Abstract: The aim of this work is to present a theoretical analysis of a 2D ultrasound transducer comprised of crossed arrays of metal strips placed on both sides of thin piezoelectric layer (a). Such a structure is capable of electronic beam-steering of generated wavebeam both in elevation and azimuth. In this paper a semi-analytical model of the considered transducer is developed. It is based on generalization of the well-known BIS-expansion method. Specifically, applying the electrostatic approximation, the electric field components on the surface of the layer are expanded into fast converging series of double periodic spatial harmonics with corresponding amplitudes represented by the properly chosen Legendre polynomials. The problem is reduced to numerical solving of certain system of linear equations for unknown expansion coefficients.
Abstract: In this numerical study, we want to present the design
of highly efficient extruded-type heat sink. The symmetrically
arranged extruded-type heat sinks are used instead of a single extruded
or swaged-type heat sink. In this parametric study, the maximum
temperatures, the base temperatures between heaters, and the heat
release rates were investigated with respect to the arrangements of heat
sources, air flow rates, and amounts of heat input. Based on the results
we believe that the use of both side of heat sink is to be much better for
release the heat than the use of single side. Also from the results, it is
believed that the symmetric arrangement of heat sources is
recommended to achieve a higher heat transfer from the heat sink.
Abstract: In addition to the production, which is already
frequently optimized, improving the distribution logistics also opens
up tremendous potential for increasing an enterprise’s
competitiveness. Here too though, numerous interactions need to be
taken into account, enterprises thus need to be able to identify and
weigh between different potentials for economically efficient
optimizations. In order to be able to assess potentials, enterprises
require a suitable method. This paper first briefly presents the need
for this research before introducing the procedure that will be used to
develop an appropriate method that not only considers interactions
but is also quickly and easily implemented.
Abstract: The reduction of greenhouse gases emissions is highly
discussed ecological theme at present. In addition to power industry
also main production sectors of binders, i.e. cement, air and hydraulic
lime are very sensitive to these questions. One of the possibilities
how CO2 emissions can be reduced directly at clinker burnout is
represented by partial substitution of lime with a material containing
limy ions at absence of carbonate group. Fluidised fly ash is one of
such potential raw materials where CaO can be found free and also
bound in anhydrite, CaSO4. At application of FBC (fluidized bed
combustion) fly ash with approximate 20% CaO content and its
dosing ratio to high percent lime 1:2, corresponding stechiometrically
to the preparation of raw material powder, approximately 0,37 t CO2
per 1 ton of one-component cement would be released at clinker
burnout compared to 0,46 t CO2 when orthodox raw materials are
used. The reduction of CO2 emissions thus could reach even 20%.
Abstract: Voltage sags are the most common power quality
disturbance in the distribution system. It occurs due to the fault in the
electrical network or by the starting of a large induction motor and
this can be solved by using the custom power devices such as
Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR). In this paper DVR is proposed to
compensate voltage sags on critical loads dynamically. The DVR
consists of VSC, injection transformers, passive filters and energy
storage (lead acid battery). By injecting an appropriate voltage, the
DVR restores a voltage waveform and ensures constant load voltage.
The simulation and experimental results of a DVR using MATLAB
software shows clearly the performance of the DVR in mitigating
voltage sags.
Abstract: In development of floating photovoltaic generation
system, finding a suitable place of installation is as important as
development of economically feasible and stable structure. Especially
since floating photovoltaic system has its facility floating on water
surface, it is extremely important to review the effects of weather
conditions such as wind, water flow and floating matters, various
factors (such as fogs) that can reduce generation efficiency, possibility
of connection with power system, and legal restrictions. The method of
investigating suitable area and resource for development of
tracking-type floating photovoltaic generation system was proposed in
this paper, which can be used for development of floating and ocean
photovoltaic system in the future.
Abstract: Anultra-low power capacitor less low-dropout voltage
regulator with improved transient response using gain enhanced feed
forward path compensation is presented in this paper. It is based on a
cascade of a voltage amplifier and a transconductor stage in the feed
forward path with regular error amplifier to form a composite gainenhanced
feed forward stage. It broadens the gain bandwidth and thus
improves the transient response without substantial increase in power
consumption. The proposed LDO, designed for a maximum output
current of 100 mA in UMC 180 nm, requires a quiescent current of
69 )A. An undershot of 153.79mV for a load current changes from
0mA to 100mA and an overshoot of 196.24mV for current change of
100mA to 0mA. The settling time is approximately 1.1 )s for the
output voltage undershooting case. The load regulation is of 2.77
)V/mA at load current of 100mA. Reference voltage is generated by
using an accurate band gap reference circuit of 0.8V.The costly
features of SOC such as total chip area and power consumption is
drastically reduced by the use of only a total compensation
capacitance of 6pF while consuming power consumption of 0.096
mW.
Abstract: Frequent, continuous speech training has proven to be
a necessary part of a successful speech therapy process, but
constraints of traveling time and employment dispensation become
key obstacles especially for individuals living in remote areas or for
dependent children who have working parents. In order to ameliorate
speech difficulties with ample guidance from speech therapists, a
website has been developed that supports speech therapy and training
for people with articulation disorders in the standard Thai language.
This web-based program has the ability to record speech training
exercises for each speech trainee. The records will be stored in a
database for the speech therapist to investigate, evaluate, compare
and keep track of all trainees’ progress in detail. Speech trainees can
request live discussions via video conference call when needed.
Communication through this web-based program facilitates and
reduces training time in comparison to walk-in training or
appointments. This type of training also allows people with
articulation disorders to practice speech lessons whenever or
wherever is convenient for them, which can lead to a more regular
training processes.
Abstract: Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns
with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes.
Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become
increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty
related to anthropogenic emissions. The world wide observed
changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an
increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although
the effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general
picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and
frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary
characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate
change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic
downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models
(RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric
physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields
as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture
the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a
basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical
relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called
predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands.
The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical
downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological
variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then
served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to
obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other
hydrological variables of interest.
Abstract: One of the major goals of Spoken Dialog Systems
(SDS) is to understand what the user utters.
In the SDS domain, the Spoken Language Understanding (SLU)
Module classifies user utterances by means of a pre-definite
conceptual knowledge. The SLU module is able to recognize only the
meaning previously included in its knowledge base. Due the vastity
of that knowledge, the information storing is a very expensive
process.
Updating and managing the knowledge base are time-consuming
and error-prone processes because of the rapidly growing number of
entities like proper nouns and domain-specific nouns. This paper
proposes a solution to the problem of Name Entity Recognition
(NER) applied to a SDS domain. The proposed solution attempts to
automatically recognize the meaning associated with an utterance by
using the PANKOW (Pattern based Annotation through Knowledge
On the Web) method at runtime.
The method being proposed extracts information from the Web to
increase the SLU knowledge module and reduces the development
effort. In particular, the Google Search Engine is used to extract
information from the Facebook social network.
Abstract: This paper presents a new meta-heuristic bio-inspired
optimization algorithm which is called Cuttlefish Algorithm (CFA).
The algorithm mimics the mechanism of color changing behavior of
the cuttlefish to solve numerical global optimization problems. The
colors and patterns of the cuttlefish are produced by reflected light
from three different layers of cells. The proposed algorithm considers
mainly two processes: reflection and visibility. Reflection process
simulates light reflection mechanism used by these layers, while
visibility process simulates visibility of matching patterns of the
cuttlefish. To show the effectiveness of the algorithm, it is tested with
some other popular bio-inspired optimization algorithms such as
Genetic Algorithms (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and
Bees Algorithm (BA) that have been previously proposed in the
literature. Simulations and obtained results indicate that the proposed
CFA is superior when compared with these algorithms.
Abstract: Male factor infertility due to endocrine disturbances
such as abnormalities in prolactin levels are encountered in a
significant proportion. This case control study was carried out to
determine the effects of prolactin on the male reproductive tract,
using 200 male white rats. The rats were maintained as the control
group (G1), hypoprolactinaemic group (G2), 3 hyperprolactinaemic
groups induced using oral largactil (G3), low dose fluphenazine (G4)
and high dose fluphenazine (G5). After 100 days, rats were subjected
to serum prolactin (PRL) level measurements and for basic seminal
fluid analysis (BSA). The difference between serum PRL
concentrations of rats in G2, G3, G4 and G5 as compared to the
control group were highly significant by Student’s t-test (p
Abstract: Concerns on corrosion and effective coating
protection of double hull tankers and bulk carriers in service have
been raised especially in water ballast tanks (WBTs). Test
protocols/methodologies specifically that which is incorporated in the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Performance Standard
for Protective Coatings for Dedicated Sea Water ballast tanks (PSPC)
are being used to assess and evaluate the performance of the coatings
for type approval prior to their application in WBTs. However, some
of the type approved coatings may be applied as very thick films to
less than ideally prepared steel substrates in the WBT. As such films
experience hygrothermal cycling from operating and environmental
conditions, they become embrittled which may ultimately result in
cracking. This embrittlement of the coatings is identified as an
undesirable feature in the PSPC but is not mentioned in the test
protocols within it. There is therefore renewed industrial research
aimed at understanding this issue in order to eliminate cracking and
achieve the intended coating lifespan of 15 years in good condition.
This paper will critically review test protocols currently used for
assessing and evaluating coating performance, particularly the IMO
PSPC.
Abstract: Azadirachta excelsa or locally known as sentang are
frequently used as a traditional medicine by diabetes patients in
Malaysia. However, less attention has been given to their toxicity
effect. Thus, the study is an attempt to examine the protective effect
of A. excelsa on the pancreas and to determine possible toxicity
mediated by the extract. Diabetes was induced experimentally in rats
by high-fat-diet for 16 weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of
streptozotocin at dosage of 35 mg/kg of body weight. Declination of
the fasting blood glucose level was observed after continuous
administration of A. excelsa for 14 days twice daily. This is due to the
refining structure of the pancreas. However, surprisingly, the plant
extract reduced the leukocytes, erythrocytes, hemoglobin, MCHC and
lymphocytes. In addition, the rat treated with the plant extract
exhibited increment in AST and eosinocytes level. Overall, the
finding shows that A. excelsa possesses antidiabetic activity by
improving the structure of pancreatic islet of Langerhans but
involved in ameliorating of hematology and biochemical parameters.
Abstract: In this study, six bacterial isolates of a slightly
thermophilic organism from the Sg. Klah hot spring, Malaysia were
successfully isolated and designated as M7T55D1, M7T55D2,
M7T55D3, M7T53D1, M7T53D2 and M7T53D3 respectively. The
bacterial isolates were screened for their cellulose hydrolytic ability
on Carboxymethlycellulose agar medium. The isolated bacterial
strains were identified morphologically, biochemically and
molecularly with the aid of 16S rDNA sequencing. All of the bacteria
showed their optimum growth at a slightly alkaline pH of 7.5 with a
temperature of 55°C. All strains were Gram-negative, non-spore
forming type, strictly aerobic, catalase-positive and oxidase-positive
with the ability to produce thermostable cellulase. Based on BLASTn
results, bacterial isolates of M7T55D2 and M7T53D1 gave the
highest homology (97%) with similarity to Tepidimonas ignava while
isolates M7T55D1, M7T55D3, M7T53D2 and M7T53D3 showed
their closest homology (97%-98%) with Tepidimonas thermarum.
These cellulolytic thermophiles might have a commercial potential to
produce valuable thermostable cellulase.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to design and find
users’ satisfaction after using the decision support system for tourism
northern part of Thailand, which can provide tourists touristic
information and plan their personal voyage. Such information can be
retrieved systematically based on personal budget and provinces. The
samples of this study were five experts and users 30 persons white
collars in Bangkok. This decision support system was designed via
ASP.NET. Its database was developed by using MySQL, for
administrators are able to effectively manage the database. The
application outcome revealed that the innovation works properly as
sought in objectives. Specialists and white collars in Bangkok have
evaluated the decision support system; the result was satisfactorily
positive.
Abstract: We used high-precision Global Positioning System
(GPS) to geodetically constrain the motion of stations in the
Darjiling-Sikkim Himalayan (DSH) wedge and examine the
deformation at the Indian-Tibetan plate boundary using IGS
(International GPS Service) fiducial stations. High-precision GPS
based displacement and velocity field was measured in the DSH
between 1997 and 2009. To obtain additional insight north of the
Indo-Tibetan border and in the Darjiling-Sikkim-Tibet (DaSiT)
wedge, published velocities from four stations J037, XIGA, J029 and
YADO were also included in the analysis. India-fixed velocities or
the back-slip was computed relative to the pole of rotation of the
Indian Plate (Latitude 52.97 ± 0.22º, Longitude - 0.30 ± 3.76º, and
Angular Velocity 0.500 ± 0.008º/ Myr) in the DaSiT wedge.
Dislocation modelling was carried out with the back-slip to model the
best possible solution of a finite rectangular dislocation or the
causative fault based on dislocation theory that produced the
observed back-slip using a forward modelling approach. To find the
best possible solution, three different models were attempted. First,
slip along a single thrust fault, then two thrust faults and in finally,
three thrust faults were modelled to simulate the back-slip in the
DaSiT wedge. The three-fault case bests the measured displacements
and is taken as the best possible solution.
Abstract: Most flexible rotors can be considered as beam-like
structures. In many cases, rotors are modeled as one-dimensional
bodies, made basically of beam-like shafts with rigid bodies attached
to them. This approach is typical of rotor dynamics, both analytical
and numerical, and several rotor dynamic codes, based on the finite
element method, follow this trend. In this paper, a finite element
model based on Timoshenko beam elements is utilized to analyze the
lateral dynamic behavior of a certain rotor-bearing system in
operating conditions.
Abstract: The high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAR) in Filter
Bank Multicarrier with Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(FBMC-OQAM) can significantly reduce power efficiency and
performance. In this paper, we address the problem of PAPR
reduction for FBMC-OQAM systems using Tone Reservation (TR)
technique. Due to the overlapping structure of FBMCOQAM signals,
directly applying TR schemes of OFDM systems to FBMC-OQAM
systems is not effective. We improve the tone reservation (TR)
technique by employing sliding window with Active Constellation
Extension for the PAPR reduction of FBMC-OQAM signals, called
sliding window tone reservation Active Constellation Extension
(SW-TRACE) technique. The proposed SW-TRACE technique uses
the peak reduction tones (PRTs) of several consecutive data
blocks to cancel the peaks of the FBMC-OQAM signal inside a
window, with dynamically extending outer constellation points in
active(data-carrying) channels, within margin-preserving constraints,
in order to minimize the peak magnitude. Analysis and simulation
results compared to the existing Tone Reservation (TR) technique for
FBMC/OQAM system. The proposed method SW-TRACE has better
PAPR performance and lower computational complexity.
Abstract: Paper deals with analysis of strategic management
methods in non-profit making organization in the Czech Republic.
Strategic management represents an aggregate of methods and
approaches that can be applied for managing organizations - in this
article the organizations which associate owners and keepers of nonstate
forest properties. Authors use these methods of strategic
management: analysis of stakeholders, SWOT analysis and
questionnaire inquiries. The questionnaire was distributed
electronically via e-mail. In October 2013 we obtained data from a
total of 84 questionnaires. Based on the results the authors
recommend the using of confrontation strategy which improves the
competitiveness of non-profit making organizations.