Abstract: The development of Artificial Neural Networks
(ANNs) is usually a slow process in which the human expert has to
test several architectures until he finds the one that achieves best
results to solve a certain problem. This work presents a new
technique that uses Genetic Programming (GP) for automatically
generating ANNs. To do this, the GP algorithm had to be changed in
order to work with graph structures, so ANNs can be developed. This
technique also allows the obtaining of simplified networks that solve
the problem with a small group of neurons. In order to measure the
performance of the system and to compare the results with other
ANN development methods by means of Evolutionary Computation
(EC) techniques, several tests were performed with problems based
on some of the most used test databases. The results of those
comparisons show that the system achieves good results comparable
with the already existing techniques and, in most of the cases, they
worked better than those techniques.
Abstract: A product development for green logistics model using
the fuzzy analytic network process method is presented for evaluating
the relationships among the product design, the manufacturing
activities, and the green supply chain. In the product development
stage, there can be alternative ways to design the detailed components
to satisfy the design concept and product requirement. In different
design alternative cases, the manufacturing activities can be different.
In addition, the manufacturing activities can affect the green supply
chain of the components and product. In this research, a fuzzy analytic
network process evaluation model is presented for evaluating the
criteria in product design, manufacturing activities, and green supply
chain. The comparison matrices for evaluating the criteria among the
three groups are established. The total relational values between the
three groups represent the relationships and effects. In application, the
total relational values can be used to evaluate the design alternative
cases for decision-making to select a suitable design case and the green
supply chain. In this presentation, an example product is illustrated. It
shows that the model is useful for integrated evaluation of design and
manufacturing and green supply chain for the purpose of product
development for green logistics.
Abstract: In this paper the optimality of the solution of an
existing real word assignment problem known as the seat assignment
problem using Seat Assignment Method (SAM) is discussed. SAM is
the newly driven method from three existing methods, Hungarian
Method, Northwest Corner Method and Least Cost Method in a
special way that produces the easiness & fairness among all methods
that solve the seat assignment problem.
Abstract: As far as the latest technological improvements are concerned, digital systems more become popular than the past. Despite this growing demand to the digital systems, content copy and attack against the digital cinema contents becomes a serious problem. To solve the above security problem, we propose “traceable watermarking using Hash functions for digital cinema system. Digital Cinema is a great application for traceable watermarking since it uses watermarking technology during content play as well as content transmission. The watermark is embedded into the randomly selected movie frames using CRC-32 techniques. CRC-32 is a Hash function. Using it, the embedding position is distributed by Hash Function so that any party cannot break off the watermarking or will not be able to change. Finally, our experimental results show that proposed DWT watermarking method using CRC-32 is much better than the convenient watermarking techniques in terms of robustness, image quality and its simple but unbreakable algorithm.
Abstract: Regular physical activity contributes positively to physiological and psychological health. This study aimed to identify exercise behavior changes, self efficacy and decisional balance in nursing and midwifery students. This was a cross-sectional study carried out in Iran.300undergraduate nursing and midwifery students participated in this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire including demographic information, exercise stages of change, exercise self efficacy and pros and cons exercise decisional balance. The analysis was performed using the SPSS.A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel methodology for enabling
debugging and tracing of production web applications without
affecting its normal flow and functionality. This method of debugging
enables developers and maintenance engineers to replace a set of
existing resources such as images, server side scripts, cascading
style sheets with another set of resources per web session. The new
resources will only be active in the debug session and other sessions
will not be affected. This methodology will help developers in tracing
defects, especially those that appear only in production environments
and in exploring the behaviour of the system. A realization of the
proposed methodology has been implemented in Java.
Abstract: Predict daily global solar radiation (GSR) based on meteorological variables, using Multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks is the main objective of this study. Daily mean air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours, evaporation, wind speed, and soil temperature values between 2002 and 2006 for Dezful city in Iran (32° 16' N, 48° 25' E), are used in this study. The measured data between 2002 and 2005 are used to train the neural networks while the data for 214 days from 2006 are used as testing data.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach for repairing word order errors in English text by reordering words in a sentence and choosing the version that maximizes the number of trigram hits according to a language model. A possible way for reordering the words is to use all the permutations. The problem is that for a sentence with length N words the number of all permutations is N!. The novelty of this method concerns the use of an efficient confusion matrix technique for reordering the words. The confusion matrix technique has been designed in order to reduce the search space among permuted sentences. The limitation of search space is succeeded using the statistical inference of N-grams. The results of this technique are very interesting and prove that the number of permuted sentences can be reduced by 98,16%. For experimental purposes a test set of TOEFL sentences was used and the results show that more than 95% can be repaired using the proposed method.
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: This paper presents a procedure for modeling and tuning the parameters of Thyristor Controlled Series Compensation (TCSC) controller in a multi-machine power system to improve transient stability. First a simple transfer function model of TCSC controller for stability improvement is developed and the parameters of the proposed controller are optimally tuned. Genetic algorithm (GA) is employed for the optimization of the parameter-constrained nonlinear optimization problem implemented in a simulation environment. By minimizing an objective function in which the oscillatory rotor angle deviations of the generators are involved, transient stability performance of the system is improved. The proposed TCSC controller is tested on a multi-machine system and the simulation results are presented. The nonlinear simulation results validate the effectiveness of proposed approach for transient stability improvement in a multimachine power system installed with a TCSC. The simulation results also show that the proposed TCSC controller is also effective in damping low frequency oscillations.
Abstract: Cow milk, is a product of the mammary gland and
soymilk is a beverage made from soybeans; it is the liquid that
remains after soybeans are soaked. In this research effort, we
compared nutritional parameters of this two kind milk such as total
fat, fiber, protein, minerals (Ca, Fe and P), fatty acids, carbohydrate,
lactose, water, total solids, ash, pH, acidity and calories content in
one cup (245 g). Results showed soymilk contains 4.67 grams of fat,
0.52 of fatty acids, 3.18 of fiber, 6.73 of protein, 4.43 of
carbohydrate, 0.00 of lactose, 228.51 of water, 10.40 of total solids
and 0.66 of ash, also 9.80 milligrams of Ca, 1.42 of Fe, and 120.05 of
P, 79 Kcal of calories, pH=6.74 and acidity was 0.24%. Cow milk
contains 8.15 grams of fat, 5.07 of fatty acids, 0.00 of fiber, 8.02 of
protein, 11.37 of carbohydrate, ´Çá4.27 of lactose, 214.69 of water,
12.90 of total solids, 1.75 of ash, 290.36 milligrams of Ca, 0.12 of
Fe, and 226.92 of P, 150 Kcal of calories, pH=6.90 and acidity was
0.21% . Soy milk is one of plant-based complete proteins and cow
milk is a rich source of nutrients as well. Cow milk is containing near
twice as much fat as and ten times more fatty acids do soymilk. Cow
milk contains greater amounts of mineral (except Fe) it contain more
than three hundred times the amount of Ca and nearly twice the
amount of P as does soymilk but soymilk contains more Fe (ten time
more) than does cow milk. Cow milk and soy milk contain nearly
identical amounts of protein and water and fiber is a big plus, dairy
has none. Although what we choose to drink is really a mater of
personal preference and our health objectives but looking at the
comparison, soy looks like healthier choices.
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: 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: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the
mucoadhesion and the release of nicotinamide gel formulations using
in vitro methods. An agar plate technique was used to investigate the
adhesiveness of the gels whereas a diffusion apparatus was employed
to determine the release of nicotinamide from the gels. In this
respect, 10% w/w nicotinamide gels containing bioadhesive
polymers: Carbopol 934P (0.5-2% w/w), hydroxypropylmethyl
cellulose (HPMC) (4-10% w/w), sodium carboxymethyl cellulose
(SCMC) (4-6% w/w) and methylcellulose 4000 (MC) (3-5% w/w)
were prepared. The gel formulations had pH values in the range of
7.14 - 8.17, which were considered appropriate to oral mucosa
application. In general, the rank order of pH values appeared to be
SCMC > MC4000 > HPMC > Carbopol 934P. Types and
concentrations of polymers used somewhat affected the
adhesiveness. It was found that anionic polymers (Carbopol 934 and
SCMC) adhered more firmly to the agar plate than the neutral
polymers (HPMC and MC 4000). The formulation containing 0.5%
Carbopol 934P (F1) showed the highest release rate. With the
exception of the formulation F1, the neutral polymers tended to give
higher relate rates than the anionic polymers. For oral tissue
treatment, the optimum has to be balanced between the residence
time (adhesiveness) of the formulations and the release rate of the
drug. The formulations containing the anionic polymers: Carbopol
934P or SCMC possessed suitable physical properties (appearance,
pH and viscosity). In addition, for anionic polymer formulations,
justifiable mucoadhesive properties and reasonable release rates of
nicotinamide were achieved. Accordingly, these gel formulations
may be applied for the treatment of oral mucosal lesions.
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: The common practice of operating S-rotor is in an
open environment; however there are times when the rotor is
installed in a bounded environment and there might be changes in the
performance of the rotor. This paper presents the changes in the
performance of S-rotor when operated in bounded flows. The
investigation was conducted experimentally to compare the
performance of the rotors in bounded environment against open
environment. Three different rotors models were designed, fabricated
and subjected to experimental measurements. All of the three models
were having 600 mm height and 300 mm Diameter. They were tested
in three different flow environments; namely: partially bounded
environment, fully bounded environment and open environment.
Rotors were found to have better starting up capabilities when
operated in bounded environment. Apart from that, all rotors manage
to achieve higher Power and Torque Coefficients at a higher Tip
Speed Ratio as compared to the open environment.
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: Intelligent tutoring systems constitute an evolution of computer-aided educational software. We present here the modules of an intelligent tutoring system for Automatic Control, developed in our department. Through the software application developed,students can perform complete automatic control laboratory experiments, either over the departmental local area network or over the Internet. Monitoring of access to the system (local as well as international), along with student performance statistics, has yielded strongly encouraging results (as of fall 2004), despite the advanced technical content of the presented paradigm, thus showing the potential of the system developed for education and for training.
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.