Abstract: Twenty seven tektites from the Wenchang area, Hainan
province (south China) and five tektites from the Khon Kaen area
(northeast Thailand) were analyzed for major and trace element
contents and Rb-Sr isotopic compositions. All the samples studied are
splash-form tektites. Tektites of this study are characterized by high
SiO2 contents ranging from 71.95 to 74.07 wt% which is consistent
with previously published analyses of Australasian tektites. The trace
element ratios Ba/Rb (avg. 3.89), Th/Sm (avg. 2.40), Sm/Sc (avg.
0.45), Th/Sc (avg. 0.99) and the rare earth elements (REE) contents of
tektites of this study are similar to the average upper continental crust.
Based on the chemical composition, it is suggested that tektites in this
study are derived from similar parental material and are similar to the
post-Archean upper crustal rocks. The major and trace element
abundances of tektites analyzed indicate that the parental material of
tektites may be a terrestrial sedimentary deposit. The tektites from the
Wenchang area, Hainan Island have high positive εSr(0)
values-ranging from 184.5~196.5 which indicate that the parental
material for these tektites have similar Sr isotopic compositions to old
terrestrial sedimentary rocks and they were not dominantly derived
from recent young sediments (such as soil or loess). Based on Rb-Sr
isotopic data, it has been suggested by Blum (1992) [1]that the
depositional age of sedimentary target materials is close to 170Ma
(Jurassic). According to the model suggested by Ho and Chen
(1996)[2], mixing calculations for various amounts and combinations
of target rocks have been carried out. We consider that the best fit for
tektites from the Wenchang area is a mixture of 47% shale, 23%
sandstone, 25% greywacke and 5% quartzite, and the other tektites
from Khon Kaen area is a mixture of 46% shale, 2% sandstone, 20%
greywacke and 32% quartzite.
Abstract: The launching nose plays an important role in the
incremental launching construction. The parameters of the launching
nose essentially affect the internal forces of the girder during the
construction. The appropriate parameters can decrease the internal
forces in the girder and save the material and reduce the cost. The
simplified structural model, which is made with displacement method
according to the characteristic of incremental launching construction
and the variation rule of the internal forces, calculates and analyzes the
effect of the length, the rigidity and weight of launch nose on the
internal forces of girder during the incremental launching
construction. The method, which can calculate the launching nose
parameters for the optimum incremental launching construction, is
achieved. This method is simple, reliable and easy for practical use.
Abstract: If there exists a nonempty, proper subset S of the set of all (n+1)(n+2)/2 inertias such that S Ôèå i(A) is sufficient for any n×n zero-nonzero pattern A to be inertially arbitrary, then S is called a critical set of inertias for zero-nonzero patterns of order n. If no proper subset of S is a critical set, then S is called a minimal critical set of inertias. In [Kim, Olesky and Driessche, Critical sets of inertias for matrix patterns, Linear and Multilinear Algebra, 57 (3) (2009) 293-306], identifying all minimal critical sets of inertias for n×n zero-nonzero patterns with n ≥ 3 and the minimum cardinality of such a set are posed as two open questions by Kim, Olesky and Driessche. In this note, the minimum cardinality of all critical sets of inertias for 4 × 4 irreducible zero-nonzero patterns is identified.
Abstract: This paper proposes an auto-classification algorithm
of Web pages using Data mining techniques. We consider the
problem of discovering association rules between terms in a set of
Web pages belonging to a category in a search engine database, and
present an auto-classification algorithm for solving this problem that
are fundamentally based on Apriori algorithm. The proposed
technique has two phases. The first phase is a training phase where
human experts determines the categories of different Web pages, and
the supervised Data mining algorithm will combine these categories
with appropriate weighted index terms according to the highest
supported rules among the most frequent words. The second phase is
the categorization phase where a web crawler will crawl through the
World Wide Web to build a database categorized according to the
result of the data mining approach. This database contains URLs and
their categories.
Abstract: Innovation is more important in any companies.
However, it is not easy to measure the innovation performance
correctly. Patent is one of measuring index nowadays. This paper
wants to purpose an approach for valuing patents based on market
reaction to patent infringement litigations. The interesting
phenomenon is found from collection of patent infringement litigation
events. That is if any patent litigation event occurs the stock value will
follow changing. The plaintiffs- stock value raises some percentage.
According to this interesting phenomenon, the relationship between
patent litigation and stock value is tested and verified. And then, the
stock value variation is used to deduce the infringed patents- value.
The purpose of this study is providing another concept model to
evaluate the infringed patents. This study can provide a decision assist
system to help drafting patent litigation strategy and determine the
technology value
Abstract: Apparel product development is an important stage in the life cycle of a product. Shortening this stage will help to reduce the costs of a garment. The aim of this study is to examine the production parameters in knitwear apparel companies by defining the unit costs, and developing a software to calculate the unit costs of garments and make the cost estimates. In this study, with the help of a questionnaire, different companies- systems of unit cost estimating and cost calculating were tried to be analyzed. Within the scope of the questionnaire, the importance of cost estimating process for apparel companies and the expectations from a new cost estimating program were investigated. According to the results of the questionnaire, it was seen that the majority of companies which participated to the questionnaire use manual cost calculating methods or simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to make cost estimates. Furthermore, it was discovered that many companies meet with difficulties in archiving the cost data for future use and as a solution to that problem, it is thought that prior to making a cost estimate, sub units of garment costs which are fabric, accessory and the labor costs should be analyzed and added to the database of the programme beforehand. Another specification of the cost estimating unit prepared in this study is that the programme was designed to consist of two main units, one of which makes the product specification and the other makes the cost calculation. The programme is prepared as a web-based application in order that the supplier, the manufacturer and the customer can have the opportunity to communicate through the same platform.
Abstract: Over the past few years, a number of efforts have
been exerted to build parallel processing systems that utilize the idle
power of LAN-s and PC-s available in many homes and corporations.
The main advantage of these approaches is that they provide cheap
parallel processing environments for those who cannot afford the
expenses of supercomputers and parallel processing hardware.
However, most of the solutions provided are not very flexible in the
use of available resources and very difficult to install and setup.
In this paper, a multi-level web-based parallel processing system
(MWPS) is designed (appendix). MWPS is based on the idea of
volunteer computing, very flexible, easy to setup and easy to use.
MWPS allows three types of subscribers: simple volunteers (single
computers), super volunteers (full networks) and end users. All of
these entities are coordinated transparently through a secure web site.
Volunteer nodes provide the required processing power needed by
the system end users. There is no limit on the number of volunteer
nodes, and accordingly the system can grow indefinitely. Both
volunteer and system users must register and subscribe. Once, they
subscribe, each entity is provided with the appropriate MWPS
components. These components are very easy to install.
Super volunteer nodes are provided with special components that
make it possible to delegate some of the load to their inner nodes.
These inner nodes may also delegate some of the load to some other
lower level inner nodes .... and so on. It is the responsibility of the
parent super nodes to coordinate the delegation process and deliver
the results back to the user.
MWPS uses a simple behavior-based scheduler that takes into
consideration the current load and previous behavior of processing
nodes. Nodes that fulfill their contracts within the expected time get a
high degree of trust. Nodes that fail to satisfy their contract get a
lower degree of trust.
MWPS is based on the .NET framework and provides the minimal
level of security expected in distributed processing environments.
Users and processing nodes are fully authenticated. Communications
and messages between nodes are very secure. The system has been
implemented using C#.
MWPS may be used by any group of people or companies to
establish a parallel processing or grid environment.
Abstract: Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings are often
contaminated with ocular and muscle artifacts. In this paper, the
canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is used as blind source
separation (BSS) technique (BSS-CCA) to decompose the artifact
contaminated EEG into component signals. We combine the BSSCCA
technique with wavelet filtering approach for minimizing both
ocular and muscle artifacts simultaneously, and refer the proposed
method as wavelet enhanced BSS-CCA. In this approach, after
careful visual inspection, the muscle artifact components are
discarded and ocular artifact components are subjected to wavelet
filtering to retain high frequency cerebral information, and then clean
EEG is reconstructed. The performance of the proposed wavelet
enhanced BSS-CCA method is tested on real EEG recordings
contaminated with ocular and muscle artifacts, for which power
spectral density is used as a quantitative measure. Our results suggest
that the proposed hybrid approach minimizes ocular and muscle
artifacts effectively, minimally affecting underlying cerebral activity
in EEG recordings.
Abstract: Nowadays, cardiac disease is one of the most common
cause of death. Each year almost one million of angioplasty interventions and stents implantations are made all over the world.
Unfortunately, in 20-30% of cases neointimal proliferations leads to
restenosis occurring within the following period of 3-6 months. Three major factors are believed to contribute mostly to the edge
restenosis: (a) mechanical damage of the artery-s wall caused by the
stent implantation, (b) interaction between the stent and the blood constituents and (c) endothelial growth stimulation by small (lower
that 1.5 Pa) and oscillating wall shear stress. Assuming that this last actor is particularly important, a numerical model of restenosis
basing on wall shear stress distribution in the stented artery was elaborated. A numerical simulations of the development of in-stent
restenosis have been performed and realistic geometric patterns of a
progressing lumen reduction have been obtained
Abstract: Despite of the preponderant role played by cement among the construction materials, it is today considered as a material destructing the environment due to the large quantities of carbon dioxide exhausted during its manufacture. Besides, global warming is now recognized worldwide as the new threat to the humankind against which advanced countries are investigating measures to reduce the current amount of exhausted gases to the half by 2050. Accordingly, efforts to reduce green gases are exerted in all industrial fields. Especially, the cement industry strives to reduce the consumption of cement through the development of alkali-activated geopolymer mortars using industrial byproducts like bottom ash. This study intends to gather basic data on the flowability and strength development characteristics of alkali-activated geopolymer mortar by examining its FT-IT features with respect to the effects and strength of the alkali-activator in order to develop bottom ash-based alkali-activated geopolymer mortar. The results show that the 35:65 mass ratio of sodium hydroxide to sodium silicate is appropriate and that a molarity of 9M for sodium hydroxide is advantageous. The ratio of the alkali-activators to bottom ash is seen to have poor effect on the strength. Moreover, the FT-IR analysis reveals that larger improvement of the strength shifts the peak from 1060 cm–1 (T-O, T=Si or Al) toward shorter wavenumber.
Abstract: In this paper we study different similarity based approaches for the development of QSAR model devoted to the prediction of activity of antiobesity drugs. Classical similarity approaches are compared regarding to dissimilarity models based on the consideration of the calculation of Euclidean distances between the nonisomorphic fragments extracted in the matching process. Combining the classical similarity and dissimilarity approaches into a new similarity measure, the Approximate Similarity was also studied, and better results were obtained. The application of the proposed method to the development of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) has provided reliable tools for predicting of inhibitory activity of drugs. Acceptable results were obtained for the models presented here.
Abstract: Nosocomial (i.e., hospital-acquired) infections
(NI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitals. NI
rate is higher in intensive care units (ICU) than in the general
ward due to patients with severe symptoms, poor immunity,
and accepted many invasive therapies. Contact behaviors
between health caregivers and patients is one of the infect
factors. It is difficult to obtain complete contact records by
traditional method of retrospective analysis of medical records.
This paper establishes a contact history inferential model
(CHIM) intended to extend the use of Proximity Sensing of
rapid frequency identification (RFID) technology to
transferring all proximity events between health caregivers and
patients into clinical events (close-in events, contact events and
invasive events).The results of the study indicated that the
CHIM can infer proximity care activities into close-in events
and contact events.
The infection control team could redesign and build optimal
workflow in the ICU according to the patient-specific contact
history which provided by our automatic tracing system.
Abstract: Wikis are promoted as collaborative writing tools that
allow students to transform a text into a collective document by
information sharing and group reflection. However, despite the
promising collaborative capabilities of wikis, their pedagogical value
regarding collaborative writing is still questionable. Wiki alone
cannot make collaborative writing happen, and students do not
automatically become more active, participate, and collaborate with
others when they use wikis. To foster collaborative writing and active
involvement in wiki development there is a need for a systematic
approach to wikis. Themain goal of this paper is to propose and
evaluate a co-writing approach to the development of wikis, along
with the study of three wiki applications to report on pedagogical
implications of collaborative writing in higher education.
Abstract: The issue of leadership has been investigated from
several perspectives; however, very less from ethical perspective.
With the growing number of corporate scandals and unethical roles
played by business leaders in several parts of the world, the need to
examine leadership from ethical perspective cannot be over
emphasized. The importance of leadership credibility has been
discussed in the authentic model of leadership. Authentic leaders
display high degree of integrity, have deep sense of purpose, and
committed to their core values. As a result they promote a more
trusting relationship in their work groups that translates into several
positive outcomes. The present study examined how authentic
leadership contribute to subordinates- trust in leadership and how this
trust, in turn, predicts subordinates- work engagement. A sample of
395 employees was randomly selected from several local banks
operating in Malaysia. Standardized tools such as ALQ, OTI, and
EEQ were employed. Results indicated that authentic leadership
promoted subordinates- trust in leader, and contributed to work
engagement. Also, interpersonal trust predicted employees- work
engagement as well as mediated the relationship between this style of
leadership and employees- work engagement.
Abstract: Study of the vibration cylindrical shells made of
a functionally gradient material (FGM) composed of stainless
steel and nickel is important. Material properties are graded in
the thickness direction of the shell according to volume
fraction power law distribution. The objective is to study the
natural frequencies, the influence of constituent volume
fractions and the effects of boundary conditions on the natural
frequencies of the FG cylindrical shell. The study is carried
out using third order shear deformation shell theory. The
governing equations of motion of FG cylindrical shells are
derived based on shear deformation theory. Results are
presented on the frequency characteristics, influence of
constituent volume fractions and the effects of clampedclamped
boundary conditions.
Abstract: Regarding previous research studies it was concluded
that thin-walled fiber-cement composites are able to conduct electric
current under specific conditions. This property is ensured by using
of various kinds of carbon materials. Though carbon fibers are less
conductive than metal fibers, composites with carbon fibers were
evaluated as better current conductors than the composites with metal
fibers. The level of electric conductivity is monitored by the means of
impedance measurement of designed samples. These composites
could be used for a range of applications such as heating of
trafficable surfaces or shielding of electro-magnetic fields.
The aim of the present research was to design an element with the
ability to monitor internal processes in building structures and
prevent them from collapsing. As a typical element for laboratory
testing there was chosen a concrete column, which was repeatedly
subjected to load by simple pressure with continual monitoring of
changes in electrical properties.
Abstract: Water pipe network is installed underground and once equipped, it is difficult to recognize the state of pipes when the leak or burst happens. Accordingly, post management is often delayed
after the fault occurs. Therefore, the systematic fault management system of water pipe network is required to prevent the accident and
minimize the loss. In this work, we develop online fault detection system of water pipe network using data of pipes such as flow rate
or pressure. The transient model describing water flow in pipelines
is presented and simulated using MATLAB. The fault situations such
as the leak or burst can be also simulated and flow rate or pressure data when the fault happens are collected. Faults are detected using
statistical methods of fast Fourier transform and discrete wavelet transform, and they are compared to find which method shows the
better fault detection performance.
Abstract: One of the methods for detecting the target position
error in the laser tracking systems is using Four Quadrant (4Q)
detectors. If the coordinates of the target center is yielded through the
usual relations of the detector outputs, the results will be nonlinear,
dependent on the shape, target size and its position on the detector
screen. In this paper we have designed an algorithm with using
neural network that coordinates of the target center in laser tracking
systems is calculated by using detector outputs obtained from visual
modeling. With this method, the results except from the part related
to the detector intrinsic limitation, are linear and dependent from the
shape and target size.
Abstract: During last decades, worldwide researchers dedicated
efforts to develop machine-based seismic Early Warning systems,
aiming at reducing the huge human losses and economic damages.
The elaboration time of seismic waveforms is to be reduced in order
to increase the time interval available for the activation of safety
measures. This paper suggests a Data Mining model able to correctly
and quickly estimate dangerousness of the running seismic event.
Several thousand seismic recordings of Japanese and Italian
earthquakes were analyzed and a model was obtained by means of a
Bayesian Network (BN), which was tested just over the first
recordings of seismic events in order to reduce the decision time and
the test results were very satisfactory.
The model was integrated within an Early Warning System
prototype able to collect and elaborate data from a seismic sensor
network, estimate the dangerousness of the running earthquake and
take the decision of activating the warning promptly.
Abstract: Overall, the findings of the present study suggest that
teachers have low to moderate levels of professionalisation, high
level of career identity and moderate levels of career resilience, and
career planning. From the T-tests and F-tests conducted, it was found
that gender has a significant impact on career identity whereas age
and marital status have significant impact on career planning and also
on career identity. The results indicate that there is a higher
possibility of male teachers to leave the teaching profession than the
female teachers. The result of the T-test on career identity in relation
to gender supports this deduction in which female teachers have
significantly higher career identity than their male counterparts.
Marital status was also found to have a significant impact on career
identity.