Abstract: Geometric design is an important part of planning
process design for physical highway to fill up basic function of roads,
to give good traffic service. It is found that most of the road safety
problems occur at the horizontal curves and complex-compound
curves. In this paper, review on Sagarinn-Myinsain Portion of Nay
Pyi Taw - Mandalay highway has been conducted in aspect of
geometric design induced road safety condition. Horizontal
alignment of geometric features and curve details are reviewed based
on (AASHTO) standard and revised by Autodesk Land Desktop
Software. Moreover, 85th Percentile Operation Speeds (V85) with
driver confidence on horizontal curves is evaluated in order to obtain
the range of highway safety factor (FS). The length of the selected
highway portion is 13.65 miles and 8 lanes. The results of this study
can be used to investigate the possible hazardous locations in
advance and to revise how design radius and super elevation should
be for better road safety performance for the selected portion.
Moreover, the relationship between highway safety and highway
geometry characteristics can also be known.
Abstract: Image interpolation is a common problem in imaging applications. However, most interpolation algorithms in existence suffer visually to some extent the effects of blurred edges and jagged artifacts in the image. This paper presents an adaptive feature preserving bidirectional flow process, where an inverse diffusion is performed to enhance edges along the normal directions to the isophote lines (edges), while a normal diffusion is done to remove artifacts (''jaggies'') along the tangent directions. In order to preserve image features such as edges, angles and textures, the nonlinear diffusion coefficients are locally adjusted according to the first and second order directional derivatives of the image. Experimental results on synthetic images and nature images demonstrate that our interpolation algorithm substantially improves the subjective quality of the interpolated images over conventional interpolations.
Abstract: The performance of sensor-less controlled induction
motor drive depends on the accuracy of the estimated speed.
Conventional estimation techniques being mathematically complex
require more execution time resulting in poor dynamic response. The
nonlinear mapping capability and powerful learning algorithms of
neural network provides a promising alternative for on-line speed
estimation. The on-line speed estimator requires the NN model to be
accurate, simpler in design, structurally compact and computationally
less complex to ensure faster execution and effective control in real
time implementation. This in turn to a large extent depends on the
type of Neural Architecture. This paper investigates three types of
neural architectures for on-line speed estimation and their
performance is compared in terms of accuracy, structural
compactness, computational complexity and execution time. The
suitable neural architecture for on-line speed estimation is identified
and the promising results obtained are presented.
Abstract: Investigation of soil properties like Cation Exchange
Capacity (CEC) plays important roles in study of environmental
reaserches as the spatial and temporal variability of this property
have been led to development of indirect methods in estimation of
this soil characteristic. Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) provide an
alternative by estimating soil parameters from more readily available
soil data. 70 soil samples were collected from different horizons of
15 soil profiles located in the Ziaran region, Qazvin province, Iran.
Then, multivariate regression and neural network model (feedforward
back propagation network) were employed to develop a
pedotransfer function for predicting soil parameter using easily
measurable characteristics of clay and organic carbon. The
performance of the multivariate regression and neural network model
was evaluated using a test data set. In order to evaluate the models,
root mean square error (RMSE) was used. The value of RMSE and
R2 derived by ANN model for CEC were 0.47 and 0.94 respectively,
while these parameters for multivariate regression model were 0.65
and 0.88 respectively. Results showed that artificial neural network
with seven neurons in hidden layer had better performance in
predicting soil cation exchange capacity than multivariate regression.
Abstract: This research was conducted in the Lower Ping River
Basin downstream of the Bhumibol Dam and the Lower Wang River
Basin in Tak Province, Thailand. Most of the tributary streams of the
Ping can be considered as ungauged catchments. There are 10-
pumping station installation at both river banks of the Ping in Tak
Province. Recently, most of them could not fully operate due to the
water amount in the river below the level that would be pumping,
even though included water from the natural river and released flow
from the Bhumibol Dam. The aim of this research was to increase the
performance of those pumping stations using weir projects in the
Ping. Therefore, the river analysis system model (HEC-RAS) was
applied to study the hydraulic behavior of water surface profiles in
the Ping River with both cases of existing conditions and proposed
weirs during the violent flood in 2011 and severe drought in 2013.
Moreover, the hydrologic modeling system (HMS) was applied to
simulate lateral streamflow hydrograph from ungauged catchments of
the Ping. The results of HEC-RAS model calibration with existing
conditions in 2011 showed best trial roughness coefficient for the
main channel of 0.026. The simulated water surface levels fitted to
observation data with R2 of 0.8175. The model was applied to 3
proposed cascade weirs with 2.35 m in height and found surcharge
water level only 0.27 m higher than the existing condition in 2011.
Moreover, those weirs could maintain river water levels and increase
of those pumping performances during less river flow in 2013.
Abstract: This paper explores the importance of privacy in a
contemporary online world. Crucial to the discussion is the idea of
the Lacanian postmodern fragmented self and the problem of how to
ensure that we have room to fully explore various aspects of our
personalities in an environment which is–or at least feels--safe and
free from observation by others. The paper begins with an
exploration of the idea of the self with particular regard to the ways
in which contemporary life and technology seems to have multiplied
the various faces or masks which we present in different contexts. A
brief history of privacy and surveillance follows. Finally, the paper
ends with an affirmation of the importance of private space as an
essential component of our spiritual and emotional well-being in
today-s wired world.
Abstract: Fluid flow in cylinders of elliptic cross-section was investigated. Fluid used is Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). LPG found in Nigeria contains majorly butane with percentages of propane. Commercial available code FLUENT which uses finite volume method was used to solve fluid flow governing equations. There has been little attention paid to fluid flow in cylindrical elliptic pipes. The present work aims to predict the LPG gas flow in cylindrical pipes of elliptic cross-section. Results of flow parameters of velocity and pressure distributions are presented. Results show that the pressure drop in elliptic pipes is higher than circular pipe of the same cross-sectional area. This is an important result as the pressure drop is related to the pump power needed to drive the flow. Results show that the velocity increases towards centre of the pipe as the flow moves downstream, and also increases towards the outlet of the pipe.
Abstract: Creation of information society, or in other words, a
society based on knowledge, has wide consequences, both on
individual and complete society, and in general – on a economy of
one country. Development and implementation of ICT represents a
stimulant for economic growth. On individual level, knowledge,
skills and information gathered using ICT, are expanding individual
possibilities of persons, enabling them to have access to timely
sensitive information, such as market prices or investment
conditions, possibilities to access Government-s or private
development funds, etc. By doing so, productivity is increased both
on individual and national level and therefore social wellbeing in
general. In one word, creation of information society - a knowledge
society is happening.
This work will describe challenges and strategies that will follow
the development as well as obstacles in creating information society
– knowledge society in Montenegro.
Abstract: Policy management in organizations became rising issue in the last decade. It’s because of today’s regulatory requirements in the organizations. To manage policies in large organizations is an imperative work. However, major challenges facing organizations in the last decade is managing all the policies in the organization and making them an active documents rather than simple (inactive) documents stored in computer hard drive or on a shelf. Because of this challenge, organizations need policy management program. This policy management program can be either manual or automated. This paper presents suggestions towards managing policies in organizations. As well as possible policy management solution or program to be utilized, manual or automated. The research first examines the models and frameworks used for managing policies from various perspectives in the literature of the research area/domain. At the end of this paper, a policy management framework is proposed for managing enterprise policies effectively and in a simplified manner.
Abstract: In order to achieve competitive advantage and better
performance of firm, supply chain management (SCM) strategy
should support and drive forward business strategy. It means that
supply chain should be aligned with business strategy, at the same
time supply chain (SC) managers need to use appropriate information
system (IS) solution to support their strategy, which would lead to
stay competitive. There are different kinds of IS strategies which
enable managers to meet the SC requirement by selecting the best IS
strategy. Therefore, it is important to align IS strategies and practices
with SC strategies and practices, which could help us to plan for an
IS application that supports and enhances a SCMS. In this study,
aligning IS with SC in strategy level is considered. The main aim of
this paper is to align the various IS strategies with SCM strategies
and demonstrate their impact on SC and firm performance.
Abstract: Due to its capability to resist jamming signals, chirp
spread spectrum (CSS) technique has attracted much attention in
the area of wireless communications. However, there has been little
rigorous analysis for the performance of the CSS communication
system in jamming environments. In this paper, we present analytic
results on the performance of a CSS system by deriving symbol
error rate (SER) expressions for a CSS M-ary phase shift keying
(MPSK) system in the presence of broadband and tone jamming
signals, respectively. The numerical results show that the empirical
SER closely agrees with the analytic result.
Abstract: Drought is one of the most damaging climate-related
hazards, it is generally considered as a prolonged absence of
precipitation. This normal and recurring climate phenomenon had
plagued civilization throughout history because of the negative
impacts on economical, environmental and social sectors. Drought
characteristics are thus recognized as important factors in water
resources planning and management. The purpose of this study is to
detect the changes in drought frequency, persistence and severity
in the Ruhr river basin. The frequency of drought events was
calculated using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Used
data are daily precipitation records from seven meteorological
stations covering the period 1961-2007. The main benefit of the
application of this index is its versatility, only rainfall data is required
to deliver five major dimensions of a drought : duration, intensity,
severity, magnitude, and frequency. Furthermore, drought can be
calculated in different time steps. In this study SPI was calculated for
1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 months. Several drought events were detected
in the covered period, these events contain mild, moderate and severe
droughts. Also positive and negative trends in the SPI values were
observed.
Abstract: We develop a new interface for Bus-Net which is
optimized for a smartphone. We are continuing to develop the shortest
path planning system of public transportation called "Bus-Net" in
Tottori prefecture as web application to improve the usability of
public transportation. Recent trend of computing platform, however
has shifted to an advanced mobile device called a smartphone such as
iPhone and Android in Japan. A smartphone has different characters
with existing feature phone in terms of OS, large touche panel, and
several other features. We derive a guideline to design the new interface
for a smartphone to full use of the functionality. The guideline is
about simplicity of user-s operation, location awareness and usability.
We developed the new interface for “Bus-Net" on iPhone referring
to the guideline. Due to the evaluation, the application interface we
developed is better than the existing web-based interface in terms of
the usability.
Abstract: Performance of vehicle depends on driving patterns
and vehicle drive train configuration. Driving patterns depends on
traffic condition, road condition and driver behavior. HEV design is
carried out under certain constrain like vehicle operating range,
acceleration, decelerations, maximum speed and road grades which
are directly related to the driving patterns. Therefore the detailed
study on HEV performance over a different drive cycle is required
for selection and sizing of HEV components. A simple hardware is
design to measured velocity v/s time profile of the vehicle by
operating vehicle on Indian roads under real traffic conditions. To
size the HEV components, a detailed dynamic model of the vehicle is
developed considering the effect of inertia of rotating components
like wheels, drive chain, engine and electric motor. Using vehicle
model and different Indian drive cycles data, total tractive power
demanded by vehicle and power supplied by individual components
has been calculated.Using above information selection and estimation
of component sizing for HEV is carried out so that HEV performs
efficiently under hostile driving condition. Complete analysis is
carried out in LABVIEW.
Abstract: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the pathogenesis of the endemic Burkitt-s lymphoma (BL). The EBVpositive BL-derived cell lines initially maintain the original tumor phenotype of EBV infection (latency I, LatI), but most of them drift toward a lymphoblast phenotype of EBV latency III (LatIII) during in vitro culturing. The aim of the present work was to characterize the B-cell subsets in EBV-positive BL cell lines and to verify whether a particular cell subset correlates with the type of EBV infection. The phenotype analysis of two EBV-negative and eleven EBV-positive (three of LatI and eight of LatIII) BL cell lines was performed by polychromatic flow cytomery, based on expression pattern of CD19, CD10, CD38, CD27, and CD5 markers. Two cell subsets, CD19+CD10+ and CD19+CD10-, were defined in LatIII BL cell lines. In both subsets, the CD27 and CD5 cell surface expression was detected in a proportion of the cells.
Abstract: This article simulates the wind generator set which has
two fault bearing collar rail destruction and the gear box oil leak fault.
The electric current signal which produced by the generator, We use
Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) as well as Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT) obtains the frequency range-s signal figure and
characteristic value. The last step is use a kind of Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) classifies which determination fault signal's type and
reason. The ANN purpose of the automatic identification wind
generator set fault..
Abstract: The increments of aromatic structures are widely used to monitor the degree of humification. Compost derived from mix manures mixed with agricultural wastes was studied. The compost collected at day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49, 77, 91, 105, and 119 was divided into 3 stages, initial stage at day 0, thermophilic stage during day 1-48, and mature stage during day 49-119. The change of highest absorptions at wavelength range between 210-235 nm during day 0- 49 implied that small molecules such as nitrates and carboxylic occurred faster than the aromatic molecules that were found at wavelength around 280 nm. The ratio of electron-transfer band at wavelength 253 nm by the benzonoid band at wavelength 230 nm (E253/E230) also gradually increased during the fermenting period indicating the presence of O-containing functional groups. This was in agreement with the shift change from aliphatic to aromatic structures as shown by the relationship with C/N and H/C ratios (r = - 0.631 and -0.717, p< 0.05) since both were decreasing. Although the amounts of humic acid (HA) were not different much during the humification process, the UV spectral deconvolution showed better qualitative characteristics to help in determining the compost quality. From this study, the compost should be used at day 49 and should not be kept longer than 3 months otherwise the quality of HA would decline regardless of the amounts of HA that might be rising. This implied that other processes, such as mineralization had an influence on the humification process changing HA-s structure and its qualities.
Abstract: It is important to retain customer satisfaction in
information technology services. When a service failure occurs,
companies need to take service recovery action to recover their
customer satisfaction. Although companies cannot avoid all problems
and complaints, they should try to make up. Therefore, service failure
and service recovery have become an important and challenging issue
for companies. In this paper, the literature and the problems in the
information technology services were reviewed. An integrated model
of profit driven for the service failure and service recovery was
established in view of the benefit of customer and enterprise.
Moreover, the interaction between service failure and service recovery
strategy was studied, the result of which verified the matching
principles of the service recovery strategy and the type of service
failure. In addition, the relationship between the cost of service
recovery and customer-s cumulative value of service after recovery
was analyzed with the model. The result attributes to managers in
deciding on appropriate resource allocations for recovery strategies.
Abstract: Riprap is mostly used to prevent erosion by flows
down the steep slopes in river engineering. A total of 53 stability tests
performed on angular riprap with a median stone size ranging from
15 to 278 mm and slope ranging from 1 to 40% are used in this study.
The existing equations for the prediction of medium size of angular
stones are checked for their accuracy using the available data.
Predictions of median size using these equations are not satisfactory
and results show deviation by more than ±20% from the observed
values. A multivariable power regression analysis is performed to
propose a new equation relating the median size with unit discharge,
bed slope, riprap thickness and coefficient of uniformity. The
proposed relationship satisfactorily predicts the median angular stone
size with ±20% error. Further, the required size of the rounded stone
is more than the angular stone for the same unit discharge and the
ratio increases with unit discharge and also with embankment slope
of the riprap.
Abstract: An optimal mean-square fusion formulas with scalar
and matrix weights are presented. The relationship between them is
established. The fusion formulas are compared on the continuous-time
filtering problem. The basic differential equation for cross-covariance
of the local errors being the key quantity for distributed fusion is
derived. It is shown that the fusion filters are effective for multi-sensor
systems containing different types of sensors. An example
demonstrating the reasonable good accuracy of the proposed filters is
given.