Abstract: Human heart valves diseased by congenital heart
defects, rheumatic fever, bacterial infection, cancer may cause stenosis
or insufficiency in the valves. Treatment may be with medication but
often involves valve repair or replacement (insertion of an artificial
heart valve). Bileaflet mechanical heart valves (BMHVs) are widely
implanted to replace the diseased heart valves, but still suffer from
complications such as hemolysis, platelet activation, tissue
overgrowth and device failure. These complications are closely related
to both flow characteristics through the valves and leaflet dynamics. In
this study, the physiological flow interacting with the moving leaflets
in a bileaflet mechanical heart valve (BMHV) is simulated with a
strongly coupled implicit fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method
which is newly organized based on the Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian
(ALE) approach and the dynamic mesh method (remeshing) of
FLUENT. The simulated results are in good agreement with previous
experimental studies. This study shows the applicability of the present
FSI model to the complicated physics interacting between fluid flow
and moving boundary.
Abstract: We present a BeeBot, Binus Multi-client Intelligent Telepresence Robot, a custom-build robot system specifically designed for teleconference with multiple person using omni directional actuator. The robot is controlled using a computer networks, so the manager/supervisor can direct the robot to the intended person to start a discussion/inspection. People tracking and autonomous navigation are intelligent features of this robot. We build a web application for controlling the multi-client telepresence robot and open-source teleconference system used. Experimental result presented and we evaluated its performance.
Abstract: It is well known that the channel capacity of Multiple-
Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) system increases as the number of
antenna pairs between transmitter and receiver increases but it suffers
from multiple expensive RF chains. To reduce the cost of RF chains,
Antenna Selection (AS) method can offer a good tradeoff between
expense and performance. In a transmitting AS system, Channel
State Information (CSI) feedback is necessarily required to choose
the best subset of antennas in which the effects of delays and errors
occurred in feedback channels are the most dominant factors
degrading the performance of the AS method. This paper presents the
concept of AS method using CSI from channel reciprocity instead of
feedback method. Reciprocity technique can easily archive CSI by
utilizing a reverse channel where the forward and reverse channels
are symmetrically considered in time, frequency and location. In this
work, the capacity performance of MIMO system when using AS
method at transmitter with reciprocity channels is investigated by
own developing Testbed. The obtained results show that reciprocity
technique offers capacity close to a system with a perfect CSI and
gains a higher capacity than a system without AS method from 0.9 to
2.2 bps/Hz at SNR 10 dB.
Abstract: The “conveyor belt" as a product represents a
complex high performance component with a wide range of different
applications. Further development of these highly complex
components demands an integration of new technologies and new
enhanced materials. In this context nanostructured fillers appear to
have a more promising effect on the performance of the conveyor
belt composite than conventional micro-scaled fillers.
Within the project “DotTrans" nanostructured fillers, for example
silicon dioxide, are used to optimize performance parameters of
conveyor belt systems. The objective of the project includes
operating parameters like energy consumption or friction
characteristics as well as adaptive parameters like cut or wear
resistance.
Abstract: It has been defined that the “network is the system".
This implies providing levels of service, reliability, predictability and
availability that are commensurate with or better than those that
individual computers provide today. To provide this requires
integrated network management for interconnected networks of
heterogeneous devices covering both the local campus. In this paper
we are addressing a framework to effectively deal with this issue. It
consists of components and interactions between them which are
required to perform the service fault management. A real-world
scenario is used to derive the requirements which have been applied
to the component identification. An analysis of existing frameworks
and approaches with respect to their applicability to the framework is
also carried out.
Abstract: This paper aimed to study the factors that relate to
working behavior of employees at Pakkred Municipality, Nonthaburi
Province. A questionnaire was utilized as the tool in collecting
information. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage,
mean and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, analysis of
variance and Pearson Correlation were also used. The findings of this
research revealed that the majority of the respondents were female,
between 25- 35 years old, married, with a Bachelor degree. The
average monthly salary of respondents was between 8,001- 12,000
Baht, and having about 4-7 years of working experience. Regarding
the overall working motivation factors, the findings showed that
interrelationship, respect, and acceptance were ranked as highly
important factors, whereas motivation, remunerations & welfare,
career growth, and working conditions were ranked as moderately
important factors. Also, overall working behavior was ranked as high.
The hypotheses testing revealed that different genders had a
different working behavior and had a different way of working as a
team, which was significant at the 0.05 confidence level, Moreover,
there was a difference among employees with different monthly
salary in working behavior, problem- solving and decision making,
which all were significant at the 0.05 confidence level. Employees
with different years of working experience were found to have work
working behavior both individual and as a team at the statistical
significance level of 0.01 and 0.05. The result of testing the
relationship between motivation in overall working revealed that
interrelationship, respect and acceptance from others, career growth,
and working conditions related to working behavior at a moderate
level, while motivation in performing duties and remunerations and
welfares related to working behavior towards the same direction at a
low level, with a statistical significance of 0.01.
Abstract: Creativity is often based on an unorthodox
recombination of knowledge; in fact: 80% of all innovations use
given knowledge and put it into a new combination. Cross-industry
innovations follow this way of thinking and bring together problems
and solution ideas from different industries. Therefore analogies and
search strategies have to be developed. Taking this path, the
questions where to search, what to search and how to search have to
be answered. Afterwards, the gathered information can be used
within a planned search process. Identified solution ideas have to be
assessed and analyzed in detail for the success promising adaption
planning.
Abstract: Face and facial expressions play essential roles in
interpersonal communication. Most of the current works on the facial
expression recognition attempt to recognize a small set of the
prototypic expressions such as happy, surprise, anger, sad, disgust
and fear. However the most of the human emotions are
communicated by changes in one or two of discrete features. In this
paper, we develop a facial expressions synthesis system, based on the
facial characteristic points (FCP's) tracking in the frontal image
sequences. Selected FCP's are automatically tracked using a crosscorrelation
based optical flow. The proposed synthesis system uses a
simple deformable facial features model with a few set of control
points that can be tracked in original facial image sequences.
Abstract: Oilsands bitumen is an extremely important source of
energy for North America. However, due to the presence of large
molecules such as asphaltenes, the density and viscosity of the
bitumen recovered from these sands are much higher than those of
conventional crude oil. As a result the extracted bitumen has to be
diluted with expensive solvents, or thermochemically upgraded in
large, capital-intensive conventional upgrading facilities prior to
pipeline transport. This study demonstrates that globally abundant
natural zeolites such as clinoptilolite from Saint Clouds, New Mexico
and Ca-chabazite from Bowie, Arizona can be used as very effective
reagents for cracking and visbreaking of oilsands bitumen. Natural
zeolite cracked oilsands bitumen products are highly recoverable (up
to ~ 83%) using light hydrocarbons such as pentane, which indicates
substantial conversion of heavier fractions to lighter components.
The resultant liquid products are much less viscous, and have lighter
product distribution compared to those produced from pure thermal
treatment. These natural minerals impart similar effect on industrially
extracted Athabasca bitumen.
Abstract: Ever increasing capacities of contemporary storage devices
inspire the vision to accumulate (personal) information without
the need of deleting old data over a long time-span. Hence the target
of SemanticLIFE project is to create a Personal Information Management
system for a human lifetime data. One of the most important
characteristics of the system is its dedication to retrieve information
in a very efficient way. By adopting user demands regarding the
reduction of ambiguities, our approach aims at a user-oriented and
yet powerful enough system with a satisfactory query performance.
We introduce the query system of SemanticLIFE, the Virtual Query
System, which uses emerging Semantic Web technologies to fulfill
users- requirements.
Abstract: In this paper, the effect of receive and/or transmit
antenna spacing on the performance (BER vs. SNR) of multipleantenna
systems is determined by using an RCS (Radar Cross
Section) channel model. In this physical model, the scatterers
existing in the propagation environment are modeled by their RCS so
that the correlation of the receive signal complex amplitudes, i.e.,
both magnitude and phase, can be estimated. The proposed RCS
channel model is then compared with classical models.
Abstract: For lack of the visualization of the ultrasonic detection
method of partial discharge (PD), the ultrasonic detection technology
combined with the X-ray visual detection method (UXV) is proposed.
The method can conduct qualitative analysis accurately and conduct
reliable positioning diagnosis to the internal insulation defects of
GIS, and while it could make up the blindness of the X-ray visual
detection method and improve the detection rate. In this paper, an
experimental model of GIS is used as the trial platform, a variety of
insulation defects are set inside the GIS cavity. With the proposed
method, the ultrasonic method is used to conduct the preliminary
detection, and then the X-ray visual detection is used to locate and
diagnose precisely. Therefore, the proposed UXV technology is
feasible and practical.
Abstract: The presented work is motivated by a French law
regarding nuclear waste management. A new conceptual Accelerator
Driven System (ADS) designed for the Minor Actinides (MA)
transmutation has been assessed by numerical simulation. The
MUltiple Spallation Target (MUST) ADS combines high thermal power (up to 1.4 GWth) and high specific power. A 30 mA and 1
GeV proton beam is divided into three secondary beams transmitted on three liquid lead-bismuth spallation targets. Neutron and thermalhydraulic
simulations have been performed with the code MURE, based on the Monte-Carlo transport code MCNPX. A methodology has been developed to define characteristic of the MUST ADS concept according to a specific transmutation scenario. The reference
scenario is based on a MA flux (neptunium, americium and curium)
providing from European Fast Reactor (EPR) and a plutonium multireprocessing
strategy is accounted for. The MUST ADS reference
concept is a sodium cooled fast reactor. The MA fuel at equilibrium is mixed with MgO inert matrix to limit the core reactivity and
improve the fuel thermal conductivity. The fuel is irradiated over five
years. Five years of cooling and two years for the fuel fabrication are
taken into account. The MUST ADS reference concept burns about 50% of the initial MA inventory during a complete cycle. In term of
mass, up to 570 kg/year are transmuted in one concept. The methodology to design the MUST ADS and to calculate fuel
composition at equilibrium is precisely described in the paper. A detailed fuel evolution analysis is performed and the reference scenario is compared to a scenario where only americium transmutation is performed.
Abstract: At present, it is very common to find renewable
energy resources, especially wind power, connected to distribution
systems. The impact of this wind power on voltage distribution levels
has been addressed in the literature. The majority of this works deals
with the determination of the maximum active and reactive power
that is possible to be connected on a system load bus, until the
voltage at that bus reaches the voltage collapse point. It is done by the
traditional methods of PV curves reported in many references.
Theoretical expression of maximum power limited by voltage
stability transfer through a grid is formulated using an exact
representation of distribution line with ABCD parameters. The
expression is used to plot PV curves at various power factors of a
radial system. Limited values of reactive power can be obtained. This
paper presents a method to study the relationship between the active
power and voltage (PV) at the load bus to identify the voltage
stability limit. It is a foundation to build a permitted working
operation region in complying with the voltage stability limit at the
point of common coupling (PCC) connected wind farm.
Abstract: Traditionally, Internet has provided best-effort service to every user regardless of its requirements. However, as Internet becomes universally available, users demand more bandwidth and applications require more and more resources, and interest has developed in having the Internet provide some degree of Quality of Service. Although QoS is an important issue, the question of how it will be brought into the Internet has not been solved yet. Researches, due to the rapid advances in technology are proposing new and more desirable capabilities for the next generation of IP infrastructures. But neither all applications demand the same amount of resources, nor all users are service providers. In this way, this paper is the first of a series of papers that presents an architecture as a first step to the optimization of QoS in the Internet environment as a solution to a SMSE's problem whose objective is to provide public service to internet with certain Quality of Service expectations. The service provides new business opportunities, but also presents new challenges. We have designed and implemented a scalable service framework that supports adaptive bandwidth based on user demands, and the billing based on usage and on QoS. The developed application has been evaluated and the results show that traffic limiting works at optimum and so it does exceeding bandwidth distribution. However, some considerations are done and currently research is under way in two basic areas: (i) development and testing new transfer protocols, and (ii) developing new strategies for traffic improvements based on service differentiation.
Abstract: Careful design and selection of daylighting systems can greatly help in reducing not only artificial lighting use, but also decrease cooling energy consumption and, therefore, potential for downsizing air-conditioning systems. This paper aims to evaluate the energy performance of two types of top-light daylighting systems due to the integration of daylight together with artificial lighting in an existing examinaton hall in University Kebangsaan Malaysia, based on a hot and humid climate. Computer simulation models have been created for building case study (base case) and the two types of toplight daylighting designs for building energy performance evaluation using the VisualDOE 4.0 building energy simulation program. The finding revealed that daylighting through top-light systems is a very beneficial design strategy in reducing annual lighting energy consumption and the overall total annual energy consumption.
Abstract: This paper presents a new problem solving approach
that is able to generate optimal policy solution for finite-state
stochastic sequential decision-making problems with high data
efficiency. The proposed algorithm iteratively builds and improves
an approximate Markov Decision Process (MDP) model along with
cost-to-go value approximates by generating finite length trajectories
through the state-space. The approach creates a synergy between an
approximate evolving model and approximate cost-to-go values to
produce a sequence of improving policies finally converging to the
optimal policy through an intelligent and structured search of the
policy space. The approach modifies the policy update step of the
policy iteration so as to result in a speedy and stable convergence to
the optimal policy. We apply the algorithm to a non-holonomic
mobile robot control problem and compare its performance with
other Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches, e.g., a) Q-learning,
b) Watkins Q(λ), c) SARSA(λ).
Abstract: Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements are reported for the binary mixtures of n-Butylamine and Triethylamine with Cumene at 97.3 kPa. The measurements have been performed using a vapor recirculating type (modified Othmer's) equilibrium still. The binary mixture of n-Butylamine + Cumene shows positive deviation from ideality. Triethylamine + Cumene mixture shows negligible deviation from ideality. None of the systems form an azeotrope. The activity coefficients have been calculated taking into consideration the vapor phase nonideality. The data satisfy the thermodynamic consistency test of Herington. The activity coefficients have been satisfactorily correlated by means of the Margules, NRTL, and Black equations. The activity coefficient values obtained by the UNIFAC model are also reported.
Abstract: Oxidative stress and overwhelming free radicals
associated with diabetes mellitus are likely to be linked with
development of certain complication such as retinopathy,
nephropathy and neuropathy. Treatment of diabetic subjects with
antioxidant may be of advantage in attenuating these complications.
Olive leaf (Oleaeuropaea), has been endowed with many beneficial
and health promoting properties mostly linked to its antioxidant
activity. This study aimed to evaluate the significance of
supplementation of Olive leaves extract (OLE) in reducing oxidative
stress, hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia in Sterptozotocin (STZ)-
induced diabetic rats. After induction of diabetes, a significant rise in
plasma glucose, lipid profiles except High density lipoproteincholestrol
(HDLc), malondialdehyde (MDA) and significant decrease
of plasma insulin, HDLc and Plasma reduced glutathione GSH as
well as alteration in enzymatic antioxidants was observed in all
diabetic animals. During treatment of diabetic rats with 0.5g/kg body
weight of Olive leaves extract (OLE) the levels of plasma (MDA)
,(GSH), insulin, lipid profiles along with blood glucose and
erythrocyte enzymatic antioxidant enzymes were significantly
restored to establish values that were not different from normal
control rats. Untreated diabetic rats on the other hand demonstrated
persistent alterations in the oxidative stress marker (MDA), blood
glucose, insulin, lipid profiles and the antioxidant parameters. These
results demonstrate that OLE may be of advantage in inhibiting
hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and oxidative stress induced by
diabetes and suggest that administration of OLE may be helpful in
the prevention or at least reduced of diabetic complications
associated with oxidative stress.
Abstract: A continuum model is presented to study vdW
interaction on buckling analysis of multi-walled walled carbon
nanotube. In previous studies, only the vdW interaction between
adjacent two layers was considered and the vdW interaction between
the other two layers was neglected. The results show that the vdW
interaction cofficients are dependent on the change of interlayer
spacing and the radii of tubes. With increase of radii the vdW
coefficients approach a constant value. The numerical results show
that the effect of vdW interaction on the critical strain for a doublewalled
CNT is negligible when the radius is large enough for the
both the cases of before and after buckling.