Abstract: In a previously developed fast vortex method, the
diffusion of the vortex sheet induced at the solid wall by the no-slip
boundary conditions was modeled according to the approximation
solution of Koumoutsakos and converted into discrete blobs in the
vicinity of the wall. This scheme had been successfully applied to a
simulation of the flow induced with an impulsively initiated circular
cylinder. In this work, further modifications on this vortex method are
attempted, including replacing the approximation solution by the
boundary-element-method solution, incorporating a new algorithm for
handling the over-weak vortex blobs, and diffusing the vortex sheet
circulation in a new way suitable for high-curvature solid bodies. The
accuracy is thus largely improved. The predictions of lift and drag
coefficients for a uniform flow past a NASA airfoil agree well with the
existing literature.
Abstract: One of the key research issues in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is how to efficiently deploy sensors to cover an area. In this paper, we present a Fishnet Based Dispatch Scheme (FiBDS) with energy aware mobility and interest based sensing angle. We propose two algorithms, one is FiBDS centralized algorithm and another is FiBDS distributed algorithm. The centralized algorithm is designed specifically for the non-time critical applications, commonly known as non real-time applications while the distributed algorithm is designed specifically for the time critical applications, commonly known as real-time applications. The proposed dispatch scheme works in a phase-selection manner. In this in each phase a specific constraint is dealt with according to the specified priority and then moved onto the next phase and at the end of each only the best suited nodes for the phase are chosen. Simulation results are presented to verify their effectiveness.
Abstract: A real-time tracking system was built to track performers on an interactive stage. Using an ordinary, up to date, desktop workstation, the performers- silhouette was segmented from the background and parameterized by calculating the normalized central image moments. In the stage system, the silhouette moments were then sent to a parallel workstation, which used them to generate corresponding 3D virtual geometry and projected the generated graphic back onto the stage.
Abstract: Eco-driving allows the driver to optimize his/her behaviour in order to achieve several types of benefits: reducing pollution emissions, increasing road safety, and fuel saving. One of the main rules for adopting eco-driving is to anticipate the traffic events by avoiding strong acceleration or braking and maintaining a steady speed when possible. Therefore, drivers have to comply with speed limits and time headway. The present study explored the role of three types of motivation and social norms in predicting French drivers- intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway as eco-driving practices as well as examine the variations according to gender and age. 1234 drivers with ages between 18 and 75 years old filled in a questionnaire which was presented as part of an online survey aiming to better understand the drivers- road habits. It included items assessing: a) behavioural intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway according to three types of motivation: reducing pollution emissions, increasing road safety, and fuel saving, b) subjective and descriptive social norms regarding the intention to comply with speed limits and time headway, and c) sociodemographical variables. Drivers expressed their intention to frequently comply with speed limits and time headway in the following 6 months; however, they showed more intention to comply with speed limits as compared to time headway regardless of the type of motivation. The subjective injunctive norms were significantly more important in predicting drivers- intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway as compared to the descriptive norms. In addition, the most frequently reported type of motivation for complying with speed limits and time headway was increasing road safety followed by fuel saving and reducing pollution emissions, hence underlining a low motivation to practice eco-driving. Practical implications of the results are discussed.
Abstract: Having a very many number of pipelines all over the
country, Iran is one of the countries consists of various ecosystems
with variable degrees of fragility and robusticity as well as
geographical conditions. This study presents a state-of-the-art method
to estimate environmental risks of pipelines by recommending
rational equations including FES, URAS, SRS, RRS, DRS, LURS
and IRS as well as FRS to calculate the risks. This study was carried
out by a relative semi-quantitative approach based on land uses and
HVAs (High-Value Areas). GIS as a tool was used to create proper
maps regarding the environmental risks, land uses and distances. The
main logic for using the formulas was the distance-based approaches
and ESI as well as intersections. Summarizing the results of the
study, a risk geographical map based on the ESIs and final risk score
(FRS) was created. The study results showed that the most sensitive
and so of high risk area would be an area comprising of mangrove
forests located in the pipeline neighborhood. Also, salty lands were
the most robust land use units in the case of pipeline failure
circumstances. Besides, using a state-of-the-art method, it showed
that mapping the risks of pipelines out with the applied method is of
more reliability and convenience as well as relative
comprehensiveness in comparison to present non-holistic methods for
assessing the environmental risks of pipelines. The focus of the
present study is “assessment" than that of “management". It is
suggested that new policies are to be implemented to reduce the
negative effects of the pipeline that has not yet been constructed
completely
Abstract: The people are differed by their capabilities, skills and mental agilities. The evolution of human from childhood when they are completely dependent up to adultness the time they gradually set the dependency free is too complicated, by considering they have all started from almost one point but some become cleverer and some less. The main control command of a cybernetic hand should be posted by remaining healthy organs of disabled Person. These commands can be from several channels, which their recording and detecting are different and need complicated study. In this research, we suppose that, this stage has been done or in the other words, the command has been already sent and detected. So the main goal is to control a long hand, upper elbow hand missing, by an interest angle define by disabled. It means that, the system input is the position desired by disables and the output is the elbow-joint angle variation. Therefore the goal is a suitable control design based on neural network theory in order to meet the given mapping.
Abstract: In this paper, we were introduces a skin detection
method using a histogram approximation based on the mean shift
algorithm. The proposed method applies the mean shift procedure to a
histogram of a skin map of the input image, generated by comparison
with standard skin colors in the CbCr color space, and divides the
background from the skin region by selecting the maximum value
according to brightness level. The proposed method detects the skin
region using the mean shift procedure to determine a maximum value
that becomes the dividing point, rather than using a manually selected
threshold value, as in existing techniques. Even when skin color is
contaminated by illumination, the procedure can accurately segment
the skin region and the background region. The proposed method may
be useful in detecting facial regions as a pretreatment for face
recognition in various types of illumination.
Abstract: METIS is the Multi Element Telescope for Imaging
and Spectroscopy, a Coronagraph aboard the European Space
Agency-s Solar Orbiter Mission aimed at the observation of the solar
corona via both VIS and UV/EUV narrow-band imaging and spectroscopy. METIS, with its multi-wavelength capabilities, will
study in detail the physical processes responsible for the corona heating and the origin and properties of the slow and fast solar wind.
METIS electronics will collect and process scientific data thanks to its detectors proximity electronics, the digital front-end subsystem
electronics and the MPPU, the Main Power and Processing Unit,
hosting a space-qualified processor, memories and some rad-hard
FPGAs acting as digital controllers.This paper reports on the overall
METIS electronics architecture and data processing capabilities
conceived to address all the scientific issues as a trade-off solution between requirements and allocated resources, just before the
Preliminary Design Review as an ESA milestone in April 2012.
Abstract: The purpose of the study reported here was designing Information Dissemination System (IDS) based E-learning in agricultural of Iran. A questionnaire was developed to designing Information Dissemination System. The questionnaire was distributed to 96 extension agents who work for Management of Extension and Farming System of Khuzestan province of Iran. Data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Appropriate statistical procedures for description (frequencies, percent, means, and standard deviations) were used. In this study there was a significant relationship between the age , IT skill and knowledge, years of extension work, the extend of information seeking motivation, level of job satisfaction and level of education with use of information technology by extension agent. According to extension agents five factors were ranked respectively as five top essential items to designing Information Dissemination System (IDS) based E-learning in agricultural of Iran. These factors include: 1) Establish communication between farmers, coordinators (extension agents), agricultural experts, research centers, and community by information technology. 2) The communication between all should be mutual. 3) The information must be based farmers need. 4) Internet used as a facility to transfer the advanced agricultural information to the farming community. 5) Farmers can be illiterate and speak a local and they are not expected to use the system directly. Knowledge produced by the agricultural scientist must be transformed in to computer understandable presentation. To designing Information Dissemination System, electronic communication, in the agricultural society and rural areas must be developed. This communication must be mutual between all factors.
Abstract: Young people have a high prevalence of mental health
problems, yet tend not to seek help. Trusted adults in young people-s
lives, such as teachers and sports coaches, can make a major positive
contribution to the mental health of young people. Teachers and
sports coaches may be in a position to be effective in supporting
young people-s mental health through promotion, prevention and
early intervention. This study reports findings from interviews with
21 teachers and 13 sports coaches of young people aged 12 to 18 in
Canberra, Australia, regarding their perceptions of the relevance and
effectiveness of their role in supporting young people-s mental
health. Both teachers and coaches perceived having influential but
slightly different roles to play in supporting mental health. There may
be potential to elevate the influence of teachers and coaches as
sources of support for young people and their mental health care.
Abstract: The Boundary Representation of a 3D manifold contains
FACES (connected subsets of a parametric surface S : R2 -!
R3). In many science and engineering applications it is cumbersome
and algebraically difficult to deal with the polynomial set and
constraints (LOOPs) representing the FACE. Because of this reason, a
Piecewise Linear (PL) approximation of the FACE is needed, which is
usually represented in terms of triangles (i.e. 2-simplices). Solving the
problem of FACE triangulation requires producing quality triangles
which are: (i) independent of the arguments of S, (ii) sensitive to the
local curvatures, and (iii) compliant with the boundaries of the FACE
and (iv) topologically compatible with the triangles of the neighboring
FACEs. In the existing literature there are no guarantees for the point
(iii). This article contributes to the topic of triangulations conforming
to the boundaries of the FACE by applying the concept of parameterindependent
Gabriel complex, which improves the correctness of the
triangulation regarding aspects (iii) and (iv). In addition, the article
applies the geometric concept of tangent ball to a surface at a point to
address points (i) and (ii). Additional research is needed in algorithms
that (i) take advantage of the concepts presented in the heuristic
algorithm proposed and (ii) can be proved correct.
Abstract: Most, if not all, public hospitals in Thailand have encountered a common problem regarding the increasing demand for medical services. The increasing number of patients causes so much strain on the hospital-s services, over-crowded, overloaded working hours, staff fatigue, medical error and long waiting time. This research studied the characteristics of operational processes of the medical care services at the medicine department in a large public university hospital. The research focuses on details regarding methods, procedures, processes, resources, and time management in overall processes. The simulation model is used as a tool to analyze the impact of various improvement strategies.
Abstract: In contrast to existing methods which do not take into account multiconnectivity in a broad sense of this term, we develop mathematical models and highly effective combination (BIEM and FDM) numerical methods of calculation of stationary and quasi-stationary temperature field of a profile part of a blade with convective cooling (from the point of view of realization on PC). The theoretical substantiation of these methods is proved by appropriate theorems. For it, converging quadrature processes have been developed and the estimations of errors in the terms of A.Ziqmound continuity modules have been received. For visualization of profiles are used: the method of the least squares with automatic conjecture, device spline, smooth replenishment and neural nets. Boundary conditions of heat exchange are determined from the solution of the corresponding integral equations and empirical relationships. The reliability of designed methods is proved by calculation and experimental investigations heat and hydraulic characteristics of the gas turbine first stage nozzle blade.
Abstract: Cheating on standardized tests has been a major
concern as it potentially minimizes measurement precision. One
major way to reduce cheating by collusion is to administer multiple
forms of a test. Even with this approach, potential collusion is still
quite large. A Latin-square treatment structure for distributing
multiple forms is proposed to further reduce the colluding potential.
An index to measure the extent of colluding potential is also
proposed. Finally, with a simple algorithm, the various Latin-squares
were explored to find the best structure to keep the colluding
potential to a minimum.
Abstract: Because of architectural condition and structure application, sometimes mass source and stiffness source are not coincidence, and the structure is irregular. The structure is also might be asymmetric as an asymmetric bracing in plan which leads to unbalance distribution of stiffness or because of unbalance distribution of the mass. Both condition lead to eccentricity and torsion in the structure. The deficiency of ordinary code to evaluate the performance of steel structures against earthquake has been caused designing based on performance level or capacity spectrum be used. By using the mentioned methods it is possible to design a structure that its behavior against different earthquakes be predictive. In this article 5- story buildings with different percentage of asymmetric which is because of stiffness changes have been designed. The static and dynamic nonlinear analysis under three acceleration recording has been done. Finally performance level of the structure has been evaluated.
Abstract: Thermal load calculations have been performed for
multi-layered walls that are composed of three different parts; a
common (sand and cement) plaster, and two types of locally
produced soft and hard bricks. The masonry construction of these
layered walls was based on concrete-backed stone masonry made of
limestone bricks joined by mortar. These multilayered walls are
forming the outer walls of the building envelope of a typical Libyan
house. Based on the periodic seasonal weather conditions, within the
Libyan cost region during summer and winter, measured thermal
conductivity values were used to implement such seasonal variation
of heat flow and the temperature variations through the walls. The
experimental measured thermal conductivity values were obtained
using the Hot Disk technique. The estimation of the thermal
resistance of the wall layers ( R-values) is based on measurements
and calculations. The numerical calculations were done using a
simplified analytical model that considers two different wall
constructions which are characteristics of such houses. According to
the obtained results, the R-values were quite low and therefore,
several suggestions have been proposed to improve the thermal
loading performance that will lead to a reasonable human comfort
and reduce energy consumption.
Abstract: Mobile devices, which are progressively surrounded
in our everyday life, have created a new paradigm where they
interconnect, interact and collaborate with each other. This network
can be used for flexible and secure coordinated sharing. On the other
hand Grid computing provides dependable, consistent, pervasive, and
inexpensive access to high-end computational capabilities. In this
paper, efforts are made to map the concepts of Grid on Ad-Hoc
networks because both exhibit similar kind of characteristics like
Scalability, Dynamism and Heterogeneity. In this context we
propose “Mobile Ad-Hoc Services Grid – MASGRID".
Abstract: The link between coordinate transformations in the plane and their effects on the graph of a function can be difficult for students studying college level mathematics to comprehend. To solidify this conceptual link in the mind of a student Microsoft Excel can serve as a convenient graphing tool and pedagogical aid. The authors of this paper describe how various transformations and their related functional symmetry properties can be graphically displayed with an Excel spreadsheet.
Abstract: Internal controls of accounting are an essential
business function for a growth-oriented organization, and include the
elements of risk assessment, information communications and even
employees' roles and responsibilities. Internal controls of accounting
systems are designed to protect a company from fraud, abuse and
inaccurate data recording and help organizations keep track of
essential financial activities. Internal controls of accounting provide a
streamlined solution for organizing all accounting procedures and
ensuring that the accounting cycle is completed consistently and
successfully. Implementing a formal Accounting Procedures Manual
for the organization allows the financial department to facilitate
several processes and maintain rigorous standards. Internal controls
also allow organizations to keep detailed records, manage and
organize important financial transactions and set a high standard for
the organization's financial management structure and protocols. A
well-implemented system also reduces the risk of accounting errors
and abuse. A well-implemented controls system allows a company's
financial managers to regulate and streamline all functions of the
accounting department. Internal controls of accounting can be set up
for every area to track deposits, monitor check handling, keep track
of creditor accounts, and even assess budgets and financial statements
on an ongoing basis. Setting up an effective accounting system to
monitor accounting reports, analyze records and protect sensitive
financial information also can help a company set clear goals and
make accurate projections. Creating efficient accounting processes
allows an organization to set specific policies and protocols on
accounting procedures, and reach its financial objectives on a regular
basis. Internal accounting controls can help keep track of such areas
as cash-receipt recording, payroll management, appropriate recording
of grants and gifts, cash disbursements by authorized personnel, and
the recording of assets. These systems also can take into account any
government regulations and requirements for financial reporting.
Abstract: An economic operation scheduling problem of a
hydro-thermal power generation system has been properly solved by
the proposed multipath adaptive tabu search algorithm (MATS). Four
reservoirs with their own hydro plants and another one thermal plant
are integrated to be a studied system used to formulate the objective
function under complicated constraints, eg water managements,
power balance and thermal generator limits. MATS with four subsearch
units (ATSs) and two stages of discarding mechanism (DM),
has been setting and trying to solve the problem through 25 trials
under function evaluation criterion. It is shown that MATS can
provide superior results with respect to single ATS and other
previous methods, genetic algorithms (GA) and differential evolution
(DE).