Abstract: An electrical apparatus for measuring moisture
content was developed by our laboratory and uses dependence of
electrical properties on water content in studied material. Error
analysis of the apparatus was run by measuring different volumes of
water in a simplified specimen, i.e. hollow plexiglass block, in order
to avoid as many side-effects as possible. Obtained data were
processed using both basic and advanced statistics and results were
compared with each other. The influence of water content on
accuracy of measured data was studied as well as the influence of
variation of apparatus' proper arrangement or factual methodics of its
usage. The overall coefficient of variation was 4%. There was no
trend found in results of error dependence on water content.
Comparison with current surveys led to a conclusion, that the studied
apparatus can be used for indirect measurement of water content in
porous materials, with expectable error and under known conditions.
Factual experiments with porous materials are not involved, but are
currently under investigation.
Abstract: This study was aimed to study the probability about
the production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin as binding agent. The durian rind underwent the
boiling process with NaOH [7], [8] and then the fiber from durian
rind was formed into fiberboard through heat press. This means that
durian rind could be used as replacement for plywood in plywood
industry by using durian fiber as composite material with adhesive
substance. This research would study the probability about the
production of fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin as binding agent. At first, durian rind was split,
exposed to light, boiled and steamed in order to gain durian fiber.
Then, fiberboard was tested with the density of 600 Kg/m3 and 800
Kg/m3. in order to find a suitable ratio of durian fiber and latex.
Afterwards, mechanical properties were tested according to the
standards of ASTM and JIS A5905-1994. After the suitable ratio was
known, the test results would be compared with medium density
fiberboard (MDF) and other related research studies. According to
the results, fiberboard made of durian rind through latex with
phenolic resin at the density of 800 Kg/m3 at ratio of 1:1, the
moisture was measured to be 5.05% with specific gravity (ASTM D
2395-07a) of 0.81, density (JIS A 5905-1994) of 0.88 g/m3, tensile
strength, hardness (ASTM D2240), flexibility or elongation at break
yielded similar values as the ones by medium density fiberboard
(MDF).
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new modular approach called neuroglial consisting of two neural networks slow and fast which emulates a biological reality recently discovered. The implementation is based on complex multi-time scale systems; validation is performed on the model of the asynchronous machine. We applied the geometric approach based on the Gerschgorin circles for the decoupling of fast and slow variables, and the method of singular perturbations for the development of reductions models.
This new architecture allows for smaller networks with less complexity and better performance in terms of mean square error and convergence than the single network model.
Abstract: This work investigated the steady state and dynamic
simulation of a fixed bed industrial naphtha reforming reactors. The
performance of the reactor was investigated using a heterogeneous
model. For process simulation, the differential equations are solved
using the 4th order Runge-Kutta method .The models were validated
against measured process data of an existing naphtha reforming plant.
The results of simulation in terms of components yields and
temperature of the outlet were in good agreement with empirical data.
The simple model displays a useful tool for dynamic simulation,
optimization and control of naphtha reforming.
Abstract: Iodine radionuclides in accident releases under severe
accident conditions at NPP with VVER are the most radiationimportant
with a view to population dose generation at the beginning
of the accident. To decrease radiation consequences of severe
accidents the technical solutions for severe accidents management
have been proposed in MIR.1200 project, with consideration of the
measures for suppression of volatile iodine forms generation in the
containment. Behavior dynamics of different iodine forms in the
containment under severe accident conditions has been analyzed for
the purpose of these technical solutions justification.
Abstract: The approach based on the wavelet transform has
been widely used for image denoising due to its multi-resolution
nature, its ability to produce high levels of noise reduction and the
low level of distortion introduced. However, by removing noise, high
frequency components belonging to edges are also removed, which
leads to blurring the signal features. This paper proposes a new
method of image noise reduction based on local variance and edge
analysis. The analysis is performed by dividing an image into 32 x 32
pixel blocks, and transforming the data into wavelet domain. Fast
lifting wavelet spatial-frequency decomposition and reconstruction is
developed with the advantages of being computationally efficient and
boundary effects minimized. The adaptive thresholding by local
variance estimation and edge strength measurement can effectively
reduce image noise while preserve the features of the original image
corresponding to the boundaries of the objects. Experimental results
demonstrate that the method performs well for images contaminated
by natural and artificial noise, and is suitable to be adapted for
different class of images and type of noises. The proposed algorithm
provides a potential solution with parallel computation for real time
or embedded system application.
Abstract: Background, measuring an individual-s Health
Literacy is gaining attention, yet no appropriate instrument is available
in Taiwan. Measurement tools that were developed and used in
western countries may not be appropriate for use in Taiwan due to a
different language system. Purpose of this research was to develop a
Health Literacy measurement instrument specific for Taiwan adults.
Methods, several experts of clinic physicians; healthcare
administrators and scholars identified 125 common used health related
Chinese phrases from major medical knowledge sources that easy
accessible to the public. A five-point Likert scale is used to measure
the understanding level of the target population. Such measurement is
then used to compare with the correctness of their answers to a health
knowledge test for validation. Samples, samples under study were
purposefully taken from four groups of people in the northern
Pingtung, OPD patients, university students, community residents,
and casual visitors to the central park. A set of health knowledge index
with 10 questions is used to screen those false responses. A sample
size of 686 valid cases out of 776 was then included to construct this
scale. An independent t-test was used to examine each individual
phrase. The phrases with the highest significance are then identified
and retained to compose this scale. Result, a Taiwan Health Literacy
Scale (THLS) was finalized with 66 health-related phrases under nine
divisions. Cronbach-s alpha of each division is at a satisfactory level
of 89% and above. Conclusions, factors significantly differentiate the
levels of health literacy are education, female gender, age, family
members of stroke victims, experience with patient care, and
healthcare professionals in the initial application in this study..
Abstract: The Malaysia Highway Authority (MHA) was
established by the Government in 1980 for the purpose of designing,
constructing and maintaining toll highways in Malaysia that include
the North-South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, which were
procured using the publicly-funded traditional procurement. However
following a recession in the mid 80-s, the operations of these tolledhighways
had been privatized to ensure that their operational services
continue through private financing as a result of long-term
concession agreement concurred between the Malaysian Government
and private operators. The change in the contract strategy for
highway projects in Malaysia would have a great tendency to dictate
a significant risk exposure towards the key parties involved,
particularly the Malaysian Government as project principal, unless
operational risks are clearly identified and managed via appropriate
mitigation measures prior to a contract signing.
This research identifies potential operational risks that have a
possibility to occur in highway projects in Malaysia from the
perspective of public sector clients. Since this research focuses on the
operational risks for highway projects in Malaysia, the initial results
acquired from literature review on the operational risks of highway
projects in some Asian countries are then justified by a number of
key individuals from the MHA through interviews. As a result,
among key operational risks that have possibility to occur in the
highway projects in Malaysia include initial toll-tariff decided by the
Government, traffic congestion, change of road network and overloaded
freight transportation, which could cause damage to the road
surface and hence affecting the operation of a particular highway.
Abstract: Oxide scale thickness measurements are used in assessing the life of different components operating at high temperature environment. Such measurements provide an approximation for the temperature inside components such as reheater and superheater tubes. A number of failures were encountered in one of the boilers in one of Kuwaiti power plants. These failure were mainly in the first row of the primary super heater tubes, therefore, the specialized engineer decide to replace them during the annual shutdown. As a tool for failure analysis, oxide scale thickness measurement were used to investigate the temperature distribution in these tubes. In this paper, the oxide scale thickness of these tubes were measured and used for analysis. The measurements provide an illustration of the distribution of heat transfer of the primary superheater tubes in the boiler system. Remarks and analysis about the design of the boiler are also provided.
Abstract: Waterlogging reduces shoot and root growth and final
yield of wheat. Waterlogged sites have a combination of low slope,
high rainfall, heavy texture and low permeability. This study was
aimed the importance of waterlogging on root growth and wheat
yield. In order to study the effects of different waterlogging duration
(0, 10, 20 and 30 days) at growth stages (1-leaf stage, tillering stage
and stem elongation stage) on root growth of wheat cultivars
(Chamran, Vee/Nac and Yavaroos), one pot experiment was carried
out. The experiment was a factorial according to a RCBD with three
replications. Results showed that root dry weight and total root
length in the anthesis and grain ripening stages and biological and
grain yields were significantly different between cultivars, growth
stages and waterlogging durations. Vee/Nac was found superior with
respect to other cultivars. Susceptibility to waterlogging at different
growth stages for cultivars was 1-leaf stage > tillering stage > stem
elongation stage. Under waterlogging treatments, grain and
biological yields, were decreased 44.5 and 39.8%, respectively. Root
length and root dry weight were reduced 55.1 and 45.2%,
respectively, too. In this experiment, decrease at root growth because
of waterlogging reduced grain and biological yields. Based on the
results, even short period (10 days) of waterlogging had
unrecoverable effects on the root growth and grain yield of wheat.
Abstract: This paper explores the features of political economy in the dynamics of representative politics in India. Politics is seen as enhancing economic benefits through acquiring and maintenance of power in the realm of democratic set up. The system of representation is riddled with competitive populism. Emerging leaders and parties are forced to accommodate their ideologies in coping with competitive politics. Electoral politics and voting behaviour reflect series of influences mooted by the politicians. Voters are accustomed to expect benefits outs of state exchequer. The electoral competitors show a changing phase of investment and return policy. Every elector has to spend and realize his costs in his tenure. In the case of defeated electors, even the cost recovery is not possible directly; there are indirect means to recover their costs. The series of case studies show the method of party funding, campaign financing, electoral expenditure, and cost recovery. Regulations could not restrict the level of spending. Several cases of disproportionate accumulation of wealth by the politicians reveal that money played a major part in electoral process. The political economy of representative politics hitherto ignores how a politician spends and recovers his cost and multiples his wealth. To be sure, the acquiring and maintenance of power is to enhance the wealth of the electors.
Abstract: The Principal component regression (PCR) is a
combination of principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple linear regression (MLR). The objective of this paper is to revise the
use of PCR in shortwave near infrared (SWNIR) (750-1000nm) spectral analysis. The idea of PCR was explained mathematically and
implemented in the non-destructive assessment of the soluble solid
content (SSC) of pineapple based on SWNIR spectral data. PCR achieved satisfactory results in this application with root mean
squared error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.7611 Brix°, coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.5865 and root mean squared error of crossvalidation
(RMSECV) of 0.8323 Brix° with principal components
(PCs) of 14.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate twodimensional unsteady flow of a viscous incompressible fluid about stagnation point on permeable stretching sheet in presence of time dependent free stream velocity. Fluid is considered in the influence of transverse magnetic field in the presence of radiation effect. Rosseland approximation is use to model the radiative heat transfer. Using time-dependent stream function, partial differential equations corresponding to the momentum and energy equations are converted into non-linear ordinary differential equations. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained by using Runge-Kutta Fehlberg method with the help of Newton-Raphson shooting technique. In the present work the effect of unsteadiness parameter, magnetic field parameter, radiation parameter, stretching parameter and the Prandtl number on flow and heat transfer characteristics have been discussed. Skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number at the sheet are computed and discussed. The results reported in the paper are in good agreement with published work in literature by other researchers.
Abstract: Tailor-welded Blanks (TWBs) are tailor made for
different complex component designs by welding multiple metal
sheets with different thicknesses, shapes, coatings or strengths prior
to forming. In this study the Hemispherical Die Stretching (HDS) test
(out-of-plane stretching) of TWBs were simulated via
ABAQUS/Explicit to obtain the Forming Limit Diagrams (FLDs) of
Stainless steel (AISI 304) laser welded blanks with different
thicknesses. Two criteria were used to detect the start of necking to
determine the FLD for TWBs and parent sheet metals. These two
criteria are the second derivatives of the major and thickness strains
that are given from the strain history of simulation. In the other word,
in these criteria necking starts when the second derivative of
thickness or major strain reaches its maximum. With having the time
of onset necking, one can measure the major and minor strains at the
critical area and determine the forming limit curve.
Abstract: One of the most important issues in multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is to determine the weights of criteria so that all alternatives can be compared based on the collective performance of criteria. In this paper, one of popular methods in data envelopment analysis (DEA) known as common weights (CWs) is used to determine the weights in MCDA. Two frontiers named ideal and anti-ideal frontiers, instead of ideal and anti-ideal alternatives, are defined based on two new proposed CWs models. Ideal and antiideal frontiers are more flexible than that of alternatives. According to the optimal solutions of these two models, the distances of an alternative from the ideal and anti-ideal frontiers are derived. Then, a relative distance is introduced to measure the value of each alternative. The suggested models are linear and despite weight restrictions are feasible. An example is presented for explaining the method and for comparing to the existing literature.
Abstract: Polarization-interferometric nonlinear confocal
microscopy is proposed for measuring a nano-sized particle with
optical anisotropy. The anisotropy in the particle was
spectroscopically imaged through a three-dimensional distribution of
third-order nonlinear dielectric polarization photoinduced.
Abstract: After Apple's first introduction its smart phone, iPhone
in the end of 2009 in Korea, the number of Korean smarphone users
had been rapidly increasing so that the half of Korean population
became smart phone users as of February, 2012. Currently, smart
phones are positioned as a major digital media with powerful
influences in Korea. And, now, Koreans are leaning new information,
enjoying games and communicating other people every time and
everywhere. As smart phone devices' performances increased, the
number of usable services became more while adequate GUI
developments are required to implement various functions with smart
phones. The strategy to provide similar experiences on smart phones
through familiar features based on employment of existing media's
functions mostly contributed to smart phones' popularization in
connection with smart phone devices' iconic GUIs.
The spread of Smart phone increased mobile web accesses.
Therefore, the attempts to implement PC's web in the smart phone's
web are continuously made. The mobile web GUI provides familiar
experiences to users through designs adequately utilizing the smart
phone's GUIs. As the number of users familiarized to smart phones
and mobile web GUIs, opposite to reversed remediation from many
parts of PCs, PCs are starting to adapt smart phone GUIs.
This study defines this phenomenon as the reversed remediation,
and reviews the reversed remediation cases of Smart phone GUI'
characteristics of PCs. For this purpose, the established study issues
are as under:
· what is the reversed remediation?
· what are the smart phone GUI's characteristics?
· what kind of interrelationship exist s between the smart phone and
PC's web site?
It is meaningful in the forecast of the future GUI's change by
understanding of characteristics in the paradigm changes of PC and
smart phone's GUI designs. This also will be helpful to establish
strategies for digital devices' development and design.
Abstract: This paper presents the development of an active
vibration control using direct adaptive controller to suppress the
vibration of a flexible beam system. The controller is realized based
on linear parametric form. Differential evolution optimisation
algorithm is used to optimize the controller using single objective
function by minimizing the mean square error of the observed
vibration signal. Furthermore, an alternative approach is developed to
systematically search for the best controller model structure together
with it parameter values. The performance of the control scheme is
presented and analysed in both time and frequency domain.
Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to
suppress the unwanted vibration effectively.
Abstract: Many contemporary telemedical applications rely on
regular consultations over the phone or video conferencing which
consumes valuable resources such as the time of the doctors. Some
applications or treatments allow automated diagnostics on the patient
side which only notifies the doctors in case a significant worsening
of patient’s condition is measured.
Such programs can save valuable resources but an important
implementation issue is how to ensure effective and cheap diagnostics
on the patient side. First, specific diagnostic devices on patient side
are expensive and second, they need to be user-˜friendly to encourage
patient’s cooperation and reduce errors in usage which may cause
noise in diagnostic data.
This article proposes the use of modern smartphones and various
build-in or attachable sensors as universal diagnostic devices applicable
in a wider range of telemedical programs and demonstrates their
application on a case-study – a program for schizophrenic relapse
prevention.
Abstract: Ceramics comprise the largest proportion of Korea-s cultural heritage currently preserved (Cited from “The Beauty of Old Ceramics of Korea" written by Yoon Yong-iee). Thus, this researcher conducted this investigation in an attempt to gain insight into Korea-s past culture and the lost period of the colonial period and the Korean War by looking into the ceramics. Korea, China and Japan are part of the similar cultural bloc within the East Asian region. Their porcelains manifest distinctive characteristics by each nation along with similarities. Thus, this research seeks to find the distinctive characteristics of the Korean porcelain by conducting comparative analysis of the similarities and distinctive characteristics. These distinctive characteristics are manifested effectively in the colors of the porcelains following the materials that can be obtained in Korea, China and Japan and production method. Likewise, this research seeks to identify the characteristics of the Korean porcelains- colors based on the comparative analysis of the porcelain colors. The reasons that porcelains were selected were because they are the most well preserved cultural remains in Korea and since they have both similarities and distinctive characteristics due to the cultural interchanges among Korea, China and Japan, which facilitates comparative study. The research targets include Korea, China and Japan-s porcelains. By comparing the colors of the porcelains from Korea, China and Japan that have their distinctive characteristics, this research seeks to identify Korea-specific porcelain colors. These colors derive from the materials that can be obtained only in Korea, and they are affected by the ideologies that governed at the time. This research is meaningful in the sense that this identifies the colors that embraces the Korean culture and provides important data by leveraging the study of the characteristics of the Korea-specific porcelains.