Abstract: In recent years Malaysia has included renewable
energy as an alternative fuel to help in diversifying the country-s
energy reliance on oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower with
biomass and solar energy gaining priority. The scope of this paper is
to look at the designing procedures and analysis of a solar thermal
parabolic trough concentrator by simulation utilizing meteorological
data in several parts of Malaysia. Parameters which include the
aperture area, the diameter of the receiver and the working fluid may
be varied to optimize the design. Aperture area is determined by
considering the width and the length of the concentrator whereas the
geometric concentration ratio (CR) is obtained by considering the
width and diameter of the receiver. Three types of working fluid are
investigated. Theoretically, concentration ratios can be very high in
the range of 10 to 40 000 depending on the optical elements used and
continuous tracking of the sun. However, a thorough analysis is
essential as discussed in this paper where optical precision and
thermal analysis must be carried out to evaluate the performance of
the parabolic trough concentrator as the theoretical CR is not the only
factor that should be considered.
Abstract: Combustion of sprays is of technological importance, but its flame behavior is not fully understood. Furthermore, the multiplicity of dependent variables such as pressure, temperature, equivalence ratio, and droplet sizes complicates the study of spray combustion. Fundamental study on the influence of the presence of liquid droplets has revealed that laminar flames within aerosol mixtures more readily become unstable than for gaseous ones and this increases the practical burning rate. However, fundamental studies on turbulent flames of aerosol mixtures are limited particularly those under near mono-dispersed droplet conditions. In the present work, centrally ignited expanding flames at near atmospheric pressures are employed to quantify the burning rates in gaseous and aerosol flames. Iso-octane-air aerosols are generated by expansion of the gaseous pre-mixture to produce a homogeneously distributed suspension of fuel droplets. The effects of the presence of droplets and turbulence velocity in relation to the burning rates of the flame are also investigated.
Abstract: This work contains information about the influence low-level optical irradiation on sperm motility of sturgeon fish. On the basis of given and earlier received data the following conclusion has been made. Among the photophysical processes of a resonant and not resonant nature (oriented action of light; action of gradient forces; dipole-dipole interaction; termooptical processes), which are capable to cause the photobiological effects depended on such laserspecific characteristics as polarization and coherency, determining influence belongs to oriented action of light and dipole-dipole interactions among the processes studied in the present work.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results of silicone rubber outdoor polymer insulators in salt fog ageing test based on IEC 61109. Specimens made ofHTV silicone rubber with ATH content having three different configurations, straight shedsalternated sheds, and incline and alternate sheds, were tested continuously 1000 hrs.in artificial salt fog chamber. Contamination level, reduction of hydrophobicity and hardness measurement were used as physical damaged inspection techniques to evaluate degree of surface deterioration. In addition, chemical changing of tested specimen surface was evaluated by ATR-FTIRto confirm physical damaged inspection. After 1000 hrs.of salt fog test, differences in degree of surface deterioration were observed on all tested specimens. Physical damaged inspection and chemical analysis results confirmed the experimental results as well.
Abstract: It is known that symmetric encryption algorithms are
fast and easy to implement in hardware. Also elliptic curves have
proved to be a good choice for building encryption system. Although
most of the symmetric systems have been broken, we can create a
hybrid system that has the same properties of the symmetric
encryption systems and in the same time, it has the strength of
elliptic curves in encryption. As DES algorithm is considered the
core of all successive symmetric encryption systems, we modified
DES using elliptic curves and built a new DES algorithm that is hard
to be broken and will be the core for all other symmetric systems.
Abstract: The well known NP-complete problem of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is coded in genetic form. A software system is proposed to determine the optimum route for a Traveling Salesman Problem using Genetic Algorithm technique. The system starts from a matrix of the calculated Euclidean distances between the cities to be visited by the traveling salesman and a randomly chosen city order as the initial population. Then new generations are then created repeatedly until the proper path is reached upon reaching a stopping criterion. This search is guided by a solution evaluation function.
Abstract: The goal of this study was to disclose the core of the advertising research based on the psychological aspects by acquainting with the nature of advertising research and revealing the importance of psychological aspects of advertising during the advertising research. The growing interest in consumer response to advertisement served as an encouragement to make the analysis of psychological aspects of the advertising research, because the information obtained during the advertising research helps to answer the question how advertising really works. In the research analysis focuses on the nature of advertising research. The place of advertising research in advertisement planning process and the advertising research process are unfolded. Moreover, the importance of psychological aspects in the advertising research is being examined. The certain psychological aspects like the particularities of advertising communication process, psychological process that are active at advertising acceptance and awareness process as well as the advertising effects are analysed in more detail.
Abstract: The effects of dynamic subgrid scale (SGS) models are
investigated in variational multiscale (VMS) LES simulations of bluff
body flows. The spatial discretization is based on a mixed finite
element/finite volume formulation on unstructured grids. In the VMS
approach used in this work, the separation between the largest and the
smallest resolved scales is obtained through a variational projection
operator and a finite volume cell agglomeration. The dynamic version
of Smagorinsky and WALE SGS models are used to account for
the effects of the unresolved scales. In the VMS approach, these
effects are only modeled in the smallest resolved scales. The dynamic
VMS-LES approach is applied to the simulation of the flow around a
circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers 3900 and 20000 and to the flow
around a square cylinder at Reynolds numbers 22000 and 175000. It
is observed as in previous studies that the dynamic SGS procedure
has a smaller impact on the results within the VMS approach than in
LES. But improvements are demonstrated for important feature like
recirculating part of the flow. The global prediction is improved for
a small computational extra cost.
Abstract: There has been a growing emphasis in
communication management from simple coordination of
promotional tools to a complex strategic process. This study will
examine the current marketing communications and engagement
strategies used in addressing the key stakeholders. In the case of
fertilizer industry in Malaysia, there has been little empirical
research on stakeholder communication when major challenges
facing the modern corporation is the need to communicate its
identity, its values and products in order to distinguish itself from
competitors. The study will employ both quantitative and qualitative
methods and the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to
establish a causal relationship amongst the key factors of stakeholder
communication strategies and increment in consumers-
choice/acceptance and impact on financial performance. One of the
major contributions is a conceptual framework for communication
strategies and engagement in increasing consumers- acceptance level
and the firm-s financial performance.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in using daylight to save energy in buildings. In tropical regions, daylighting is always an energy saver. On the other hand, daylight provides visual comfort. According to standards, it shows that many criteria should be taken into consideration in order to have daylight utilization and visual comfort. The current standard in Malaysia, MS 1525 does not provide sufficient guideline. Hence, more research is needed on daylight performance. If architects do not consider daylight design, it not only causes inconvenience in working spaces but also causes more energy consumption as well as environmental pollution. This research had surveyed daylight performance in 5 selected office buildings from different area of Malaysian through experimental method. Several parameters of daylight quality such as daylight factor, surface luminance and surface luminance ratio were measured in different rooms in each building. The result of this research demonstrated that most of the buildings were not designed for daylight utilization. Therefore, it is very important that architects follow the daylight design recommendation to reduce consumption of electric power for artificial lighting while the sufficient quality of daylight is available.
Abstract: This paper is taken into consideration the problem of cryptanalysis of stream ciphers. There is some attempts need to improve the existing attacks on stream cipher and to make an attempt to distinguish the portions of cipher text obtained by the encryption of plain text in which some parts of the text are random and the rest are non-random. This paper presents a tutorial introduction to symmetric cryptography. The basic information theoretic and computational properties of classic and modern cryptographic systems are presented, followed by an examination of the application of cryptography to the security of VoIP system in computer networks using LFSR algorithm. The implementation program will be developed Java 2. LFSR algorithm is appropriate for the encryption and decryption of online streaming data, e.g. VoIP (voice chatting over IP). This paper is implemented the encryption module of speech signals to cipher text and decryption module of cipher text to speech signals.
Abstract: This paper proposes a solution to the motion planning
and control problem of car-like mobile robots which is required to
move safely to a designated target in a priori known workspace
cluttered with swarm of boids exhibiting collective emergent
behaviors. A generalized algorithm for target convergence and
swarm avoidance is proposed that will work for any number of
swarms. The control laws proposed in this paper also ensures
practical stability of the system. The effectiveness of the proposed
control laws are demonstrated via computer simulations of an
emergent behavior.
Abstract: The hydrodynamic and thermal lattice Boltzmann
methods are applied to investigate the turbulent convective heat
transfer in the wavy channel flows. In this study, the turbulent
phenomena are modeling by large-eddy simulations with the
Smagorinsky model. As a benchmark, the laminar and turbulent
backward-facing step flows are simulated first. The results give good
agreement with other numerical and experimental data. For wavy
channel flows, the distribution of Nusselt number and the skin-friction
coefficients are calculated to evaluate the heat transfer effect and the
drag force. It indicates that the vortices at the trough would affect the
magnitude of drag and weaken the heat convection effects on the wavy
surface. In turbulent cases, if the amplitude of the wavy boundary is
large enough, the secondary vortices would be generated at troughs
and contribute to the heat convection. Finally, the effects of different
Re on the turbulent transport phenomena are discussed.
Abstract: Global competition is tightening and companies have
to think how to remain competitive. The main aim of this paper is to
discuss how Finnish foundries will remain competitive. To fulfil the
aim, we conducted interviews in nine companies using castings and
analysed buyer–supplier relationships, current competitive
advantages of Finnish foundries and customer perspectives on how
Finnish foundries remain competitive. We found that the customerfoundry
relationship is still closer to traditional subcontracting than
partnering and general image of foundries is negative. Current
competitive advantages of Finnish foundries include designing
cooperation, proximity and flexibility. Casting users state that
Finnish foundries should sell their know-how and services instead of
their capacity, concentrate on prototype, single and short series
castings and supply ready-to-install cast components directly to
customers- assembly lines.
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 pollution of sediments sampled from the North
Port by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated.
Concentrations of PAHs estimated in the port sediments ranged from
199 to 2851.2 μg/kg dw. The highest concentration was found which
is closed to the Berth line, this locations affected by intensive
shipping activities and Land based runoff and they were dominated
by the high molecular weight PAHs (4–6- rings). Source
identification showed that PAHs originated mostly from the
pyrogenic source either from the combustion of fossil fuels, grass,
wood and coal (majority of the samples). Ecological Risk Assessment
on the port sediments presented that slightly adverse ecological
effects to biological community are expected to occur at the vicinity
of the stations 1 and 4. Thus PAHs are not considered as pollutants of
concern in the North Port.
Abstract: The internet has become an attractive avenue for
global e-business, e-learning, knowledge sharing, etc. Due to
continuous increase in the volume of web content, it is not practically
possible for a user to extract information by browsing and integrating
data from a huge amount of web sources retrieved by the existing
search engines. The semantic web technology enables advancement
in information extraction by providing a suite of tools to integrate
data from different sources. To take full advantage of semantic web,
it is necessary to annotate existing web pages into semantic web
pages. This research develops a tool, named OWIE (Ontology-based
Web Information Extraction), for semantic web annotation using
domain specific ontologies. The tool automatically extracts
information from html pages with the help of pre-defined ontologies
and gives them semantic representation. Two case studies have been
conducted to analyze the accuracy of OWIE.
Abstract: Infrastructure investments are important in developing
countries, it will not only help to foster the economic growth of a
nation, but it will also act as a platform in which new forms of
partnership and collaboration can be developed mainly in East Asian
countries. Since the last two decades, many infrastructure projects
had been completed through build-operate-transfer (BOT) type of
procurement. The developments of BOT have attracted participation
of local and foreign private sector investor to secure funding and to
deliver projects on time, within the budget and to the required
specifications. Private sectors are preferred by the government in
East Asia to participate in BOT projects due to lack of public
funding. The finding has resulted that the private sector or promoter
of the BOT projects is exposed to multiple risks which have been
discussed in this paper. Effective risk management methods and
good managerial skills are required in ensuring the success of the
project. The review indicated that mitigation measures should be
employed by the promoter throughout the concession period and
support from the host government is also required in ensuring the
success of the BOT project.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to develop the
performance indicators (PIs) in operational level for the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system employing in Thailand. This research started with ascertaining the current pre-hospital care
system. The team analyzed the strategies of Narerthorn, a government unit under the ministry of public health, and the existing PIs of the pre-hospital care. Afterwards, the current National Strategic Plan of EMS development (2008-2012) of the Emergency
Medical Institute of Thailand (EMIT) was considered using strategic
analysis to developed Strategy Map (SM) and identified the Success
Factors (SFs). The analysis results from strategy map and SFs were used to develop the Performance Indicators (PIs). To verify the set of
PIs, the team has interviewed with the relevant practitioners for the possibilities to implement the PIs. To this paper, it was to ascertain
that all the developed PIs support the objectives of the strategic plan. Nevertheless, the results showed that the operational level PIs suited
only with the first dimension of National Strategic Plan
(infrastructure and information technology development). Besides,
the SF was the infrastructure development (to contribute the EMS system to people throughout with standard and efficiency both in normally and disaster conditions). Finally, twenty-nine indicators
were developed from the analysis results of SM and SFs.
Abstract: In order to assess optical fiber reliability in different environmental and stress conditions series of testing are performed simulating overlapping of chemical and mechanical controlled varying factors. Each series of testing may be compared using statistical processing: i.e. Weibull plots. Due to the numerous data to treat, a software application has appeared useful to interpret selected series of experiments in function of envisaged factors. The current paper presents a software application used in the storage, modelling and interpretation of experimental data gathered from optical fibre testing. The present paper strictly deals with the software part of the project (regarding the modelling, storage and processing of user supplied data).