Abstract: This paper presents the results of an analytical study
on the seismic response of a Multi-Span-Simply-Supported precast
bridge in Washington State. The bridge was built in the early 1960's
along Interstate 5 and was widened the first time in 1979 and the
second time in 2001. The primary objective of this research project
is to determine the seismic vulnerability of the bridge in order to
develop the required retrofit measure. The seismic vulnerability of
the bridge is evaluated using two seismic evaluation methods
presented in the FHWA Seismic Retrofitting Manual for Highway
Bridges, Method C and Method D2. The results of the seismic
analyses demonstrate that Method C and Method D2 vary markedly
in terms of the information they provide to the bridge designer
regarding the vulnerability of the bridge columns.
Abstract: The present work demonstrates the design and simulation of a fuzzy control of an air conditioning system at different pressures. The first order Sugeno fuzzy inference system is utilized to model the system and create the controller. In addition, an estimation of the heat transfer rate and water mass flow rate injection into or withdraw from the air conditioning system is determined by the fuzzy IF-THEN rules. The approach starts by generating the input/output data. Then, the subtractive clustering algorithm along with least square estimation (LSE) generates the fuzzy rules that describe the relationship between input/output data. The fuzzy rules are tuned by Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The results show that when the pressure increases the amount of water flow rate and heat transfer rate decrease within the lower ranges of inlet dry bulb temperatures. On the other hand, and as pressure increases the amount of water flow rate and heat transfer rate increases within the higher ranges of inlet dry bulb temperatures. The inflection in the pressure effect trend occurs at lower temperatures as the inlet air humidity increases.
Abstract: The efficiency of chitosan beads processed from 4
marine animal shells; white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), mud
crab (Scylla sp.), horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda),
and cuttlefish bone (Sepia sp.), for the adsorption experiments of
ammonia and formaldehyde were investigated. The porosities of
chitosan from the shells looked like beads were distinctly examined
under SEM. The original pores of those shells on the surface areas
compose of evenly fine pores. The shell beads of cuttlefish bone and
horseshoe crab show the larger probably even porosity, while on
those white leg shrimp and mud crab contain various large and fine
pores. The best adsorption at pH 9 in 18 mg/l ammonia at 2 hours
yield on cuttlefish bone, horseshoe crab, mud crab and white leg
shrimp with the average percent of 59.12, 51.45, 45.66 and 43.52,
respectively. Within 30 minutes the formaldehyde absorbers (at pH 5
in 8 μg/ml) revealed 46.27, 26.56, and 18.04 percent capacities in
cuttlefish bone, mud crab and white leg shrimp beads; while 22.44
percent in the horseshoe crab at pH 7. The adsorption capacities and
the amounts of beads showed a positive correlation. The adsorption
capacity relationship between pH and the gas concentrations were
affected by these qualities of chitosan beads.
Abstract: Wavelet transform provides several important
characteristics which can be used in a texture analysis and
classification. In this work, an efficient texture classification method,
which combines concepts from wavelet and co-occurrence matrices,
is presented. An Euclidian distance classifier is used to evaluate the
various methods of classification. A comparative study is essential to
determine the ideal method. Using this conjecture, we developed a
novel feature set for texture classification and demonstrate its
effectiveness
Abstract: In wireless sensor network (WSN) the use of mobile
sink has been attracting more attention in recent times. Mobile sinks
are more effective means of balancing load, reducing hotspot
problem and elongating network lifetime. The sensor nodes in WSN
have limited power supply, computational capability and storage and
therefore for continuous data delivery reliability becomes high
priority in these networks. In this paper, we propose a Reliable
Energy-efficient Data Dissemination (REDD) scheme for WSNs with
multiple mobile sinks. In this strategy, sink first determines the
location of source and then directly communicates with the source
using geographical forwarding. Every forwarding node (FN) creates a
local zone comprising some sensor nodes that can act as
representative of FN when it fails. Analytical and simulation study
reveals significant improvement in energy conservation and reliable
data delivery in comparison to existing schemes.
Abstract: The dome with ribs and rings, which covers the
ROMEXPO pavilion from Bucharest, was designed after the collapse
of the single layer reticulated dome. In this paper, it was made the
checking of the structure, under the dynamic loads with three
recorded accelerograms calibrated according to Romanian seismic
design code P100-1/2006. Under the action the dynamic loadings, it
was made a time-history analysis to determine the zones where the
plastic hinges appear, at what accelerations and their position on the
structure. The studied dome is formed by 32 spatial semi arches and
three rings: one circular ring located at the top of the dome and
another two rings, design as trusses, the first near the supports and the
second as an intermediate rings above the skylights. Above the
skylights up to the top, the dome is tight together with purlins and
bracings.
Abstract: The process of constructing a scale measuring the attitudes of youth toward violence on televisions is reported. A 30-item draft attitude scale was applied to a working group of 232 students attending the Faculty of Educational Sciences at Ankara University between the years 2005-2006. To introduce the construct validity and dimensionality of the scale, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the data. Results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that the scale had three factors that accounted for 58,44% (22,46% for the first, 22,15% for the second and 13,83% for the third factor) of the common variance. It is determined that the first factor considered issues related individual effects of violence on televisions, the second factor concerned issues related social effects of violence on televisions and the third factor concerned issues related violence on television programs. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that all the items under each factor are fitting the concerning factors structure. An alpha reliability of 0,90 was estimated for the whole scale. It is concluded that the scale is valid and reliable.
Abstract: This paper is to explore the relationship and the level
of stock market integration of the Asian countries, primarily
concentrating on Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea,
with the world from January 1997 to December 2009. The degree of
short-run and long-run stock market integration of those Asian
countries are analyzed in order to determine the significance of series
of regional and world financial crises, liberalization policies and
other financial reforms in influencing the level of stock market
integration. To test for cointegration, this paper applies coefficient
correlation, univariate regression analyses, cointegration tests, and
vector autoregressive models (VAR) by using the four Asian stock
markets main indices and the MSCI World index. The empirical
findings from this work reveal that there is no long-run stock market
integration for the four countries and the world market. However,
there is short run integration.
Abstract: Proteins levels produced by bacteria may be increased
in stressful surroundings, such as in the presence of antibiotics. It
appears that many antimicrobial agents or antibiotics, when used at
low concentrations, have in common the ability to activate or repress
gene transcription, which is distinct from their inhibitory effect.
There have been comparatively few studies on the potential of
antibiotics or natural compounds in nature as a specific chemical
signal that can trigger a variety of biological functions. Therefore,
this study was focusing on the effect of essential oils from
Cymbopogon flexuosus and C. nardus in regulating proteins
production by Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21332. The Minimum
Inhibition Concentrations (MICs) of both essential oils on B. subtilis
were determined by using microdilution assay, resulting 0.2% and
1.56% for each C. flexuosus and C. nardus subsequently. The
bacteria were further exposed to each essential oils at concentration
of 0.01XMIC for 2 days. The proteins were then isolated and
analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel
electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Protein profile showed that a band
with approximate size of 250 kD was appeared for the treated
bacteria with essential oils. Thus, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 21332 in
stressful condition with the presence of essential oils at low
concentration could induce the protein production.
Abstract: Majority of Business Software Systems (BSS)
Development and Enhancement Projects (D&EP) fail to meet criteria
of their effectiveness, what leads to the considerable financial losses.
One of the fundamental reasons for such projects- exceptionally low
success rate are improperly derived estimates for their costs and time.
In the case of BSS D&EP these attributes are determined by the work
effort, meanwhile reliable and objective effort estimation still appears
to be a great challenge to the software engineering. Thus this paper is
aimed at presenting the most important synthetic conclusions coming
from the author-s own studies concerning the main factors of
effective BSS D&EP work effort estimation. Thanks to the rational
investment decisions made on the basis of reliable and objective
criteria it is possible to reduce losses caused not only by abandoned
projects but also by large scale of overrunning the time and costs of
BSS D&EP execution.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a framework to determine Haar solutions of Bratu-type equations that are widely applicable in fuel ignition of the combustion theory and heat transfer. The method is proposed by applying Haar series for the highest derivatives and integrate the series. Several examples are given to confirm the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the proposed way is quite reasonable when compared to exact solution.
Abstract: The state of melt viscosity in injection process is significantly influenced by the setting parameters due to that the shear rate of injection process is higher than other processes. How to determine plastic melt viscosity during injection process is important to understand the influence of setting parameters on the melt viscosity. An apparatus named as pressure sensor bushing (PSB) module that is used to evaluate the melt viscosity during injection process is developed in this work. The formulations to coupling melt viscosity with fill time and injection pressure are derived and then the melt viscosity is determined. A test mold is prepared to evaluate the accuracy on viscosity calculations between the PSB module and the conventional approaches. The influence of melt viscosity on the tensile strength of molded part is proposed to study the consistency of injection quality.
Abstract: Sample of CsAg2I3 was prepared by solid state reaction. Then, microstructure parameters of this sample have been determined using wide angle X-ray scattering WAXS method. As well as, Cell parameters of crystal structure have been refined using CHEKCELL program. This analysis states that the lattice intrinsic strainof the sample is so small and the crystal size is on the order of 559Å.
Abstract: Major social changes in the last century had significant impact on the Kazakh literature. Participants of the World War II, writers and poets imprisoned during the war, formed the Kazakh literature in emigration within the framework of 'Turkistan Legion'. This was a topic which remained closed until Kazakhstan gained its independence, though even after the independence, there were few research works done about the literature in emigration. The article studies the formation of the Kazakh literature in emigration, its prominent figures, its artistic heritage, and notes of emigration in works of poets and writers.
Abstract: This study considers the problem of determining
operation and maintenance schedules for a containership equipped
with components during its sailing according to a pre-determined
navigation schedule. The operation schedule, which specifies work
time of each component, determines the due-date of each maintenance
activity, and the maintenance schedule specifies the actual start
time of each maintenance activity. The main constraints are component
requirements, workforce availability, working time limitation,
and inter-maintenance time. To represent the problem mathematically,
a mixed integer programming model is developed. Then,
due to the problem complexity, we suggest a heuristic for the objective
of minimizing the sum of earliness and tardiness between the
due-date and the starting time of each maintenance activity. Computational
experiments were done on various test instances and the
results are reported.
Abstract: Rockfall is a kind of irregular geological disaster. Its
destruction time, space and movements are highly random. The impact
force is determined by the way and velocity rocks move. The
movement velocity of a rockfall depends on slope gradient of its
moving paths, height, slope surface roughness and rock shapes. For
effectively mitigate and prevent disasters brought by rockfalls, it is
required to precisely calculate the moving paths of a rockfall so as to
provide the best protective design. This paper applies Colorado
Rockfall Simulation Program (CRSP) as our study tool to discuss the
impact of slope shape and surface roughness on the moving paths of a
single rockfall. The analytical results showed that the slope, m=1:1,
acted as the threshold for rockfall bounce height on a monoclinal slight
slope. When JRC ´╝£ 1.2, movement velocity reduced and bounce
height increased as JCR increased. If slope fixed and JRC increased,
the bounce height of rocks increased gradually with reducing
movement velocity. Therefore, the analysis on the moving paths of
rockfalls with CRSP could simulate bouncing of falling rocks. By
analyzing moving paths, velocity, and bounce height of falling rocks,
we could effectively locate impact points of falling rocks on a slope.
Such analysis can be served as a reference for future disaster
prevention and control.
Abstract: This paper proposes a technique to protect against
email bombing. The technique employs a statistical approach, Naïve
Bayes (NB), and Neural Networks to show that it is possible to
differentiate between good and bad traffic to protect against email
bombing attacks. Neural networks and Naïve Bayes can be trained
by utilizing many email messages that include both input and output
data for legitimate and non-legitimate emails. The input to the model
includes the contents of the body of the messages, the subject, and
the headers. This information will be used to determine if the email
is normal or an attack email. Preliminary tests suggest that Naïve
Bayes can be trained to produce an accurate response to confirm
which email represents an attack.
Abstract: Many medical devices are driven by motor pumps. Some researchers reported that the vibration mainly affected medical devices using a motor pump. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of stiffness and damping coefficient in a 3-dimensional (3D) model of a motor pump and spring. In the present paper, experimental and mathematical tests for the moments of inertia of the 3D model and the material properties were investigated by an INSTRON machine. The response surfaces could be generated by using 3D multi-body analysis and the design of experiment method. It showed that differences in contours of the response surface were clearly found for the particular area. Displacement of the center of the motor pump was decreased at K≈2000 N/M, C≈12.5 N-sec/M. However, the frequency was increased at K≈2000 N/M, C≈15 N-sec/M. In this study, this study suggested experimental technique for vibration reduction for a motor pump in medical device. The combined method suggested in this study will greatly contribute to design of medical devices concerning vibration and noise intervention.
Abstract: The present paper considers the steady free
convection boundary layer flow of a viscoelastics fluid with constant
temperature in the presence of heat generation. The boundary layer
equations are an order higher than those for the Newtonian (viscous)
fluid and the adherence boundary conditions are insufficient to
determine the solution of these equations completely. The governing
boundary layer equations are first transformed into non-dimensional
form by using special dimensionless group. Computations are
performed numerically by using Keller-box method by augmenting
an extra boundary condition at infinity and the results are displayed
graphically to illustrate the influence of viscoelastic K, heat
generation γ , and Prandtl Number, Pr parameters on the velocity
and temperature profiles. The results of the surface shear stress in
terms of the local skin friction and the surface rate of heat transfer in
terms of the local Nusselt number for a selection of the heat
generation parameterγ (=0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0) are obtained and
presented in both tabular and graphical formats. Without effect of the
internal heat generation inside the fluid domain for which we take
γ = 0.0, the present numerical results show an excellent agreement
with previous publication.
Abstract: Lurking behavior is common in information-seeking oriented communities. Transferring users with lurking behavior to be contributors can assist virtual communities to obtain competitive advantages. Based on the ecological cognition framework, this study proposes a model to examine the antecedents of lurking behavior in information-seeking oriented virtual communities. This study argues desire for emotional support, desire for information support, desire for performance-approach, desire for performance -avoidance, desire for mastery-approach, desire for mastery-avoidance, desire for ability trust, desire for benevolence trust, and desire for integrity trust effect on lurking behavior. This study offers an approach to understanding the determinants of lurking behavior in online contexts.