Photomechanical Analysis of Wooden Testing Bodies under Flexural Loadings

Application of wood in rural construction is diffused all around the world since remote times. However, its inclusion in structural design deserves strong support from broad knowledge of material properties. The pertinent literature reveals the application of optical methods in determining the complete field displacement on bodies exhibiting regular as well as irregular surfaces. The use of moiré techniques in experimental mechanics consists in analyzing the patterns generated on the body surface before and after deformation. The objective of this research work is to study the qualitative deformation behavior of wooden testing specimens under specific loading situations. The experiment setup follows the literature description of shadow moiré methods. Results indicate strong anisotropy influence of the generated displacement field. Important qualitative as well as quantitative stress and strain distribution were obtained wooden members which are applicable to rural constructions.

SIMGraph: Simplifying Contig Graph to Improve de Novo Genome Assembly Using Next-generation Sequencing Data

De novo genome assembly is always fragmented. Assembly fragmentation is more serious using the popular next generation sequencing (NGS) data because NGS sequences are shorter than the traditional Sanger sequences. As the data throughput of NGS is high, the fragmentations in assemblies are usually not the result of missing data. On the contrary, the assembled sequences, called contigs, are often connected to more than one other contigs in a complicated manner, leading to the fragmentations. False connections in such complicated connections between contigs, named a contig graph, are inevitable because of repeats and sequencing/assembly errors. Simplifying a contig graph by removing false connections directly improves genome assembly. In this work, we have developed a tool, SIMGraph, to resolve ambiguous connections between contigs using NGS data. Applying SIMGraph to the assembly of a fungus and a fish genome, we resolved 27.6% and 60.3% ambiguous contig connections, respectively. These results can reduce the experimental efforts in resolving contig connections.

Risk Quantification for Tunnel Excavation Process

Construction of tunnels is connected with high uncertainty in the field of costs, construction period, safety and impact on surroundings. Risk management became therefore a common part of tunnel projects, especially after a set of fatal collapses occurred in 1990's. Such collapses are caused usually by combination of factors that can be divided into three main groups, i.e. unfavourable geological conditions, failures in the design and planning or failures in the execution. This paper suggests a procedure enabling quantification of the excavation risk related to extraordinary accidents using FTA and ETA tools. It will elaborate on a common process of risk analysis and enable the transfer of information and experience between particular tunnel construction projects. Further, it gives a guide for designers, management and other participants, how to deal with risk of such accidents and how to make qualified decisions based on a probabilistic approach.

Combining ILP with Semi-supervised Learning for Web Page Categorization

This paper presents a semi-supervised learning algorithm called Iterative-Cross Training (ICT) to solve the Web pages classification problems. We apply Inductive logic programming (ILP) as a strong learner in ICT. The objective of this research is to evaluate the potential of the strong learner in order to boost the performance of the weak learner of ICT. We compare the result with the supervised Naive Bayes, which is the well-known algorithm for the text classification problem. The performance of our learning algorithm is also compare with other semi-supervised learning algorithms which are Co-Training and EM. The experimental results show that ICT algorithm outperforms those algorithms and the performance of the weak learner can be enhanced by ILP system.

Heat Transfer Coefficients for Particulate Airflow in Shell and Coiled Tube Heat Exchangers

In this work, we experimentally study heat transfer from exhaust particulate air of detergent spray drying tower to water by using coiled tube heat exchanger. Water flows in the coiled tubes, where air loaded with detergent particles of 43 micrometers in diameter flows within the shell. Four coiled tubes with different coil pitches are used in a counter-current flow configuration. We investigate heat transfer coefficients of inside and outside the heat transfer surfaces through 400 experiments. The correlations between Nusselt number and Reynolds number, Prandtl number, mass flow rate of particulates to mass flow rate of air ratio and coiled tube pitch parameter are proposed. The correlations procured can be used to predicted heat transfer between tube and shell of the heat exchanger.

Urban Environment Quality Improvement Planning Case Study: Moft Abad Neighborhood, Tehran, Iran

Rapid enlargement and physical development of cities have facilitated the emergence of a number of city life crises and decrease of environment quality. Subsequently, the need for noticing the concept of quality and its improvement in urban environments, besides quantitative issues, is obviously recognized. In the domain of urban ideas the importance of taking these issues into consideration is obvious not only in accordance to sustainable development concepts and improvement of public environment quality, but also in the enhancement of social and behavioral models. The major concern of present article is to study the nature of urban environment quality in urban development plans, which is important not only in the concept and the aim of projects but also in their execution procedure. As a result, this paper is going to utilize planning capacities caused by environmental virtues in the planning procedure of Moft Abad neighborhood. Thus, at the first step, applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), it has assessed quantitative environmental issues. The present conditions of Moft Abad state that “the neighborhood is generally suffering from the lack of qualitative parameters, and the previously formed planning procedures could not take the sustainable and developmental paths which are aimed at environment quality virtues." The diminution of economical and environmental virtues has resulted in the diminution of residential and social virtues. Therefore, in order to enhance the environment quality in Moft Abad, the present paper has tried to supply the subject plans in order to make a safe, healthy, and lively neighborhood.

An Investigation of Short Circuit Analysis in Komag Sarawak Operations (KSO) Factory

Short circuit currents plays a vital role in influencing the design and operation of equipment and power system and could not be avoided despite careful planning and design, good maintenance and thorough operation of the system. This paper discusses the short circuit analysis conducted in KSO briefly comprising of its significances, methods and results. A result sample of the analysis based on a single transformer is detailed in this paper. Furthermore, the results of the analysis and its significances were also discussed and commented.

Potential of GIS to Find Solutions to Space Related Problems in Construction Industry

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computerbased tool used extensively to solve various engineering problems related to spatial data. In spite of growing popularity of GIS, its complete potential to construction industry has not been realized. In this paper, the summary of up-to-date work on spatial applications of GIS technologies in construction industry is presented. GIS technologies have the potential to solve space related problems of construction industry involving complex visualization, integration of information, route planning, E-commerce, cost estimation, etc. GISbased methodology to handle time and space issues of construction projects scheduling is developed and discussed in this paper.

Greedy Geographical Void Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks

With the advantage of wireless network technology, there are a variety of mobile applications which make the issue of wireless sensor networks as a popular research area in recent years. As the wireless sensor network nodes move arbitrarily with the topology fast change feature, mobile nodes are often confronted with the void issue which will initiate packet losing, retransmitting, rerouting, additional transmission cost and power consumption. When transmitting packets, we would not predict void problem occurring in advance. Thus, how to improve geographic routing with void avoidance in wireless networks becomes an important issue. In this paper, we proposed a greedy geographical void routing algorithm to solve the void problem for wireless sensor networks. We use the information of source node and void area to draw two tangents to form a fan range of the existence void which can announce voidavoiding message. Then we use source and destination nodes to draw a line with an angle of the fan range to select the next forwarding neighbor node for routing. In a dynamic wireless sensor network environment, the proposed greedy void avoiding algorithm can be more time-saving and more efficient to forward packets, and improve current geographical void problem of wireless sensor networks.

On the Exact Solution of Non-Uniform Torsion for Beams with Axial Symmetric Cross-Section

In the traditional theory of non-uniform torsion the axial displacement field is expressed as the product of the unit twist angle and the warping function. The first one, variable along the beam axis, is obtained by a global congruence condition; the second one, instead, defined over the cross-section, is determined by solving a Neumann problem associated to the Laplace equation, as well as for the uniform torsion problem. So, as in the classical theory the warping function doesn-t punctually satisfy the first indefinite equilibrium equation, the principal aim of this work is to develop a new theory for non-uniform torsion of beams with axial symmetric cross-section, fully restrained on both ends and loaded by a constant torque, that permits to punctually satisfy the previous equation, by means of a trigonometric expansion of the axial displacement and unit twist angle functions. Furthermore, as the classical theory is generally applied with good results to the global and local analysis of ship structures, two beams having the first one an open profile, the second one a closed section, have been analyzed, in order to compare the two theories.

Evaluation of Haar Cascade Classifiers Designed for Face Detection

In the past years a lot of effort has been made in the field of face detection. The human face contains important features that can be used by vision-based automated systems in order to identify and recognize individuals. Face location, the primary step of the vision-based automated systems, finds the face area in the input image. An accurate location of the face is still a challenging task. Viola-Jones framework has been widely used by researchers in order to detect the location of faces and objects in a given image. Face detection classifiers are shared by public communities, such as OpenCV. An evaluation of these classifiers will help researchers to choose the best classifier for their particular need. This work focuses of the evaluation of face detection classifiers minding facial landmarks.

The Effects of Multipath on OFDM Systems for Broadband Power-Line Communications a Case of Medium Voltage Channel

Power-line networks are widely used today for broadband data transmission. However, due to multipaths within the broadband power line communication (BPLC) systems owing to stochastic changes in the network load impedances, branches, etc., network or channel capacity performances are affected. This paper attempts to investigate the performance of typical medium voltage channels that uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) techniques with Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) sub carriers. It has been observed that when the load impedances are different from line characteristic impedance channel performance decreases. Also as the number of branches in the link between the transmitter and receiver increases a loss of 4dB/branch is found in the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The information presented in the paper could be useful for an appropriate design of the BPLC systems.

Capacitor Placement in Distribution Systems Using Simulating Annealing (SA)

This paper undertakes the problem of optimal capacitor placement in a distribution system. The problem is how to optimally determine the locations to install capacitors, the types and sizes of capacitors to he installed and, during each load level,the control settings of these capacitors in order that a desired objective function is minimized while the load constraints,network constraints and operational constraints (e.g. voltage profile) at different load levels are satisfied. The problem is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem with a nondifferentiable objective function. Four solution mythologies based on algorithms (GA),tabu search (TS), and hybrid GA-SA algorithms are presented.The solution methodologies are preceded by a sensitivity analysis to select the candidate capacitor installation locations.

An Efficient Heuristic for the Minimum Connected Dominating Set Problem on Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

Connected dominating set (CDS) problem in unit disk graph has signi£cant impact on an ef£cient design of routing protocols in wireless sensor networks, where the searching space for a route is reduced to nodes in the set. A set is dominating if all the nodes in the system are either in the set or neighbors of nodes in the set. In this paper, a simple and ef£cient heuristic method is proposed for £nding a minimum connected dominating set (MCDS) in ad hoc wireless networks based on the new parameter support of vertices. With this parameter the proposed heuristic approach effectively £nds the MCDS of a graph. Extensive computational experiments show that the proposed approach outperforms the recently proposed heuristics found in the literature for the MCD

OFDM and Fingerprint Authentication for Efficient Airport Security

This paper presents an idea to improve the efficiency of security checks in airports through the active tracking and monitoring of passengers and staff using OFDM modulation technique and Finger print authentication. The details of the passenger are multiplexed using OFDM .To authenticate the passenger, the fingerprint along with important identification information is collected. The details of the passenger can be transmitted after necessary modulation, and received using various transceivers placed within the premises of the airport, and checked at the appropriate check points, thereby increasing the efficiency of checking. OFDM has been employed for spectral efficiency.

The Use of Recommender Systems in Decision Support–A Case Study on Used Car Dealers

This research focuses on the use of a recommender system in decision support by means of a used car dealer case study in Bangkok Metropolitan. The goal is to develop an effective used car purchasing system for dealers based on the above premise. The underlying principle rests on content-based recommendation from a set of usability surveys. A prototype was developed to conduct buyers- survey selected from 5 experts and 95 general public. The responses were analyzed to determine the mean and standard deviation of buyers- preference. The results revealed that both groups were in favor of using the proposed system to assist their buying decision. This indicates that the proposed system is meritorious to used car dealers.

Implementation of a Motion Detection System

In today-s competitive environment, the security concerns have grown tremendously. In the modern world, possession is known to be 9/10-ths of the law. Hence, it is imperative for one to be able to safeguard one-s property from worldly harms such as thefts, destruction of property, people with malicious intent etc. Due to the advent of technology in the modern world, the methodologies used by thieves and robbers for stealing have been improving exponentially. Therefore, it is necessary for the surveillance techniques to also improve with the changing world. With the improvement in mass media and various forms of communication, it is now possible to monitor and control the environment to the advantage of the owners of the property. The latest technologies used in the fight against thefts and destruction are the video surveillance and monitoring. By using the technologies, it is possible to monitor and capture every inch and second of the area in interest. However, so far the technologies used are passive in nature, i.e., the monitoring systems only help in detecting the crime but do not actively participate in stopping or curbing the crime while it takes place. Therefore, we have developed a methodology to detect the motion in a video stream environment and this is an idea to ensure that the monitoring systems not only actively participate in stopping the crime, but do so while the crime is taking place. Hence, a system is used to detect any motion in a live streaming video and once motion has been detected in the live stream, the software will activate a warning system and capture the live streaming video.

Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for Thai Youths

The objectives of this study are to determine the role of media that influence the values, attitudes and behaviors of Thai youths. Analytical qualitative research techniques were used for this purpose. Data collection based techniques was used which were individual interviews and focus group discussions with journalists, sample of high school and university students, and parents. The results show that “Social Media" is still the most popular media for Thai youths. It is also still in the hands of the marketing business and it can motivate Thai youths to do so many things. The main reasons of media exposure are to find quality information that they want quickly, get satisfaction and can use social media to get more exciting and to build communities. They believe that the need for media and information literacy skills is defined as making judgments, personal integrity, training of family and the behavior of close friends.

Performance Analysis of Cellular Wireless Network by Queuing Priority Handoff calls

In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to estimate the dropping probabilities of cellular wireless networks by queuing handoff instead of reserving guard channels. Usually, prioritized handling of handoff calls is done with the help of guard channel reservation. To evaluate the proposed model, gamma inter-arrival and general service time distributions have been considered. Prevention of some of the attempted calls from reaching to the switching center due to electromagnetic propagation failure or whimsical user behaviour (missed call, prepaid balance etc.), make the inter-arrival time of the input traffic to follow gamma distribution. The performance is evaluated and compared with that of guard channel scheme.

Watermark-based Counter for Restricting Digital Audio Consumption

In this paper we introduce three watermarking methods that can be used to count the number of times that a user has played some content. The proposed methods are tested with audio content in our experimental system using the most common signal processing attacks. The test results show that the watermarking methods used enable the watermark to be extracted under the most common attacks with a low bit error rate.