Abstract: A macroscopic constitutive equation is developed for a high-density cellulose insulation material with emphasis on the outof- plane stress relaxation behavior. A hypothesis is proposed where the total stress is additively composed by an out-of-plane visco-elastic isotropic contribution and an in-plane elastic orthotropic response. The theory is validated against out-of-plane stress relaxation, compressive experiments and in-plane tensile hysteresis, respectively. For large scale finite element simulations, the presented model provides a balance between simplicity and capturing the materials constitutive behaviour.
Abstract: The effectiveness of consuming a nutrient fortified oat drink on iron, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C status was assessed among a cohort of school-aged Filipino children. Ultimate study implementation permitted only a within-subject comparison of change in nutritional status after four months of consuming a nutrient fortified oat drink. Thirty-eight anemic children (5-8 years) consumed an oat drink fortified with iron as NaFeEDTA, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C for 120 days. Height, weight, serum nutrient levels, anemia status and dietary intake were assessed pre and post intervention. Thirty-four anemic children completed the intervention. After 4 months of intervention, prevalence of anemia decreased by 68% and significant improvements in iron and vitamin A status were observed. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the fortified oat drink in alleviating anemia in young children and highlight the value of fortification programs
Abstract: The paper presents a multimodal approach for biometric authentication, based on multiple classifiers. The proposed solution uses a post-classification biometric fusion method in which the biometric data classifiers outputs are combined in order to improve the overall biometric system performance by decreasing the classification error rates. The paper shows also the biometric recognition task improvement by means of a carefully feature selection, as much as not all of the feature vectors components support the accuracy improvement.
Abstract: Needs of an efficient information retrieval in recent
years in increased more then ever because of the frequent use of
digital information in our life. We see a lot of work in the area of
textual information but in multimedia information, we cannot find
much progress. In text based information, new technology of data
mining and data marts are now in working that were started from the
basic concept of database some where in 1960.
In image search and especially in image identification,
computerized system at very initial stages. Even in the area of image
search we cannot see much progress as in the case of text based
search techniques. One main reason for this is the wide spread roots
of image search where many area like artificial intelligence,
statistics, image processing, pattern recognition play their role. Even
human psychology and perception and cultural diversity also have
their share for the design of a good and efficient image recognition
and retrieval system.
A new object based search technique is presented in this paper
where object in the image are identified on the basis of their
geometrical shapes and other features like color and texture where
object-co-relation augments this search process.
To be more focused on objects identification, simple images are
selected for the work to reduce the role of segmentation in overall
process however same technique can also be applied for other
images.
Abstract: Because of its global reach, reduction of time
restraints, and ability to reduce costs and increase sales, use of the
Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and related technologies
can be a competitive tool in the arsenal of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Countries the world over are interested in the
successful adoption of the Internet by SMEs. Because a vast
majority of jobs come from that sector, greater financial success of
SMEs translates into greater job growth and, subsequently, higher
tax revenue to the government. This research investigated the level
of Internet usage for business solutions by small and medium
enterprises in Jordan. Through the survey of a random sample of
100 firms with less than 500 employees and from data obtained
from this survey that formed the basis for our study, we found that
a majority of respondents use the Internet in business activities ,
the adoption of the Internet as a business tool is limited to a
brochure where Web site which primarily provides one way. As
such, there wasn't interactive information about the company and
its products and services.
Abstract: Concatenative speech synthesis is a method that can
make speech sound which has naturalness and high-individuality of a
speaker by introducing a large speech corpus. Based on this method, in
this paper, we propose a voice conversion method whose conversion
speech has high-individuality and naturalness. The authors also have
two subjective evaluation experiments for evaluating individuality and
sound quality of conversion speech. From the results, following three
facts have be confirmed: (a) the proposal method can convert the
individuality of speakers well, (b) employing the framework of unit
selection (especially join cost) of concatenative speech synthesis into
conventional voice conversion improves the sound quality of
conversion speech, and (c) the proposal method is robust against the
difference of genders between a source speaker and a target speaker.
Abstract: This paper describes the crashworthiness assessment and improvement of tlting train made of sandwich composites. The crashworhiness assessment of tilting train was conducted according to four collision scenarios of the Korean railway safety law. Collision analysis was carried out using explicit finite element analysis code LS-DYNA 3D. The finite element model consists of 3-D finite element model and 1-D equivalent model to save the finite element modeling and calculation time. It found that the crashworthiness analysis results were satisfied with the performance requirements except the crash scenario-2. In order to meet the crashworthiness requirements for crash scenario-2, the stiffness reinforcement for the laminate composite cover and metal frames of cabmask structure were proposed. Consequentially, it has satisfied the requirement for crash scenario-2.
Abstract: In a competitive energy market, system reliability
should be maintained at all times. Power system operation being of
online in nature, the energy balance requirements must be satisfied to
ensure reliable operation the system. To achieve this, information
regarding the expected status of the system, the scheduled
transactions and the relevant inputs necessary to make either a
transaction contract or a transmission contract operational, have to be
made available in real time. The real time procedure proposed,
facilitates this. This paper proposes a quadratic curve learning
procedure, which enables a generator-s contribution to the retailer
demand, power loss of transaction in a line at the retail end and its
associated losses for an oncoming operating scenario to be predicted.
Matlab program was used to test in on a 24-bus IEE Reliability Test
System, and the results are found to be acceptable.
Abstract: A design flow of multi-standard down-conversion
CMOS mixers for three modern standards: Global System Mobile,
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone and Universal Mobile
Telecommunication Systems is presented. Three active mixer-s
structures are studied. The first is based on the Gilbert cell which
gives a tolerable noise figure and linearity with a low conversion
gain. The second and third structures use the current bleeding and
charge injection techniques in order to increase the conversion gain.
An improvement of about 2 dB of the conversion gain is achieved
without a considerable degradation of the other characteristics. The
models used for noise figure, conversion gain and IIP3 used are
studied. This study describes the nature of trade-offs inherent in such
structures and gives insights that help in identifying which structure
is better for given conditions.
Abstract: Analytical investigation of the sedimentation
processes in the river engineering and hydraulic structures is of vital
importance as this can affect water supply for the cultivating lands in
the command area. The reason being that gradual sediment formation
behind the reservoir can reduce the nominal capacity of these dams.
The aim of the present paper is to analytically investigate
sedimentation process along the river course and behind the storage
reservoirs in general and the Eastern Intake of the Dez Diversion weir
in particular using the SHARC software. Results of the model
indicated the water level at 115.97m whereas the real time
measurement from the river cross section was 115.98 m which
suggests a significantly close relation between them. The average
transported sediment load in the river was measured at 0.25mm ,
from which it can be concluded that nearly 100% of the suspended
loads in river are moving which suggests no sediment settling but
indicates that almost all sediment loads enters into the intake. It was
further showed the average sediment diameter entering the intake to
be 0.293 mm which in turn suggests that about 85% of suspended
sediments in the river entre the intake. Comparison of the results
from the SHARC model with those obtained form the SSIIM
software suggests quite similar outputs but distinguishing the
SHARC model as more appropriate for the analysis of simpler
problems than other model.
Abstract: Generation system reliability assessment is an
important task which can be performed using deterministic or
probabilistic techniques. The probabilistic approaches have
significant advantages over the deterministic methods. However,
more complicated modeling is required by the probabilistic
approaches. Power generation model is a basic requirement for this
assessment. One form of the generation models is the well known
capacity outage probability table (COPT). Different analytical
techniques have been used to construct the COPT. These approaches
require considerable mathematical modeling of the generating units.
The unit-s models are combined to build the COPT which will add
more burdens on the process of creating the COPT. Decimal to
Binary Conversion (DBC) technique is widely and commonly applied
in electronic systems and computing This paper proposes a novel
utilization of the DBC to create the COPT without engaging in
analytical modeling or time consuming simulations. The simple
binary representation , “0 " and “1 " is used to model the states o f
generating units. The proposed technique is proven to be an effective
approach to build the generation model.
Abstract: Post-anthesis drought stress is the most important
problem affecting wheat production in dryland fields, specially in
Mediterranean regions. The main objective of this research was to
evaluate drought tolerance indices in dryland wheat genotypes under
post-anthesis drought stress. The research was including two different
experiments. In each experiment, twenty dryland bread wheat
genotypes were sown in a randomized complete blocks design
(RCBD) with three replications. One of experiments belonged to
rain-fed conditions (post-anthesis drought stress) and other
experiment was under non-stress conditions (with supplemental
irrigation). Different drought tolerance indices include Stress
Tolerance (Tol), Mean Productivity (MP), Geometric Mean
Productivity (GMP), Stress Susceptibility Index (SSI), Stress
Tolerance Index (STI), Harmonic Mean (HAM), Yield Index (YI)
and Yield Stability Index (YSI) were evaluate based on grain yield
under rain-fed (Ys) and supplemental irrigation (Yp) environments.
G10 and G12 were the most tolerant genotypes based on TOL and
SSI. But, based on MP, GMP, STI, HAM and YI indices, G1 and G2
were selected. STI, GMP and MP indices had high correlation with
grain yield under rain-fed and supplementary irrigation conditions
and were recognized as appropriate indices to identify genotypes with
high grain yield and low sensitivity to drought stress environments.
Abstract: For cognitive radio networks, there is a major
spectrum sensing problem, i.e. dynamic spectrum management. It is
an important issue to sense and identify the spectrum holes in
cognitive radio networks. The first-order derivative scheme is usually
used to detect the edge of the spectrum. In this paper, a novel
spectrum sensing technique for cognitive radio is presented. The
proposed algorithm offers efficient edge detection. Then, simulation
results show the performance of the first-order derivative scheme and
the proposed scheme and depict that the proposed scheme obtains
better performance than does the first-order derivative scheme.
Abstract: The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) is a virtual research environment that provides researchers with an e-research infrastructure to congregate significant tropical data sets for data reuse, integration, searching, and correlation. However, researchers often require data and metadata synthesis across disciplines for crossdomain analyses and knowledge discovery. A triplestore offers a semantic layer to achieve a more intelligent method of search to support the synthesis requirements by automating latent linkages in the data and metadata. Presently, the benchmarks to aid the decision of which triplestore is best suited for use in an application environment like the TDH are limited to performance. This paper describes a new evaluation tool developed to analyze both features and performance. The tool comprises a weighted decision matrix to evaluate the interoperability, functionality, performance, and support availability of a range of integrated and native triplestores to rank them according to requirements of the TDH.
Abstract: Raw wood vinegar was purified by both standing and
filtering methods. Toxicity tests were conducted under laboratory
conditions by the topical application method (contact poison) and
feeding method (stomach poison). Larvicidal activities of wood
vinegar at four different concentrations (10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 %)
were studied against second instar larvae of housefly (Musca
domestica L.). Four replicates were maintained for all treatments and
controls. Larval mortality was recorded up to 96 hours and compared
with the larval survivability by two methods of larvicidal bioassay.
Percent pupation and percent adult emergence were observed in
treated M. domestica. The study revealed that the feeding method
gave higher efficiency compared with the topical application method.
Larval mortality increased with increasing concentration of wood
vinegar and the duration of exposure. No mortality was found in
treated M. domestica larvae at minimum 10% concentration of wood
vinegar through the experiments. The treated larvae were maintained
up to pupa and adult emergence. At 30% maximum concentration
larval duration was extended to 11 days in M. domestica for topical
application method and 9 days for feeding method. Similarly the
pupal durations were also increased with increased concentrations
(16 and 24 days for topical application method and feeding method
respectively at 30% concentration) of the treatments.
Abstract: Thrombosis can be life threatening, necessitating therefore its instant treatment. Hydergine, a nootropic agent is used as a cognition enhancer in stroke patients but relatively little is known about its anti-thrombolytic effect. To investigate this aspect, in vivo and ex vivo experiments were designed and conducted. Three groups of rats were injected 1.5mg, 3.0mg and 4.5mg hydergine intraperitonealy with and without prior exposure to fresh plasma. Positive and negative controls were run in parallel. Animals were sacrificed after 1.5hrs and BT, CT, PT, INR, APTT, plasma calcium levels were estimated. For ex vivo analyses, each 1ml blood aspirated was exposed to 0.1mg, 0.2mg, 0.3mg dose of hydergine with parallel controls. Parameters analyzed were as above. Statistical analysis was through one-way ANOVA. Dunken-s and Tukey-s tests provided intra-group variance. BT, CT, PT, INR and APTT increased while calcium levels dropped significantly (P
Abstract: Optimal routing in communication networks is a
major issue to be solved. In this paper, the application of Tabu Search
(TS) in the optimum routing problem where the aim is to minimize
the computational time and improvement of quality of the solution in
the communication have been addressed. The goal is to minimize the
average delays in the communication. The effectiveness of Tabu
Search method is shown by the results of simulation to solve the
shortest path problem. Through this approach computational cost can
be reduced.
Abstract: This paper presents the climatic range calculations for
comfort evaporative cooling for Tehran. In this study the minimum
climatic conditions required to achieve an appropriate comfort zone
will be presented.
Physiologically uncomfortable conditions in arid climates are
mainly caused by the extreme heat and dryness. Direct evaporative
cooling adds moisture to the air stream until the air stream is close to
saturation. The dry bulb temperature is reduced, while the wet bulb
temperature stays the same. Evaporative cooling is economical,
effective, environmentally friendly, and healthy.
Comfort cooling by direct evaporative cooling (passive or fan
forced) in the 35. 41 N (such as Tehran) latitude requires design
wet-bulb temperature not over 25.4 C. Evaporative cooling outside
this limit cannot achieve the required 26.7 ET, and is recommended
for relief cooling only.
Abstract: The paper presents the Romanian realities and perspectives from the point of view of reaching the sustainable development model in the context of the recent accession to the European Union, based on the analysis of the indicators listed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. The analysis of the economic-social potential for sustainable development and of the environment aspects show that the objectives stipulated in the renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy of 2006 can be reached, but an extra effort must be put-in in order to overcome the existing substantial gaps in several areas in relation to the developed countries of the EU. The paper-s conclusions show that even if sustainable development is not an easy target to reach in Romania, there are resources and a growing potential, which can lead to sustainable development if used rationally.
Abstract: In this paper, Fabless Prototyping Methodology is
introduced for the design and analysis of MEMS devices.
Conventionally Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is performed before
system level simulation. In our proposed methodology, system level
simulation is performed earlier than FEA as it is computationally less
extensive and low cost. System level simulations are based on
equivalent behavioral models of MEMS device. Electrostatic
actuation based MEMS Microgripper is chosen as case study to
implement this methodology. This paper addresses the behavioral
model development and simulation of actuator part of an
electrostatically actuated Microgripper. Simulation results show that
the actuator part of Microgripper works efficiently for a voltage range
of 0-45V with the corresponding jaw displacement of 0-4.5425μm.
With some minor changes in design, this range can be enhanced to
15μm at 85V.