Abstract: Drought is one of the most important natural disasters which is probable to occur in all regions with completely different climates and in addition to causing death. It results in many economic losses and social consequences. For this reason. Studying the effects and losses caused by drought which include limitation or shortage of agricultural and drinking water resources. Decreased rainfall and increased evapotranspiration. Limited plant growth and decreased agricultural products. Especially those of dry-farming. Lower levels of surface and ground waters and increased immigrations. Etc. in the country is statistical period (1988-2007) for six stations in Roudbar town were used for statistical analysis and calculating humid and dry years. The dependable rainfall index (DRI) was the main method used in this research. Results showed that during the said statistical period and also during the years 1996-1998 and 2007. more than half of the stations had faced drought. With consideration of the conducted studies. Drawing diagrams and comparing the available data with those of dry and humid years it was found that drought affected agricultural products (e.g.olive) in a way that during the year 1996 1996 drought. Olive groves of Roudbar suffered the greatest damages. Whereupon about 70% of the crops were lost.
Abstract: The operational behavior of a six-phase squirrel cage
induction machine with faulted stator terminals is presented in this
paper. The study is carried out using the derived mathematical model
of the machine in the arbitrary reference frame. Tests are conducted
on a 1 kW experimental machine.
Steady-state and dynamic performance are analyzed for the
machine unloaded and loaded conditions. The results shows that with
one of the stator phases experiencing either an open- circuit or short
circuit fault the machine still produces starting torque, albeit the
running performance is significantly derated.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to show efficiency and capability LZWµ in data compression. The LZWµ technique is enhancement from existing LZW technique. The modification the existing LZW is needed to produce LZWµ technique. LZW read one by one character at one time. Differ with LZWµ technique, where the LZWµ read three characters at one time. This paper focuses on data compression and tested efficiency and capability LZWµ by different data format such as doc type, pdf type and text type. Several experiments have been done by different types of data format. The results shows LZWµ technique is better compared to existing LZW technique in term of file size.
Abstract: Microorganisms isolated from water and soil of
Kazakhstan to identify potential high-effective producers of the
arachidonic acid, exhibiting a wide range of physiological activity
and having practical applications were screened. Based on the results
of two independent tests (the test on the sensitivity of the growth
processes of microorganisms to acetylsalicylic acid - an irreversible
inhibitor of PGH-synthase involved in the metabolism of arachidonic
acid and its derivatives, the test for inhibition of peroxidase activity
of membrane-bounding fraction of PGH - synthase by acetylsalicylic
acid) were selected microbial cultures which are potential highproducer
of arachidonic acid. They are characterized by a stable
strong growth in the laboratory conditions. Identification of
microorganism cultures based on morphological, physiological,
biochemical and molecular genetic characteristics was performed.
Abstract: This interdisciplinary study is an investigation to evaluate user-interfaces in business administration. The study is going to be implemented on two computerized business administration systems with two distinctive user-interfaces, so that differences between the two systems can be determined. Both systems, a commercial and a prototype developed for the purpose of this study, deal with ordering of supplies, tendering procedures, issuing purchase orders, controlling the movement of the stocks against their actual balances on the shelves and editing them on their tabulations. In the second suggested system, modern computer graphics and multimedia issues were taken into consideration to cover the drawbacks of the first system. To highlight differences between the two investigated systems regarding some chosen standard quality criteria, the study employs various statistical techniques and methods to evaluate the users- interaction with both systems. The study variables are divided into two divisions: independent representing the interfaces of the two systems, and dependent embracing efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, error rate etc.
Abstract: In this work Membrane Distillation is applied to
concentrate orange Juice. Clarified orange juice (11o Brix) obtained
from fresh fruits and a sugar solution was subjected to membrane
distillation. The experiments were performed on a flat sheet module
using orange juice and sucrose solution as feeds. The concentration
of a sucrose solution, used as a model fruit juice and also orange
juice, was carried out in a direct contact membrane distillation using
hydrophobic PTFE membrane of pore size 0.2 μm and porosity 70%.
Surface modification of PTFE membrane has been carried out by
treating membrane with alcohol and water solution to make it
hydrophilic and then hydrophobicity was regained by drying. The
influences of the feed temperature, feed concentration, flow rate,
operating time on the permeate flux were studied for treated and non
treated membrane. In this work treated and non treated membrane
were compared in terms of water flux, Within the tested range, MD
with surface modified membrane the water flux has been
significantly improved by treating the membrane surface.
Abstract: Snow cover is an important phenomenon in
hydrology, hence modeling the snow accumulation and melting is an
important issue in places where snowmelt significantly contributes to
runoff and has significant effect on water balance. The physics-based
models are invariably distributed, with the basin disaggregated into
zones or grid cells. Satellites images provide valuable data to verify
the accuracy of spatially distributed model outputs. In this study a
spatially distributed physically based model (WetSpa) was applied to
predict snow cover and melting in the Latyan dam watershed in Iran.
Snowmelt is simulated based on an energy balance approach. The
model is applied and calibrated with one year of observed daily
precipitation, air temperature, windspeed, and daily potential
evaporation. The predicted snow-covered area is compared with
remotely sensed images (MODIS). The results show that simulated
snow cover area SCA has a good agreement with satellite image
snow cover area SCA from MODIS images. The model performance
is also tested by statistical and graphical comparison of simulated and
measured discharges entering the Latyan dam reservoir.
Abstract: The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.
Abstract: A seismic isolation pad produced by utilizing the scrap
tire rubber which contains interleaved steel reinforcing cords has been
proposed. The steel cords are expected to function similar to the steel
plates used in conventional laminated rubber bearings. The scrap tire
rubber pad (STRP) isolator is intended to be used in low rise
residential buildings of highly seismic areas of the developing
countries. Experimental investigation was conducted on unbonded
STRP isolators, and test results provided useful information including
stiffness, damping values and an eventual instability of the isolation
unit. Finite element analysis (FE analysis) of STRP isolator was
carried out on properly bonded samples. These types of isolators
provide positive incremental force resisting capacity up to shear strain
level of 155%. This paper briefly discusses the force deformation
behavior of bonded STRP isolators including stability of the isolation
unit.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a texture feature-based
language identification using wavelet-domain BDIP (block difference
of inverse probabilities) and BVLC (block variance of local
correlation coefficients) features and FFT (fast Fourier transform)
feature. In the proposed method, wavelet subbands are first obtained
by wavelet transform from a test image and denoised by Donoho-s
soft-thresholding. BDIP and BVLC operators are next applied to the
wavelet subbands. FFT blocks are also obtained by 2D (twodimensional)
FFT from the blocks into which the test image is
partitioned. Some significant FFT coefficients in each block are
selected and magnitude operator is applied to them. Moments for each
subband of BDIP and BVLC and for each magnitude of significant
FFT coefficients are then computed and fused into a feature vector. In
classification, a stabilized Bayesian classifier, which adopts variance
thresholding, searches the training feature vector most similar to the
test feature vector. Experimental results show that the proposed
method with the three operations yields excellent language
identification even with rather low feature dimension.
Abstract: Today-s Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs) face increasing design challenges as the number of transistors in microprocessors increases per Moore-s Law. These challenges have recently become even more demanding as microprocessors operate at sub voltage range at significantly high current. This paper presents a new multiphase topology with cell configuration for improved performance in low voltage and high current applications. A lab scale hardware prototype of the new topology was design and constructed. Laboratory tests were performed on the proposed converter and compared with a commercially available VRM. Results from the proposed topology exhibit improved performance compared to the commercially available counterpart.
Abstract: Paper presents knowledge about types of test in area
of materials properties of selected methods of rapid prototyping
technologies. In today used rapid prototyping technologies for
production of models and final parts are used materials in initial state
as solid, liquid or powder material structure. In solid state are used
various forms such as pellets, wire or laminates. Basic range
materials include paper, nylon, wax, resins, metals and ceramics. In
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) rapid prototyping technology are
mainly used as basic materials ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene
Styrene), polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene and polypropylene.
For advanced FDM applications are used special materials as silicon
nitrate, PZT (Piezoceramic Material - Lead Zirconate Titanate),
aluminium oxide, hydroxypatite and stainless steel.
Abstract: The world is moving rapidly toward the deployment
of information and communication systems. Nowadays, computing
systems with their fast growth are found everywhere and one of the main challenges for these systems is increasing attacks and security threats against them. Thus, capturing, analyzing and verifying security requirements becomes a very important activity in
development process of computing systems, specially in developing
systems such as banking, military and e-business systems. For
developing every system, a process model which includes a process,
methods and tools is chosen. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is
one of the most popular and complete process models which is used
by developers in recent years. This process model should be extended to be used in developing secure software systems. In this
paper, the Requirement Discipline of RUP is extended to improve RUP for developing secure software systems. These proposed extensions are adding and integrating a number of Activities, Roles,
and Artifacts to RUP in order to capture, document and model threats
and security requirements of system. These extensions introduce a
group of clear and stepwise activities to developers. By following these activities, developers assure that security requirements are
captured and modeled. These models are used in design, implementation and test activitie
Abstract: This paper investigates the aerodynamic characters of a model ducted fan system, analyses the basic principle of the effect of thrust promotion and torque reduction, discovers the relationship between the revolutions per minute(RPM) of the fan and the characters of thrust, as well as system torque. Firstly a model ducted fan has been designed and manufactured according to the specific structure of flow field, then CFD simulation has been carried out to analyze such aerodynamics, finally bench tests have been used to validate the simulation results and system configuration.
Abstract: The implementation of electronic government started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysia government. The introduction of ICT in the public sector especially e-Government initiatives opens up a new book in the government administration throughout the world. The aim or this paper is to discuss the implementation of e-government in Malaysia, covering the result of public user self assessment on Malaysia's electronic government applications. E-services, e-procurement, Generic Office Environment (GOE), Human Resources Management Information System (HRMIS), Project Monitoring System (PMS), Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX) and e-syariah(religion) were the seven flagship application assessed. The study adopted a crosssectional survey research approach and information system literature were used. The analysis was done for 35 responden in pilot test and there was evidence from public user's perspective to suggest that the e-government applications were generally successful.
Abstract: High strength concrete has been used in situations
where it may be exposed to elevated temperatures. Numerous authors
have shown the significant contribution of polypropylene fiber to the
spalling resistance of high strength concrete.
When cement-based composite that reinforced by polypropylene
fibers heated up to 170 °C, polypropylene fibers readily melt and
volatilize, creating additional porosity and small channels in to the
matrix that cause the poor structure and low strength.
This investigation develops on the mechanical properties of mortar
incorporating polypropylene fibers exposed to high temperature.
Also effects of different pozzolans on strength behaviour of samples
at elevated temperature have been studied.
To reach this purpose, the specimens were produced by partial
replacement of cement with finely ground glass, silica fume and rice
husk ash as high reactive pozzolans. The amount of this replacement
was 10% by weight of cement to find the effects of pozzolans as a
partial replacement of cement on the mechanical properties of
mortars. In this way, lots of mixtures with 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% of
polypropylene fibers were cast and tested for compressive and
flexural strength, accordance to ASTM standard. After that
specimens being heated to temperatures of 300, 600 °C, respectively,
the mechanical properties of heated samples were tested.
Mechanical tests showed significant reduction in compressive
strength which could be due to polypropylene fiber melting. Also
pozzolans improve the mechanical properties of sampels.
Abstract: Ultrastructure of duodenum mucosa of irradiated rat
was studied versus dose rate of irradiation following exposure to
gamma rays from 60-Cobalt source. The animals were whole body
irradiated at two dose rates (1 Gy.mn-1 and 1 Gy.h-1) and three total
doses (1, 2 or 4 Gy) for each dose rate. 24 or 48 h after irradiation,
their small intestine was removed and samples of duodenum were
processed for observations under a transmission electron microscopy.
Samples of duodenum mucosa of control rats were processed in the
same way. For the lower dose rate of 1 Gy.h-1, main lesions
characteristic of apoptosis were detected within irradiated enterocytes
at a total dose of 2 Gy and 24 h after exposure. Necrosis was noted in
the samples, 48 h after exposition. For the higher dose rate of 1
Gy.mn-1, fewer changes were detected at all total doses 24 or 48 h
irradiation. Thus, it was shown that the appearance of radiationinduced
alterations varies not only with increasing total dose and
post-irradiation time but especially with decreasing dose rate.
Abstract: Early detection of dementia by testing the spatial
memory can be applied using a virtual environment. This paper
presents guidelines on how to design a virtual environment
specifically for elderly in early detection of dementia. The specific
design needs to be considered because the effectiveness of the
technology relies on the ability of the end user to use it. The primary
goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. Based on these
guidelines, a virtual simulation was developed and evaluated. The
results on usability of acceptance and satisfaction that are tested on
young (control group) and elderly participants indicate that these
guidelines are reliable and useful for use with elderly people.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the use of project work as a
pretext for applying the conventions of writing, or the correctness of
mechanics, usage, and sentence formation, in a content-based class in
a Rajabhat University. Its aim was to explore to what extent the
student teachers’ academic achievement of the basic writing features
against the 70% attainment target after the use of project is. The
organization of work around an agreed theme in which the students
reproduce language provided by texts and instructors is expected to
enhance students’ correct writing conventions. The sample of the
study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major students. The data
was collected by means of achievement test and student writing
works. The scores in the summative achievement test were analyzed
by mean score, standard deviation, and percentage. It was found that
the student teachers do more achieve of practicing mechanics and
usage, and less in sentence formation. The students benefited from
the exposure to texts during conducting the project; however, their
automaticity of how and when to form phrases and clauses into
simple/complex sentences had room for improvement.
Abstract: On-line handwritten scripts are usually dealt with pen tip traces from pen-down to pen-up positions. Time evaluation of the pen coordinates is also considered along with trajectory information. However, the data obtained needs a lot of preprocessing including filtering, smoothing, slant removing and size normalization before recognition process. Instead of doing such lengthy preprocessing, this paper presents a simple approach to extract the useful character information. This work evaluates the use of the counter- propagation neural network (CPN) and presents feature extraction mechanism in full detail to work with on-line handwriting recognition. The obtained recognition rates were 60% to 94% using the CPN for different sets of character samples. This paper also describes a performance study in which a recognition mechanism with multiple thresholds is evaluated for counter-propagation architecture. The results indicate that the application of multiple thresholds has significant effect on recognition mechanism. The method is applicable for off-line character recognition as well. The technique is tested for upper-case English alphabets for a number of different styles from different peoples.