Abstract: This paper presents the result of three senior capstone
projects at the Department of Computer Engineering, Prince of
Songkla University, Thailand. These projects focus on developing an
examination management system for the Faculty of Engineering in
order to manage the examination both the examination room
assignments and the examination proctor assignments in each room.
The current version of the software is a web-based application. The
developed software allows the examination proctors to select their
scheduled time online while each subject is assigned to each available
examination room according to its type and the room capacity. The
developed system is evaluated using real data by prospective users of
the system. Several suggestions for further improvements are given
by the testers. Even though the features of the developed software are
not superior, the developing process can be a case study for a projectbased
teaching style. Furthermore, the process of developing this
software can show several issues in developing an educational
support application.
Abstract: Inadequate curriculum for software engineering is considered to be one of the most common software risks. A number of solutions, on improving Software Engineering Education (SEE) have been reported in literature but there is a need to collectively present these solutions at one place. We have performed a mapping study to present a broad view of literature; published on improving the current state of SEE. Our aim is to give academicians, practitioners and researchers an international view of the current state of SEE. Our study has identified 70 primary studies that met our selection criteria, which we further classified and categorized in a well-defined Software Engineering educational framework. We found that the most researched category within the SE educational framework is Innovative Teaching Methods whereas the least amount of research was found in Student Learning and Assessment category. Our future work is to conduct a Systematic Literature Review on SEE.
Abstract: Stochastic modeling of network traffic is an area of
significant research activity for current and future broadband
communication networks. Multimedia traffic is statistically
characterized by a bursty variable bit rate (VBR) profile. In this
paper, we develop an improved model for uniform activity level
video sources in ATM using a doubly stochastic autoregressive
model driven by an underlying spatial point process. We then
examine a number of burstiness metrics such as the peak-to-average
ratio (PAR), the temporal autocovariance function (ACF) and the
traffic measurements histogram. We found that the former measure is
most suitable for capturing the burstiness of single scene video
traffic. In the last phase of this work, we analyse statistical
multiplexing of several constant scene video sources. This proved,
expectedly, to be advantageous with respect to reducing the
burstiness of the traffic, as long as the sources are statistically
independent. We observed that the burstiness was rapidly
diminishing, with the largest gain occuring when only around 5
sources are multiplexed. The novel model used in this paper for
characterizing uniform activity video was thus found to be an
accurate model.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed a method to reduce
quantization error. In order to reduce quantization error, low pass
filtering is applied on neighboring samples of current block in
H.264/AVC. However, it has a weak point that low pass filtering is
performed regardless of prediction direction. Since it doesn-t consider
prediction direction, it may not reduce quantization error effectively.
Proposed method considers prediction direction for low pass filtering
and uses a threshold condition for reducing flag bit. We compare our
experimental result with conventional method in H.264/AVC and we
can achieve the average bit-rate reduction of 1.534% by applying the
proposed method. Bit-rate reduction between 0.580% and 3.567% are
shown for experimental results.
Abstract: Cooperative organizations in Malaysia are going
through a phase of rapid growth. They are seen by the government as
another crucial vehicle to drive and boost up the country-s
economical development and growth. Hence, the issue of cooperative
governance is of great importance. Unlike literatures on corporate
governance for public listed companies-, literatures on governance
for social enterprises, in particular the cooperative organizations are
still at the early stage in Malaysia and very scant in number. This
paper will look into current practices as well as issues and challenges
related to cooperative governance. The need for a better solution
towards forming best practices of cooperative governance framework
appears imperative in deterring cases of mismanagement and fraud.
Abstract: Unsatisfactory effectiveness of software systems
development and enhancement projects is one of the main reasons
why in software engineering there are attempts being made to use
experiences coming from other engineering disciplines. In spite of
specificity of software product and process a belief had come out that
the execution of software could be more effective if these objects
were subject to measurement – as it is true in other engineering
disciplines for which measurement is an immanent feature. Thus
objective and reliable approaches to the measurement of software
processes and products have been sought in software engineering for
several dozens of years already. This may be proved, among others,
by the current version of CMMI for Development model. This paper
is aimed at analyzing the approach to the software processes and
products measurement proposed in the latest version of this very
model, indicating growing acceptance for this issue in software
engineering.
Abstract: In today-s hip hop world where everyone is running
short of time and works hap hazardly,the similar scene is common on
the roads while in traffic.To do away with the fatal consequences of
such speedy traffics on rushy lanes, a software to analyse and keep
account of the traffic and subsequent conjestion is being used in the
developed countries. This software has being implemented and used
with the help of a suppprt tool called Critical Analysis Reporting
Environment.There has been two existing versions of this tool.The
current research paper involves examining the issues and probles
while using these two practically. Further a hybrid architecture is
proposed for the same that retains the quality and performance of
both and is better in terms of coupling of components , maintainence
and many other features.
Abstract: Electronics Products that achieve high levels of integrated communications, computing and entertainment, multimedia features in small, stylish and robust new form factors are winning in the market place. Due to the high costs that an industry may undergo and how a high yield is directly proportional to high profits, IC (Integrated Circuit) manufacturers struggle to maximize yield, but today-s customers demand miniaturization, low costs, high performance and excellent reliability making the yield maximization a never ending research of an enhanced assembly process. With factors such as minimum tolerances, tighter parameter variations a systematic approach is needed in order to predict the assembly process. In order to evaluate the quality of upcoming circuits, yield models are used which not only predict manufacturing costs but also provide vital information in order to ease the process of correction when the yields fall below expectations. For an IC manufacturer to obtain higher assembly yields all factors such as boards, placement, components, the material from which the components are made of and processes must be taken into consideration. Effective placement yield depends heavily on machine accuracy and the vision of the system which needs the ability to recognize the features on the board and component to place the device accurately on the pads and bumps of the PCB. There are currently two methods for accurate positioning, using the edge of the package and using solder ball locations also called footprints. The only assumption that a yield model makes is that all boards and devices are completely functional. This paper will focus on the Monte Carlo method which consists in a class of computational algorithms (information processed algorithms) which depends on repeated random samplings in order to compute the results. This method utilized in order to recreate the simulation of placement and assembly processes within a production line.
Abstract: Colored Petri Nets (CPN) are very known kind of
high level Petri nets. With sound and complete semantics, rewriting
logic is one of very powerful logics in description and verification of
non-deterministic concurrent systems. Recently, CPN semantics are
defined in terms of rewriting logic, allowing us to built models by
formal reasoning. In this paper, we propose an automatic translation
of CPN to the rewriting logic language Maude. This tool allows
graphical editing and simulating CPN. The tool allows the user
drawing a CPN graphically and automatic translating the graphical
representation of the drawn CPN to Maude specification. Then,
Maude language is used to perform the simulation of the resulted
Maude specification. It is the first rewriting logic based environment
for this category of Petri Nets.
Abstract: A numbers of important developments have led to an
increasing attractiveness for very high speed electrical machines
(either motor or generator). Specifically the increasing switching
speed of power electronics, high energy magnets, high strength
retaining materials, better high speed bearings and improvements in
design analysis are the primary drivers in a move to higher speed. The
design challenges come in the mechanical design both in terms of
strength and resonant modes and in the electromagnetic design
particularly in respect of iron losses and ac losses in the various
conducting parts including the rotor. This paper describes detailed
design work which has been done on a 50,000 rpm, 50kW permanent
magnet( PM) synchronous machine. It describes work on
electromagnetic and rotor eddy current losses using a variety of
methods including both 2D finite element analysis
Abstract: Electrochemical-oxidation of Reactive Black-5 (RB- 5) was conducted for degradation using DSA type Ti/RuO2-SnO2- Sb2O5 electrode. In the study, for electro-oxidation, electrode was indigenously fabricated in laboratory using titanium as substrate. This substrate was coated using different metal oxides RuO2, Sb2O5 and SnO2 by thermal decomposition method. Laboratory scale batch reactor was used for degradation and decolorization studies at pH 2, 7 and 11. Current density (50mA/cm2) and distance between electrodes (8mm) were kept constant for all experiments. Under identical conditions, removal of color, COD and TOC at initial pH 2 was 99.40%, 55% and 37% respectively for initial concentration of 100 mg/L RB-5. Surface morphology and composition of the fabricated electrode coatings were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) respectively. Coating microstructure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Results of this study further revealed that almost 90% of oxidation occurred within 5-10 minutes.
Abstract: The effect of notch depth on the elastic new strainconcentration
factor (SNCF) of rectangular bars with single edge Unotch
under combined loading is studied here. The finite element
method (FEM) and super position technique are used in the current
study. This new SNCF under combined loading of static tension and
pure bending has been defined under triaxial stress state. The
employed specimens have constant gross thickness of 16.7 mm and
net section thickness varied to give net-to-gross thickness ratio ho/Ho
from 0.2 to 0.95. The results indicated that the elastic SNCF for
combined loading increases with increasing notch depth up to ho/Ho =
0.7 and sharply decreases with increasing notch depth. It is also
indicated that the elastic SNCF of combined loading is greater than
that of pure bending and less than that of the static tension for 0.2 ≤
ho/Ho ≤ 0.7. However, the elastic SNCF of combined loading is the
elastic SNCF for static tension and less than that of pure bending for
shallow notches (i.e. 0.8 ≤ ho/Ho ≤ 0.95).
Abstract: The development and application of wind power for
renewable energy has attracted growing interest in recent years. Renewable energy sources are attracting much alteration as they can
reduce both environmental damage and dependence on fossil fuels. With the growing need for sustainable energy supplies, a case is made
for decentralized, stand-alone power supplies (SAPS) as an alternative to power grids. In the era which traditional petroleum energy resource
decreasing and the green house affect significant increasing, the development and usage of regenerative resources is inevitable. Due to the contribution of the pioneers, the development of regenerative resources already has a remarkable achievement; however, in the view of economy and quantity, it is still a long road for regenerative energy
to replace traditional petroleum energy. In our prospective, in stead of
investigate larger regenerative energy equipment, it is much wiser to
think about the blind side and breakthrough of the current technique.
Abstract: Design of Converter transformer insulation is a major
challenge. The insulation of these transformers is stressed by both
AC and DC voltages. Particle contamination is one of the major
problems in insulation structures, as they generate partial discharges
leading it to major failure of insulation. Similarly corona discharges
occur in transformer insulation. This partial discharge due to particle
movement / corona formation in insulation structure under different
voltage wave shapes, are different. In the present study, UHF
technique is adopted to understand the discharge activity and could
be realized that the characteristics of UHF signal generated under
low and high fields are different. In the case of corona generated
signal, the frequency content of the UHF sensor output lies in the
range 0.3-1.2 GHz and is not much varied except for its increase in
magnitude of discharge with the increase in applied voltage. It is
realized that the current signal injected due to partial
discharges/corona is about 4ns duration measured for first one half
cycle. Wavelet technique is adopted in the present study. It allows
one to identify the frequency content present in the signal at different
instant of time. The STD-MRA analysis helps one to identify the
frequency band in which the energy content of the UHF signal is
maximum.
Abstract: This paper presents an overview of current municipal
solid waste management in Khoram Abad city.
According to data collected by the local authorities, the waste
generation rate is estimated to be 800 g/cap.d with density of 243
kg/m3. Solid waste is stored in different types of containers at the
source of generation in different areas of the city.
Local Authority is responsible for waste collection, transportation.
Municipality is responsible for waste collection, using private sector
contracts.
At present, both mechanical and manual methods are used to
collect residential waste. Manual methods of collection are the most
commonly used for waste collection in most parts of the city.
Land filling is the main disposal method in this city. But it has
some obvious problem and deficiencies
The current state of solid waste management has been improved
slightly in the last decade. By more actions can reduce the human and
environmental risks.
Abstract: Hyperglycaemia is a key factor that contributes to the
development of diabetes-related microvascular disease and a major
risk factor for endothelial dysfunction. In the current study, we have
explored glucose-induced abnormal intracellular calcium (Ca2+
i)
homeostasis in mouse microvessel endothelial cells (MMECs) in
high glucose (HG) (40mmol/L) versus control (low glucose, LG) (11
mmol/L). We demonstrated that the exposure of MMECs to HG for 3
days did not change basal Ca2+
i, however, there was a significant
increase of acetylcholine-induced Ca2+ entry. Western blots
illustrated that exposure to HG also increased STIM1 (Stromal
Interaction Molecule 1), but not Orai1 (the pore forming subunit),
protein expression levels. Although the link between HG-induced
changes in STIM1 expression, enhanced Ca2+ entry and endothelial
dysfunction requires further study, the current data are suggestive
that targeting these pathways may reduce the impact of HG on
endothelial function.
Abstract: In the last few years, the Semantic Web gained scientific acceptance as a means of relationships identification in knowledge base, widely known by semantic association. Query about complex relationships between entities is a strong requirement for many applications in analytical domains. In bioinformatics for example, it is critical to extract exchanges between proteins. Currently, the widely known result of such queries is to provide paths between connected entities from data graph. However, they do not always give good results while facing the user need by the best association or a set of limited best association, because they only consider all existing paths but ignore the path evaluation. In this paper, we present an approach for supporting association discovery queries. Our proposal includes (i) a query language PmSPRQL which provides a multiparadigm query expressions for association extraction and (ii) some quantification measures making easy the process of association ranking. The originality of our proposal is demonstrated by a performance evaluation of our approach on real world datasets.
Abstract: Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is the engine
driving high-throughput protein identification. Protein mixtures possibly
representing thousands of proteins from multiple species are
treated with proteolytic enzymes, cutting the proteins into smaller
peptides that are then analyzed generating MS/MS spectra. The
task of determining the identity of the peptide from its spectrum
is currently the weak point in the process. Current approaches to de
novo sequencing are able to compute candidate peptides efficiently.
The problem lies in the limitations of current scoring functions. In this
paper we introduce the concept of proteome signature. By examining
proteins and compiling proteome signatures (amino acid usage) it is
possible to characterize likely combinations of amino acids and better
distinguish between candidate peptides. Our results strongly support
the hypothesis that a scoring function that considers amino acid usage
patterns is better able to distinguish between candidate peptides. This
in turn leads to higher accuracy in peptide prediction.
Abstract: The fault current levels through the electric devices
have a significant impact on failure probability. New fault current
results in exceeding the rated capacity of circuit breaker and switching
equipments and changes operation characteristic of overcurrent relay.
In order to solve these problems, SFCL (Superconducting Fault
Current Limiter) has rising as one of new alternatives so as to improve
these problems. A fault current reduction differs depending on
installed location. Therefore, a location of SFCL is very important.
Also, SFCL decreases the fault current, and it prevents surrounding
protective devices to be exposed to fault current, it then will bring a
change of reliability. In this paper, we propose method which
determines the optimal location when SFCL is installed in power
system. In addition, the reliability about the power system which
SFCL was installed is evaluated. The efficiency and effectiveness of
this method are also shown by numerical examples and the reliability
indices are evaluated in this study at each load points. These results
show a reliability change of a system when SFCL was installed.
Abstract: Library management systems are commonly used in
all educational related institutes. Many commercial products are
available. However, many institutions may not be able to afford the
cost of using commercial products. Therefore, an alternative solution
in such situations would be open source software. This paper is
focusing on reviewing open source library management system
packages currently available. The review will focus on the abilities to
perform four basic components which are traditional services,
interlibrary load management, managing electronic materials and
basic common management system such as security, alert system and
statistical reports. In addition, environment, basic requirement and
supporting aspects of each open source package are also mentioned.