Abstract: The concentrations of As, Hg, Co, Cr and Cd were
tested for each soil sample, and their spatial patterns were analyzed
by the semivariogram approach of geostatistics and geographical
information system technology. Multivariate statistic approaches
(principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were used to
identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal
component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals
showed that primary inputs of As, Hg and Cd were due to
anthropogenic while, Co, and Cr were associated with pedogenic
factors. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patters of
heavy metals. The high pollution sources evaluated was related with
usage of urban and industrial wastewater. The results of this study
helpful for risk assessment of environmental pollution for decision
making for industrial adjustment and remedy soil pollution.
Abstract: Bicycle configuration is not as large as those of motorcycles or automobiles, while it indeed composes a complicated dynamic system. People-s requirements on comfortability, controllability and safety grow higher as the research and development technologies improve. The shock absorber affects the vehicle suspension performances enormously. The absorber takes the vibration energy and releases it at a suitable time, keeping the wheel under a proper contact condition with road surface, maintaining the vehicle chassis stability. Suspension design for mountain bicycles is more difficult than that of city bikes since it encounters dynamic variations on road and loading conditions. Riders need a stiff damper as they exert to tread on the pedals when climbing, while a soft damper when they descend downhill. Various switchable shock absorbers are proposed in markets, however riders have to manually switch them among soft, hard and lock positions. This study proposes a novel design of the bicycle shock absorber, which provides automatic smooth tuning of the damping coefficient, from a predetermined lower bound to theoretically unlimited. An automatic quick releasing valve is involved in this design so that it can release the peak pressure when the suspension fork runs into a square-wave type obstacle and prevent the chassis from damage, avoiding the rider skeleton from injury. This design achieves the automatic tuning process by innovative plunger valve and fluidic passage arrangements without any electronic devices. Theoretical modelling of the damper and spring are established in this study. Design parameters of the valves and fluidic passages are determined. Relations between design parameters and shock absorber performances are discussed in this paper. The analytical results give directions to the shock absorber manufacture.
Abstract: Data of wave height and wind speed were collected
from three existing oil fields in South China Sea – offshore
Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah regions. Extreme values
and other significant data were employed for analysis. The data were
recorded from 1999 until 2008. The results show that offshore
structures are susceptible to unacceptable motions initiated by wind
and waves with worst structural impacts caused by extreme wave
heights. To protect offshore structures from damage, there is a need
to quantify descriptive statistics and determine spectra envelope of
wind speed and wave height, and to ascertain the frequency content
of each spectrum for offshore structures in the South China Sea
shallow waters using measured time series. The results indicate that
the process is nonstationary; it is converted to stationary process by
first differencing the time series. For descriptive statistical analysis,
both wind speed and wave height have significant influence on the
offshore structure during the northeast monsoon with high mean wind
speed of 13.5195 knots ( = 6.3566 knots) and the high mean wave
height of 2.3597 m ( = 0.8690 m). Through observation of the
spectra, there is no clear dominant peak and the peaks fluctuate
randomly. Each wind speed spectrum and wave height spectrum has
its individual identifiable pattern. The wind speed spectrum tends to
grow gradually at the lower frequency range and increasing till it
doubles at the higher frequency range with the mean peak frequency
range of 0.4104 Hz to 0.4721 Hz, while the wave height tends to
grow drastically at the low frequency range, which then fluctuates
and decreases slightly at the high frequency range with the mean
peak frequency range of 0.2911 Hz to 0.3425 Hz.
Abstract: Natural gas flow contains undesirable solid particles,
liquid condensation, and/or oil droplets and requires reliable
removing equipment to perform filtration. Recent natural gas
processing applications are demanded compactness and reliability of
process equipment. Since conventional means are sophisticated in
design, poor in efficiency, and continue lacking robust, a supersonic
nozzle has been introduced as an alternative means to meet such
demands.
A 3-D Convergent-Divergent Nozzle is simulated using
commercial Code for pressure ratio (NPR) varies from 1.2 to 2. Six
different shapes of nozzle are numerically examined to illustrate the
position of shock-wave as such spot could be considered as a
benchmark of particle separation. Rectangle, triangle, circular,
elliptical, pentagon, and hexagon nozzles are simulated using Fluent
Code with all have same cross-sectional area.
The simple one-dimensional inviscid theory does not describe the
actual features of fluid flow precisely as it ignores the impact of
nozzle configuration on the flow properties. CFD Simulation results,
however, show that nozzle geometry influences the flow structures
including location of shock wave.
The CFD analysis predicts shock appearance when p01/pa>1.2 for
almost all geometry and locates at the lower area ratio (Ae/At).
Simulation results showed that shock wave in Elliptical nozzle has
the farthest distance from the throat among the others at relatively
small NPR. As NPR increases, hexagon would be the farthest. The
numerical result is compared with available experimental data and
has shown good agreement in terms of shock location and flow
structure.
Abstract: SQL injection on web applications is a very popular
kind of attack. There are mechanisms such as intrusion detection
systems in order to detect this attack. These strategies often rely on
techniques implemented at high layers of the application but do not
consider the low level of system calls. The problem of only
considering the high level perspective is that an attacker can
circumvent the detection tools using certain techniques such as URL
encoding. One technique currently used for detecting low-level
attacks on privileged processes is the tracing of system calls. System
calls act as a single gate to the Operating System (OS) kernel; they
allow catching the critical data at an appropriate level of detail. Our
basic assumption is that any type of application, be it a system
service, utility program or Web application, “speaks” the language of
system calls when having a conversation with the OS kernel. At this
level we can see the actual attack while it is happening. We conduct
an experiment in order to demonstrate the suitability of system call
analysis for detecting SQL injection. We are able to detect the attack.
Therefore we conclude that system calls are not only powerful in
detecting low-level attacks but that they also enable us to detect highlevel
attacks such as SQL injection.
Abstract: Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) features
are widely used as acoustic features for speech recognition as well
as speaker recognition. In MFCC feature representation, the Mel frequency
scale is used to get a high resolution in low frequency region,
and a low resolution in high frequency region. This kind of processing
is good for obtaining stable phonetic information, but not suitable
for speaker features that are located in high frequency regions. The
speaker individual information, which is non-uniformly distributed
in the high frequencies, is equally important for speaker recognition.
Based on this fact we proposed an admissible wavelet packet based
filter structure for speaker identification. Multiresolution capabilities
of wavelet packet transform are used to derive the new features.
The proposed scheme differs from previous wavelet based works,
mainly in designing the filter structure. Unlike others, the proposed
filter structure does not follow Mel scale. The closed-set speaker
identification experiments performed on the TIMIT database shows
improved identification performance compared to other commonly
used Mel scale based filter structures using wavelets.
Abstract: A genetic algorithm (GA) based feature subset
selection algorithm is proposed in which the correlation structure of
the features is exploited. The subset of features is validated according
to the classification performance. Features derived from the
continuous wavelet transform are potentially strongly correlated.
GA-s that do not take the correlation structure of features into
account are inefficient. The proposed algorithm forms clusters of
correlated features and searches for a good candidate set of clusters.
Secondly a search within the clusters is performed. Different
simulations of the algorithm on a real-case data set with strong
correlations between features show the increased classification
performance. Comparison is performed with a standard GA without
use of the correlation structure.
Abstract: This paper examines the depiction of Muslim militants in Thai newspapers in 2004. Stuart Hall-s “representation" and “public idioms" are used as theoretical frameworks. Critical Discourse Analysis is employed as a methodology to examine 240 news articles from two leading Thai language newspapers. The results show that the militants are usually labeled as “southern bandits." This suggests that they are just a culprit of the violence in the deep south of Thailand. They are usually described as people who cause turbulence. Consequently, the military have to get rid of them. However, other aspects of the groups such as their political agenda or the failures of the Thai state in dealing with the Malay Muslims were not mention in the news stories. In the time of violence, the researcher argues that this kind of newspaper coverage may help perpetuate the discourse of Malay Muslim, instead of providing fuller picture of the ongoing conflicts.
Abstract: In order to implement flexibility as well as survivable
capacities over passive optical network (PON), a new automatic
random fault-recovery mechanism with array-waveguide-grating
based (AWG-based) optical switch (OSW) is presented. Firstly,
wavelength-division-multiplexing and optical code-division
multiple-access (WDM/OCDMA) scheme are configured to meet the
various geographical locations requirement between optical network
unit (ONU) and optical line terminal (OLT). The AWG-base optical
switch is designed and viewed as central star-mesh topology to
prohibit/decrease the duplicated redundant elements such as fiber and
transceiver as well. Hence, by simple monitoring and routing switch
algorithm, random fault-recovery capacity is achieved over
bi-directional (up/downstream) WDM/OCDMA scheme. When error
of distribution fiber (DF) takes place or bit-error-rate (BER) is higher
than 10-9 requirement, the primary/slave AWG-based OSW are
adjusted and controlled dynamically to restore the affected ONU
groups via the other working DFs immediately.
Abstract: A novel design of two-wheeled robotic vehicle with moving payload is presented in this paper. A mathematical model describing the vehicle dynamics is derived and simulated in Matlab Simulink environment. Two control strategies were developed to stabilise the vehicle in the upright position. A robust Proportional- Integral-Derivative (PID) control strategy has been implemented and initially tested to measure the system performance, while the second control strategy is to use a hybrid fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The results are given on a comparative basis for the system performance in terms of disturbance rejection, control algorithms robustness as well as the control effort in terms of input torque.
Abstract: Participation in global trade means that Chinas vegetables and fruits industry faces international food safety standards and increased scrutiny worldwide. The objectives of this paper were to investigate how existing food safety standards and regulations in the importing countries impact the export of vegetables and fruits from China. This paper discussed the current and historical situations of Chinas vegetables and fruits export from 1996 to 2010, analyzed the Maximum Residual Limit (MRL) standards of pesticides imposed by importing countries, quantitatively estimated the impacts of food safety standards on Chinas vegetables and fruits export based on a gravity model. The results showed that although transportation distance between trade partners and tariff rates on vegetables and fruits were still the importantly resistant factors for China export, vegetables and fruits export was sensitive to the number of regulated pesticides, the strictness, and the level of food safety standards imposed by importing countries, which showed a significant trade flow effect, stricter food safety standards, increased number of regulated pesticides significantly inhibit China export of vegetables and fruits. Moreover, Chinas food safety standards also showed a significantly effect on vegetables and fruits export, which inhibited export to some extent. KeywordsFood safety standards, MRL, Vegetables, Fruits, Export.
Abstract: Networked schools have become a feature of
education systems in countries that seek to provide learning
opportunities in schools located beyond major centres of population.
The internet and e-learning have facilitated the development of
virtual educational structures that complement traditional schools,
encouraging collaborative teaching and learning to proceed. In rural
New Zealand and in the Atlantic Canadian province of
Newfoundland and Labrador, e-learning is able to provide new ways
of organizing teaching, learning and the management of educational
opportunities. However, the future of e-teaching and e-learning in
networked schools depends on the development of professional
education programs that prepare teachers for collaborative teaching
and learning environments in which both virtual and traditional face
to face instruction co-exist.
Abstract: this paper presented a survey analysis subjected on
network bandwidth management from published papers referred in
IEEE Explorer database in three years from 2009 to 2011. Network
Bandwidth Management is discussed in today-s issues for computer
engineering applications and systems. Detailed comparison is
presented between published papers to look further in the IP based
network critical research area for network bandwidth management.
Important information such as the network focus area, a few
modeling in the IP Based Network and filtering or scheduling used in
the network applications layer is presented. Many researches on
bandwidth management have been done in the broad network area
but fewer are done in IP Based network specifically at the
applications network layer. A few researches has contributed new
scheme or enhanced modeling but still the issue of bandwidth
management still arise at the applications network layer. This survey
is taken as a basic research towards implementations of network
bandwidth management technique, new framework model and
scheduling scheme or algorithm in an IP Based network which will
focus in a control bandwidth mechanism in prioritizing the network
traffic the applications layer.
Abstract: The most reliable and accurate description of the actual behavior of a software system is its source code. However, not all questions about the system can be answered directly by resorting to this repository of information. What the reverse engineering methodology aims at is the extraction of abstract, goal-oriented “views" of the system, able to summarize relevant properties of the computation performed by the program. While concentrating on reverse engineering we had modeled the C++ files by designing the translator.
Abstract: A New features are extracted and compared to
improve the prediction of protein-protein interactions. The basic idea
is to select and use the best set of features from the Tensor matrices
that are produced by the frequency vectors of the protein sequences.
Three set of features are compared, the first set is based on the
indices that are the most common in the interacting proteins, the
second set is based on the indices that tend to be common in the
interacting and non-interacting proteins, and the third set is
constructed by using random indices. Moreover, three encoding
strategies are compared; that are based on the amino asides polarity,
structure, and chemical properties. The experimental results indicate
that the highest accuracy can be obtained by using random indices
with chemical properties encoding strategy and support vector
machine.
Abstract: Forty-five dairy cows were used to compare the
enzyme activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactate
dehydrogenase (LDH), α -amylase in the cervical mucus of cows
during spontaneous and induced estrus using progestagen or PGF2 α
and to determine whether these enzymes affect the fertility in cows
with induced estrus, at the time of Al. The animals were assigned to 3
groups (no treatment, a Crestar® for 12 days, a double im injection of
PGF2 α). The cows were artificially inseminated (AI). Cervical
mucus samples were collected from all cows 3 to 5 min before the
AI. The results are summarized as follows: ALP and α -amylase
activity for spontaneous estrus were similar to those for induced
estrus (P>0.05) . LDH activity levels during spontaneous and PGF2 α
induced estrus was significantly lower (P < 0.001) than that in
progestagene induced estrus groups. While no difference was found
between the first and the third groups. Our result showed a significant
difference in LDH activity levels between cows conceived with 2 or
more AI and those conceived with 1 AI. The result of this study
showed that the enzyme activity in cervical mucus is helpful for
detection of ovulation and time of AI.
Abstract: Nowadays use of a new structural bracing system
called 'Knee Bracing System' have taken the specialists attention too
much. On the other hand nonlinear static analysis procedures in
estimate structures performance in earthquake time have taken
attention too much. One of these procedure is modal pushover
analysis (MPA) procedure. The accuracy of MPA procedure for
simple steel moment resisting frame has been verified and considered
in Chintanapakdee and Chopra-s article in 2003. Since the accuracy
of MPA procedure has not verified for semi-rigid steel frames with
knee bracing, we are going to get through with this matter in this
study. For this purpose, the selected structures are four frames with
different heights, 5 to 20 stories, will be designed according to AISC
criteria. Then MPA procedure is used for the same frames with
different rigidity percentiles of connections. The results of seismic
responses are compared with dynamic nonlinear response history
analysis as exact procedure and accuracy of MPA procedure is
evaluated. It seems that MPA procedure accuracy will come down by
reduction of the rigidity percentiles of semi-rigid connections.
Abstract: Recently, some convergent results of the generalized AOR iterative (GAOR) method for solving linear systems with strictly diagonally dominant matrices are presented in [Darvishi, M.T., Hessari, P.: On convergence of the generalized AOR method for linear systems with diagonally dominant cofficient matrices. Appl. Math. Comput. 176, 128-133 (2006)] and [Tian, G.X., Huang, T.Z., Cui, S.Y.: Convergence of generalized AOR iterative method for linear systems with strictly diagonally dominant cofficient matrices. J. Comp. Appl. Math. 213, 240-247 (2008)]. In this paper, we give the convergence of the GAOR method for linear systems with strictly doubly diagonally dominant matrix, which improves these corresponding results.
Abstract: This research work takes a different approach in
the discussion of urban form impacts on transport planning and
auto dependency. Concentrated density represented by effective
density explains auto dependency better than the conventional
density and it is proved to be a realistic density representative for
the urban transportation analysis. Model analysis reveals that
effective density is influenced by the shopping accessibility
index as well as job density factor. It is also combined with the
job access variable to classify four levels of Transport Activity
Centers (TACs) in Okinawa, Japan. Trip attraction capacity and
levels of the newly classified TACs was found agreeable with the
amount of daily trips attracted to each center. The trip attraction
data set was drawn from a 2007 Okinawa personal trip survey.
This research suggests a planning methodology which guides
logical transport supply routes and concentrated local
development schemes.
Abstract: In order to reduce cost, increase quality, and for
timely supplying production systems has considerably taken the
advantages of supply chain management and these advantages are
also competitive. Selection of appropriate supplier has an important
role in improvement and efficiency of systems.
The models of supplier selection which have already been used by
researchers have considered selection one or more suppliers from
potential suppliers but in this paper selecting one supplier as partner
from one supplier that have minimum one period supplying to buyer
is considered.
This paper presents a conceptual model for partner selection and
application of Degree of Adoptive (DOA) model for final selection.
The attributes weight in this model is prepared through AHP
model. After making the descriptive model, determining the
attributes and measuring the parameters of the adaptive is examined
in an auto industry of Iran(Zagross Khodro co.) and results are
presented.