Abstract: In this paper an analytical solution is presented for fully developed flow in a parallel plates channel under the action of Lorentz force, by use of Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM). The analytical results are compared with exact solution and an excellent agreement has been observed between them for both Couette and Poiseuille flows. Moreover, the effects of key parameters have been studied on the dimensionless velocity profile.
Abstract: Under the limitation of investment budget, a utility
company is required to maximize the utilization of their existing
assets during their life cycle satisfying both engineering and financial
requirements. However, utility does not have knowledge about the
status of each asset in the portfolio neither in terms of technical nor
financial values. This paper presents a knowledge based model for
the utility companies in order to make an optimal decision on power
transformer with their utilization. CommonKADS methodology, a
structured development for knowledge and expertise representation,
is utilized for designing and developing knowledge based model. A
case study of One MVA power transformer of Nepal Electricity
Authority is presented. The results show that the reusable knowledge
can be categorized, modeled and utilized within the utility company
using the proposed methodologies. Moreover, the results depict that
utility company can achieve both engineering and financial benefits
from its utilization.
Abstract: To overcome the product overload of Internet
shoppers, we introduce a semantic recommendation procedure which
is more efficient when applied to Internet shopping malls. The
suggested procedure recommends the semantic products to the
customers and is originally based on Web usage mining, product
classification, association rule mining, and frequently purchasing.
We applied the procedure to the data set of MovieLens Company for
performance evaluation, and some experimental results are provided.
The experimental results have shown superior performance in
terms of coverage and precision.
Abstract: The impact of OO design on software quality
characteristics such as defect density and rework by mean of
experimental validation. Encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism,
reusability, Data hiding and message-passing are the major attribute
of an Object Oriented system. In order to evaluate the quality of an
Object oriented system the above said attributes can act as indicators.
The metrics are the well known quantifiable approach to express any
attribute. Hence, in this paper we tried to formulate a framework of
metrics representing the attributes of object oriented system.
Empirical Data is collected from three different projects based on
object oriented paradigms to calculate the metrics.
Abstract: This paper describes the NEAR (Navigating Exhibitions, Annotations and Resources) panel, a novel interactive visualization technique designed to help people navigate and interpret groups of resources, exhibitions and annotations by revealing hidden relations such as similarities and references. NEAR is implemented on A•VI•RE, an extended online information repository. A•VI•RE supports a semi-structured collection of exhibitions containing various resources and annotations. Users are encouraged to contribute, share, annotate and interpret resources in the system by building their own exhibitions and annotations. However, it is hard to navigate smoothly and efficiently in A•VI•RE because of its high capacity and complexity. We present a visual panel that implements new navigation and communication approaches that support discovery of implied relations. By quickly scanning and interacting with NEAR, users can see not only implied relations but also potential connections among different data elements. NEAR was tested by several users in the A•VI•RE system and shown to be a supportive navigation tool. In the paper, we further analyze the design, report the evaluation and consider its usage in other applications.
Abstract: This research intends to introduce a new usage of Artificial Intelligent (AI) approaches in Stepping Stone Detection (SSD) fields of research. By using Self-Organizing Map (SOM) approaches as the engine, through the experiment, it is shown that SOM has the capability to detect the number of connection chains that involved in a stepping stones. Realizing that by counting the number of connection chain is one of the important steps of stepping stone detection and it become the research focus currently, this research has chosen SOM as the AI techniques because of its capabilities. Through the experiment, it is shown that SOM can detect the number of involved connection chains in Network-based Stepping Stone Detection (NSSD).
Abstract: It is hard to express emotion through only speech when
we watch a character in a movie or a play because we cannot estimate
the size, kind, and quantity of emotion. So this paper proposes an
artificial emotion model for visualizing current emotion with color and
location in emotion model. The artificial emotion model is designed
considering causality of generated emotion, difference of personality,
difference of continual emotional stimulus, and co-relation of various
emotions. This paper supposed the Emotion Field for visualizing
current emotion with location, and current emotion is expressed by
location and color in the Emotion Field. For visualizing changes
within current emotion, the artificial emotion model is adjusted to
characters in Hamlet.
Abstract: The electromagnetic spectrum is a natural resource
and hence well-organized usage of the limited natural resources is the
necessities for better communication. The present static frequency
allocation schemes cannot accommodate demands of the rapidly
increasing number of higher data rate services. Therefore, dynamic
usage of the spectrum must be distinguished from the static usage to
increase the availability of frequency spectrum. Cognitive radio is not
a single piece of apparatus but it is a technology that can incorporate
components spread across a network. It offers great promise for
improving system efficiency, spectrum utilization, more effective
applications, reduction in interference and reduced complexity of
usage for users. Cognitive radio is aware of its environmental,
internal state, and location, and autonomously adjusts its operations
to achieve designed objectives. It first senses its spectral environment
over a wide frequency band, and then adapts the parameters to
maximize spectrum efficiency with high performance. This paper
only focuses on the analysis of Bit-Error-Rate in cognitive radio by
using Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm. It is theoretically as
well as practically analyzed and interpreted in the sense of
advantages and drawbacks and how BER affects the efficiency and
performance of the communication system.
Abstract: Thirty six samples from each (aerobic and anoxic)
activated sludge were collected from two wastewater treatment plants
with MBRs in Berlin, Germany. The samples were prepared for count
and definition of fungal isolates; these isolates were purified by
conventional techniques and identified by microscopic examination.
Sixty tow species belonging to 28 genera were isolated from
activated sludge samples under aerobic conditions (28 genera and 58
species) and anoxic conditions (26 genera and 52 species). The
obtained data show that, Aspergillus was found at 94.4% followed by
Penicillium 61.1 %, Fusarium (61.1 %), Trichoderma (44.4 %) and
Geotrichum candidum (41.6 %) species were the most prevalent in all
activated sludge samples. The study confirmed that fungi can thrive
in activated sludge and sporulation, but isolated in different numbers
depending on the effect of aeration system. Some fungal species in
our study are saprophytic, and other a pathogenic to plants and
animals.
Abstract: One challenging direction of mobile commerce (mcommerce)
that is getting a great deal of attention globally is mobile
financing. The smart-phone and PDA users all around the world are
facing difficulties to become accustomed and trust in m-commerce.
The main rationale can be the slow variation and lack of trust in
mobile payment systems. Mobile payment systems that are in use
need to be more effective and efficient. This paper proposes: the
interface design is not the only factor affecting the m-commerce
adoption and lack of trust; in fact it is the combined effect of
interface usability and trustworthy mobile payment systems, because
it-s the money that the user has to spend at the end of the day, which
the user requires to get transferred securely. The purpose of this
research is to identify the problems regarding the trust and adaption
of m-commerce applications by mobile users and to provide the best
possible solution with respect to human computer interaction (HCI)
principles.
Abstract: In this work, the autoregressive vectors are used to
know dynamics of the Agricultural export and import, and the real
effective exchange rate (REER). In order to analyze the interactions,
the impulse- response function is used in decomposition of variance,
causality of Granger as well as the methodology of Johansen to know
the relations co integration. The REER causes agricultural export and
import in the sense of Granger. The influence displays the
innovations of the REER on the agricultural export and import is not
very great and the duration of the effects is short. It displays that
REER has an immediate positive effect, after the tenth year it
displays smooth results on the agricultural export. Evidence of a
vector exists co integration, In short run, REER has smaller effects
on export and import, compared to the long-run effects.
Abstract: Industrial design engineering is an information and
knowledge intensive job. Although Wikipedia offers a lot of this
information, design engineers are better served with a wiki tailored to
their job, offering information in a compact manner and functioning
as a design tool. For that reason WikID has been developed.
However for the viability of a wiki, an active user community is
essential. The main subject of this paper is a study to the influence of
the communication and the contents of WikID on the user-s
willingness to contribute.
At first the theory about a website-s first impression, general
usability guidelines and user motivation in an online community is
studied. Using this theory, the aspects of the current site are analyzed
on their suitability. These results have been verified with a
questionnaire amongst 66 industrial design engineers (or students
industrial design engineering).
The main conclusion is that design engineers are enchanted with
the existence of WikID and its knowledge structure (taxonomy) but
this structure has not become clear without any guidance. In other
words, the knowledge structure is very helpful for inspiring and
guiding design engineers through their tailored knowledge domain in
WikID but this taxonomy has to be better communicated on the main
page. Thereby the main page needs to be fitted more to the target
group preferences.
Abstract: In this paper we report a study aimed at determining
the effects of animation on usability and appeal of educational
software user interfaces. Specifically, the study compares 3
interfaces developed for the Mathsigner™ program: a static
interface, an interface with highlighting/sound feedback, and an
interface that incorporates five Disney animation principles. The
main objectives of the comparative study were to: (1) determine
which interface is the most effective for the target users of
Mathsigner™ (e.g., children ages 5-11), and (2) identify any Gender
and Age differences in using the three interfaces. To accomplish
these goals we have designed an experiment consisting of a
cognitive walkthrough and a survey with rating questions. Sixteen
children ages 7-11 participated in the study, ten males and six
females. Results showed no significant interface effect on user task
performance (e.g., task completion time and number of errors);
however, interface differences were seen in rating of appeal, with
the animated interface rated more 'likeable' than the other two.
Task performance and rating of appeal were not affected
significantly by Gender or Age of the subjects.
Abstract: This study was carried out to investigate lamb mortalities relating to ewes' breed and some managemental factors on 250 pregnant ewes (190-Rahmani, 30-Ossimi and 30-Romanov) at Mehallet Mousa, Animal Production Research Station, Kafr El- Sheikh Province, Egypt. These animals divided into five groups according to the managemental factors used. The results revealed that the lamb mortality was higher in Ossimi breed and lower in Romanov one. In addition, the highest lamb mortality occurred among lambs for unsupplemented ewes, for those had body condition score two and for lambs which born outdoor. Moreover, the lamb survivability was increased by the parity of ewes. From this study it can be concluded that the lamb mortality depends on ewes' body condition score, parity, lambing system (indoor or outdoor), nutrition during pregnancy period and selected breed. In addition, the most important period for lamb survival is the first week of age.
Abstract: Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is widely used today in the areas of geodesy and topography as well as in aeronautics mainly for military purposes. Due to the military usage of GPS, full access and use of this technology is being denied to the civilian user who must then work with a less accurate version. In this paper we focus on the estimation of the receiver coordinates ( X, Y, Z ) and its clock bias ( δtr ) of a fixed point based on pseudorange measurements of a single GPS receiver. Utilizing the instantaneous coordinates of just 4 satellites and their clock offsets, by taking into account the atmospheric delays, we are able to derive a set of pseudorange equations. The estimation of the four unknowns ( X, Y, Z , δtr ) is achieved by introducing an extended Kalman filter that processes, off-line, all the data collected from the receiver. Higher performance of position accuracy is attained by appropriate tuning of the filter noise parameters and by including other forms of biases.
Abstract: The next stage of the home networking environment is
supposed to be ubiquitous, where each piece of material is equipped
with an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag. To fully support
the ubiquitous environment, home networking middleware should be
able to recommend home services based on a user-s interests and
efficiently manage information on service usage profiles for the users.
Therefore, USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) technology, which
recognizes and manages a appliance-s state-information (location,
capabilities, and so on) by connecting RFID tags is considered. The
Intelligent Multi-Agent Middleware (IMAM) architecture was
proposed to intelligently manage the mobile RFID-based home
networking and to automatically supply information about home
services that match a user-s interests. Evaluation results for
personalization services for IMAM using Bayesian-Net and Decision
Trees are presented.
Abstract: The main purpose of this study is to analyze the
feelings of tourists for the service quality of the bikeway. In addition,
this study also analyzed the causal relationship between service
quality and satisfaction to visitor-s lane loyalty. In this study, the Ya
Tam San bikeway visitor-s subjects, using the designated convenience
sampling carried out the survey, a total of 651 questionnaires were
validly. Valid questionnaires after statistical analysis, the following
findings: 1. Visitor-s lane highest quality of service project: the routes
through the region weather pleasant. Lane "with health and sports," the
highest satisfaction various factors of service quality and satisfaction,
loyal between correlations exist. 4. Guided tours of bikeways, the
quality of the environment, and modeling imagery can effectively
predict visitor satisfaction. 5. Quality of bikeway, public facilities,
guided tours, and modeling imagery can effectively predict visitor
loyalty. According to the above results, the study not only makes
recommendations to the government units and the bicycle industry,
also asked the research direction for future researchers.
Abstract: This paper describes an enhanced cookie-based
method for counting the visitors of web sites by using a web log
processing system that aims to cope with the ambitious goal of
creating countrywide statistics about the browsing practices of real
human individuals. The focus is put on describing a new more
efficient way of detecting human beings behind web users by placing
different identifiers on the client computers. We briefly introduce our
processing system designed to handle the massive amount of data
records continuously gathered from the most important content
providers of the Hungary. We conclude by showing statistics of
different time spans comparing the efficiency of multiple visitor
counting methods to the one presented here, and some interesting
charts about content providers and web usage based on real data
recorded in 2007 will also be presented.
Abstract: Simulation of occlusal function during laboratory
material-s testing becomes essential in predicting long-term
performance before clinical usage. The aim of the study was to assess
the influence of chamfer preparation depth on failure risk of heat
pressed ceramic crowns with and without zirconia framework by
means of finite element analysis. 3D models of maxillary central
incisor, prepared for full ceramic crowns with different depths of the
chamfer margin (between 0.8 and 1.2 mm) and 6-degree tapered
walls together with the overlying crowns were generated using
literature data (Fig. 1, 2). The crowns were designed with and
without a zirconia framework with a thickness of 0.4 mm. For all
preparations and crowns, stresses in the pressed ceramic crown,
zirconia framework, pressed ceramic veneer, and dentin were
evaluated separately. The highest stresses were registered in the
dentin. The depth of the preparations had no significant influence on
the stress values of the teeth and pressed ceramics for the studied
cases, only for the zirconia framework. The zirconia framework
decreases the stress values in the veneer.
Abstract: Due to the call of global warming effects, city planners aim at actions for reducing carbon emission. One of the approaches is to promote the usage of public transportation system toward the transit-oriented-development. For example, rapid transit system in Taipei city and Kaohsiung city are opening. However, until November 2008 the average daily patronage counted only 113,774 passengers at Kaohsiung MRT systems, much less than which was expected. Now the crucial questions: how the public transport competes with private transport? And more importantly, what factors would enhance the use of public transport? To give the answers to those questions, our study first applied regression to analyze the factors attracting people to use public transport around cities in the world. It is shown in our study that the number of MRT stations, city population, cost of living, transit fare, density, gasoline price, and scooter being a major mode of transport are the major factors. Subsequently, our study identified successful and unsuccessful cities in regard of the public transport usage based on the diagnosis of regression residuals. Finally, by comparing transportation strategies adopted by those successful cities, our conclusion stated that Kaohsiung City could apply strategies such as increasing parking fees, reducing parking spaces in downtown area, and reducing transfer time by providing more bus services and public bikes to promote the usage of public transport.