Abstract: It is the living conditions in the cities that determine the future of our livelihood. “To change life, we must first change space"- Henri Lefebvre. Sustainable development is a utopian aspiration for South African cities (especially the case study of the Gauteng City Region), which are currently characterized by unplanned growth and increasing urban sprawl. While the reasons for poor environmental quality and living conditions are undoubtedly diverse and complex, having political, economical and social dimensions, it is argued that the prevailing approach to layout planning in South Africa is part of the problem. This article seeks a solution to the problem of sustainability, from a spatial planning perspective. The spatial planning tool, the urban development boundary, is introduced as the concept that will ensure empty talk being translated into a sustainable vision. The urban development boundary is a spatial planning tool that can be used and implemented to direct urban growth towards a more sustainable form. The urban development boundary aims to ensure planned urban areas, in contrast to the current unplanned areas characterized by urban sprawl and insufficient infrastructure. However, the success of the urban development boundary concept is subject to effective implementation measures, as well as adequate and efficient management. The concept of sustainable development can function as a driving force underlying societal change and transformation, but the interface between spatial planning and environmental management needs to be established (as this is the core aspects underlying sustainable development), and authorities needs to understand and implement this interface consecutively. This interface can, however, realize in terms of the objectives of the planning tool – the urban development boundary. The case study, the Gauteng City Region, is depicted as a site of economic growth and innovation, but there is a lack of good urban and regional governance, impacting on the design (layout) and function of urban areas and land use, as current authorities make uninformed decisions in terms of development applications, leading to unsustainable urban forms and unsustainable nodes. Place and space concepts are thus critical matters applicable to planning of the Gauteng City Region. The urban development boundary are thus explored as a planning tool to guide decision-making, and create a sustainable urban form, leading to better environmental and living conditions, and continuous sustainability.
Abstract: This paper quantifies the impact of providing a shortterm
excess active power support of a variable speed wind turbine
(VSWT) and effect of super magnetic energy storage (SMES) unit on
frequency control, particularly temporary minimum frequency (TMF)
term. To demonstrate the effect of these factors on the power system
frequency, a three-area power system is considered as a test system.
Abstract: Regression testing is a maintenance activity applied to
modified software to provide confidence that the changed parts are
correct and that the unchanged parts have not been adversely affected
by the modifications. Regression test selection techniques reduce the
cost of regression testing, by selecting a subset of an existing test
suite to use in retesting modified programs. This paper presents the
first general regression-test-selection technique, which based on code
and allows selecting test cases for any programs written in any
programming language. Then it handles incomplete program. We
also describe RTSDiff, a regression-test-selection system that
implements the proposed technique. The results of the empirical
studied that performed in four programming languages java, C#, Cµ
and Visual basic show that the efficiency and effective in reducing
the size of test suit.
Abstract: Today, canines are still used effectively in acceleration detection situation. However, this method is becoming impractical in modern age and a new automated replacement to the canine is required. This paper reports the design of an innovative accelerant detector. Designing an accelerant detector is a long process as is any design process; therefore, a solution to the need for a mobile, effective accelerant detector is hereby presented. The device is simple and efficient to ensure that any accelerant detection can be conducted quickly and easily. The design utilizes Ultra Violet (UV) light to detect the accelerant. When the UV light shines on an accelerant, the hydrocarbons in the accelerant emit florescence. The advantages of using the UV light to detect accelerant are also outlined in this paper. The mobility of the device is achieved by using a Direct Current (DC) motor to run tank tracks. Tank tracks were chosen as to ensure that the device will be mobile in the rough terrain of a fire site. The materials selected for the various parts are also presented. A Solid Works Simulation was also conducted on the stresses in the shafts and the results are presented. This design is an innovative solution which offers a user friendly interface. The design is also environmentally friendly, ecologically sound and safe to use.
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: Staphylococcus aureus, one of the microflora in a
human external auditory canal (EAC) is frequently exposed to highfrequency
electromagnetic field (HF-EMF) generated by mobile
phones. It is normally non-pathogenic but in certain circumstances, it
can cause infections. This study investigates the changes in the
physiology of S. aureus when exposed to HF-EMF of a mobile
phone. Exponentially grown S. aureus were exposed to two
conditions of EMF irradiation (standby-mode and on-call mode) at
four durations; 15, 30, 45 and 60 min. Changes in the viability and
biofilm production of the S. aureus were compared between the two
conditions of exposure. EMF from the standby-mode has enhanced
the growth of S. aureus but during on-call, the growth was
suppressed. No significant difference in the amount of biofilm
produced in both modes of exposure was observed. Thus, HF-EMF
of mobile phone affects the viability of S. aureus but not its ability to
produce biofilm.
Abstract: The effect of a time delay on the transmission on
dengue fever is studied. The time delay is due to the presence of an
incubation period for the dengue virus to develop in the mosquito
before the mosquito becomes infectious. The conditions for the
existence of a Hopf bifurcation to limit cycle behavior are
established. The conditions are different from the usual one and they
are based on whether a particular third degree polynomial has
positive real roots. A theorem for determining whether for a given
set of parameter values, a critical delay time exist is given. It is
found that for a set of realistic values of the parameters in the model,
a Hopf bifurcation can not occur. For a set of unrealistic values of
some of the parameters, it is shown that a Hopf bifurcation can occur.
Numerical solutions using this last set show the trajectory of two of
the variables making a transition from a spiraling orbit to a limit
cycle orbit.
Abstract: The important issue considered in the widespread deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is an efficiency of the energy consumption. In this paper, we present a study of the optimal relay station planning problems using Binary Integer Linear Programming (BILP) model to minimize the energy consumption in WSNs. Our key contribution is that the proposed model not only ensures the required network lifetime but also guarantees the radio connectivity at high level of communication quality. Specially, we take into account effects of noise, signal quality limitation and bit error rate characteristics. Numerical experiments were conducted in various network scenarios. We analyzed the effects of different sensor node densities and distribution on the energy consumption.
Abstract: In this paper, a thermal model of cast- resin dry type
transformer is proposed. The proposed thermal model is solved by
finite element technique to get the temperature at any location of the
transformer. The basic modes of heat transfer such as conduction;
convection and radiation are used to get the steady state temperature
distribution of the transformer. The predicted temperatures are
compared with experimental results reported in this paper and it is
found a good agreement between them. The effects of various
parameters such as width of air duct, ambient temperature and
emissivity of the outer surface were also studied.
Abstract: Separation of propylene-propane mixture using
immobilized liquid membrane was investigated. The effect of transmembrane
pressure and carrier concentration on membrane
separation performance was studied. It was observed that for 30:70
(vol. %) propylene-propane mixture, at pressure of 120kPa and
carrier concentration of 20wt. %, a separation factor of 474 was
obtained.
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: Liquid-liquid extraction is a process using two immiscible
liquids to extract compounds from one phase without high
temperature requirement. Mostly, the technical implementation of
this process is carried out in mixer-settlers or extraction columns. In
real chemical processes, chemicals may have high viscosity and
contain impurities. These impurities may change the settling behavior
of the process without measurably changing the physical properties
of the phases. In the current study, the settling behavior and the affected
parameters in a high-viscosity system were observed. Batchsettling
experiments were performed to experimentally quantify the
settling behavior and the mixer-settler model of Henschke [1] was
used to evaluate the behavior of the toluene + water system. The
viscosity of the system was increased by adding polyethylene glycol
4000 to the aqueous phase. NaCl and Na2SO4 were used to study the
influence of electrolytes. The results from this study show that increasing
the viscosity of water has a higher influence on the settling
behavior in comparison to the effects of the electrolytes. It can be
seen from the experiments that at high salt concentrations, there was
no effect on the settling behavior.
Abstract: This research paper designs a unique motion planner
of multiple platoons of nonholonomic car-like robots as a feasible
solution to the lane changing/merging maneuvers. The decentralized
planner with a leaderless approach and a path-guidance principle
derived from the Lyapunov-based control scheme generates collision
free avoidance and safe merging maneuvers from multiple lanes to a
single lane by deploying a split/merge strategy. The fixed obstacles
are the markings and boundaries of the road lanes, while the moving
obstacles are the robots themselves. Real and virtual road lane
markings and the boundaries of road lanes are incorporated into a
workspace to achieve the desired formation and configuration of the
robots. Convergence of the robots to goal configurations and the
repulsion of the robots from specified obstacles are achieved by
suitable attractive and repulsive potential field functions,
respectively. The results can be viewed as a significant contribution
to the avoidance algorithm of the intelligent vehicle systems (IVS).
Computer simulations highlight the effectiveness of the split/merge
strategy and the acceleration-based controllers.
Abstract: This experiment was conducted to investigate the
effect of different levels of dietary chromium yeast (Cr-yeast) on
thigh meat quality of broiler chicks reared under heat stress
condition. Two hundred and forty Ross male chickens in heat stress
condition (33±3°C) were allocated to five treatments in a completely
randomized design. Treatments were supplemented with 0 (control),
200, 400, 800 and 1200 μg kg-1 Cr in the form of Cr yeast. Twelve
chicks from each treatment were slaughtered at 42 d, to evaluate
moisture, protein, lipid, pH and lipid oxidation of thigh meat.
Protein, moisture, lipid and pH of thigh meat were not affected by
supplemental Cr. Thigh meat lipid tended to decrease in broilers
received 1200 μg kg-1. Storage time increased lipid oxidation of
meat (P
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..
Abstract: Transdermal delivery of ondansetron hydrochloride (OdHCl) can prevent the problems encountered with oral ondansetron. In previously conducted studies, effect of amount of polyvinyl pyrrolidone, permeation enhancer and casting solvent on the physicochemical properties on OdHCl were investigated. It is feasible to develop ondansetron transdermal patch by using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone with dibutyl pthalate as plasticizer, however, the desired flux is not achieved. The primary aim of this study is to use dimethyl succinate (DMS) and propylene glycol that are not incorporated in previous studies to determine their effect on the physicochemical properties of an OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone. This study also investigates the effect of permeation enhancer (eugenol and phosphatidylcholine) on the release of OdHCl. The results showed that propylene glycol is a more suitable plasticizer compared to DMS in the fabrication of OdHCl transdermal patch using ethyl cellulose and polyvinyl pyrrolidone as polymers. Propylene glycol containing patch has optimum drug content, thickness, moisture content and water absorption, tensile strength, and a better release profile than DMS. Eugenol and phosphatidylcholine can increase release of OdHCl from the patches. From the physicochemical result and permeation profile, a combination of 350mg of ethyl cellulose, 150mg polyvinyl pyrrolidone, 3% of total polymer weight of eugenol, and 40% of total polymer weight of propylene glycol is the most suitable formulation to develop an OdHCl patch. OdHCl release did not increase with increasing the percentage of plasticiser. DMS 4, PG 4, DMS 9, PG 9, DMS 14, and PG 14 gave better release profiles where using 300mg: 0mg, 300mg: 100mg, and 350mg: 150mg of EC: PVP. Thus, 40% of PG or DMS appeared to be the optimum amount of plasticiser when the above combination where EC: PVP was used. It was concluded from the study that a patch formulation containing 350mg EC, 150mg PVP, 40% PG and 3% eugenol is the best transdermal matrix patch compositions for the uniform and continuous release/permeation of OdHCl over an extended period. This patch design can be used for further pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies in suitable animal models.
Abstract: This research studied the hypoglycemic effect of
water soluble polysaccharide (WSP) extracted from yam (Dioscorea
hispida) tuber by three different methods: aqueous extraction, papain
assisted extraction, and tempeh inoculums assisted extraction. The
two later extraction methods were aimed to remove WSP binding
protein to have more pure WSP. The hypoglycemic activities were
evaluated by means in vivo test on alloxan induced hyperglycemic
rats, glucose response test (GRT), in situ glucose absorption test
using everted sac, and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) analysis. All
yam WSP extracts exhibited ability to decrease blood glucose level in
hyperglycemia condition as well as inhibited glucose absorption and
SCFA formation. The order of hypoglycemic activity was tempeh
inoculums assisted- >papain assisted- >aqueous WSP extracts. GRT
and in situ glucose absorption test showed that order of inhibition
was papain assisted- >tempeh inoculums assisted- >aqueous WSP
extracts. Digesta of caecum of yam WSP extracts oral fed rats had
more SCFA than control. Tempeh inoculums assisted WSP extract
exhibited the most significant hypoglycemic activity.
Abstract: In order to supplement the brittle property of concrete,
fibers are added into concrete mixtures. Compared to general concrete,
various characteristics such as tensile strength, bending strength,
bending toughness, and resistance to crack are superior, and even
when cracks occur, improvements on toughness as well as resistance
to shock are excellent due to the growth of fracture energy. Increased
function of steel fiber reinforced concrete can be differentiated
depending on the fiber dispersion, and sand percentage can be an
important influence on the fiber dispersion. Therefore, in this research,
experiments were planned on sand percentage in order to apprehend
the influence of sand percentage on the bending properties and direct
tension of SFRC and basic experiments were conducted on bending
and direct tension in order to recognize the properties of bending
properties and direct tension following the size of the aggregates and
sand percentage.
Abstract: This paper presents a simple and effective method for approximate indexing of instances for instance based learning. The method uses an interval tree to determine a good starting search point for the nearest neighbor. The search stops when an early stopping criterion is met. The method proved to be very effective especially when only the first nearest neighbor is required.
Abstract: The RANS method with Saffman-s turbulence model
was employed to solve the time-dependent turbulent Navier-Stokes
and energy equations for oscillating pipe flows. The method of
partial sums of the Fourier series is used to analyze the harmonic
velocity and temperature results. The complete structures of the
oscillating pipe flows and the averaged Nusselt numbers on the tube
wall are provided by numerical simulation over wide ranges of ReA
and ReR. Present numerical code is validated by comparing the
laminar flow results to analytic solutions and turbulence flow results
to published experimental data at lower and higher Reynolds
numbers respectively. The effects of ReA and ReR on the velocity,
temperature and Nusselt number distributions have been di scussed.
The enhancement of the heat transfer due to oscillating flows has
also been presented. By the way of analyzing the overall Nusselt
number over wide ranges of the Reynolds number Re and Keulegan-
Carpenter number KC, the optimal ratio of the tube diameter over
the oscillation amplitude is obtained based on the existence of a
nearly constant optimal KC number. The potential application of the
present results in sea water cooling has also been discussed.