Abstract: Analytical investigation of the sedimentation
processes in the river engineering and hydraulic structures is of vital
importance as this can affect water supply for the cultivating lands in
the command area. The reason being that gradual sediment formation
behind the reservoir can reduce the nominal capacity of these dams.
The aim of the present paper is to analytically investigate
sedimentation process along the river course and behind the storage
reservoirs in general and the Eastern Intake of the Dez Diversion weir
in particular using the SHARC software. Results of the model
indicated the water level at 115.97m whereas the real time
measurement from the river cross section was 115.98 m which
suggests a significantly close relation between them. The average
transported sediment load in the river was measured at 0.25mm ,
from which it can be concluded that nearly 100% of the suspended
loads in river are moving which suggests no sediment settling but
indicates that almost all sediment loads enters into the intake. It was
further showed the average sediment diameter entering the intake to
be 0.293 mm which in turn suggests that about 85% of suspended
sediments in the river entre the intake. Comparison of the results
from the SHARC model with those obtained form the SSIIM
software suggests quite similar outputs but distinguishing the
SHARC model as more appropriate for the analysis of simpler
problems than other model.
Abstract: The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) is a virtual research environment that provides researchers with an e-research infrastructure to congregate significant tropical data sets for data reuse, integration, searching, and correlation. However, researchers often require data and metadata synthesis across disciplines for crossdomain analyses and knowledge discovery. A triplestore offers a semantic layer to achieve a more intelligent method of search to support the synthesis requirements by automating latent linkages in the data and metadata. Presently, the benchmarks to aid the decision of which triplestore is best suited for use in an application environment like the TDH are limited to performance. This paper describes a new evaluation tool developed to analyze both features and performance. The tool comprises a weighted decision matrix to evaluate the interoperability, functionality, performance, and support availability of a range of integrated and native triplestores to rank them according to requirements of the TDH.
Abstract: In this paper, genetic algorithm (GA) opmization technique is applied to design Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS)-based damping controllers. Two types of controller structures, namely a proportional-integral (PI) and a lead-lag (LL) are considered. The design problem of the proposed controllers is formulated as an optimization problem and GA is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The proposed controllers are tested on a weakly connected power system subjected to different disturbances. The non-linear simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. It is also observed that the proposed SSSC-based controllers improve greatly the voltage profile of the system under severe disturbances. Further, the dynamic performances of both the PI and LL structured FACTS-controller are analyzed at different loading conditions and under various disturbance condition as well as under unbalanced fault conditions..
Abstract: A Finite Volume method based on Characteristic Fluxes for compressible fluids is developed. An explicit cell-centered resolution is adopted, where second and third order accuracy is provided by using two different MUSCL schemes with Minmod, Sweby or Superbee limiters for the hyperbolic part. Few different times integrator is used and be describe in this paper. Resolution is performed on a generic unstructured Cartesian grid, where solid boundaries are handled by a Cut-Cell method. Interfaces are explicitely advected in a non-diffusive way, ensuring local mass conservation. An improved cell cutting has been developed to handle boundaries of arbitrary geometrical complexity. Instead of using a polygon clipping algorithm, we use the Voxel traversal algorithm coupled with a local floodfill scanline to intersect 2D or 3D boundary surface meshes with the fixed Cartesian grid. Small cells stability problem near the boundaries is solved using a fully conservative merging method. Inflow and outflow conditions are also implemented in the model. The solver is validated on 2D academic test cases, such as the flow past a cylinder. The latter test cases are performed both in the frame of the body and in a fixed frame where the body is moving across the mesh. Adaptive Cartesian grid is provided by Paramesh without complex geometries for the moment.
Abstract: Horizontal continuous casting is widely used to
produce semi-finished non-Ferrous products. Homogeneity in the
metallurgical characteristics and mechanical properties for this
product is vital for industrial application. In the present work, the
microstructure and mechanical properties of a horizontal continuous
cast two-phase brass billet have been studied. Impact strength and
hardness variations were examined and the phase composition and
porosity studied with image analysis software. Distinct differences in
mechanical properties were observed between the upper, middle and
lower parts of the billet, which are explained in terms of the
morphology and size of the phase in the microstructure. Hardness
variation in the length of billet is higher in upper area but impact
strength is higher in lower areas.
Abstract: The paper presents the results of a series of
experiments conducted on physical models of Quarter-circle
breakwater (QBW) in a two dimensional monochromatic wave
flume. The purpose of the experiments was to evaluate the reflection
coefficient Kr of QBW models of different radii (R) for different
submergence ratios (d/hc), where d is the depth of water and hc is the
height of the breakwater crest from the sea bed. The radii of the
breakwater models studied were 20cm, 22.5cm, 25cm, 27.5cm and
submergence ratios used varied from 1.067 to 1.667. The wave
climate off the Mangalore coast was used for arriving at the various
model wave parameters. The incident wave heights (Hi) used in the
flume varied from 3 to 18cm, and wave periods (T) ranged from 1.2 s
to 2.2 s. The water depths (d) of 40cm, 45cm and 50cm were used in
the experiments. The data collected was analyzed to compute
variation of reflection coefficient Kr=Hr/Hi (where Hr=reflected wave
height) with the wave steepness Hi/gT2 for various R/Hi
(R=breakwater radius) values. It was found that the reflection
coefficient increased as incident wave steepness increased. Also as
wave height decreases reflection coefficient decreases and as
structure radius R increased Kr decreased slightly.
Abstract: Recurrence of aneurysm rupture can be attributed to
coil migration and compaction. In order to verify the effects of
hemodynamics on coil compaction and migration, we analyze the
forces and displacements on the coil bundle using a computational
method. Lateral aneurysms partially filled coils are modeled, and
blood flow fields and coil deformations are simulated considering
fluid and solid interaction. Effects of aneurysm neck size and parent
vessel geometry are also investigated. The results showed that coil
deformation was larger in the aneurysms with a wider neck. Parent
vessel geometry and aneurysm neck size also affected mean pressure
force profiles on the coil surface. Pressure forces were higher in wide
neck models with curved parent vessel geometry. Simulation results
showed that coils in the wide neck aneurysm with a curved parent
vessel may be displaced and compacted more easily.
Abstract: Implementing Information Technology/ Information
System (IT/IS) is critical for every industry as its potential benefits
have been to motivate many industries including the Malaysian
construction industry to invest in it. To successfully implement IT/IS
has become the major concern for every organisation. Identifying the
critical success factors (CSFs) has become the main agenda for
researchers, academicians and practitioners due to the wide number
of failures reported. This research paper seeks to identify the CSFs
that influence the successful implementation of IT/IS in construction
industry in Malaysia. Limited factors relating to people issue will be
highlighted here to showcase some as it becomes one of the major
contributing factors to the failure. Three (3) organisations have
participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews are employed as
they offer sufficient flexibility to ensure that all relevant factors are
covered. Several key issues contributing to successful
implementations of IT/IS are identified. The results of this study
reveal that top management support, communication, user
involvement, IT staff roles and responsibility, training/skills, leader/
IT Leader, organisation culture, knowledge/ experience, motivation,
awareness, focus and ambition, satisfaction, teamwork/ collaboration,
willingness to change, attitude, commitment, management style,
interest in IT, employee behaviour towards collaborative
environment, trust, interpersonal relationship, personal characteristic
and competencies are significantly associated with the successful
implementations of IT/IS. It is anticipated that this study will create
awareness and contribute to a better understanding amongst
construction industry players and will assist them to successfully
implement IT/IS.
Abstract: The effects of global warming on India vary from the
submergence of low-lying islands and coastal lands to the melting of
glaciers in the Indian Himalayas, threatening the volumetric flow rate
of many of the most important rivers of India and South Asia. In
India, such effects are projected to impact millions of lives. As a
result of ongoing climate change, the climate of India has become
increasingly volatile over the past several decades; this trend is
expected to continue.
Climate change is one of the most important global environmental
challenges, with implications for food production, water supply,
health, energy, etc. Addressing climate change requires a good
scientific understanding as well as coordinated action at national and
global level. The climate change issue is part of the larger challenge
of sustainable development. As a result, climate policies can be more
effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies
designed to make national and regional development paths more
sustainable. The impact of climate variability and change, climate
policy responses, and associated socio-economic development will
affect the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development
goals.
A very well calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (R2 =
0.9968, NSE = 0.91) was exercised over the Khatra sub basin of the
Kangsabati River watershed in Bankura district of West Bengal,
India, in order to evaluate projected parameters for agricultural
activities. Evapotranspiration, Transmission Losses, Potential
Evapotranspiration and Lateral Flow to reach are evaluated from the
years 2041-2050 in order to generate a picture for sustainable
development of the river basin and its inhabitants.
India has a significant stake in scientific advancement as well as
an international understanding to promote mitigation and adaptation.
This requires improved scientific understanding, capacity building,
networking and broad consultation processes. This paper is a
commitment towards the planning, management and development of
the water resources of the Kangsabati River by presenting detailed
future scenarios of the Kangsabati river basin, Khatra sub basin, over
the mentioned time period.
India-s economy and societal infrastructures are finely tuned to the
remarkable stability of the Indian monsoon, with the consequence
that vulnerability to small changes in monsoon rainfall is very high.
In 2002 the monsoon rains failed during July, causing profound loss
of agricultural production with a drop of over 3% in India-s GDP.
Neither the prolonged break in the monsoon nor the seasonal rainfall
deficit was predicted. While the general features of monsoon
variability and change are fairly well-documented, the causal
mechanisms and the role of regional ecosystems in modulating the
changes are still not clear. Current climate models are very poor at
modelling the Asian monsoon: this is a challenging and critical
region where the ocean, atmosphere, land surface and mountains all
interact. The impact of climate change on regional ecosystems is
likewise unknown. The potential for the monsoon to become more
volatile has major implications for India itself and for economies
worldwide. Knowledge of future variability of the monsoon system,
particularly in the context of global climate change, is of great
concern for regional water and food security.
The major findings of this paper were that of all the chosen
projected parameters, transmission losses, soil water content,
potential evapotranspiration, evapotranspiration and lateral flow to
reach, display an increasing trend over the time period of years 2041-
2050.
Abstract: The aim of the present investigation was to compare
sex differences in thyroid gland structure of rabbits. Five adult male
and five adult female (3.1-3.5 kg body weight) New Zealand white
rabbits were used in the experiment. Results showed that at light
microscopic level, there was no sex difference in microscopic
appearance of the thyroid glands. At electron microscopic level,
however, the mitochondria and the microvilli of the follicular cells
are more numerous and the Golgi complex is also more extensive in
male rabbits in comparison to females. Results obtained from
micrometric measurements showed that the volume density of the
follicles is higher in males than in females, but the differences are not
statistically significant .The volume density of epithelium and the
height of follicular cells are significantly greater in males than in
females and reverse is true about the volume density of interstitium
(p
Abstract: This paper explores the use of project work in a
content-based instruction in a Rajabhat University, a teacher college,
where student teachers are instructed to perform teaching roles
mainly in basic education level. Its aim is to link theory to practice,
and to help language teachers maximize the full potential of project
work for genuine communication and give real meaning to writing
activity. Two research questions are formulated to guide this study:
a) What is the academic achievement of the students- writing skill
against the 70% attainment target after the use of project to enhance
the skill? and b) To what degree is the development of the students-
writing skills during the course of project to enhance the skill? The
sample of the study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major
students. The data was collected by means of achievement test,
student writing works, and project diary. The scores in the summative
achievement test were analyzed by mean score, standard deviation,
and t-test. Project diary serves as students- record of the language
acquired during the project. List of structures and vocabulary noted in
the diary has shown students- ability to attend to, recognize, and
focus on meaningful patterns of language forms.
Abstract: Bionanotechnology deals with nanoscopic interactions between nanostructured materials and biological systems. Polymer nanocomposites with optimized biological activity have attracted great attention. Nanoclay is considered as reinforcing nanofiller in manufacturing of high performance nanocomposites. In current study, organomodified-nanoclay with negatively charged silicate layers was incorporated into biomedical grade silicone rubber. Nanoparticle loading has been tailored to enhance cell behavior. Addition of nanoparticles led to improved mechanical properties of substrate with enhanced strength and stiffness while no toxic effects was observed. Results indicated improved viability and proliferation of cells by addition of nanofillers. The improved mechanical properties of the matrix result in proper cell response through adjustment and arrangement of cytoskeletal fibers. Results can be applied in tissue engineering when enhanced substrates are required for improvement of cell behavior for in vivo applications.
Abstract: Databases have become ubiquitous. Almost all IT applications are storing into and retrieving information from databases. Retrieving information from the database requires knowledge of technical languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL). However majority of the users who interact with the databases do not have a technical background and are intimidated by the idea of using languages such as SQL. This has led to the development of a few Natural Language Database Interfaces (NLDBIs). A NLDBI allows the user to query the database in a natural language. This paper highlights on architecture of new NLDBI system, its implementation and discusses on results obtained. In most of the typical NLDBI systems the natural language statement is converted into an internal representation based on the syntactic and semantic knowledge of the natural language. This representation is then converted into queries using a representation converter. A natural language query is translated to an equivalent SQL query after processing through various stages. The work has been experimented on primitive database queries with certain constraints.
Abstract: The localization of software products is essential for reaching the users of the international market. An important task for this is the translation of the user interface into local national languages. As graphical interfaces are usually optimized for the size of the texts in the original language, after the translation certain user controls (e.g. text labels and buttons in dialogs) may grow in such a manner that they slip above each other. This not only causes an unpleasant appearance but also makes the use of the program more difficult (or even impossible) which implies that the arrangement of the controls must be corrected subsequently. The correction should preserve the original structure of the interface (e.g. the relation of logically coherent controls), furthermore, it is important to keep the nicely proportioned design: the formation of large empty areas should be avoided. This paper describes an algorithm that automatically rearranges the controls of a graphical user interface based on the principles above. The algorithm has been implemented and integrated into a translation support system and reached results pleasant for the human eye in most test cases.
Abstract: Jayanti-s algorithm is one of the best known abortable mutual exclusion algorithms. This work is an attempt to overcome an already known limitation of the algorithm while preserving its all important properties and elegance. The limitation is that the token number used to assign process identification number to new incoming processes is unbounded. We have used a suitably adapted alternative data structure, in order to completely eliminate the use of token number, in the algorithm.
Abstract: The aim of the article is extending and developing
econometrics and network structure based methods which are able to
distinguish price manipulation in Tehran stock exchange. The
principal goal of the present study is to offer model for
approximating price manipulation in Tehran stock exchange. In order
to do so by applying separation method a sample consisting of 397
companies accepted at Tehran stock exchange were selected and
information related to their price and volume of trades during years
2001 until 2009 were collected and then through performing runs
test, skewness test and duration correlative test the selected
companies were divided into 2 sets of manipulated and non
manipulated companies. In the next stage by investigating
cumulative return process and volume of trades in manipulated
companies, the date of starting price manipulation was specified and
in this way the logit model, artificial neural network, multiple
discriminant analysis and by using information related to size of
company, clarity of information, ratio of P/E and liquidity of stock
one year prior price manipulation; a model for forecasting price
manipulation of stocks of companies present in Tehran stock
exchange were designed. At the end the power of forecasting models
were studied by using data of test set. Whereas the power of
forecasting logit model for test set was 92.1%, for artificial neural
network was 94.1% and multi audit analysis model was 90.2%;
therefore all of the 3 aforesaid models has high power to forecast
price manipulation and there is no considerable difference among
forecasting power of these 3 models.
Abstract: III-nitride quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys have experienced considerable interest as potential materials for optoelectronic applications. Despite these interesting applications and the extensive efforts to understand their fundamental properties, research on its fundamental surface property, i.e., surface phonon polariton (SPP) has not yet been reported. In fact, the SPP properties have been shown to provide application for some photonic devices. Hence, there is an absolute need for thorough studies on the SPP properties of this material. In this work, theoretical study on the SPP modes in InAlGaN quaternary alloys are reported. Attention is focus on the wurtzite (α-) structure InxAlyGa1-x-yN semi-crystal with different In composition, x ranging from 0 to 0.10 and constant Al composition, y = 0.06. The SPP modes are obtained through the theoretical simulation by means of anisotropy model. The characteristics of SP dispersion curves are discussed. Accessible results in terms of the experimental point of view are also given. Finally, the results revealed that the SPP mode of α-InxAlyGa1-x-yN semiconductors exhibits two-mode behavior.
Abstract: Unstructured peer-to-peer networks are popular due to
its robustness and scalability. Query schemes that are being used in
unstructured peer-to-peer such as the flooding and interest-based
shortcuts suffer various problems such as using large communication
overhead long delay response. The use of routing indices has been a
popular approach for peer-to-peer query routing. It helps the query
routing processes to learn the routing based on the feedbacks
collected. In an unstructured network where there is no global
information available, efficient and low cost routing approach is
needed for routing efficiency.
In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism for query-feedback
oriented routing indices to achieve routing efficiency in unstructured
network at a minimal cost. The approach also applied information
retrieval technique to make sure the content of the query is
understandable and will make the routing process not just based to
the query hits but also related to the query content. Experiments have
shown that the proposed mechanism performs more efficient than
flood-based routing.
Abstract: A new and highly efficient architecture for elliptic curve scalar point multiplication which is optimized for a binary field recommended by NIST and is well-suited for elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) applications is presented. To achieve the maximum architectural and timing improvements we have reorganized and reordered the critical path of the Lopez-Dahab scalar point multiplication architecture such that logic structures are implemented in parallel and operations in the critical path are diverted to noncritical paths. With G=41, the proposed design is capable of performing a field multiplication over the extension field with degree 163 in 11.92 s with the maximum achievable frequency of 251 MHz on Xilinx Virtex-4 (XC4VLX200) while 22% of the chip area is occupied, where G is the digit size of the underlying digit-serial finite field multiplier.
Abstract: Globalisation is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided.
As globalisation allowed free flow of inputs including labour, it may
affect job opportunities for the locals. Therefore, investigate the
determinants of labour supply is essential in understanding the
structure of labour market in the new era of globalization. The
objective of this article is to examine labour supply by taking into
account the globalisation effect. The study covers 3885 households in
Peninsular Malaysia who are chosen using stratified random
sampling. The labour supply model will be the basis for the analysis.
The basic labour supply determinants are own wage and non-labour
income. However, the extended labour supply model incorporates
other variables like spouse wage，number of children and
individuals characteristics like education level and age. Besides, the
globalization indicator will also be incorporated as another
independent variable.