Abstract: Graph rewriting-based visual model processing is a
widely used technique for model transformation. Visual model
transformations often need to follow an algorithm that requires a
strict control over the execution sequence of the transformation steps.
Therefore, in Visual Model Processors (VMPs) the execution order
of the transformation steps is crucial. This paper presents the visual
control flow support of Visual Modeling and Transformation System
(VMTS), which facilitates composing complex model
transformations of simple transformation steps and executing them.
The VMTS Visual Control Flow Language (VCFL) uses stereotyped
activity diagrams to specify control flow structures and OCL
constraints to choose between different control flow branches. This
paper introduces VCFL, discusses its termination properties and
provides an algorithm to support the termination analysis of VCFL
transformations.
Abstract: Metropolitan areas have suffered from traffic problems, which have steadily increased in many monocentric cities. Urban expansion, population growth, and road network development have resulted in a structural shift toward urban sprawl, increasing commuters’ dependence on private modes of transport. This paper aims to model the influence of socioeconomic and land-use factors on mode choice using a multinomial and nested logit model. Land-use patterns—such as residential, commercial, retail, educational and employment related—affect the choice of mode and destination in the short and medium term. Socioeconomic factors—such as age, gender, income, household size, and house type—also affect choice, while residential location is affected in the long term. Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Melbourne in Australia were chosen as case studies. Riyadh is a car-dependent city with limited public transport, whereas Melbourne has good public transport but an increase in car dependence. Aggregate level land-use data and disaggregate level individual, household, and journey-to-work data are used to determine the effects of land use and socioeconomic factors on mode choice. The model results determined that urban sprawl is the main factor that affects mode choice, income, and house type.
Abstract: Carbon dioxide is one of the major green house gases.
It is removed from different streams using amine absorption process.
Sterically hindered amines are suggested as good CO2 absorbers.
Solubility of carbon dioxide (CO2) was measured in aqueous
solutions of 2-Amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) at temperatures 30
oC, 40 oC and 60 oC. The effect of pressure and temperature was
studied over various concentrations of AMP. It has been found that
pressure has positive effect on CO2 solubility where as solubility
decreased with increasing temperature. Absorption performance of
AMP increased with increasing pressure. Solubility of aqueous AMP
was compared with mo-ethanolamine (MEA) and the absorption
capacity of aqueous solutions of AMP was found to be better.
Abstract: The most influential programming paradigm today
is object oriented (OO) programming and it is widely used in
education and industry. Recognizing the importance of equipping
students with OO knowledge and skills, it is not surprising that most
Computer Science degree programs offer OO-related courses. How
do we assess whether the students have acquired the right objectoriented
skills after they have completed their OO courses? What are
object oriented skills? Currently none of the current assessment
techniques would be able to provide this answer. Traditional forms of
OO programming assessment provide a ways for assigning numerical
scores to determine letter grades. But this rarely reveals information
about how students actually understand OO concept. It appears
reasonable that a better understanding of how to define and assess
OO skills is needed by developing a criterion referenced model. It is
even critical in the context of Malaysia where there is currently a
growing concern over the level of competency of Malaysian IT
graduates in object oriented programming. This paper discussed the
approach used to develop the criterion-referenced assessment model.
The model can serve as a guideline when conducting OO
programming assessment as mentioned. The proposed model is
derived by using Goal Questions Metrics methodology, which helps
formulate the metrics of interest. It concluded with a few suggestions
for further study.
Abstract: With the explosive growth of data available on the
Internet, personalization of this information space become a
necessity. At present time with the rapid increasing popularity of the
WWW, Websites are playing a crucial role to convey knowledge and
information to the end users. Discovering hidden and meaningful
information about Web users usage patterns is critical to determine
effective marketing strategies to optimize the Web server usage for
accommodating future growth. The task of mining useful information
becomes more challenging when the Web traffic volume is enormous
and keeps on growing. In this paper, we propose a intelligent model
to discover and analyze useful knowledge from the available Web
log data.
Abstract: The antioxidant compounds are needed for the food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals industry. For this purpose, an appropriate method is required to measure the antioxidant properties in various types of samples. Spectrophotometric method usually used has some weaknesses, including the high price, long sample preparation time, and less sensitivity. Among the alternative methods developed to overcome these weaknesses is antioxidant biosensor based on superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme. Therefore, this study was carried out to measure the SOD activity originating from Deinococcus radiodurans and to determine its kinetics properties. Carbon paste electrode modified with ferrocene and immobilized SOD exhibited anode and cathode current peak at potential of +400 and +300mv respectively, in both pure SOD and SOD of D. radiodurans. This indicated that the current generated was from superoxide catalytic dismutation reaction by SOD. Optimum conditions for SOD activity was at pH 9 and temperature of 27.50C for D. radiodurans SOD, and pH 11 and temperature of 200C for pure SOD. Dismutation reaction kinetics of superoxide catalyzed by SOD followed the Lineweaver-Burk kinetics with D. radiodurans SOD KMapp value was smaller than pure SOD. The result showed that D. radiodurans SOD had higher enzyme-substrate affinity and specificity than pure SOD. It concluded that D. radiodurans SOD had a great potential as biological recognition component for antioxidant biosensor.
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: Intelligent systems are required in order to quickly and accurately analyze enormous quantities of data in the Internet environment. In intelligent systems, information extracting processes can be divided into supervised learning and unsupervised learning. This paper investigates intelligent clustering by unsupervised learning. Intelligent clustering is the clustering system which determines the clustering model for data analysis and evaluates results by itself. This system can make a clustering model more rapidly, objectively and accurately than an analyzer. The methodology for the automatic clustering intelligent system is a multi-agent system that comprises a clustering agent and a cluster performance evaluation agent. An agent exchanges information about clusters with another agent and the system determines the optimal cluster number through this information. Experiments using data sets in the UCI Machine Repository are performed in order to prove the validity of the system.
Abstract: Boron minerals are very useful for various industrial
activities, such as glass industry and detergent industry, due to its
mechanical and chemical properties. During the production of boron
compounds, many of these are introduced into the environment in the
form of waste. Boron is also an important micro nutrient for the
plants to vegetate but if it exists in high concentrations, it could have
toxic effects. The maximum boron level in drinking water for human
health is given as 0.3 mg/L in World Health Organization (WHO)
standards. The toxic effects of boron should be noted especially for
dry regions, thus, in recent years, increasing attention has been paid
to remove the boron from waste waters. In this study, boron removal
is implemented by ion exchange process using Amberlite IRA-743
resin. Amberlite IRA-743 resin is a boron specific resin and it
belongs to the polymerizate sorbent group within the aminopolyol
functional group. Batch studies were performed to investigate the
effects of various experimental parameters, such as adsorbent dose,
initial concentration and pH, on the removal of boron. It is found
that, when the adsorbent dose increases removal of boron from the
liquid phase increases. However, an increase in the initial
concentration decreases the removal of boron. The effective pH
values for removal of boron are determined between 8.5 and 9.
Equilibrium isotherms were also analyzed by Langmuir and
Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm is obeyed better
than the Freundlich isotherm.
Abstract: The supported Pd catalysts were analyzed by X-ray
diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in order to determine
their global and local structure. The average particle size of the
supported Pd catalysts was determined by X-ray diffraction method.
One of the main purposes of the present contribution is to focus on
understanding the specific role of the Pd particle size determined by
X-ray diffraction and that of the support oxide. Based on X-ray
absorption fine structure spectroscopy analysis we consider that the
whole local structure of the investigated samples are distorted
concerning the atomic number but the distances between atoms are
almost the same as for standard Pd sample. Due to the strong
modifications of the Pd cluster local structure, the metal-support
interface may influence the electronic properties of metal clusters
and thus their reactivity for absorption of the reactant molecules.
Abstract: This study investigated the removal efficiency of electrokinetic remediation of copper-contaminated soil at different combinations of enhancement reagents used as anolyte and catholyte. Sodium hydroxide (at 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 M concentrations) and distilled water were used as anolyte, while lactic acid (at 0.01, 0.1, and 0.5 M concentrations), ammonium citrate (also at 0.01, 0.1, and 0.5 M concentrations) and distilled water were used as catholyte. A continuous voltage application (1.0 VDC/cm) was employed for 240 hours for each experiment. The copper content of the catholyte was determined at the end of the 240-hour period. Optimization was carried out with a Response Surface Methodology - Optimal Design, including F test, and multiple comparison method, to determine which pair of anolyte-catholyte was the most significant for the removal efficiency. "1.0 M NaOH" was found to be the most significant anolyte while it was established that lactic acid was the most significant type of catholyte to be used for the most successful electrokinetic experiments. Concentrations of lactic acid should be at the range of 0.1 M to 0.5 M to achieve maximum percent removal values.
Abstract: Due to the low heavy metal concentrations, the
bottom ash from a 32 MW municipal district heating plant was
determined to be a potential forest fertilizer as such. However,
additional Ca would be needed, because its Ca concentration of 1.9-
% (d.w.) was lower than the statutory Finnish minimum limit value
of 6.0-% (d.w.) for Ca in forest fertilizer. Due to the elevated As
concentration (53.0 mg/kg; d.w.) in the fly ash from the 32 MW
municipal district heating plant, and Cr concentration (620 mg/kg;
d.w.) in the ash fraction (i.e. mixture of the bottom ash and fly ash)
from the 6 MW municipal district heating plant, which exceed the
limit values of 30 mg/kg (d.w.) and 300 mg/kg (d.w.) for As and Cr,
respectively, these residues are not suitable as forest fertilizers.
Although these ash fractions cannot be used as a forest fertilizer as
such, they can be used for the landscaping of landfills or in industrial
and other areas that are closed to the public. However, an
environmental permit is then needed.
Abstract: The bag radius of the nucleon can be determined by MIT bag model based on electric and magnetic form factors of the nucleon. Also we determined the masses and magnetic moment of the nucleon with MIT bag model, using bag radius and compared with other results, suggests a suitable compatibility.
Abstract: Partial coherence between two signals removing the contribution of a periodic, deterministic signal is proposed for evaluating the interrelationship in multivariate systems. The estimator expression was derived and shown to be independent of such periodic signal. Simulations were used for obtaining its critical value, which were found to be the same as those for Gaussian signals, as well as for evaluating the technique. An Illustration with eletroencephalografic (EEG) signals during photic stimulation is also provided. The application of the proposed technique in both simulation and real EEG data indicate that it seems to be very specific in removing the contribution of periodic sources. The estimate independence of the periodic signal may widen partial coherence application to signal analysis, since it could be used together with simple coherence to test for contamination in signals by a common, periodic noise source.
Abstract: Modes of occurrence of Pb, As, Cr, Co, Cu, and Ni in bituminous coal and lignite were determined by means of sequential extraction using NH4OAc, HCl, HF and HNO3 extraction solutions. Elemental affinities obtained were then evaluated in relation to volatility of these elements during the combustion of these coals in two circulating fluidised-bed power stations. It was found out that higher percentage of the elements bound in silicates brought about lower volatility, while higher elemental proportion with monosulphides association (or bound as exchangeable ion) resulted in higher volatility. The only exception was the behavior of arsenic, whose volatility depended on amount of limestone added during the combustion process (as desulphurisation additive) rather than to its association in coal.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to determine the thermal comfort among worker at Malaysian automotive industry. One critical manual assembly workstation had been chosen as a subject for the study. The human subjects for the study constitute operators at Body Assembly Station of the factory. The environment examined was the Relative Humidity (%), Airflow (m/s), Air Temperature (°C) and Radiant Temperature (°C) of the surrounding workstation area. The environmental factors were measured using Babuc apparatus, which is capable to measure simultaneously those mentioned environmental factors. The time series data of fluctuating level of factors were plotted to identify the significant changes of factors. Then thermal comfort of the workers were assessed by using ISO Standard 7730 Thermal sensation scale by using Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Further Predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) is used to estimate the thermal comfort satisfaction of the occupant. Finally the PPD versus PMV were plotted to present the thermal comfort scenario of workers involved in related workstation. The result of PMV at the related industry is between 1.8 and 2.3, where PPD at that building is between 60% to 84%. The survey result indicated that the temperature more influenced comfort to the occupants
Abstract: In this study we focus on improvement performance
of a cue based Motor Imagery Brain Computer Interface (BCI). For
this purpose, data fusion approach is used on results of different
classifiers to make the best decision. At first step Distinction
Sensitive Learning Vector Quantization method is used as a feature
selection method to determine most informative frequencies in
recorded signals and its performance is evaluated by frequency
search method. Then informative features are extracted by packet
wavelet transform. In next step 5 different types of classification
methods are applied. The methodologies are tested on BCI
Competition II dataset III, the best obtained accuracy is 85% and the
best kappa value is 0.8. At final step ordered weighted averaging
(OWA) method is used to provide a proper aggregation classifiers
outputs. Using OWA enhanced system accuracy to 95% and kappa
value to 0.9. Applying OWA just uses 50 milliseconds for
performing calculation.
Abstract: A sensitive and specific method for quantitative
determination of aflatoxins(B1, B2, G1,G2), deoxynivalenol,
fumonisin(B1,B2), ochratoxin A, zearalenone, T-2 and HT-2 in
roasted and ground grains using liquid chromatography combined
with tandem mass spectrometry. A double extraction using a
phosphate buffer solution followed by methanol was applied to
achieve effective co extraction of 11 mycotoxins. A multitoxin
immunoaffinity column for all these mycotoxins was used to clean up
the extract. The LODs of mycotoxins were 0.1~6.1 μg/kg, LOQs were
0.3~18.4 μg/kg. Forty seven samples collected from Seoul (Korea) for
mycotoxin contamination monitoring. The results showed that the
occurrence of zearalenone and deoxynivalenol were frequent.
Zearalenone was detected in all samples and deoxynivalenol was
detected in 80.9 % samples in the range 0.626 ~ 29.264 μg/kg and N.D
~ 48.332 μg/kg respectively. Fumonisins and ochratoxin A were
detected in 46.8% samples and 17 % samples respectively, aflatoxins
and T-2/HT-2 toxins were not detected all samples.
Abstract: Different techniques for estimating seasonal water
use from soil profile water depletion frequently do not account for
flux below the root zone. Shallow water table contribution to supply
crop water use may be important in arid and semi-arid regions.
Development of predictive root uptake models, under influence of
shallow water table makes it possible for planners to incorporate
interaction between water table and root zone into design of irrigation
projects. A model for obtaining soil moisture depletion from root
zone and water movement below it is discussed with the objective to
determine impact of shallow water table on seasonal moisture
depletion patterns under water table depth variation, up to the bottom
of root zone. The role of different boundary conditions has also been
considered. Three crops: Wheat (Triticum aestivum), Corn (Zea
mays) and Potato (Solanum tuberosum), common in arid & semi-arid
regions, are chosen for the study. Using experimentally obtained soil
moisture depletion values for potential soil moisture conditions,
moisture depletion patterns using a non linear root uptake model have
been obtained for different water table depths. Comparative analysis
of the moisture depletion patterns under these conditions show a wide
difference in percent depletion from different layers of root zone
particularly top and bottom layers with middle layers showing
insignificant variation in moisture depletion values. Moisture
depletion in top layer, when the water table rises to root zone
increases by 19.7%, 22.9% & 28.2%, whereas decrease in bottom
layer is 68.8%, 61.6% & 64.9% in case of wheat, corn & potato
respectively. The paper also discusses the causes and consequences
of increase in moisture depletion from top layers and exceptionally
high reduction in bottom layer, and the possible remedies for the
same. The numerical model developed for the study can be used to
help formulating irrigation strategies for areas where shallow
groundwater of questionable quality is an option for crop production.
Abstract: Efficient and safe plant operation can only be
achieved if the operators are able to monitor all key process
parameters. Instrumentation is used to measure many process
variables, like temperatures, pressures, flow rates, compositions or
other product properties. Therefore Performance monitoring is a
suitable tool for operators. In this paper, we integrate rigorous
simulation model, data reconciliation and parameter estimation to
monitor process equipments and determine key performance
indicator (KPI) of them. The applied method here has been
implemented in two case studies.