Abstract: Aroma forming volatiles are important components of
fermented beverages. The aim of current research is to evaluate the
volatile compounds and phenolic compounds of commercial ciders.
Volatile aroma compounds and TPC of seven commercial ciders
were determined. Extraction of aroma compounds was performed
using solid phase microextraction (DVB/Car/PDMS fibre). Analysis
of volatile aroma compounds was made using a Perkin Elmer Clarus
500 GC/MS. Total phenol content (TPC) was determined according
to the Folin-Ciocalteu spectrophotometric method and results were
expressed as gallic acid equivalents. The highest volatile compounds
were in apple ciders with pear flavor. The highest TPC and lower
content of volatile compounds were detected in French ciders.
Abstract: Groundwater resources in Arsanjan plain provide
water for agriculture, industry, and human consumption. Continued
agricultural development in this area needs to additional groundwater
resources for, particularly during of drought periods, and effects on
the quantity and quality of ground water available. The purpose of
this study is to evaluate water level changes in the aquifer of
Arsanjan plain in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of
greatest depletion and the causes of depletion. In this plain, farmers
and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural
replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables
and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of
groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater
levels in aquifer of the Arsanjan plains were evaluated .Excessive
exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater
levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown
of the groundwater level in this plain were 19.66 meters during
1996 to 2003.
Abstract: In order to realize long-lived electric propulsion
systems, we have been investigating an electrodeless plasma thruster.
In our concept, a helicon plasma is accelerated by the magnetic nozzle
for the thrusts production. In addition, the electromagnetic thrust can
be enhanced by the additional radio-frequency rotating electric field
(REF) power in the magnetic nozzle. In this study, a direct
measurement of the electromagnetic thrust and a probe measurement
have been conducted using a laboratory model of the thruster under the
condition without the REF power input. Fromthrust measurement, it is
shown that the thruster produces a sub-milli-newton order
electromagnetic thrust force without the additional REF power. The
thrust force and the density jump are observed due to the discharge
mode transition from the inductive coupled plasma to the helicon wave
excited plasma. The thermal thrust is theoretically estimated, and the
total thrust force, which is a sum of the electromagnetic and the
thermal thrust force and specific impulse are calculated to be up to 650
μN (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow rate of 1.0
mg/s) and 210 s (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow
rate of 0.2 mg/s), respectively.
Abstract: The fast technology and economic growth in China has
attracted global attention in its tourism development. This study makes
an effort on investigating China-s online tourism market and the
Chinese online travelers- perceptions of hotel websites. The findings
are expected to better understand Chinese customers- online
preference and identified the differences among online travelers from
different regions in the country. Empirical findings showed online
reservation information is the most important factor to Chinese
customers, and tourists from different regions of China have
perception difference on user-friendly factor. The findings benefit
hoteliers from understanding their websites development and
formulating more appropriate online strategies to meet the
requirements of Chinese travelers.
Abstract: This paper examines the problem of designing robust H controllers for for HIV/AIDS infection system with dual drug dosages described by a Takagi-Sugeno (S) fuzzy model. Based on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, we develop an H controller which guarantees the L2-gain of the mapping from the exogenous input noise to the regulated output to be less than some prescribed value for the system. A sufficient condition of the controller for this system is given in term of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs). The effectiveness of the proposed controller design methodology is finally demonstrated through simulation results. It has been shown that the anti-HIV vaccines are critically important in reducing the infected cells.
Abstract: A closed-loop controlled wireless power transmission circuit block for implantable biomedical applications is described in this paper. The circuit consists of one front-end rectifier, power management sub-block including bandgap reference and low drop-out regulators (LDOs) as well as transmission power detection / feedback circuits. Simulation result shows that the front-end rectifier achieves 80% power efficiency with 750-mV single-end peak-to-peak input voltage and 1.28-V output voltage under load current of 4 mA. The power management block can supply 1.8mA average load current under 1V consuming only 12μW power, which is equivalent to 99.3% power efficiency. The wireless power transmission block described in this paper achieves a maximum power efficiency of 80%. The wireless power transmission circuit block is designed and implemented using UMC 65-nm CMOS/RF process. It occupies 1 mm × 1.2 mm silicon area.
Abstract: This study examines the influence of information
transparency and corporate governance on purchase directors and
officers liability (D&O) insurance decisions. The results show that
companies with greater information transparency have significant
demand for D&O insurance. Greater transparency in voluntary
disclosures is significantly and positively associated with demand for
insurance, indicating that increasing the degree of information
disclosure reduces information asymmetry for insurers, which
stimulates their willingness to provide greater protection.
Analysis of insured and uninsured subsamples indicates that
uninsured companies have superior corporate governance compared to
insured companies. Although insured companies tend to have weaker
corporate governance structures, they appoint Big 4 firms or industry
experts to compensate for the weakness of their corporate governance.
Empirical results indicate that purchasing D&O insurance can
strengthen external corporate governance and increase companies’
willingness to voluntarily provide more transparent information.
Abstract: The main aim of this work is to develop a model of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) separation from natural gas by using membrane separation technology. The model is developed by incorporating three diffusion mechanisms which are Knudsen, viscous and surface diffusion towards membrane selectivity and permeability. The findings from the simulation result shows that the permeability of the gas is dependent toward the pore size of the membrane, operating pressure, operating temperature as well as feed composition. The permeability of methane has the highest value for Poly (1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne ) PTMSP membrane at pore size of 0.1nm and decreasing toward a minimum peak at pore range 1 to 1.5 nm as pore size increased before it increase again for pore size is greater than 1.5 nm. On the other hand, the permeability of hydrogen sulfide is found to increase almost proportionally with the increase of membrane pore size. Generally, the increase of pressure will increase the permeability of gas since more driving force is provided to the system while increasing of temperature would decrease the permeability due to the surface diffusion drop off effect. A corroboration of the simulation result also showed a good agreement with the experimental data.
Abstract: Client expectations and preferences about therapy
represent an important area of investigation as research shows they
are linked to engagement in therapy and therapy outcomes. Studies
examining young people-s expectations and preferences of therapy
remain a neglected area of research. The present study explored what
expectations and preferences young people seeking professional help
held regarding: their role as a client, their therapist-s role, their
therapeutic outcomes, and the processes of therapy. Gender and age
differences were also examined. Participants included 188 young
people aged 12-25 who completed a survey while attending their
initial session at a youth mental health service. Data were analysed
using quantitative methods. Results found the young people held
significantly more pessimistic expectations around therapy when
compared to what they had wanted therapy to be like. Few age and
gender differences were found. Results highlight the importance of a
collaborative therapy approach when working with young people.
Abstract: Experimental investigation has been carried out
towards understanding the complex fluid dynamics involved in the
interaction of vortical structures with zero pressure gradient boundary
layer. A laminar boundary layer is produced on the flat plate placed
in the water flume and the synthetic jet actuator is deployed on top of
the plate at a definite distance from the leading edge. The synthetic
jet actuator has been designed in such a way that the to and fro
motion of the diaphragm is maneuvered at will by varying the
operating parameters to produce the typical streamwise vortical
structures namely hairpin and tilted vortices. PIV measurements are
made on the streamwise plane normal to the plate to evaluate their
interaction with the near wall fluid.
Abstract: An improved processing description to be employed in biosonar signal processing in a cochlea model is proposed and examined. It is compared to conventional models using a modified discrimination analysis and both are tested. Their performances are evaluated with echo data captured from natural targets (trees).Results indicate that the phase characteristics of low-pass filters employed in the echo processing have a significant effect on class separability for this data.
Abstract: Our research aims at helping the tutor on line to
evaluate the student-s cognitive processes. The student is a learner in
French as a Second Language who studies an on-line socio-cognitive
scenario in written communication. In our method, these cognitive
processes are defined. For that, the language abilities and learning
tasks are associated to cognitive operation. Moreover, the found
cognitive processes are named with specific terms. The result was to
create an instrumental pattern to question the learner about the
cognitive processes used to build an item of written comprehension.
Our research follows the principles of the third historical generation
of studies on the cognitive activity of the text comprehension. The
strength of our instrumental pattern stands in the precision and the
logical articulation of the questions to the learner. However, the
learner-s answers can still be subjective but the precision of the
instrument restricts it.
Abstract: Mammography is the most effective procedure for an
early diagnosis of the breast cancer. Nowadays, people are trying to
find a way or method to support as much as possible to the
radiologists in diagnosis process. The most popular way is now being
developed is using Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) system to
process the digital mammograms and prompt the suspicious region to
radiologist. In this paper, an automated CAD system for detection
and classification of massive lesions in mammographic images is
presented. The system consists of three processing steps: Regions-Of-
Interest detection, feature extraction and classification. Our CAD
system was evaluated on Mini-MIAS database consisting 322
digitalized mammograms. The CAD system-s performance is
evaluated using Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) and Freeresponse
ROC (FROC) curves. The archived results are 3.47 false
positives per image (FPpI) and sensitivity of 85%.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is the analysis of the
impact of ICT-related training in the adoption of a learning
management systems (LMS) for teaching practicesby faculties in a
higher education institution. Based on comparative analyses the
impact will be obtained by the number of LMS courses created and
managed by participants in ICT for teaching workshops and those
who have not attended to any workshops. Involving near 1320 LMS
courses and 265 faculties, the results evidence that(i) faculties who
have not attend any workshop present a larger distribution of empty
courses and (ii) faculties who have attended three or more workshops
managed a higher distribution of courses with a considerable level of
use intensity, when compared to the others groups. These findings
supportthe idea that faculty training is a crucial factor in the process
of LMS integration in higher education institutions and that faculties
who have been enrolled in three or more workshops develop a higher
level of technical and pedagogical proficiency in LMS.
Abstract: As privacy becomes a major concern for consumers
and enterprises, many research have been focused on the privacy
protecting technology in recent years. In this paper, we present a
comprehensive approach for usage access control based on the notion
purpose. In our model, purpose information associated with a given
data element specifies the intended use of the subjects and objects in
the usage access control model. A key feature of our model is that it
allows when an access is required, the access purpose is checked
against the intended purposes for the data item. We propose an
approach to represent purpose information to support access control
based on purpose information. Our proposed solution relies on usage
access control (UAC) models as well as the components which based
on the notions of the purpose information used in subjects and
objects. Finally, comparisons with related works are analyzed.
Abstract: Lake Nasser is one of the largest reservoirs in the
world. Over 120 million metric tons of sediments are deposited in its
dead storage zone every year. The main objective of the present work
was to determine the physical and chemical characteristics of Lake
Nasser sediments. The sample had a relatively low surface area of 2.9
m2/g which increased more than 3-fold upon chemical activation. The
main chemical elements of the raw sediments were C, O and Si with
some traces of Al, Fe and Ca. The organic functional groups for the
tested sample included O-H, C=C, C-H and C-O, with indications of
Si-O and other metal-C and/or metal-O bonds normally associated
with clayey materials. Potentiometric titration of the sample in
different ionic strength backgrounds revealed an alkaline material with
very strong positive surface charge at pH values just a little less than
the pH of zero charge which is ~9. Surface interactions of the
sediments with the background electrolyte were significant. An
advanced surface complexation model was able to capture these
effects, employing a single-site approach to represent protolysis
reactions in aqueous solution, and to determine the significant surface
species in the pH range of environmental interest.
Abstract: Employee-s task performance has been recognized as a
core contributor to overall organizational effectiveness. Hence,
verifying the determinants of task performance is one of the most
important research issues. This study tests the influence of perceived
organizational support, abusive supervision, and exchange ideology
on employee-s task performance. We examined our hypotheses by
collecting self-reported data from 413 Korean employees in different
organizations. Our all hypotheses gained support from the results.
Implications for research and directions for future research are
discussed.
Abstract: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent and far common debilitating form of arthritis which can be defined as a degenerative condition affecting synovial joint. Patients suffering from osteoarthritis often complain of dull ache pain on movement.
Physical agents can fight the painful process when correctly indicated and used such as heat or cold therapy Aim. This study was carried out to: Compare the effect of cold, warm and contrast therapy on controlling knee osteoarthritis associated problems. Setting: The study was carried out in orthopedic outpatient clinics of Menoufia University and teaching Hospitals, Egypt. Sample: A convenient sample of 60 adult patients with unilateral knee osteoarthritis. Tools: three tools were utilized to collect the data. Tool I : An interviewing questionnaire. It comprised of three parts covering sociodemographic data, medical data and adverse effects of the treatment protocol. Tool II : Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) It consists of five main parts. Tool II1 : 0-10 Numeric pain rating scale. Results: reveled that the total knee symptoms score was decreased from moderate symptoms pre intervention to mild symptoms after warm and contrast method of therapy, but the contrast therapy had significant effect in reducing the knee symptoms and pain than the other symptoms. Conclusions: all of the three
methods of therapy resulted in improvement in all knee symptoms and pain but the most appropriate protocol of treatment to relive symptoms and pain was contrast therapy.
Abstract: In this paper, a new algorithm for generating codebook is proposed for vector quantization (VQ) in image coding. The significant features of the training image vectors are extracted by using the proposed Orthogonal Polynomials based transformation. We propose to generate the codebook by partitioning these feature vectors into a binary tree. Each feature vector at a non-terminal node of the binary tree is directed to one of the two descendants by comparing a single feature associated with that node to a threshold. The binary tree codebook is used for encoding and decoding the feature vectors. In the decoding process the feature vectors are subjected to inverse transformation with the help of basis functions of the proposed Orthogonal Polynomials based transformation to get back the approximated input image training vectors. The results of the proposed coding are compared with the VQ using Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Pairwise Nearest Neighbor (PNN) algorithm. The new algorithm results in a considerable reduction in computation time and provides better reconstructed picture quality.
Abstract: Optimization plays an important role in most real
world applications that support decision makers to take the right
decision regarding the strategic directions and operations of the
system they manage. Solutions for traffic management and traffic
congestion problems are considered major problems that most
decision making authorities for cities around the world are looking
for. This review paper gives a full description of the traffic problem
as part of the transportation planning process and present a view as a
framework of urban transportation system analysis where the core of
the system is a transportation network equilibrium model that is
based on optimization techniques and that can also be used for
evaluating an alternative solution or a combination of alternative
solutions for the traffic congestion. Different transportation network
equilibrium models are reviewed from the sequential approach to the
multiclass combining trip generation, trip distribution, modal split,
trip assignment and departure time model. A GIS-Based intelligent
decision support system framework for urban transportation system
analysis is suggested for implementation where the selection of
optimized alternative solutions, single or packages, will be based on
an intelligent agent rather than human being which would lead to
reduction in time, cost and the elimination of the difficulty, by
human being, for finding the best solution to the traffic congestion
problem.