Abstract: This paper addresses one important aspect of
combustion system analysis, the spray evaporation and
dispersion modeling. In this study we assume an empty
cylinder which is as a simulator for a ramjet engine and the
cylinder has been studied by cold flow. Four nozzles have the
duties of injection which are located in the entrance of
cylinder. The air flow comes into the cylinder from one side
and injection operation will be done. By changing injection
velocity and entrance air flow velocity, we have studied
droplet sizing and efficient mass fraction of fuel vapor near
and at the exit area. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside
the flammability limit as the efficient mass fraction. Further,
we decreased the initial temperature of fuel droplets and we
have repeated the investigating again. To fulfill the calculation
we used a modified version of KIVA-3V.
Abstract: Academic research information service is a must for surveying previous studies in research and development process. OntoFrame is an academic research information service under Semantic Web framework different from simple keyword-based services such as CiteSeer and Google Scholar. The first purpose of this study is for revealing user behavior in their surveys, the objects of using academic research information services, and their needs. The second is for applying lessons learned from the results to OntoFrame.
Abstract: Stable nonzero populations without random deaths
caused by the Verhulst factor (Verhulst-free) are a rarity. Majority
either grow without bounds or die of excessive harmful mutations.
To delay the accumulation of bad genes or diseases, a new
environmental parameter Γ is introduced in the simulation. Current
results demonstrate that stability may be achieved by setting Γ = 0.1.
These steady states approach a maximum size that scales inversely
with reproduction age.
Abstract: The Wavelet-Galerkin finite element method for
solving the one-dimensional heat equation is presented in this work.
Two types of basis functions which are the Lagrange and multi-level
wavelet bases are employed to derive the full form of matrix system.
We consider both linear and quadratic bases in the Galerkin method.
Time derivative is approximated by polynomial time basis that
provides easily extend the order of approximation in time space. Our
numerical results show that the rate of convergences for the linear
Lagrange and the linear wavelet bases are the same and in order 2
while the rate of convergences for the quadratic Lagrange and the
quadratic wavelet bases are approximately in order 4. It also reveals
that the wavelet basis provides an easy treatment to improve
numerical resolutions that can be done by increasing just its desired
levels in the multilevel construction process.
Abstract: The work we have accomplished in implementing a
Mobile Payment mechanism that enables customers to pay bills for
groceries and other purchased items in a store through the means of a
mobile phone, specifically a Smartphone. The mode of transaction, as
far as communication between the customer-s handset and the
merchant-s POS is concerned, we have decided upon NFC (Near
Field Communication). This is due to the fact that for the most part,
Pakistani Smartphone users have handsets that have Android mobile
OS, which supports the aforementioned platform, IOS, on the other
hand does not.
Abstract: purpose of this study was to investigate the current status of support services for students with special education needs (SEN) at colleges and universities in Taiwan. Seventy-two college and universities received a questionnaire on its resource room operation process and four resource room staffs each from different areas were interviewed through semi- structured interview forms. The main findings were (1) most colleges and universities did offer sufficient administrative resources; (2) more efforts on preventions for SEN students and establishment of disability awareness should be made for all campus faculties ; (3) more comprehensive services were required to help students to have better transition into post-school life; (4) most schools provided basic administrative resource requirements but qualities of the resource room programs needed to be enhanced; and (5) most resource room staffs lacked of professional knowledge in counseling the SEN students which needed to be strengthened in the future.
Abstract: In this paper, a benchmarking framework is presented
for the performance assessment of irrigations systems. Firstly, a data
envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to measure the technical
efficiency of irrigation systems. This method, based on linear
programming, aims to determine a consistent efficiency ranking of
irrigation systems in which known inputs, such as water volume
supplied and total irrigated area, and a given output corresponding to
the total value of irrigation production are taken into account
simultaneously. Secondly, in order to examine the irrigation
efficiency in more detail, a cross – system comparison is elaborated
using a performance indicators set selected by IWMI. The above
methodologies were applied in Thessaloniki plain, located in
Northern Greece while the results of the application are presented and
discussed. The conjunctive use of DEA and performance indicators
seems to be a very useful tool for efficiency assessment and
identification of best practices in irrigation systems management.
Abstract: The paper deals with quality labels used in the food products market, especially with labels of quality, labels of origin, and labels of organic farming. The aim of the paper is to identify perception of these labels by consumers in the Czech Republic. The first part refers to the definition and specification of food quality labels that are relevant in the Czech Republic. The second part includes the discussion of marketing research results. Data were collected with personal questioning method. Empirical findings on 150 respondents are related to consumer awareness and perception of national and European food quality labels used in the Czech Republic, attitudes to purchases of labelled products, and interest in information regarding the labels. Statistical methods, in the concrete Pearson´s chi-square test of independence, coefficient of contingency, and coefficient of association are used to determinate if significant differences do exist among selected demographic categories of Czech consumers.
Abstract: Experimental data from an atmospheric air/water terrain slugging case has been made available by the Shell Amsterdam research center, and has been subject to numerical simulation and comparison with a one-dimensional two-phase slug tracking simulator under development at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The code is based on tracking of liquid slugs in pipelines by use of a Lagrangian grid formulation implemented in Cµ by use of object oriented techniques. An existing hybrid spatial discretization scheme is tested, in which the stratified regions are modelled by the two-fluid model. The slug regions are treated incompressible, thus requiring a single momentum balance over the whole slug. Upon comparison with the experimental data, the period of the simulated severe slugging cycle is observed to be sensitive to slug generation in the horizontal parts of the system. Two different slug initiation methods have been tested with the slug tracking code, and grid dependency has been investigated.
Abstract: The paper presents an approach for handling uncertain
information in deductive databases using multivalued logics. Uncertainty
means that database facts may be assigned logical values other
than the conventional ones - true and false. The logical values represent
various degrees of truth, which may be combined and propagated
by applying the database rules. A corresponding multivalued database
semantics is defined. We show that it extends successful conventional
semantics as the well-founded semantics, and has a polynomial time
data complexity.
Abstract: Decision fusion is one of hot research topics in
classification area, which aims to achieve the best possible
performance for the task at hand. In this paper, we
investigate the usefulness of this concept to improve change
detection accuracy in remote sensing. Thereby, outputs of
two fuzzy change detectors based respectively on
simultaneous and comparative analysis of multitemporal
data are fused by using fuzzy integral operators. This
method fuses the objective evidences produced by the
change detectors with respect to fuzzy measures that express
the difference of performance between them. The proposed
fusion framework is evaluated in comparison with some
ordinary fuzzy aggregation operators. Experiments carried
out on two SPOT images showed that the fuzzy integral was
the best performing. It improves the change detection
accuracy while attempting to equalize the accuracy rate in
both change and no change classes.
Abstract: In this study, the Taguchi method was used to optimize the effect of HALO structure or halo implant variations on threshold voltage (VTH) and leakage current (ILeak) in 45nm p-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) device. Besides halo implant dose, the other process parameters which used were Source/Drain (S/D) implant dose, oxide growth temperature and silicide anneal temperature. This work was done using TCAD simulator, consisting of a process simulator, ATHENA and device simulator, ATLAS. These two simulators were combined with Taguchi method to aid in design and optimize the process parameters. In this research, the most effective process parameters with respect to VTH and ILeak are halo implant dose (40%) and S/D implant dose (52%) respectively. Whereas the second ranking factor affecting VTH and ILeak are oxide growth temperature (32%) and halo implant dose (34%) respectively. The results show that after optimizations approaches is -0.157V at ILeak=0.195mA/μm.
Abstract: It is impossible to think about democracy without elections. The litmus test of any electoral process in any country is the possibility of a one time minority to become a majority at another time and a peaceful transition of power. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa though the multi-party elections appeared to be competitive they failed the acid test of democracy: peaceful regime change in a free and fair election. Failure to solve electoral disputes might lead to bloody electoral conflicts as witnessed in many emerging democracies in Africa. The aim of this paper is to investigate electoral conflicts in Africa since the end of the Cold War by using the 2005 post-election violence in Ethiopia as a case study. In Ethiopia, the coming to power of the EPRDF in 1991 marked the fall of the Derg dictatorial military government and the beginning of a multi-party democracy. The country held multi-party parliamentary elections in 1995, 2000, and 2005 where the ruling EPRDF party “won" the elections through violence, involving intimidation, manipulation, detentions of political opponents, torture, and political assassinations. The 2005 electoral violence was the worst electoral violence in the country-s political history that led to the death of 193 protestors and the imprisonment of more than 40, 000 people. It is found out that the major causes of the 2005 Ethiopian election were the defeat of the ruling party in the election and its attempt to reverse the poll results by force; the Opposition-s lack of decisive leadership; the absence of independent courts and independent electoral management body; and the ruling party-s direct control over the army and police.
Abstract: RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) system has
been widely used in our life, such as transport systems, passports,
automotive, animal tracking, human implants, library, and so on.
However, the RFID authentication protocols between RF (Radio
Frequency) tags and the RF readers have been bring about various
privacy problems that anonymity of the tags, tracking, eavesdropping,
and so on. Many researchers have proposed the solution of the
problems. However, they still have the problem, such as location
privacy, mutual authentication. In this paper, we show the problems of
the previous protocols, and then we propose a more secure and
efficient RFID authentication protocol.
Abstract: In association with path dependence, researchers often
talk of institutional “lock-in", thereby indicating that far-reaching
path deviation or path departure are to be regarded as exceptional
cases. This article submits the alleged general inclination for stability
of path-dependent processes to a critical review. The different
reasons for path dependence found in the literature indicate that
different continuity-ensuring mechanisms are at work when people
talk about path dependence (“increasing returns", complementarity,
sequences etc.). As these mechanisms are susceptible to fundamental
change in different ways and to different degrees, the path
dependence concept alone is of only limited explanatory value. It is
therefore indispensable to identify the underlying continuity-ensuring
mechanism as well if a statement-s empirical value is to go beyond
the trivial, always true “history matters".
Abstract: Road crashes not only claim lives and inflict injuries but also create economic burden to the society due to loss of productivity. The problem of deaths and injuries as a result of road traffic crashes is now acknowledged to be a global phenomenon with authorities in virtually all countries of the world concerned about the growth in the number of people killed and seriously injured on their roads. However, the road crash scenario of a developing country like Bangladesh is much worse comparing with this of developed countries. For developing proper countermeasures it is necessary to identify the factors affecting crash occurrences. The objectives of the study is to examine the effect of district wise road infrastructure, socioeconomic and demographic features on crash occurrence .The unit of analysis will be taken as individual district which has not been explored much in the past. Reported crash data obtained from Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) from the year 2004 to 2010 are utilized to develop negative binomial model. The model result will reveal the effect of road length (both paved and unpaved), road infrastructure and several socio economic characteristics on district level crash frequency in Bangladesh.
Abstract: This research aims to develop and evaluate a training
course to promote learning activities of 2nd year, Suan Sunandha
Rajabhat University, faculty of education students using multiple
intelligences theory. The process is divided into two phases: Phase 1
development of training course to promote learning activities
consisting of principles, objectives of the course, structure, training
duration, content, training materials, training activities, media
training, monitoring, measurement and evaluation quality of the
course. Phase 2 evaluation efficiency of training course was to use
the improved curriculum with experimental group which is 2nd year,
Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, faculty of education students
was drawn randomly 152 students. The experimental pattern was
randomized Control Group Pre-Test Post-Test Design, Analysis Data
by t-Test with the software SPFSS for Windows. Research has shown
that: 1). the ability of teaching and learning according to the theory of
multiple intelligences after training is higher than before training
significantly in statistic at .01 level, 2). The satisfaction of students
to the training courses was overall at the highest level.
Abstract: In this paper, the implementation of a rule-based
intuitive reasoner is presented. The implementation included two
parts: the rule induction module and the intuitive reasoner. A large
weather database was acquired as the data source. Twelve weather
variables from those data were chosen as the “target variables"
whose values were predicted by the intuitive reasoner. A “complex"
situation was simulated by making only subsets of the data available
to the rule induction module. As a result, the rules induced were
based on incomplete information with variable levels of certainty.
The certainty level was modeled by a metric called "Strength of
Belief", which was assigned to each rule or datum as ancillary
information about the confidence in its accuracy. Two techniques
were employed to induce rules from the data subsets: decision tree
and multi-polynomial regression, respectively for the discrete and the
continuous type of target variables. The intuitive reasoner was tested
for its ability to use the induced rules to predict the classes of the
discrete target variables and the values of the continuous target
variables. The intuitive reasoner implemented two types of
reasoning: fast and broad where, by analogy to human thought, the
former corresponds to fast decision making and the latter to deeper
contemplation. . For reference, a weather data analysis approach
which had been applied on similar tasks was adopted to analyze the
complete database and create predictive models for the same 12
target variables. The values predicted by the intuitive reasoner and
the reference approach were compared with actual data. The intuitive
reasoner reached near-100% accuracy for two continuous target
variables. For the discrete target variables, the intuitive reasoner
predicted at least 70% as accurately as the reference reasoner. Since
the intuitive reasoner operated on rules derived from only about 10%
of the total data, it demonstrated the potential advantages in dealing
with sparse data sets as compared with conventional methods.
Abstract: Direct search methods are evolutionary algorithms used to solve optimization problems. (DS) methods do not require any information about the gradient of the objective function at hand while searching for an optimum solution. One of such methods is Pattern Search (PS) algorithm. This paper presents a new approach based on a constrained pattern search algorithm to solve a security constrained power system economic dispatch problem (SCED). Operation of power systems demands a high degree of security to keep the system satisfactorily operating when subjected to disturbances, while and at the same time it is required to pay attention to the economic aspects. Pattern recognition technique is used first to assess dynamic security. Linear classifiers that determine the stability of electric power system are presented and added to other system stability and operational constraints. The problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem in a way that insures a secure-economic system operation. Pattern search method is then applied to solve the constrained optimization formulation. In particular, the method is tested using one system. Simulation results of the proposed approach are compared with those reported in literature. The outcome is very encouraging and proves that pattern search (PS) is very applicable for solving security constrained power system economic dispatch problem (SCED).
Abstract: Friction stir welding is a solid state joining process. High strength aluminum alloys are widely used in aircraft and marine industries. Generally, the mechanical properties of fusion welded aluminum joints are poor. As friction stir welding occurs in solid state, no solidification structures are created thereby eliminating the brittle and eutectic phases common in fusion welding of high strength aluminum alloys. In this review the process parameters, microstructural evolution, and effect of friction stir welding on the properties of weld specific to aluminum alloys have been discussed.