that
there are two major types of mobile BI: passive and active. Active
mobile BI gives provisions for users to interact with the BI systems
on-the-fly. Active mobile business intelligence often works as a
combination of both “push and pull" techniques. Some mistakes were
done in the up-to-day progress of mobile technologies and mobile BI,
as well as some problems that still have to be resolved. We discussed
in the paper rather broadly.
Abstract: Researchers have been applying artificial/ computational intelligence (AI/CI) methods to computer games. In this research field, further researchesare required to compare AI/CI methods with respect to each game application. In thispaper, we report our experimental result on the comparison of evolution strategy, genetic algorithm and their hybrids, applied to evolving controller agents for MarioAI. GA revealed its advantage in our experiment, whereas the expected ability of ES in exploiting (fine-tuning) solutions was not clearly observed. The blend crossover operator and the mutation operator of GA might contribute well to explore the vast search space.
Abstract: This paper deals with the application of a fuzzy set in
measuring teachers- beliefs about mathematics. The vagueness of
beliefs was transformed into standard mathematical values using a
fuzzy preferences model. The study employed a fuzzy approach
questionnaire which consists of six attributes for measuring
mathematics teachers- beliefs about mathematics. The fuzzy conjoint
analysis approach based on fuzzy set theory was used to analyze the
data from twenty three mathematics teachers from four secondary
schools in Terengganu, Malaysia. Teachers- beliefs were recorded in
form of degrees of similarity and its levels of agreement. The
attribute 'Drills and practice is one of the best ways of learning
mathematics' scored the highest degree of similarity at 0. 79860 with
level of 'strongly agree'. The results showed that the teachers- beliefs
about mathematics were varied. This is shown by different levels of
agreement and degrees of similarity of the measured attributes.
Abstract: International competitiveness receives much attention
nowadays, but up to now its assessment has been heavily based on
manufacturing industry statistics. This paper addresses the need for
competitiveness indicators that cover the service sector and sets out a
multilevel framework for measuring international services trade
competitiveness. The approach undertaken here aims at
comparatively examining the international competitiveness of the
EU-25 (the twenty-five European Union member states before the 1st
of January 2007), Romanian and Bulgarian services trade, as well as
the last two countries- structure of specialization on the EU-25
services market. The primary changes in the international
competitiveness of three major services sectors – transportation,
travel and other services - are analyzed. This research attempts to
determine the ability of the two recent European Union (EU) member
states to contend with the challenges that might arise from the hard
competition within the enlarged EU, in the field of services trade.
Abstract: Independent component analysis can estimate unknown
source signals from their mixtures under the assumption that the
source signals are statistically independent. However, in a real environment,
the separation performance is often deteriorated because
the number of the source signals is different from that of the sensors.
In this paper, we propose an estimation method for the number of
the sources based on the joint distribution of the observed signals
under two-sensor configuration. From several simulation results, it
is found that the number of the sources is coincident to that of
peaks in the histogram of the distribution. The proposed method can
estimate the number of the sources even if it is larger than that of
the observed signals. The proposed methods have been verified by
several experiments.
Abstract: The purpose of this research was to study the factors
that influenced the success of mobile phone entrepreneurs at Central
Plaza. The sample group included 187 entrepreneurs at Central Plaza.
A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics used
in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard
deviation. Independent- sample t- test, one way ANOVA, and
multiple regression analysis. Data were analyzed by using Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences.The findings disclosed that the
majority of respondents were male between 25-40 years old, and held
an undergraduate degree. The average income of respondents was
between 15,001-25,000 baht. The majority of respondents had less
than 5 years of working experience.
In terms of personality, the findings revealed that expression and
agreement were ranked at the highest level. Whereas, emotion
stability, consciousness, open to new experience were ranked at high.
From the hypotheses testing, the findings revealed that different
genders had different success in their mobile phone business with
different income from the last 6 months. However, difference in age,
income, level of education, and experience affected the success in
terms of income, number of customers, and overall success of
business. Moreover, the factors of personalities included expression,
agreement, emotion stability, consciousness, open to new experience,
and competitive strategy. From the findings, these factors were able
to predict mobile phone business success at 66.9 percent.
Abstract: Biomechanical properties of infantile aorta in vitro in
cases of different standard anastomoses: end-to-end (ETE), extended
anastomosis end-to-end (EETE) and subclavian flap aortoplasty
(SFA) used for surgical correction of coarctation were analyzed to
detect the influence of the method on the biomechanics of infantile
aorta and possible changes in haemodinamics. 10 specimens of native
aorta, 3 specimens with ETE, 4 EEET and 3 SFA were investigated.
The experiments showed a non-linear relationship between stress and
strain in the infantile aorta, the modulus of elasticity of the aortic wall
increased with the increase of inner pressure. In the case of
anastomosis end-to-end the modulus was almost constant, relevant to
the modulus of elasticity of the aorta with the inner pressure 100-120
mmHg. The anastomoses EETE and SFA showed elastic properties
closer to native aorta, the stiffness of ETE did not change with the
changes in inner pressure.
Abstract: The gustatory system allows animals to distinguish
varieties of food and affects greatly the consumption of food, hence
the health and growth of animals. In the current study, we
investigated the histogenesis of vallate papillae (VLP) in the rabbit
tongue using light and scanning electron microscopy. Samples were
obtained from rabbit embryos at the embryonic days 16-30 (E16-30),
and from newborns until maturity; 6 months. At E16, the first
primordia of vallate papillae were observed as small pits on the
surface epithelium of the tongue-s root. At E18, the caudal part was
prominent with loose mesenchymal tissue core; meanwhile the rostral
part of the papilla was remained as a thick mass of epithelial cells. At
E20-24, the side epithelium formed the primitive annular groove. At
E26, the primitive taste buds appeared only at the papillary surface
and reached their maturity by E28. The annular groove started to
appear at E26 became more defined at E28. The definitive vallate
papillae with substantial number of apparently mature taste buds
were observed by the end of the second week. We conclude that the
vallate papillae develop early and mature during the early postnatal
life.
Abstract: A novel and versatile numerical technique to solve a self-stress equilibrium state is adopted herein as a form-finding procedure for an irregular tensegrity structure. The numerical form-finding scheme of a tensegrity structure uses only the connectivity matrix and prototype tension coefficient vector as the initial guess solution. Any information on the symmetrical geometry or other predefined initial structural conditions is not necessary to get the solution in the form-finding process. An eight-node initial condition example is presented to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method in the form-finding of an irregular tensegrity structure. Based on the conception from the form-finding of an eight-node irregular tensegrity structure, a monumental object is designed by considering the real world situation such as self-weight, wind and earthquake loadings.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results of the
investigation of various properties related to the durability and longterm
performance of mortars made of Fly Ash blended cement, FA
and Ordinary Portland cement, OPC. The properties that were
investigated in an experimental program include; equilibration of
specimen in different relative humidity, determination of total
porosity, compressive strength, chloride permeability index, and
electrical resistivity. Fly Ash blended cement mortar specimens
exhibited 10% to 15% lower porosity when measured at equilibrium
conditions in different relative humidities as compared to the
specimens made of OPC mortar, which resulted in 6% to 8% higher
compressive strength of FA blended cement mortar specimens. The
effects of ambient relative humidity during sample equilibration on
porosity and strength development were also studied. For specimens
equilibrated in higher relative humidity conditions, such as 75%, the
total porosity of different mortar specimens was between 35% to 50%
less than the porosity of samples equilibrated in 12% relative
humidity, consequently leading to higher compressive strengths of
these specimens.A valid statistical correlation between values of
compressive strength, porosity and the degree of saturation was
obtained. Measured values of chloride permeability index of fly ash
blended cement mortar were obtained as one fourth to one sixth of
those measured for OPC mortar specimens, which indicates high
resistance against chloride ion penetration in FA blended cement
specimens, hence resulting in a highly durable mortar.
Abstract: Bacterial molecular chaperone DnaK plays an essential role in protein folding, stress response and transmembrane targeting of proteins. DnaKs from many bacterial species, including Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium and Haemophilus infleunzae are the molecular targets for the insect-derived antimicrobial peptide pyrrhocoricin. Pyrrhocoricin-like peptides bind in the substrate recognition tunnel. Despite the high degree of crossspecies sequence conservation in the substrate-binding tunnel, some bacteria are not sensitive to pyrrhocoricin. This work addresses the molecular mechanism of resistance of Helicobacter pylori DnaK to pyrrhocoricin. Homology modelling, structural and sequence analysis identify a single aminoacid substitution at the interface between the lid and the β-sandwich subdomains of the DnaK substrate-binding domain as the major determinant for its resistance.
Abstract: The paper suggests for the first time the use of dynamic programming techniques for optimal risk reduction in the railway industry. It is shown that by using the concept ‘amount of removed risk by a risk reduction option’, the problem related to optimal allocation of a fixed budget to achieve a maximum risk reduction in the railway industry can be reduced to an optimisation problem from dynamic programming. For n risk reduction options and size of the available risk reduction budget B (expressed as integer number), the worst-case running time of the proposed algorithm is O (n x (B+1)), which makes the proposed method a very efficient tool
for solving the optimal risk reduction problem in the railway industry.