Abstract: This research aimed to modify pineapple leaf paper
(PALP) for using as wet media in the evaporation cooling system by
improving wet mechanical property (tensile strength) without
compromising water absorption property. Polyamideamineepichorohydrin
resin (PAE) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)
were used to strengthen the paper, and the PAE and CMC ratio of
80:20 showed the optimum wet and dry tensile index values, which
were higher than those of the commercial cooling pad (CCP).
Compared with CCP, PALP itself and all the PAE/CMC modified
PALP possessed better water absorption. The PAE/CMC modified
PALP had potential to become a new type of wet media.
Abstract: Human genome is not only the evolutionary
summation of all advantageous events, but also houses lesions of
deleterious foot prints. A single gene mutation sometimes may
express multiple consequences in numerous tissues and a linear
relationship of the genotype and the phenotype may often be obscure.
ß Thalassemia minor, a transfusion independent mild anaemia,
coupled with environment among other factors may articulate into
phenotypic pleotropy with Hypocholesterolemia, Vitamin D
deficiency, Tissue hypoxia, Hyper-parathyroidism and Psychological
alterations. Occurrence of Pancreatic insufficiency, resultant
steatorrhoea, Vitamin-D (25-OH) deficiency (13.86 ngm/ml) with
Hypocholesterolemia (85mg/dl) in a 30 years old male ß Thal-minor
patient (Hemoglobin 11mg/dl with Fetal Hemoglobin 2.10%, Hb A2
4.60% and Hb Adult 84.80% and altered Hemogram) with increased
Para thyroid hormone (62 pg/ml) & moderate Serum Ca+2
(9.5mg/ml) indicate towards a cascade of phenotypic pleotropy
where the ß Thalassemia mutation ,be it in the 5’ cap site of the
mRNA , differential splicing etc in heterozygous state is effecting
several metabolic pathways. Compensatory extramedulary
hematopoiesis may not coped up well with the stressful life style of
the young individual and increased erythropoietic stress with high
demand for cholesterol for RBC membrane synthesis may have
resulted in Hypocholesterolemia.Oxidative stress and tissue hypoxia
may have caused the pancreatic insufficiency, leading to Vitamin D
deficiency. This may in turn have caused the secondary
hyperparathyroidism to sustain serum Calcium level. Irritability and
stress intolerance of the patient was a cumulative effect of the vicious
cycle of metabolic compromises. From these findings we propose
that the metabolic deficiencies in the ß Thalassemia mutations may
be considered as the phenotypic display of the pleotropy to explain
the genetic epidemiology.
According to the recommendations from the NIH Workshop on
Gene-Environment Interplay in Common Complex Diseases: Forging
an Integrative Model, study design of observations should be
informed by gene-environment hypotheses and results of a study
(genetic diseases) should be published to inform future hypotheses.
Variety of approaches is needed to capture data on all possible
aspects, each of which is likely to contribute to the etiology of
disease. Speakers also agreed that there is a need for development of
new statistical methods and measurement tools to appraise
information that may be missed out by conventional method where
large sample size is needed to segregate considerable effect.
A meta analytic cohort study in future may bring about significant
insight on to the title comment.
Abstract: This paper aims to study decomposition behavior in
pyrolytic environment of four lignocellulosic biomass (oil palm shell,
oil palm frond, rice husk and paddy straw), and two commercial
components of biomass (pure cellulose and lignin), performed in a
thermogravimetry analyzer (TGA). The unit which consists of a
microbalance and a furnace flowed with 100 cc (STP) min-1 Nitrogen,
N2 as inert. Heating rate was set at 20⁰C min-1 and temperature
started from 50 to 900⁰C. Hydrogen gas production during the
pyrolysis was observed using Agilent Gas Chromatography Analyzer
7890A. Oil palm shell, oil palm frond, paddy straw and rice husk
were found to be reactive enough in a pyrolytic environment of up to
900°C since pyrolysis of these biomass starts at temperature as low as
200°C and maximum value of weight loss is achieved at about
500°C. Since there was not much different in the cellulose,
hemicelluloses and lignin fractions between oil palm shell, oil palm
frond, paddy straw and rice husk, the T-50 and R-50 values obtained
are almost similar. H2 productions started rapidly at this temperature
as well due to the decompositions of biomass inside the TGA.
Biomass with more lignin content such as oil palm shell was found to
have longer duration of H2 production compared to materials of high
cellulose and hemicelluloses contents.
Abstract: Leave of absence is important in maintaining a good
status of human resource quality. Allowing the employees temporarily
free from the routine assignments can vitalize the workers- morality
and productivity. This is particularly critical to secure a satisfactory
service quality for healthcare professionals of which were typically
featured with labor intensive and complicated works to perform. As
one of the veteran hospitals that were found and operated by the
Veteran Department of Taiwan, the nursing staff of the case hospital
was squeezed to an extreme minimum level under the pressure of a
tight budgeting. Leave of absence on schedule became extremely
difficult, especially for the intensive care units (ICU), in which
required close monitoring over the cared patients, and that had more
easily driven the ICU nurses nervous. Even worse, the deferred leaves
were more than 10 days at any time in the ICU because of a fluctuating
occupancy. As a result, these had brought a bad setback to this
particular nursing team, and consequently defeated the job
performance and service quality. To solve this problem and
accordingly to strengthen their morality, a project team was organized
across different departments specific for this. Sufficient information
regarding jobs and positions requirements, labor resources, and actual
working hours in detail were collected and analyzed in the team
meetings. Several alternatives were finalized. These included job
rotating, job combination, leave on impromptu and cross-departmental
redeployment. Consequently, the deferred leave days sharply reduced
70% to a level of 3 or less days. This improvement had not only
provided good shelter for the ICU nurses that improved their job
performance and patient safety but also encouraged the nurses active
participating of a project and learned the skills of solving problems
with colleagues.
Abstract: Since the beginning of human history, human
activities have caused many changes in the environment. Today, a
particular attention should be paid to gaining knowledge about water
quality of wetlands which are pristine natural environments rich in
genetic reserves. If qualitative conditions of industrial areas (in terms
of both physicochemical and biological conditions) are not addressed
properly, they could cause disruption in natural ecosystems,
especially in rivers. With regards to the quality of water resources,
determination of pollutant sources plays a pivotal role in engineering
projects as well as designing water quality control systems. Thus,
using different methods such as flow duration curves, dischargepollution
load model and frequency analysis by HYFA software
package, risk of various industrial pollutants in international and
ecologically important Gavkhoni wetland is analyzed. In this study, a
station located at Varzaneh City is used as the last station on
Zayanderud River, from where the river water is discharged into the
wetland. Results showed that elements- concentrations often
exceeded the allowed level and river water can endanger regional
ecosystem. In addition, if the river discharge is managed on Q25
basis, this basis can lower concentrations of elements, keeping them
within the normal level.
Abstract: A robot simulator was developed to measure and
investigate the performance of a robot navigation system based on
the relative position of the robot with respect to random obstacles in
any two dimensional environment. The presented simulator focuses
on investigating the ability of a fuzzy-neural system for object
avoidance. A navigation algorithm is proposed and used to allow
random navigation of a robot among obstacles when the robot faces
an obstacle in the environment. The main features of this simulator
can be used for evaluating the performance of any system that can
provide the position of the robot with respect to obstacles in the
environment. This allows a robot developer to investigate and
analyze the performance of a robot without implementing the
physical robot.
Abstract: This paper presents the prediction of kidney
dysfunction using different neural network (NN) approaches. Self
organization Maps (SOM), Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) and
Multi Layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLPNN) trained with Back
Propagation Algorithm (BPA) are used in this study. Six hundred and
sixty three sets of analytical laboratory tests have been collected from
one of the private clinical laboratories in Baghdad. For each subject,
Serum urea and Serum creatinin levels have been analyzed and tested
by using clinical laboratory measurements. The collected urea and
cretinine levels are then used as inputs to the three NN models in
which the training process is done by different neural approaches.
SOM which is a class of unsupervised network whereas PNN and
BPNN are considered as class of supervised networks. These
networks are used as a classifier to predict whether kidney is normal
or it will have a dysfunction. The accuracy of prediction, sensitivity
and specificity were found for each type of the proposed networks
.We conclude that PNN gives faster and more accurate prediction of
kidney dysfunction and it works as promising tool for predicting of
routine kidney dysfunction from the clinical laboratory data.
Abstract: A company CSR commitment, as stated in its Social
Report is, actually, perceived by its stakeholders?And in what
measure? Moreover, are stakeholders satisfied with the company
CSR efforts? Indeed, business returns from Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) practices, such as company reputation and
customer loyalty, depend heavily on how stakeholders perceive the
company social conduct. In this paper, we propose a methodology to
assess a company CSR commitment based on Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) indicators, Content Analysis and a CSR positioning
matrix. We evaluate three aspects of CSR: the company commitment
disclosed through its Social Report; the company commitment
perceived by its stakeholders; the CSR commitment that stakeholders
require to the company. The positioning of the company under study
in the CSR matrix is based on the comparison among the three
commitment aspects (disclosed, perceived, required) and it allows
assessment and development of CSR strategies.
Abstract: Reinforced concrete crash barriers used in road traffic
must meet a number of criteria. Crash barriers are laid lengthwise,
one behind another, and joined using specially designed steel locks.
While developing BSV reinforced concrete crash barriers (type
ŽPSV), experiments and calculations aimed to optimize the shape of
a newly designed lock and the reinforcement quantity and
distribution in a crash barrier were carried out. The tension carrying
capacity of two parallelly joined locks was solved experimentally.
Based on the performed experiments, adjustments of nonlinear
properties of steel were performed in the calculations. The obtained
results served as a basis to optimize the lock design using a
computational model that takes into account the plastic behaviour of
steel and the influence of the surrounding concrete [6]. The response
to the vehicle impact has been analyzed using a specially elaborated
complex computational model, comprising both the nonlinear model
of the damping wall or crash barrier and the detailed model of the
vehicle [7].
Abstract: the data quality is a kind of complex and unstructured concept, which is concerned by information systems managers. The reason of this attention is the high amount of Expenses for maintenance and cleaning of the inefficient data. Such a data more than its expenses of lack of quality, cause wrong statistics, analysis and decisions in organizations. Therefor the managers intend to improve the quality of their information systems' data. One of the basic subjects of quality improvement is the evaluation of the amount of it. In this paper, we present a precautionary method, which with its application the data of information systems would have a better quality. Our method would cover different dimensions of data quality; therefor it has necessary integrity. The presented method has tested on three dimensions of accuracy, value-added and believability and the results confirm the improvement and integrity of this method.
Abstract: A different concept for designing and detailing of
reinforced concrete precast frame structures is analyzed in this paper.
The new detailing of the joints derives from the special hybrid
moment frame joints. The special reinforcements of this alternative
detailing, named modified special hybrid joint, are bondless with
respect to both column and beams. Full scale tests were performed on
a plan model, which represents a part of 5 story structure, cropped in
the middle of the beams and columns spans. Theoretical approach
was developed, based on testing results on twice repaired model,
subjected to lateral seismic type loading. Discussion regarding the
modified special hybrid joint behavior and further on widening
research needed concludes the presentation.
Abstract: An electric power system includes a generating, a
transmission, a distribution, and consumers subsystems. An electrical
power network in Tanzania keeps growing larger by the day and
become more complex so that, most utilities have long wished for
real-time monitoring and remote control of electrical power system
elements such as substations, intelligent devices, power lines,
capacitor banks, feeder switches, fault analyzers and other physical
facilities. In this paper, the concept of automation of management of
power systems from generation level to end user levels was
determined by using Power System Simulator for Engineering
(PSS/E) version 30.3.2.
Abstract: Solution to unsteady Navier-Stokes equation by Splitting method in physical orthogonal algebraic curvilinear coordinate system, also termed 'Non-linear grid system' is presented. The linear terms in Navier-Stokes equation are solved by Crank- Nicholson method while the non-linear term is solved by the second order Adams-Bashforth method. This work is meant to bring together the advantage of Splitting method as pressure-velocity solver of higher efficiency with the advantage of consuming Non-linear grid system which produce more accurate results in relatively equal number of grid points as compared to Cartesian grid. The validation of Splitting method as a solution of Navier-Stokes equation in Nonlinear grid system is done by comparison with the benchmark results for lid driven cavity flow by Ghia and some case studies including Backward Facing Step Flow Problem.
Abstract: Recently, malware attacks have become more serious
over the Internet by e-mail, denial of service (DoS) or distributed
denial of service (DDoS). The Botnets have become a significant part
of the Internet malware attacks. The traditional botnets include three
parts – botmaster, command and control (C&C) servers and bots. The
C&C servers receive commands from botmaster and control the
distributions of computers remotely. Bots use DNS to find the
positions of C&C server. In this paper, we propose an advanced hybrid
peer-to-peer (P2P) botnet 2.0 (AHP2P botnet 2.0) using web 2.0
technology to hide the instructions from botmaster into social sites,
which are regarded as C&C servers. Servent bots are regarded as
sub-C&C servers to get the instructions from social sites. The AHP2P
botnet 2.0 can evaluate the performance of servent bots, reduce DNS
traffics from bots to C&C servers, and achieve harder detection bots
actions than IRC-based botnets over the Internet.
Abstract: This paper deals with the evaluation of flow properties
of polymeric matrix with natural animal fillers. Technical university
of Liberec cooperates on the long-term development of “green
materials“ that should replace conventionally used materials
(especially in automotive industry). Natural fibres (of animal and
plant origin) from all over the world are collected and adapted
(drying, cutting etc.) for extrusion processing. Inside the extruder
these natural additives are blended with polymeric (synthetic and
biodegradable - PLA) matrix and created compound is subsequently
cut for pellets in the wet way. These green materials with unique
recipes are then studied and their mechanical, physical and
processing properties are determined. The main goal of this research
is to develop new ecological materials very similar to unfilled
polymers. In this article the rheological behaviour of chosen natural
animal fibres is introduced considering their shape and surface that
were observed with use of SEM microscopy.
Abstract: Through a proper analysis of residual strain and stress
distributions obtained at the surface of high speed milled specimens
of AA 6082–T6 aluminium alloy, the performance of an improved
indentation method is evaluated. This method integrates a special
device of indentation to a universal measuring machine. The
mentioned device allows introducing elongated indents allowing to
diminish the absolute error of measurement. It must be noted that the
present method offers the great advantage of avoiding both the
specific equipment and highly qualified personnel, and their inherent
high costs. In this work, the cutting tool geometry and high speed
parameters are selected to introduce reduced plastic damage.
Through the variation of the depth of cut, the stability of the shapes
adopted by the residual strain and stress distributions is evaluated.
The results show that the strain and stress distributions remain
unchanged, compressive and small. Moreover, these distributions
reveal a similar asymmetry when the gradients corresponding to
conventional and climb cutting zones are compared.
Abstract: In this paper, we study the application of Extreme
Learning Machine (ELM) algorithm for single layered feedforward
neural networks to non-linear chaotic time series problems. In this
algorithm the input weights and the hidden layer bias are randomly
chosen. The ELM formulation leads to solving a system of linear
equations in terms of the unknown weights connecting the hidden
layer to the output layer. The solution of this general system of
linear equations will be obtained using Moore-Penrose generalized
pseudo inverse. For the study of the application of the method we
consider the time series generated by the Mackey Glass delay
differential equation with different time delays, Santa Fe A and
UCR heart beat rate ECG time series. For the choice of sigmoid,
sin and hardlim activation functions the optimal values for the
memory order and the number of hidden neurons which give the
best prediction performance in terms of root mean square error are
determined. It is observed that the results obtained are in close
agreement with the exact solution of the problems considered
which clearly shows that ELM is a very promising alternative
method for time series prediction.
Abstract: The physical methods for RNA secondary structure prediction are time consuming and expensive, thus methods for computational prediction will be a proper alternative. Various algorithms have been used for RNA structure prediction including dynamic programming and metaheuristic algorithms. Musician's behaviorinspired harmony search is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm which has been successful in a wide variety of complex optimization problems. This paper proposes a harmony search algorithm (HSRNAFold) to find RNA secondary structure with minimum free energy and similar to the native structure. HSRNAFold is compared with dynamic programming benchmark mfold and metaheuristic algorithms (RnaPredict, SetPSO and HelixPSO). The results showed that HSRNAFold is comparable to mfold and better than metaheuristics in finding the minimum free energies and the number of correct base pairs.
Abstract: This paper presents the work of signal discrimination
specifically for Electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform. ECG signal is
comprised of P, QRS, and T waves in each normal heart beat to
describe the pattern of heart rhythms corresponds to a specific
individual. Further medical diagnosis could be done to determine any
heart related disease using ECG information. The emphasis on QRS
Complex classification is further discussed to illustrate the
importance of it. Pan-Tompkins Algorithm, a widely known
technique has been adapted to realize the QRS Complex
classification process. There are eight steps involved namely
sampling, normalization, low pass filter, high pass filter (build a band
pass filter), derivation, squaring, averaging and lastly is the QRS
detection. The simulation results obtained is represented in a
Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed using MATLAB.
Abstract: A major part of the flow field involves no complicated
turbulent behavior in many turbulent flows. In this research work, in
order to reduce required memory and CPU time, the flow field was
decomposed into several blocks, each block including its special
turbulence. A two dimensional backward facing step was considered
here. Four combinations of the Prandtl mixing length and standard k-
E models were implemented as well. Computer memory and CPU
time consumption in addition to numerical convergence and accuracy
of the obtained results were mainly investigated. Observations
showed that, a suitable combination of turbulence models in different
blocks led to the results with the same accuracy as the high order
turbulence model for all of the blocks, in addition to the reductions in
memory and CPU time consumption.