Abstract: Segmentation and quantification of stenosis is an
important task in assessing coronary artery disease. One of the main
challenges is measuring the real diameter of curved vessels.
Moreover, uncertainty in segmentation of different tissues in the
narrow vessel is an important issue that affects accuracy. This paper
proposes an algorithm to extract coronary arteries and measure the
degree of stenosis. Markovian fuzzy clustering method is applied to
model uncertainty arises from partial volume effect problem. The
algorithm employs: segmentation, centreline extraction, estimation of
orthogonal plane to centreline, measurement of the degree of
stenosis. To evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility, the approach
has been applied to a vascular phantom and the results are compared
with real diameter. The results of 10 patient datasets have been
visually judged by a qualified radiologist. The results reveal the
superiority of the proposed method compared to the Conventional
thresholding Method (CTM) on both datasets.
Abstract: Oxygen transfer, the process by which oxygen is
transferred from the gaseous to liquid phase, is a vital part of the
waste water treatment process. Because of low solubility of
oxygen and consequent low rate of oxygen transfer, sufficient
oxygen to meet the requirement of aerobic waste does not enter
through normal surface air water interface. Many theories have
come up in explaining the mechanism of gas transfer and
absorption of non-reacting gases in a liquid, of out of which, Two
film theory is important. An exiting mathematical model
determines approximate value of Overall Gas Transfer coefficient.
The Overall Gas Transfer coefficient, in case of Penetration theory,
is 1.13 time more than that obtained in case of Two film theory.
The difference is due to the difference in assumptions in the two
theories.
The paper aims at development of mathematical model which
determines the value of Overall Gas Transfer coefficient with
greater accuracy than the existing model.
Abstract: An experiment was conducted using two aeration
methods (water-into-air and air-into-water) and followed by filtration
processes using manganese greensand material. The properties of
groundwater such as pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and heavy metal
concentration (iron and manganese) will be assessed. The objectives
of this study are i) to determine the effective aeration method and ii)
to assess the effectiveness of manganese greensand as filter media in
removing iron and manganese concentration in groundwater. Results
showed that final pH for all samples after treatment are in range from
7.40 and 8.40. Both aeration methods increased the dissolved oxygen
content. Final turbidity for groundwater samples are between 3 NTU
to 29 NTU. Only three out of eight samples achieved iron
concentration of 0.3mg/L and less and all samples reach manganese
concentration of 0.1mg/L and less. Air-into-water aeration method
gives higher percentage of iron and manganese removal compare to
water-into-air method.
Abstract: This study examines the relationships between foreign
aid, levels of schooling and democracy for Pakistan using the ARDL
cointegration approach. The results of study provide strong evidence
for fairly robust long run as well as short run relationships among
these variables for the period 1973-2008. The results state that
foreign aid and primary school enrollments have negative impact on
democracy index and high school enrollments have positive impact
on democracy index in Pakistan. The study suggests for promotion of
education levels and relies on local resources instead of foreign aid
for a good quality of political institutions in Pakistan.
Abstract: An attempt was made for availability of wastewater reuse/reclamation for irrigation purposes using phytoremediation “the low cost and less technology", using six local aquatic macrophytes “e.g. T. angustifolia, B. maritimus, Ph. australis, A. donax, A. plantago-aquatica and M. longifolia (Linn)" as biological waste purifiers. Outdoor experiments/designs were conducted from May 03, 2007 till October 15, 2008, close to one of the main sewage channels of Sulaimani City/Iraq*. All processes were mainly based on conventional wastewater treatment processes, besides two further modifications were tested, the first was sand filtration pots, implanted by individual species of experimental macrophytes and the second was constructed wetlands implanted by experimental macrophytes all together. Untreated and treated wastewater samples were analyzed for their key physico-chemical properties (only heavy metals Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu with particular reference to removal efficiency by experimental macrophytes are highlighted in this paper). On the other hand, vertical contents of heavy metals were also evaluated from both pots and the cells of constructed wetland. After 135 days, macrophytes were harvested and heavy metals were analyzed in their biomass (roots/shoots) for removal efficiency assessment (i.e. uptake/ bioaccumulation rate). Results showed that; removal efficiency of all studied heavy metals was much higher in T. angustifolia followed by Ph. Australis, B. maritimus and A. donax in triple experiment sand pots. Constructed wetland experiments have revealed that; the more replicated constructed wetland cells the highest heavy metal removal efficiency was indicated.
Abstract: Quality evaluation of an image is an important task in image processing applications. In case of image compression, quality of decompressed image is also the criterion for evaluation of given coding scheme. In the process of compression -decompression various artifacts such as blocking artifacts, blur artifact, ringing or edge artifact are observed. However quantification of these artifacts is a difficult task. We propose here novel method to quantify blur and ringing artifact in an image.
Abstract: In this paper, the concepts of dichotomous logistic
regression (DLR) with leave-one-out (L-O-O) were discussed. To
illustrate this, the L-O-O was run to determine the importance of the
simulation conditions for robust test of spread procedures with good
Type I error rates. The resultant model was then evaluated. The
discussions included 1) assessment of the accuracy of the model, and
2) parameter estimates. These were presented and illustrated by
modeling the relationship between the dichotomous dependent
variable (Type I error rates) with a set of independent variables (the
simulation conditions). The base SAS software containing PROC
LOGISTIC and DATA step functions can be making used to do the
DLR analysis.
Abstract: Higher education institutions are increasingly opting to outsourcing methods in order to sustain themselves and this creates a gap of literature in terms of how they perceive the relationship. This research paper attempts to identify the behavioral and psychological factors that exist in the engagement thus providing valuable information to practicing and potential clients, and vendors. The determinants were gathered from previous literatures and analyzed to formulate the factors. This study adopts the case study and survey approaches in which interviews and questionnaires are deployed on employees of IT-related department in a Malaysian higher education institution.
Abstract: Numerical studies have been carried out using a
validated two-dimensional RNG k-epsilon turbulence model for the
design optimization of a thrust vector control system using shock
induced supersonic secondary jet. Parametric analytical studies have
been carried out with various secondary jets at different divergent
locations, jet interaction angles, jet pressures. The results from the
parametric studies of the case on hand reveal that the primary nozzle
with a small divergence angle, downstream injections with a distance
of 2.5 times the primary nozzle throat diameter from the primary
nozzle throat location warrant higher efficiency over a certain range
of jet pressures and jet angles. We observed that the supersonic
secondary jet opposing the core flow with jets interaction angle of
40o to the axis far downstream of the nozzle throat facilitates better
thrust vectoring than the secondary jet with same direction as that of
core flow with various interaction angles. We concluded that fixing
of the supersonic secondary jet nozzle pointing towards the throat
direction with suitable angle at a distance 2 to 4 times of the primary
nozzle throat diameter, as the case may be, from the primary nozzle
throat location could facilitate better thrust vectoring for the
supersonic aerospace vehicles.
Abstract: Since hyaluronic acid (HA) receptor such as CD44 is
over-expressed at sites of cancer cells, HA can be used as a targeting
vehicles for anti-cancer drugs. The aim of this study is to synthesize
block copolymer composed of hyaluronic acid and
poly(ε-caprolactone) (HAPCL) and to fabricate polymeric micelles for
anticancer drug targeting against CD44 receptor of tumor cells.
Chemical composition of HAPCL was confirmed using 1H NMR
spectroscopy. Doxorubicin (DOX) was incorporated into polymeric
micelles of HAPCL. The diameters of HAPHS polymeric micelles
were changed around 80nm and have spherical shapes. Targeting
potential was investigated using CD44-overexpressing. When
DOX-incorporated polymeric micelles was added to KB cells, they
revealed strong red fluorescence color while blocking of CD44
receptor by pretreatment of free HA resulted in reduced intensity,
indicating that HAPCL polymeric micelles have targetability against
CD44 receptor.
Abstract: A new approach for the improvement of coding gain
in channel coding using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and
Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) algorithm is proposed. This new
approach uses the avalanche effect of block cipher algorithm AES
and soft output values of MAP decoding algorithm. The performance
of proposed approach is evaluated in the presence of Additive White
Gaussian Noise (AWGN). For the verification of proposed approach,
computer simulation results are included.
Abstract: In the territories where high-intensity
earthquakes are frequent is paid attention to the solving of the
seismic problems. In the paper are described two
computational model variants based on finite element method
of the construction with different subsoil simulation (rigid or
elastic subsoil) is used. For simulation and calculations
program system based on method final elements ANSYS was
used. Seismic responses calculations of residential building
structure were effected on loading characterized by
accelerogram for comparing with the responses spectra
method.
Abstract: Transition prediction of boundary layers has always
been an important problem in fluid mechanics both theoretically and
practically, yet notwithstanding the great effort made by many
investigators, there is no satisfactory answer to this problem. The most
popular method available is so-called e-N method which is heavily
dependent on experiments and experience. The author has proposed
improvements to the e-N method, so to reduce its dependence on
experiments and experience to a certain extent. One of the key
assumptions is that transition would occur whenever the velocity
amplitude of disturbance reaches 1-2% of the free stream velocity.
However, the reliability of this assumption needs to be verified. In this
paper, transition prediction on a flat plate is investigated by using both
the improved e-N method and the parabolized stability equations (PSE)
methods. The results show that the transition locations predicted by
both methods agree reasonably well with each other, under the above
assumption. For the supersonic case, the critical velocity amplitude in
the improved e-N method should be taken as 0.013, whereas in the
subsonic case, it should be 0.018, both are within the range 1-2%.
Abstract: Selective harmonic elimination-pulse width modulation techniques offer a tight control of the harmonic spectrum of a given voltage waveform generated by a power electronic converter along with a low number of switching transitions. Traditional optimization methods suffer from various drawbacks, such as prolonged and tedious computational steps and convergence to local optima; thus, the more the number of harmonics to be eliminated, the larger the computational complexity and time. This paper presents a novel method for output voltage harmonic elimination and voltage control of PWM AC/AC voltage converters using the principle of hybrid Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm-Pattern Search (RGA-PS) method. RGA is the primary optimizer exploiting its global search capabilities, PS is then employed to fine tune the best solution provided by RGA in each evolution. The proposed method enables linear control of the fundamental component of the output voltage and complete elimination of its harmonic contents up to a specified order. Theoretical studies have been carried out to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method of selective harmonic elimination. Theoretical results are validated through simulation studies using PSIM software package.
Abstract: Nowadays, HPC, Grid and Cloud systems are evolving
very rapidly. However, the development of infrastructure solutions
related to HPC is lagging behind. While the existing infrastructure is
sufficient for simple cases, many computational problems have more
complex requirements.Such computational experiments use different
resources simultaneously to start a large number of computational
jobs.These resources are heterogeneous. They have different
purposes, architectures, performance and used software.Users need a
convenient tool that allows to describe and to run complex
computational experiments under conditions of HPC environment.
This paper introduces a modularworkflow system called SEGL
which makes it possible to run complex computational experiments
under conditions of a real HPC organization. The system can be used
in a great number of organizations, which provide HPC power.
Significant requirements to this system are high efficiency and
interoperability with the existing HPC infrastructure of the
organization without any changes.
Abstract: A new generation product made from bamboo strips,
known as laminated bamboo, has gained importance. The objective
of this research was to experiment the effect of three factors on the
mechanical property of laminated bamboo. The interested factors for
experimental design were (A) four bamboo species, namely Bambusa
blumeana Schultes (Pai See Suk), Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai
Tong), Dendrocalamus hamiltonii Nees (Pai Hok) and
Dendrocalamus sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon), (B) two types of
glue adhesive, polyvinyl acetate emulsion (PVAC) fortified with
urea-formaldehyde (UF) and urea-formaldehyde (UF) to make
parallel-oriented bamboo strips laminates and (C) glue weight per
strip area, 150 g/m2 and 190 g/m2. Experimental results showed that
Dendrocalamus asper Backer (Pai Tong) and Dendrocalamus
sericeus Munro (Pai Sang Mon) were best used for manufacturing
due to their highest MOR and MOE. The amount of glue weight 150
g/m2 yielded higher MOR and MOE than the amount of glue weight
190 g/m2. At the conclusion, the laminated bamboo manufacturers
can benefit from this research in order to select right materials
according to strength, cost and accessibility.
Abstract: The excellent suitability of the externally excited synchronous
machine (EESM) in automotive traction drive applications
is justified by its high efficiency over the whole operation range and
the high availability of materials. Usually, maximum efficiency is
obtained by modelling each single loss and minimizing the sum of all
losses. As a result, the quality of the optimization highly depends on
the precision of the model. Moreover, it requires accurate knowledge
of the saturation dependent machine inductances. Therefore, the
present contribution proposes a method to minimize the overall losses
of a salient pole EESM and its inverter in steady state operation based
on measurement data only. Since this method does not require any
manufacturer data, it is well suited for an automated measurement
data evaluation and inverter parametrization. The field oriented control
(FOC) of an EESM provides three current components resp. three
degrees of freedom (DOF). An analytic minimization of the copper
losses in the stator and the rotor (assuming constant inductances) is
performed and serves as a first approximation of how to choose the
optimal current reference values. After a numeric offline minimization
of the overall losses based on measurement data the results are
compared to a control strategy that satisfies cos (ϕ) = 1.
Abstract: Stocking density is considered one of the important
factors affecting fish growth. But, information related to impact of
stocking density on growth performance of monosex tilapia population
under the ecological conditions of Gangetic plains in West Bengal,
India is limited. The aim of our study was to compare the growth
potential of monosex tilapia at various stocking densities and to
determine an ideal stocking density for culture of all-male monosex
fish. The males were isolated by examination of genital papilla region
and were stocked separately in 0.01 ha earthen ponds at different
stocking densities (5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 25000 and 30000
fingerlings/ha). It was found that the highest weight, length, daily
weight gain, growth rate and protein content were observed for the
20000 fish/ha density class. Thus, culture of monosex tilapia at a
density of 20000 fish/ha can be considered ideal for augmented
production of the fish under Indian context.
Abstract: This paper proposes the stochastic tabu search (STS)
for improving the measurement scheme for power system state
estimation. If the original measured scheme is not observable, the
additional measurements with minimum number of measurements are
added into the system by STS so that there is no critical measurement
pair. The random bit flipping and bit exchanging perturbations are
used for generating the neighborhood solutions in STS. The Pδ
observable concept is used to determine the network observability.
Test results of 10 bus, IEEE 14 and 30 bus systems are shown that
STS can improve the original measured scheme to be observable
without critical measurement pair. Moreover, the results of STS are
superior to deterministic tabu search (DTS) in terms of the best
solution hit.
Abstract: In this study, the effect of greywater irrigation on airwater interfacial area is investigated. Several soil column experiments were conducted for different greywater irrigation to develop the pressure-saturation curves. Surface tension was measured for different greywater concentration and fitted for Gibbs adsorption equation. Pressure-saturation curves show that the reduction of capillary rise stops when it reaches its critical micelle concentration (CMC). A simple theory is derived from pressure-saturation curves for calculating air-water interfacial area in porous medium during greywater irrigation by introducing a term 'hydraulic radius' for the pores. This term diminishes any effect of pore shapes on the air-water interfacial area. The air-water interfacial area was calculated using the pressure-saturation curves and found that it decreases with increasing moisture content. But no significant effect was observed on air-water interfacial area for different greywater irrigation. A maximum of 10% variation in interfacial area was observed at the residual saturation zone.