Abstract: In this study, the evaluation of thermal stability of the
micrometer-sized silica particle reinforced epoxy composite was
carried out through the measurement of thermal expansion coefficient
and Young’s modulus of the specimens. For all the specimens in this
study from the baseline to those containing 50 wt% silica filler, the
thermal expansion coefficients and the Young’s moduli were
gradually decreased down to 20% and increased up to 41%,
respectively. The experimental results were compared with fillervolume-
based simple empirical relations. The experimental results of
thermal expansion coefficients correspond with those of Thomas’s
model which is modified from the rule of mixture. However, the
measured result for Young’s modulus tends to be increased slightly.
The differences in increments of the moduli between experimental and
numerical model data are quite large.
Abstract: In addition to the production, which is already
frequently optimized, improving the distribution logistics also opens
up tremendous potential for increasing an enterprise’s
competitiveness. Here too though, numerous interactions need to be
taken into account, enterprises thus need to be able to identify and
weigh between different potentials for economically efficient
optimizations. In order to be able to assess potentials, enterprises
require a suitable method. This paper first briefly presents the need
for this research before introducing the procedure that will be used to
develop an appropriate method that not only considers interactions
but is also quickly and easily implemented.
Abstract: A method which allows a diabetic quadriplegic patient
that has had four limb amputations (above the knee and elbow) to
self-administer injections of insulin has been designed. The aim of
this research project is to improve a quadriplegic patient’s selfmanagement,
affected by diabetes, by designing a suitable device for
self-administering insulin.
The quadriplegic patient affected by diabetes has to be able to selfadminister
insulin safely and independently to guarantee stable
healthy conditions. The device also should be designed to adapt to a
number of different varying personal characteristics such as height
and body weight.
Abstract: In this research work, neural networks were applied to
classify two types of hip joint implants based on the relative hip joint
implant side speed and three components of each ground reaction
force. The condition of walking gait at normal velocity was used and
carried out with each of the two hip joint implants assessed. Ground
reaction forces’ kinetic temporal changes were considered in the first
approach followed but discarded in the second one. Ground reaction
force components were obtained from eighteen patients under such
gait condition, half of which had a hip implant type I-II, whilst the
other half had the hip implant, defined as type III by Orthoload®.
After pre-processing raw gait kinetic data and selecting the time
frames needed for the analysis, the ground reaction force components
were used to train a MLP neural network, which learnt to distinguish
the two hip joint implants in the abovementioned condition. Further
to training, unknown hip implant side and ground reaction force
components were presented to the neural networks, which assigned
those features into the right class with a reasonably high accuracy for
the hip implant type I-II and the type III. The results suggest that
neural networks could be successfully applied in the performance
assessment of hip joint implants.
Abstract: Audio-lingual Method (ALM) is a teaching approach
that is claimed that ineffective for teaching second/foreign languages.
Because some linguists and second/foreign language teachers believe
that ALM is a rote learning style. However, this study is done on a
belief that ALM will be able to solve Thais’ English speaking
problem. This paper aims to report the findings on teaching English
speaking to adult learners with an “adapted ALM”, one distinction of
which is to use Thai as the medium language of instruction.
The participants are consisted of 9 adult learners. They were
allowed to speak English more freely using both the materials
presented in the class and their background knowledge of English. At
the end of the course, they spoke English more fluently, more
confidently, to the extent that they applied what they learnt both in
and outside the class.
Abstract: Over the past era, there have been a lot of efforts and
studies are carried out in growing proficient tools for performing
various tasks in big data. Recently big data have gotten a lot of
publicity for their good reasons. Due to the large and complex
collection of datasets it is difficult to process on traditional data
processing applications. This concern turns to be further mandatory
for producing various tools in big data. Moreover, the main aim of
big data analytics is to utilize the advanced analytic techniques
besides very huge, different datasets which contain diverse sizes from
terabytes to zettabytes and diverse types such as structured or
unstructured and batch or streaming. Big data is useful for data sets
where their size or type is away from the capability of traditional
relational databases for capturing, managing and processing the data
with low-latency. Thus the out coming challenges tend to the
occurrence of powerful big data tools. In this survey, a various
collection of big data tools are illustrated and also compared with the
salient features.
Abstract: The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) were isolated from
10 samples of fermented foods (Sa-tor-dong and Bodo) in South
locality of Thailand. The 23 isolates of lactic acid bacteria were
selected, which were exhibited a clear zone and growth on MRS
agar supplemented with CaCO3. All of lactic acid bacteria were
tested on morphological and biochemical. The result showed that
all isolates were Gram’s positive, non-spore forming but only
10 isolates displayed catalase negative. The 10 isolates including
BD1 .1, BD 1.2, BD 2.1, BD2.2, BD 2.3, BD 3.1, BD 4.1, BD 5.2,
ST 4.1 and ST 5.2 were selected for inhibition activity
determination. Only 2 strains (ST 4.1 and BD 2.3) showed
inhibition zone on agar, when using Escherichia coli sp. as target
strain. The ST 4.1 showed highest inhibition zone on agar, which
was selected for probiotic property testing. The ST4.1 isolate
could grow in MRS broth containing a high concentration of
sodium chloride 6%, bile salts 7%, pH 4-10 and vary temperature
at 15-45°C.
Abstract: In this study, a three dimensional numerical heat
transfer model has been used to simulate the laser structuring of
polymer substrate material in the Three-Dimensional Molded
Interconnect Device (3D MID) which is used in the advanced multifunctional
applications. A finite element method (FEM) transient
thermal analysis is performed using APDL (ANSYS Parametric
Design Language) provided by ANSYS. In this model, the effect of
surface heat source was modeled with Gaussian distribution, also the
effect of the mixed boundary conditions which consist of convection
and radiation heat transfers have been considered in this analysis. The
model provides a full description of the temperature distribution, as
well as calculates the depth and the width of the groove upon material
removal at different set of laser parameters such as laser power and
laser speed. This study also includes the experimental procedure to
study the effect of laser parameters on the depth and width of the
removal groove metal as verification to the modeled results. Good
agreement between the experimental and the model results is
achieved for a wide range of laser powers. It is found that the quality
of the laser structure process is affected by the laser scan speed and
laser power. For a high laser structured quality, it is suggested to use
laser with high speed and moderate to high laser power.
Abstract: With demand for primary energy continuously
growing, search for renewable and efficient energy sources has been
high on agenda of our society. One of the most promising energy
sources is biogas technology. Residues coming from dairy industry
and milk processing could be used in biogas production; however,
low efficiency and high cost impede wide application of such
technology. One of the main problems is management and conversion
of organic residues through the anaerobic digestion process which is
characterized by acidic environment due to the low whey pH (
Abstract: Estimation of a proportion has many applications in
economics and social studies. A common application is the estimation
of the low income proportion, which gives the proportion of people
classified as poor into a population. In this paper, we present this
poverty indicator and propose to use the logistic regression estimator
for the problem of estimating the low income proportion. Various
sampling designs are presented. Assuming a real data set obtained
from the European Survey on Income and Living Conditions, Monte
Carlo simulation studies are carried out to analyze the empirical
performance of the logistic regression estimator under the various
sampling designs considered in this paper. Results derived from
Monte Carlo simulation studies indicate that the logistic regression
estimator can be more accurate than the customary estimator under
the various sampling designs considered in this paper. The stratified
sampling design can also provide more accurate results.
Abstract: The study area is Zaria, located in the basement
complex of northern Nigeria. The rock type forming the major part of
the Zaria batholith is granite. This research work was carried out to
compare the responses of seismic refraction tomography and
resistivity tomography in the same geologic environment and under
the same conditions. Hence, the choice of the site that has a visible
granitic outcrop that extends across a narrow stream channel and is
flanked by unconsolidated overburden, a neutral profile that was
covered by plain overburden and a site with thick lateritic cover
became necessary. The results of the seismic and resistivity
tomography models reveals that seismic velocity and resistivity does
not always simultaneously increase with depth, but their responses in
any geologic environment are determined by changes in the
mechanical and chemical content of the rock types rather than depth.
Abstract: The global demand for continuous and eco-friendly
renewable energy as alternative to fossils fuels is large and ever
growing in nowadays. This paper will focus on capability of Vortex
Induced Vibration (VIV) phenomenon in generating alternative
energy for offshore platform application. In order to maximize the
potential of energy generation, the effects of lock in phenomenon and
different geometries of cylinder were studied in this project. VIV is
the motion induced on bluff body which creates alternating lift forces
perpendicular to fluid flow. Normally, VIV is unwanted in order to
prevent mechanical failure of the vibrating structures. But in this
project, instead of eliminating these vibrations, VIV will be exploited
to transform these vibrations into a valuable resource of energy.
Abstract: A total of 150 meat type chickens comprising 50 each
of Arbor Acre, Marshall and Ross were used for this study which
lasted for 10 weeks at the Federal University of Agriculture,
Abeokuta, Nigeria. Growth performance data were collected from the
third week through week 10 and data obtained were analysed using
the Generalized Linear Model Procedure. Heritability estimates (h2)
for body dimensions carried out on the chicken strains ranged from
low to high. Marshall broiler chicken strain had the highest h2 for
body weight 0.46±0.04, followed by Arbor Acre and Ross with h2
being 0.38±0.12 and 0.26±0.06, respectively. The repeatability
estimates for body weight in the three broiler strains were high, and it
ranged from 0.70 at week 4 to 0.88 at week 10. Relationships
between the body weight and linear body measurements in the broiler
chicken strains were positive and highly significant (p > 0.05).
Abstract: In the 13th Malaysia’s General Elections held in 2013,
it was observed that large numbers of urban constituencies saw
strongly decisive young voters (between 21-39 age group) determine
the outcome in their favour. Also, the Elections Commission had
approximated that 70% of some 4.2 million unregistered voters at the
time were citizens aged between 21 and 40 years old. If they are not
already considered an important form of political leverage, 450,000
young Malaysians turn 21 years old each year. Further compounding
this fact were the 2.4 million new voters registered in 2012, which at
the time constituted almost 30% of the entire voting population. This
article discusses the importance of issues for the youth, with
reference to the university students in Malaysia in their decision
making on polling day.
Abstract: This paper deals with the problem of passivity
analysis for stochastic neural networks with leakage, discrete and
distributed delays. By using delay partitioning technique, free
weighting matrix method and stochastic analysis technique, several
sufficient conditions for the passivity of the addressed neural
networks are established in terms of linear matrix inequalities
(LMIs), in which both the time-delay and its time derivative can be
fully considered. A numerical example is given to show the
usefulness and effectiveness of the obtained results.
Abstract: Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient fruit of great medical interest and rich source of antioxidants. Pesticides as dimethoate play a crucial role in the occurrence many diseases in plants, animal and human. Therefore the ability of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) to alleviate hepatotoxicity induced by organophosphate pesticide dimethoate was investigated. Albino male rats were divided randomly into 4 groups and kept at 7 animals per group in an environmentally controlled condition for 6 weeks. The first group was served as a control group (basal diet), the second group fed on basal diet supplemented with 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds, the third group fed on 20 ppm dimethoate contaminated diet and the last group fed on dimethoate contaminated diet supplemented with 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds. The results revealed that administration of dimethoate caused high significant increased in liver functions: alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities as well as lipid peroxide (malonaldhyde, MDA); on the other hand high significant decreased on glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), albumin and total protein were observed. However addition of 5% freeze dried pomegranate seeds significantly improved all previously mentioned parameters. These results indicate the dimethoate induced hepatotoxicity and highlight the protective effect of pomegranate seeds as a potential protective agent against dimethoate induced hepatotoxicity. This may be attributed to the powerful antioxidants (polyphenols, total phenols, and total flavonoids) which present in high levels in pomegranate as well as improving the immunity by activation of antioxidant enzymes GSH and GPx.
Abstract: In development of floating photovoltaic generation
system, finding a suitable place of installation is as important as
development of economically feasible and stable structure. Especially
since floating photovoltaic system has its facility floating on water
surface, it is extremely important to review the effects of weather
conditions such as wind, water flow and floating matters, various
factors (such as fogs) that can reduce generation efficiency, possibility
of connection with power system, and legal restrictions. The method of
investigating suitable area and resource for development of
tracking-type floating photovoltaic generation system was proposed in
this paper, which can be used for development of floating and ocean
photovoltaic system in the future.
Abstract: The system is designed to show images which are
related to the query image. Extracting color, texture, and shape
features from an image plays a vital role in content-based image
retrieval (CBIR). Initially RGB image is converted into HSV color
space due to its perceptual uniformity. From the HSV image, Color
features are extracted using block color histogram, texture features
using Haar transform and shape feature using Fuzzy C-means
Algorithm. Then, the characteristics of the global and local color
histogram, texture features through co-occurrence matrix and Haar
wavelet transform and shape are compared and analyzed for CBIR.
Finally, the best method of each feature is fused during similarity
measure to improve image retrieval effectiveness and accuracy.
Abstract: In healthy humans, the cortical brain rhythm shows
specific mu (~6-14 Hz) and beta (~18-24 Hz) band patterns in the
cases of both real and imaginary motor movements. As cerebellar
ataxia is associated with impairment of precise motor movement
control as well as motor imagery, ataxia is an ideal model system in
which to study the role of the cerebellocortical circuit in rhythm
control. We hypothesize that the EEG characteristics of ataxic patients
differ from those of controls during the performance of a
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) task. Ataxia and control subjects
showed a similar distribution of mu power during cued relaxation.
During cued motor imagery, however, the ataxia group showed
significant spatial distribution of the response, while the control group
showed the expected decrease in mu-band power (localized to the
motor cortex).
Abstract: The European Union Survey on Income and Living
Conditions (EU-SILC) is a popular survey which provides
information on income, poverty, social exclusion and living
conditions of households and individuals in the European Union.
The EU-SILC contains variables which may contain outliers. The
presence of outliers can have an impact on the measures and
indicators used by the EU-SILC. In this paper, we used data sets
from various countries to analyze the presence of outliers. In addition,
we obtain some indicators after removing these outliers, and a
comparison between both situations can be observed. Finally, some
conclusions are obtained.