Abstract: Chemical and physical functionalization of multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has been commonly practiced to
achieve better dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in polymer
matrix. This work describes various functionalization methods (acidtreatment,
non-ionic surfactant treatment with TritonX-100),
fabrication of MWCNT/PP nanocomposites via melt blending and
characterization of mechanical properties. Microscopy analysis
(FESEM, TEM, XPS) showed effective purification of MWCNTs
under acid treatment, and better dispersion under both chemical and
physical functionalization techniques combined, in their respective
order. Tensile tests showed increase in tensile strength for the
nanocomposites that contain MWCNTs up to 2 wt%. A decrease in
tensile strength was seen in samples that contain 4 wt% of MWCNTs
for both raw and Triton X-100 functionalized, signifying MWCNT
degradation/rebundling at composition with higher content of
MWCNTs. For the acid-treated MWCNTs, however, the tensile
results showed slight improvement even at 4wt%, indicating effective
dispersion of MWCNTs.
Abstract: In this paper we address the issue of classifying the fluorescent intensity of a sample in Indirect Immuno-Fluorescence (IIF). Since IIF is a subjective, semi-quantitative test in its very nature, we discuss a strategy to reliably label the image data set by using the diagnoses performed by different physicians. Then, we discuss image pre-processing, feature extraction and selection. Finally, we propose two ANN-based classifiers that can separate intrinsically dubious samples and whose error tolerance can be flexibly set. Measured performance shows error rates less than 1%, which candidates the method to be used in daily medical practice either to perform pre-selection of cases to be examined, or to act as a second reader.
Abstract: Sound pathways in the enclosures of small earphones
are very narrow. In such narrow pathways, the speed of sound
propagation and the phase of sound waves change because of the air
viscosity. We have developed a new finite element method that
includes the effects of damping due to air viscosity for modeling the
sound pathway. This method is developed as an extension of the
existing finite element method for porous sound-absorbing materials.
The numerical calculation results using the proposed finite element
method are validated against the existing calculation methods.
Abstract: The possibility of radionuclides-related contamination
of lands at agricultural holdings defines the necessity to apply special
protective measures in plant growing. The aim of researches is to
elucidate the influence of polymers applying on biological migration
of man-made anthropogenic radionuclides 90Sr and 137Cs in the
system water - soil – plant. The tests are being carried out under field
conditions with and without application of polymers in root-inhabited
media in more radioecological tension zone (with the radius of 7 km
from the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant). The polymers on the base
of K+, Caµ, KµCaµ ions were tested. Productivity of pepper
depending on the presence and type of polymer material, content of
artificial radionuclides in waters, soil and plant material has been
determined. The character of different polymers influence on the
artificial radionuclides migration and accumulation in the system
water-soil-plant and accumulation in the plants has been cleared up.
Abstract: Some quality control tools use non metric subjective information coming from experts, who qualify the intensity of relations existing inside processes, but without quantifying them. In this paper we have developed a quality control analytic tool, measuring the impact or strength of the relationship between process operations and product characteristics. The tool includes two models: a qualitative model, allowing relationships description and analysis; and a formal quantitative model, by means of which relationship quantification is achieved. In the first one, concepts from the Graphs Theory were applied to identify those process elements which can be sources of variation, that is, those quality characteristics or operations that have some sort of prelacy over the others and that should become control items. Also the most dependent elements can be identified, that is those elements receiving the effects of elements identified as variation sources. If controls are focused in those dependent elements, efficiency of control is compromised by the fact that we are controlling effects, not causes. The second model applied adapts the multivariate statistical technique of Covariance Structural Analysis. This approach allowed us to quantify the relationships. The computer package LISREL was used to obtain statistics and to validate the model.
Abstract: The ability of the brain to organize information and generate the functional structures we use to act, think and communicate, is a common and easily observable natural phenomenon. In object-oriented analysis, these structures are represented by objects. Objects have been extensively studied and documented, but the process that creates them is not understood. In this work, a new class of discrete, deterministic, dissipative, host-guest dynamical systems is introduced. The new systems have extraordinary self-organizing properties. They can host information representing other physical systems and generate the same functional structures as the brain does. A simple mathematical model is proposed. The new systems are easy to simulate by computer, and measurements needed to confirm the assumptions are abundant and readily available. Experimental results presented here confirm the findings. Applications are many, but among the most immediate are object-oriented engineering, image and voice recognition, search engines, and Neuroscience.
Abstract: Food safety is an important concern for holiday
makers in foreign and unfamiliar tourist destinations. In fact, risk
from food in these tourist destinations has an influence on tourist
perception. This risk can potentially affect physical health and lead to
an inability to pursue planned activities. The objective of this paper
was to compare foreign tourists- demographics including gender, age
and education level, with the level of perceived risk towards food
safety. A total of 222 foreign tourists during their stay at Khao San
Road in Bangkok were used as the sample. Independent- samples ttest,
analysis of variance, and Least Significant Difference or LSD
post hoc test were utilized. The findings revealed that there were few
demographic differences in level of perceived risk among the foreign
tourists. The post hoc test indicated a significant difference among
the old and the young tourists, and between the higher and lower
level of education. Ranks of tourists- perceived risk towards food
safety unveiled some interesting results. Tourists- perceived risk of
food safety in established restaurants can be ranked as i) cleanliness
of dining utensils, ii) sanitation of food preparation area, and iii)
cleanliness of food seasoning and ingredients. Whereas, the tourists-
perceived risk of food safety in street food and drink can be ranked
as i) cleanliness of stalls and pushcarts, ii) cleanliness of food sold,
and iii) personal hygiene of street food hawkers or vendors.
Abstract: Current research on semantic web aims at making intelligent web pages meaningful for machines. In this way, ontology plays a primary role. We believe that logic can help ontology languages (such as OWL) to be more fluent and efficient. In this paper we try to combine logic with OWL to reduce some disadvantages of this language. Therefore we extend OWL by logic and also show how logic can satisfy our future expectations of an ontology language.
Abstract: This paper deals with stakeholders’ decisions within energy neutral urban redevelopment processes. The decisions of these stakeholders during the process will make or break energy neutral ambitions. An extensive form of game theory model gave insight in the behavioral differences of stakeholders regarding energy neutral ambitions and the effects of the changing legislation. The results show that new legislation regarding spatial planning slightly influences the behavior of stakeholders. An active behavior of the municipality will still result in the best outcome. Nevertheless, the municipality becomes more powerful when acting passively and can make the use of planning tools to provide governance towards energy neutral urban redevelopment. Moreover, organizational support, recognizing the necessity for energy neutrality, keeping focused and collaboration among stakeholders are crucial elements to achieve the objective of an energy neutral urban (re)development.
Abstract: Tensile armour wires provide a flexible pipe's
resistance to longitudinal stresses. Flexible pipe manufacturers need
to know the effect of defects such as scratches and cracks, with
dimensions less than 0.2mm which is the limit of the current nondestructive
detection technology, on the fracture stress and fracture
strain of the wire for quality assurance purposes. Recent research
involving the determination of the fracture strength of cracked wires
employed laboratory testing and classical fracture mechanics
approach using non-standardised fracture mechanics specimens
because standard test specimens could not be manufactured from the
wires owing to their sizes. In this work, the effect of miniature
cracks on the fracture properties of tensile armour wires was
investigated using laboratory and finite element tensile testing
simulations with the phenomenological shear fracture model. The
investigation revealed that the presence of cracks shallower than
0.2mm is worse on the fracture strain of the wire.
Abstract: Although backpropagation ANNs generally predict
better than decision trees do for pattern classification problems, they
are often regarded as black boxes, i.e., their predictions cannot be
explained as those of decision trees. In many applications, it is
desirable to extract knowledge from trained ANNs for the users to
gain a better understanding of how the networks solve the problems.
A new rule extraction algorithm, called rule extraction from artificial
neural networks (REANN) is proposed and implemented to extract
symbolic rules from ANNs. A standard three-layer feedforward ANN
is the basis of the algorithm. A four-phase training algorithm is
proposed for backpropagation learning. Explicitness of the extracted
rules is supported by comparing them to the symbolic rules generated
by other methods. Extracted rules are comparable with other methods
in terms of number of rules, average number of conditions for a rule,
and predictive accuracy. Extensive experimental studies on several
benchmarks classification problems, such as breast cancer, iris,
diabetes, and season classification problems, demonstrate the
effectiveness of the proposed approach with good generalization
ability.
Abstract: In developing a text-to-speech system, it is well
known that the accuracy of information extracted from a text is
crucial to produce high quality synthesized speech. In this paper, a
new scheme for converting text into its equivalent phonetic spelling
is introduced and developed. This method is applicable to many
applications in text to speech converting systems and has many
advantages over other methods. The proposed method can also
complement the other methods with a purpose of improving their
performance. The proposed method is a probabilistic model and is
based on Smooth Ergodic Hidden Markov Model. This model can be
considered as an extension to HMM. The proposed method is applied
to Persian language and its accuracy in converting text to speech
phonetics is evaluated using simulations.
Abstract: Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure
consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite
matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels,
because the application of these materials has made significant usage;
particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of
(DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such
as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength
ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer
advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy
steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of
damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure
due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is
introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various
phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission
(AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure
mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or
martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with
different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by
various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and
then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From
AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the
value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain
energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important
events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events
associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite
and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite
morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm.
This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of
martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final
results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the
mechanisms of failure.
Abstract: The halophilic proteinase showed a maximal activity
at 50°C and pH 9~10, in 20% NaCl and was highly stabilized by
NaCl. It was able to hydrolyse natural actomyosin (NAM), collagen
and anchovy protein. For NAM hydrolysis, the myosin heavy chain
was completely digested by halophilic proteinase as evidenced by the
lowest band intensity remaining, but partially hydrolysed actin. The
SR5-3 proteinase was also capable hydrolyzing two major
components of collagen, β- and α-compounds, effectively. The
degree of hydrolysis (DH) of the halophilic proteinase and
commercial proteinases (Novozyme, Neutrase, chymotrypsin and
Flavourzyme) on the anchovy protein, were compared, and it was
found that the proteinase showed a greater degree of hydrolysis
towards anchovy protein than that from commercial proteinases. DH
of halophilic proteinase was sharply enhanced according to the
increase in the concentration of enzyme from 0.035 U to 0.105 U.
The results warranting that the acceleration of the production of fish
sauce with higher quality, may be achieved by adding of the
halophilic proteinase from this bacterium.
Abstract: Grey mold on grape is caused by the fungus Botrytis
cinerea Pers. Trichodex WP, a new biofungicide, that contains fungal
spores of Trichoderma harzianum Rifai, was used for biological
control of Grey mold on grape. The efficacy of Trichodex WP has
been reported from many experiments. Experiments were carried out
in the locality – Banatski Karlovac, on grapevine species – talijanski
rizling. The trials were set according to instructions of methods
PP1/152(2) and PP1/17(3) , according to a fully randomized block
design. Phytotoxicity was estimated by PP methods 1/135(2), the
intensity of infection according to Towsend Heuberger , the
efficiency by Abbott, the analysis of variance with Duncan test and
PP/181(2). Application of Trichodex WP is limited to the first two
treatments. Other treatments are performed with the fungicides based
on a.i. procymidone, vinclozoline and iprodione.
Abstract: We develop new nonlinear methods of
immunofluorescence analysis for a sensitive technology of
respiratory burst reaction of DNA fluorescence due to oxidative
activity in the peripheral blood neutrophils. Histograms in flow
cytometry experiments represent a fluorescence flashes frequency as
functions of fluorescence intensity. We used the Shannon-Weaver
index for definition of neutrophils- biodiversity and Hurst index for
definition of fractal-s correlations in immunofluorescence for
different donors, as the basic quantitative criteria for medical
diagnostics of health status. We analyze frequencies of flashes,
information, Shannon entropies and their fractals in
immunofluorescence networks due to reduction of histogram range.
We found the number of simplest universal correlations for
biodiversity, information and Hurst index in diagnostics and
classification of pathologies for wide spectra of diseases. In addition
is determined the clear criterion of a common immunity and human
health status in a form of yes/no answers type. These answers based
on peculiarities of information in immunofluorescence networks and
biodiversity of neutrophils. Experimental data analysis has shown the
existence of homeostasis for information entropy in oxidative activity
of DNA in neutrophil nuclei for all donors.
Abstract: This article is an extension and a practical application
approach of Wheeler-s NEBIC theory (Net Enabled Business
Innovation Cycle). NEBIC theory is a new approach in IS research
and can be used for dynamic environment related to new technology.
Firms can follow the market changes rapidly with support of the IT
resources. Flexible firms adapt their market strategies, and respond
more quickly to customers changing behaviors. When every leading
firm in an industry has access to the same IT resources, the way that
these IT resources are managed will determine the competitive
advantages or disadvantages of firm. From Dynamic Capabilities
Perspective and from newly introduced NEBIC theory by Wheeler,
we know that only IT resources cannot deliver customer value but
good configuration of those resources can guarantee customer value
by choosing the right emerging technology, grasping the right
economic opportunities through business innovation and growth. We
found evidences in literature that SOA (Service Oriented
Architecture) is a promising emerging technology which can deliver
the desired economic opportunity through modularity, flexibility and
loose-coupling. SOA can also help firms to connect in network which
can open a new window of opportunity to collaborate in innovation
and right kind of outsourcing. There are many articles and research
reports indicates that failure rate in outsourcing is very high but at the
same time research indicates that successful outsourcing projects
adds tangible and intangible benefits to the service consumer.
Business executives and policy makers in the west should not afraid
of outsourcing but they should choose the right strategy through the
use of emerging technology to significantly reduce the failure rate in
outsourcing.
Abstract: Construction delay is unavoidable in developing
countries including Malaysia. It is defined as time overrun or
extension of time for completion of a project. The purpose of the
study is to determine the causes of delay in Malaysian construction
industries based on previous worldwide research. The field survey
conducted includes the experienced developers, consultants and
contractors in Malaysia. 34 causes of the construction delay have
been determined and 24 have been selected using the Rasch model
analysis. The analysis result will be used as the baseline for the next
research to find the causes of delay in the Malaysian construction
industry taking place in Malaysian higher learning institutions.
Abstract: This study describes a capillary-based device
integrated with the heating and cooling modules for polymerase chain
reaction (PCR). The device consists of the reaction
polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) capillary, the aluminum blocks, and is
equipped with two cartridge heaters, a thermoelectric (TE) cooler, a
fan, and some thermocouples for temperature control. The cartridge
heaters are placed into the heating blocks and maintained at two
different temperatures to achieve the denaturation and the extension
step. Some thermocouples inserted into the capillary are used to obtain
the transient temperature profiles of the reaction sample during
thermal cycles. A 483-bp DNA template is amplified successfully in
the designed system and the traditional thermal cycler. This work
should be interesting to persons involved in the high-temperature
based reactions and genomics or cell analysis.
Abstract: The present paper concerns with the influence of fiber
packing on the transverse plastic properties of metal matrix
composites. A micromechanical modeling procedure is used to
predict the effective mechanical properties of composite materials at
large tensile and compressive deformations. Microstructure is
represented by a repeating unit cell (RUC). Two fiber arrays are
considered including ideal square fiber packing and random fiber
packing defined by random sequential algorithm. The
micromechanical modeling procedure is implemented for
graphite/aluminum metal matrix composite in which the
reinforcement behaves as elastic, isotropic solids and the matrix is
modeled as an isotropic elastic-plastic solid following the von Mises
criterion with isotropic hardening and the Ramberg-Osgood
relationship between equivalent true stress and logarithmic strain.
The deformation is increased to a considerable value to evaluate both
elastic and plastic behaviors of metal matrix composites. The yields
strength and true elastic-plastic stress are determined for
graphite/aluminum composites.