Abstract: The current trend of increasing quality and demands
of the final product is affected by time analysis of the entire
manufacturing process. The primary requirement of manufacturing is
to produce as many products as soon as possible, at the lowest
possible cost, but of course with the highest quality. Such
requirements may be satisfied only if all the elements entering and
affecting the production cycle are in a fully functional condition.
These elements consist of sensory equipment and intelligent control
elements that are essential for building intelligent manufacturing
systems. The intelligent manufacturing paradigm includes a new
approach to production system structure design. Intelligent behaviors
are based on the monitoring of important parameters of system and
its environment. The flexible reaction to changes. The realization and
utilization of this design paradigm as an "intelligent manufacturing
system" enables the flexible system reaction to production
requirement as soon as environmental changes too. Results of these
flexible reactions are a smaller layout space, be decreasing of
production and investment costs and be increasing of productivity.
Intelligent manufacturing system itself should be a system that can
flexibly respond to changes in entering and exiting the process in
interaction with the surroundings.
Abstract: There have been many variations of technologies that helped educators in teaching & learning. From the past research it is evident that Information Technology significantly increases student participation and interactivity in the classrooms. This research started with a aim to find whether adoption of Wi-Fi environment by Malaysian Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) can benefit students and staff equally. The study was carried out in HEI-s of Klang Valley, Malaysia and the data is gathered through paper based surveys. A sample size of 237 units were randomly selected from 5 higher educational institutions in the Klang Valley using the Stratified Random sampling method and from the analysis of the data, it was found that the implementation of wireless technologies in HEIs have created lot of opportunities and also challenges.
Abstract: In this study, communities of ammonia-oxidizing
archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in nitrifying
activated sludge (NAS) prepared by enriching sludge from a
municipal wastewater treatment plant in three continuous-flow
reactors receiving an inorganic medium containing different
ammonium concentrations of 2, 10, and 30 mM NH4
+-N (NAS2,
NAS10, and NAS30, respectively) were investigated using molecular
analysis. Results suggested that almost all AOA clones from NAS2,
NAS10, and NAS30 fell into the same AOA cluster and AOA
communities in NAS2 and NAS10 were more diverse than those of
NAS30. In contrast to AOA, AOB communities obviously shifted
from the seed sludge to enriched NASs and in each enriched NAS,
communities of AOB varied particularly. The seed sludge contained
members of N. communis cluster and N. oligotropha cluster. After it
was enriched under various ammonium loads, members of N.
communis cluster disappeared from all enriched NASs. AOB with
high affinity to ammonia presented in NAS 2, AOB with low affinity
to ammonia presented in NAS 30, and both types of AOB survived in
NAS 10. These demonstrated that ammonium load significantly
influenced AOB communities, but not AOA communities in enriched
NASs.
Abstract: In communication networks where communication nodes are connected with finite capacity transmission links, the packet inter-arrival times are strongly correlated with the packet length and the link capacity (or the packet service time). Such correlation affects the system performance significantly, but little attention has been paid to this issue. In this paper, we propose a mathematical framework to study the impact of the correlation between the packet service times and the packet inter-arrival times on system performance. With our mathematical model, we analyze the system performance, e.g., the unfinished work of the system, and show that the correlation affects the system performance significantly. Some numerical examples are also provided.
Abstract: Anti-allergic effects of royal jelly were evaluated in a human-like mouse model of atopic dermatitis. NC/Nga mice were cutaneously applied with royal jelly for 6 weeks. Royal jelly-treated mice exhibited lower levels of serum total immunoglobulin E in comparison with controls. We found that the treatment decreased (11% to the control) expression of mRNA for aquaporin-3, which is involved in the modulation of epidermal hydration. Microarray analysis revealed more than 10-fold changes in the expression of several genes, such as transglutaminase 2, repetin, and keratins. In normal human epidermal keratinocytes, royal jelly extract suppressed interleukin-8 elevation induced by TNF-α and interferon-γ, suggesting direct anti-inflammatory activity in keratinocytes. Collectively, topical application of royal jelly may be useful for amelioration of lesions and inflammation in atopic dermatitis.
Abstract: MANEMO is the integration of Network Mobility
(NEMO) and Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET). A MANEMO
node has an interface to both a MANET and NEMO network, and
therefore should choose the optimal interface for packet delivery,
however such a handover between interfaces will introduce packet
loss. We define the steps necessary for a MANEMO handover,
using Mobile IP and NEMO to signal the new binding to the
relevant Home Agent(s). The handover steps aim to minimize the
packet loss by avoiding waiting for Duplicate Address Detection
and Neighbour Unreachability Detection. We present expressions for
handover delay and packet loss, and then use numerical examples to
evaluate a MANEMO handover. The analysis shows how the packet
loss depends on level of nesting within NEMO, the delay between
Home Agents and the load on the MANET, and hence can be used
to developing optimal MANEMO handover algorithms.
Abstract: Mostly the real life signals are time varying in nature. For proper characterization of such signals, time-frequency representation is required. The STFT (short-time Fourier transform) is a classical tool used for this purpose. The limitation of the STFT is its fixed time-frequency resolution. Thus, an enhanced version of the STFT, which is based on the cross-level sampling, is devised. It can adapt the sampling frequency and the window function length by following the input signal local variations. Therefore, it provides an adaptive resolution time-frequency representation of the input. The computational complexity of the proposed STFT is deduced and compared to the classical one. The results show a significant gain of the computational efficiency and hence of the processing power. The processing error of the proposed technique is also discussed.
Abstract: For Seismic design, it is important to estimate,
maximum lateral displacement (inelastic displacement) of the
structures due to sever earthquakes for several reasons. Seismic
design provisions estimate the maximum roof and storey drifts
occurring in major earthquakes by amplifying the drifts of the
structures obtained by elastic analysis subjected to seismic design
load, with a coefficient named “displacement amplification factor"
which is greater than one. Here, this coefficient depends on various
parameters, such as ductility and overstrength factors. The present
research aims to evaluate the value of the displacement amplification
factor in seismic design codes and then tries to propose a value to
estimate the maximum lateral structural displacement from sever
earthquakes, without using non-linear analysis. In seismic codes,
since the displacement amplification is related to “force reduction
factor" hence; this aspect has been accepted in the current study.
Meanwhile, two methodologies are applied to evaluate the value of
displacement amplification factor and its relation with the force
reduction factor. In the first methodology, which is applied for all
structures, the ratio of displacement amplification and force reduction
factors is determined directly. Whereas, in the second methodology
that is applicable just for R/C moment resisting frame, the ratio is
obtained by calculating both factors, separately. The acquired results
of these methodologies are alike and estimate the ratio of two factors
from 1 to 1.2. The results indicate that the ratio of the displacement
amplification factor and the force reduction factor differs to those
proposed by seismic provisions such as NEHRP, IBC and Iranian
seismic code (standard no. 2800).
Abstract: This paper presents two different sequential switching hybrid-modulation strategies and implemented for cascaded multilevel inverters. Hybrid modulation strategies represent the combinations of Fundamental-frequency pulse width modulation (FFPWM) and Multilevel sinusoidal-modulation (MSPWM) strategies, and are designed for performance of the well-known Alternative Phase opposition disposition (APOD), Phase shifted carrier (PSC). The main characteristics of these modulations are the reduction of switching losses with good harmonic performance, balanced power loss dissipation among the devices with in a cell, and among the series-connected cells. The feasibility of these modulations is verified through spectral analysis, power loss analysis and simulation.
Abstract: A Picard-Newton iteration method is studied to accelerate the numerical solution procedure of a class of two-dimensional nonlinear coupled parabolic-hyperbolic system. The Picard-Newton iteration is designed by adding higher-order terms of small quantity to an existing Picard iteration. The discrete functional analysis and inductive hypothesis reasoning techniques are used to overcome difficulties coming from nonlinearity and coupling, and theoretical analysis is made for the convergence and approximation properties of the iteration scheme. The Picard-Newton iteration has a quadratic convergent ratio, and its solution has second order spatial approximation and first order temporal approximation to the exact solution of the original problem. Numerical tests verify the results of the theoretical analysis, and show the Picard-Newton iteration is more efficient than the Picard iteration.
Abstract: Fecal sterol has been proposed as a chemical indicator
of human fecal pollution even when fecal coliform populations have
diminished due to water chlorination or toxic effects of industrial
effluents. This paper describes an improved derivatization procedure
for simultaneous determination of four fecal sterols including
coprostanol, epicholestanol, cholesterol and cholestanol using gas
chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), via optimization study
on silylation procedures using N-O-bis
(trimethylsilyl)-trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA), and
N-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide
(MTBSTFA), which lead to the formation of trimethylsilyl (TMS) and
tert-butyldimethylsilyl (TBS) derivatives, respectively. Two
derivatization processes of injection-port derivatization and water bath
derivatization (60 oC, 1h) were inspected and compared. Furthermore,
the methylation procedure at 25 oC for 2h with
trimethylsilydiazomethane (TMSD) for fecal sterols analysis was also
studied. It was found that most of TMS derivatives demonstrated the
highest sensitivities, followed by methylated derivatives. For BSTFA
or MTBSTFA derivatization processes, the simple injection-port
derivatization process could achieve the same efficiency as that in the
tedious water bath derivatization procedure.
Abstract: For the past thirty years the Malaysian economy has been said to contribute well to the progress of the nations. However, the intensification of global economy activity and the extensive use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in recent years are challenging government-s effort to further develop Malaysian society. The competition posed by the low wage economies such as China and Vietnam have made the government realise the importance of engaging in high-skill and high technology industries. It is hoped this will be the basis of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to help the country to compete in globalised world. Using Vision 2020 as it targeted vision, the government has decided to engage in the use of ICTs and introduce many policies pertaining to it. Mainly based on the secondary analysis approach, the findings show that policy pertaining to ICTs in Malaysia contributes to economic growth, but the consequences of this have resulted in greater division within society. Although some of the divisions such as gender and ethnicity are narrowing down, the gap in important areas such as regions and class differences is becoming wider. The widespread use of ICTs might contribute to the further establishment of democracy in Malaysia, but the increasing number of foreign entities such as FDI and foreign workers, cultural hybridisation and to some extent cultural domination are contributing to neocolonialism in Malaysia. This has obvious consequences for the government-s effort to create a Malaysian national identity. An important finding of this work is that there are contradictions within ICT policy between the effort to develop the economy and society.
Abstract: We consider herein a concise view of discreet
programming models and methods. There has been conducted the
models and methods analysis. On the basis of discreet programming
models there has been elaborated and offered a new class of
problems, i.e. block-symmetry models and methods of applied tasks
statements and solutions.
Abstract: In most cases, it is considerably difficult to directly measure structural vibration with a lot of sensors because of complex
geometry, time and equipment cost. For this reason, this paper deals
with the problem of locating sensors on a plate model by four advanced sensor placement optimization (S.P.O) techniques. It also
suggests the evaluation index representing the characteristic of orthogonal between each of natural modes. The index value provides the assistance to selecting of proper S.P.O technique and optimal
positions for monitoring of dynamic systems without the experiment.
Abstract: In the traditional buckling analysis of rectangular
plates the classical thin plate theory is generally applied, so
neglecting the plating shear deformation. It seems quite clear that this
method is not totally appropriate for the analysis of thick plates, so
that in the following the two variable refined plate theory proposed
by Shimpi (2006), that permits to take into account the transverse
shear effects, is applied for the buckling analysis of simply supported
isotropic rectangular plates, compressed in one and two orthogonal
directions.
The relevant results are compared with the classical ones and, for
rectangular plates under uniaxial compression, a new direct
expression, similar to the classical Bryan-s formula, is proposed for
the Euler buckling stress.
As the buckling analysis is a widely diffused topic for a variety of
structures, such as ship ones, some applications for plates uniformly
compressed in one and two orthogonal directions are presented and
the relevant theoretical results are compared with those ones obtained
by a FEM analysis, carried out by ANSYS, to show the feasibility of
the presented method.
Abstract: In a chirp spread spectrum (CSS) system, the overlap
technique is used for increasing bit rate. More overlaps can offer
higher data throughput; however, they may cause more intersymbol
interference (ISI) at the same time, resulting in serious bit error
rate (BER) performance degradation. In this paper, we perform the
BER analysis and derive a closed form BER expression for the
overlap-based CSS system. The derived BER expression includes
the number of overlaps as a parameter, and thus, would be very
useful in determining the number of overlaps for a specified BER.
The numerical results demonstrate that the BER derived in a closed
form closely agrees with the simulated BER.
Abstract: A submerged horizontal plate type breakwater is
pointed out as an efficient wave protection device for cage culture in
marine fishery. In order to reveal the wave elimination principle of this
type breakwater, boundary element method is utilized to investigate
this problem. The flow field and the trajectory of water particles are
studied carefully. The flow field analysis shows that: the interaction of
incident wave and adverse current above the plate disturbs the water
domain drastically. This can slow down the horizontal velocity and
vertical velocity of the water particles.
Abstract: In multi hop wireless systems, such as ad hoc and
sensor networks, mobile ad hoc network applications are deployed,
security emerges as a central requirement. A particularly devastating
attack is known as the wormhole attack, where two or more malicious
colluding nodes create a higher level virtual tunnel in the network,
which is employed to transport packets between the tunnel end points.
These tunnels emulate shorter links in the network. In which
adversary records transmitted packets at one location in the network,
tunnels them to another location, and retransmits them into the
network. The wormhole attack is possible even if the attacker has not
compromised any hosts and even if all communication provides
authenticity and confidentiality. In this paper, we analyze wormhole
attack nature in ad hoc and sensor networks and existing methods of
the defending mechanism to detect wormhole attacks without require
any specialized hardware. This analysis able to provide in
establishing a method to reduce the rate of refresh time and the
response time to become more faster.
Abstract: A Decision Support System/Expert System for stock
portfolio selection presented where at first step, both technical and
fundamental data used to estimate technical and fundamental return
and risk (1st phase); Then, the estimated values are aggregated with
the investor preferences (2nd phase) to produce convenient stock
portfolio.
In the 1st phase, there are two expert systems, each of which is
responsible for technical or fundamental estimation. In the technical
expert system, for each stock, twenty seven candidates are identified
and with using rough sets-based clustering method (RC) the effective
variables have been selected. Next, for each stock two fuzzy rulebases
are developed with fuzzy C-Mean method and Takai-Sugeno-
Kang (TSK) approach; one for return estimation and the other for
risk. Thereafter, the parameters of the rule-bases are tuned with backpropagation
method. In parallel, for fundamental expert systems,
fuzzy rule-bases have been identified in the form of “IF-THEN" rules
through brainstorming with the stock market experts and the input
data have been derived from financial statements; as a result two
fuzzy rule-bases have been generated for all the stocks, one for return
and the other for risk.
In the 2nd phase, user preferences represented by four criteria and
are obtained by questionnaire. Using an expert system, four estimated
values of return and risk have been aggregated with the respective
values of user preference. At last, a fuzzy rule base having four rules,
treats these values and produce a ranking score for each stock which
will lead to a satisfactory portfolio for the user.
The stocks of six manufacturing companies and the period of
2003-2006 selected for data gathering.
Abstract: Over recent years, the number of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) installations for home systems have been increasing in Malaysia. The paper concerns an analysis - as part of current Research and Development (R&D) efforts - to integrate photovoltaics as an architectural feature of a detached house in the new satellite township of Putrajaya, Malaysia. The analysis was undertaken using calculation and simulation tools to optimize performance of BIPV home system. In this study, a the simulation analysis was undertaken for selected bungalow units based on a long term recorded weather data for city of Kuala Lumpur. The simulation and calculation was done with consideration of a PV panels' tilt and direction, shading effect and economical considerations. A simulation of the performance of a grid connected BIPV house in Kuala Lumpur was undertaken. This case study uses a 60 PV modules with power output of 2.7 kW giving an average of PV electricity output is 255 kWh/month..