Abstract: Roundabout work on the principle of circulation and
entry flows, where the maximum entry flow rates depend largely on
circulating flow bearing in mind that entry flows must give away to
circulating flows. Where an existing roundabout has a road hump
installed at the entry arm, it can be hypothesized that the kinematics
of vehicles may prevent the entry arm from achieving optimum
performance. Road humps are traffic calming devices placed across
road width solely as speed reduction mechanism. They are the
preferred traffic calming option in Malaysia and often used on single
and dual carriageway local routes. The speed limit on local routes is
30mph (50 km/hr). Road humps in their various forms achieved the
biggest mean speed reduction (based on a mean speed before traffic
calming of 30mph) of up to 10mph or 16 km/hr according to the UK
Department of Transport. The underlying aim of reduced speed
should be to achieve a 'safe' distribution of speeds which reflects the
function of the road and the impacts on the local community.
Constraining safe distribution of speeds may lead to poor drivers
timing and delayed reflex reaction that can probably cause accident.
Previous studies on road hump impact have focused mainly on speed
reduction, traffic volume, noise and vibrations, discomfort and delay
from the use of road humps. The paper is aimed at optimal entry and
circulating flow induced by road humps. Results show that
roundabout entry and circulating flow perform better in
circumstances where there is no road hump at entrance.
Abstract: Termination Mechanism is an indispensible part of the
emergency management mechanism. Despite of its importance in both
theory and practice, it is almost a brand new field for researching. The
concept of termination mechanism is proposed firstly in this paper,
and the design and implementation which are helpful to guarantee the
effect and integrity of emergency management are discussed secondly.
Starting with introduction of the problems caused by absent
termination and incorrect termination, the essence of termination
mechanism is analyzed, a model based on Optimal Stopping Theory is
constructed and the termination index is given. The model could be
applied to find the best termination time point.. Termination decision
should not only be concerned in termination stage, but also in the
whole emergency management process, which makes it a dynamic
decision making process. Besides, the main subjects and the procedure
of termination are illustrated after the termination time point is given.
Some future works are discussed lastly.
Abstract: This paper describes a computer-aided design for
design of the concave globoidal cam with cylindrical rollers and
swinging follower. Four models with different modeling methods are
made from the same input data. The input data are angular input and
output displacements of the cam and the follower and some other
geometrical parameters of the globoidal cam mechanism. The best
cam model is the cam which has no interference with the rollers
when their motions are simulated in assembly conditions. The
angular output displacement of the follower for the best cam is also
compared with that of in the input data to check errors. In this study,
Pro/ENGINEER® Wildfire 2.0 is used for modeling the cam,
simulating motions and checking interference and errors of the
system.
Abstract: Superplastic deformation and high temperature load
relaxation behavior of coarse-grained iron aluminides with the
composition of Fe-28 at.% Al have been investigated. A series of load
relaxation and tensile tests were conducted at temperatures ranging
from 600 to 850oC. The flow curves obtained from load relaxation
tests were found to have a sigmoidal shape and to exhibit stress vs.
strain rate data in a very wide strain rate range from 10-7/s to 10-2/s.
Tensile tests have been conducted at various initial strain rates ranging
from 3×10-5/s to 1×10-2/s. Maximum elongation of ~500 % was
obtained at the initial strain rate of 3×10-5/s and the maximum strain
rate sensitivity was found to be 0.68 at 850oC in binary Fe-28Al alloy.
Microstructure observation through the optical microscopy (OM) and
the electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) technique has been
carried out on the deformed specimens and it has revealed the
evidences for grain boundary migration and grain refinement to occur
during superplastic deformation, suggesting the dynamic
recrystallization mechanism. The addition of Cr by the amount of 5
at.% appeared to deteriorate the superplasticity of the binary iron
aluminide. By applying the internal variable theory of structural
superplasticity, the addition of Cr has been revealed to lower the
contribution of the frictional resistance to dislocation glide during high
temperature deformation of the Fe3Al alloy.
Abstract: Skin color is an important visual cue for computer
vision systems involving human users. In this paper we combine skin
color and optical flow for detection and tracking of skin regions. We
apply these techniques to gesture recognition with encouraging
results. We propose a novel skin similarity measure. For grouping
detected skin regions we propose a novel skin region grouping
mechanism. The proposed techniques work with any number of skin
regions making them suitable for a multiuser scenario.
Abstract: This paper describes the development of an
autonomous robot for painting the interior walls of buildings. The
robot consists of a painting arm with an end effector roller that scans
the walls vertically and a mobile platform to give horizontal feed to
paint the whole area of the wall. The painting arm has a planar twolink
mechanism with two joints. Joints are driven from a stepping
motor through a ball screw-nut mechanism. Four ultrasonic sensors
are attached to the mobile platform and used to maintain a certain
distance from the facing wall and to avoid collision with side walls.
When settled on adjusted distance from the wall, the controller starts
the painting process autonomously. Simplicity, relatively low weight
and short painting time were considered in our design. Different
modules constituting the robot have been separately tested then
integrated. Experiments have shown successfulness of the robot in its
intended tasks.
Abstract: Rice seed expression (cDNA) library in the Lambda
Zap 11® phage constructed from the developing grain 10-20 days
after flowering was transformed into yeast for functional
complementation assays in three salt sensitive yeast mutants S.
cerevisiae strain CY162, G19 and Axt3K. Transformed cells of G19
and Axt3K with pYES vector with cDNA inserts showed enhance
tolerance than those with empty pYes vector. Sequencing of the
cDNA inserts revealed that they encode for the putative proteins with
the sequence homologous to rice putative protein PROLM24
(Os06g31070), a prolamin precursor. Expression of this cDNA did
not affect yeast growth in absence of salt. Axt3k and G19 strains
expressing the PROLM24 were able to grow upto 400 mM and 600
mM of NaCl respectively. Similarly, Axt3k mutant with PROLM24
expression showed comparatively higher growth rate in the medium
with excess LiCl (50 mM). The observation that expression of
PROLM24 rescued the salt sensitive phenotypes of G19 and Axt3k
indicates the existence of a regulatory system that ameliorates the
effect of salt stress in the transformed yeast mutants. However, the
exact function of the cDNA sequence, which shows partial sequence
homology to yeast UTR1 is not clear. Although UTR1 involved in
ferrous uptake and iron homeostasis in yeast cells, there is no
evidence to prove its role in Na+ homeostasis in yeast cells. Absence
of transmembrane regions in Os06g31070 protein indicates that salt
tolerance is achieved not through the direct functional
complementation of the mutant genes but through an alternative
mechanism.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a multi-agent architecture for web information retrieval using fuzzy logic based result fusion mechanism. The model is designed in JADE framework and takes advantage of JXTA agent communication method to allow agent communication through firewalls and network address translators. This approach enables developers to build and deploy P2P applications through a unified medium to manage agent-based document retrieval from multiple sources.
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: Web applications have become complex and crucial for many firms, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). The scientific community has focused attention to Web application design, development, analysis, testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. Static and dynamic techniques may be used to analyze existing Web applications. The use of traditional static source code analysis may be very difficult, for the presence of dynamically generated code, and for the multi-language nature of the Web. Dynamic analysis may be useful, but it has an intrinsic limitation, the low number of program executions used to extract information. Our reverse engineering analysis, used into our WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project, applies mutational techniques in order to exploit server side execution engines to accomplish part of the dynamic analysis. This paper studies the effects of mutation source code analysis applied to Web software to build application models. Mutation-based generated models may contain more information then necessary, so we need a pruning mechanism.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a novel method for semantic
searching and retrieval of information about learning materials.
Metametadata encapsulate metadata instances by using the properties
and attributes provided by ontologies rather than describing learning
objects. A novel metametadata taxonomy has been developed which
provides the basis for a semantic search engine to extract, match and
map queries to retrieve relevant results. The use of ontological views
is a foundation for viewing the pedagogical content of metadata
extracted from learning objects by using the pedagogical attributes
from the metametadata taxonomy. Using the ontological approach
and metametadata (based on the metametadata taxonomy) we present
a novel semantic searching mechanism.These three strands – the
taxonomy, the ontological views, and the search algorithm – are
incorporated into a novel architecture (OMESCOD) which has been
implemented.
Abstract: The essence of the 21st century is knowledge economy. Knowledge has become the key resource of economic growth and social development. Construction industry is no exception. Because of the characteristic of complexity, project manager can't depend only on information management. The only way to improve the level of construction project management is to set up a kind of effective knowledge accumulation mechanism. This paper first introduced the IFC standard and the concept of ontology. Then put forward the construction method of the architectural engineering domain ontology based on IFC. And finally build up the concepts, properties and the relationship between the concepts of the ontology. The deficiency of this paper is also pointed out.
Abstract: A number of studies highlighted problems related to
ERP systems, yet, most of these studies focus on the problems during
the project and implementation stages but not during the postimplementation
use process. Problems encountered in the process of
using ERP would hinder the effective exploitation and the extended
and continued use of ERP systems and their value to organisations.
This paper investigates the different types of problems users
(operational, supervisory and managerial) faced in using ERP and
how 'feral system' is used as the coping mechanism. The paper
adopts a qualitative method and uses data collected from two cases
and 26 interviews, to inductively develop a casual network model of
ERP usage problem and its coping mechanism. This model classified
post ERP usage problems as data quality, system quality, interface
and infrastructure. The model is also categorised the different coping
mechanism through use of 'feral system' inclusive of feral
information system, feral data and feral use of technology.
Abstract: In the present work, we propose a new technique to
enhance the learning capabilities and reduce the computation
intensity of a competitive learning multi-layered neural network
using the K-means clustering algorithm. The proposed model use
multi-layered network architecture with a back propagation learning
mechanism. The K-means algorithm is first applied to the training
dataset to reduce the amount of samples to be presented to the neural
network, by automatically selecting an optimal set of samples. The
obtained results demonstrate that the proposed technique performs
exceptionally in terms of both accuracy and computation time when
applied to the KDD99 dataset compared to a standard learning
schema that use the full dataset.
Abstract: The regulatory competence of blood glucose homeostasis might determine the degree of academic performance. The aim of this study was to produce a model of students' alcohol use based on glucose homeostasis control and cognitive functions that might define the pathogenetic mechanism of alcohol's effect on academic performance. The study took six hours and thirty minutes on fasting, involving thirteen male students. Disturbances in cognitive functions, precisely a decrease in the effectiveness of active attention and a faster development of fatigue after four to six hours of mental work in alcohol users, compared to abstainers was statistically proven. These disturbances in alcohol users were retained even after seven to ten days of moderate alcohol use and might be the reason for the low academic performances among students who use alcoholic beverages.
Abstract: Deployment of pneumatic muscles in various
industrial applications is still in its early days, considering the relative
newness of these components. The field of robotics holds particular
future potential for pneumatic muscles, especially in view of their
specific behaviour known as compliance. The paper presents and
discusses an innovative constructive solution for a gripper system
mountable on an industrial robot, based on actuation by a linear
pneumatic muscle and transmission of motion by gear and rack
mechanism. The structural, operational and constructive models of
the new gripper are presented, along with some of the experimental
results obtained subsequently to the testing of a prototype. Further
presented are two control variants of the gripper system, one by
means of a 3/2-way fast-switching solenoid valve, the other by means
of a proportional pressure regulator. Advantages and disadvantages
are discussed for both variants.
Abstract: Rapid process of urbanism development has increased
the demand for some infrastructures such as supplying potable water,
electricity network and transportation facilities and etc. Nonefficiency
of the existing system with parallel managements of urban
traffic management has increased the gap between supply and
demand of traffic facilities. A sustainable transport system requires
some activities more important than air pollution control, traffic or
fuel consumption reduction and the studies show that there is no
unique solution for solving complicated transportation problems and
solving such a problem needs a comprehensive, dynamic and reliable
mechanism. Sustainable transport management considers the effects
of transportation development on economic efficiency, environmental
issues, resources consumption, land use and social justice and helps
reduction of environmental effects, increase of transportation system
efficiency as well as improvement of social life and aims to enhance
efficiency, goods transportation, provide services with minimum
access problems that cannot be realized without reorganization of
strategies, policies and plans.
Abstract: In this study the adsorption of Cu (II) ions from aqueous solutions on synthetic zeolite NaA was evaluated. The effect of solution temperature and the determination of the kinetic parameters of adsorption of Cu(II) from aqueous solution on zeolite NaA is important in understanding the adsorption mechanism. Variables of the system include adsorption time, temperature (293- 328K), initial solution concentration and pH for the system. The sorption kinetics of the copper ions were found to be strongly dependent on pH (the optimum pH 3-5), solute ion concentration and temperature (293 – 328 K). It was found, the pseudo-second-order model was the best choice among all the kinetic models to describe the adsorption behavior of Cu(II) onto ziolite NaA, suggesting that the adsorption mechanism might be a chemisorptions process The activation energy of adsorption (Ea) was determined as Cu(II) 13.5 kJ mol-1. The low value of Ea shows that Cu(II) adsorption process by zeolite NaA may be an activated chemical adsorption. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG0, ΔH0, and ΔS0) were also determined from the temperature dependence. The results show that the process of adsorption Cu(II) is spontaneous and endothermic process and rise in temperature favors the adsorption.
Abstract: Many accidents were happened because of fast driving, habitual working overtime or tired spirit. This paper presents a solution of remote warning for vehicles collision avoidance using vehicular communication. The development system integrates dedicated short range communication (DSRC) and global position system (GPS) with embedded system into a powerful remote warning system. To transmit the vehicular information and broadcast vehicle position; DSRC communication technology is adopt as the bridge. The proposed system is divided into two parts of the positioning andvehicular units in a vehicle. The positioning unit is used to provide the position and heading information from GPS module, and furthermore the vehicular unit is used to receive the break, throttle, and othersignals via controller area network (CAN) interface connected to each mechanism. The mobile hardware are built with an embedded system using X86 processor in Linux system. A vehicle is communicated with other vehicles via DSRC in non-addressed protocol with wireless access in vehicular environments (WAVE) short message protocol. From the position data and vehicular information, this paper provided a conflict detection algorithm to do time separation and remote warning with error bubble consideration. And the warning information is on-line displayed in the screen. This system is able to enhance driver assistance service and realize critical safety by using vehicular information from the neighbor vehicles.KeywordsDedicated short range communication, GPS, Control area network, Collision avoidance warning system.
Abstract: The crystallization kinetics and phase transformation
of SiO2.Al2O3.0,56P2O5.1,8CaO.0,56CaF2 glass have been
investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA), x-ray
diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Glass
samples were obtained by melting the glass mixture at 14500С/120
min. in platinum crucibles. The mixture were prepared from
chemically pure reagents: SiO2, Al(OH)3, H3PO4, CaCO3 and CaF2.
The non-isothermal kinetics of crystallization was studied by
applying the DTA measurements carried out at various heating rates.
The activation energies of crystallization and viscous flow were
measured as 348,4 kJ.mol–1 and 479,7 kJ.mol–1 respectively. Value of
Avrami parameter n ≈ 3 correspond to a three dimensional of crystal
growth mechanism. The major crystalline phase determined by XRD
analysis was fluorapatite (Ca(PO4)3F) and as the minor phases –
fluormargarite (CaAl2(Al2SiO2)10F2) and vitlokite (Ca9P6O24). The
resulting glass-ceramic has a homogeneous microstructure, composed
of prismatic crystals, evenly distributed in glass phase.