Abstract: This paper presents an alternate approach that uses
artificial neural network to simulate the flood level dynamics in a
river basin. The algorithm was developed in a decision support
system environment in order to enable users to process the data. The
decision support system is found to be useful due to its interactive
nature, flexibility in approach and evolving graphical feature and can
be adopted for any similar situation to predict the flood level. The
main data processing includes the gauging station selection, input
generation, lead-time selection/generation, and length of prediction.
This program enables users to process the flood level data, to
train/test the model using various inputs and to visualize results. The
program code consists of a set of files, which can as well be modified
to match other purposes. This program may also serve as a tool for
real-time flood monitoring and process control. The running results
indicate that the decision support system applied to the flood level
seems to have reached encouraging results for the river basin under
examination. The comparison of the model predictions with the
observed data was satisfactory, where the model is able to forecast
the flood level up to 5 hours in advance with reasonable prediction
accuracy. Finally, this program may also serve as a tool for real-time
flood monitoring and process control.
Abstract: The oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey were grown
in the presence of dairy industry wastewaters (DIW). The yeasts were
able to degrade the organic components of DIW and to produce a
significant fraction of their biomass as triglycerides.
When using DIW from the Ricotta cheese production or residual
whey as growth medium, the L. starkey could be cultured without
dilution nor external organic supplement. On the contrary, the yeasts
could only partially degrade the DIW from the Mozzarella cheese
production, due to the accumulation of a metabolic product beyond
the threshold of toxicity. In this case, a dilution of the DIW was
required to obtain a more efficient degradation of the carbon
compounds and an higher yield in oleaginous biomass.
The fatty acid distribution of the microbial oils obtained showed a
prevalence of oleic acid, and is compatible with the production of a II
generation biodiesel offering a good resistance to oxidation as well as
an excellent cold-performance.
Abstract: Graph partitioning is a NP-hard problem with multiple
conflicting objectives. The graph partitioning should minimize the
inter-partition relationship while maximizing the intra-partition
relationship. Furthermore, the partition load should be evenly
distributed over the respective partitions. Therefore this is a multiobjective
optimization problem (MOO). One of the approaches to
MOO is Pareto optimization which has been used in this paper. The
proposed methods of this paper used to improve the performance are
injecting best solutions of previous runs into the first generation of
next runs and also storing the non-dominated set of previous
generations to combine with later generation's non-dominated set.
These improvements prevent the GA from getting stuck in the local
optima and increase the probability of finding more optimal
solutions. Finally, a simulation research is carried out to investigate
the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The simulation results
confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Abstract: Customarily, the LMTD correction factor, FT, is used
to screen alternative designs for a heat exchanger. Designs with
unacceptably low FT values are discarded. In this paper, authors have
proposed a more fundamental criterion, based on feasibility of a
multipass exchanger as the only criteria, followed by economic
optimization. This criterion, coupled with asymptotic energy targets,
provide the complete optimization space in a heat exchanger network
(HEN), where cost-optimization of HEN can be performed with only
Heat Recovery Approach temperature (HRAT) and number-of-shells
as variables.
Abstract: As increasing importance of symbiosis and cooperation among mobile communication industries, the mobile ecosystem has been especially highlighted in academia and practice. The structure of mobile ecosystem is quite complex and the ecological role of actors is important to understand that structure. In this respect, this study aims to explore structure of mobile ecosystem in the case of Korea using inter-industry network analysis. Then, the ecological roles in mobile ecosystem are identified using centrality measures as a result of network analysis: degree of centrality, closeness, and betweenness. The result shows that the manufacturing and service industries are separate. Also, the ecological roles of some actors are identified based on the characteristics of ecological terms: keystone, niche, and dominator. Based on the result of this paper, we expect that the policy makers can formulate the future of mobile industry and healthier mobile ecosystem can be constructed.
Abstract: An ethical mandate of the social work profession in the
United States is that BSW and MSW graduates are sufficiently
prepared to both understand diverse cultural values and beliefs and
offer services that are culturally sensitive and relevant to clients. This
skill set is particularly important for social workers in the 21st Century,
given the increasing globalization of the U.S. and world. The purpose
of this paper is to outline a pedagogical model for teaching cultural
competency that resulted in a significant increase in cultural
competency for MSW graduates at Western Kentucky University
(WKU). More specifically, this model is predicated on five specific
culturally sensitive principles and activities that were found to be
highly effective in conveying culturally relevant knowledge and skills
to MSW students at WKU. Future studies can assess the effectiveness
of these principles in other MSW programs across the U.S. and abroad.
Abstract: The disaster from functional gastrointestinal disorders has detrimental impact on the quality of life of the effected population and imposes a tremendous social and economic burden. There are, however, rare diagnostic methods for the functional gastrointestinal disorders. Our research group identified recently that the gastrointestinal tract well in the patients with the functional gastrointestinal disorders becomes more rigid than healthy people when palpating the abdominal regions overlaying the gastrointestinal tract. Objective of current study is, therefore, identify feasibility of a diagnostic system for the functional gastrointestinal disorders based on ultrasound technique, which can quantify the characteristics above. Two-dimensional finite difference (FD) models (one normal and two rigid model) were developed to analyze the reflective characteristic (displacement) on each soft-tissue layer responded after application of ultrasound signals. The FD analysis was then based on elastic ultrasound theory. Validation of the model was performed via comparison of the characteristic of the ultrasonic responses predicted by FD analysis with that determined from the actual specimens for the normal and rigid conditions. Based on the results from FD analysis, ultrasound system for diagnosis of the functional gastrointestinal disorders was developed and clinically tested via application of it to 40 human subjects with/without functional gastrointestinal disorders who were assigned to Normal and Patient Groups. The FD models were favorably validated. The results from FD analysis showed that the maximum displacement amplitude in the rigid models (0.12 and 0.16) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly less than that in the normal model (0.29). The results from actual specimens showed that the maximum amplitude of the ultrasonic reflective signal in the rigid models (0.2±0.1Vp-p) at the interface between the fat and muscle layers was explicitly higher than that in the normal model (0.1±0.2 Vp-p). Clinical tests using our customized ultrasound system showed that the maximum amplitudes of the ultrasonic reflective signals near to the gastrointestinal tract well for the patient group (2.6±0.3 Vp-p) were generally higher than those in normal group (0.1±0.2 Vp-p). Here, maximum reflective signals was appeared at 20mm depth approximately from abdominal skin for all human subjects, corresponding to the location of the boundary layer close to gastrointestinal tract well. These findings suggest that our customized ultrasound system using the ultrasonic reflective signal may be helpful to the diagnosis of the functional gastrointestinal disorders.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel approach to assessing textile porosity by the application of the image analysis techniques. The images of different types of sample fabrics, taken through a microscope when the fabric is placed over a constant light source,transfer the problem into the image analysis domain. Indeed, porosity can thus be expressed in terms of a brightness percentage index calculated on the digital microscope image. Furthermore, it is meaningful to compare the brightness percentage index with the air permeability and the tightness indices of each fabric type. We have experimentally shown that there exists an approximately linear relation between brightness percentage and air permeability indices.
Abstract: In the package design industry, there are a lot of tacit knowledge resided within each designer. The objectives are to capture them and compile it to be used as a teaching resource and to create a video clip of package design process as well as to evaluate its quality and learning effectiveness. Interview were used as a technique for capturing knowledge in brand design concept, differentiation, recognition, rank of recognition factor, consumer survey, knowledge about marketing, research, graphic design, the effect of color, and law and regulation. Video clip about package design were created. The clip consisted of both the speech and clip of actual process. The quality of the video in term of media was ranked as good while the content was ranked as excellent. The students- score on post-test was significantly greater than that of pretest (p>0.001).
Abstract: This paper deals with the problem of non-uniform
torsion in thin-walled elastic beams with asymmetric cross-section,
removing the basic concept of a fixed center of twist, necessary in the
Vlasov-s and Benscoter-s theories to obtain a warping stress field
equivalent to zero. In this new torsion/flexure theory, despite of the
classical ones, the warping function will punctually satisfy the first
indefinite equilibrium equation along the beam axis and it wont- be
necessary to introduce the classical congruence condition, to take into
account the effect of the beam restraints. The solution, based on the
Fourier development of the displacement field, is obtained assuming
that the applied external torque is constant along the beam axis and
on both beam ends the unit twist angle and the warping axial
displacement functions are totally restrained.
Finally, in order to verify the feasibility of the proposed method
and to compare it with the classical theories, two applications are
carried out. The first one, relative to an open profile, is necessary to
test the numerical method adopted to find the solution; the second
one, instead, is relative to a simplified containership section,
considered as full restrained in correspondence of two adjacent
transverse bulkheads.
Abstract: Enterprises need a strategic plan to retain their skillful employees and provide their career management, sustain their existence, to have growth and leadership qualities, to reach the objectives to increase the value of the enterprise and to not to be affected from changing demographic structure. In the cases when the long term career expectations of skillful employees are in integrity with the enterprise’s interests, skill management process is directly related to the career management. With a long term plan, the enterprises should cover the labor force need that may arise in the future by using systematic career development programs and be prepared against developments for all times. Skill management is considered as a practice with which career mobility is planned for the skillful employee to be prepared for high level positions. Career planning is the planning of an employee’s progress or promotion within an organization for which he works by developing his knowledge, skills, abilities and motives. Career planning is considered as an individual’s planning his future and the position which he wants to have, the area which he want to work in, the objectives which he want to reach. With the aim of contributing the abovementioned discussion process, career management concept and its perception manner are examined in this study in a comparative manner.
Abstract: Developing a nation geared by the principle of
sustainable development has been one of the piers in moulding a
greater nation for Malaysia since its independence. This is seen by
the act of joining the United Nations in 1957, just a month after
gaining their independence. The United Nations is an international
organization that aims to unite the nations worldwide based on
justice, human dignity and human well-being. Malaysia has
established a local body called the United Nations Malaysia which
collaborates with the government to accomplish the aim of
supporting sustainable development in Malaysia. Agenda 21 is an
international document produced from the Earth Summit providing
guidelines of implementing sustainable development globally,
nationally and locally. Initiatives of applying Agenda 21 in Malaysia
have been taken by the government and non-profit organizations to
expose issues regarding sustainable development and providing
environmental education to the community to increase awareness
towards environmental protection.
Abstract: Availability of raw materials is important for
Indonesia as a furniture exporting country. Teak log as raw materials
is supplied to the furniture industry by Perum Perhutani (PP). PP
needs to involve carbon trading for nature conservation. PP also has
an obligation in the Corporate Social Responsibility program. PP and
furniture industry also must prosecute the regulations related to
ecological issues and labor rights. This study has the objective to
create the relationship model between supplier and manufacturer to
fulfill teak log demand that involving teak forest carbon
sequestration. A model is formulated as Goal Programming to get the
favorable solution for teak log procurement and support carbon
sequestration that considering economical, ecological, and social
aspects of both supplier and manufacturer. The results show that the
proposed model can be used to determine the teak log quantity
involving carbon trading to achieve the seven goals to be satisfied the
sustainability considerations.
Abstract: Measures of complexity and entropy have not converged to a single quantitative description of levels of organization of complex systems. The need for such a measure is increasingly necessary in all disciplines studying complex systems. To address this problem, starting from the most fundamental principle in Physics, here a new measure for quantity of organization and rate of self-organization in complex systems based on the principle of least (stationary) action is applied to a model system - the central processing unit (CPU) of computers. The quantity of organization for several generations of CPUs shows a double exponential rate of change of organization with time. The exact functional dependence has a fine, S-shaped structure, revealing some of the mechanisms of self-organization. The principle of least action helps to explain the mechanism of increase of organization through quantity accumulation and constraint and curvature minimization with an attractor, the least average sum of actions of all elements and for all motions. This approach can help describe, quantify, measure, manage, design and predict future behavior of complex systems to achieve the highest rates of self organization to improve their quality. It can be applied to other complex systems from Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Economics, Cities, network theory and others where complex systems are present.
Abstract: FlexRay, as a communication protocol for automotive
control systems, is developed to fulfill the increasing demand on the
electronic control units for implementing systems with higher safety
and more comfort. In this work, we study the impact of
radiation-induced soft errors on FlexRay-based steer-by-wire system.
We injected the soft errors into general purpose register set of FlexRay
nodes to identify the most critical registers, the failure modes of the
steer-by-wire system, and measure the probability distribution of
failure modes when an error occurs in the register file.
Abstract: The increase on the demand of IT resources diverts
the enterprises to use the cloud as a cheap and scalable solution.
Cloud computing promises achieved by using the virtual machine as a
basic unite of computation. However, the virtual machine pre-defined
settings might be not enough to handle jobs QoS requirements. This
paper addresses the problem of mapping jobs have critical start
deadlines to virtual machines that have predefined specifications.
These virtual machines hosted by physical machines and shared a
fixed amount of bandwidth. This paper proposed an algorithm that
uses the idle virtual machines bandwidth to increase the quote of other
virtual machines nominated as executors to urgent jobs. An algorithm
with empirical study have been given to evaluate the impact of the
proposed model on impatient jobs. The results show the importance
of dynamic bandwidth allocation in virtualized environment and its
affect on throughput metric.
Abstract: In wavelet regression, choosing threshold value is a crucial issue. A too large value cuts too many coefficients resulting in over smoothing. Conversely, a too small threshold value allows many coefficients to be included in reconstruction, giving a wiggly estimate which result in under smoothing. However, the proper choice of threshold can be considered as a careful balance of these principles. This paper gives a very brief introduction to some thresholding selection methods. These methods include: Universal, Sure, Ebays, Two fold cross validation and level dependent cross validation. A simulation study on a variety of sample sizes, test functions, signal-to-noise ratios is conducted to compare their numerical performances using three different noise structures. For Gaussian noise, EBayes outperforms in all cases for all used functions while Two fold cross validation provides the best results in the case of long tail noise. For large values of signal-to-noise ratios, level dependent cross validation works well under correlated noises case. As expected, increasing both sample size and level of signal to noise ratio, increases estimation efficiency.
Abstract: The impact force of a rockfall is mainly determined by
its moving behavior and velocity, which are contingent on the rock
shape, slope gradient, height, and surface roughness of the moving
path. It is essential to precisely calculate the moving path of the
rockfall in order to effectively minimize and prevent damages caused
by the rockfall. By applying the Colorado Rockfall Simulation
Program (CRSP) program as the analysis tool, this research studies the
influence of three shapes of rock (spherical, cylindrical and discoidal)
and surface roughness on the moving path of a single rockfall. As
revealed in the analysis, in addition to the slope gradient, the geometry
of the falling rock and joint roughness coefficient ( JRC ) of the slope
are the main factors affecting the moving behavior of a rockfall. On a
single flat slope, both the rock-s bounce height and moving velocity
increase as the surface gradient increases, with a critical gradient value
of 1:m = 1 . Bouncing behavior and faster moving velocity occur more
easily when the rock geometry is more oval. A flat piece tends to cause
sliding behavior and is easily influenced by the change of surface
undulation. When JRC
Abstract: The 15-a-side Fiji rugby team trains well in preparations for any rugby competition but rarely performs to expectations. In order to help the Fiji local based rugby players to identify some key basic areas in improving their performance, a series of workshops were conducted to assess their nutritional status and dietary habits in relation to energy demand during rugby matches. The nutrition workshop included the administration of questionnaires to 19 local based rugby players, requesting the following information: usual food intakes, training camp food intakes, carbohydrate loading, pre-game meals and post-game meals. The study revealed that poor eating habits of the players resulted in the low carbohydrate intake, which may have contributed to increase levels of fatigue leading to loss of stamina even before the second half of the game. It appears that the diet of most 15-a-side players does not provide enough energy to enable them to last the full eightyminutes of the game.
Abstract: Brassinosteroids (BRs) regulate cell elongation,
vascular differentiation, senescence, and stress responses. BRs signal
through the BES1/BZR1 family of transcription factors, which
regulate hundreds of target genes involved in this pathway. In this
research a comprehensive genome-wide analysis was carried out in
BES1/BZR1 gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana, Cucumis sativus,
Vitis vinifera, Glycin max and Brachypodium distachyon.
Specifications of the desired sequences, dot plot and hydropathy plot
were analyzed in the protein and genome sequences of five plant
species. The maximum amino acid length was attributed to protein
sequence Brdic3g with 374aa and the minimum amino acid length
was attributed to protein sequence Gm7g with 163aa. The maximum
Instability index was attributed to protein sequence AT1G19350
equal with 79.99 and the minimum Instability index was attributed to
protein sequence Gm5g equal with 33.22. Aliphatic index of these
protein sequences ranged from 47.82 to 78.79 in Arabidopsis
thaliana, 49.91 to 57.50 in Vitis vinifera, 55.09 to 82.43 in Glycin
max, 54.09 to 54.28 in Brachypodium distachyon 55.36 to 56.83 in
Cucumis sativus. Overall, data obtained from our investigation
contributes a better understanding of the complexity of the
BES1/BZR1 gene family and provides the first step towards directing
future experimental designs to perform systematic analysis of the
functions of the BES1/BZR1 gene family.