Abstract: Groundwater is one of the most important water
resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the
total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture,
whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1
percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial
growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a
condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are
pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate,
causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this
resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects
and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Niriz
plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of
groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too
fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the
groundwater level in this plain were 9.1 meters during 1997 to
2004. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in
the Niriz Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas
of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the
remaining life of the aquifer.
Abstract: In this study, the use of silicon NAM (Non-Audible
Murmur) microphone in automatic speech recognition is presented.
NAM microphones are special acoustic sensors, which are attached
behind the talker-s ear and can capture not only normal (audible)
speech, but also very quietly uttered speech (non-audible murmur).
As a result, NAM microphones can be applied in automatic speech
recognition systems when privacy is desired in human-machine communication.
Moreover, NAM microphones show robustness against
noise and they might be used in special systems (speech recognition,
speech conversion etc.) for sound-impaired people. Using a small
amount of training data and adaptation approaches, 93.9% word
accuracy was achieved for a 20k Japanese vocabulary dictation
task. Non-audible murmur recognition in noisy environments is also
investigated. In this study, further analysis of the NAM speech has
been made using distance measures between hidden Markov model
(HMM) pairs. It has been shown the reduced spectral space of NAM
speech using a metric distance, however the location of the different
phonemes of NAM are similar to the location of the phonemes
of normal speech, and the NAM sounds are well discriminated.
Promising results in using nonlinear features are also introduced,
especially under noisy conditions.
Abstract: Climate change is a phenomenon has been based on
the available evidence from a very long time ago and now its
existence is very probable. The speed and nature of climate
parameters changes at the middle of twentieth century has been
different and its quickness more than the before and its trend changed
to some extent comparing to the past. Climate change issue now
regarded as not only one of the most common scientific topic but also
a social political one, is not a new issue. Climate change is a
complicated atmospheric oceanic phenomenon on a global scale and
long-term. Precipitation pattern change, fast decrease of snowcovered
resources and its rapid melting, increased evaporation, the
occurrence of destroying floods, water shortage crisis, severe
reduction at the rate of harvesting agricultural products and, so on are
all the significant of climate change. To cope with this phenomenon,
its consequences and events in which public instruction is the most
important but it may be climate that no significant cant and effective
action has been done so far. The present article is included a part of
one surrey about climate change in Fars. The study area having
annually mean temperature 14 and precipitation 320 mm .23 stations
inside the basin with a common 37 year statistical period have been
applied to the meteorology data (1974-2010). Man-kendal and
change factor methods are two statistical methods, applying them, the
trend of changes and the annual mean average temperature and the
annual minimum mean temperature were studied by using them.
Based on time series for each parameter, the annual mean average
temperature and the mean of annual maximum temperature have a
rising trend so that this trend is clearer to the mean of annual
maximum temperature.
Abstract: In this paper, study on carbonation process of several types of advanced plasters on lime basis is presented. The movement of carbonation head was measured by colorimetric method using phenolphtalein. The rate of carbonation was accessed also by gravimetric method. Samples of studied materials were placed into the climatic chamber for simulation of environment with high concentration of CO2. The particular samples were on all lateral sides and on the bottom side provided by epoxy resin in order to arrange 1-D transport of CO2 into the studied samples. The carbonation rates of particular materials pointed to the time dependence of diffusion process of CO2 for all the studied plasters. From the quantitative point of view, the carbonation of advanced modified plasters was much faster than for the reference lime plaster, what is beneficial for the practical application of the tested newly developed materials.
Abstract: Contamination of heavy metals represents one of the
most pressing threats to water and soil resources as well as human
health. Phytoremediation can be potentially used to remediate metalcontaminated
sites. A major step towards the development of
phytoremediation of heavy metal impacted soils is the discovery of
the heavy metal hyperaccumulation in plants. In this study, the
several established criteria to define a hyperaccumulator plant were
applied. The case study was represented by a mining area in
Hamedan province in the central west part of Iran. Obtained results
showed that the most of sampled species were able to grow on
heavily metal-contaminated soils and also were able to accumulate
extraordinarily high concentrations of some metals such as Zn, Mn,
Cu, Pb and Fe. Using the most common criteria, Euphorbia
macroclada and Centaurea virgata can be classified as
hyperaccumulators of some measured heavy metals and, therefore,
they have suitable potential for phytoremediation of contaminated
soils.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to review representative
cases of green space development in order to compare the Garden City
concept and Green Belt concept as applied and to examine its direction
in major Asian and Oceanic cities. The results of previous studies and
this study show that there are two major directions in such
green-oriented city planning. One direction is toward Multi-Regional
Development, and the other focuses on an Environmentally Symbiotic
City based on the Garden City concept. In large cities and the suburbs
where extremely strong pressure to urbanize makes it impossible to
keep Green Belts, it is essential to strictly control land use and adopt
the Garden City concept to conserve the urban environment.
Abstract: Mature landfill leachates contain some macromolecular organic substances that are resistant to biological degradation. Recently, Fenton-s oxidation has been investigated for chemical treatment or pre-treatment of mature landfill leachates. The aim of this study was to reduce the recalcitrant organic load still remaining after the complete treatment of a mature landfill leachate by Fenton-s oxidation post-treatment. The effect of various parameters such as H2O2 to Fe2+ molar ratio, dosage of Fe2+ reagent, initial pH, reaction time and initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) strength, that have an important role on the oxidation, was analysed. A molar ratio H2O2/Fe2+ = 3, a Fe2+ dosage of 4 mmol·L-1, pH 3, and a reaction time of 40 min were found to achieve better oxidation performances. At these favorable conditions, COD removal efficiency was 60.9% and 31.1% for initial COD of 93 and 743 mg·L-1 respectively (diluted and non diluted leachate). Fenton-s oxidation also presented good results for color removal. In spite of being extremely difficult to treat this leachate, the above results seem rather encouraging on the application of Fenton-s oxidation.
Abstract: A lot of research made during these last 15 years
showed that the quantification of the springback has a significant role
in the industry of sheet metal forming. These studies were made with
the objective of finding techniques and methods to minimize or
completely avoid this permanent physical variation. Moreover, the
use of steel and aluminum alloys in the car industry and aviation
poses every day the problem of the springback. The determination in
advance of the quantity of the springback allows consequently the
design and manufacture of the tool. The aim of this paper is to study
experimentally the influence of the blank holder force BHF and the
radius of curvature of the die on the springback and their influence on
the strain in various zone of specimen.
The original of our purpose consist on tests which are ensured by
adapting a U-type stretching-bending device on a tensile testing
machine, where we studied and quantified the variation of the
springback according to displacement.
Abstract: The environmental factors such as temperature and
relative humidity are very contribute to the effect of comfort, health,
performance and worker productivity. To ensure an ergonomics work
environment, it is possible to require a specific attention especially in
industries. The aim of this study is to show the effect of temperature
and relative humidity on worker productivity in automotive industry
by taking a workstation in an automotive plant as the location to
conduct the study. From the analysis of the data, there were
relationship between temperature and relative humidity on worker
productivity. Mathematical equation to represent the relationship
between temperatures and relative humidity on the production rate is
modelled. From the equation model, the production rate for the
workstation can be predicted base on the value of temperature and
relative humidity.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine noise level of
six different types of machines in printing companies in Novi Sad.
The A-weighted levels on Leq, Lmax and Lmin Sound Pressure Level
(SPL) in dBA were measured. It was found that the folders, offset
printing presses and binding machines are the predominant noise
sources. The noise levels produced by 12 of 38 machines exceed the
limiting threshold level of 85 dBA, tolerated by law. Since it was
determined that the average noise level for folders (87.7 dB) exceeds
the permitted value the octave analysis of noise was performed.
Abstract: The interrelationship between international stock
markets has been a key study area among the financial market
researchers for international portfolio management and risk
measurement. The characteristics of security returns and their
dynamics play a vital role in the financial market theory. This study
is an attempt to find out the dynamic linkages among the equity
market of USA and emerging markets of Pakistan and India using
daily data covering the period of January 2003–December 2009. The
study utilizes Johansen (Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,
12, 1988) and Johansen and Juselius (Oxford Bulletin of Economics
and Statistics, 52, 1990) cointegration procedure for long run
relationship and Granger-causality tests based on Toda and
Yamamoto (Journal of Econometrics, 66, 1995) methodology.
No cointegration was found among stock markets of USA, Pakistan
and India, while Granger-causality test showed the evidence of
unidirectional causality running from New York stock exchange to
Bombay and Karachi stock exchanges.
Abstract: The link between urban planning and design principles and the built environment of an urban renewal area is of interest to the field of urban studies. During the past decade, there has also been increasing interest in urban planning and design; this interest is motivated by the possibility that design policies associated with the built environment can be used to control, manage, and shape individual activity and behavior. However, direct assessments and design techniques of the links between how urban planning design policies influence individuals are still rare in the field. Recent research efforts in urban design have focused on the idea that land use and design policies can be used to increase the quality of design projects for an urban renewal area-s built environment. The development of appropriate design techniques for the built environment is an essential element of this research. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a powerful tool for improving alternative urban design and quality for urban renewal areas, and for procuring a citizen-driven quality system. In this research, we propose an integrated framework based on QFD and an Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach to determine the Alternative Technical Requirements (ATRs) to be considered in designing an urban renewal planning and design alternative. We also identify the research designs and methodologies that can be used to evaluate the performance of urban built environment projects. An application in an urban renewal built environment planning and design project evaluation is presented to illustrate the proposed framework.
Abstract: Tablet computers and Multifunctional Hardcopy Devices (MHDs) are common devices in daily life. Though, many scientific studies have not been published. The tablet computers are straightforward to use whereas the MHDs are comparatively difficult to use. Thus, to assist different levels of users, we propose combining these two devices to achieve straightforward intelligent user interface (UI) and versatile What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) document management and production. Our approach to this issue is to design an intelligent user dependent UI for a MHD applying a tablet computer. Furthermore, we propose hardware interconnection and versatile intelligent software between these two devices. In this study, we first provide a state-of-the-art survey on MHDs and tablet computers, and their interconnections. Secondly we provide a comparative UI survey on two state-of-the-art MHDs with a proposal of a novel UI for the MHDs using Jakob Nielsen-s Ten Usability Heuristics Evaluation.
Abstract: Knowledge management is a critical component of
competitive success in service organizations. Knowledge
management centers on creating new knowledge and utilizing
existing knowledge. While utilizing existing knowledge relates to
input and control and can lead to a reduction in costs; creating new
knowledge relates to output and growth and can lead to an increase in
revenue. Therefore managers must ensure that they can successfully
optimize the knowledge and talent in their organizations. To do this
they and must try to develop an environment that promotes the
generation, acquisition, transfer and use of valuable knowledge in
creative ways. However knowledge management is complex and
diverse. Research suggests that organizations in general and SMEs in
particular are finding it difficult to implement successful knowledge
management initiatives. Our research attempts to understand whether
organizations are adopting best practice initiatives in their
organizations. This paper presents findings from an exploratory study
of 139 SMEs operating in the tourism sector across Europe. The
goals of the survey is to assess the level of awareness of knowledge
and talent management strategies and methodologies and to
determine whether the responding companies implement best practice
knowledge management initiatives in their organizations Analysis of
the findings from the study are presented and discussed.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative study on
Vanadyl Phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited by thermal
evaporation and spin coating techniques. The samples
were prepared on cleaned glass substrates and annealed at
various temperatures ranging form 95oC to 155oC. To obtain
the morphological and structural properties of VOPc thin
films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force
microscopy (AFM) have been implied. The AFM topographic
images show a very slight difference in the thermally grown
films, before and after annealing, however best results are
achieved for the spin-cast film annealed at 125oC. The XRD
spectra show no existence of the sharp peaks, suggesting the
material to be amorphous. The humps in the XRD patterns
indicate the presence of some crystallites.
Abstract: Training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
has both physiological and psychological benefits for spinal cord
injured subjects. Commonly used methods for quantification of
spasticity have shown controversial reliability. In this study we
propose a method for quick determination of spasticity in spinal cord
injured subjects on a cycling and measurement system. 23 patients
did training sessions on an instrumented mobile FES cycle three
times a week over two months as part of their clinical rehabilitation
program. Spasticity (MAS) and the legs resistance to the pedaling
motion were assessed before and after the FES training and
measurements were done on the subjects ability to pedal with our
without motor assistance. Measurements with test persons with
incomplete spastic paraplegia have shown that spasticity is decreased
after a 30 min cycling training with functional electrical stimulation
(FES).
Abstract: Pepper spray use has gained momentum since 1992
and although the active ingredient is readily available, it is considered
a weapon with restricted use in many regions, including The
Bahamas. In light of controversy in the literature regarding the
severity of presenting respiration complaints among individuals postacute
exposure of pepper spray inhalation, this descriptive case series
study was conducted to assess the respiratory status of persons
evaluated during a mass casualty in The Bahamas. Parameters noted
were patients- demographics and respiration severity determined via
clinical examination findings, disposition and follow-up review of the
20 persons. Their most common complaint was difficulty breathing
post exposure. Two required admission and stayed for
Abstract: A wireless power transfer system can attribute to the
fields in robot, aviation and space in which lightening the weight of
device and improving the movement play an important role. A
wireless power transfer system was investigated to overcome the
inconvenience of using power cable. Especially a wireless power
transfer technology is important element for mobile robots. We
proposed the wireless power transfer system of the half-bridge
resonant converter with the frequency tracking and optimized
power transfer control unit. And the possibility of the application
and development system was verified through the experiment with
LED loads.
Abstract: This research analyzes factors affecting the success of
Litecoin Value within Thailand and develops a guideline for selfreliance
for effective business implementation. Samples in this study
included 119 people through surveys. The results revealed four main
factors affecting the success as follows: 1) Future Career training
should be pursued in applied Litecoin development. 2) Didn't grasp
the concept of a digital currency or see the benefit of a digital
currency. 3) There is a great need to educate the next generation of
learners on the benefits of Litecoin within the community. 4) A great
majority didn't know what Litecoin was.
The guideline for self-reliance planning consisted of 4 aspects: 1)
Development planning: by arranging meet up groups to conduct
further education on Litecoin and share solutions on adoption into
every day usage. Local communities need to develop awareness of
the usefulness of Litecoin and share the value of Litecoin among
friends and family. 2) Computer Science and Business Management
staff should develop skills to expand on the benefits of Litecoin
within their departments. 3) Further research should be pursued on
how Litecoin Value can improve business and tourism within
Thailand. 4) Local communities should focus on developing Litecoin
awareness by encouraging street vendors to accept Litecoin as
another form of payment for services rendered.
Abstract: The usual method of river flow diversion involves construction of tunnels and cofferdams. Given the fact that the cost of diversion works could be as high as 10-20% of the total dam construction cost, due attention should be paid to optimum design of the diversion works. The cost of diversion works depends, on factors, such as: the tunnel dimensions and the intended tunneling support measures during and after excavation; quality and characterizes of the rock through which the tunnel should be excavated; the dimensions of the upstream (and downstream) cofferdams; and the magnitude of river flood the system is designed to divert. In this paper by use of the cost of unit prices for tunnel excavation, tunnel lining, tunnel support (rock bolt + shotcrete) and cofferdam fill the cost function was determined. The function is then minimized by the aid of PSO Algorithm (particle swarm optimization). It is found that the optimum diameter and the total diversion cost are directly related to the river flood discharge (Q). It has also shown that in addition to optimum diameter design discharge (Q), river length, tunnel length, is mainly a function of the ratios (not the absolute values) of the unit prices and does not depend on the overall price levels in the respective country. The results of optimization use in some of the case study lead us to significant changes in the cost.