Abstract: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a new worldwide public
health problem. A diagnosis of this disease using creatinine is still a
problem in clinical practice. Therefore, a measurement of biomarkers
responsible for AKI has received much attention in the past couple
years. Cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) was reported as one of the
early biomarkers for AKI. The most commonly used method to
detect this biomarker is an immunoassay. This study used a planar
platform to perform an immunoassay using fluorescence for
detection. In this study, anti-IL-18 antibody was immobilized onto a
microscope slide using a covalent binding method. Make-up samples
were diluted at the concentration between 10 to 1000 pg/ml to create
a calibration curve. The precision of the system was determined
using a coefficient of variability (CV), which was found to be less
than 10%. The performance of this immunoassay system was
compared with the measurement from ELISA.
Abstract: Fast depth estimation from binocular vision is often
desired for autonomous vehicles, but, most algorithms could not easily
be put into practice because of the much time cost. We present an
image-processing technique that can fast estimate depth image from
binocular vision images. By finding out the lines which present the
best matched area in the disparity space image, the depth can be
estimated. When detecting these lines, an edge-emphasizing filter is
used. The final depth estimation will be presented after the smooth
filter. Our method is a compromise between local methods and global
optimization.
Abstract: Every commercial bank optimises its asset portfolio
depending on the profitability of assets and chosen or imposed
constraints. This paper proposes and applies a stylized model for
optimising banks' asset and liability structure, reflecting profitability
of different asset categories and their risks as well as costs associated
with different liability categories and reserve requirements. The level
of detail for asset and liability categories is chosen to create a
suitably parsimonious model and to include the most important
categories in the model. It is shown that the most appropriate
optimisation criterion for the model is the maximisation of the ratio
of net interest income to assets. The maximisation of this ratio is
subject to several constraints. Some are accounting identities or
dictated by legislative requirements; others vary depending on the
market objectives for a particular bank. The model predicts variable
amount of assets allocated to loan provision.
Abstract: Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process can be
used for water purification or the desalination of salt water. The
process simply consists of a flat sheet hydrophobic micro porous
PTFE membrane and diaphragm vacuum pump without a condenser
for the water recovery or trap. The feed was used aqueous NaCl
solution. The VMD experiments were performed to evaluate the heat
and mass transfer coefficient of the boundary layer in a membrane
module. The only operating parameters are feed inlet temperature,
and feed flow rate were investigated. The permeate flux was strongly
affected by the feed inlet temperature, feed flow rate, and boundary
layer heat transfer coefficient. Since lowering the temperature
polarization coefficient is essential enhance the process performance
considerable and maximizing the heat transfer coefficient for
maximizes the mass flux of distillate water. In this paper, the results
of VMD experiments are used to measure the boundary layer heat
transfer coefficient, and the experimental results are used to reevaluate
the empirical constants in the Dittus- Boelter equation.
Abstract: Image synthesis is an important area in image processing.
To synthesize images various systems are proposed in
the literature. In this paper, we propose a bio-inspired system to
synthesize image and to study the generating power of the system, we
define the class of languages generated by our system. We call image
as array in this paper. We use a primitive called iso-array to synthesize
image/array. The operation is double splicing on iso-arrays. The
double splicing operation is used in DNA computing and we use
this to synthesize image. A comparison of the family of languages
generated by the proposed self restricted double splicing systems on
iso-arrays with the existing family of local iso-picture languages is
made. Certain closure properties such as union, concatenation and
rotation are studied for the family of languages generated by the
proposed model.
Abstract: In this paper, an improved technique for contingency
ranking using artificial neural network (ANN) is presented. The
proposed approach is based on multi-layer perceptrons trained by
backpropagation to contingency analysis. Severity indices in dynamic
stability assessment are presented. These indices are based on the
concept of coherency and three dot products of the system variables.
It is well known that some indices work better than others for a
particular power system. This paper along with test results using
several different systems, demonstrates that combination of indices
with ANN provides better ranking than a single index. The presented
results are obtained through the use of power system simulation
(PSS/E) and MATLAB 6.5 software.
Abstract: The value of overall oxygen transfer Coefficient
(KLa), which is the best measure of oxygen transfer in water through
aeration, is obtained by a simple approach, which sufficiently
explains the utility of the method to eliminate the discrepancies due
to inaccurate assumption of saturation dissolved oxygen
concentration. The rate of oxygen transfer depends on number of
factors like intensity of turbulence, which in turns depends on the
speed of rotation, size, and number of blades, diameter and
immersion depth of the rotor, and size and shape of aeration tank, as
well as on physical, chemical, and biological characteristic of water.
An attempt is made in this paper to correlate the overall oxygen
transfer Coefficient (KLa), as an independent parameter with other
influencing parameters mentioned above. It has been estimated that
the simulation equation developed predicts the values of KLa and
power with an average standard error of estimation of 0.0164 and
7.66 respectively and with R2 values of 0.979 and 0.989 respectively,
when compared with experimentally determined values. The
comparison of this model is done with the model generated using
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and both the models were
found to be in good agreement with each other.
Abstract: In this paper, we present the design and experimental
evaluation of complementary energy path adiabatic logic (CEPAL)
based 1 bit full adder circuit. A simulative investigation on the
proposed full adder has been done using VIRTUOSO SPECTRE
simulator of cadence in 0.18μm UMC technology and its
performance has been compared with the conventional CMOS full
adder circuit. The CEPAL based full adder circuit exhibits the energy
saving of 70% to the conventional CMOS full adder circuit, at 100
MHz frequency and 1.8V operating voltage.
Abstract: Heart-s electric field can be measured anywhere on
the surface of the body (ECG). When individuals touch, one person-s
ECG signal can be registered in other person-s EEG and elsewhere
on his body. Now, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis
that physical contact (hand-holding) of two persons changes their
heart rate variability. Subjects were sixteen healthy female (age: 20-
26) which divided into eight sets. In each sets, we had two friends
that they passed intimacy test of J.sternberg. ECG of two subjects
(each set) acquired for 5 minutes before hand-holding (as control
group) and 5 minutes during they held their hands (as experimental
group). Then heart rate variability signals were extracted from
subjects' ECG and analyzed in linear feature space (time and
frequency domain) and nonlinear feature space. Considering the
results, we conclude that physical contact (hand-holding of two
friends) increases parasympathetic activity, as indicate by increase
SD1, SD1/SD2, HF and MF power (p
Abstract: In this paper a technique for increasing the
convergence rate of fractionally spaced channel equalizer is
proposed. Instead of symbol-spaced updating of the equalizer filter, a
mechanism has been devised to update the filter at a higher rate. This
ensures convergence of the equalizer filter at a higher rate and
therefore less time-consuming. The proposed technique has been
simulated and tested for two-ray modeled channels with various
delay spreads. These channels include minimum-phase and nonminimum-
phase channels. Simulation results suggest that that
proposed technique outperforms the conventional technique of
symbol-spaced updating of equalizer filter.
Abstract: The zinc and iron environments in different growth
stages have been studied with EXAFS and XANES with Brookhaven
Synchrotron Light Source. Tissue samples included meat, organ,
vegetable, leaf, and yeast. The project studied the EXAFS and
XANES of tissue samples using Zn and Fe K-edges. Duck embryo
samples show that brain and intestine would contain shorter EXFAS
determined Zn-N/O bond; as with the cases of fresh yeast versus
reconstituted live yeast and green leaf versus yellow leaf. The
XANES Fourier transform characteristic-length would be useful as a
functionality index for selected types of tissue samples in various
physical states. The extension to the development of functional
synchrotron imaging for tissue engineering application based on
spectroscopic technique is discussed.
Abstract: The paper describes a new approach for fingerprint
classification, based on the distribution of local features (minute
details or minutiae) of the fingerprints. The main advantage is that
fingerprint classification provides an indexing scheme to facilitate
efficient matching in a large fingerprint database. A set of rules based
on heuristic approach has been proposed. The area around the core
point is treated as the area of interest for extracting the minutiae
features as there are substantial variations around the core point as
compared to the areas away from the core point. The core point in a
fingerprint has been located at a point where there is maximum
curvature. The experimental results report an overall average
accuracy of 86.57 % in fingerprint classification.
Abstract: A new conserving approach in the context of Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) is presented to simulate one dimensional, incompressible flow in a moving boundary problem. The method employs control volume scheme to simulate the flow field. The concept of ghost node is used at the boundaries to conserve the mass and momentum equations. The Present method implements the conservation laws in all cells including boundary control volumes. Application of the method is studied in a test case with moving boundary. Comparison between the results of this new method and a sharp interface (Image Point Method) IBM algorithm shows a well distinguished improvement in both pressure and velocity fields of the present method. Fluctuations in pressure field are fully resolved in this proposed method. This approach expands the IBM capability to simulate flow field for variety of problems by implementing conservation laws in a fully Cartesian grid compared to other conserving methods.
Abstract: The proposed paper examines strategies whose aim is
to counter the all too often sighted process of abandonment that
characterizes contemporary cities. The city of Nicosia in Cyprus is
used as an indicative case study, whereby several recent projects are
presented as capitalizing on traditional cultural assets to revive the
downtown. The reuse of existing building stock as museums,
performing arts centers and theaters but also as in the form of various
housing typologies is geared to strengthen the ranks of local residents
and to spur economic growth. Unlike the examples from the 1960s,
the architecture of more recent adaptive reuse for urban regeneration
seems to be geared in reinforcing a connection to the city where the
buildings often reflect the characteristics of their urban context.
Abstract: Throughput is an important measure of performance of production system. Analyzing and modeling of production throughput is complex in today-s dynamic production systems due to uncertainties of production system. The main reasons are that uncertainties are materialized when the production line faces changes in setup time, machinery break down, lead time of manufacturing, and scraps. Besides, demand changes are fluctuating from time to time for each product type. These uncertainties affect the production performance. This paper proposes Bayesian inference for throughput modeling under five production uncertainties. Bayesian model utilized prior distributions related to previous information about the uncertainties where likelihood distributions are associated to the observed data. Gibbs sampling algorithm as the robust procedure of Monte Carlo Markov chain was employed for sampling unknown parameters and estimating the posterior mean of uncertainties. The Bayesian model was validated with respect to convergence and efficiency of its outputs. The results presented that the proposed Bayesian models were capable to predict the production throughput with accuracy of 98.3%.
Abstract: A new approach for facial expressions recognition based on face context and adaptively weighted sub-pattern PCA (Aw-SpPCA) has been presented in this paper. The facial region and others part of the body have been segmented from the complex environment based on skin color model. An algorithm has been proposed to accurate detection of face region from the segmented image based on constant ratio of height and width of face (δ= 1.618). The paper also discusses on new concept to detect the eye and mouth position. The desired part of the face has been cropped to analysis the expression of a person. Unlike PCA based on a whole image pattern, Aw-SpPCA operates directly on its sub patterns partitioned from an original whole pattern and separately extracts features from them. Aw-SpPCA can adaptively compute the contributions of each part and a classification task in order to enhance the robustness to both expression and illumination variations. Experiments on single standard face with five types of facial expression database shows that the proposed method is competitive.
Abstract: Creating shared value (CSV) is a newly introduced
concept whose essence and expressions, relationship to Corporate
social responsibility (CSR) and implications for the business and
society is now at the core of management and social responsibility
debates of the scientific world. The aim of the paper is to gain clearer
understanding of the CSR and CSV concepts, their implementation
and role in sustainable development of organizations in Latvia. In this
paper the authors discuss and compare the two conceptsand, based on
the results of Sustainability Index (SI) initiative and analysis of
publically available company information, evaluate their
implementation in Latvia and draw conclusions on the development
trends and potential of these approaches in Latvian market.
Abstract: In a world of climate change and limited fossil fuel resources, renewable energy sources are playing an increasingly important role. Due to industrializations and population growth our economy and technologies today largely depend upon natural resources, which are not replaceable. Approximately 90% of our energy consumption comes from fossil fuels (viz. coal, oil and natural gas). The irony is that these resources are depleting. Also, the huge consumption of fossil fuels has caused visible damage to the environment in various forms viz. global warming, acid rains etc.
Abstract: There have been widespread applications of fluidized beds in industries which are related to the combination of gas-solid particles during the last decade. For instance, in order to crack the catalyses in petrochemical industries or as a drier in food industries. High capacity of fluidized bed in heat and mass transfer has made this device very popular. In order to achieve a higher efficiency of fluidized beds, a particular attention has been paid to beds with pulsating air flow. In this paper, a fluidized bed device with pulsating flow has been designed and constructed. Size of particles have been used during the test are in the range of 40 to 100μm. The purpose of this experimental test is to investigate the air flow regime, observe the particles- movement and measure the pressure loss along the bed. The effects of pulsation can be evaluated by comparing the results for both continuous and pulsating flow. Results of both situations are compared for various gas speeds. Moreover the above experiment is numerically simulated by using Fluent software and its numerical results are compared with the experimental results.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach for tuning unified power flow controller (UPFC) based damping controller in order to enhance the damping of power system low frequency oscillations. The design problem of damping controller is formulated as an optimization problem according to the eigenvalue-based objective function which is solved using iteration particle swarm optimization (IPSO). The effectiveness of the proposed controller is demonstrated through eigenvalue analysis and nonlinear time-domain simulation studies under a wide range of loading conditions. The simulation study shows that the designed controller by IPSO performs better than CPSO in finding the solution. Moreover, the system performance analysis under different operating conditions show that the δE based controller is superior to the mB based controller.