Abstract: The aim of this study was to trace the effects of growth environment on the behaviour of fattening pigs in the farm and outside it. Behavioral manifestations of pigs reared in pens with enriched environment (A lot, n: 22) were different from those of pigs reared in pens with arid environment (B lot, n: 17) in shelter and when the movement to be loaded. Pigs of B lot spent more time on the move (31%) compared to group A pigs (13%), and manifested more aggressive behavior when they were loaded. Salivary cortisol levels also showed high values for pigs in B lot after being removed from their growth environment, as compared to its concentration for A lot pigs. The enriched environment for pigs may determine different responses of behavior. Pigs raised in arid environment, were easier to loaded than pigs reared in enriched environment, but they responded to mixing and loading stress, through increases in cortisol concentrations and impaired behavioral manifestations.
Abstract: Wind turbine should be controlled to capture maximum
wind energy and to prevent the turbine from being stalled. To achieve
those two goals, wind turbine controller controls torque on generator
and limits input torque from wind by pitching blade. Usually, torque
on generator is controlled using inverter torque set point. However,
verifying a control algorithm in actual wind turbine needs a lot of
efforts to test and the actual wind turbine could be broken while testing
a control algorithm. So, several software have developed and
commercialized by Garrad Hassan, GH Bladed, and NREL, FAST.
Even though, those programs can simulate control system modeling
with subroutines or DLLs. However, those simulation programs are
not able to emulate detailed generator or PMSG. In this paper, a small
size wind turbine simulator is developed with induction motor and
small size drive train. The developed system can simulate wind turbine
control algorithm in the region before rated power.
Abstract: It is hard to percept the interaction process with machines when visual information is not available. In this paper, we have addressed this issue to provide interaction through visual techniques. Posture recognition is done for American Sign Language to recognize static alphabets and numbers. 3D information is exploited to obtain segmentation of hands and face using normal Gaussian distribution and depth information. Features for posture recognition are computed using statistical and geometrical properties which are translation, rotation and scale invariant. Hu-Moment as statistical features and; circularity and rectangularity as geometrical features are incorporated to build the feature vectors. These feature vectors are used to train SVM for classification that recognizes static alphabets and numbers. For the alphabets, curvature analysis is carried out to reduce the misclassifications. The experimental results show that proposed system recognizes posture symbols by achieving recognition rate of 98.65% and 98.6% for ASL alphabets and numbers respectively.
Abstract: This paper proposes an analytical method for the
dynamics of generating firms- alliance networks along with business
phases. Dynamics in network developments have previously been
discussed in the research areas of organizational strategy rather than in
the areas of regional cluster, where the static properties of the
networks are often discussed. The analytical method introduces the
concept of business phases into innovation processes and uses
relationships called prior experiences; this idea was developed in
organizational strategy to investigate the state of networks from the
viewpoints of tradeoffs between link stabilization and node
exploration. This paper also discusses the results of the analytical
method using five cases of the network developments of firms. The
idea of Embeddedness helps interpret the backgrounds of the
analytical results. The analytical method is useful for policymakers of
regional clusters to establish concrete evaluation targets and a
viewpoint for comparisons of policy programs.
Abstract: In the given article the creative arts is being
investigated in the modern era and from the aspect of the artistic
interrelationship, having created by the character of his personality
and as the viewer. A study in the identity formation terms, the
definition of its being unique, unity and similarity as a global issue of
the XXI century has been conducted by the analyzing the definitions
which characterize the human nature in the arts. Spiritual universality
and human existence have been considered in the art system as a
human who is a creator, as the man hero and as the character who is
the recipient as well as the analyses which have been conducted
along with the worldwide cultural and historical processes.
Abstract: Homogeneous Charge Compression (HCCI) Ignition technology has been around for a long time, but has recently received renewed attention and enthusiasm. This paper deals with experimental investigations of HCCI engine using hydrous methanol as a primary fuel and Dimethyl Ether (DME) as an ignition improver. A regular diesel engine has been modified to work as HCCI engine for this investigation. The hydrous methanol is inducted and DME is injected into a single cylinder engine. Hence, hydrous methanol is used with 15% water content in HCCI engine and its performance and emission behavior is documented. The auto-ignition of Methanol is enabled by DME. The quantity of DME varies with respect to the load. In this study, the experiments are conducted independently and the effect of the hydrous methanol on the engine operating limit, heat release rate and exhaust emissions at different load conditions are investigated. The investigation also proves that the Hydrous Methanol with DME operation reduces the oxides of Nitrogen and smoke to an extreme low level which is not possible by the direct injection CI engine. Therefore, it is beneficial to use hydrous methanol-DME HCCI mode while using hydrous methanol in internal Combustion Engines.
Abstract: This paper considers the problem of scheduling maintenance actions for identical aircraft gas turbine engines. Each one of the turbines consists of parts which frequently require replacement. A finite inventory of spare parts is available and all parts are ready for replacement at any time. The inventory consists of both new and refurbished parts. Hence, these parts have different field lives. The goal is to find a replacement part sequencing that maximizes the time that the aircraft will keep functioning before the inventory is replenished. The problem is formulated as an identical parallel machine scheduling problem where the minimum completion time has to be maximized. Two models have been developed. The first one is an optimization model which is based on a 0-1 linear programming formulation, while the second one is an approximate procedure which consists in decomposing the problem into several two-machine subproblems. Each subproblem is optimally solved using the first model. Both models have been implemented using Lingo and have been tested on two sets of randomly generated data with up to 150 parts and 10 turbines. Experimental results show that the optimization model is able to solve only instances with no more than 4 turbines, while the decomposition procedure often provides near-optimal solutions within a maximum CPU time of 3 seconds.
Abstract: The aim of this work was to study the in vitro effects
of δ-lactam 1 and its 4-chlorophenyl derivative 2, on the proliferative
responses of human lymphocytes and Th1 and Th2 cytokine
secretion. The possible protective role of vitamin E on intracellular
stress oxidative induced by these compounds was also investigated.
Peripheral blood lymphocytes were isolated using differential
centrifugation on a density gradient of Histopaque. They were
cultured with mitogen concanavalin A, vitamin E (10 μM) and with
different concentrations of the compounds 1 and 2 (0.1 to 10 μM).
Proliferation (MTT assay), IL-2, INFγ and IL-4 (Elisa kits),
intracellular superoxide anion were determined. 1 and 2 were
immunostimulant and increased cytokine secretion with a shift away
from Th1 response to Th2. These properties were however
accompanied by an increase in intracellular oxidative stress. The
presence of vitamin E exhibited protective effects by reducing δ-
lactam-induced superoxide anion generation in lymphocytes.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect
of combining Real Experimentation (RE) With Virtual
Experimentation (VE) on students- conceptual understanding of
photo electric effect. To achieve this, a pre–post comparison study
design was used that involved 46 undergraduate students. Two
groups were set up for this study. Participants in the control group
used RE to learn photo electric effect, whereas, participants in the
experimental group used RE in the first part of the curriculum and
VE in another part. Achievement test was given to the groups
before and after the application as pre-test and post test. The
independent samples t- test, one way Anova and Tukey HSD test
were used for testing the data obtained from the study.
According to the results of analyzes, the experimental group
was found more successful than the control group.
Abstract: In conventional reliability assessment, the reliability data of system components are treated as crisp values. The collected data have some uncertainties due to errors by human beings/machines or any other sources. These uncertainty factors will limit the understanding of system component failure due to the reason of incomplete data. In these situations, we need to generalize classical methods to fuzzy environment for studying and analyzing the systems of interest. Fuzzy set theory has been proposed to handle such vagueness by generalizing the notion of membership in a set. Essentially, in a Fuzzy Set (FS) each element is associated with a point-value selected from the unit interval [0, 1], which is termed as the grade of membership in the set. A Vague Set (VS), as well as an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Set (IFS), is a further generalization of an FS. Instead of using point-based membership as in FS, interval-based membership is used in VS. The interval-based membership in VS is more expressive in capturing vagueness of data. In the present paper, vague set theory coupled with conventional Lambda-Tau method is presented for reliability analysis of repairable systems. The methodology uses Petri nets (PN) to model the system instead of fault tree because it allows efficient simultaneous generation of minimal cuts and path sets. The presented method is illustrated with the press unit of the paper mill.
Abstract: This paper proposes a three-dimensional motion capture and feedback system of flying disc throwing action learners with use of Kinect device. Rather than conventional 3-D motion capture system, Kinect has advantages of cost merit, easy system development and operation. A novice learner of flying disc is trained to keep arm movement in steady height, to twist the waist, and to stretch the elbow according to the waist angle. The proposing system captures learners- body movement, checks their skeleton positions in pre-motion / motion / post-motion in several ways, and displays feedback messages to refine their actions.
Abstract: At present, increased concerns about global
environmental problems have magnified the importance of
sustainability management. To move towards sustainability,
companies need to look at everything from a holistic perspective in
order to understand the interconnections between economic growth
and environmental and social sustainability. This paper aims to gain
an understanding of key determinants that drive sustainability
management and barriers that hinder its development. It employs
semi-structured interviews with key informants, site observation and
documentation. The informants are production, marketing and
environmental managers of the leading wine producer, which aims to
become an Asia-s leader in wine & wine based products. It is found
that corporate image and top management leadership are the primary
factors influencing the adoption of sustainability management. Lack
of environmental knowledge and inefficient communication are
identified as barriers.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop a new two dimensional time accurate Euler solver for shock tube applications. The solver was developed to study the performance of a newly built short-duration hypersonic test facility at Universiti Tenaga Nasional “UNITEN" in Malaysia. The facility has been designed, built, and commissioned for different values of diaphragm pressure ratios in order to get wide range of Mach number. The developed solver uses second order accurate cell-vertex finite volume spatial discretization and forth order accurate Runge-Kutta temporal integration and it is designed to simulate the flow process for similar driver/driven gases (e.g. air-air as working fluids). The solver is validated against analytical solution and experimental measurements in the high speed flow test facility. Further investigations were made on the flow process inside the shock tube by using the solver. The shock wave motion, reflection and interaction were investigated and their influence on the performance of the shock tube was determined. The results provide very good estimates for both shock speed and shock pressure obtained after diaphragm rupture. Also detailed information on the gasdynamic processes over the full length of the facility is available. The agreements obtained have been reasonable.
Abstract: Image watermarking has proven to be quite an
efficient tool for the purpose of copyright protection and
authentication over the last few years. In this paper, a novel image
watermarking technique in the wavelet domain is suggested and
tested. To achieve more security and robustness, the proposed
techniques relies on using two nested watermarks that are embedded
into the image to be watermarked. A primary watermark in form of a
PN sequence is first embedded into an image (the secondary
watermark) before being embedded into the host image. The
technique is implemented using Daubechies mother wavelets where
an arbitrary embedding factor α is introduced to improve the
invisibility and robustness. The proposed technique has been applied
on several gray scale images where a PSNR of about 60 dB was
achieved.
Abstract: A fuzzy predictive pursuit guidance is proposed as an
alternative to the conventional methods. The purpose of this scheme
is to obtain a stable and fast guidance. The noise effects must be
reduced in homing missile guidance to get an accurate control. An
aerodynamic missile model is simulated first and a fuzzy predictive
pursuit control algorithm is applied to reduce the noise effects. The
performance of this algorithm is compared with the performance of
the classical proportional derivative control. Stability analysis of the
proposed guidance method is performed and compared with the
stability properties of other guidance methods. Simulation results
show that the proposed method provides the satisfying performance.
Abstract: Taking into account the importance of Lake Sevan and
Lake Sevan basin-s rivers for Armenian economy, the main goals of
our investigations were the documentation of water quality and the
biodiversity of invertebrates developed in Lake Sevan basin-s rivers
and selected tributaries.
Moderately satisfied ecological condition for the biodiversity of
Lake Sevan basin-s rivers has been established, and the changes in
species- composition of zoobenthos in Lake Sevan were detected.
A growing tendency of antibiotic resistance among E. coli isolates
in water resources has been shown.
Abstract: In this paper, one-dimensional analysis of flow in a
single-stage gas gun is conducted. The compressible inviscid flow
equations are numerically solved by the second-order Roe TVD
method, by using moving boundaries. For investigation of real gas
effect the Noble-Able equation is applied. The numerical results are
compared with the experimental data to validate the numerical
scheme. The results show that with using the Noble-Able equation,
the muzzle velocity decreases.
Abstract: Oral health is particular important to the hospitalized
patients with chronic schizophrenia for an extreme high potential of the respiratory infections. Due to the degeneration of physical capability, patients of this kind typically fall dependent in the activity of daily living (ADL). A very high percentage of patients had dental
problems of which mostly could be easily avoid by easy regular tooth brushing. Purpose of the project is to develop a mechanism in helping the schizophrenia patients in rebuilding a tooth-cleaning habit. The
project observed and evaluated the tooth-cleaning behavior of 100
male patients in a psychiatric hospital, and found the majority of them
ignored such an activity in a three-month period of time. In the meantime, the primary care-givers were not aware or not convinced
the importance of such a need of dental hygiene, and thus few if any
tooth cleaning training or knowledge on dental hygiene were given to
the patients. The project then developed a program based on the numerous observations and discussions. The improvement program
included patients- group education, care-givers- training, and a
tool-kit for tooth-brush holding was erected. The project launched
with some incentive package. The outcomes were encouraging with
87% of the patients had rebuilt their tooth-brushing habits against
previous 22%, and the tooth cleaning kits were 100% kept against 22%
in the past. This project had significantly improved the oral health of
the patients. The project, included the procedure and the tool-kit
holder specific for this purpose, was a good examples for psychiatric
hospitals.
Abstract: Zeolite A and MCM-41 have extensive applications in basic science, petrochemical science, energy conservation/storage, medicine, chemical sensor, air purification, environmentally benign composite structure and waste remediation. However, the use of zeolite A and MCM-41 in these areas, especially environmental remediation, are restricted due to prohibitive production cost. Efficient recycling of and resource recovery from coal fly ash has been a major topic of current international research interest, aimed at achieving sustainable development of human society from the viewpoints of energy, economy, and environmental strategy. This project reported an original, novel, green and fast methods to produce nano-porous zeolite A and MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. For zeolite A, this novel production method allows a reduction by half of the total production time while maintaining a high degree of crystallinity of zeolite A which exists in a narrower particle size distribution. For MCM-41, this remarkably green approach, being an environmentally friendly process and reducing generation of toxic waste, can produce pure and long-range ordered MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. This approach took 24 h at 25 oC to produce 9 g of MCM-41 materials from 30 g of the coal fly ash, which is the shortest time and lowest reaction temperature required to produce pure and ordered MCM-41 materials (having the largest internal surface area) compared to the values reported in the literature. Performance evaluation of the produced zeolite A and MCM-41 materials in wastewater treatment and air pollution control were reported. The residual fly ash was also converted to zeolite Na-P1 which showed good performance in removal of multi-metal ions in wastewater. In wastewater treatment, compared to commercial-grade zeolite A, adsorbents produced from coal fly ash were effective in removing multi heavy metal ions in water and could be an alternative material for treatment of wastewater. In methane emission abatement, the zeolite A (produced from coal fly ash) achieved similar methane removal efficiency compared to the zeolite A prepared from pure chemicals. This report provides the guidance for production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash by a cost-effective approach which opens potential applications of these materials in environmental industry. Finally, environmental and economic aspects of production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash were discussed.
Abstract: We consider a two-way relay network where two sources exchange information. A relay helps the two sources exchange information using the decode-and-XOR-forward protocol. We investigate the power minimization problem with minimum rate constraints. The system needs two time slots and in each time slot the required rate pair should be achievable. The power consumption is minimized in each time slot and we obtained the closed form solution. The simulation results confirm that the proposed power allocation scheme consumes lower total power than the conventional schemes.