Abstract: Pressure vessels are usually operating at temperatures
where the conditions of linear elastic fracture mechanics are no
longer met because massive plasticity precedes crack propagation. In
this work the development of a surface crack in a pressure vessel
subject to bending and tension under elastic-plastic fracture
mechanics conditions was investigated. Finite element analysis was
used to evaluate the hydrostatic stress, the J-integral and crack
growth for semi-elliptical surface-breaking cracks. The results
showed non-uniform stress triaxiality and crack driving force around
the crack front at large deformation levels. Different ductile crack
extensions were observed which emphasis the dependent of ductile
tearing on crack geometry and type of loading. In bending the crack
grew only beneath the surface, and growth was suppressed at the
deepest segment. This contrasts to tension where the crack breaks
through the thickness with uniform growth along the entire crack
front except at the free surface. Current investigations showed that
the crack growth developed under linear elastic fracture mechanics
conditions will no longer be applicable under ductile tearing
scenarios.
Abstract: In today-s competitive global business environment,
the concept of supply chain management (SCM) continues to become
increasingly market-oriented, shifting the primary driver of the value
chain from supply to demand. Recent recommendations encourage
researchers to focus investigations on the supply chain process
integration (SCPI) capabilities that integrate a focal firm with its
network of suppliers and business customers to create value for it.
However, theoretical and empirical researches pertaining to the
antecedents and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI capabilities have
been limited and piecemeal. The purpose of this study is to investigate
the critical determinants and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI
capabilities. We test our proposed research framework using a sample
of 139 sales managers of manufacturing industries in Taiwan, our
research findings show that (1) both perceived business customer-s
power and focal firm-s market-oriented culture positively influences a
focal firm-s SCPI capabilities, and (2) SCPI capabilities positively
influence a focal firm-s SCM performance, both operational and
strategic benefits. Implications for practitioners and researchers and
suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study.
Abstract: Quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN semiconductors have
attracted much research interest because the use of this quaternary
offer the great flexibility in tailoring their band gap profile while
maintaining their lattice-matching and structural integrity. The
structural and optical properties of InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys grown by
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is presented. The structural quality of
InxAlyGa1-x-yN layers was characterized using high-resolution X-ray
diffraction (HRXRD). The results confirm that the InxAlyGa1-x-yN
films had wurtzite structure and without phase separation. As the In
composition increases, the Bragg angle of the (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN
peak gradually decreases, indicating the increase in the lattice constant
c of the alloys. FWHM of (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN decreases with
increasing In composition from 0 to 0.04, that could indicate the
decrease of quality of the samples due to point defects leading to
non-uniformity of the epilayers. UV-VIS spectroscopy have been used
to study the energy band gap of InxAlyGa1-x-yN. As the indium (In)
compositions increases, the energy band gap decreases. However, for
InxAlyGa1-x-yN with In composition of 0.1, the band gap shows a
sudden increase in energy. This is probably due to local alloy
compositional fluctuations in the epilayer. The bowing parameter
which appears also to be very sensitive on In content is investigated
and obtained b = 50.08 for quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys. From
photoluminescence (PL) measurement, green luminescence (GL)
appears at PL spectrum of InxAlyGa1-x-yN, emitted for all x at ~530 nm
and it become more pronounced as the In composition (x) increased,
which is believed cause by gallium vacancies and related to isolated
native defects.
Abstract: Bursa, since the establishment of the Ottoman Empire,
being on the important trade roads and having a capital accumulation
as a result of silk production, was one of the first cities of
modernization activities applied. Bursa maintained its importance
even during the Republican Period and became one of the most
important cities of the country and today is the fourth biggest and the
industrialized city in Turkey. Social, political, economical and
cultural changes occured with the reforms starting with the 1839
Edict of Tanzimat that aimed at modernizing the society and the
government and centralizing the political power began in the
Ottoman Empire. After the Tanzimat Reforms transformation of the
city changed and planning processes began in Bursa according to the
vision of Governors. The theresholds of the city are very important
data for a sustainable planning for the city planners. Main aim of this
study is to investigate the changes and transformations of the city
according to the changes in the socio-economical and cultural
properties for the city planners.
Abstract: A numerical study on the turbulent flow and heat
transfer characteristics in the rectangular channel with different types
of baffles is carried out. The inclined baffles have the width of 19.8
cm, the square diamond type hole having one side length of 2.55 cm,
and the inclination angle of 5o. Reynolds number is varied between
23,000 and 57,000. The SST turbulence model is applied in the
calculation. The validity of the numerical results is examined by the
experimental data. The numerical results of the flow field depict that
the flow patterns around the different baffle type are entirely different
and these significantly affect the local heat transfer characteristics.
The heat transfer and friction factor characteristics are significantly
affected by the perforation density of the baffle plate. It is found that
the heat transfer enhancement of baffle type II (3 hole baffle) has the
best values.
Abstract: Random Access Memory (RAM) is an important
device in computer system. It can represent the snapshot on how the
computer has been used by the user. With the growth of its
importance, the computer memory has been an issue that has been
discussed in digital forensics. A number of tools have been developed
to retrieve the information from the memory. However, most of the
tools have their limitation in the ability of retrieving the important
information from the computer memory. Hence, this paper is aimed
to discuss the limitation and the setback for two main techniques such
as process signature search and process enumeration. Then, a new
hybrid approach will be presented to minimize the setback in both
individual techniques. This new approach combines both techniques
with the purpose to retrieve the information from the process block
and other objects in the computer memory. Nevertheless, the basic
theory in address translation for x86 platforms will be demonstrated
in this paper.
Abstract: Operational safety of critical systems, such as nuclear power plants, industrial chemical processes and means of transportation, is a major concern for system engineers and operators. A means to assure that is on-line safety monitors that deliver three safety tasks; fault detection and diagnosis, alarm annunciation and fault controlling. While current monitors deliver these tasks, benefits and limitations in their approaches have at the same time been highlighted. Drawing from those benefits, this paper develops a distributed monitor based on semi-independent agents, i.e. a multiagent system, and monitoring knowledge derived from a safety assessment model of the monitored system. Agents are deployed hierarchically and provided with knowledge portions and collaboration protocols to reason and integrate over the operational conditions of the components of the monitored system. The monitor aims to address limitations arising from the large-scale, complicated behaviour and distributed nature of monitored systems and deliver the aforementioned three monitoring tasks effectively.
Abstract: The IEEE802.16 standard which has emerged as
Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) technology, promises to deliver
high data rate over large areas to a large number of subscribers in the
near future. This paper analyze the effect of overheads over capacity
of downlink (DL) of orthogonal frequency division multiple access
(OFDMA)–based on the IEEE802.16e mobile WiMAX system with
and without overheads. The analysis focuses in particular on the
impact of Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) as well as
deriving an algorithm to determine the maximum numbers of
subscribers that each specific WiMAX sector may support. An
analytical study of the WiMAX propagation channel by using Cost-
231 Hata Model is presented. Numerical results and discussion
estimated by using Matlab to simulate the algorithm for different
multi-users parameters.
Abstract: Most standard software development methodologies
are often not applied to software projects in many developing
countries of the world. The approach generally practice is close to
what eXtreme Programming (XP) is likely promoting, just keep
coding and testing as the requirement evolves. XP is an agile
software process development methodology that has inherent
capability for improving efficiency of Business Software
Development (BSD). XP can facilitate Business-to-Development
(B2D) relationship due to its customer-oriented advocate. From
practitioner point of view, we applied XP to BSD and result shows
that customer involvement has positive impact on productivity, but
can as well frustrate the success of the project. In an effort to
promote software engineering practice in developing countries of
Africa, we present the experiment performed, lessons learned,
problems encountered and solution adopted in applying XP
methodology to BSD.
Abstract: This paper presents a conceptual model of agreement
options on negotiation support for civil engineering decision. The
negotiation support facilitates the solving of group choice decision
making problems in civil engineering decision to reduce the impact
of mud volcano disaster in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The approach based
on application of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method for
multi criteria decision on three level of decision hierarchy.
Decisions for reducing impact is very complicated since many
parties involved in a critical time. Where a number of stakeholders
are involved in choosing a single alternative from a set of solution
alternatives, there are different concern caused by differing
stakeholder preferences, experiences, and background. Therefore, a
group choice decision support is required to enable each stakeholder
to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into
negotiation with the other stakeholders. Such civil engineering
solutions as alternatives are referred to as agreement options that are
determined by identifying the possible stakeholder choice, followed
by determining the optimal solution for each group of stakeholder.
Determination of the optimal solution is based on a game theory
model of n-person general sum game with complete information that
involves forming coalitions among stakeholders.
Abstract: Trust and Energy consumption is the most challenging
issue in routing protocol design for Mobile ad hoc networks
(MANETs), since mobile nodes are battery powered and nodes
behaviour are unpredictable. Furthermore replacing and recharging
batteries and making nodes co-operative is often impossible in
critical environments like military applications. In this paper, we
propose a trust based energy aware routing model in MANET.
During route discovery, node with more trust and maximum energy
capacity is selected as a router based on a parameter called
'Reliability'. Route request from the source is accepted by a node
only if its reliability is high. Otherwise, the route request is
discarded. This approach forms a reliable route from source to
destination thus increasing network life time, improving energy
utilization and decreasing number of packet loss during transmission.
Abstract: The implementation of the new software and hardware-s technologies for tritium processing nuclear plants, and especially those with an experimental character or of new technology developments shows a coefficient of complexity due to issues raised by the implementation of the performing instrumentation and equipment into a unitary monitoring system of the nuclear technological process of tritium removal. Keeping the system-s flexibility is a demand of the nuclear experimental plants for which the change of configuration, process and parameters is something usual. The big amount of data that needs to be processed stored and accessed for real time simulation and optimization demands the achievement of the virtual technologic platform where the data acquiring, control and analysis systems of the technological process can be integrated with a developed technological monitoring system. Thus, integrated computing and monitoring systems needed for the supervising of the technological process will be executed, to be continued with the execution of optimization system, by choosing new and performed methods corresponding to the technological processes within the tritium removal processing nuclear plants. The developing software applications is executed with the support of the program packages dedicated to industrial processes and they will include acquisition and monitoring sub-modules, named “virtually" as well as the storage sub-module of the process data later required for the software of optimization and simulation of the technological process for tritium removal. The system plays and important role in the environment protection and durable development through new technologies, that is – the reduction of and fight against industrial accidents in the case of tritium processing nuclear plants. Research for monitoring optimisation of nuclear processes is also a major driving force for economic and social development.
Abstract: Tomato nutrition value, color, flavor of their fruits and products depends mainly on lycopene, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, sugars and their ratio. The two most important carotenoids in fruits of tomato are lycopene, which determined fruits red color, and β- carotene, which accounts for approximately 7% of the tomato carotenoids. Therefore, tomato products and their quality can be well characterized by the content of these elements.Maturity at harvest is very important to composition and quality of tomatoes. This is especially a problem with tomatoes picked green since it is difficult to differentiate between mature and immature-green fruits. Typical and advanced mature-green tomatoes will usually attain a much better flavor than those picked at the immature or partially mature stages.To better understand the synthesis of biochemical compounds, their concentration should be compared not only at the last stage of maturity, but also during all fruit ripening period in different varieties.
Abstract: Today, incorrect use of lands and land use changes,
excessive grazing, no suitable using of agricultural farms, plowing on
steep slopes, road construct, building construct, mine excavation etc
have been caused increasing of soil erosion and sediment yield. For
erosion and sediment estimation one can use statistical and empirical
methods. This needs to identify land unit map and the map of
effective factors. However, these empirical methods are usually time
consuming and do not give accurate estimation of erosion. In this
study, we applied GIS techniques to estimate erosion and sediment of
Menderjan watershed at upstream Zayandehrud river in center of
Iran. Erosion faces at each land unit were defined on the basis of land
use, geology and land unit map using GIS. The UTM coordinates of
each erosion type that showed more erosion amounts such as rills and
gullies were inserted in GIS using GPS data. The frequency of
erosion indicators at each land unit, land use and their sediment yield
of these indices were calculated. Also using tendency analysis of
sediment yield changes in watershed outlet (Menderjan hydrometric
gauge station), was calculated related parameters and estimation
errors. The results of this study according to implemented watershed
management projects can be used for more rapid and more accurate
estimation of erosion than traditional methods. These results can also
be used for regional erosion assessment and can be used for remote
sensing image processing.
Abstract: A model-free robust control (MFRC) approach is proposed for position control of robot manipulators in the state space. The control approach is verified analytically to be robust subject to uncertainties including external disturbances, unmodeled dynamics, and parametric uncertainties. There is a high flexibility to work on different systems including actuators by the use of the proposed control approach. The proposed control approach can guarantee the robustness of control system. A PUMA 560 robot driven by geared permanent magnet dc motors is simulated. The simulation results show a satisfactory performance for control system under technical specifications. KeywordsModel-free, robust control, position control, PUMA 560.
Abstract: GFRG(Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum) wall is a green product which can erect a building fast in prefabricated method, but its application to high-rise residential buildings is limited for its poor lateral stiffness. This paper has proposed a modification to GFRG walls structure to increase its lateral stiffness, which aiming to erect small high-rise residential buildings as load-bearing walls. The elastic finite element analysis to it has shown the lateral deformation feature and the distributions of the axial force and the shear force. The analysis results show that the new GFRG reinforced concrete wall can be used for small high-rise residential buildings.
Abstract: This paper investigates vortex shedding processes
occurring at the end of a stack of parallel plates, due to an oscillating
flow induced by an acoustic standing wave within an acoustic
resonator. Here, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used to quantify
the vortex shedding processes within an acoustic cycle
phase-by-phase, in particular during the “ejection" of the fluid out of
the stack. Standard hot-wire anemometry measurement is also applied
to detect the velocity fluctuations near the end of the stack.
Combination of these two measurement techniques allowed a detailed
analysis of the vortex shedding phenomena. The results obtained show
that, as the Reynolds number varies (by varying the plate thickness
and drive ratio), different flow patterns of vortex shedding are
observed by the PIV measurement. On the other hand, the
time-dependent hot-wire measurements allow obtaining detailed
frequency spectra of the velocity signal, used for calculating
characteristic Strouhal numbers. The impact of the plate thickness and
the Reynolds number on the vortex shedding pattern has been
discussed. Furthermore, a detailed map of the relationship between the
Strouhal number and Reynolds number has been obtained and
discussed.
Abstract: The objective of the research was to evaluate the
hardness stability of milk pomade sweets packed in several
packaging materials (OPP, Multibarrier 60 HFP, BIALON 65
HFP, BIALON 50 HFP, ECOLEAN) by several packaging
technologies – modified atmosphere (MAP) (consisting of
30% CO2+70% N2; 30% N2+70% CO2 and 100% CO2) and
control – in air ambiance. Samples were stored at the room
temperature +21±1 °C. The studies of the samples were
carried out before packaging and after 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10
storage weeks.
Abstract: The iris recognition technology is the most accurate,
fast and less invasive one compared to other biometric techniques
using for example fingerprints, face, retina, hand geometry, voice or
signature patterns. The system developed in this study has the
potential to play a key role in areas of high-risk security and can
enable organizations with means allowing only to the authorized
personnel a fast and secure way to gain access to such areas. The
paper aim is to perform the iris region detection and iris inner and
outer boundaries localization. The system was implemented on
windows platform using Visual C# programming language. It is easy
and efficient tool for image processing to get great performance
accuracy. In particular, the system includes two main parts. The first
is to preprocess the iris images by using Canny edge detection
methods, segments the iris region from the rest of the image and
determine the location of the iris boundaries by applying Hough
transform. The proposed system tested on 756 iris images from 60
eyes of CASIA iris database images.
Abstract: Australia, while being a large and eager consumer of
innovative and cutting edge Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT), continues to struggle to remain a leader in
Technological Innovation. This paper has two main contributions to
address certain aspects of this complex issue. The first being the
current findings of an ongoing research project on Information and
Innovation Management in the Australian Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. The major issues being
considered by the project include: investigation of the possible
inherent entrepreneurial nature of ICT; how to foster ICT innovation;
and examination of the inherent difficulties currently found within
the ICT industry of Australia in regards to supporting the
development of innovative and creative ideas. The second major
contribution is details of the I.-C.A.N. (Innovation by Collaborative
Anonymous Networking) software application information
management tool created and evolving in our research group. I-CAN,
besides having a positive reinforcement acronym, is aimed at
facilitating productive collaborative innovation in an Australian
workplace. Such a work environment is frequently subjected to
cultural influences such as the 'tall poppy syndrome' and 'negative'
or 'unconstructive' peer-pressure. There influences are frequently
seen as inhibitors to employee participation, entrepreneurship and
innovation.