Abstract: Due to reduced stiffness, research on second
generation titanium alloys for implant applications, like the
metastable β-titanium alloy Ti-15Mo, become more and more
important in the recent years. The machinability of these alloys is
generally poor leading to problems during implant production and
comparably large production costs. Therefore, in the present study,
Ti-15Mo was alloyed with 0.8 wt.-% of the rare earth metals
lanthanum (Ti-15Mo+0.8La) and neodymium (Ti-15Mo+0.8Nd) to
improve its machinability. Their microstructure consisted of a
titanium matrix and micrometer-size particles of the rare earth metals
and two of their oxides. The particles stabilized the microstructure as
grain growth was minimized. As especially the ductility might be
affected by the precipitates, the behavior of Ti-15Mo+0.8La and Ti-
15Mo+0.8Nd was investigated during static and dynamic
deformation at elevated temperature to develop a processing route.
The resulting mechanical properties (static strength and ductility)
were similar in all investigated alloys.
Abstract: The success of any retail business is predisposed by its
swift response and its knack in understanding the constraints and the
requirements of customers. In this paper a conceptual design model
of an automated customer-friendly supermarket has been proposed.
In this model a 10-sided, space benefited, regular polygon shaped
gravity shelves have been designed for goods storage and effective
customer-specific algorithms have been built-in for quick automatic
delivery of the randomly listed goods. The algorithm is developed
with two main objectives, viz., delivery time and priority. For
meeting these objectives the randomly listed items are reorganized
according to the critical-path of the robotic arm specific to the
identified shop and its layout and the items are categorized according
to the demand, shape, size, similarity and nature of the product for an
efficient pick-up, packing and delivery process. We conjectured that
the proposed automated supermarket model reduces business
operating costs with much customer satisfaction warranting a winwin
situation.
Abstract: Economic Dispatch (ED) is one of the most
challenging problems of power system since it is difficult to determine
the optimum generation scheduling to meet the particular load demand
with the minimum fuel costs while all constraints are satisfied. The
objective of the Economic Dispatch Problems (EDPs) of electric
power generation is to schedule the committed generating units
outputs so as to meet the required load demand at minimum operating
cost while satisfying all units and system equality and inequality
constraints. In this paper, an efficient and practical steady-state genetic
algorithm (SSGAs) has been proposed for solving the economic
dispatch problem. The objective is to minimize the total generation
fuel cost and keep the power flows within the security limits. To
achieve that, the present work is developed to determine the optimal
location and size of capacitors in transmission power system where,
the Participation Factor Algorithm and the Steady State Genetic
Algorithm are proposed to select the best locations for the capacitors
and determine the optimal size for them.
Abstract: This entry concerned with dense silica bricks
microstructure was produced as a part of a project within the
Technology Agency of the Czech Republic which is being
implemented in cooperation of the biggest producer of refractories
the P-D Refractories CZ company with the research organisation
Brno University of Technology. The paper is focused on the
influence of mixture homogenisation and the influence of grain size
of the mineraliser on the resulting utility properties of the material as
well as its microstructure. It has a decisive influence on the durability
of the material in a building structure. This paper is a continuation of
a previously published study dealing with the suitability of various
types of mineralising agents in terms of density, strength and mineral
composition of silica brick.
The entry describes the influence of the method of mixture
homogenisation and the influence of granulometry of the applied Femineralising
agent on the resulting silica microstructure. Porosity,
density, phase composition and microstructure of the experimentally
prepared silica bricks samples were examined and the results were
discussed in context with the technology of homogenisation and
firing temperature used. The properties of silica bricks samples were
compared to the sample without any Fe-mineraliser.
Abstract: The paper presents combined automatic speech
recognition (ASR) of English and machine translation (MT) for
English and Croatian and Croatian-English language pairs in the
domain of business correspondence. The first part presents results of
training the ASR commercial system on English data sets, enriched
by error analysis. The second part presents results of machine
translation performed by free online tool for English and Croatian
and Croatian-English language pairs. Human evaluation in terms of
usability is conducted and internal consistency calculated by
Cronbach's alpha coefficient, enriched by error analysis. Automatic
evaluation is performed by WER (Word Error Rate) and PER
(Position-independent word Error Rate) metrics, followed by
investigation of Pearson’s correlation with human evaluation.
Abstract: Nowadays, the amounts of companies which tend to
have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application are
increasing. Although ERP projects are expensive, time consuming,
and complex, there are some successful experiences. These days,
developing countries are striving to implement ERP projects
successfully; however, there are many obstacles. Therefore, these
projects would be failed or partially failed. This paper concerns the
implementation of a successful ERP implementation, IFS, in Iran at
Dana Geophysics Company (DGC). After a short review of ERP and
ERP market in Iran, we propose a three phases deployment
methodology (phase 1: Preparation and Business Process
Management (BPM) phase 2: implementation and phase 3: testing,
golive-1 (pilot) and golive-2 (final)). Then, we present five guidelines
(Project Management, Change Management, Business Process
Management (BPM), Training& Knowledge Management, and
Technical Management), which were chose as work streams. In this
case study we present lessons learned in Project management and
Business process Management.
Abstract: This paper deals with a simulation programs and
technologies using in the educational process for members of the crisis
management. Risk analysis, simulation, preparation and planning are
among the main activities of workers of crisis management. Made
correctly simulation of emergency defines the extent of the danger. On
this basis, it is possible to effectively prepare and plan measures to
minimize damage. The paper is focused on simulation programs that
are trained at the University of Defence. Implementation of the outputs
from simulation programs in decision-making processes of crisis staffs
is one of the main tasks of the research project.
Abstract: In this research work, neural networks were applied to
classify two types of hip joint implants based on the relative hip joint
implant side speed and three components of each ground reaction
force. The condition of walking gait at normal velocity was used and
carried out with each of the two hip joint implants assessed. Ground
reaction forces’ kinetic temporal changes were considered in the first
approach followed but discarded in the second one. Ground reaction
force components were obtained from eighteen patients under such
gait condition, half of which had a hip implant type I-II, whilst the
other half had the hip implant, defined as type III by Orthoload®.
After pre-processing raw gait kinetic data and selecting the time
frames needed for the analysis, the ground reaction force components
were used to train a MLP neural network, which learnt to distinguish
the two hip joint implants in the abovementioned condition. Further
to training, unknown hip implant side and ground reaction force
components were presented to the neural networks, which assigned
those features into the right class with a reasonably high accuracy for
the hip implant type I-II and the type III. The results suggest that
neural networks could be successfully applied in the performance
assessment of hip joint implants.
Abstract: Red River Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is a tree
of the genus Eucalyptus widely distributed in Algeria and in the
world. The value of its aromatic secondary metabolites offers new
perspectives in the pharmaceutical industry. This strategy can
contribute to the sustainable development of our country. Preliminary
tests performed on the essential oil of Eucalyptus camendulensis
showed that this oil has antibacterial activity vis-à-vis the bacterial
strains (Enterococcus feacalis, Enterobacter cloaceai, Proteus
microsilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa) and antifungic (Fusarium sporotrichioide and Fusarium
graminearum). The culture medium used was nutrient broth Muller
Hinton. The interaction between the bacteria and the essential oil is
expressed by a zone of inhibition with diameters of MIC indirectly
expression of. And we used the PDA medium to determine the fungal
activity. The extraction of the aromatic fraction (essentially oilhydrolat)
of the fresh aerian part of the Eucalyptus camendulensis
was performed by hydrodistillation. The average essential oil yield is
0.99%. The antimicrobial and fungal study of the essential oil and
hydrosol showed a high inhibitory effect on the growth of pathogens.
Abstract: The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from
10 samples of fermented foods (Sa-tor-dong and Bodo) in South
locality of Thailand. The 23 isolates of lactic acid bacteria were
selected, which were exhibited a clear zone and growth on MRS
agar supplemented with CaCO3. All of lactic acid bacteria were
tested on morphological and biochemical. The result showed that
all isolates were Gram’s positive, non-spore forming but only
10 isolates displayed catalase negative. The 10 isolates including
BD1 .1, BD 1.2, BD 2.1, BD2.2, BD 2.3, BD 3.1, BD 4.1, BD 5.2,
ST 4.1 and ST 5.2 were selected for inhibition activity
determination. Only 2 strains (ST 4.1 and BD 2.3) showed
inhibition zone on agar, when using Escherichia coli sp. as target
strain. The ST 4.1 showed highest inhibition zone on agar, which
was selected for probiotic property testing. The ST4.1 isolate
could grow in MRS broth containing a high concentration of
sodium chloride 6%, bile salts 7%, pH 4-10 and vary temperature
at 15-45°C.
Abstract: A total of 150 meat type chickens comprising 50 each
of Arbor Acre, Marshall and Ross were used for this study which
lasted for 10 weeks at the Federal University of Agriculture,
Abeokuta, Nigeria. Growth performance data were collected from the
third week through week 10 and data obtained were analysed using
the Generalized Linear Model Procedure. Heritability estimates (h2)
for body dimensions carried out on the chicken strains ranged from
low to high. Marshall broiler chicken strain had the highest h2 for
body weight 0.46±0.04, followed by Arbor Acre and Ross with h2
being 0.38±0.12 and 0.26±0.06, respectively. The repeatability
estimates for body weight in the three broiler strains were high, and it
ranged from 0.70 at week 4 to 0.88 at week 10. Relationships
between the body weight and linear body measurements in the broiler
chicken strains were positive and highly significant (p > 0.05).
Abstract: In order to investigate the effect of Plant Growth
Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) and rhizobium bacteria on grain
yield and some agronomic traits of mungbean (Vigna radiate L.), an
experiment was carried out based on randomized complete block
design with three replications in Malekshahi, Ilam province, Iran
during 2012-2013 cropping season. Experimental treatments
consisted of control treatment, inoculation with rhizobium bacteria,
rhizobium bacteria and Azotobacter, rhizobium bacteria and
Azospirillum, rhizobium bacteria and Pseudomonas, rhizobium
bacteria, Azotobacter and Azospirillum, rhizobium bacteria,
Azotobacter and Pseudomonas, rhizobium bacteria, Azospirillum and
Pseudomonas and rhizobium bacteria, Azotobacter, Azospirillum and
Pseudomonas. The results showed that the effect of PGPR and
rhizobium bacteria were significant affect on grain and its
components in mungbean plant. Grain yield significantly increased
by PGPR and rhizobium bacteria, so that the maximum grain yield
was obtained from rhizobium bacteria + Azospirillum +
Pseudomonas with the amount of 2287 kg.ha-1 as compared to
control treatment. Excessive application of chemical fertilizers causes
environmental and economic problems. That is, the overfertilization
of P and N leads to pollution due to soil erosion and runoff water, so
the use of PGPR and rhizobium bacteria can be justified due to
reduce input costs, increase in grain yield and environmental friendly.
Abstract: Business interpreting talents are in badly need for local
economic development, but currently there are problems of traditional
business interpreting training mode in China. In view of the good
opportunity for college business interpreters provided by international
trading center development in Qingdao China and with the aim of
being in line with market demand and enhancing business interpreters'
employment competitive advantage, this paper aims to explore how to
cultivate interdisciplinary business interpreting talents based on
market demand.
Abstract: This paper aims at finding a suitable neural network
for monitoring congestion level in electrical power systems. In this
paper, the input data has been framed properly to meet the target
objective through supervised learning mechanism by defining normal
and abnormal operating conditions for the system under study. The
congestion level, expressed as line congestion index (LCI), is
evaluated for each operating condition and is presented to the NN
along with the bus voltages to represent the input and target data.
Once, the training goes successful, the NN learns how to deal with a
set of newly presented data through validation and testing
mechanism. The crux of the results presented in this paper rests on
performance comparison of a multi-layered feed forward neural
network with eleven types of back propagation techniques so as to
evolve the best training criteria. The proposed methodology has been
tested on the standard IEEE-14 bus test system with the support of
MATLAB based NN toolbox. The results presented in this paper
signify that the Levenberg-Marquardt backpropagation algorithm
gives best training performance of all the eleven cases considered in
this paper, thus validating the proposed methodology.
Abstract: In healthy humans, the cortical brain rhythm shows
specific mu (~6-14 Hz) and beta (~18-24 Hz) band patterns in the
cases of both real and imaginary motor movements. As cerebellar
ataxia is associated with impairment of precise motor movement
control as well as motor imagery, ataxia is an ideal model system in
which to study the role of the cerebellocortical circuit in rhythm
control. We hypothesize that the EEG characteristics of ataxic patients
differ from those of controls during the performance of a
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) task. Ataxia and control subjects
showed a similar distribution of mu power during cued relaxation.
During cued motor imagery, however, the ataxia group showed
significant spatial distribution of the response, while the control group
showed the expected decrease in mu-band power (localized to the
motor cortex).
Abstract: Frequent, continuous speech training has proven to be
a necessary part of a successful speech therapy process, but
constraints of traveling time and employment dispensation become
key obstacles especially for individuals living in remote areas or for
dependent children who have working parents. In order to ameliorate
speech difficulties with ample guidance from speech therapists, a
website has been developed that supports speech therapy and training
for people with articulation disorders in the standard Thai language.
This web-based program has the ability to record speech training
exercises for each speech trainee. The records will be stored in a
database for the speech therapist to investigate, evaluate, compare
and keep track of all trainees’ progress in detail. Speech trainees can
request live discussions via video conference call when needed.
Communication through this web-based program facilitates and
reduces training time in comparison to walk-in training or
appointments. This type of training also allows people with
articulation disorders to practice speech lessons whenever or
wherever is convenient for them, which can lead to a more regular
training processes.
Abstract: The importance of the formal specification in the
software life cycle is barely concealing to anyone. Formal
specifications use mathematical notation to describe the properties of
information system precisely, without unduly constraining the way in
how these properties are achieved. Having a correct and quality
software specification is not easy task. This study concerns with how
a group of rectifiers can communicate with each other and work to
prepare and produce a correct formal software specification. WBCS
has been implemented based mainly in the proposed supported
cooperative work model and a survey conducted on the existing Webbased
collaborative writing tools. This paper aims to assess the
feasibility of executing the web-based collaboration process using
WBCS. The purpose of conducting this test is to test the system as a
whole for functionality and fitness for use based on the evaluation
test plan.
Abstract: Natural antimicrobials are used to preserve foods that
can be found in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Antimicrobial
substances are natural or artificial agents that produced by
microorganisms or obtained semi/total chemical synthesis are used at
low concentrations to inhibit the growth of other microorganisms.
Food borne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms are inactivated
by the use of antagonistic microorganisms and their metabolites.
Yeasts can produce toxic proteins or glycoproteins (toxins) that cause
inhibition of sensitive bacteria and yeast species. Antimicrobial
substance producing phenotypes belonging different yeast genus
were isolated from different sources. Toxins secreted by many yeast
strains inhibiting the growth of other yeast strains. These strains show
antimicrobial activity, inhibiting the growth of mold and bacteria.
The effect of antimicrobial agents produced by yeasts can be
extremely fast, and therefore may be used in various treatment
procedures. Rapid inhibition of microorganisms is possibly caused by
microbial cell membrane lipopolysaccharide binding and in
activation (neutralization) effect. Antimicrobial agents inhibit the
target cells via different mechanisms of action.
Abstract: Sudoku is a logic-based combinatorial puzzle game
which people in different ages enjoy playing it. The challenging and
addictive nature of this game has made it a ubiquitous game. Most
magazines, newspapers, puzzle books, etc. publish lots of Sudoku
puzzles every day. These puzzles often come in different levels of
difficulty so that all people, from beginner to expert, can play the
game and enjoy it. Generating puzzles with different levels of
difficulty is a major concern of Sudoku designers. There are several
works in the literature which propose ways of generating puzzles
having a desirable level of difficulty. In this paper, we propose a
method based on constraint satisfaction problems to evaluate the
difficulty of the Sudoku puzzles. Then we propose a hill climbing
method to generate puzzles with different levels of difficulty.
Whereas other methods are usually capable of generating puzzles
with only few number of difficulty levels, our method can be used to
generate puzzles with arbitrary number of different difficulty levels.
We test our method by generating puzzles with different levels of
difficulty and having a group of 15 people solve all the puzzles and
recording the time they spend for each puzzle.
Abstract: This study aimed at designing and developing a
mechanical force gauge for the square watermelon mold for the first
time. It also tried to introduce the square watermelon characteristics
and its production limitations. The mechanical force gauge
performance and the product itself were also described. There are
three main designable gauge models: a. hydraulic gauge, b. strain
gauge, and c. mechanical gauge. The advantage of the hydraulic
model is that it instantly displays the pressure and thus the force
exerted by the melon. However, considering the inability to measure
forces at all directions, complicated development, high cost, possible
hydraulic fluid leak into the fruit chamber and the possible influence
of increased ambient temperature on the fluid pressure, the
development of this gauge was overruled. The second choice was to
calculate pressure using the direct force a strain gauge. The main
advantage of these strain gauges over spring types is their high
precision in measurements; but with regard to the lack of conformity
of strain gauge working range with water melon growth, calculations
were faced with problems. Finally the mechanical pressure gauge has
advantages, including the ability to measured forces and pressures on
the mold surface during melon growth; the ability to display the peak
forces; the ability to produce melon growth graph thanks to its
continuous force measurements; the conformity of its manufacturing
materials with the required physical conditions of melon growth; high
air conditioning capability; the ability to permit sunlight reaches the
melon rind (no yellowish skin and quality loss); fast and
straightforward calibration; no damages to the product during
assembling and disassembling; visual check capability of the product
within the mold; applicable to all growth environments (field,
greenhouses, etc.); simple process; low costs and so forth.