Abstract: The three steps of the standard one-way nested grid
for a regional scale of the third generation WAve Model Cycle 4
(WAMC4) is scrutinized. The model application is enabled to solve
the energy balance equation on a coarse resolution grid in order to
produce boundary conditions for a smaller area by the nested grid
technique. In the present study, the model takes a full advantage of the
fine resolution of wind fields in space and time produced by the available
U.S. Navy Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS)
model with 1 degree resolution. The nested grid application of the
model is developed in order to gradually increase the resolution from
the open ocean towards the South China Sea (SCS) and the Gulf of
Thailand (GoT) respectively. The model results were compared with
buoy observations at Ko Chang, Rayong and Huahin locations which
were obtained from the Seawatch project. In addition, the results were
also compared with Satun based weather station which was provided
from Department of Meteorology, Thailand. The data collected from
this station presented the significant wave height (Hs) reached 12.85
m. The results indicated that the tendency of the Hs from the model
in the spherical coordinate propagation with deep water condition in
the fine grid domain agreed well with the Hs from the observations.
Abstract: Multiple sequence alignment is a fundamental part in
many bioinformatics applications such as phylogenetic analysis.
Many alignment methods have been proposed. Each method gives a
different result for the same data set, and consequently generates a
different phylogenetic tree. Hence, the chosen alignment method
affects the resulting tree. However in the literature, there is no
evaluation of multiple alignment methods based on the comparison of
their phylogenetic trees. This work evaluates the following eight
aligners: ClustalX, T-Coffee, SAGA, MUSCLE, MAFFT, DIALIGN,
ProbCons and Align-m, based on their phylogenetic trees (test trees)
produced on a given data set. The Neighbor-Joining method is used
to estimate trees. Three criteria, namely, the dNNI, the dRF and the
Id_Tree are established to test the ability of different alignment
methods to produce closer test tree compared to the reference one
(true tree). Results show that the method which produces the most
accurate alignment gives the nearest test tree to the reference tree.
MUSCLE outperforms all aligners with respect to the three criteria
and for all datasets, performing particularly better when sequence
identities are within 10-20%. It is followed by T-Coffee at lower
sequence identity (30%), trees scores of all methods
become similar.
Abstract: In the paper a method of modeling text for Polish is
discussed. The method is aimed at transforming continuous input text
into a text consisting of sentences in so called canonical form, whose
characteristic is, among others, a complete structure as well as no
anaphora or ellipses. The transformation is lossless as to the content
of text being transformed. The modeling method has been worked
out for the needs of the Thetos system, which translates Polish
written texts into the Polish sign language. We believe that the
method can be also used in various applications that deal with the
natural language, e.g. in a text summary generator for Polish.
Abstract: Environmental considerations have become an integral part of developmental thinking and decision making in many countries. It is growing rapidly in importance as a discipline of its own. Preventive approaches have been used at the evolutional process of environmental management as a broad and dynamic system for dealing with pollution and environmental degradation. In this regard, Environmental Assessment as an activity for identification and prediction of project’s impacts carried out in the world and its legal significance dates back to late 1960. In Iran, according to the Article 2 of Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be prepared for seven categories of project. This article has been actively implementing by Department of Environment at 1997. World Bank in 1989 attempted to introducing application of Environmental Assessment for making decision about projects which are required financial assistance in developing countries. So, preparing EIA for obtaining World Bank loan was obligated. Alborz Project is one of the World Bank Projects in Iran which is environmentally significant. Seven out of ten W.B safeguard policies were considered at this project. In this paper, Alborz project, objectives, safeguard policies and role of environmental management will be elaborated
Abstract: Nowadays, quasi-continuous wave diode lasers are
used in a widespread variety of applications. Temperature effects in
these lasers can strongly influence their performance. In this paper,
the effects of temperature have been experimentally investigated on
different features of a 60W-QCW diode laser. The obtained results
indicate that the conversion efficiency and operation voltage of diode
laser decrease with the augmentation of the working temperature
associated with a redshift in the laser peak wavelength. Experimental
results show the emission peak wavelength of laser shifts 0.26 nm
and the conversion efficiency decreases 1.76 % with the increase of
temperature from 40 to 50 ̊C. Present study also shows the slope
efficiency decreases gradually at low temperatures and rapidly at
higher temperatures. Regarding the close dependence of the
mentioned parameters to the operating temperature, it is of great
importance to carefully control the working temperature of diode
laser, particularly for medical applications.
Abstract: In the last decades, a number of robust fuzzy clustering algorithms have been proposed to partition data sets affected by noise and outliers. Robust fuzzy C-means (robust-FCM) is certainly one of the most known among these algorithms. In robust-FCM, noise is modeled as a separate cluster and is characterized by a prototype that has a constant distance δ from all data points. Distance δ determines the boundary of the noise cluster and therefore is a critical parameter of the algorithm. Though some approaches have been proposed to automatically determine the most suitable δ for the specific application, up to today an efficient and fully satisfactory solution does not exist. The aim of this paper is to propose a novel method to compute the optimal δ based on the analysis of the distribution of the percentage of objects assigned to the noise cluster in repeated executions of the robust-FCM with decreasing values of δ . The extremely encouraging results obtained on some data sets found in the literature are shown and discussed.
Abstract: Energy Efficiency Management is the heart of a
worldwide problem. The capability of a multi-agent system as a
technology to manage the micro-grid operation has already been
proved. This paper deals with the implementation of a decisional
pattern applied to a multi-agent system which provides intelligence to
a distributed local energy network considered at local consumer level.
Development of multi-agent application involves agent
specifications, analysis, design, and realization. Furthermore, it can
be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The
purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach for a
decisional pattern involving a multi-agent system to control a
distributed local energy network in a decentralized competitive
system. The proposed solution is the result of a dichotomous
approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative
process to solve automatic learning problems and converges
monotonically very fast to system attracting operation point.
Abstract: A new and novel approach in medicine is the use of
cold plasma for various applications such as sterilization blood
coagulation and cancer cell treatment. In this paper a pin-to-hole
plasma jet suitable for biological applications is investigated and
characterized and the possibility and feasibility of cancer cell
treatment is evaluated. The characterization includes power
consumption via Lissajous method, thermal behavior of plasma using
Infra-red camera as a novel method, Optical Emission Spectroscopy
(OES) to determine the species that are generated. Treatment of
leukemia cancer cells is also implemented and MTT assay is used to
evaluate viability.
Abstract: Nowadays there are lots of applications of power and
free conveyors in logistics. They are the most frequently used
conveyor systems worldwide. Overhead conveyor technologies like
power and free systems are used in the most intra-logistics
applications in trade and industry. The automotive, food, beverage
and textile industry as well as aeronautic catering or engineering are
among the applications. Power and free systems employ different
manufacturing intervals in manufacturing as well as in production as
temporary store and buffer. Depending on the application area, power
and free conveyors are equipped with target controls enabling
complex distribution-and sorting tasks. This article introduces a new
power and free conveyor design in intra-logistics and explains its
components. According to the explanation of the components, a
model is created by means of their technical characteristics. Through
the CAD software, the model is visualized. After that, the static
analysis is evaluated. This analysis helps the calculation of the
mandatory state of structures under force action. This powerful model
helps companies achieve lower development costs as well as quicker
market maturity.
Abstract: Atmospheric plasma is emerging as a promising
technology for many industrial sectors, because of its ecological and
economic advantages respect to the traditional production processes.
For textile industry, atmospheric plasma is becoming a valid
alternative to the conventional wet processes, but the plasma
machines realized so far do not allow the treatment of fibrous
mechanically weak material.
Novel atmospheric plasma machine for industrial applications,
developed by VenetoNanotech SCpA in collaboration with Italian
producer of corona equipment ME.RO SpA is presented. The main
feature of this pre-industrial scale machine is the possibility of the inline
plasma treatment of delicate fibrous substrates such as fibre
sleeves, for example wool tops, cotton fibres, polymeric tows,
mineral fibers and so on, avoiding burnings and disruption of the
faint materials.
Abstract: This paper presents an application of the improved
QFD method for determining the specifications of kitchen utensils
rack. By using the improved method, the subjective nature in original
QFD was reduced; particularly in defining the relationship between
customer requirement and engineering characteristics. The regression
analysis that was used for obtaining the relationship functions
between customer requirement and engineering characteristics also
accommodated the inaccurateness of the competitive assessment
results. The improved method which is represented in the form of a
mathematical model had become a formal guidance to allocate the
resource for improving the specifications of kitchen utensils rack.
The specifications obtained had led to the achievement of the highest
feasible customer satisfaction.
Abstract: Overhead conveyor systems satisfy by their simple
construction, wide application range and their full compatibility with
other manufacturing systems, which are designed according to
international standards. Ultra-light overhead conveyor systems are
rope-based conveying systems with individually driven vehicles. The
vehicles can move automatically on the rope and this can be realized
by energy and signals. Crossings are realized by switches. Overhead
conveyor systems are particularly used in the automotive industry but
also at post offices. Overhead conveyor systems always must be
integrated with a logistical process by finding the best way for a
cheaper material flow and in order to guarantee precise and fast
workflows. With their help, any transport can take place without
wasting ground and space, without excessive company capacity, lost
or damaged products, erroneous delivery, endless travels and without
wasting time. Ultra-light overhead conveyor systems provide optimal
material flow, which produces profit and saves time. This article
illustrates the advantages of the structure of the ultra-light overhead
conveyor systems in logistics applications and explains the steps of
their system design. After an illustration of the steps, currently
available systems on the market will be shown by means of their
technical characteristics. Due to their simple construction, demands
to an ultra-light overhead conveyor system will be illustrated.
Abstract: It is hard to percept the interaction process with machines when visual information is not available. In this paper, we have addressed this issue to provide interaction through visual techniques. Posture recognition is done for American Sign Language to recognize static alphabets and numbers. 3D information is exploited to obtain segmentation of hands and face using normal Gaussian distribution and depth information. Features for posture recognition are computed using statistical and geometrical properties which are translation, rotation and scale invariant. Hu-Moment as statistical features and; circularity and rectangularity as geometrical features are incorporated to build the feature vectors. These feature vectors are used to train SVM for classification that recognizes static alphabets and numbers. For the alphabets, curvature analysis is carried out to reduce the misclassifications. The experimental results show that proposed system recognizes posture symbols by achieving recognition rate of 98.65% and 98.6% for ASL alphabets and numbers respectively.
Abstract: The anomalous generation of plasma blocks by
interaction of petawatt-picosecond laser pulses permits side-on
ignition of uncompressed solid fusion fuel following an improved
application of the hydrodynamic Chu-model for deuterium-tritium.
The new possibility of side-on laser ignition depends on accelerated
ions and produced ions beams of high energy particles by the
nonlinear ponderomotive force of the laser pulse in the plasma block,
a re-evaluation of the early hydrodynamic analysis for ignition of
inertial fusion by including inhibition factor, collective effect of
stopping power of alpha particles and the energy loss rate
reabsorption to plasma by the protons of plasma blocks being
reduced by about a factor 40.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect
of combining Real Experimentation (RE) With Virtual
Experimentation (VE) on students- conceptual understanding of
photo electric effect. To achieve this, a pre–post comparison study
design was used that involved 46 undergraduate students. Two
groups were set up for this study. Participants in the control group
used RE to learn photo electric effect, whereas, participants in the
experimental group used RE in the first part of the curriculum and
VE in another part. Achievement test was given to the groups
before and after the application as pre-test and post test. The
independent samples t- test, one way Anova and Tukey HSD test
were used for testing the data obtained from the study.
According to the results of analyzes, the experimental group
was found more successful than the control group.
Abstract: Estimating the lifetime distribution of computer networks in which nodes and links exist in time and are bound for failure is very useful in various applications. This problem is known to be NP-hard. In this paper we present efficient combinatorial approaches to Monte Carlo estimation of network lifetime distribution. We also present some simulation results.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop a new two dimensional time accurate Euler solver for shock tube applications. The solver was developed to study the performance of a newly built short-duration hypersonic test facility at Universiti Tenaga Nasional “UNITEN" in Malaysia. The facility has been designed, built, and commissioned for different values of diaphragm pressure ratios in order to get wide range of Mach number. The developed solver uses second order accurate cell-vertex finite volume spatial discretization and forth order accurate Runge-Kutta temporal integration and it is designed to simulate the flow process for similar driver/driven gases (e.g. air-air as working fluids). The solver is validated against analytical solution and experimental measurements in the high speed flow test facility. Further investigations were made on the flow process inside the shock tube by using the solver. The shock wave motion, reflection and interaction were investigated and their influence on the performance of the shock tube was determined. The results provide very good estimates for both shock speed and shock pressure obtained after diaphragm rupture. Also detailed information on the gasdynamic processes over the full length of the facility is available. The agreements obtained have been reasonable.
Abstract: Zeolite A and MCM-41 have extensive applications in basic science, petrochemical science, energy conservation/storage, medicine, chemical sensor, air purification, environmentally benign composite structure and waste remediation. However, the use of zeolite A and MCM-41 in these areas, especially environmental remediation, are restricted due to prohibitive production cost. Efficient recycling of and resource recovery from coal fly ash has been a major topic of current international research interest, aimed at achieving sustainable development of human society from the viewpoints of energy, economy, and environmental strategy. This project reported an original, novel, green and fast methods to produce nano-porous zeolite A and MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. For zeolite A, this novel production method allows a reduction by half of the total production time while maintaining a high degree of crystallinity of zeolite A which exists in a narrower particle size distribution. For MCM-41, this remarkably green approach, being an environmentally friendly process and reducing generation of toxic waste, can produce pure and long-range ordered MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. This approach took 24 h at 25 oC to produce 9 g of MCM-41 materials from 30 g of the coal fly ash, which is the shortest time and lowest reaction temperature required to produce pure and ordered MCM-41 materials (having the largest internal surface area) compared to the values reported in the literature. Performance evaluation of the produced zeolite A and MCM-41 materials in wastewater treatment and air pollution control were reported. The residual fly ash was also converted to zeolite Na-P1 which showed good performance in removal of multi-metal ions in wastewater. In wastewater treatment, compared to commercial-grade zeolite A, adsorbents produced from coal fly ash were effective in removing multi heavy metal ions in water and could be an alternative material for treatment of wastewater. In methane emission abatement, the zeolite A (produced from coal fly ash) achieved similar methane removal efficiency compared to the zeolite A prepared from pure chemicals. This report provides the guidance for production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash by a cost-effective approach which opens potential applications of these materials in environmental industry. Finally, environmental and economic aspects of production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash were discussed.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose to study the synthesis of the
vertical dipole antenna over imperfect ground. The synthesis
implementation-s method for this type of antenna permits to
approach the appropriated radiance-s diagram. The used approach is
based on neural network. Our main contribution in this paper is the
extension of a synthesis model of this vertical dipole antenna over
imperfect ground.
Abstract: Privacy issues commonly discussed among
researchers, practitioners, and end-users in pervasive healthcare.
Pervasive healthcare systems are applications that can support
patient-s need anytime and anywhere. However, pervasive healthcare
raises privacy concerns since it can lead to situations where patients
may not be aware that their private information is being shared and
becomes vulnerable to threat. We have systematically analyzed the
privacy issues and present a summary in tabular form to show the
relationship among the issues. The six issues identified are medical
information misuse, prescription leakage, medical information
eavesdropping, social implications for the patient, patient difficulties
in managing privacy settings, and lack of support in designing
privacy-sensitive applications. We narrow down the issues and chose
to focus on the issue of 'lack of support in designing privacysensitive
applications' by proposing a privacy-sensitive architecture
specifically designed for pervasive healthcare monitoring systems.