Abstract: Vehicle suspension design must fulfill
some conflicting criteria. Among those is ride comfort
which is attained by minimizing the acceleration
transmitted to the sprung mass, via suspension spring
and damper. Also good handling of a vehicle is a
desirable property which requires stiff suspension and
therefore is in contrast with a vehicle with good ride.
Among the other desirable features of a suspension is
the minimization of the maximum travel of suspension.
This travel which is called suspension working space in
vehicle dynamics literature is also a design constraint
and it favors good ride. In this research a full car 8
degrees of freedom model has been developed and the
three above mentioned criteria, namely: ride, handling
and working space has been adopted as objective
functions. The Multi Objective Programming (MOP)
discipline has been used to find the Pareto Front and
some reasoning used to chose a design point between
these non dominated points of Pareto Front.
Abstract: The chemical degradation of dieldrin in ferric
sulfide and iron powder aqueous suspension was investigated
in laboratory batch type experiments. To identify the reaction
mechanism, reduced copper was used as reductant. More than
90% of dieldrin was degraded using both reaction systems after
29 days. Initial degradation rate of the pesticide using ferric
sulfide was superior to that using iron powder. The reaction
schemes were completely dissimilar even though the ferric ion
plays an important role in both reaction systems. In the case of
metallic iron powder, dieldrin undergoes partial dechlorination.
This reaction proceeded by reductive hydrodechlorination with
the generation of H+, which arise by oxidation of ferric iron.
This reductive reaction was accelerated by reductant but
mono-dechlorination intermediates were accumulated. On the
other hand, oxidative degradation was observed in the reaction
with ferric sulfide, and the stable chemical structure of dieldrin
was decomposed into water-soluble intermediates. These
reaction intermediates have no chemical structure of drin class.
This dehalogenation reaction assumes to occur via the adsorbed
hydroxyl radial generated on the surface of ferric sulfide.
Abstract: Historical monuments as architectural heritage are,
economically and culturally, considered one of the key aspects for
modern communities. Cultural heritage represents a country-s
national identity and pride and maintains and enriches that country-s
culture. Therefore, conservation of the monuments remained from
our ancestors requires everybody-s serious and unremitting effort.
Conservation, renewal, restoration, and technical study of cultural
and historical matters are issues which have a special status among
various forms of art and science in the present century and this is due
to two reasons: firstly, progress of humankind in this century has
created a factor called environmental pollution which not only has
caused new destructive processes of cultural/historical monuments
but also has accelerated the previous destructive processes by several
times, and secondly, the rapid advance of various sciences, especially
chemistry, has lead to the contribution of new methods and materials
to this significant issue.
Abstract: Traditionally, terror groups have been formed by ideologically aligned actors who perceive a lack of options for achieving political or social change. However, terrorist attacks have been increasingly carried out by small groups of actors or lone individuals who may be only ideologically affiliated with larger, formal terrorist organizations. The formation of these groups represents the inverse of traditional organizational growth, whereby structural de-evolution within issue-based organizations leads to the formation of small, independent terror cells. Ideological franchising – the bypassing of formal affiliation to the “parent" organization – represents the de-evolution of traditional concepts of organizational structure in favor of an organic, independent, and focused unit. Traditional definitions of dark networks that are issue-based include focus on an identified goal, commitment to achieving this goal through unrestrained actions, and selection of symbolic targets. The next step in the de-evolution of small dark networks is the miniorganization, consisting of only a handful of actors working toward a common, violent goal. Information-sharing through social media platforms, coupled with civil liberties of democratic nations, provide the communication systems, access to information, and freedom of movement necessary for small dark networks to flourish without the aid of a parent organization. As attacks such as the 7/7 bombings demonstrate the effectiveness of small dark networks, terrorist actors will feel increasingly comfortable aligning with an ideology only, without formally organizing. The natural result of this de-evolving organization is the single actor event, where an individual seems to subscribe to a larger organization-s violent ideology with little or no formal ties.
Abstract: Fip-gts, an immunomodulatory protein purified from Ganoderma tsugae, has been reported to possess therapeutic effects in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. For medicinal application, a recombinant Fip-gts was successfully expressed and purified in Sf21 insect cells by our previously work. It is important to evaluate the immunomodulatory activity of the rFip-gts. To assess the immunomodulatory potential of rFip-gts, the T lymphocytes of murine splenocytes were used in the present study. Results revealed that rFip-gts induced cellular aggregation formation. Additionally, the expression of IL-2 and IFN-r were up-regulated after the treatment of rFip-gts, and a corresponding increased production of IL-2 and IFN-r in a dose-dependent manner. The results showed that rFip-gts has an immunomodulatory activity in inducing Th1 lymphocytes from murine splenocytes released IL-2 and IFN-γ, thus suggest that rFip-gts may have therapeutic potential in vivo as an immune modulator.
Abstract: One important objective in Precision Agriculture is to minimize the volume of herbicides that are applied to the fields through the use of site-specific weed management systems. In order to reach this goal, two major factors need to be considered: 1) the similar spectral signature, shape and texture between weeds and crops; 2) the irregular distribution of the weeds within the crop's field. This paper outlines an automatic computer vision system for the detection and differential spraying of Avena sterilis, a noxious weed growing in cereal crops. The proposed system involves two processes: image segmentation and decision making. Image segmentation combines basic suitable image processing techniques in order to extract cells from the image as the low level units. Each cell is described by two area-based attributes measuring the relations among the crops and the weeds. From these attributes, a hybrid decision making approach determines if a cell must be or not sprayed. The hybrid approach uses the Support Vector Machines and the Fuzzy k-Means methods, combined through the fuzzy aggregation theory. This makes the main finding of this paper. The method performance is compared against other available strategies.
Abstract: with increasing circuits- complexity and demand to
use portable devices, power consumption is one of the most
important parameters these days. Full adders are the basic block of
many circuits. Therefore reducing power consumption in full adders
is very important in low power circuits. One of the most powerconsuming
modules in full adders is XOR/XNOR circuit. This paper
presents two new full adders based on two new logic approaches. The
proposed logic approaches use one XOR or XNOR gate to implement
a full adder cell. Therefore, delay and power will be decreased. Using
two new approaches and two XOR and XNOR gates, two new full
adders have been implemented in this paper. Simulations are carried
out by HSPICE in 0.18μm bulk technology with 1.8V supply voltage.
The results show that the ten-transistors proposed full adder has 12%
less power consumption and is 5% faster in comparison to MB12T
full adder. 9T is more efficient in area and is 24% better than similar
10T full adder in term of power consumption. The main drawback of
the proposed circuits is output threshold loss problem.
Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increasing interest
toward the use of bovine genotyped embryos for commercial embryo
transfer programs. Biopsy of a few cells in morulla stage is essential
for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Low amount of DNA
have limited performing the several molecular analyses within PGD
analyses. Whole genome amplification (WGA) promises to eliminate
this problem. We evaluated the possibility and performance of an
improved primer extension preamplification (I-PEP) method with a
range of starting bovine genomic DNA from 1-8 cells into the WGA
reaction. We optimized a short and simple I-PEP (ssI-PEP) procedure
(~3h). This optimized WGA method was assessed by 6 loci specific
polymerase chain reactions (PCRs), included restriction fragments
length polymorphism (RFLP). Optimized WGA procedure possesses
enough sensitivity for molecular genetic analyses through the few
input cells. This is a new era for generating characterized bovine
embryos in preimplantation stage.
Abstract: This paper describes a method to measure and
compensate a 4 axes ultra-precision machine tool that generates micro
patterns on the large surfaces. The grooving machine is usually used
for making a micro mold for many electrical parts such as a light guide
plate for LCD and fuel cells. The ultra precision machine tool has three
linear axes and one rotational table. Shaping is usually used to
generate micro patterns. In the case of 50 μm pitch and 25 μm height
pyramid pattern machining with a 90° wedge angle bite, one of linear
axis is used for long stroke motion for high cutting speed and other
linear axis are used for feeding. The triangular patterns can be
generated with many times of long stroke of one axis. Then 90°
rotation of work piece is needed to make pyramid patterns with
superposition of machined two triangular patterns.
To make a two dimensional positioning error, straightness of two
axes in out of plane, squareness between the each axis are important.
Positioning errors, straightness and squarness were measured by laser
interferometer system. Those were compensated and confirmed by
ISO230-6. One of difficult problem to measure the error motions is
squareness or parallelism of axis between the rotational table and
linear axis. It was investigated by simultaneous moving of rotary table
and XY axes. This compensation method is introduced in this paper.
Abstract: For over a decade, the Pulse Coupled Neural Network
(PCNN) based algorithms have been successfully used in image
interpretation applications including image segmentation. There are
several versions of the PCNN based image segmentation methods,
and the segmentation accuracy of all of them is very sensitive to the
values of the network parameters. Most methods treat PCNN
parameters like linking coefficient and primary firing threshold as
global parameters, and determine them by trial-and-error. The
automatic determination of appropriate values for linking coefficient,
and primary firing threshold is a challenging problem and deserves
further research. This paper presents a method for obtaining global as
well as local values for the linking coefficient and the primary firing
threshold for neurons directly from the image statistics. Extensive
simulation results show that the proposed approach achieves
excellent segmentation accuracy comparable to the best accuracy
obtainable by trial-and-error for a variety of images.
Abstract: Three strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (690, BCRC
13023 and BCRC 13025) implicated in food poisoning outbreaks in
Taiwan were subjected to acid adaptation at pH 5.5 for 90 min. The
growth behaviors of acid-adapted and non-adapted V.
parahaemolyticus in the media supplemented with various nitrogen
and carbon sources were investigated. The effects of acid adaptation
on the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) secretion and fatty acid
profiles of V. parahaemolyticus were also examined. Results showed
that acid-adapted and non-adapted V. parahaemolyticus 690, BCRC
13023 and BCRC 13025 grew similarly in TSB-3% NaCl and basal
media supplemented with various carbon and nitrogen sources during
incubation period. Higher TDH secretion was noted with V.
parahaemolyticus 690 among the three strains. However, acid-adapted
strains produced less amounts of TDH than non-adapted strains when
they were grown in TSB-3% NaCl. Additionally, acid adaptation
increased the ratio of SFA/USFA in cells of V. parahaemolyticus
strains.
Abstract: The need to implement intelligent highways is much
more emphasized with the growth of vehicle production line as well as vehicle intelligence. The control of intelligent vehicles in order to
reduce human error and boost ease congestion is not accomplished solely by the aid of human resources. The present article is an attempt
to introduce an intelligent control system based on a single central computer. In this project, central computer, without utilizing Global
Positioning System (GPS), is capable of tracking all vehicles, crisis management and control, traffic guidance and recording traffic
crimes along the highway. By the help of RFID technology, vehicles
are connected to computerized systems, intelligent light poles and
other available hardware along the way. By the aid of Wimax
communicative technology, all components of the system are
virtually connected together through local and global networks
devised in them and the energy of the network is provided by the
solar cells installed on the intelligent light poles.
Abstract: This paper presents a 24 watts SEPIC converter design
and control using microprocessor. SEPIC converter has advantages of
a wide input range and miniaturization caused by the low stress at
elements. There is also an advantage that the input and output are
isolated in MOSFET-off state. This paper presents the PID control
through the SEPIC converter transfer function using a DSP and the
protective circuit for fuel cell from the over-current and
inverse-voltage by using the characteristic of SEPIC converter. Then it
derives them through the experiments.
Abstract: The innovative fuzzy estimator is used to estimate the
ground motion acceleration of the retaining structure in this study. The
Kalman filter without the input term and the fuzzy weighting recursive
least square estimator are two main portions of this method. The
innovation vector can be produced by the Kalman filter, and be
applied to the fuzzy weighting recursive least square estimator to
estimate the acceleration input over time. The excellent performance
of this estimator is demonstrated by comparing it with the use of
difference weighting function, the distinct levels of the measurement
noise covariance and the initial process noise covariance. The
availability and the precision of the proposed method proposed in this
study can be verified by comparing the actual value and the one
obtained by numerical simulation.
Abstract: In this paper, RSA encryption algorithm and its hardware
implementation in Xilinx-s Virtex Field Programmable Gate
Arrays (FPGA) is analyzed. The issues of scalability, flexible performance,
and silicon efficiency for the hardware acceleration of
public key crypto systems are being explored in the present work.
Using techniques based on the interleaved math for exponentiation,
the proposed RSA calculation architecture is compared to existing
FPGA-based solutions for speed, FPGA utilization, and scalability.
The paper covers the RSA encryption algorithm, interleaved multiplication,
Miller Rabin algorithm for primality test, extended Euclidean
math, basic FPGA technology, and the implementation details of
the proposed RSA calculation architecture. Performance of several
alternative hardware architectures is discussed and compared. Finally,
conclusion is drawn, highlighting the advantages of a fully flexible
& parameterized design.
Abstract: Image mosaicing is a technique that permits to enlarge the field of view of a camera. For instance, it is employed to achieve panoramas with common cameras or even in scientific applications, to achieve the image of a whole culture in microscopical imaging. Usually, a mosaic of cell cultures is achieved through using automated microscopes. However, this is often performed in batch, through CPU intensive minimization algorithms. In addition, live stem cells are studied in phase contrast, showing a low contrast that cannot be improved further. We present a method to study the flat field from live stem cells images even in case of 100% confluence, this permitting to build accurate mosaics on-line using high performance algorithms.
Abstract: This paper presents a ray tracing simulation technique for characterize the radiowave propagation inside building. The implementation of an algorithm capable of enumerating a large number of propagation paths in interactive time for the special case of 2.5D. The effective dielectric constants of the building structure in the simulations are indicated. The study describes an efficient 2.5D model of ray tracing algorithm were compared with 3D model. The result of the first investigations is that the environment of the indoor wave significantly changes as we change the electric parameters of material constructions. A detailed analysis of the dependence of the indoor wave on the wideband characteristics of the channel: root mean square (RMS) delay spread characteristics and Mean excess delay, is also investigated.
Abstract: In this study, three subtypes of influenza A viruses (pH1N1, H5N1 and H3N2) which naturally infected human were analyzed by bioinformatic approaches to find candidate human cellular miRNAs targeting viral genomes. There were 76 miRNAs targeting influenza A viruses. Among these candidates, 70 miRNAs were subtypes specifically targeting each subtype of influenza A virus including 21 miRNAs targeted subtype H1N1, 27 miRNAs targeted subtype H5N1 and 22 miRNAs targeted subtype H3N2. The remaining 6 miRNAs target on multiple subtypes of influenza A viruses. Uniquely, hsa-miR-3145 is the only one candidate miRNA targeting PB1 gene of all three subtypes. Obviously, most of the candidate miRNAs are targeting on polymerase complex genes (PB2, PB1 and PA) of influenza A viruses. This study predicted potential human miRNAs targeting on different subtypes of influenza A viruses which might be useful for inhibition of viral replication and for better understanding of the interaction between virus and host cell.
Abstract: Renewable natural fibres such as oil palm, flax, and
pineapple leaf can be utilized to obtain new high performance
polymer materials. The reuse of waste natural fibres as reinforcement
for polymer is a sustainable option to the environment. However, due
to its high hydroxyl content of cellulose, natural fibres are
susceptible to absorb water that affects the composite mechanical
properties adversely. Research found that Nano materials such as
Nano Silica Carbide (n-SiC) and Nano Clay can be added into the
polymer composite to overcome this problem by enhancing its
mechanical properties in wet condition. The addition of Nano
material improves the tensile and wear properties, flexural stressstrain
behaviour, fracture toughness, and fracture strength of polymer
natural composites in wet and dry conditions.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results of
comparison between leakage currents and discharge currents. The leakage currents were obtained on polluted porcelain insulator.
Whereas, the discharge currents were obtained on lightly artificial
polluted porcelain specimen. The conducted measurements were
leakage current or discharge current and applied voltage. The insulator or specimen was in a hermetically sealed chamber, and the
current waveforms were analyzed using FFT.
The result indicated that the leakage current (LC) on low RH condition the fifth harmonic would be visible, and followed by the
seventh harmonic. The insulator had capacitive property. Otherwise,
on 99% relative humidity, the fifth harmonic would also be visible,
and the phase angle reached up to 12.2 degree. Whereas, on discharge current, the third harmonic would be visible, and followed
by fifth harmonic. The third harmonic would increase as pressure reduced. On this condition, the specimen had a non-linear characteristics