Abstract: The Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite-based technology, has been utilized extensively in the last few years in a wide range of Geometrics and Geographic Information Systems’ (GIS) applications. One of the main challenges dealing with GPS-based heights consists of converting them into Mean Sea Level (MSL) heights, which is used in surveys and mapping.
In this research’s work, differences in heights of 50 points, in northern part of Libya has been carried out by using both ordinary leveling (in which Geoid is the reference datum) and GPS techniques (in which Ellipsoid is the reference datum). In addition, this study utilized the EGM2008 model to obtain the undulation values between the ellipsoidal and orthometric heights. From these values of ellipsoidal heights can be obtained from GPS observations to compute the orthomteric heights. This research presents a suitable alternative, from an economical point of view, to substitute the expensive traditional leveling technique, particularly, for topographic mapping.
Abstract: Forest areas are particularly susceptible to fires, which are often manmade. One of the most fire affected forest regions in the world is the Mediterranean. Libya, in the Mediterranean region, has soils that are considered to be arid except in a small area called Aljabal Alakhdar (Green mountain), which is the geographic area covered by this study. Like other forests in the Mediterranean it has suffered extreme degradation. This is mainly due to people removing fire wood, or sometimes converting forested areas to agricultural use, as well as fires which may alter several soil chemical and physical properties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of fires on the physical properties of soil of Aljabal Alakhdar forest in the north-east of Libya. The physical properties of soil following fire in two geographic areas have been determined, with those subjected to the fire compared to those in adjacent unburned areas in one coastal and one mountain site. Physical properties studied were: soil particle size (soil texture), soil water content, soil porosity and soil particle density. For the first time in Libyan soils, the effect of burning on the magnetic susceptibility properties of soils was also tested. The results showed that the soils in both study sites, irrespective of burning or depth fell into the category of a silt loam texture, low water content, homogeneity of porosity of the soil profiles, relatively high soil particle density values and there is a much greater value of the soil magnetic susceptibility in the top layer from both sites except for the soil water content and magnetic susceptibility, fire has not had a clear effect on the soils’ physical properties.
Abstract: A salinity gradient solar pond is a free energy source system for collecting, convertingand storing solar energy as heat. In thispaper, the principles of solar pond are explained. A mathematical model is developed to describe and simulate heat and mass transferbehaviour of salinity gradient solar pond. MATLAB codes are programmed to solve the one dimensional finite difference method for heat and mass transfer equations. Temperature profiles and concentration distributions are calculated. The numerical results are validated with experimental data and the results arefound to be in good agreement.
Abstract: This paper proposes a way of removing noises and reducing the number of colors contained in a JPEG image. Main purpose of this project is to convert color images to monochrome images for the color-blind. We treat the crispy color images like the Tokyo subway map. Each color in the image has an important information. But for the color blinds, similar colors cannot be distinguished. If we can convert those colors to different gray values, they can distinguish them. Therefore we try to convert color images to monochrome images.
Abstract: The suitability of Newsprint and Kraft papers for the production of cement bonded ceiling board was investigated. Sample boards were produced from newsprint paper (100%), mixture of newsprint and Kraft paper (50:50) and Kraft paper (100%) at 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 cement/paper mixing ratio respectively with 3% additive concentration of calcium chloride (CaCl2). Density, flexural and thickness swelling properties of the boards were investigated. The effects of paper type and mixing ratio on the physical and mechanical properties were also examined. The bending properties of the board which include Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) and Modulus of Rupture (MOR) increased linearly with increase in density. Modulus of rupture of boards increased as the density and mixing ratio increased. The thickness swelling property for the two paper types decreased as the board density and mixing ratio increased. Boards made from Kraft paper recorded higher strength values than the ones made from recycled newsprint paper while the mixture of kraft and newsprint papers had the best surface finish. The result of the study will help in managing the large quality of waste from paper converting/carton industry and that the ceiling boards produced could be installed with clout nails or used with suspended ceiling fittings.
Abstract: A new algorithm called Character-Comparison to
Character-Access (CCCA) is developed to test the effect of both: 1)
converting character-comparison and number-comparison into
character-access and 2) the starting point of checking on the
performance of the checking operation in string searching. An
experiment is performed; the results are compared with five
algorithms, namely, Naive, BM, Inf_Suf_Pref, Raita, and Circle.
With the CCCA algorithm, the results suggest that the evaluation
criteria of the average number of comparisons are improved up to
74.0%. Furthermore, the results suggest that the clock time required
by the other algorithms is improved in range from 28% to 68% by the
new CCCA algorithm
Abstract: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus. The treatment of coronavirus-associated SARS has been evolving and so far there is no consensus on an optimal regimen. The mainstream therapeutic interventions for SARS involve broad-spectrum antibiotics and supportive care, as well as antiviral agents and immunomodulatory therapy. The Protein- Ligand interaction plays a significant role in structural based drug designing. In the present work we have taken the receptor Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 and identified the drugs that are commonly used against SARS. They are Lopinavir, Ritonavir, Ribavirin, and Oseltamivir. The receptor Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) was docked with above said drugs and the energy value obtained are as follows, Lopinavir (-292.3), Ritonavir (-325.6), Oseltamivir (- 229.1), Ribavirin (-208.8). Depending on the least energy value we have chosen the best two drugs out of the four conventional drugs. We tried to improve the binding efficiency and steric compatibility of the two drugs namely Ritonavir and Lopinavir. Several modifications were made to the probable functional groups (phenylic, ketonic groups in case of Ritonavir and carboxylic groups in case of Lopinavir respectively) which were interacting with the receptor molecule. Analogs were prepared by Marvin Sketch software and were docked using HEX docking software. Lopinavir analog 8 and Ritonavir analog 11 were detected with significant energy values and are probable lead molecule. It infers that some of the modified drugs are better than the original drugs. Further work can be carried out to improve the steric compatibility of the drug based upon the work done above for a more energy efficient binding of the drugs to the receptor.
Abstract: Impurity metals such as manganese and cadmium
from high-tenor cobalt electrolyte solution were selectively removed
by solvent extraction method using Co-D2EHPA after converting the functional group of D2EHPA with Co2+ ions. The process parameters
such as pH, organic concentration, O/A ratio, kinetics etc. were
investigated and the experiments were conducted by batch tests in the laboratory bench scale. Results showed that a significant amount
of manganese and cadmium can be extracted using Co-D2EHPA for the optimum processing of cobalt electrolyte solution at equilibrium pH about 3.5. The McCabe-Thiele diagram, constructed from the
extraction studies showed that 100% impurities can be extracted through four stages for manganese and three stages for cadmium
using O/A ratio of 0.65 and 1.0, respectively. From the stripping study, it was found that 100% manganese and cadmium can be stripped from the loaded organic using 0.4 M H2SO4 in a single
contact. The loading capacity of Co-D2EHPA by manganese and cadmium were also investigated with different O/A ratio as well as
with number of stages of contact of aqueous and organic phases. Valuable information was obtained for the designing of an impurities
removal process for the production of pure cobalt with less trouble in the electrowinning circuit.
Abstract: In Geographic Information System, one of the sources
of obtaining needed geographic data is digitizing analog maps and
evaluation of aerial and satellite photos. In this study, a method will
be discussed which can be used to extract vectorial features and
creating vectorized drawing files for aerial photos. At the same time
a software developed for these purpose. Converting from raster to
vector is also known as vectorization and it is the most important step
when creating vectorized drawing files. In the developed algorithm,
first of all preprocessing on the aerial photo is done. These are;
converting to grayscale if necessary, reducing noise, applying some
filters and determining the edge of the objects etc. After these steps,
every pixel which constitutes the photo are followed from upper left
to right bottom by examining its neighborhood relationship and one
pixel wide lines or polylines obtained. The obtained lines have to be
erased for preventing confusion while continuing vectorization
because if not erased they can be perceived as new line, but if erased
it can cause discontinuity in vector drawing so the image converted
from 2 bit to 8 bit and the detected pixels are expressed as a different
bit. In conclusion, the aerial photo can be converted to vector form
which includes lines and polylines and can be opened in any CAD
application.
Abstract: Virtual touch screen using camera is an ordinary screen which uses a camera to imitate the touch screen by taking a picture of an indicator, e.g., finger, which is laid on the screen, converting the indicator tip position on the picture to the position on the screen, and moving the cursor on the screen to that position. In fact, the indicator is not laid on the screen directly, but it is intervened by the cover at some intervals. In spite of this gap, if the eye-indicator-camera angle is not large, the mapping from the indicator tip positions on the image to the corresponding cursor positions on the screen is not difficult and could be done with a little error. However, the larger the angle is, the bigger the error in the mapping occurs. This paper proposes cursor position estimation model for virtual touch screen using camera which could eliminate this kind of error. The proposed model (i) moves the on-screen pilot cursor to the screen position which locates on the screen at the position just behind the indicator tip when the indicator tip has been looked from the camera position, and then (ii) converts that pilot cursor position to the desirable cursor position (the position on the screen when it has been looked from the user-s eye through the indicator tip) by using the bilinear transformation. Simulation results show the correctness of the estimated cursor position by using the proposed model.
Abstract: This study presents a simulation model for converting coal to methanol, based on gasification technology with the commercial chemical process simulator, Pro/II® V8.1.1. The methanol plant consists of air separation unit (ASU), gasification unit, gas clean-up unit, and methanol synthetic unit. The clean syngas is produced with the first three operating units, and the model has been verified with the reference data from United States Environment Protection Agency. The liquid phase methanol (LPMEOHTM) process is adopted in the methanol synthetic unit. Clean syngas goes through gas handing section to reach the reaction requirement, reactor loop/catalyst to generate methanol, and methanol distillation to get desired purity over 99.9 wt%. The ratio of the total energy combined with methanol and dimethyl ether to that of feed coal is 78.5% (gross efficiency). The net efficiency is 64.2% with the internal power consumption taken into account, based on the assumption that the efficiency of electricity generation is 40%.
Abstract: Anaerobic digestion process is one of the alternative
methods to convert organic waste into methane gas which is a fuel
and energy source. Activities of various kinds of microorganisms are
the main factor for anaerobic digestion which produces methane gas.
Therefore, in this study a modified Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR)
with working volume of 50 liters was designed to identify the
microorganisms through biogas production. The mixture of 75%
kitchen waste and 25% sewage sludge was used as substrate.
Observations on microorganisms in the ABR showed that there exists
a small amount of protozoa (5%) and fungi (2%) in the system, but
almost 93% of the microorganism population consists of bacteria. It
is definitely clear that bacteria are responsible for anaerobic
biodegradation of kitchen waste. Results show that in the
acidification zone of the ABR (front compartments of reactor) fast
growing bacteria capable of growth at high substrate levels and
reduced pH was dominant. A shift to slower growing scavenging
bacteria that grow better at higher pH was occurring towards the end
of the reactor. Due to the ability of activity in acetate environment the
percentages of Methanococcus, Methanosarcina and Methanotrix
were higher than other kinds of methane former in the system.
Abstract: This paper reports on the enhanced photoluminescence
(PL) of nanocomposites through the layered structuring of phosphor
and quantum dot (QD). Green phosphor of Sr2SiO4:Eu, red QDs of
CdSe/CdS/CdZnS/ZnS core-multishell, and thermo-curable resin
were used for this study. Two kinds of composite (layered and mixed)
were prepared, and the schemes for optical energy transfer between
QD and phosphor were suggested and investigated based on PL decay
characteristics. It was found that the layered structure is more effective
than the mixed one in the respects of PL intensity, PL decay and
thermal loss. When this layered nanocomposite (QDs on phosphor) is
used to make white light emitting diode (LED), the brightness is
increased by 37 %, and the color rendering index (CRI) value is raised
to 88.4 compared to the mixed case of 80.4.
Abstract: In recent years, fast neural networks for object/face detection have been introduced based on cross correlation in the frequency domain between the input matrix and the hidden weights of neural networks. In our previous papers [3,4], fast neural networks for certain code detection was introduced. It was proved in [10] that for fast neural networks to give the same correct results as conventional neural networks, both the weights of neural networks and the input matrix must be symmetric. This condition made those fast neural networks slower than conventional neural networks. Another symmetric form for the input matrix was introduced in [1-9] to speed up the operation of these fast neural networks. Here, corrections for the cross correlation equations (given in [13,15,16]) to compensate for the symmetry condition are presented. After these corrections, it is proved mathematically that the number of computation steps required for fast neural networks is less than that needed by classical neural networks. Furthermore, there is no need for converting the input data into symmetric form. Moreover, such new idea is applied to increase the speed of neural networks in case of processing complex values. Simulation results after these corrections using MATLAB confirm the theoretical computations.
Abstract: Signalized intersections on high-volume arterials are
often congested during peak hours, causing a decrease in through
movement efficiency on the arterial. Much of the vehicle delay
incurred at conventional intersections is caused by high left-turn
demand. Unconventional intersection designs attempt to reduce
intersection delay and travel time by rerouting left-turns away from
the main intersection and replacing it with right-turn followed by Uturn.
The proposed new type of U-turn intersection is geometrically
designed with a raised island which provides a protected U-turn
movement. In this study several scenarios based on different
distances between U-turn and main intersection, traffic volume of
major/minor approaches and percentage of left-turn volumes were
simulated by use of AIMSUN, a type of traffic microsimulation
software. Subsequently some models are proposed in order to
compute travel time of each movement. Eventually by correlating
these equations to some in-field collected data of some implemented
U-turn facilities, the reliability of the proposed models are approved.
With these models it would be possible to calculate travel time of
each movement under any kind of geometric and traffic condition. By
comparing travel time of a conventional signalized intersection with
U-turn intersection travel time, it would be possible to decide on
converting signalized intersections into this new kind of U-turn
facility or not. However comparison of travel time is not part of the
scope of this research. In this paper only travel time of this innovative
U-turn facility would be predicted. According to some before and
after study about the traffic performance of some executed U-turn
facilities, it is found that commonly, this new type of U-turn facility
produces lower travel time. Thus, evaluation of using this type of
unconventional intersection should be seriously considered.
Abstract: The evolution of current modeling specifications gives rise to the problem of generating automated test cases from a variety of application tools. Past endeavours on behavioural testing of UML statecharts have not systematically leveraged the potential of existing graph theory for testing of objects. Therefore there exists a need for a simple, tool-independent, and effective method for automatic test generation. An architecture, codenamed ACUTE-J (Automated stateChart Unit Testing Engine for Java), for automating the unit test generation process is presented. A sequential approach for converting UML statechart diagrams to JUnit test classes is described, with the application of existing graph theory. Research byproducts such as a universal XML Schema and API for statechart-driven testing are also proposed. The result from a Java implementation of ACUTE-J is discussed in brief. The Chinese Postman algorithm is utilised as an illustration for a run-through of the ACUTE-J architecture.
Abstract: In the process of polyethylene extrusion polymer
material similar to powder or granule is under compression, melting
and transmission operation and on base of special form, extrudate has
been produced. Twin-screw extruders are applicable in industries
because of their high capacity. The powder mixing with chemical
additives and melting with thermal and mechanical energy in three
zones (feed, compression and metering zone) and because of gear
pump and screw's pressure, converting to final product in latest plate.
Extruders with twin-screw and short distance between screws are
better than other types because of their high capacity and good
thermal and mechanical stress.
In this paper, process of polyethylene extrusion and various tapes
of extruders are studied. It is necessary to have an exact control on
process to producing high quality products with safe operation and
optimum energy consumption.
The granule size is depending on granulator motor speed. Results
show at constant feed rate a decrease in granule size was found whit
Increase in motor speed. Relationships between HDPE feed rate and
speed of granulator motor, main motor and gear pump are calculated
following as:
x = HDPE feed flow rate, yM = Main motor speed
yM = (-3.6076e-3) x^4+ (0.24597) x^3+ (-5.49003) x^2+ (64.22092)
x+61.66786 (1)
x = HDPE feed flow rate, yG = Gear pump speed
yG = (-2.4996e-3) x^4+ (0.18018) x^3+ (-4.22794) x^2+ (48.45536)
x+18.78880 (2)
x = HDPE feed flow rate, y = Granulator motor speed
10th Degree Polynomial Fit: y = a+bx+cx^2+dx^3... (3)
a = 1.2751, b = 282.4655, c = -165.2098,
d = 48.3106, e = -8.18715, f = 0.84997
g = -0.056094, h = 0.002358, i = -6.11816e-5
j = 8.919726e-7, k = -5.59050e-9
Abstract: This paper presents how the real-time chatter
prevention can be realized by feedback of acoustic cutting signal, and
the efficacy of the proposed adaptive spindle speed tuning algorithm is
verified by intensive experimental simulations. A pair of
microphones, perpendicular to each other, is used to acquire the
acoustic cutting signal resulting from milling chatter. A real-time
feedback control loop is constructed for spindle speed compensation
so that the milling process can be ensured to be within the stability
zone of stability lobe diagram. Acoustic Chatter Signal Index (ACSI)
and Spindle Speed Compensation Strategy (SSCS) are proposed to
quantify the acoustic signal and actively tune the spindle speed
respectively. By converting the acoustic feedback signal into ACSI,
an appropriate Spindle Speed Compensation Rate (SSCR) can be
determined by SSCS based on real-time chatter level or ACSI.
Accordingly, the compensation command, referred to as Added-On
Voltage (AOV), is applied to increase/decrease the spindle motor
speed. By inspection on the precision and quality of the workpiece
surface after milling, the efficacy of the real-time chatter prevention
strategy via acoustic signal feedback is further assured.
Abstract: Lacking an inherent “natural" dissimilarity measure
between objects in categorical dataset presents special difficulties in
clustering analysis. However, each categorical attributes from a given
dataset provides natural probability and information in the sense of
Shannon. In this paper, we proposed a novel method which
heuristically converts categorical attributes to numerical values by
exploiting such associated information. We conduct an experimental
study with real-life categorical dataset. The experiment demonstrates
the effectiveness of our approach.
Abstract: This research was to evaluate a technical feasibility of
making single-layer experimental particleboard panels from bamboo
waste (Dendrocalamus asper Backer) by converting bamboo into
strips, which are used to make laminated bamboo furniture. Variable
factors were density (600, 700 and 800 kg/m3) and temperature of
condition (25, 40 and 55 °C). The experimental panels were tested for
their physical and mechanical properties including modulus of
elasticity (MOE), modulus of rupture (MOR), internal bonding
strength (IB), screw holding strength (SH) and thickness swelling
values according to the procedures defined by Japanese Industrial
Standard (JIS). The test result of mechanical properties showed that
the MOR, MOE and IB values were not in the set criteria, except the
MOR values at the density of 700 kg/m3 at 25 °C and at the density
of 800 kg/m3 at 25 and 40 °C, the IB values at the density of 600
kg/m3, at 40 °C, and at the density of 800 kg/m3 at 55 °C. The SH
values had the test result according to the set standard, except with
the density of 600 kg/m3, at 40 and 55 °C. Conclusively, a valuable
renewable biomass, bamboo waste could be used to manufacture
boards.