Abstract: This paper includes a positive analysis to quantitatively grasp the relationship among vulnerability, information security incidents, and the countermeasures by using data based on a 2007 questionnaire survey for Japanese ISPs (Internet Service Providers). To grasp the relationships, logistic regression analysis is used. The results clarify that there are relationships between information security incidents and the countermeasures. Concretely, there is a positive relationship between information security incidents and the number of information security systems introduced as well as a negative relationship between information security incidents and information security education. It is also pointed out that (especially, local) ISPs do not execute efficient information security countermeasures/ investment concerned with systems, and it is suggested that they should positively execute information security education. In addition, to further heighten the information security level of Japanese telecommunication infrastructure, the necessity and importance of the government to implement policy to support the countermeasures of ISPs is insisted.
Abstract: Protein 3D structure prediction has always been an
important research area in bioinformatics. In particular, the
prediction of secondary structure has been a well-studied research
topic. Despite the recent breakthrough of combining multiple
sequence alignment information and artificial intelligence algorithms
to predict protein secondary structure, the Q3 accuracy of various
computational prediction algorithms rarely has exceeded 75%. In a
previous paper [1], this research team presented a rule-based method
called RT-RICO (Relaxed Threshold Rule Induction from Coverings)
to predict protein secondary structure. The average Q3 accuracy on
the sample datasets using RT-RICO was 80.3%, an improvement
over comparable computational methods. Although this demonstrated
that RT-RICO might be a promising approach for predicting
secondary structure, the algorithm-s computational complexity and
program running time limited its use. Herein a parallelized
implementation of a slightly modified RT-RICO approach is
presented. This new version of the algorithm facilitated the testing of
a much larger dataset of 396 protein domains [2]. Parallelized RTRICO
achieved a Q3 score of 74.6%, which is higher than the
consensus prediction accuracy of 72.9% that was achieved for the
same test dataset by a combination of four secondary structure
prediction methods [2].
Abstract: In this paper a novel structure of metamaterial is
proposed in order to miniaturize a rectangular microstrip patch
antenna. The metamaterial is composed of two nested split octagons
which are located on a 10 mm
Abstract: The dominant judgment for earthquake damaged reinforced concrete (RC) structures is to rebuild them with the new ones. Consequently, this paper estimates if there is chance to repair earthquake RC beams and obtain economical contribution to modern day society. Therefore, the totally damaged (damaged in shear under cyclic load) reinforced concrete (RC) beams repaired and strengthened by externally bonded carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips in this study. Four specimens, apart from the reference beam, were separated into two distinct groups. Two experimental beams in the first group primarily tested up to failure then appropriately repaired and strengthened with CFRP strips. Two undamaged specimens from the second group were not repaired but strengthened by the identical strengthening scheme as the first group for comparison. This study studies whether earthquake damaged RC beams that have been repaired and strengthened will validate similar strength and behavior to equally strengthened, undamaged RC beams. Accordingly, a strength correspondence according to strengthened specimens was acquired for the repaired and strengthened specimens. Test results confirmed that repair and strengthening, which were estimated in the experimental program, were effective for the specimens with the cracking patterns considered in the experimental program.
Abstract: The crystallization kinetics and phase transformation
of SiO2.Al2O3.0,56P2O5.1,8CaO.0,56CaF2 glass have been
investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA), x-ray
diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Glass
samples were obtained by melting the glass mixture at 14500С/120
min. in platinum crucibles. The mixture were prepared from
chemically pure reagents: SiO2, Al(OH)3, H3PO4, CaCO3 and CaF2.
The non-isothermal kinetics of crystallization was studied by
applying the DTA measurements carried out at various heating rates.
The activation energies of crystallization and viscous flow were
measured as 348,4 kJ.mol–1 and 479,7 kJ.mol–1 respectively. Value of
Avrami parameter n ≈ 3 correspond to a three dimensional of crystal
growth mechanism. The major crystalline phase determined by XRD
analysis was fluorapatite (Ca(PO4)3F) and as the minor phases –
fluormargarite (CaAl2(Al2SiO2)10F2) and vitlokite (Ca9P6O24). The
resulting glass-ceramic has a homogeneous microstructure, composed
of prismatic crystals, evenly distributed in glass phase.
Abstract: We report a lithography-free approach to fabricate the
biomimetics, quasi-beehive Si nanostructures (QBSNs), on
Si-substrates. The self-assembled SiGe nanoislands via the strain
induced surface roughening (Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability) during
in-situ annealing play a key role as patterned sacrifice regions for
subsequent reactive ion etching (RIE) process performed for
fabricating quasi-beehive nanostructures on Si-substrates. As the
measurements of field emission, the bare QBSNs show poor field
emission performance, resulted from the existence of the native oxide
layer which forms an insurmountable barrier for electron emission. In
order to dramatically improve the field emission characteristics, the
platinum nanopillars (Pt-NPs) were deposited on QBSNs to form
Pt-NPs/QBSNs heterostructures. The turn-on field of Pt-NPs/QBSNs
is as low as 2.29 V/μm (corresponding current density of 1 μA/cm2),
and the field enhancement factor (β-value) is significantly increased to
6067. More importantly, the uniform and continuous electrons excite
light emission, due to the surrounding filed emitters from
Pt-NPs/QBSNs, can be easily obtained. This approach does not require
an expensive photolithographic process and possesses great potential
for applications.
Abstract: Data of wave height and wind speed were collected
from three existing oil fields in South China Sea – offshore
Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah regions. Extreme values
and other significant data were employed for analysis. The data were
recorded from 1999 until 2008. The results show that offshore
structures are susceptible to unacceptable motions initiated by wind
and waves with worst structural impacts caused by extreme wave
heights. To protect offshore structures from damage, there is a need
to quantify descriptive statistics and determine spectra envelope of
wind speed and wave height, and to ascertain the frequency content
of each spectrum for offshore structures in the South China Sea
shallow waters using measured time series. The results indicate that
the process is nonstationary; it is converted to stationary process by
first differencing the time series. For descriptive statistical analysis,
both wind speed and wave height have significant influence on the
offshore structure during the northeast monsoon with high mean wind
speed of 13.5195 knots ( = 6.3566 knots) and the high mean wave
height of 2.3597 m ( = 0.8690 m). Through observation of the
spectra, there is no clear dominant peak and the peaks fluctuate
randomly. Each wind speed spectrum and wave height spectrum has
its individual identifiable pattern. The wind speed spectrum tends to
grow gradually at the lower frequency range and increasing till it
doubles at the higher frequency range with the mean peak frequency
range of 0.4104 Hz to 0.4721 Hz, while the wave height tends to
grow drastically at the low frequency range, which then fluctuates
and decreases slightly at the high frequency range with the mean
peak frequency range of 0.2911 Hz to 0.3425 Hz.
Abstract: Natural gas flow contains undesirable solid particles,
liquid condensation, and/or oil droplets and requires reliable
removing equipment to perform filtration. Recent natural gas
processing applications are demanded compactness and reliability of
process equipment. Since conventional means are sophisticated in
design, poor in efficiency, and continue lacking robust, a supersonic
nozzle has been introduced as an alternative means to meet such
demands.
A 3-D Convergent-Divergent Nozzle is simulated using
commercial Code for pressure ratio (NPR) varies from 1.2 to 2. Six
different shapes of nozzle are numerically examined to illustrate the
position of shock-wave as such spot could be considered as a
benchmark of particle separation. Rectangle, triangle, circular,
elliptical, pentagon, and hexagon nozzles are simulated using Fluent
Code with all have same cross-sectional area.
The simple one-dimensional inviscid theory does not describe the
actual features of fluid flow precisely as it ignores the impact of
nozzle configuration on the flow properties. CFD Simulation results,
however, show that nozzle geometry influences the flow structures
including location of shock wave.
The CFD analysis predicts shock appearance when p01/pa>1.2 for
almost all geometry and locates at the lower area ratio (Ae/At).
Simulation results showed that shock wave in Elliptical nozzle has
the farthest distance from the throat among the others at relatively
small NPR. As NPR increases, hexagon would be the farthest. The
numerical result is compared with available experimental data and
has shown good agreement in terms of shock location and flow
structure.
Abstract: Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC) features
are widely used as acoustic features for speech recognition as well
as speaker recognition. In MFCC feature representation, the Mel frequency
scale is used to get a high resolution in low frequency region,
and a low resolution in high frequency region. This kind of processing
is good for obtaining stable phonetic information, but not suitable
for speaker features that are located in high frequency regions. The
speaker individual information, which is non-uniformly distributed
in the high frequencies, is equally important for speaker recognition.
Based on this fact we proposed an admissible wavelet packet based
filter structure for speaker identification. Multiresolution capabilities
of wavelet packet transform are used to derive the new features.
The proposed scheme differs from previous wavelet based works,
mainly in designing the filter structure. Unlike others, the proposed
filter structure does not follow Mel scale. The closed-set speaker
identification experiments performed on the TIMIT database shows
improved identification performance compared to other commonly
used Mel scale based filter structures using wavelets.
Abstract: A genetic algorithm (GA) based feature subset
selection algorithm is proposed in which the correlation structure of
the features is exploited. The subset of features is validated according
to the classification performance. Features derived from the
continuous wavelet transform are potentially strongly correlated.
GA-s that do not take the correlation structure of features into
account are inefficient. The proposed algorithm forms clusters of
correlated features and searches for a good candidate set of clusters.
Secondly a search within the clusters is performed. Different
simulations of the algorithm on a real-case data set with strong
correlations between features show the increased classification
performance. Comparison is performed with a standard GA without
use of the correlation structure.
Abstract: Intermittent aeration process can be easily applied on
the existing activated sludge system and is highly reliable against the loading changes. It can be operated in a relatively simple way as well.
Since the moving-bed biofilm reactor method processes pollutants by attaching and securing the microorganisms on the media, the process
efficiency can be higher compared to the suspended growth biological
treatment process, and can reduce the return of sludge. In this study,
the existing intermittent aeration process with alternating flow being
applied on the oxidation ditch is applied on the continuous flow stirred tank reactor with advantages from both processes, and we would like
to develop the process to significantly reduce the return of sludge in the clarifier and to secure the reliable quality of treated water by
adding the moving media. Corresponding process has the appropriate
form as an infrastructure based on u- environment in future u- City and
is expected to accelerate the implementation of u-Eco city in conjunction with city based services. The system being conducted in a
laboratory scale has been operated in HRT 8hours except for the final
clarifier and showed the removal efficiency of 97.7 %, 73.1 % and 9.4
% in organic matters, TN and TP, respectively with operating range of
4hour cycle on system SRT 10days. After adding the media, the removal efficiency of phosphorus showed a similar level compared to
that before the addition, but the removal efficiency of nitrogen was
improved by 7~10 %. In addition, the solids which were maintained in
MLSS 1200~1400 at 25 % of media packing were attached all onto the
media, which produced no sludge entering the clarifier. Therefore, the
return of sludge is not needed any longer.
Abstract: According to the theory of capital structure, this paper uses principal component analysis and linear regression analysis to study the relationship between the debt characteristics of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province and their business performance. The results show that the average debt ratio of the 29 private listed companies selected from the sample is lower. And it is found that for the sample whose debt ratio is lower than 80%, its debt ratio is negatively related to corporate performance, while for the sample whose debt ratio is beyond 80%, the relationship of debt financing and enterprise performance shows the different trends. The conclusions reflect the drawbacks may exist that the debt ratio is relatively low and having not take full advantage of debt governance effect of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province.
Abstract: In this paper, the Lennard -Jones potential is applied
to molecules of liquid argon as well as its vapor and platinum as solid
surface in order to perform a non-equilibrium molecular dynamics
simulation to study the microscopic aspects of liquid-vapor-solid
interactions. The channel is periodic in x and y directions and along z
direction it is bounded by atomic walls. It was found that density of
the liquids near the solid walls fluctuated greatly and that the
structure was more like a solid than a liquid. This indicates that the
interactions of solid and liquid molecules are very strong. The
resultant surface tension, liquid density and vapor density are found
to be well predicted when compared with the experimental data for
argon. Liquid and vapor densities were found to depend on the cutoff
radius which induces the use of P3M (particle-particle particle-mesh)
method which was implemented for evaluation of force and surface
tension.
Abstract: Using steelmaking slag as a raw material, aragonite superstructure product had been synthesized via an indirect CO2 mineral sequestration rout. It mainly involved two separate steps, in which the element of calcium is first selectively leached from steelmaking slag by a novel leaching media consisting of organic solvent Tributyl phosphate (TBP), acetic acid, and ultra-purity water, followed by enhanced carbonation in a separate step for aragonite superstructure production as well as efficiency recovery of leaching media. Based on the different leaching medium employed in the steelmaking slag leaching process, two typical products were collected from the enhanced carbonation step. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. It reveals that the needle-like aragonite crystals self-organized into aragonite superstructure particles including aragonite microspheres as well as dumbbell-like spherical particles, can be obtained from the steelmaking slag with the purity over 99%.
Abstract: Networked schools have become a feature of
education systems in countries that seek to provide learning
opportunities in schools located beyond major centres of population.
The internet and e-learning have facilitated the development of
virtual educational structures that complement traditional schools,
encouraging collaborative teaching and learning to proceed. In rural
New Zealand and in the Atlantic Canadian province of
Newfoundland and Labrador, e-learning is able to provide new ways
of organizing teaching, learning and the management of educational
opportunities. However, the future of e-teaching and e-learning in
networked schools depends on the development of professional
education programs that prepare teachers for collaborative teaching
and learning environments in which both virtual and traditional face
to face instruction co-exist.
Abstract: A New features are extracted and compared to
improve the prediction of protein-protein interactions. The basic idea
is to select and use the best set of features from the Tensor matrices
that are produced by the frequency vectors of the protein sequences.
Three set of features are compared, the first set is based on the
indices that are the most common in the interacting proteins, the
second set is based on the indices that tend to be common in the
interacting and non-interacting proteins, and the third set is
constructed by using random indices. Moreover, three encoding
strategies are compared; that are based on the amino asides polarity,
structure, and chemical properties. The experimental results indicate
that the highest accuracy can be obtained by using random indices
with chemical properties encoding strategy and support vector
machine.
Abstract: Nowadays use of a new structural bracing system
called 'Knee Bracing System' have taken the specialists attention too
much. On the other hand nonlinear static analysis procedures in
estimate structures performance in earthquake time have taken
attention too much. One of these procedure is modal pushover
analysis (MPA) procedure. The accuracy of MPA procedure for
simple steel moment resisting frame has been verified and considered
in Chintanapakdee and Chopra-s article in 2003. Since the accuracy
of MPA procedure has not verified for semi-rigid steel frames with
knee bracing, we are going to get through with this matter in this
study. For this purpose, the selected structures are four frames with
different heights, 5 to 20 stories, will be designed according to AISC
criteria. Then MPA procedure is used for the same frames with
different rigidity percentiles of connections. The results of seismic
responses are compared with dynamic nonlinear response history
analysis as exact procedure and accuracy of MPA procedure is
evaluated. It seems that MPA procedure accuracy will come down by
reduction of the rigidity percentiles of semi-rigid connections.
Abstract: A parallel computational fluid dynamics code has been
developed for the study of aerodynamic heating problem in hypersonic
flows. The code employs the 3D Navier-Stokes equations as the basic
governing equations to simulate the laminar hypersonic flow. The cell
centered finite volume method based on structured grid is applied for
spatial discretization. The AUSMPW+ scheme is used for the inviscid
fluxes, and the MUSCL approach is used for higher order spatial
accuracy. The implicit LU-SGS scheme is applied for time integration
to accelerate the convergence of computations in steady flows. A
parallel programming method based on MPI is employed to shorten
the computing time. The validity of the code is demonstrated by
comparing the numerical calculation result with the experimental data
of a hypersonic flow field around a blunt body.
Abstract: This report shows the performance of composite
biodegradable film from chitosan, starch and sawdust fiber. The main
objectives of this research are to fabricate and characterize composite
biodegradable film in terms of morphology and physical properties.
The film was prepared by casting method. Sawdust fiber was used as
reinforcing agent and starch as polymer matrix in the casting
solution. The morphology of the film was characterized using atomic
force microscope (AFM). The result showed that the film has
smooth structure. Chemical composition of the film was investigated
using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) where the result revealed
present of starch in the film. The thermal properties were
characterized using thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and
differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) where the results showed
that the film has small difference in melting and degradation
temperature.
Abstract: Graphene-metal contact resistance limits the performance of graphene-based electrical devices. In this work, we have fabricated both graphene field-effect transistors (GFET) and transfer length measurement (TLM) test devices with titanium contacts. The purpose of this work is to compare the contact resistances that can be numerically extracted from the GFETs and measured from the TLM structures. We also provide a brief review of the work done in the field to solve the contact resistance problem.