Abstract: Dengue is a mosquito-borne infection that has peaked to an alarming rate in recent decades. It can be found in tropical and sub-tropical climate. In Malaysia, dengue has been declared as one of the national health threat to the public. This study aimed to map the spatial distributions of dengue cases in the district of Hulu Langat, Selangor via a combination of Geographic Information System (GIS) and spatial statistic tools. Data related to dengue was gathered from the various government health agencies. The location of dengue cases was geocoded using a handheld GPS Juno SB Trimble. A total of 197 dengue cases occurring in 2003 were used in this study. Those data then was aggregated into sub-district level and then converted into GIS format. The study also used population or demographic data as well as the boundary of Hulu Langat. To assess the spatial distribution of dengue cases three spatial statistics method (Moran-s I, average nearest neighborhood (ANN) and kernel density estimation) were applied together with spatial analysis in the GIS environment. Those three indices were used to analyze the spatial distribution and average distance of dengue incidence and to locate the hot spot of dengue cases. The results indicated that the dengue cases was clustered (p < 0.01) when analyze using Moran-s I with z scores 5.03. The results from ANN analysis showed that the average nearest neighbor ratio is less than 1 which is 0.518755 (p < 0.0001). From this result, we can expect the dengue cases pattern in Hulu Langat district is exhibiting a cluster pattern. The z-score for dengue incidence within the district is -13.0525 (p < 0.0001). It was also found that the significant spatial autocorrelation of dengue incidences occurs at an average distance of 380.81 meters (p < 0.0001). Several locations especially residential area also had been identified as the hot spots of dengue cases in the district.
Abstract: Motion estimation is the most computationally
intensive part in video processing. Many fast motion estimation
algorithms have been proposed to decrease the computational
complexity by reducing the number of candidate motion vectors.
However, these studies are for fast search algorithms themselves while
almost image and video compressions are operated with software
based. Therefore, the timing constraints for running these motion
estimation algorithms not only challenge for the video codec but also
overwhelm for some of processors. In this paper, the performance of
motion estimation is enhanced by using Intel's Streaming SIMD
Extension 2 (SSE2) technology with Intel Pentium 4 processor.
Abstract: In this paper, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is utilized to characterize a prototype biolistic delivery system, the biomedical device based on the contoured-shock-tube design (CST), with the aim at investigating shocks induced flow instabilities within the contoured shock tube. The shock/interface interactions, the growth of perturbation at an interface between two fluids of different density are interrogated. The key features of the gas dynamics and gas-particle interaction are discussed
Abstract: Aligned and random nanofibrous scaffolds of PVA/PCL/nHA were fabricated by electrospinning method. The composite nanofibrous scaffolds were subjected to detailed analysis. Morphological investigations revealed that the prepared nanofibers have uniform morphology and the average fiber diameters of aligned and random scaffolds were 135.5 and 290 nm, respectively. The obtained scaffolds have a porous structure with porosity of 88 and 76% for random and aligned nanofibers, respectively. Furthermore, FTIR analysis demonstrated that there were strong intramolecular interactions between the molecules of PVA/PCL/nHA. On the other hand, mechanical characterizations show that aligning the nanofibers, could significantly improve the rigidity of the resultant biocomposite nanofibrous scaffolds.
Abstract: Asiatic Houbara ( Chlamydotis macqueenii ) is a
flagship and vulnerable species. In-situ conservation of this
threatened species demands for knowledge of its habitat selection.
The aim of this study was to determine habitat variables influencing
birds wintering and breeding selection in semi- arid central Iran.
Habitat features of the detected nest and pellet sites were compared
with paired and random plots by quantifying a number of habitat
variables. In wintering habitat use at micro scale houbara selected
sites where vegetation cover was significantly lower compard to
control sites( p< 0.001). Areas with low number of larger plant
species (p=0.03) that were not too close to a vegetation
patch(p
Abstract: The study explored varied types of human smiles and
extracted most of the key factors affecting the smiles. These key
factors then were converted into a set of control points which could
serve to satisfy the needs for creation of facial expression for 3D
animators and be further applied to the face simulation for robots in the
future. First, hundreds of human smile pictures were collected and
analyzed to identify the key factors for face expression. Then, the
factors were converted into a set of control points and sizing
parameters calculated proportionally. Finally, two different faces
were constructed for validating the parameters via the process of
simulating smiles of the same type as the original one.
Abstract: Modeling and simulation of fixed bed three-phase
catalytic reactors are considered for wet air catalytic oxidation of
phenol to perform a comparative numerical analysis between tricklebed
and packed-bubble column reactors. The modeling involves
material balances both for the catalyst particle as well as for different
fluid phases. Catalyst deactivation is also considered in a transient
reactor model to investigate the effects of various parameters
including reactor temperature on catalyst deactivation. The
simulation results indicated that packed-bubble columns were
slightly superior in performance than trickle beds. It was also found
that reaction temperature was the most effective parameter in catalyst
deactivation.
Abstract: A novel typical day prediction model have been built and validated by the measured data of a grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) system in Macau. Unlike conventional statistical method used by previous study on PV systems which get results by averaging nearby continuous points, the present typical day statistical method obtain the value at every minute in a typical day by averaging discontinuous points at the same minute in different days. This typical day statistical method based on discontinuous point averaging makes it possible for us to obtain the Gaussian shape dynamical distributions for solar irradiance and output power in a yearly or monthly typical day. Based on the yearly typical day statistical analysis results, the maximum possible accumulated output energy in a year with on site climate conditions and the corresponding optimal PV system running time are obtained. Periodic Gaussian shape prediction models for solar irradiance, output energy and system energy efficiency have been built and their coefficients have been determined based on the yearly, maximum and minimum monthly typical day Gaussian distribution parameters, which are obtained from iterations for minimum Root Mean Squared Deviation (RMSD). With the present model, the dynamical effects due to time difference in a day are kept and the day to day uncertainty due to weather changing are smoothed but still included. The periodic Gaussian shape correlations for solar irradiance, output power and system energy efficiency have been compared favorably with data of the PV system in Macau and proved to be an improvement than previous models.
Abstract: Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease accurate detection of prostate boundaries in transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images is required. This is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a novel method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images is presented. This method involves preprocessing (edge preserving noise reduction and smoothing) and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing. A feed forward neural network and local binary pattern together have been use to find a point inside prostate object. Finally the boundary of prostate is extracted by the inside point and an active contour algorithm. A numbers of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with MSE less than 4.6% relative to boundary provided manually by physicians.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel control strategy of a threephase
four-wire Unified Power Quality (UPQC) for an improvement
in power quality. The UPQC is realized by integration of series and
shunt active power filters (APFs) sharing a common dc bus capacitor.
The shunt APF is realized using a thee-phase, four leg voltage source
inverter (VSI) and the series APF is realized using a three-phase,
three leg VSI. A control technique based on unit vector template
technique (UTT) is used to get the reference signals for series APF,
while instantaneous sequence component theory (ISCT) is used for
the control of Shunt APF. The performance of the implemented
control algorithm is evaluated in terms of power-factor correction,
load balancing, neutral source current mitigation and mitigation of
voltage and current harmonics, voltage sag and swell in a three-phase
four-wire distribution system for different combination of linear and
non-linear loads. In this proposed control scheme of UPQC, the
current/voltage control is applied over the fundamental supply
currents/voltages instead of fast changing APFs currents/voltages,
there by reducing the computational delay and the required sensors.
MATLAB/Simulink based simulations are obtained, which support
the functionality of the UPQC. MATLAB/Simulink based
simulations are obtained, which support the functionality of the
UPQC.
Abstract: In seismic survey, the information regarding the
velocity of compression wave (Vp) as well as shear wave (Vs) are
very useful especially during the seismic interpretation. Previous
studies showed that both Vp and Vs determined by above methods
are totally different with respect to each other but offered good
approximation. In this study, both Vp and Vs of consolidated granite
rock were studied by using ultrasonic testing method and seismic
refraction method. In ultrasonic testing, two different condition of
rock are used which is dry and wet. The differences between Vp and
Vs getting by using ultrasonic testing and seismic refraction were
investigated and studied. The effect of water content in granite rock
towards the value of Vp and Vs during ultrasonic testing are also
measured. Within this work, the tolerance of the differences between
the velocity of seismic wave getting from ultrasonic testing and the
velocity of seismic wave getting from seismic refraction are also
measured and investigated.
Abstract: The increasing interest on processing data created by
sensor networks has evolved into approaches to implement sensor
networks as databases. The aggregation operator, which calculates a
value from a large group of data such as computing averages or sums,
etc. is an essential function that needs to be provided when
implementing such sensor network databases. This work proposes to
add the DURING clause into TinySQL to calculate values during a
specific long period and suggests a way to implement the aggregation
service in sensor networks by applying materialized view and
incremental view maintenance techniques that is used in data
warehouses. In sensor networks, data values are passed from child
nodes to parent nodes and an aggregation value is computed at the root
node. As such root nodes need to be memory efficient and low
powered, it becomes a problem to recompute aggregate values from all
past and current data. Therefore, applying incremental view
maintenance techniques can reduce the memory consumption and
support fast computation of aggregate values.
Abstract: According as the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry projects have grown more complex and larger, the number of utilization of BIM for 3D design and simulation is increasing significantly. Therefore, typical applications of BIM such as clash detection and alternative measures based on 3-dimenstional planning are expanded to process management, cost and quantity management, structural analysis, check for regulation, and various domains for virtual design and construction. Presently, commercial BIM software is operated on single-user environment, so initial cost is so high and the investment may be wasted frequently. Cloud computing that is a next-generation internet technology enables simple internet devices (such as PC, Tablet, Smart phone etc) to use services and resources of BIM software. In this paper, we suggested developing method of the BIM software based on cloud computing environment in order to expand utilization of BIM and reduce cost of BIM software. First, for the benchmarking, we surveyed successful case of BIM and cloud computing. And we analyzed needs and opportunities of BIM and cloud computing in AEC Industry. Finally, we suggested main functions of BIM software based on cloud computing environment and developed a simple prototype of cloud computing BIM software for basic BIM model viewing.
Abstract: As business environments are rapidly changing,
the manufacturing system must be reconfigured to adapt to
various customer needs. In order to cope with this challenge, it
is quintessential to test industrial control logic rapidly and
easily in the design time, and monitor operational behavior in
the run time of automated manufacturing system. Proposed
integrated model for virtual prototyping and operational
monitoring of industrial control logic is to improve limitations
of current ladder programming practices and general discrete
event simulation method. Each plant layout model using HMI
package and object-oriented control logic model is designed
independently and is executed simultaneously in integrated
manner to reflect design practices of automation system in the
design time. Control logic is designed and executed using UML
activity diagram without considering complicated control
behavior to deal with current trend of reconfigurable
manufacturing. After the physical installation, layout model of
virtual prototype constructed in the design time is reused for
operational monitoring of system behavior during run time.
Abstract: Biodiesel as an alternative fuel for diesel engines has been developed for some three decades now. While it is gaining wide acceptance in Europe, USA and some parts of Asia, the same cannot be said of Africa. With more than 35 countries in the continent depending on imported crude oil, it is necessary to look for alternative fuels which can be produced from resources available locally within any country. Hence this study presents performance of single cylinder diesel engine using blends of shea butter biodiesel. Shea butter was transformed into biodiesel by transesterification process. Tests are conducted to compare the biodiesel with baseline diesel fuel in terms of engine performance and exhaust emission characteristics. The results obtained showed that the addition of biodiesel to diesel fuel decreases the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and increases the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). These results are expected due to the lower energy content of biodiesel fuel. On the other hand while the NOx emissions increased with increase in biodiesel content in the fuel blends, the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), un-burnt hydrocarbon (UHC) and smoke opacity decreased. The engine performance which indicates that the biodiesel has properties and characteristics similar to diesel fuel and the reductions in exhaust emissions make shea butter biodiesel a viable additive or substitute to diesel fuel.
Abstract: Today, cancer remains one of the major diseases that
lead to death. The main obstacle in chemotherapy as a main cancer
treatment is the toxicity to normal cells due to Multidrug Resistance
(MDR) after the use of anticancer drugs. Proposed solution to
overcome this problem is the use of MDR efflux inhibitor of cinchona
alkaloids which is delivered together with anticancer drugs
encapsulated in the form of polymeric nanoparticles. The particles
were prepared by the hydration method. The characterization of
nanoparticles was particle size, zeta potential, entrapment efficiency
and in vitro drug release. Combination nanoparticle size ranged 29-45
nm with a neutral surface charge. Entrapment efficiency was above
87% for the use quinine, quinidine or cinchonidine in combination
with etoposide. The release test results exhibited that the cinchona
alkaloids release released faster than that of etoposide. Collectively,
cinchona alkaloids can be packaged along with etoposide in
nanomicelles for better cancer therapy.
Abstract: In this paper, a nonlinear model predictive swing-up
and stabilizing sliding controller is proposed for an inverted
pendulum-cart system. In the swing up phase, the nonlinear model
predictive control is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem
with energy based objective function. By solving this problem at
each sampling instant, a sequence of control inputs that optimize the
nonlinear objective function subject to various constraints over a
finite horizon are obtained. Then, this control drives the pendulum to
a predefined neighborhood of the upper equilibrium point, at where
sliding mode based model predictive control is used to stabilize the
systems with the specified constraints. It is shown by the simulations
that, due to the way of formulating the problem, short horizon
lengths are sufficient for attaining the swing up goal.
Abstract: In today-s global and competitive market,
manufacturing companies are working hard towards improving their
production system performance. Most companies develop production
systems that can help in cost reduction. Manufacturing systems
consist of different elements including production methods,
machines, processes, control and information systems. Human issues
are an important part of manufacturing systems, yet most companies
do not pay sufficient attention to them. In this paper, a workforce
planning (WP) model is presented. A non-linear programming model
is developed in order to minimize the hiring, firing, training and
overtime costs. The purpose is to determine the number of workers
for each worker type, the number of workers trained, and the number
of overtime hours. Moreover, a decision support system (DSS) based
on the proposed model is introduced using the Excel-Lingo software
interfacing feature. This model will help to improve the interaction
between the workers, managers and the technical systems in
manufacturing.
Abstract: The present study deals with the analysis of the cylindrical part of a CNG storage vessel, combining a plastic liner and an over wrapped filament wound composite. Three kind of polymer are used in the present analysis: High density Polyethylene HDPE, Light low density Polyethylene LLDPE and finally blend of LLDPE/HDPE. The effect of the mechanical properties on the behavior of type IV vessel may be then investigated. In the present paper, the effect of the order of the circumferential winding on the stacking sequence may be then investigated. Based on mechanical considerations, the present model provides an exact solution for stresses and deformations on the cylindrical section of the vessel under thermo-mechanical static loading. The result show a good behavior of HDPE liner compared to the other plastic materials. The presence of circumferential winding angle in the stacking improves the rigidity of vessel by improving the burst pressure.
Abstract: In this work, the natural convection in a concentric
annulus between a cold outer inclined square enclosure and heated
inner circular cylinder is simulated for two-dimensional steady
state. The Boussinesq approximation was applied to model the
buoyancy-driven effect and the governing equations were solved
using the time marching approach staggered by body fitted
coordinates. The coordinate transformation from the physical
domain to the computational domain is set up by an analytical
expression. Numerical results for Rayleigh numbers 103 , 104 , 105
and 106, aspect ratios 1.5 , 3.0 and 4.5 for seven different
inclination angles for the outer square enclosure 0o , -30o
, -45o
,
-60o , -90o , -135o , -180o are presented as well. The computed flow
and temperature fields were demonstrated in the form of
streamlines, isotherms and Nusselt numbers variation. It is found
that both the aspect ratio and the Rayleigh number are critical to the
patterns of flow and thermal fields. At all Rayleigh numbers angle
of inclination has nominal effect on heat transfer.