Abstract: The mechanical properties of granular solids are
dependent on the flow of stresses from one particle to another
through inter-particle contact. Although some experimental methods
have been used to study the inter-particle contacts in the past,
preliminary work with these techniques indicated that they do not
have the necessary resolution to distinguish between those contacts
that transmit the load and those that do not, especially for systems
with a wide distribution of particle sizes. In this research, computer
simulations are used to study the nature and distribution of contacts
in a compact with wide particle size distribution, representative of
aggregate size distribution used in asphalt pavement construction.
The packing fraction, the mean number of contacts and the
distribution of contacts were studied for different scenarios. A
methodology to distinguish and compute the fraction of load-bearing
particles and the fraction of space-filling particles (particles that do
not transmit any force) is needed for further investigation.
Abstract: A numerical study is presented on buckling and post
buckling behaviour of laminated carbon fiber reinforced plastic
(CFRP) thin-walled cylindrical shells under axial compression using
asymmetric meshing technique (AMT). Asymmetric meshing
technique is a perturbation technique to introduce disturbance without
changing geometry, boundary conditions or loading conditions.
Asymmetric meshing affects predicted buckling load, buckling mode
shape and post-buckling behaviour. Linear (eigenvalue) and nonlinear
(Riks) analyses have been performed to study the effect of
asymmetric meshing in the form of a patch on buckling behaviour.
The reduction in the buckling load using Asymmetric meshing
technique was observed to be about 15%. An isolated dimple formed
near the bifurcation point and the size of which increased to reach a
stable state in the post-buckling region. The load-displacement curve
behaviour applying asymmetric meshing is quite similar to the curve
obtained using initial geometric imperfection in the shell model.
Abstract: This study was conducted published to investigate
there liability of the equation pressure-impulse (PI) reinforced
concrete column inprevious studies. Equation involves three different
levels of damage criteria known as D =0. 2, D =0. 5 and D =0. 8.The
damage criteria known as a minor when 0-0.2, 0.2-0.5is known as
moderate damage, high damage known as 0.5-0.8, and 0.8-1 of the
structure is considered a failure. In this study, two types of reliability
analyzes conducted. First, using pressure-impulse equation with
different parameters. The parameters involved are the concrete
strength, depth, width, and height column, the ratio of longitudinal
reinforcement and transverse reinforcement ratio. In the first analysis
of the reliability of this new equation is derived to improve the
previous equations. The second reliability analysis involves three
types of columns used to derive the PI curve diagram using the
derived equation to compare with the equation derived from other
researchers and graph minimum standoff versus weapon yield
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The results
showed that the derived equation is more accurate with FEMA
standards than previous researchers.
Abstract: There are only limited studies that directly correlate
the increase in reinforced concrete (RC) panel structural capacities in
resisting the blast loads with different RC panel structural properties
in terms of blast loading characteristics, RC panel dimensions, steel
reinforcement ratio and concrete material strength. In this paper,
numerical analyses of dynamic response and damage of the one-way
RC panel to blast loads are carried out using the commercial software
LS-DYNA. A series of simulations are performed to predict the blast
response and damage of columns with different level and magnitude
of blast loads. The numerical results are used to develop pressureimpulse
(P-I) diagrams of one-way RC panels. Based on the
numerical results, the empirical formulae are derived to calculate the
pressure and impulse asymptotes of the P-I diagrams of RC panels.
The results presented in this paper can be used to construct P-I
diagrams of RC panels with different concrete and reinforcement
properties. The P-I diagrams are very useful to assess panel capacities
in resisting different blast loads.
Abstract: Cameras are often mounted on platforms that canmove like rovers, booms, gantries and aircraft. People operate suchplatforms to capture desired views of scene or target. To avoidcollisions with the environment and occlusions, such platforms oftenpossess redundant degrees-of-freedom. As a result, manipulatingsuch platforms demands much skill. Visual-servoing some degrees-of-freedom may reduce operator burden and improve tracking per-formance. This concept, which we call human-in-the-loop visual-servoing, is demonstrated in this paper and applies a Α-β-γ filter and feedforward controller to a broadcast camera boom.
Abstract: It has been established that microRNAs (miRNAs) play
an important role in gene expression by post-transcriptional regulation
of messengerRNAs (mRNAs). However, the precise relationships
between microRNAs and their target genes in sense of numbers,
types and biological relevance remain largely unclear. Dissecting the
miRNA-target relationships will render more insights for miRNA
targets identification and validation therefore promote the understanding
of miRNA function. In miRBase, miRanda is the key
algorithm used for target prediction for Zebrafish. This algorithm
is high-throughput but brings lots of false positives (noise). Since
validation of a large scale of targets through laboratory experiments
is very time consuming, several computational methods for miRNA
targets validation should be developed. In this paper, we present an
integrative method to investigate several aspects of the relationships
between miRNAs and their targets with the final purpose of extracting
high confident targets from miRanda predicted targets pool. This is
achieved by using the techniques ranging from statistical tests to
clustering and association rules. Our research focuses on Zebrafish.
It was found that validated targets do not necessarily associate with
the highest sequence matching. Besides, for some miRNA families,
the frequency of their predicted targets is significantly higher in the
genomic region nearby their own physical location. Finally, in a case
study of dre-miR-10 and dre-miR-196, it was found that the predicted
target genes hoxd13a, hoxd11a, hoxd10a and hoxc4a of dre-miR-
10 while hoxa9a, hoxc8a and hoxa13a of dre-miR-196 have similar
characteristics as validated target genes and therefore represent high
confidence target candidates.
Abstract: In this paper, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
(SAGD) is introduced and its advantages over ordinary steam
injection is demonstrated. A simple simulation model is built and
three scenarios of natural production, ordinary steam injection, and
SAGD are compared in terms of their cumulative oil production and
cumulative oil steam ratio. The results show that SAGD can
significantly enhance oil production in quite a short period of time.
However, since the distance between injection and production wells
is short, the oil to steam ratio decreases gradually through time.
Abstract: With increasing utilization of the wireless devices in
different fields such as medical devices and industrial fields, the
paper presents a method for simplify the Bluetooth packets with
throughput enhancing. The paper studies a vital issue in wireless
communications, which is the throughput of data over wireless
networks. In fact, the Bluetooth and ZigBee are a Wireless Personal
Area Network (WPAN). With taking these two systems competition
consideration, the paper proposes different schemes for improve the
throughput of Bluetooth network over a reliable channel. The
proposition depends on the Channel Quality Driven Data Rate
(CQDDR) rules, which determines the suitable packet in the
transmission process according to the channel conditions. The
proposed packet is studied over additive White Gaussian Noise
(AWGN) and fading channels. The Experimental results reveal the
capability of extension of the PL length by 8, 16, 24 bytes for classic
and EDR packets, respectively. Also, the proposed method is suitable
for the low throughput Bluetooth.
Abstract: Forming a legal culture among citizens is a
complicated and lengthy process, influencing all spheres of social
life. It includes promoting justice, learning rights and duties, the
introduction of juridical norms and knowledge, and also a process of
developing a system of legal acts and constitutional norms. Currently,
the evaluative and emotional influence of attempts to establish a legal
culture among the citizens of Kazakhstan is limited by real legal
practice. As a result, the values essential to a sound civil society are
absent from the consciousness of the Kazakh people who are thus, in
turn, not able to develop respect for these values. One of the
disadvantages of the modern Kazakh educational system is a
tendency to underrate the actual forces shaping the worldview of
Kazakh youths. The mass-media, which are going through a
personnel crisis, cannot provide society with the legal and political
information necessary to form the sort of legal culture required for a
true civil society.
Abstract: A new code synchronization algorithm is proposed in
this paper for the secondary cell-search stage in wideband CDMA
systems. Rather than using the Cyclically Permutable (CP) code in the
Secondary Synchronization Channel (S-SCH) to simultaneously
determine the frame boundary and scrambling code group, the new
synchronization algorithm implements the same function with less
system complexity and less Mean Acquisition Time (MAT). The
Secondary Synchronization Code (SSC) is redesigned by splitting into
two sub-sequences. We treat the information of scrambling code group
as data bits and use simple time diversity BCH coding for further
reliability. It avoids involved and time-costly Reed-Solomon (RS)
code computations and comparisons. Analysis and simulation results
show that the Synchronization Error Rate (SER) yielded by the new
algorithm in Rayleigh fading channels is close to that of the
conventional algorithm in the standard. This new synchronization
algorithm reduces system complexities, shortens the average
cell-search time and can be implemented in the slot-based cell-search
pipeline. By taking antenna diversity and pipelining correlation
processes, the new algorithm also shows its flexible application in
multiple antenna systems.
Abstract: Load forecasting has become in recent years one of the major areas of research in electrical engineering. Most traditional forecasting models and artificial intelligence neural network techniques have been tried out in this task. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have lately received much attention, and a great number of papers have reported successful experiments and practical tests. This article presents the development of an ANN-based short-term load forecasting model with improved generalization technique for the Regional Power Control Center of Saudi Electricity Company, Western Operation Area (SEC-WOA). The proposed ANN is trained with weather-related data and historical electric load-related data using the data from the calendar years 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 for training. The model tested for one week at five different seasons, typically, winter, spring, summer, Ramadan and fall seasons, and the mean absolute average error for one hour-ahead load forecasting found 1.12%.
Abstract: In the multi objective optimization, in the case when generated set of Pareto optimal solutions is large, occurs the problem to select of the best solution from this set. In this paper, is suggested a method to order of Pareto set. Ordering the Pareto optimal set carried out in conformity with the introduced distance function between each solution and selected reference point, where the reference point may be adjusted to represent the preferences of a decision making agent. Preference information about objective weights from a decision maker may be expressed imprecisely. The developed elicitation procedure provides an opportunity to obtain surrogate numerical weights for the objectives, and thus, to manage impreciseness of preference. The proposed method is a scalable to many objectives and can be used independently or as complementary to the various visualization techniques in the multidimensional case.
Abstract: The Internet has become an indispensable part of our lives. Witnessing recent web-based mass collaboration, e.g. Wikipedia, people are questioning whether the Internet has made fundamental changes to the society or whether it is merely a hyperbolic fad. It has long been assumed that collective action for a certain goal yields the problem of free-riding, due to its non-exclusive and non-rival characteristics. Then, thanks to recent technological advances, the on-line space experienced the following changes that enabled it to produce public goods: 1) decrease in the cost of production or coordination 2) externality from networked structure 3) production function which integrates both self-interest and altruism. However, this research doubts the homogeneity of on-line mass collaboration and argues that a more sophisticated and systematical approach is required. The alternative that we suggest is to connect the characteristics of the goal to the motivation. Despite various approaches, previous literature fails to recognize that motivation can be structurally restricted by the characteristic of the goal. First we draw a typology of on-line mass collaboration with 'the extent of expected beneficiary' and 'the existence of externality', and then we examine each combination of motivation using Benkler-s framework. Finally, we explore and connect such typology with its possible dominant participating motivation.
Abstract: The study of the variability of the postural strategies
in low back pain patients, as a criterion in evaluation of the
adaptability of this system to the environmental demands is the
purpose of this study. A cross-sectional case-control study was
performed on 21 recurrent non-specific low back pain patients and 21
healthy volunteers. The electromyography activity of Deltoid,
External Oblique (EO), Transverse Abdominis/Internal Oblique
(TrA/IO) and Erector Spine (ES) muscles of each person was
recorded in 75 rapid arm flexion with maximum acceleration.
Standard deviation of trunk muscles onset relative to deltoid muscle
onset were statistically analyzed by MANOVA . The results show
that chronic low back pain patients exhibit less variability in their
anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in comparison with the
control group. There is a decrease in variability of postural control
system of recurrent non-specific low back pain patients that can
result in the persistence of pain and chronicity by decreasing the
adaptability to environmental demands.
Abstract: The use of Electronic Commerce (EC)
technologies enables Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to improve their efficiency and competitive position. Much of the literature proposes an extensive set of benefits for
organizations that choose to adopt and implement ECommerce
systems. Factors of Business –to-business (B2B)
E-Commerce adoption and implementation have been
extensively investigated. Despite enormous attention given to encourage Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt and
implement E-Commerce, little research has been carried out in identifying the factors of Business-to-Consumer ECommerce adoption and implementation for SMEs. To conduct the study, Tornatsky and Fleischer model was adopted
and tested in four SMEs located in Christchurch, New
Zealand. This paper explores the factors that impact the
decision and method of adoption and implementation of ECommerce
systems in automobile industry. Automobile
industry was chosen because the product they deal with i.e.
cars are not a common commodity to be sold online, despite this fact the eCommerce penetration in automobile industry is
high. The factors that promote adoption and implementation of
E-Commerce technologies are discussed, together with the
barriers. This study will help SME owners to effectively
handle the adoption and implementation process and will also
improve the chance of successful E-Commerce
implementation. The implications of the findings for
managers, consultants, and government organizations engaged in promoting E-Commerce adoption and implementation in
small businesses and future research are discussed.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted with 80 unsexed
broilers of the Arbor Acress strain to determine the capability of a
carrot and fruit juice wastes mixture (carrot, apple, manggo, avocado,
orange, melon and Dutch egg plant) in the same proportion for
replacing corn in broiler diet. This study involved a completely
randomized design (CRD) with 5 treatments (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% of
juice wastes mixture in diets) and 4 replicates per treatment. Diets
were isonitrogenous (22% crude protein) and isocaloric (3000 kcal/kg
diet). Measured variables were feed consumption, average daily
gain, feed conversion, as well as percentages of abdominal fat pad,
carcass, digestive organs (liver, pancreas and gizzard), and heart.
Data were analyzed by analysis of variance for CRD. Increasing
juice wastes mixture levels in diets increased feed consumption
(P
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interactive online case-study library website developed in a national project. The design goal of the website is to provide interactive, enhanced, case-based and online educational resource for educators through the purpose and within the scope of a national project. The ADDIE instructional design model was used in the development of the website for interactive case-based library. This library is developed on a web-based platform, which is important in terms of manageability, accessibility, and updateability of data. Users are able to sort the displayed case-studies by their titles, dates, ratings, view counts, etc. The usability test is used and the expert opinion is taken for the evaluation of the website. This website is a tool to integrate technology into education. It is believed that this website will be beneficial for pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of their professional developments.
Abstract: In this research, a mathematical model for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. To design a product, there can be alternative options to design the detailed components to fulfill the same product requirement. In the design alternative cases, the components of the product can be designed with different materials and detailed specifications. If several design alternative cases are proposed, the different materials and specifications can affect the manufacturing processes. In this paper, a new concept for integrating green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. A green design can be determined based the manufacturing processes of the designed product by evaluating the green criteria including energy usage and environmental impact, in addition to the traditional criteria of manufacturing cost. With this concept, a mathematical model is developed to find the green design and the associated green manufacturing processes. In the mathematical model, the cost items include material cost, manufacturing cost, and green related cost. The green related cost items include energy cost and environmental cost. The objective is to find the decisions of green design and green manufacturing processes to achieve the minimized total cost. In practical applications, the decision-making can be made to select a good green design case and its green manufacturing processes. In this presentation, an example product is illustrated. It shows that the model is practical and useful for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes.
Abstract: Numerous concrete structures projects are currently running in Libya as part of a US$50 billion government funding. The
quality of concrete used in 20 different construction projects were assessed based mainly on the concrete compressive strength achieved. The projects are scattered all over the country and are at
various levels of completeness. For most of these projects, the
concrete compressive strength was obtained from test results of a
150mm standard cube mold. Statistical analysis of collected concrete
compressive strengths reveals that the data in general followed a
normal distribution pattern. The study covers comparison and assessment of concrete quality aspects such as: quality control, strength range, data standard deviation, data scatter, and ratio of minimum strength to design strength. Site quality control for these projects ranged from very good to poor according to ACI214 criteria [1]. The ranges (Rg) of the strength (max. strength – min. strength) divided by average strength are from (34% to 160%). Data scatter is
measured as the range (Rg) divided by standard deviation () and is
found to be (1.82 to 11.04), indicating that the range is ±3σ.
International construction companies working in Libya follow
different assessment criteria for concrete compressive strength in lieu
of national unified procedure. The study reveals that assessments of
concrete quality conducted by these construction companies usually
meet their adopted (internal) standards, but sometimes fail to meet
internationally known standard requirements. The assessment of
concrete presented in this paper is based on ACI, British standards
and proposed Libyan concrete strength assessment criteria.
Abstract: This paper presents a new sufficient condition for the
existence, uniqueness and global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium point for Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with multiple time delays. The results establish a relationship between the network parameters
of the neural system independently of the delay parameters. The results are also compared with the previously reported results in
the literature.