Abstract: The rapid adoption of Internet has turned the Millennial Teens- life like a lightning speed. Empirical evidence has illustrated that Pathological Internet Use (PIU) among them ensure long-term success to the market players in the children industry. However, it creates concerns among their care takers as it generates mental disorder among some of them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of PIU and identify its outcomes among urban Millennial Teens. It aims to develop a theoretical framework based on a modified Media System Dependency (MSD) Theory that integrates important systems and components that determine and resulted from PIU.
Abstract: Using efficient classification methods is necessary for automatic fingerprint recognition system. This paper introduces a new structural approach to fingerprint classification by using the directional image of fingerprints to increase the number of subclasses. In this method, the directional image of fingerprints is segmented into regions consisting of pixels with the same direction. Afterwards the relational graph to the segmented image is constructed and according to it, the super graph including prominent information of this graph is formed. Ultimately we apply a matching technique to compare obtained graph with the model graphs in order to classify fingerprints by using cost function. Increasing the number of subclasses with acceptable accuracy in classification and faster processing in fingerprints recognition, makes this system superior.
Abstract: Programmable logic controllers are the main controllers in the today's industries; they are used for several applications in industrial control systems and there are lots of examples exist from the PLC applications in industries especially in big companies and plants such as refineries, power plants, petrochemical companies, steel companies, and food and production companies. In the PLCs there are some functions in the function library in software that can be used in PLC programs as basic program elements. The aim of this project are introducing and implementing a new function block of a neural network to the function library of PLC. This block can be applied for some control applications or nonlinear functions calculations after it has been trained for these applications. The implemented neural network is a Perceptron neural network with three layers, three input nodes and one output node. The block can be used in manual or automatic mode. In this paper the structure of the implemented function block, the parameters and the training method of the network are presented by considering the especial method of PLC programming and its complexities. Finally the application of the new block is compared with a classic simulated block and the results are presented.
Abstract: A road pricing game is a game where various stakeholders and/or regions with different (and usually conflicting) objectives compete for toll setting in a given transportation network to satisfy their individual objectives. We investigate some classical game theoretical solution concepts for the road pricing game. We establish results for the road pricing game so that stakeholders and/or regions playing such a game will beforehand know what is obtainable. This will save time and argument, and above all, get rid of the feelings of unfairness among the competing actors and road users. Among the classical solution concepts we investigate is Nash equilibrium. In particular, we show that no pure Nash equilibrium exists among the actors, and further illustrate that even “mixed Nash equilibrium" may not be achievable in the road pricing game. The paper also demonstrates the type of coalitions that are not only reachable, but also stable and profitable for the actors involved.
Abstract: Renewable energy sources have gained ultimate urgency due to the need of the preservation of the environment for a sustainable development. Pyrolysis is an ultimate promising process in the recycling and acquisition of precious chemicals from wastes. Here, the co-pyrolysis of hazelnut shell with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene was carried out catalytically and noncatalytically at 500 and 650 ºC. Potassium dichromate was added in certain amounts to act as a catalyst. The liquid, solid and gas products quantities were determined by gravimetry. As a main result, remarkable increases in gasification were observed by using this catalyst for pure components and their blends especially at 650 ºC. The increase in gas product quantity was compensated mainly with the decreases in the solid products and additionally in some cases liquid products quantities. These observations may stem from mainly the activation of carbon-carbon bonds rather than carbon-hydrogen bonds via potassium dichromate. Also, the catalytic effect of potassium dichromate on HS: PEO and HS: UHMWPE co-pyrolysis was compared.
Abstract: Probabilistic measures of uncertainty have been
obtained as functions of time and birth and death rates in a queuing
process. The variation of different entropy measures has been studied
in steady and non-steady processes of queuing theory.
Abstract: Omni directional mobile robots have been popularly
employed in several applications especially in soccer player robots
considered in Robocup competitions. However, Omni directional
navigation system, Omni-vision system and solenoid kicking
mechanism in such mobile robots have not ever been combined. This
situation brings the idea of a robot with no head direction into
existence, a comprehensive Omni directional mobile robot. Such a
robot can respond more quickly and it would be capable for more
sophisticated behaviors with multi-sensor data fusion algorithm for
global localization base on the data fusion. This paper has tried to
focus on the research improvements in the mechanical, electrical and
software design of the robots of team ADRO Iran. The main
improvements are the world model, the new strategy framework,
mechanical structure, Omni-vision sensor for object detection, robot
path planning, active ball handling mechanism and the new kicker
design, , and other subjects related to mobile robot
Abstract: The recovery of metal values and safe disposal of
spent catalyst is gaining interest due to both its hazardous nature and
increased regulation associated with disposal methods. Prior to the
recovery of the valuable metals, removal of entrained deposits limit
the diffusion of lixiviate resulting in low recovery of metals must be
taken into consideration. Therefore, petroleum refinery spent catalyst
was subjected to acetone washing and roasting at 500oC. The treated
samples were investigated for metals bioleaching using
Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans in batch reactors and the leaching
efficiencies were compared. It was found out that acetone washed
spent catalysts results in better metal recovery compare to roasted
spent. About 83% Ni, 20% Al, 50% Mo and 73% V were leached
using the acetone washed spent catalyst. In both the cases, Ni, V and
Mo was high compared to Al.
Abstract: This paper concerns the study of sustainable construction materials applied on the "Health Post", a prototype for the primary health care situated in alienated areas of the world. It's suitable for social and climatic Sub-Saharan context; however, it could be moved in other countries of the world with similar urgent needs. The idea is to create a Health Post with local construction materials that have a low environmental impact and promote the local workforce allowing reuse of traditional building techniques lowering production costs and transport. The aim of Primary Health Care Centre is to be a flexible and expandable structure identifying a modular form that can be repeated several times to expand its existing functions. In this way it could be not only a health care centre but also a socio-cultural facility.
Abstract: The SOM has several beneficial features which make
it a useful method for data mining. One of the most important
features is the ability to preserve the topology in the projection.
There are several measures that can be used to quantify the goodness
of the map in order to obtain the optimal projection, including the
average quantization error and many topological errors. Many
researches have studied how the topology preservation should be
measured. One option consists of using the topographic error which
considers the ratio of data vectors for which the first and second best
BMUs are not adjacent. In this work we present a study of the
behaviour of the topographic error in different kinds of maps. We
have found that this error devaluates the rectangular maps and we
have studied the reasons why this happens. Finally, we suggest a new
topological error to improve the deficiency of the topographic error.
Abstract: Protective clothing limits heat transfer and hampers
task performance due to the increased weight. Militarism protective
clothing enables humans to operate in adverse environments. In the
selection and evaluation of militarism protective clothing attention
should be given to heat strain, ergonomic and fit issues next to the
actual protection it offers.
Fifty Male healthy subjects participated in the study. The subjects
were dressed in shorts, T-shirts, socks, sneakers and four deferent
kinds of militarism protective clothing such as CS, CSB, CS with
NBC protection and CS with NBC- protection added.
Ergonomically and psychological strains of every four cloths were
investigated on subjects by walking on a treadmill (7km/hour) with a
19.7 kg backpack. As a result of these tests were showed that, the
highest heart rate was found wearing the NBC-protection added
outfit, the highest temperatures were observed wearing NBCprotection
added, followed by respectively CS with NBC protection,
CSB and CS and the highest value for thermal comfort (implying
worst thermal comfort) was observed wearing NBC-protection
added.
Abstract: This paper presents a model of case based corporate
memory named ReCaRo (REsource, CAse, ROle). The approach
suggested in ReCaRo decomposes the domain to model through a set
of components. These components represent the objects developed by
the company during its activity. They are reused, and sometimes,
while bringing adaptations. These components are enriched by
knowledge after each reuse. ReCaRo builds the corporate memory on
the basis of these components. It models two types of knowledge: 1)
Business Knowledge, which constitutes the main knowledge capital
of the company, refers to its basic skill, thus, directly to the
components and 2) the Experience Knowledge which is a specialised
knowledge and represents the experience gained during the handling
of business knowledge. ReCaRo builds corporate memories which
are made up of five communicating ones.
Abstract: This paper introduces a new signal denoising based on the Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) framework. The method is a fully data driven approach. Noisy signal is decomposed adaptively into oscillatory components called Intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) by means of a process called sifting. The EMD denoising involves filtering or thresholding each IMF and reconstructs the estimated signal using the processed IMFs. The EMD can be combined with a filtering approach or with nonlinear transformation. In this work the Savitzky-Golay filter and shoftthresholding are investigated. For thresholding, IMF samples are shrinked or scaled below a threshold value. The standard deviation of the noise is estimated for every IMF. The threshold is derived for the Gaussian white noise. The method is tested on simulated and real data and compared with averaging, median and wavelet approaches.
Abstract: The implicit block methods based on the backward
differentiation formulae (BDF) for the solution of stiff initial value
problems (IVPs) using variable step size is derived. We construct a
variable step size block methods which will store all the coefficients
of the method with a simplified strategy in controlling the step size
with the intention of optimizing the performance in terms of
precision and computation time. The strategy involves constant,
halving or increasing the step size by 1.9 times the previous step size.
Decision of changing the step size is determined by the local
truncation error (LTE). Numerical results are provided to support the
enhancement of method applied.
Abstract: Optimizing equipment selection in heavy earthwork
operations is a critical key in the success of any construction project.
The objective of this research incentive was geared towards
developing a computer model to assist contractors and construction
managers in estimating the cost of heavy earthwork operations.
Economical operation analysis was conducted for an equipment fleet
taking into consideration the owning and operating costs involved in
earthwork operations. The model is being developed in a Microsoft
environment and is capable of being integrated with other estimating
and optimization models. In this study, Caterpillar® Performance
Handbook [5] was the main resource used to obtain specifications of
selected equipment. The implementation of the model shall give
optimum selection of equipment fleet not only based on cost
effectiveness but also in terms of versatility. To validate the model, a
case study of an actual dam construction project was selected to
quantify its degree of accuracy.
Abstract: IEEE 802.11e is the enhanced version of the IEEE
802.11 MAC dedicated to provide Quality of Service of wireless
network. It supports QoS by the service differentiation and
prioritization mechanism. Data traffic receives different priority
based on QoS requirements. Fundamentally, applications are divided
into four Access Categories (AC). Each AC has its own buffer queue
and behaves as an independent backoff entity. Every frame with a
specific priority of data traffic is assigned to one of these access
categories. IEEE 802.11e EDCA (Enhanced Distributed Channel
Access) is designed to enhance the IEEE 802.11 DCF (Distributed
Coordination Function) mechanisms by providing a distributed
access method that can support service differentiation among
different classes of traffic. Performance of IEEE 802.11e MAC layer
with different ACs is evaluated to understand the actual benefits
deriving from the MAC enhancements.
Abstract: Delamination between layers in composite materials is a major structural failure. The delamination resistance is quantified by the critical strain energy release rate (SERR). The present investigation deals with the strain energy release rate of two woven fabric composites. Materials used are made of two types of glass fiber (360 gsm and 600 gsm) of plain weave and epoxy as matrix. The fracture behavior is studied using the mode I, double cantilever beam test and the mode II, end notched flexure test, in order to determine the energy required for the initiation and growth of an artificial crack. The delamination energy of these two materials is compared in order to study the effect of weave and reinforcement on mechanical properties. The fracture mechanism is also analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is observed that the plain weave fabric composite with lesser strand width has higher inter laminar fracture properties compared to the plain weave fabric composite with more strand width.
Abstract: Bone marrow-derived stem cells have been widely
studied as an alternative source of stem cells. Mesenchymal stem
cells (MSCs) were mostly investigated and studies showed MSCs can
promote neurogenesis. Little is known about the non-mesenchymal
mononuclear cell fraction, which contains both hematopoietic and
nonhematopoietic cells, including monocytes and endothelial
progenitor cells. This study focused on unfractionated bone marrow
mononuclear cells (BMMCs), which remained 72 h after MSCs were
adhered to the culture plates. We showed that BMMC-conditioned
medium promoted morphological changes of human SH-SY5Y
neuroblastoma cells from an epithelial-like phenotype towards a
neuron-like phenotype as indicated by an increase in neurite
outgrowth, like those observed in retinoic acid (RA)-treated cells.
The result could be explained by the effects of trophic factors
released from BMMCs, as shown in the RT-PCR results that
BMMCs expressed nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived
neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF).
Similar results on the cell proliferation rate were also observed
between RA-treated cells and cells cultured in BMMC-conditioned
medium, suggesting that cells creased proliferating and differentiated
into a neuronal phenotype. Using real-time RT-PCR, a significantly
increased expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA in SHSY5Y
cells indicated that BMMC-conditioned medium induced
catecholaminergic identities in differentiated SH-SY5Y cells.
Abstract: In this paper a way of hiding text message (Steganography) in the gray image has been presented. In this method tried to find binary value of each character of text message and then in the next stage, tried to find dark places of gray image (black) by converting the original image to binary image for labeling each object of image by considering on 8 connectivity. Then these images have been converted to RGB image in order to find dark places. Because in this way each sequence of gray color turns into RGB color and dark level of grey image is found by this way if the Gary image is very light the histogram must be changed manually to find just dark places. In the final stage each 8 pixels of dark places has been considered as a byte and binary value of each character has been put in low bit of each byte that was created manually by dark places pixels for increasing security of the main way of steganography (LSB).
Abstract: The presence of a vertical fatigue crack in the web of
a plate girder subjected to pure bending influences the bending
moment capacity of the girder. The growth of the crack may lead to
premature elastic failure due to flange local yielding, flange local
buckling, or web local buckling. Approximate expressions for the
bending moment capacities corresponding to these failure modes
were formulated. Finite element analyses were then used to validate
the expressions. The expressions were employed to assess the effects
of crack length on the capacity. Neglecting brittle fracture, tension
buckling, and ductile failure modes, it was found that typical girders
are governed by the capacity associated with flange local yielding as
influenced by the crack. Concluding, a possible use of the capacity
expressions in girder design was demonstrated.