Abstract: The research study evaluated the performance of
irrigation system by using special scientific tools like Remote
Sensing and GIS technology, so that proper measurements could be
taken for the sustainable agriculture and water management.
Different performance evaluation parameters had been calculated for
the purposed data was gathered from field investigation and different
government and private organizations. According to the calculations,
organic matter ranges from 0.19% (low value) to 0.76% (high value).
In flat irrigation system for wheat yield ranges from 3347.16 to
5260.39 kg/ha, while the total water applied to wheat crop ranges
from 252.94 to 279.19 mm and WUE ranges from 13.07 to 18.37
kg/ha/mm. For rice yield ranges from 3347.47 to 5433.07 kg/ha with
total water supplied to rice crop ranges from 764.71 to 978.15 mm
and WUE ranges from 3.49 to 5.71 kg/ha/mm. Similarly, in raised
bed system wheat yield ranges from 4569.13 to 6008.60 kg/ha, total
water supplied ranges from 158.87 to 185.09 mm and WUE ranges
from 27.20 to 33.54 kg/ha/mm while in rice crop, yield ranges from
5285.04 to 6716.69 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 600.72 to
755.06 mm and WUE ranges from 6.41 to 10.05 kg/ha/mm. Almost
51.3% water saving is observed in bed irrigation system as compared
to flat system. Less water supplied to beds is more affective as its
WUE value is higher than flat system where more water is supplied
in both the seasons. Similarly, RWS values show that maximum
water deficit while minimum area is getting adequate water supply.
Greater yield is recorded in bed system as plant per square meter is
more in bed system in comparison of flat system Thus, the integration
of GIS tools to regularly compute performance indices could provide
irrigation managers with the means for managing efficiently the
irrigation system.
Abstract: β-Glucosidase is an important enzyme for production
of ethanol from lignocellulose. With hydrolytic activity on
cellooligosaccharides, especially cellobiose, β-glucosidase removes
product inhibitory effect on cellulases and forms fermentable sugars.
In this study, β-glucosidase encoding gene (BGL1) from traditional
starter yeast Saccharomycosis fibuligera BMQ908 was cloned and
expressed in Pichia pastoris. BGL1 of S. fibuligera BMQ 908 shared
98% nucleotide homology with the closest GenBank sequence
(M22475) but identity in amino-acid sequences of catalytic domains.
Recombinant plasmid pPICZαA/BGL1 containing the sequence
encoding BGL1 mature protein and α-factor secretion signal was
constructed and transformed into methylotrophic yeast P. pastoris by
electroporation. The recombinant strain produced single extracellular
protein with molecular weight of 120 kDa and cellobiase activity of
60 IU/ml. The optimum pH of the recombinant β-glucosidase was 5.0
and the optimum temperature was 50°C.
Abstract: The transformation of vocal characteristics aims at
modifying voice such that the intelligibility of aphonic voice is
increased or the voice characteristics of a speaker (source speaker) to
be perceived as if another speaker (target speaker) had uttered it. In
this paper, the current state-of-the-art voice characteristics
transformation methodology is reviewed. Special emphasis is placed
on voice transformation methodology and issues for improving the
transformed speech quality in intelligibility and naturalness are
discussed. In particular, it is suggested to use the modulation theory
of speech as a base for research on high quality voice transformation.
This approach allows one to separate linguistic, expressive, organic
and perspective information of speech, based on an analysis of how
they are fused when speech is produced. Therefore, this theory
provides the fundamentals not only for manipulating non-linguistic,
extra-/paralinguistic and intra-linguistic variables for voice
transformation, but also for paving the way for easily transposing the
existing voice transformation methods to emotion-related voice
quality transformation and speaking style transformation. From the
perspectives of human speech production and perception, the popular
voice transformation techniques are described and classified them
based on the underlying principles either from the speech production
or perception mechanisms or from both. In addition, the advantages
and limitations of voice transformation techniques and the
experimental manipulation of vocal cues are discussed through
examples from past and present research. Finally, a conclusion and
road map are pointed out for more natural voice transformation
algorithms in the future.
Abstract: Delivering course material via a virtual environment
is beneficial to today-s students because it offers the interactivity,
real-time interaction and social presence that students of all ages
have come to accept in our gaming rich community. It is essential
that the Net Generation also known as Generation Why, have
exposure to learning communities that encompass interactivity to
form social and educational connections. As student and professor
become interconnected through collaboration and interaction in a
virtual learning space, relationships develop and students begin to
take on an individual identity. With this in mind the research project
was developed to investigate the use of virtual environments on
student satisfaction and the effectiveness of course delivery.
Furthermore, the project was designed to integrate both interactive
(real-time) classes conducted in the Virtual Reality (VR)
environment while also creating archived VR sessions for student use
in retaining and reviewing course content.
Abstract: Since the European renewable energy directives set the
target for 22.1% of electricity generation to be supplied by 2010
[1], there has been increased interest in using green technologies
also within the urban enviroment. The most commonly considered
installations are solar thermal and solar photovoltaics. Nevertheless,
as observed by Bahaj et al. [2], small scale turbines can reduce the
built enviroment related CO2 emissions. Thus, in the last few years,
an increasing number of manufacturers have developed small wind
turbines specifically designed for the built enviroment. The present
work focuses on the integration into architectural systems of such
installations and presents a survey of successful case studies.
Abstract: This paper explores gender related barriers to interagency collaboration in statutory children safeguard partnerships against a theoretical framework that considers individuals, professions and organisations interacting as part of a complex adaptive system. We argue that gender-framed obstacles to effective communication between culturally discrepant agencies can ultimately impact on the effectiveness of policy delivery,. We focused our research on three partnership structures in Sefton Metropolitan Borough in order to observe how interactions occur, whether the agencies involved perceive their occupational environment as being gender affected and whether they believe this can hinder effective collaboration with other biased organisations. Our principal empirical findings indicate that there is a general awareness amongst professionals of the role that gender plays in each of the agencies reviewed, that gender may well constitute a barrier to effective communication, but there is a sense in which there is little scope for change in the short term. We aim to signal here, however, the need to change against the risk of service failure.
Abstract: The Prediction of aerodynamic characteristics and
shape optimization of airfoil under the ground effect have been carried
out by integration of computational fluid dynamics and the multiobjective
Pareto-based genetic algorithm. The main flow
characteristics around an airfoil of WIG craft are lift force, lift-to-drag
ratio and static height stability (H.S). However, they show a strong
trade-off phenomenon so that it is not easy to satisfy the design
requirements simultaneously. This difficulty can be resolved by the
optimal design. The above mentioned three characteristics are chosen
as the objective functions and NACA0015 airfoil is considered as a
baseline model in the present study. The profile of airfoil is
constructed by Bezier curves with fourteen control points and these
control points are adopted as the design variables. For multi-objective
optimization problems, the optimal solutions are not unique but a set
of non-dominated optima and they are called Pareto frontiers or Pareto
sets. As the results of optimization, forty numbers of non- dominated
Pareto optima can be obtained at thirty evolutions.
Abstract: The main goal of microarray experiments is to quantify the expression of every object on a slide as precisely as possible, with a further goal of clustering the objects. Recently, many studies have discussed clustering issues involving similar patterns of gene expression. This paper presents an application of fuzzy-type methods for clustering DNA microarray data that can be applied to typical comparisons. Clustering and analyses were performed on microarray and simulated data. The results show that fuzzy-possibility c-means clustering substantially improves the findings obtained by others.
Abstract: The article describes a case study on one of Czech
Republic-s manufacturing middle size enterprises (ME), where due to
the European financial crisis, production lines had to be redesigned
and optimized in order to minimize the total costs of the production
of goods. It is considered an optimization problem of minimizing the
total cost of the work load, according to the costs of the possible
locations of the workplaces, with an application of the Greedy
algorithm and a partial analogy to a Set Packing Problem. The
displacement of working tables in a company should be as a one-toone
monotone increasing function in order for the total costs of
production of the goods to be at minimum. We use a heuristic
approach with greedy algorithm for solving this linear optimization
problem, regardless the possible greediness which may appear and
we apply it in a Czech ME.
Abstract: This paper is introduced a modification to Diffie-
Hellman protocol to be applicable on the decimal numbers, which
they are the numbers between zero and one. For this purpose we
extend the theory of the congruence. The new congruence is over
the set of the real numbers and it is called the “real congruence"
or the “real modulus". We will refer to the existing congruence by
the “integer congruence" or the “integer modulus". This extension
will define new terms and redefine the existing terms. As the
properties and the theorems of the integer modulus are extended as
well. Modified Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol is produced a
sharing, secure and decimal secret key for the the cryptosystems that
depend on decimal numbers.
Abstract: This study deals with Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) studies of the interactions between the air flow and louvered
fins which equipped the automotive heat exchangers. 3D numerical
simulation results are obtained by using the ANSYS Fluent 13.0 code
and compared to experimental data. The paper studies the effect of
louver angle and louver pitch geometrical parameters, on overall
thermal hydraulic performances of louvered fins.
The comparison between CFD simulations and experimental data
show that established 3-D CFD model gives a good agreement. The
validation agrees, with about 7% of deviation respectively of friction
and Colburn factors to experimental results. As first, it is found that
the louver angle has a strong influence on the heat transfer rate. Then,
louver angle and louver pitch variation of the louvers and their effects
on thermal hydraulic performances are studied. In addition to this
study, it is shown that the second half of the fin takes has a
significant contribution on pressure drop increase without any
increase in heat transfer.
Abstract: Maintenance costs incurred on building differs. The
difference can be as results of the types, functions, age, building
health index, size, form height, location and complexity of the
building. These are contributing to the difficulty in maintenance
development of deterministic maintenance cost model. This paper is
concerns with reporting the preliminary findings on the creation of
building maintenance cost distributions for universities in Malaysia.
This study is triggered by the need to provide guides on maintenance
costs distributions for decision making. For this purpose, a survey
questionnaire was conducted to investigate the distribution of
maintenance costs in the universities. Altogether, responses were
received from twenty universities comprising both private and
publicly owned. The research found that engineering services,
roofing and finishes were the elements contributing the larger
segment of the maintenance costs. Furthermore, the study indicates
the significance of maintenance cost distribution as decision making
tool towards maintenance management.
Abstract: The major purpose of this study is to use network and multimedia technologies to build a game-based learning system for junior high school students to apply in learning “World Geography" through the “role-playing" game approaches. This study first investigated the motivation and habits of junior high school students to use the Internet and online games, and then designed a game-based learning system according to situated and game-based learning theories. A teaching experiment was conducted to analyze the learning effectiveness of students on the game-based learning system and the major factors affecting their learning. A questionnaire survey was used to understand the students- attitudes towards game-based learning. The results showed that the game-based learning system can enhance students- learning, but the gender of students and their habits in using the Internet have no significant impact on learning. Game experience has a significant impact on students- learning, and the higher the experience value the better the effectiveness of their learning. The results of questionnaire survey also revealed that the system can increase students- motivation and interest in learning "World Geography".
Abstract: Sharing motivations of viral advertisements by
consumers and the impacts of these advertisements on the
perceptions for brand will be questioned in this study. Three
fundamental questions are answered in the study. These are
advertisement watching and sharing motivations of individuals,
criteria of liking viral advertisement and the impact of individual
attitudes for viral advertisement on brand perception respectively.
This study will be carried out via a viral advertisement which was
practiced in Turkey. The data will be collected by survey method and
the sample of the study consists of individuals who experienced the
practice of sample advertisement. Data will be collected by online
survey method and will be analyzed by using SPSS statistical
package program.
Recently traditional advertisement mind have been changing. New
advertising approaches which have significant impacts on consumers
have been argued. Viral advertising is a modernist advertisement
mind which offers significant advantages to brands apart from
traditional advertising channels such as television, radio and
magazines. Viral advertising also known as Electronic Word-of-
Mouth (eWOM) consists of free spread of convincing messages sent
by brands among interpersonal communication. When compared to
the traditional advertising, a more provocative thematic approach is
argued.
The foundation of this approach is to create advertisements that
are worth sharing with others by consumers. When that fact is taken
into consideration, in a manner of speaking it can also be stated that
viral advertising is media engineering.
The content worth sharing makes people being a volunteer
spokesman of a brand and strengthens the emotional bonds among
brand and consumer. Especially for some sectors in countries which
are having traditional advertising channel limitations, viral
advertising creates vital advantages.
Abstract: The production of ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) was
simulated through Aspen Plus. The objective of this work was to use
the simulation results to be an alternative platform for ETBE
production from naphtha cracking wastes for the industry to develop.
ETBE is produced from isobutylene which is one of the wastes in
naphtha cracking process. The content of isobutylene in the waste is
less than 30% weight. The main part of this work was to propose a
process to save the environment and to increase the product value by
converting a great majority of the wastes into ETBE. Various
processes were considered to determine the optimal production of
ETBE. The proposed process increased ETBE production yield by
100% from conventional process with the purity of 96% weight. The
results showed a great promise for developing this proposed process
in an industrial scale.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of building a unified
structure to describe a peer-to-peer system. Our approach uses the
well-known notations in the P2P area, and provides a global
architecture that puts a separation between the platform specific
characteristics and the logical ones. In order to enable the navigation
of the peer across platforms, a roaming layer is added. The latter
provides a capability to define a unique identification of peer and
assures the mapping between this identification and those used in
each platform. The mapping task is assured by special wrapper. In
addition, ontology is proposed to give a clear presentation of the
structure of the P2P system without interesting in the content and the
resource managed by the peer. The ontology is created according to
the web semantic paradigm and using OWL language; so, the
structure of the system is considered as a web resource.
Abstract: This paper describes a novel projection algorithm, the Projection Onto Span Algorithm (POSA) for wavelet-based superresolution and removing speckle (in wavelet domain) of unknown variance from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images. Although the POSA is good as a new superresolution algorithm for image enhancement, image metrology and biometric identification, here one will use it like a tool of despeckling, being the first time that an algorithm of super-resolution is used for despeckling of SAR images. Specifically, the speckled SAR image is decomposed into wavelet subbands; POSA is applied to the high subbands, and reconstruct a SAR image from the modified detail coefficients. Experimental results demonstrate that the new method compares favorably to several other despeckling methods on test SAR images.
Abstract: Ontology Matching is a task needed in various applica-tions, for example for comparison or merging purposes. In literature,many algorithms solving the matching problem can be found, butmost of them do not consider instances at all. Mappings are deter-mined by calculating the string-similarity of labels, by recognizinglinguistic word relations (synonyms, subsumptions etc.) or by ana-lyzing the (graph) structure. Due to the facts that instances are oftenmodeled within the ontology and that the set of instances describesthe meaning of the concepts better than their meta information,instances should definitely be incorporated into the matching process.In this paper several novel instance-based matching algorithms arepresented which enhance the quality of matching results obtainedwith common concept-based methods. Different kinds of formalismsare use to classify concepts on account of their instances and finallyto compare the concepts directly.KeywordsInstances, Ontology Matching, Semantic Web
Abstract: This work presents a new phonetic transcription system based on a tree of hierarchical pronunciation rules expressed as context-specific grapheme-phoneme correspondences. The tree is automatically inferred from a phonetic dictionary by incrementally analyzing deeper context levels, eventually representing a minimum set of exhaustive rules that pronounce without errors all the words in the training dictionary and that can be applied to out-of-vocabulary words. The proposed approach improves upon existing rule-tree-based techniques in that it makes use of graphemes, rather than letters, as elementary orthographic units. A new linear algorithm for the segmentation of a word in graphemes is introduced to enable outof- vocabulary grapheme-based phonetic transcription. Exhaustive rule trees provide a canonical representation of the pronunciation rules of a language that can be used not only to pronounce out-of-vocabulary words, but also to analyze and compare the pronunciation rules inferred from different dictionaries. The proposed approach has been implemented in C and tested on Oxford British English and Basic English. Experimental results show that grapheme-based rule trees represent phonetically sound rules and provide better performance than letter-based rule trees.
Abstract: A transient finite element model has been developed
to study the heat transfer and fluid flow during spot Gas Tungsten
Arc Welding (GTAW) on stainless steel. Temperature field, fluid
velocity and electromagnetic fields are computed inside the cathode,
arc-plasma and anode using a unified MHD formulation. The
developed model is then used to study the influence of different
helium-argon gas mixtures on both the energy transferred to the
workpiece and the time evolution of the weld pool dimensions. It is
found that the addition of helium to argon increases the heat flux
density on the weld axis by a factor that can reach 6.5. This induces
an increase in the weld pool depth by a factor of 3. It is also found
that the addition of only 10% of argon to helium decreases
considerably the weld pool depth, which is due to the electrical
conductivity of the mixture that increases significantly when argon is
added to helium.