Abstract: In the present work, a study has been made on the combination of the electrical discharge machining (EDM) with ultrasonic vibrations to improve the machining efficiency. In experiments the graphite used as tool electrode and material of workpiece was AISIH13 tool steel. The parameters such as discharge peak current and pulse duration were changed to explore their effect on the material removal rate (MRR), relative tool wear ratio (TWR) and surface roughness. From the experimental result it can be seen that ultrasonic vibration of the workpiece can significantly reduces the inactive pulses and improves the stability of process. It was found that ultrasonic assisted EDM (US-EDM) is effective in attaining a high material removal rate (MRR) in finishing regime.
Abstract: Un-doped GaN film of thickness 1.90 mm, grown on
sapphire substrate were uniformly implanted with 325 keV Mn+ ions
for various fluences varying from 1.75 x 1015 - 2.0 x 1016 ions cm-2 at
3500 C substrate temperature. The structural, morphological and
magnetic properties of Mn ion implanted gallium nitride samples
were studied using XRD, AFM and SQUID techniques. XRD of the
sample implanted with various ion fluences showed the presence of
different magnetic phases of Ga3Mn, Ga0.6Mn0.4 and Mn4N.
However, the compositions of these phases were found to be
depended on the ion fluence. AFM images of non-implanted sample
showed micrograph with rms surface roughness 2.17 nm. Whereas
samples implanted with the various fluences showed the presence of
nano clusters on the surface of GaN. The shape, size and density of
the clusters were found to vary with respect to ion fluence. Magnetic
moment versus applied field curves of the samples implanted with
various fluences exhibit the hysteresis loops. The Curie temperature
estimated from zero field cooled and field cooled curves for the
samples implanted with the fluence of 1.75 x 1015, 1.5 x 1016 and 2.0
x 1016 ions cm-2 was found to be 309 K, 342 K and 350 K
respectively.
Abstract: The mechanical properties of granular solids are
dependent on the flow of stresses from one particle to another
through inter-particle contact. Although some experimental methods
have been used to study the inter-particle contacts in the past,
preliminary work with these techniques indicated that they do not
have the necessary resolution to distinguish between those contacts
that transmit the load and those that do not, especially for systems
with a wide distribution of particle sizes. In this research, computer
simulations are used to study the nature and distribution of contacts
in a compact with wide particle size distribution, representative of
aggregate size distribution used in asphalt pavement construction.
The packing fraction, the mean number of contacts and the
distribution of contacts were studied for different scenarios. A
methodology to distinguish and compute the fraction of load-bearing
particles and the fraction of space-filling particles (particles that do
not transmit any force) is needed for further investigation.
Abstract: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex
metabolic disorder that characterized by the presence of high glucose
in blood that cause from insulin resistance and insufficiency due to
deterioration β-cell Langerhans functions. T2DM is commonly
caused by the combination of inherited genetic variations as well as
our own lifestyle. Metallothionein (MT) is a known cysteine-rich
protein responsible in helping zinc homeostasis which is important in
insulin signaling and secretion as well as protection our body from
reactive oxygen species (ROS). MT scavenged ROS and free
radicals in our body happen to be one of the reasons of T2DM and its
complications. The objective of this study was to investigate the
association of MT1A and MT2A polymorphisms between T2DM and
control subjects among Malay populations. This study involved 150
T2DM and 120 Healthy individuals of Malay ethnic with mixed
genders. The genomic DNA was extracted from buccal cells and
amplified for MT1A and MT2A loci; the 347bp and 238bp banding
patterns were respectively produced by mean of the Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR). The PCR products were digested with Mlucl
and Tsp451 restriction enzymes respectively and producing
fragments lengths of (158/189/347bp) and (103/135/238bp)
respectively. The ANOVA test was conducted and it shown that there
was a significant difference between diabetic and control subjects for
age, BMI, WHR, SBP, FPG, HBA1C, LDL, TG, TC and family
history with (P0.05). The genotype
frequency for AA, AG and GG of MT1A polymorphisms was 72.7%,
22.7% and 4.7% in cases and 15%, 55% and 30% in control
respectively. As for MT2A, genotype frequency of GG, GC and CC
was 42.7%, 27.3% and 30% in case and 5%, 40% and 55% for
control respectively. Both polymorphisms show significant difference
between two investigated groups with (P=0.000). The Post hoc test
was conducted and shows a significant difference between the
genotypes within each polymorphism (P=0. 000). The MT1A and
MT2A polymorphisms were believed to be the reliable molecular
markers to distinguish the T2DM subjects from healthy individuals in
Malay populations.
Abstract: Cameras are often mounted on platforms that canmove like rovers, booms, gantries and aircraft. People operate suchplatforms to capture desired views of scene or target. To avoidcollisions with the environment and occlusions, such platforms oftenpossess redundant degrees-of-freedom. As a result, manipulatingsuch platforms demands much skill. Visual-servoing some degrees-of-freedom may reduce operator burden and improve tracking per-formance. This concept, which we call human-in-the-loop visual-servoing, is demonstrated in this paper and applies a Α-β-γ filter and feedforward controller to a broadcast camera boom.
Abstract: It has been established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play
an important role in gene expression by post-transcriptional regulation
of messengerRNAs (mRNAs). However, the precise relationships
between microRNAs and their target genes in sense of numbers,
types and biological relevance remain largely unclear. Dissecting the
miRNA-target relationships will render more insights for miRNA
targets identification and validation therefore promote the understanding
of miRNA function. In miRBase, miRanda is the key
algorithm used for target prediction for Zebrafish. This algorithm
is high-throughput but brings lots of false positives (noise). Since
validation of a large scale of targets through laboratory experiments
is very time consuming, several computational methods for miRNA
targets validation should be developed. In this paper, we present an
integrative method to investigate several aspects of the relationships
between miRNAs and their targets with the final purpose of extracting
high confident targets from miRanda predicted targets pool. This is
achieved by using the techniques ranging from statistical tests to
clustering and association rules. Our research focuses on Zebrafish.
It was found that validated targets do not necessarily associate with
the highest sequence matching. Besides, for some miRNA families,
the frequency of their predicted targets is significantly higher in the
genomic region nearby their own physical location. Finally, in a case
study of dre-miR-10 and dre-miR-196, it was found that the predicted
target genes hoxd13a, hoxd11a, hoxd10a and hoxc4a of dre-miR-
10 while hoxa9a, hoxc8a and hoxa13a of dre-miR-196 have similar
characteristics as validated target genes and therefore represent high
confidence target candidates.
Abstract: With increasing utilization of the wireless devices in
different fields such as medical devices and industrial fields, the
paper presents a method for simplify the Bluetooth packets with
throughput enhancing. The paper studies a vital issue in wireless
communications, which is the throughput of data over wireless
networks. In fact, the Bluetooth and ZigBee are a Wireless Personal
Area Network (WPAN). With taking these two systems competition
consideration, the paper proposes different schemes for improve the
throughput of Bluetooth network over a reliable channel. The
proposition depends on the Channel Quality Driven Data Rate
(CQDDR) rules, which determines the suitable packet in the
transmission process according to the channel conditions. The
proposed packet is studied over additive White Gaussian Noise
(AWGN) and fading channels. The Experimental results reveal the
capability of extension of the PL length by 8, 16, 24 bytes for classic
and EDR packets, respectively. Also, the proposed method is suitable
for the low throughput Bluetooth.
Abstract: Proximate (moisture, protein, total fat, total ash) and mineral (K, P, Na, Mg, Ca, Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn) composition of chicken giblets (heart, liver and gizzard) were investigated. Phosphorous content, as well as proximate composition, were determined according to recommended ISO methods. The content of all elements, except phosphorus, of the giblets tissues were determined using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), after dry ashing mineralization. Regarding proximate composition heart was the highest in total fat content, and the lowest in protein content. Liver was the highest in protein and total ash content, while gizzard was the highest in moisture and the lowest in total fat content. Regarding mineral composition liver was the highest for K, P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mn, while heart was the highest for Na content. The contents of almost all investigated minerals in analysed giblets tissues of chickens from Vojvodina were similar to values reported in the literature, i.e. in national food composition databases of other countries.
Abstract: The Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives. Witnessing recent web-based mass collaboration, e.g. Wikipedia, people are questioning whether the Internet has made fundamental changes to the society or whether it is merely a hyperbolic fad. It has long been assumed that collective action for a certain goal yields the problem of free-riding, due to its non-exclusive and non-rival characteristics. Then, thanks to recent technological advances, the on-line space experienced the following changes that enabled it to produce public goods: 1) decrease in the cost of production or coordination 2) externality from networked structure 3) production function which integrates both self-interest and altruism. However, this research doubts the homogeneity of on-line mass collaboration and argues that a more sophisticated and systematical approach is required. The alternative that we suggest is to connect the characteristics of the goal to the motivation. Despite various approaches, previous literature fails to recognize that motivation can be structurally restricted by the characteristic of the goal. First we draw a typology of on-line mass collaboration with 'the extent of expected beneficiary' and 'the existence of externality', and then we examine each combination of motivation using Benkler-s framework. Finally, we explore and connect such typology with its possible dominant participating motivation.
Abstract: The use of Electronic Commerce (EC)
technologies enables Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to improve their efficiency and competitive position. Much of the literature proposes an extensive set of benefits for
organizations that choose to adopt and implement ECommerce
systems. Factors of Business –to-business (B2B)
E-Commerce adoption and implementation have been
extensively investigated. Despite enormous attention given to encourage Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt and
implement E-Commerce, little research has been carried out in identifying the factors of Business-to-Consumer ECommerce adoption and implementation for SMEs. To conduct the study, Tornatsky and Fleischer model was adopted
and tested in four SMEs located in Christchurch, New
Zealand. This paper explores the factors that impact the
decision and method of adoption and implementation of ECommerce
systems in automobile industry. Automobile
industry was chosen because the product they deal with i.e.
cars are not a common commodity to be sold online, despite this fact the eCommerce penetration in automobile industry is
high. The factors that promote adoption and implementation of
E-Commerce technologies are discussed, together with the
barriers. This study will help SME owners to effectively
handle the adoption and implementation process and will also
improve the chance of successful E-Commerce
implementation. The implications of the findings for
managers, consultants, and government organizations engaged in promoting E-Commerce adoption and implementation in
small businesses and future research are discussed.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interactive online case-study library website developed in a national project. The design goal of the website is to provide interactive, enhanced, case-based and online educational resource for educators through the purpose and within the scope of a national project. The ADDIE instructional design model was used in the development of the website for interactive case-based library. This library is developed on a web-based platform, which is important in terms of manageability, accessibility, and updateability of data. Users are able to sort the displayed case-studies by their titles, dates, ratings, view counts, etc. The usability test is used and the expert opinion is taken for the evaluation of the website. This website is a tool to integrate technology into education. It is believed that this website will be beneficial for pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of their professional developments.
Abstract: In this research, a mathematical model for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. To design a product, there can be alternative options to design the detailed components to fulfill the same product requirement. In the design alternative cases, the components of the product can be designed with different materials and detailed specifications. If several design alternative cases are proposed, the different materials and specifications can affect the manufacturing processes. In this paper, a new concept for integrating green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. A green design can be determined based the manufacturing processes of the designed product by evaluating the green criteria including energy usage and environmental impact, in addition to the traditional criteria of manufacturing cost. With this concept, a mathematical model is developed to find the green design and the associated green manufacturing processes. In the mathematical model, the cost items include material cost, manufacturing cost, and green related cost. The green related cost items include energy cost and environmental cost. The objective is to find the decisions of green design and green manufacturing processes to achieve the minimized total cost. In practical applications, the decision-making can be made to select a good green design case and its green manufacturing processes. In this presentation, an example product is illustrated. It shows that the model is practical and useful for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes.
Abstract: Numerous concrete structures projects are currently running in Libya as part of a US$50 billion government funding. The
quality of concrete used in 20 different construction projects were assessed based mainly on the concrete compressive strength achieved. The projects are scattered all over the country and are at
various levels of completeness. For most of these projects, the
concrete compressive strength was obtained from test results of a
150mm standard cube mold. Statistical analysis of collected concrete
compressive strengths reveals that the data in general followed a
normal distribution pattern. The study covers comparison and assessment of concrete quality aspects such as: quality control, strength range, data standard deviation, data scatter, and ratio of minimum strength to design strength. Site quality control for these projects ranged from very good to poor according to ACI214 criteria [1]. The ranges (Rg) of the strength (max. strength – min. strength) divided by average strength are from (34% to 160%). Data scatter is
measured as the range (Rg) divided by standard deviation () and is
found to be (1.82 to 11.04), indicating that the range is ±3σ.
International construction companies working in Libya follow
different assessment criteria for concrete compressive strength in lieu
of national unified procedure. The study reveals that assessments of
concrete quality conducted by these construction companies usually
meet their adopted (internal) standards, but sometimes fail to meet
internationally known standard requirements. The assessment of
concrete presented in this paper is based on ACI, British standards
and proposed Libyan concrete strength assessment criteria.
Abstract: Multi-loop (De-centralized) Proportional-Integral-
Derivative (PID) controllers have been used extensively in process
industries due to their simple structure for control of multivariable
processes. The objective of this work is to design multiple-model
adaptive multi-loop PID strategy (Multiple Model Adaptive-PID)
and neural network based multi-loop PID strategy (Neural Net
Adaptive-PID) for the control of multivariable system. The first
method combines the output of multiple linear PID controllers,
each describing process dynamics at a specific level of operation.
The global output is an interpolation of the individual multi-loop
PID controller outputs weighted based on the current value of the
measured process variable. In the second method, neural network
is used to calculate the PID controller parameters based on the
scheduling variable that corresponds to major shift in the process
dynamics. The proposed control schemes are simple in structure with
less computational complexity. The effectiveness of the proposed
control schemes have been demonstrated on the CSTR process,
which exhibits dynamic non-linearity.
Abstract: THEOS is the first earth observation spacecraft of Thailand which was launched on the 1st October 2008 and is currently operated by GISTDA. The transfer phase has been performed by Astrium Flight Dynamics team leading to a hand over to GISTDA teams starting mid-October 2008. The THEOS spacecraft-s orbit is LEO and has the same repetitivity (14+5/26) as the SPOT spacecraft, i.e. the same altitude of 822 km but it has a different mean local solar time (LST). Ground track maintenance manoeuvres are performed to maintain the ground track within a predefined control band around the reference ground track and the band is ±40 km for THEOS spacecraft. This paper presents the first ground track maintenance manoeuvre of THEOS spacecraft and the detailed results. In addition, it also includes one and a half year of operation as seen by GISTDA operators. It finally describes the foreseenable activities for the next orbit control manoeuvre (OCM) preparation.
Abstract: Perhaps no single issue has been cited as either the root
cause and / or the greatest challenge to the restructured power system then the lack of adequate reliable transmission. Probabilistic transmission planning has become increasingly necessary and important in recent
years. The transmission planning analysis carried out by the authors,
spans a 10-year horizon, taking into consideration a value of 2 % load
increase / year at each consumer. Taking into consideration this increased
load, a probabilistic power flow was carried out, all the system components
being regarded from probabilistic point of view. Several contingencies
have been generated, for assessing the security of the power system. The results have been analyzed and several important conclusions were pointed. The objective is to achieve a network that works without limit violations for all (or most of) scenario realizations. The case study is represented by the IEEE 14 buses test power system.
Abstract: As emails communications have no consistent
authentication procedure to ensure the authenticity, we present an
investigation analysis approach for detecting forged emails based on
Random Forests and Naïve Bays classifiers. Instead of investigating
the email headers, we use the body content to extract a unique writing
style for all the possible suspects. Our approach consists of four main
steps: (1) The cybercrime investigator extract different effective
features including structural, lexical, linguistic, and syntactic
evidence from previous emails for all the possible suspects, (2) The
extracted features vectors are normalized to increase the accuracy
rate. (3) The normalized features are then used to train the learning
engine, (4) upon receiving the anonymous email (M); we apply the
feature extraction process to produce a feature vector. Finally, using
the machine learning classifiers the email is assigned to one of the
suspects- whose writing style closely matches M. Experimental
results on real data sets show the improved performance of the
proposed method and the ability of identifying the authors with a
very limited number of features.
Abstract: The Bayesian Optimization Algorithm (BOA) is an algorithm based on the estimation of distributions. It uses techniques from modeling data by Bayesian networks to estimating the joint distribution of promising solutions. To obtain the structure of Bayesian network, different search algorithms can be used. The key point that BOA addresses is whether the constructed Bayesian network could generate new and useful solutions (strings), which could lead the algorithm in the right direction to solve the problem. Undoubtedly, this ability is a crucial factor of the efficiency of BOA. Varied search algorithms can be used in BOA, but their performances are different. For choosing better ones, certain suitable method to present their ability difference is needed. In this paper, a greedy search algorithm and a stochastic search algorithm are used in BOA to solve certain optimization problem. A method using Kullback-Leibler (KL) Divergence to reflect their difference is described.
Abstract: This paper presents the visual control flow support of Visual Modeling and Transformation System (VMTS), which facilitates composing complex model transformations out of simple transformation steps and executing them. The VMTS Visual Control Flow Language (VCFL) uses stereotyped activity diagrams to specify control flow structures and OCL constraints to choose between different control flow branches. This work discusses the termination properties of VCFL and provides an algorithm to support the termination analysis of VCFL transformations.
Abstract: The objective of this research was to find the
relationship between auspicious meaning in eastern wisdom and the
interpretation as a guideline for the design and development of
community souvenirs. The sample group included 400 customers in
Bangkok who used to buy community souvenir products. The
information was applied to design the souvenirs which were
considered for the appropriateness by 5 design specialists. The data
were analyzed to find frequency, percentage, and SD with the results
as follows. 1) The best factor referring to the auspicious meaning is
color. The application of auspicious meaning can make the value
added to the product and bring the fortune to the receivers. 2) The
effectiveness of the auspicious meaning integration on the design of
community souvenir product was in high level. When considering in
each aspect, it was found that the interpretation aspect was in high
level, the congruency of the auspicious meaning and the utility of the
product was in high level. The attractiveness and the good design
were in very high level while the potential of the value added in the
product design was in high level. The suitable application to the
design of community souvenir product was in high level.