Abstract: Imperfect transmission conditions modeling a thin reactive 2D interphases layer between two dissimilar bonded strips have been extracted. In this paper, the soundness of these transmission conditions for heat conduction problems are examined by the finite element method for a strong temperature-dependent source or sink and non-monotonic temperature distributions around the faces..
Abstract: Cell formation is the first step in the design of cellular
manufacturing systems. In this study, a general purpose
computational scheme employing a hybrid tabu search algorithm as
the core is proposed to solve the cell formation problem and its
variants. In the proposed scheme, great flexibilities are left to the
users. The core solution searching algorithm embedded in the scheme
can be easily changed to any other meta-heuristic algorithms, such as
the simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, etc., based on the
characteristics of the problems to be solved or the preferences the
users might have. In addition, several counters are designed to control
the timing of conducting intensified solution searching and diversified
solution searching strategies interactively.
Abstract: Structural redundancy is an interesting point in
seismic design of structures. Initially, the structural redundancy is
described as indeterminate degree of a system. Although many definitions are presented for redundancy in structures, recently the
definition of structural redundancy has been related to the configuration of structural system and the number of lateral load
transferring directions in the structure. The steel frames with infill walls are general systems in the constructing of usual residential buildings in some countries. It is
obviously declared that the performance of structures will be affected by adding masonry infill walls. In order to investigate the effect of
infill walls on the redundancy of the steel frame which constructed
with masonry walls, the components of redundancy including redundancy variation index, redundancy strength index and
redundancy response modification factor were extracted for the
frames with masonry infills. Several steel frames with typical storey number and various numbers of bays were designed and considered.
The redundancy of frames with and without infill walls was evaluated by proposed method. The results showed the presence of infill causes increase of redundancy.
Abstract: Response to the public health-related emergencies is analysed here for a rural university in South Africa. The structure of the designated emergency plan covers all the phases of the disaster management cycle. The plan contains elements of the vulnerability model and the technocratic model of emergency management. The response structures are vertically and horizontally integrated, while the planning contains elements of scenario-based and functional planning. The available number of medical professionals at the Rhodes University, along with the medical insurance rates, makes the staff and students potentially more medically vulnerable than the South African population. The main improvements of the emergency management are required in the tornado response and the information dissemination during health emergencies. The latter should involve the increased use of social media and e-mails, following the Taylor model of communication. Infrastructure must be improved in the telecommunication sector in the face of unpredictable electricity outages.
Abstract: Nondestructive testing in engineering is an inverse
Cauchy problem for Laplace equation. In this paper the problem
of nondestructive testing is expressed by a Laplace-s equation with
third-kind boundary conditions. In order to find unknown values on
the boundary, the method of fundamental solution is introduced and
realized. Because of the ill-posedness of studied problems, the TSVD
regularization technique in combination with L-curve criteria and
Generalized Cross Validation criteria is employed. Numerical results
are shown that the TSVD method combined with L-curve criteria is
more efficient than the TSVD method combined with GCV criteria.
The abstract goes here.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate the gender differences in
spatial navigation using the tasks of 2-D matrix navigation and
recognition of real driving scene. The results can be summarized as
followings. First, female subjects responded faster in 2-D matrix
navigation task than male subjects when landmark instructions were
provided. Second, in recognition task, male subjects recognized the
key elements involved in the past driving scene more accurately than
female subjects. In particular, female subjects tended to miss
peripheral information. These results suggest the possibility of gender
differences in spatial navigation.
Abstract: In this paper we present an enhanced noise reduction method for robust speech recognition using Adaptive Gain Equalizer with Non linear Spectral Subtraction. In Adaptive Gain Equalizer method (AGE), the input signal is divided into a number of subbands that are individually weighed in time domain, in accordance to the short time Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) in each subband estimation at every time instant. Instead of focusing on suppression the noise on speech enhancement is focused. When analysis was done under various noise conditions for speech recognition, it was found that Adaptive Gain Equalizer method algorithm has an obvious failing point for a SNR of -5 dB, with inadequate levels of noise suppression for SNR less than this point. This work proposes the implementation of AGE when coupled with Non linear Spectral Subtraction (AGE-NSS) for robust speech recognition. The experimental result shows that out AGE-NSS performs the AGE when SNR drops below -5db level.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel feature-based image
watermarking scheme is proposed. Zernike moments which have
invariance properties are adopted in the scheme. In the proposed
scheme, feature points are first extracted from host image and several
circular patches centered on these points are generated. The patches
are used as carriers of watermark information because they can be
regenerated to locate watermark embedding positions even when
watermarked images are severely distorted. Zernike transform is then
applied to the patches to calculate local Zernike moments. Dither
modulation is adopted to quantize the magnitudes of the Zernike
moments followed by false alarm analysis. Experimental results show
that quality degradation of watermarked image is visually
transparent. The proposed scheme is very robust against image
processing operations and geometric attacks.
Abstract: This paper reviews recent studies and particularly the
effects of Climate Change in the North Tropical Atlantic by studying
atmospheric conditions that prevailed in 2005 ; Coral Bleaching
HotSpot and Hurricane Katrina. In the aim to better understand and
estimate the impact of the physical phenomenon, i.e. Thermal
Oceanic HotSpot (TOHS), isotopic studies of δ18O and δ13C on
marine animals from Guadeloupe (French Caribbean Island) were
carried out. Recorded measures show Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
up to 35°C in August which is much higher than data recorded by
NOAA satellites 32°C. After having reviewed the process that led to
the creation of Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans in August
29, 2005, it will be shown that the climatic conditions in the
Caribbean from August to October 2005 have influenced Katrina
evolution. This TOHS is a combined effect of various phenomenon
which represent an additional factor to estimate future climate
changes.
Abstract: This paper will focus on modeling, analysis and simulation of a 42V/14V dc/dc converter based architecture. This architecture is considered to be technically a viable solution for automotive dual-voltage power system for passenger car in the near further. An interleaved dc/dc converter system is chosen for the automotive converter topology due to its advantages regarding filter reduction, dynamic response, and power management. Presented herein, is a model based on one kilowatt interleaved six-phase buck converter designed to operate in a Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM). The control strategy of the converter is based on a voltagemode- controlled Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) with a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID). The effectiveness of the interleaved step-down converter is verified through simulation results using control-oriented simulator, MatLab/Simulink.
Abstract: In this work a new platform for mobile-health systems is
presented. System target application is providing decision support to
rescue corps or military medical personnel in combat areas. Software
architecture relies on a distributed client-server system that manages a
wireless ad-hoc networks hierarchy in which several different types of
client operate. Each client is characterized for different hardware and
software requirements. Lower hierarchy levels rely in a network of
completely custom devices that store clinical information and patient
status and are designed to form an ad-hoc network operating in the
2.4 GHz ISM band and complying with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard
(ZigBee). Medical personnel may interact with such devices, that are
called MICs (Medical Information Carriers), by means of a PDA
(Personal Digital Assistant) or a MDA (Medical Digital Assistant),
and transmit the information stored in their local databases as well as
issue a service request to the upper hierarchy levels by using IEEE
802.11 a/b/g standard (WiFi). The server acts as a repository that
stores both medical evacuation forms and associated events (e.g., a
teleconsulting request). All the actors participating in the diagnostic
or evacuation process may access asynchronously to such repository
and update its content or generate new events. The designed system
pretends to optimise and improve information spreading and flow
among all the system components with the aim of improving both
diagnostic quality and evacuation process.
Abstract: The behavior of three phase five leg transformer under voltage sag is studied in this paper. This paper proposes a simple, practical model of a three phase-five leg, saturated transformer with accurate performance. Transformer saturation is produced when the voltage sag is recovered and it causes inrush current in transformer. Effects of voltage sag depth, duration and initial point on wave have been analyzed in this paper. Initial point on wave can produce maximum inrush current in five leg transformers while comparing with three leg transformers. The magnetic circuit symmetry of five leg transformer produces the more symmetrical shape of inrush current curves versus initial point on wave and sag duration than three leg transformer. The simulations show that current peak has a periodical dependence on sag duration and linear dependence on sag depth. Inrush current that is produced in three phase five leg transformer is higher than three phase three leg transformer.
Abstract: Time series analysis often requires data that represents
the evolution of an observed variable in equidistant time steps. In
order to collect this data sampling is applied. While continuous
signals may be sampled, analyzed and reconstructed applying
Shannon-s sampling theorem, time-discrete signals have to be dealt
with differently. In this article we consider the discrete-event
simulation (DES) of job-shop-systems and study the effects of
different sampling rates on data quality regarding completeness and
accuracy of reconstructed inventory evolutions. At this we discuss
deterministic as well as non-deterministic behavior of system
variables. Error curves are deployed to illustrate and discuss the
sampling rate-s impact and to derive recommendations for its wellfounded
choice.
Abstract: The measurement of anesthetic depth is necessary in
anesthesiology. NN10 is very simple method among the RR intervals
analysis methods. NN10 parameter means the numbers of above the 10
ms intervals of the normal to normal RR intervals.
Bispectrum analysis is defined as 2D FFT. EEG signal reflected the
non-linear peristalsis phenomena according to the change brain
function. After analyzing the bispectrum of the 2 dimension, the most
significant power spectrum density peaks appeared abundantly at the
specific area in awakening and anesthesia state. These points are
utilized to create the new index since many peaks appeared at the
specific area in the frequency coordinate. The measured range of an
index was 0-100. An index is 20-50 at an anesthesia, while the index is
90-60 at the awake.
In this paper, the relation between NN10 parameter using ECG and
bisepctrum index using EEG is observed to estimate the depth of
anesthesia during anesthesia and then we estimated the utility of the
anesthetic.
Abstract: The posteroanterior manipulation technique is usually include in the procedure of the lumbar spine to evaluate the intervertebral motion according to mechanical resistance. The mechanical device with visual feedback was proposed that allows one to analysis the lumbar segments mobility “in vivo" facilitating for the therapist to take its treatment evolution. The measuring system uses load cell and displacement sensor to estimate spine stiffness. In this work, the device was tested by 2 therapists, female, applying posteroanterior force techniques to 5 volunteers, female, with frequency of approximately 1.2-1.8 Hz. A test-retest procedure was used for 2 periods of day. The visual feedback results small variation of forces and cycle time during 6 cycles rhythmic application. The stiffness values showed good agreement between test-retest procedures when used same order of maximum forces.
Abstract: This paper proposes evaluation of sound parameterization methods in recognizing some spoken Arabic words, namely digits from zero to nine. Each isolated spoken word is represented by a single template based on a specific recognition feature, and the recognition is based on the Euclidean distance from those templates. The performance analysis of recognition is based on four parameterization features: the Burg Spectrum Analysis, the Walsh Spectrum Analysis, the Thomson Multitaper Spectrum Analysis and the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) features. The main aim of this paper was to compare, analyze, and discuss the outcomes of spoken Arabic digits recognition systems based on the selected recognition features. The results acqired confirm that the use of MFCC features is a very promising method in recognizing Spoken Arabic digits.
Abstract: This paper deals with the extraction of information from the experts to automatically identify and recognize Ganoderma infection in oil palm stem using tomography images. Expert-s knowledge are used as rules in a Fuzzy Inference Systems to classify each individual patterns observed in he tomography image. The classification is done by defining membership functions which assigned a set of three possible hypotheses : Ganoderma infection (G), non Ganoderma infection (N) or intact stem tissue (I) to every abnormalities pattern found in the tomography image. A complete comparison between Mamdani and Sugeno style,triangular, trapezoids and mixed triangular-trapezoids membership functions and different methods of aggregation and defuzzification is also presented and analyzed to select suitable Fuzzy Inference System methods to perform the above mentioned task. The results showed that seven out of 30 initial possible combination of available Fuzzy Inference methods in MATLAB Fuzzy Toolbox were observed giving result close to the experts estimation.
Abstract: BioEnergy is an archetypal appropriate technology
and alternate source of energy in rural areas of China, and can meet
the basic need for cooking fuel in rural areas. The paper introduces
with an alternate mean of research that can accelerate the biogas
energy production. Tithonia diversifolia or the Tree marigold can be
hailed as mesophillic anaerobic digestion to increase the production
of more Bioenergy. Tithonia diversifolia is very native to Mexico and
Central America, which can be served as ornamental plants- green
manure and can prevent soil erosion. Tithonia diversifolia is widely
grown and known to Asia, Africa, America and Australia as well.
Nowadays, Considering China’s geographical condition it is found
that Tithonia diversifolia is widely growing plant in the many tropical
and subtropical regions of southern Yunnan- which can have great
usage in accelerating and increasing the Bioenergy production
technology. The paper discussed aiming at proving possibility that
Tithonia diversifolia can be applied in biogas fermentation and its
biogas production potential, the research carried experiment on
Tithonia diversifolia biogas fermentation under the mesophilic
condition (35 Celsius Degree). The result revealed that Tithonia
diversifolia can be used as biogas fermentative material, and 6%
concentration can get the best biogas production, with the TS biogas
production rate 656mL/g and VS biogas production rate 801mL/g. It
is well addressed that Tithonia diversifolia grows wildly in 53
Counties and 9 cities of Yunnan Province, which mainly grows in
form of the road side plants, the edge of the field, countryside, forest
edge, open space; of which demersum-natures can form dense
monospecific beds -causing serious harm to agricultural production
landforms threatening the ecological system as a potentially harmful
exotic plant. There are also found the three types of invasive daisy
alien plants -Eupatorium adenophorum, Eupatorium Odorata and
Tithonia diversifolia in Yunnan Province of China-among them the
Tithonia diversifolia is responsible for causing serious harm to
agricultural production. In this paper we have designed the
experimental explanation of Biogas energy production that requires
anaerobic environment and some microbes; Tithonia diversifolia
plant has been taken into consideration while carrying experiments
and with successful resulting of generating more BioEnergy
emphasizing on the practical applications of Tithonia diversifolia.
This paper aims at- to find a new mechanism to provide a more
scientific basis for the development of this plant herbicides in Biogas
energy and to improve the utilization throughout the world as well.
Abstract: Environmental conflicts produced by economic development and natural resources exploitation, are discussed. Main causes of conflicts in developing countries were shown to arise from geographically external investments, inefficiency of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and the lack of communication between government and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Citizen participation can only intervene during late stages of the EIA, which is considered as one of the main shortcomings in satisfying demands of local people.
Abstract: The complex structure of lignocellulose leads to great
difficulties in converting it to fermentable sugars for the ethanol
production. The major hydrolysis impediments are the crystallinity of
cellulose and the lignin content. To improve the efficiency of
enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial pretreatment of corncob was
investigated using two bacterial strains of Bacillus subtilis A 002 and
Cellulomonas sp. TISTR 784 (expected to break open the crystalline
part of cellulose) and lignin-degrading fungus, Phanerochaete
sordida SK7 (expected to remove lignin from lignocellulose). The
microbial pretreatment was carried out with each strain under its
optimum conditions. The pretreated corncob samples were further
hydrolyzed to produce reducing glucose with low amounts of
commercial cellulase (25 U·g-1 corncob) from Aspergillus niger. The
corncob samples were determined for composition change by X-ray
diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR),
and scanning electron microscope (SEM). According to the results,
the microbial pretreatment with fungus, P. sordida SK7 was the most
effective for enhancing enzymatic hydrolysis, approximately, 40%
improvement.