Abstract: In this paper a study on the vibration of thin
cylindrical shells with ring supports and made of functionally graded
materials (FGMs) composed of stainless steel and nickel is presented.
Material properties vary along the thickness direction of the shell
according to volume fraction power law. The cylindrical shells have
ring supports which are arbitrarily placed along the shell and impose
zero lateral deflections. The study is carried out based on third order
shear deformation shell theory (T.S.D.T). The analysis is carried out
using Hamilton-s principle. The governing equations of motion of
FGM cylindrical shells are derived based on shear deformation
theory. Results are presented on the frequency characteristics,
influence of ring support position and the influence of boundary
conditions. The present analysis is validated by comparing results
with those available in the literature.
Abstract: Steroidal hormones with the efficient changes on the epiphyseal growth plate may influence tissue structure properties. Presents paper to investigate the effects of gonadectomy in the pattern distribution of the epiphyseal structure. Fifteen adult female New Zealand white rabbits were separated into three groups. One group was intact and others groups were selected for surgical operation. From these two groups, one group carried out steroidal administration. The results obtained showed that there is no statistically difference in the mean diameter of the growth plate cells between all three groups. The maximum value of the cartilage cells were allocated to the gonadectomized group and the minimum number were observed in Hormonal induced group significantly. Growth plate height was significantly greater in gonadectomized group than in two other groups.
Abstract: As the resources for naturally occurring aggregates
diminished at an ever increasing rate, researchers are keen to utilize
recycled materials in road construction in harmony with sustainable
development. Steel slag, a waste product from the steel making
industry, is one of the recycled materials reported to exhibit great
potential to replace naturally occurring aggregates in asphalt
mixtures. This paper presents the resilient modulus properties of
steel slag asphalt mixtures subjected to short term oven ageing
(STOA). The resilient modulus test was carried out to evaluate the
stiffness of asphalt mixtures at 10ºC, 25ºC and 40ºC. Previous
studies showed that stiffness changes in asphalt mixture played an
important role in inflicting pavement distress particularly cracking
and rutting that are common at low and high temperatures
respectively. Temperature was found to significantly influence the
resilient modulus of asphalt mixes. The resilient modulus of the
asphalt specimens tested decreased by more than 90% when the test
temperature increased from 10°C to 40°C.
Abstract: Meshing is the process of discretizing problem
domain into many sub domains before the numerical calculation can
be performed. One of the most popular meshes among many types of meshes is tetrahedral mesh, due to their flexibility to fit into almost
any domain shape. In both 2D and 3D domains, triangular and tetrahedral meshes can be generated by using Delaunay triangulation.
The quality of mesh is an important factor in performing any Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations as the results is
highly affected by the mesh quality. Many efforts had been done in
order to improve the quality of the mesh. The paper describes a mesh
generation routine which has been developed capable of generating
high quality tetrahedral cells in arbitrary complex geometry. A few
test cases in CFD problems are used for testing the mesh generator.
The result of the mesh is compared with the one generated by a
commercial software. The results show that no sliver exists for the
meshes generated, and the overall quality is acceptable since the percentage of the bad tetrahedral is relatively small. The boundary
recovery was also successfully done where all the missing faces are
rebuilt.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the probabilistic numerical
solution of the problems in biomechanics and mining. Applications of
Simulation-Based Reliability Assessment (SBRA) Method are
presented in the solution of designing of the external fixators applied
in traumatology and orthopaedics (these fixators can be applied for
the treatment of open and unstable fractures etc.) and in the solution
of a hard rock (ore) disintegration process (i.e. the bit moves into the
ore and subsequently disintegrates it, the results are compared with
experiments, new design of excavation tool is proposed.
Abstract: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in the
world among women. Many therapies have been designed to treat
this disease. Mamectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are still
the main therapies of breast cancer. However, the results were
unsatisfactory and still far from the ideal treatment.
PM 701is a natural product, has anticancer activity. The bioactive
fraction PMF and subfraction PMFK had been isolated from PM701.
PM 701 and its fractions were proved to have a cytotoxic properties
against different cancer cell lines. This article is directed for the
further examination of lyophilized PM701 and its active fractions on
the growth of breast cancer cells (MCF-7). PM 701, PMF or PMFK
were adding to the cultural medium, where MCF-7 is incubated.
PM 701, PMF or PMFK were able to inhibit significantly the
proliferation of MCF-7 cells, Moreover these new agents were
proved to induce apoptosis of the breast cancer cells; through its
direct effect on the nuclei.
Abstract: Data rate, tolerable bit error rate or frame error rate
and range & coverage are the key performance requirement of a
communication link. In this paper performance of MFSK link is
analyzed in terms of bit error rate, number of errors and total number
of data processed. In the communication link model proposed, which
is implemented using MATLAB block set, an improvement in BER
is observed. Different parameters which effects and enables to keep
BER low in M-ary communication system are also identified.
Abstract: A unique combination of adsorption and
electrochemical regeneration with a proprietary adsorbent material
called Nyex 100 was introduced at the University of Manchester for
waste water treatment applications. Nyex 100 is based on graphite
intercalation compound. It is non porous and electrically conducing
adsorbent material. This material exhibited very small BET surface
area i.e. 2.75 m2g-1, in consequence, small adsorptive capacities for
the adsorption of various organic pollutants were obtained. This work
aims to develop composite adsorbent material essentially capable of
electrochemical regeneration coupled with improved adsorption
characteristics. An organic dye, acid violet 17 was used as standard
organic pollutant. The developed composite material was
successfully electrochemically regenerated using a DC current of 1 A
for 60 minutes. Regeneration efficiency was maintained at around
100% for five adsorption-regeneration cycles.
Abstract: An optimal control problem for a mathematical model of efficiency of antiviral therapy in hepatitis B virus infections is considered. The aim of the study is to control the new viral production, block the new infection cells and maintain the number of uninfected cells in the given range. The optimal controls represent the efficiency of antiviral therapy in inhibiting viral production and preventing new infections. Defining the cost functional, the optimal control problem is converted into the constrained optimization problem and the first order optimality system is derived. For the numerical simulation, we propose the steepest descent algorithm based on the adjoint variable method. A computer program in MATLAB is developed for the numerical simulations.
Abstract: Arbitrarily shaped video objects are an important
concept in modern video coding methods. The techniques presently
used are not based on image elements but rather video objects having
an arbitrary shape. In this paper, spatial shape error concealment
techniques to be used for object-based image in error-prone
environments are proposed. We consider a geometric shape
representation consisting of the object boundary, which can be
extracted from the α-plane. Three different approaches are used to
replace a missing boundary segment: Bézier interpolation, Bézier
approximation and NURBS approximation. Experimental results on
object shape with different concealment difficulty demonstrate the
performance of the proposed methods. Comparisons with proposed
methods are also presented.
Abstract: This study examined a habitat-suitability assessment method namely the Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA). A virtual species was created and then dispatched in a geographic information system model of a real landscape in three historic scenarios: (1) spreading, (2) equilibrium, and (3) overabundance. In each scenario, the virtual species was sampled and these simulated data sets were used as inputs for the ENFA to reconstruct the habitat suitability model. The 'equilibrium' scenario gives the highest quantity and quality among three scenarios. ENFA was sensitive to the distribution scenarios but not sensitive to sample sizes. The use of a virtual species proved to be a very efficient method, allowing one to fully control the quality of the input data as well as to accurately evaluate the predictive power of the analyses.
Abstract: Growing world population has fundamental impacts
and often catastrophic on natural habitat. The immethodical
consumption of energy, destruction of the forests and extinction of
plant and animal species are the consequence of this experience.
Urban sustainability and sustainable urban development, that is so
spoken these days, should be considered as a strategy, goal and
policy, beyond just considering environmental issues and protection.
The desert-s climate has made a bunch of problems for its residents.
Very hot and dry climate in summers of the Iranian desert areas,
when there was no access to modern energy source and mechanical
cooling systems in the past, made Iranian architects to design a
natural ventilation system in their buildings. The structure, like a
tower going upward the roof, besides its ornamental application and
giving a beautiful view to the building, was used as a spontaneous
ventilation system. In this paper, it has been tried to name the
problems of the area and it-s inconvenience, then some answers has
pointed out in order to solve the problems and as an alternative
solution BADGIR (wind-catcher) has been introduced as a solution
knowing that it has been playing a major role in dealing with the
problems.
Abstract: The distinction among urban, periurban and rural areas represents a classical example of uncertainty in land classification. Satellite images, geostatistical analysis and all kinds of spatial data are very useful in urban sprawl studies, but it is important to define precise rules in combining great amounts of data to build complex knowledge about territory. Rough Set theory may be a useful method to employ in this field. It represents a different mathematical approach to uncertainty by capturing the indiscernibility. Two different phenomena can be indiscernible in some contexts and classified in the same way when combining available information about them. This approach has been applied in a case of study, comparing the results achieved with both Map Algebra technique and Spatial Rough Set. The study case area, Potenza Province, is particularly suitable for the application of this theory, because it includes 100 municipalities with different number of inhabitants and morphologic features.
Abstract: This paper presents a new fingerprint coding technique
based on contourlet transform and multistage vector quantization.
Wavelets have shown their ability in representing natural images that
contain smooth areas separated with edges. However, wavelets
cannot efficiently take advantage of the fact that the edges usually
found in fingerprints are smooth curves. This issue is addressed by
directional transforms, known as contourlets, which have the
property of preserving edges. The contourlet transform is a new
extension to the wavelet transform in two dimensions using
nonseparable and directional filter banks. The computation and
storage requirements are the major difficulty in implementing a
vector quantizer. In the full-search algorithm, the computation and
storage complexity is an exponential function of the number of bits
used in quantizing each frame of spectral information. The storage
requirement in multistage vector quantization is less when compared
to full search vector quantization. The coefficients of contourlet
transform are quantized by multistage vector quantization. The
quantized coefficients are encoded by Huffman coding. The results
obtained are tabulated and compared with the existing wavelet based
ones.
Abstract: Poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) molecules attached to surfaces have shown high potential as a protein repellent due to their flexibility and highly water solubility. A quartz crystal microbalance recording frequency and dissipation changes (QCM-D) has been used to study the adsorption from aqueous solutions, of lysozyme and α-lactalbumin proteins (the last with and without calcium) onto modified stainless steel surfaces. Surfaces were coated with poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) and silicate before grafting on PEG molecules. Protein adsorption was also performed on the bare stainless steel surface as a control. All adsorptions were conducted at 23°C and pH 7.2. The results showed that the presence of PEG molecules significantly reduced the adsorption of lysozyme and α- lactalbumin (with calcium) onto the stainless steel surface. By contrast, and unexpected, PEG molecules enhanced the adsorption of α-lactalbumin (without calcium). It is suggested that the PEG -α- lactalbumin hydrophobic interaction plays a dominant role which leads to protein aggregation at the surface for this latter observation. The findings also lead to the general conclusion that PEG molecules are not a universal protein repellent. PEG-on-PEI surfaces were better at inhibiting the adsorption of lysozyme and α-lactalbumin (with calcium) than with PEG-on-silicate surfaces.
Abstract: The experiment was then conducted to investigate the
effect of cassava peel addition in the concentrate on the performance
of lactating dairy cows. Twenty four Holstein Friesian crossbred
(>87.5% Holstein Friesian) lactating dairy cows in mid lactation;
averaging 12.2+2.1 kg of milk, 119+45 days in milk, 44.1+6.2
months old and 449+33 kg live weight, were stratified for milk yield,
days in milk, age, stage of lactation and body weight, and then
randomly allocated to three treatment groups. The first, second and
third groups were fed concentrates containing the respective cassava
peel, 0, 20 and 40%. All cows were fed ad libitum corn silage and
freely access to clean water. Dry matter intake, 4%FCM, milk
composition and body weight change were affected (P
Abstract: The forest stand consisted of four layers. The species
composition between the third and the bottom layers was almost
similar, whereas it was almost exclusive between the top and the lower
three layers. The values of Shannon-s index H' and Pielou-s index
J ' tended to increase from the bottom layer upward, except for
H' -value of the top layer. The values of H' and J ' were 4.21 bit
and 0.73, respectively, for the total stand. High woody species
diversity of the forest depended on large trees in the upper layers,
which trend was different from a subtropical evergreen broadleaf
forest grown in silicate habitat in the northern part of Okinawa Island.
The spatial distribution of trees was overlapped between the third and
the bottom layers, whereas it was independent or slightly exclusive
between the top and the lower three layers. Mean tree weight of each
layer decreased from the top toward the bottom layer, whereas the
corresponding tree density increased from the top downward. This
relationship was analogous to the process of self-thinning plant
populations.
Abstract: Amarindra-vinitchai-mahaisuraya Bhiman throne hall
is one of the most significant throne halls in the grand palace in the
Ratthanakosin city situated in Bangkok, Thailand. This is the first
group of throne halls built in order to serve as a place for meetings,
performing state affairs and royal duties until the present time. The
structure and pattern of architectural design including the decoration
and interior design of the throne hall obviously exhibits and convey
the status of the king under the context of Thai society in the early
period of Ratthanakosin era. According to the tradition of ruling the
kingdom in absolute monarchy which had been in place since
Ayutthaya era (A.D.1350-1767), the king was deemed as Deva Raja,
the highest power and authority over the kingdom and as the greatest
emperor of the universe (Chakkravatin). The architectural design
adopted the concept of “Prasada" or Viman which served as the
dwelling place of the gods and was presented in the form of “Thai
traditional architecture" For the interior design of the throne hall, it
had been adopted to be the heaven and the centre of the Universe in
line with the cosmological beliefs of ancient people described in
scripture Tribhumikatha (Tri Bhumi) written by Phra Maha Thamma
Raja (Phraya Lithai) of the Sukhothai era (A.D.1347-1368).
According to this belief, the throne hall had been designed to represent
mount Meru, the central of the universe. On the top end of Mount
Meru is situated the Viman and dwelling place of Indra who is the king
of gods according to the idea of Deva Raja (the king god Avatar). At
the same time, Indra also existed as the king of the universe
simultaneously.
Abstract: The paper presented a transient population dynamics of phase singularities in 2D Beeler-Reuter model. Two stochastic modelings are examined: (i) the Master equation approach with the transition rate (i.e., λ(n, t) = λ(t)n and μ(n, t) = μ(t)n) and (ii) the nonlinear Langevin equation approach with a multiplicative noise. The exact general solution of the Master equation with arbitrary time-dependent transition rate is given. Then, the exact solution of the mean field equation for the nonlinear Langevin equation is also given. It is demonstrated that transient population dynamics is successfully identified by the generalized Logistic equation with fractional higher order nonlinear term. It is also demonstrated the necessity of introducing time-dependent transition rate in the master equation approach to incorporate the effect of nonlinearity.
Abstract: In this article the authors are researching cultural
differences between rural and urban characters in case of
contemporary Kazakh cinema.Two motion pictures are analyzed:
“Strizh" (2007) by AbaiKulbai and “Seker" (2009) by
SabitKurmanbekov.According to the authors- opinion ateenage girl
characters in these two films reflect two cultures (urban and rural) of
Kazakh society, which displays complicated socio-cultural processes
of modern Kazakhstan.