Abstract: Discovering new biological knowledge from the highthroughput biological data is a major challenge to bioinformatics today. To address this challenge, we developed a new approach for protein classification. Proteins that are evolutionarily- and thereby functionally- related are said to belong to the same classification. Identifying protein classification is of fundamental importance to document the diversity of the known protein universe. It also provides a means to determine the functional roles of newly discovered protein sequences. Our goal is to predict the functional classification of novel protein sequences based on a set of features extracted from each protein sequence. The proposed technique used datasets extracted from the Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database. A set of spectral domain features based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used. The proposed classifier uses multilayer back propagation (MLBP) neural network for protein classification. The maximum classification accuracy is about 91% when applying the classifier to the full four levels of the SCOP database. However, it reaches a maximum of 96% when limiting the classification to the family level. The classification results reveal that spectral domain contains information that can be used for classification with high accuracy. In addition, the results emphasize that sequence similarity measures are of great importance especially at the family level.
Abstract: Anaerobic treatment has many advantages over other
biological method particularly when used to treat complex
wastewater such as petroleum refinery wastewater. In this study two
Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors were operated
in parallel to treat six volumetric organic loads (0.58, 1.21, 0.89,
2.34, 1.47 and 4.14 kg COD/m3·d) to evaluate the chemical oxygen
demand (COD) removal efficiency. The reactors were continuously
adapting to the changing of operation condition with increase in the
removal efficiency or slight decrease until the last load which was
more than two times the load, at which the reactor stressed and the
removal efficiency decreased to 75% with effluent concentration of
1746 mg COD/L. Other parameters were also monitored such as pH,
alkalinity, volatile fatty acid and gas production rate. The UASB
reactor was suitable to treat petroleum refinery wastewater and the
highest COD removal rate was 83% at 1215 kg/m3·d with COD
concentration about 356 mg/L in the effluent.
Abstract: Amarindra-vinitchai-mahaisuraya Bhiman throne hall
is one of the most significant throne halls in the grand palace in the
Ratthanakosin city situated in Bangkok, Thailand. This is the first
group of throne halls built in order to serve as a place for meetings,
performing state affairs and royal duties until the present time. The
structure and pattern of architectural design including the decoration
and interior design of the throne hall obviously exhibits and convey
the status of the king under the context of Thai society in the early
period of Ratthanakosin era. According to the tradition of ruling the
kingdom in absolute monarchy which had been in place since
Ayutthaya era (A.D.1350-1767), the king was deemed as Deva Raja,
the highest power and authority over the kingdom and as the greatest
emperor of the universe (Chakkravatin). The architectural design
adopted the concept of “Prasada" or Viman which served as the
dwelling place of the gods and was presented in the form of “Thai
traditional architecture" For the interior design of the throne hall, it
had been adopted to be the heaven and the centre of the Universe in
line with the cosmological beliefs of ancient people described in
scripture Tribhumikatha (Tri Bhumi) written by Phra Maha Thamma
Raja (Phraya Lithai) of the Sukhothai era (A.D.1347-1368).
According to this belief, the throne hall had been designed to represent
mount Meru, the central of the universe. On the top end of Mount
Meru is situated the Viman and dwelling place of Indra who is the king
of gods according to the idea of Deva Raja (the king god Avatar). At
the same time, Indra also existed as the king of the universe
simultaneously.
Abstract: Biological reactions of individuals of a testing animal
to toxic substance are unique and can be used as an indication of the
existing of toxic substance. However, to distinguish such phenomenon
need a very complicate system and even more complicate to analyze
data in 3 dimensional. In this paper, a system to evaluate in vitro
biological activities to acute toxicity of stochastic self-affine
non-stationary signal of 3D goldfish swimming by using fractal
analysis is introduced. Regular digital camcorders are utilized by
proposed algorithm 3DCCPC to effectively capture and construct 3D
movements of the fish. A Critical Exponent Method (CEM) has been
adopted as a fractal estimator. The hypothesis was that the swimming
of goldfish to acute toxic would show the fractal property which
related to the toxic concentration. The experimental results supported
the hypothesis by showing that the swimming of goldfish under the
different toxic concentration has fractal properties. It also shows that
the fractal dimension of the swimming related to the pH value of FD Ôëê
0.26pH + 0.05. With the proposed system, the fish is allowed to swim
freely in all direction to react to the toxic. In addition, the trajectories
are precisely evaluated by fractal analysis with critical exponent
method and hence the results exhibit with much higher degree of
confidence.
Abstract: Quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) from
atmospheric model as input to hydrological model in an integrated
hydro-meteorological flood forecasting system has been operational
in many countries worldwide. High-resolution numerical weather
prediction (NWP) models with grid cell sizes between 2 and 14 km
have great potential in contributing towards reasonably accurate QPF.
In this study the potential of two NWP models to forecast
precipitation for a flood-prone area in a tropical region is examined.
The precipitation forecasts produced from the Fifth Generation Penn
State/NCAR Mesoscale (MM5) and Weather Research and
Forecasting (WRF) models are statistically verified with the observed
rain in Kelantan River Basin, Malaysia. The statistical verification
indicates that the models have performed quite satisfactorily for low
and moderate rainfall but not very satisfactory for heavy rainfall.
Abstract: The subject of the paper is comparative analysis of the hotel guest-s contractual liability for breaching the obligation for non-payment of hotel services in the hotel-keeper-s contract. The paper is methodologically conceived of six chapters (1. introduction, 2. comparative law sources of the hotel-keeper-s contract, 3. the guest-s obligation for payment of hotel services, 4. hotel guest's liability for non-payment, 5. the hotel-keeper-s rights due to nonpayment and 6. conclusion), which analyzes the guest-s liability for non-payment of hotel services through the international law, European law, euro-continental national laws (France, Germany, Italy, Croatia) and Anglo-American national laws (UK, USA). The paper-s results are the synthesis of answers to the set hypothesis and comparative review of hotel guest-s contractual liability for nonpayment of hotel services provided. In conclusion, it is necessary to adopt an international convention on the hotel-keeper-s contract, which would unify the institute of the hotel guest-s contractual liability for non-payment of hotel services at the international level.
Abstract: One of research issues in social network analysis is to
evaluate the position/importance of users in social networks. As the
information diffusion in social network is evolving, it seems difficult
to evaluate the importance of users using traditional approaches. In
this paper, we propose an evaluation approach for user importance
with fractal view in social networks. In this approach, the global importance
(Fractal Importance) and the local importance (Topological
Importance) of nodes are considered. The basic idea is that the bigger
the product of fractal importance and topological importance of a
node is, the more important of the node is. We devise the algorithm
called TFRank corresponding to the proposed approach. Finally, we
evaluate TFRank by experiments. Experimental results demonstrate
our TFRank has the high correlations with PageRank algorithm
and potential ranking algorithm, and it shows the effectiveness and
advantages of our approach.
Abstract: Hysitron TriboIndenterTM TI 950 system has been
used for studying the local viscoelastic properties of porcine
intervertebral disc end plate by means of nanoscale mechanical
dynamic analysis. The specimen of an endplate was cut from fresh
porcine vertebra dissected from 16 month animal. The lumbar spine
motion segments were dissected and 5 millimeter thick plates of
vertebral body, endplate and annulus fibrosus were prepared for
nanoindentation. The surface of the sample was kept in physiological
solution during nanoindentation experiment. We obtained mechanical
characteristics of different areas of native endplate (endplate middle
and vertebra and annulus fibrosus boundary).
Abstract: The use of polypropylene mesh devices for Pelvic
Organ Prolapse (POP) spread rapidly during the last decade, yet our
knowledge of the mesh-tissue interaction is far from complete. We
aimed to perform a thorough pathological examination of explanted
POP meshes and describe findings that may explain mechanisms of
complications resulting in product excision. We report a spectrum of
important findings, including nerve ingrowth, mesh deformation,
involvement of detrusor muscle with neural ganglia, and
polypropylene degradation. Analysis of these findings may improve
and guide future treatment strategies.
Abstract: The fast growing accessibility and capability of emerging technologies have fashioned enormous possibilities of designing, developing and implementing innovative teaching methods in the classroom. The global technological scenario has paved the way to new pedagogies in teaching-learning process focusing on technology based learning environment and its impact on student achievement. The present experimental study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of technology based learning environment on student achievement in English as a foreign language. The sample of the study was 90 students of 10th grade of a public school located in Islamabad. A pretest- posttest equivalent group design was used to compare the achievement of the two groups. A Pretest and A posttest containing 50 items each from English textbook were developed and administered. The collected data were statistically analyzed. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of Experimental group and the Control group. The performance of Experimental group was better on posttest scores that indicted that teaching through technology based learning environment enhanced the achievement level of the students. On the basis of the results, it was recommended that teaching and learning through information and communication technologies may be adopted to enhance the language learning capability of the students.
Abstract: This research was conducted in the Pua Watershed whereas located in the Upper Nan River Basin in Nan province, Thailand. Nan River basin originated in Nan province that comprises of many tributary streams to produce as inflow to the Sirikit dam provided huge reservoir with the storage capacity of 9510 million cubic meters. The common problems of most watersheds were found i.e. shortage water supply for consumption and agriculture utilizations, deteriorate of water quality, flood and landslide including debris flow, and unstable of riverbank. The Pua Watershed is one of several small river basins that flow through the Nan River Basin. The watershed includes 404 km2 representing the Pua District, the Upper Nan Basin, or the whole Nan River Basin, of 61.5%, 18.2% or 1.2% respectively. The Pua River is a main stream producing all year streamflow supplying the Pua District and an inflow to the Upper Nan Basin. Its length approximately 56.3 kilometers with an average slope of the channel by 1.9% measured. A diversion weir namely Pua weir bound the plain and mountainous areas with a very steep slope of the riverbed to 2.9% and drainage area of 149 km2 as upstream watershed while a mild slope of the riverbed to 0.2% found in a river reach of 20.3 km downstream of this weir, which considered as a gauged basin. However, the major branch streams of the Pua River are ungauged catchments namely: Nam Kwang and Nam Koon with the drainage area of 86 and 35 km2 respectively. These upstream watersheds produce runoff through the 3-streams downstream of Pua weir, Jao weir, and Kang weir, with an averaged annual runoff of 578 million cubic meters. They were analyzed using both statistical data at Pua weir and simulated data resulted from the hydrologic modeling system (HEC–HMS) which applied for the remaining ungauged basins. Since the Kwang and Koon catchments were limited with lack of hydrological data included streamflow and rainfall. Therefore, the mathematical modeling: HEC-HMS with the Snyder-s hydrograph synthesized and transposed methods were applied for those areas using calibrated hydrological parameters from the upstream of Pua weir with continuously daily recorded of streamflow and rainfall data during 2008-2011. The results showed that the simulated daily streamflow and sum up as annual runoff in 2008, 2010, and 2011 were fitted with observed annual runoff at Pua weir using the simple linear regression with the satisfied correlation R2 of 0.64, 062, and 0.59, respectively. The sensitivity of simulation results were come from difficulty using calibrated parameters i.e. lag-time, coefficient of peak flow, initial losses, uniform loss rates, and missing some daily observed data. These calibrated parameters were used to apply for the other 2-ungauged catchments and downstream catchments simulated.
Abstract: The self-organizing map (SOM) model is a well-known neural network model with wide spread of applications. The main characteristics of SOM are two-fold, namely dimension reduction and topology preservation. Using SOM, a high-dimensional data space will be mapped to some low-dimensional space. Meanwhile, the topological relations among data will be preserved. With such characteristics, the SOM was usually applied on data clustering and visualization tasks. However, the SOM has main disadvantage of the need to know the number and structure of neurons prior to training, which are difficult to be determined. Several schemes have been proposed to tackle such deficiency. Examples are growing/expandable SOM, hierarchical SOM, and growing hierarchical SOM. These schemes could dynamically expand the map, even generate hierarchical maps, during training. Encouraging results were reported. Basically, these schemes adapt the size and structure of the map according to the distribution of training data. That is, they are data-driven or dataoriented SOM schemes. In this work, a topic-oriented SOM scheme which is suitable for document clustering and organization will be developed. The proposed SOM will automatically adapt the number as well as the structure of the map according to identified topics. Unlike other data-oriented SOMs, our approach expands the map and generates the hierarchies both according to the topics and their characteristics of the neurons. The preliminary experiments give promising result and demonstrate the plausibility of the method.
Abstract: This paper proposes the use of Bayesian belief
networks (BBN) as a higher level of health risk assessment for a
dumping site of lead battery smelter factory. On the basis of the
epidemiological studies, the actual hospital attendance records and
expert experiences, the BBN is capable of capturing the probabilistic
relationships between the hazardous substances and their adverse
health effects, and accordingly inferring the morbidity of the adverse
health effects. The provision of the morbidity rates of the related
diseases is more informative and can alleviate the drawbacks of
conventional methods.
Abstract: The competitive learning is an adaptive process in
which the neurons in a neural network gradually become sensitive to
different input pattern clusters. The basic idea behind the Kohonen-s
Self-Organizing Feature Maps (SOFM) is competitive learning.
SOFM can generate mappings from high-dimensional signal spaces
to lower dimensional topological structures. The main features of this
kind of mappings are topology preserving, feature mappings and
probability distribution approximation of input patterns. To overcome
some limitations of SOFM, e.g., a fixed number of neural units and a
topology of fixed dimensionality, Growing Self-Organizing Neural
Network (GSONN) can be used. GSONN can change its topological
structure during learning. It grows by learning and shrinks by
forgetting. To speed up the training and convergence, a new variant
of GSONN, twin growing cell structures (TGCS) is presented here.
This paper first gives an introduction to competitive learning, SOFM
and its variants. Then, we discuss some GSONN with fixed
dimensionality, which include growing cell structures, its variants
and the author-s model: TGCS. It is ended with some testing results
comparison and conclusions.
Abstract: This paper applies an anthropological approach to illuminate the dynamic cultural geography of Kazakhstani Korean ethnicity focusing on its turning point, the historic “Seoul Olympic Games in 1988." The Korean ethnic group was easily considered as a harmonious and homogeneous community by outsiders, but there existed deep-seated conflicts and hostilities within the ethnic group. The majority-s oppositional dichotomy of superiority and inferiority toward the minority was continuously reorganized and reinforced by difference in experience, memory and sentiment. However, such a chronic exclusive boundary was collapsed following the patriotism ignited by the Olympics held in their mother country. This paper explores the fluidity of subject by formation of the boundary in which constructed cultural differences are continuously essentialized and reproduced, and by dissolution of cultural barrier in certain contexts.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is: a) to investigate how
the HR practices influence psychological contracts, b) to examine the
influence of psychological contracts to individual behavior and to
contribute individually, c) to study the psychological contact through
leadership. This research using mixed methods, qualitative and
quantitative research methods were utilized to gather the data
collected using a qualitative method by the HR Manager who is in
charge of the trainings from the staffs and quantitative method
(survey) by using questionnaire was utilized to draw upon and to
elaborate on the recurring themes present during the interviews. The
survey was done to 400 staffs of the company. The study found that
leadership styles supporting the firm’s HR strategy is the key in
making psychological contracts that benefit both the firm and its
members.
Abstract: The mechanical and tribological properties in WC-Co
coatings are strongly affected by hardness and elasticity
specifications. The results revealed the effect of spraying distance on
microhardness and elasticity modulus of coatings. The metallurgical
studies have been made on coated samples using optical microscopy,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
Abstract: Biomimicry has many potential benefits as many
technologies found in nature are superior to their man-made
counterparts. As technological device components approach the micro
and nanoscale, surface properties such as surface adhesion and friction
may need to be taken into account. Lowering surface adhesion by
manipulating chemistry alone might no longer be sufficient for such
components and thus physical manipulation may be required.
Adhesion reduction is only one of the many surface functions
displayed by micro/nano-structured cuticles of insects. Here, we
present a mini review of our understanding of insect cuticle structures
and the relationship between the structure dimensions and the
corresponding functional mechanisms. It may be possible to introduce
additional properties to material surfaces (indeed multi-functional
properties) based on the design of natural surfaces.
Abstract: Information technology managers nowadays are
facing with tremendous pressure to plan, implement, and adopt new
technology solution due to the rapidity of technology changes.
Resulted from a lack of study that have been done in this topic, the
aim of this paper is to provide a comparison review on current tools
that are currently being used in order to respond to technological
changes. The study is based on extensive literature review of
published works with majority of them are ranging from 2000 to the
first part of 2011. The works were gathered from journals, books,
and other information sources available on the Web. Findings show
that, each tools has different focus and none of the tools are
providing a framework in holistic view, which should include
technical, people, process, and business environment aspect. Hence,
this result provides potential information about current available
tools that IT managers could use to manage changes in technology.
Further, the result reveals a research gap in the area where the
industries a short of such framework.
Abstract: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of
texturizers on the rheological properties of the apple mass and
desserts made from various raw materials. The apple varieties -
‘Antonovka’, ‘Baltais Dzidrais’, and ‘Zarja Alatau’ harvested in
Latvia, were used for the experiment. The apples were processed in a
blender unpeeled for obtaining a homogenous mass. The apple mass
was analyzed fresh and after storage at –18ºC. Both fresh and thawed
apple mass samples with added gelatin, xantan gum, and sodium
carboxymethylcellulose were whisked obtaining dessert. Pectin, pH
and soluble dry matter of the product were determined. Apparent
viscosity was measured using a rotational viscometer DV–III Ultra.
Pectin content in frozen apple mass decreased significantly (p