Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine current levels of physical activity determined via heart rate monitoring. A total of 176 children (85 boys, 91 girls) aged 5-13 years wore sealed Polar heart rate monitors for at least 10 hours per day on at least 3 days. Mean daily minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity was 65 ± 43 (mean ± SD) for boys and 54 ± 37 for girls. Daily minutes of vigorous-intensity activity was 31 ± 24 and 24 ± 21 for boys and girls respectively. Significant differences in physical activity levels were observed between school day and weekends, boys and girls, and among age and geographical groups. Only 36% of boys and 22% of girls met the New Zealand physical activity guideline. This research indicates that a large proportion of New Zealand children are not meeting physical activity recommendations.
Abstract: This paper presents a method for the detection of OD in the retina which takes advantage of the powerful preprocessing techniques such as the contrast enhancement, Gabor wavelet transform for vessel segmentation, mathematical morphology and Earth Mover-s distance (EMD) as the matching process. The OD detection algorithm is based on matching the expected directional pattern of the retinal blood vessels. Vessel segmentation method produces segmentations by classifying each image pixel as vessel or nonvessel, based on the pixel-s feature vector. Feature vectors are composed of the pixel-s intensity and 2D Gabor wavelet transform responses taken at multiple scales. A simple matched filter is proposed to roughly match the direction of the vessels at the OD vicinity using the EMD. The minimum distance provides an estimate of the OD center coordinates. The method-s performance is evaluated on publicly available DRIVE and STARE databases. On the DRIVE database the OD center was detected correctly in all of the 40 images (100%) and on the STARE database the OD was detected correctly in 76 out of the 81 images, even in rather difficult pathological situations.
Abstract: Alzheimer is known as the loss of mental functions
such as thinking, memory, and reasoning that is severe enough to
interfere with a person's daily functioning. The appearance of
Alzheimer Disease symptoms (AD) are resulted based on which part
of the brain has a variety of infection or damage. In this case, the
MRI is the best biomedical instrumentation can be ever used to
discover the AD existence. Therefore, this paper proposed a fusion
method to distinguish between the normal and (AD) MRIs. In this
combined method around 27 MRIs collected from Jordanian
Hospitals are analyzed based on the use of Low pass -morphological
filters to get the extracted statistical outputs through intensity
histogram to be employed by the descriptive box plot. Also, the
artificial neural network (ANN) is applied to test the performance of
this approach. Finally, the obtained result of t-test with confidence
accuracy (95%) has compared with classification accuracy of ANN
(100 %). The robust of the developed method can be considered
effectively to diagnose and determine the type of AD image.
Abstract: Vibration characteristics of subcooled flow boiling on
thin and long structures such as a heating rod were recently
investigated by the author. The results show that the intensity of the
subcooled boiling-induced vibration (SBIV) was influenced strongly
by the conditions of the subcooling temperature, linear power density
and flow velocity. Implosive bubble formation and collapse are the
main nature of subcooled boiling, and their behaviors are the only
sources to originate from SBIV. Therefore, in order to explain the
phenomenon of SBIV, it is essential to obtain reliable information
about bubble behavior in subcooled boiling conditions. This was
investigated at different conditions of coolant subcooling
temperatures of 25 to 75°C, coolant flow velocities of 0.16 to
0.53m/s, and linear power densities of 100 to 600 W/cm. High speed
photography at 13,500 frames per second was performed at these
conditions. The results show that even at the highest subcooling
condition, the absolute majority of bubbles collapse very close to the
surface after detaching from the heating surface. Based on these
observations, a simple model of surface tension and momentum
change is introduced to offer a rough quantitative estimate of the
force exerted on the heating surface during the bubble ebullition. The
formation of a typical bubble in subcooled boiling is predicted to
exert an excitation force in the order of 10-4 N.
Abstract: Global temperature had increased by about 0.5oC over
the past century, increasing temperature leads to a loss or a decrease
of soil organic matter (SOM). Whereas soil organic matter in many
tropical soils is less stable than that of temperate soils, and it will be
easily affected by climate change. Therefore, conservation of soil
organic matter is urgent issue nowadays. This paper presents the
effect of different doses (5%, 15%) of Ca-type zeolite in conjunction
with organic manure, applied to soil samples from Philippines,
Paraguay and Japan, on the decomposition resistance of soil organic
matter under high temperature. Results showed that a remain or
slightly increase the C/N ratio of soil. There are an increase in
percent of humic acid (PQ) that extracted with Na4P2O7. A decrease
of percent of free humus (fH) after incubation was determined. A
larger the relative color intensity (RF) value and a lower the color
coefficient (6logK) value following increasing zeolite rates leading
to a higher degrees of humification. The increase in the aromatic
condensation of humic acid (HA) after incubation, as indicates by the
decrease of H/C and O/C ratios of HA. This finding indicates that the
use of zeolite could be beneficial with respect to SOM conservation
under global warming condition.
Abstract: As the use of registration packages spreads, the number of the aligned image pairs in image databases (either by manual or automatic methods) increases dramatically. These image pairs can serve as a set of training data. Correspondingly, the images that are to be registered serve as testing data. In this paper, a novel medical image registration method is proposed which is based on the a priori knowledge of the expected joint intensity distribution estimated from pre-aligned training images. The goal of the registration is to find the optimal transformation such that the distance between the observed joint intensity distribution obtained from the testing image pair and the expected joint intensity distribution obtained from the corresponding training image pair is minimized. The distance is measured using the divergence measure based on Tsallis entropy. Experimental results show that, compared with the widely-used Shannon mutual information as well as Tsallis mutual information, the proposed method is computationally more efficient without sacrificing registration accuracy.
Abstract: Fiber optic sensor technology offers the possibility of
sensing different parameters like strain, temperature, pressure in
harsh environment and remote locations. these kinds of sensors
modulates some features of the light wave in an optical fiber such an
intensity and phase or use optical fiber as a medium for transmitting
the measurement information.
The advantages of fiber optic sensors in contrast to conventional
electrical ones make them popular in different applications and now a
day they consider as a key component in improving industrial
processes, quality control systems, medical diagnostics, and
preventing and controlling general process abnormalities.
This paper is an introduction to fiber optic sensor technology and
some of the applications that make this branch of optic technology,
which is still in its early infancy, an interesting field.
Abstract: Linear induction motors are used in various industries
but they have some specific phenomena which are the causes for
some problems. The most important phenomenon is called end effect.
End effect decreases efficiency, power factor and output force and
unbalances the phase currents. This phenomenon is more important
in medium and high speeds machines. In this paper a factor, EEF , is
obtained by an accurate equivalent circuit model, to determine the
end effect intensity. In this way, all of effective design parameters on
end effect is described. Accuracy of this equivalent circuit model is
evaluated by two dimensional finite-element analysis using ANSYS.
The results show the accuracy of the equivalent circuit model.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a new content-weighted
method for full reference (FR) video quality control using a region of
interest (ROI) and wherein two-component weighted metrics for Deaf
People Video Communication. In our approach, an image is
partitioned into region of interest and into region "dry-as-dust", then
region of interest is partitioned into two parts: edges and background
(smooth regions), while the another methods (metrics) combined and
weighted three or more parts as edges, edges errors, texture, smooth
regions, blur, block distance etc. as we proposed. Using another idea
that different image regions from deaf people video communication
have different perceptual significance relative to quality. Intensity
edges certainly contain considerable image information and are
perceptually significant.
Abstract: The problem of incompressible steady flow simulation around an airfoil is discussed. For some simplest airfoils (circular, elliptical, Zhukovsky airfoils) the exact solution is known from complex analysis. It allows to compute the intensity of vortex layer which simulates the airfoil. Some modifications of the vortex element method are proposed and test computations are carried out. It-s shown that the these approaches are much more effective in comparison with the classical numerical scheme.
Abstract: SVM ( Support Vector Machine ) is a new method in the artificial neural network ( ANN ). In the steel making, how to use computer to predict the end point of BOF accuracy is a great problem. A lot of method and theory have been claimed, but most of the results is not satisfied. Now the hot topic in the BOF end point predicting is to use optical way the predict the end point in the BOF. And we found that there exist some regular in the characteristic curve of the flame from the mouse of pudding. And we can use SVM to predict end point of the BOF, just single spectrum intensity should be required as the input parameter. Moreover, its compatibility for the input space is better than the BP network.
Abstract: The electrolyte stirring method of anodization etching
process for manufacturing porous silicon (PS) is reported in this work.
Two experimental setups of nature air stirring (PS-ASM) and
electrolyte stirring (PS-ESM) are employed to clarify the influence of
stirring mechanisms on electrochemical etching process. Compared to
traditional fabrication without any stirring apparatus (PS-TM), a large
plateau region of PS surface structure is obtained from samples with
both stirring methods by the 3D-profiler measurement. Moreover, the
light emission response is also improved by both proposed electrolyte
stirring methods due to the cycling force in electrolyte could
effectively enhance etch-carrier distribution while the electrochemical
etching process is made. According to the analysis of statistical
calculation of photoluminescence (PL) intensity, lower standard
deviations are obtained from PS-samples with studied stirring methods,
i.e. the uniformity of PL-intensity is effectively improved. The
calculated deviations of PL-intensity are 93.2, 74.5 and 64,
respectively, for PS-TM, PS-ASM and PS-ESM.
Abstract: One of the major cause of eye strain and other
problems caused while watching television is the relative illumination between the screen and its surrounding. This can be
overcome by adjusting the brightness of the screen with respect to the surrounding light. A controller based on fuzzy logic is proposed
in this paper. The fuzzy controller takes in the intensity of light
surrounding the screen and the present brightness of the screen as input. The output of the fuzzy controller is the grid voltage corresponding to the required brightness. This voltage is given to CRT and brightness is controller dynamically. For the given test system data, different de-fuzzifier methods have been implemented and the results are compared. In order to validate the effectiveness of
the proposed approach, a fuzzy controller has been designed by obtaining a test data from a real time system. The simulations are
performed in MATLAB and are verified with standard system data. The proposed approach can be implemented for real time
applications.
Abstract: This paper presents an adaptive differentiator
of sequential data based on the adaptive control theory. The
algorithm is applied to detect moving objects by estimating a
temporal gradient of sequential data at a specified pixel. We
adopt two nonlinear intensity functions to reduce the influence
of noises. The derivatives of the nonlinear intensity functions
are estimated by an adaptive observer with σ-modification
update law.
Abstract: Traffic flow in adverse weather conditions have been investigated in this study for general traffic, week day and week end traffic. The empirical evidence is strong in support of the view that rainfall affects macroscopic traffic flow parameters. Data generated from a basic highway section along J5 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia was synchronized with 161 rain events over a period of three months. This revealed a 4.90%, 6.60% and 11.32% reduction in speed for light rain, moderate rain and heavy rain conditions respectively. The corresponding capacity reductions in the three rainfall regimes are 1.08% for light rain, 6.27% for moderate rain and 29.25% for heavy rain. In the week day traffic, speed drops of 8.1% and 16.05% were observed for light and heavy conditions. The moderate rain condition speed increased by 12.6%. The capacity drops for week day traffic are 4.40% for light rain, 9.77% for moderate rain and 45.90% for heavy rain. The weekend traffic indicated speed difference between the dry condition and the three rainy conditions as 6.70% for light rain, 8.90% for moderate rain and 13.10% for heavy rain. The capacity changes computed for the weekend traffic were 0.20% in light rain, 13.90% in moderate rain and 16.70% in heavy rain. No traffic instabilities were observed throughout the observation period and the capacities reported for each rain condition were below the norain condition capacity. Rainfall has tremendous impact on traffic flow and this may have implications for shock wave propagation.
Abstract: The risk sphere in business is fast changing and expanding. Almost anything has become a risk factor that will have potent, direct, and far reaching impacts on business. This paper examines the intensity of enterprise risk management (ERM) practices among the Malaysian public listed companies. The paper espouses a ERM framework comprising fourteen important implementation elements and processes. Results of the analysis indicate that the intensity of ERM implementation among the respondents is in the ‘good’ category of the semantic scale, which is deemed encouraging vis-à-vis the country’s regulatory regime.
Abstract: In this paper the strength of adhesive joint under
tension and bending is discussed on the basis of intensity of
singular stress by the application of FEM. A useful method is
presented with focusing on the stress at the edge of interface
between the adhesive and adherent obtained by FEM. After
analyzing the adhesive joint strength with all material
combinations, it is found that to improve the interface strength,
thin adhesive layers are desirable because the intensity of
singular stress decreases with decreasing the thickness.
Abstract: We report a computational study of the spreading
dynamics of a viral infection in a complex (scale-free) network. The
final epidemic size distribution (FESD) was found to be unimodal or
bimodal depending on the value of the basic reproductive
number R0 . The FESDs occurred on time-scales long enough for
intermediate-time epidemic size distributions (IESDs) to be important
for control measures. The usefulness of R0 for deciding on the
timeliness and intensity of control measures was found to be limited
by the multimodal nature of the IESDs and by its inability to inform
on the speed at which the infection spreads through the population. A
reduction of the transmission probability at the hubs of the scale-free
network decreased the occurrence of the larger-sized epidemic events
of the multimodal distributions. For effective epidemic control, an
early reduction in transmission at the index cell and its neighbors was
essential.
Abstract: Hemorrhage Disease of Grass Carp (HDGC) is a kind
of commonly occurring illnesses in summer, and the extremely high
death rate result in colossal losses to aquaculture. As the complex
connections among each factor which influences aquiculture diseases,
there-s no quit reasonable mathematical model to solve the problem at
present.A BP neural network which with excellent nonlinear mapping
coherence was adopted to establish mathematical model;
Environmental factor, which can easily detected, such as breeding
density, water temperature, pH and light intensity was set as the main
analyzing object. 25 groups of experimental data were used for
training and test, and the accuracy of using the model to predict the
trend of HDGC was above 80%. It is demonstrated that BP neural
network for predicating diseases in HDGC has a particularly
objectivity and practicality, thus it can be spread to other aquiculture
disease.
Abstract: A combination of photosynthetic bacteria along with
anaerobic acidogenic bacteria is an ideal option for efficient
hydrogen production. In the present study, the optimum
concentration of substrates for the growth of Rhodobacter
sphaeroides was found by response surface methodology. The
optimum combination of three individual fatty acids was determined
by Box Behnken design. Increase of volatile fatty acid concentration
decreased the growth. Combination of sodium acetate and sodium
propionate was most significant for the growth of the organism. The
results showed that a maximum biomass concentration of 0.916 g/l
was obtained when the concentrations of acetate, propionate and
butyrate were 0.73g/l,0.99g/l and 0.799g/l, respectively. The growth
was studied under an optimum concentration of volatile fatty acids
and at a light intensity of 3000 lux, initial pH of 7 and a temperature
of 35°C.The maximum biomass concentration of 0.92g/l was
obtained which verified the practicability of this optimization.