Abstract: Three-phase induction machines are today a standard
for industrial electrical drives. Cost, reliability, robustness and maintenance free operation are among the reasons these machines are
replacing dc drive systems. The development of power electronics
and signal processing systems has eliminated one of the greatest
disadvantages of such ac systems, which is the issue of control. With
modern techniques of field oriented vector control, the task of
variable speed control of induction machines is no longer a
disadvantage. The need to increase system performance, particularly
when facing limits on the power ratings of power supplies and
semiconductors, motivates the use of phase number other than three,
In this paper a novel scheme of connecting two, three phase
induction motors in parallel fed by two inverters; viz. VSI and CSI
and their vector control is presented.
Abstract: A cross sectional study design and standard
microbiological procedures were used to determine the prevalence
and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of Escherichia coli,
Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae O1
isolated from water and two fish species Rastrineobola argentea and
Oreochromis niloticus collected from fish landing beaches and
markets in the Lake Victoria Basin of western Kenya. Out of 162
samples analyzed, 133 (82.1%) were contaminated, with S.
typhimurium as the most prevalent (49.6%), followed by E. coli
(46.6%), and lastly V. cholerae (2.8%). All the bacteria isolates were
sensitive to ciprofloxacin. E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin,
tetracycline, cotrimoxazole, chloramphenical and gentamicin while
S. typhimurium isolates exhibited resistance to ampicillin,
tetracycline, and cotrimoxazole. The V. cholerae O1 isolates were
resistant to tetracycline and ampicillin. The high prevalence of drug
resistant enteric bacteria in water and fish from the study region
needs public health intervention from the local government.
Abstract: We constructed a method of noise reduction for
JPEG-compressed image based on Bayesian inference using the
maximizer of the posterior marginal (MPM) estimate. In this method,
we tried the MPM estimate using two kinds of likelihood, both of
which enhance grayscale images converted into the JPEG-compressed
image through the lossy JPEG image compression. One is the
deterministic model of the likelihood and the other is the probabilistic
one expressed by the Gaussian distribution. Then, using the Monte
Carlo simulation for grayscale images, such as the 256-grayscale
standard image “Lena" with 256 × 256 pixels, we examined the
performance of the MPM estimate based on the performance measure
using the mean square error. We clarified that the MPM estimate via
the Gaussian probabilistic model of the likelihood is effective for
reducing noises, such as the blocking artifacts and the mosquito noise,
if we set parameters appropriately. On the other hand, we found that
the MPM estimate via the deterministic model of the likelihood is not
effective for noise reduction due to the low acceptance ratio of the
Metropolis algorithm.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of 8-week Pilates training program on limits of stability (LOS) and abdominal muscle strength in young dancers. Twenty-four female volunteered and randomly assigned as experimental group (EG) or control group (CG). All subjects received the same dance lessons but the EG underwent an extra Pilates mat exercises for 40 minutes, three times a week, for 8 weeks. LOS was evaluated by the Biodex Balance System and the abdominal strength was measured by 30/60 seconds sit-ups test. One factor ANCOVA was used to examine the differences between groups after training. The results showed that the overall LOS scores at levels 2/8 and the 30/60 seconds sit-ups for the EG group pre- and post-training were changed from 22/38 % to 31/51 % and 20/33 times to 24/42 times, respectively. The study demonstrated that 8-week Pilates training can improve the LOS performance and abdominal strength in young dancers.
Abstract: Construction project control attempts to obtain real-time information and effectively enhance dynamic control and management via information sharing and analysis among project participants to eliminate construction conflicts and project delays. However, survey results for Taiwan indicate that construction commercial project management software is not widely accepted for subcontractors and suppliers. To solve the project communications problems among participants, this study presents a novel system called the Construction Dynamic Teams Communication Management (Con-DTCM) system for small-to-medium sized subcontractors and suppliers in Taiwanese Construction industry, and demonstrates that the Con-DTCM system responds to the most recent project information efficiently and enhances management of project teams (general contractor, suppliers and subcontractors) through web-based environment. Web-based technology effectively enhances information sharing during construction project management, and generates cost savings via the Internet. The main unique characteristic of the proposed Con-DTCM system is extremely user friendly and easily design compared with current commercial project management applications. The Con-DTCM system is applied to a case study of construction of a building project in Taiwan to confirm the proposed methodology and demonstrate the effectiveness of information sharing during the construction phase. The advantages of the Con-DTCM system are in improving project control and management efficiency for general contractors, and in providing dynamic project tracking and management, which enables subcontractors and suppliers to acquire the most recent project-related information. Furthermore, this study presents and implements a generic system architecture.
Abstract: Most integrated inertial navigation systems (INS) and
global positioning systems (GPS) have been implemented using the
Kalman filtering technique with its drawbacks related to the need for
predefined INS error model and observability of at least four
satellites. Most recently, a method using a hybrid-adaptive network
based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been proposed which is
trained during the availability of GPS signal to map the error
between the GPS and the INS. Then it will be used to predict the
error of the INS position components during GPS signal blockage.
This paper introduces a genetic optimization algorithm that is used to
update the ANFIS parameters with respect to the INS/GPS error
function used as the objective function to be minimized. The results
demonstrate the advantages of the genetically optimized ANFIS for
INS/GPS integration in comparison with conventional ANFIS
specially in the cases of satellites- outages. Coping with this problem
plays an important role in assessment of the fusion approach in land
navigation.
Abstract: The studies concerned an effect of six variants of ion
exchange substrate (nutrient carriers with a different potential impact
on pH of soil solution) on vegetation of orchard grass during two
different periods (42 and 84 days). In the pot experiment plants were
grown on sand (model of degraded soil) and six mixtures of sand and
2% (v/v) additions of particular variants of ion exchange substrate
(with pH ranged from 5.5 to 8.0). The study results showed that the
addition of the substrate at pH=6.5 caused the highest increase in
plant yield after shorter vegetation period whereas the addition of the
substrate at pH=5.5 increased dry stem and root biomass of orchard
grass after longer vegetation period. Thus, the ion exchange substrate
at pH=6.5 can be recommended for restoration of exhausted soils
when shorter vegetation period is planned; the ion exchange substrate
at pH=5.5 can be used for the same purpose when longer periods of
vegetative growth are considered.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new technique based on nonlinear Minmax Detector Based (MDB) filter for image restoration. The aim of image enhancement is to reconstruct the true image from the corrupted image. The process of image acquisition frequently leads to degradation and the quality of the digitized image becomes inferior to the original image. Image degradation can be due to the addition of different types of noise in the original image. Image noise can be modeled of many types and impulse noise is one of them. Impulse noise generates pixels with gray value not consistent with their local neighborhood. It appears as a sprinkle of both light and dark or only light spots in the image. Filtering is a technique for enhancing the image. Linear filter is the filtering in which the value of an output pixel is a linear combination of neighborhood values, which can produce blur in the image. Thus a variety of smoothing techniques have been developed that are non linear. Median filter is the one of the most popular non-linear filter. When considering a small neighborhood it is highly efficient but for large window and in case of high noise it gives rise to more blurring to image. The Centre Weighted Mean (CWM) filter has got a better average performance over the median filter. However the original pixel corrupted and noise reduction is substantial under high noise condition. Hence this technique has also blurring affect on the image. To illustrate the superiority of the proposed approach, the proposed new scheme has been simulated along with the standard ones and various restored performance measures have been compared.
Abstract: This paper investigates the problem of sampling from transactional data streams. We introduce CFISDS as a content based sampling algorithm that works on a landmark window model of data streams and preserve more informed sample in sample space. This algorithm that work based on closed frequent itemset mining tasks, first initiate a concept lattice using initial data, then update lattice structure using an incremental mechanism.Incremental mechanism insert, update and delete nodes in/from concept lattice in batch manner. Presented algorithm extracts the final samples on demand of user. Experimental results show the accuracy of CFISDS on synthetic and real datasets, despite on CFISDS algorithm is not faster than exist sampling algorithms such as Z and DSS.
Abstract: Broccoli has been widely recognized as a wealthy
vegetable which contains multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer
properties. Lamb’s lettuce has been used as food for many centuries
but only recently became commercially available and literature is
therefore exiguous concerning these vegetables. The aim of this work
was to evaluate the influence of the extraction conditions on the yield
of phenolic compounds and the corresponding antioxidant capacity of
broccoli and lamb’s lettuce. The results indicate that lamb’s lettuce,
compared to broccoli, contains simultaneously a large amount of total
polyphenols as well as high antioxidant activity. It is clearly
demonstrated that extraction solvent significantly influences the
antioxidant activity. Methanol is the solvent that can globally
maximize the antioxidant extraction yield. The results presented
herein prove lamb’s lettuce as a very interesting source of
polyphenols, and thus a potential health-promoting food.
Abstract: A virtualized and virtual approach is presented on
academically preparing students to successfully engage at a strategic
perspective to understand those concerns and measures that are both
structured and not structured in the area of cyber security and
information assurance. The Master of Science in Cyber Security and
Information Assurance (MSCSIA) is a professional degree for those
who endeavor through technical and managerial measures to ensure
the security, confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, control,
availability and utility of the world-s computing and information
systems infrastructure. The National University Cyber Security and
Information Assurance program is offered as a Master-s degree. The
emphasis of the MSCSIA program uniquely includes hands-on
academic instruction using virtual computers. This past year, 2011,
the NU facility has become fully operational using system
architecture to provide a Virtual Education Laboratory (VEL)
accessible to both onsite and online students. The first student cohort
completed their MSCSIA training this past March 2, 2012 after
fulfilling 12 courses, for a total of 54 units of college credits. The
rapid pace scheduling of one course per month is immensely
challenging, perpetually changing, and virtually multifaceted. This
paper analyses these descriptive terms in consideration of those
globalization penetration breaches as present in today-s world of
cyber security. In addition, we present current NU practices to
mitigate risks.
Abstract: To determine if the murine insulinoma, β-TC-6, is a
suitable substitute for primary pancreatic β-cells in the study of β-
cell functional heterogeneity, we used three distinct functional assays
to ascertain the cell line-s response to glucose or a glucose analog.
These assays include: (i) a 2-NBDG uptake assay; (ii) a calcium
influx assay, and; (iii) a quinacrine secretion assay. We show that a
population of β-TC-6 cells endocytoses the glucose analog, 2-
NBDG, at different rates, has non-uniform intracellular calcium ion
concentrations and releases quinacrine at different rates when
challenged with glucose. We also measured the Km for β-TC-6
glucose uptake to be 46.9 mM and the Vm to be 8.36 x 10-5
mmole/million cells/min. These data suggest that β-TC-6 might be
used as an alternative to primary pancreatic β-cells for the study of
glucose-dependent β-cell functional heterogeneity.
Abstract: Hidden failure in a protection system has been
recognized as one of the main reasons which may cause to a power
system instability leading to a system cascading collapse. This paper
presents a computationally systematic approach used to obtain the
estimated average probability of a system cascading collapse by
considering the effect of probability hidden failure in a protection
system. The estimated average probability of a system cascading
collapse is then used to determine the severe loading condition
contributing to the higher risk of critical system cascading collapse.
This information is essential to the system utility since it will assist
the operator to determine the highest point of increased system
loading condition prior to the event of critical system cascading
collapse.
Abstract: Collision is considered as a time-depended nonlinear
dynamic phenomenon. The majority of researchers have focused on
deriving the resultant damage of the ship collisions via analytical,
experimental, and finite element methods.In this paper, first, the
force-penetration curve of a head collision on a container ship with
rigid barrier based on Yang and Pedersen-s methods for internal
mechanic section is studied. Next, the obtained results from different
analytical methods are compared with each others. Then, through a
simulation of the container ship collision in Ansys Ls-Dyna, results
from finite element approach are compared with analytical methods
and the source of errors is discussed. Finally, the effects of
parameters such as velocity, and angle of collision on the forcepenetration
curve are investigated.
Abstract: One promising way to achieve low temperature
combustion regime is the use of a large amount of cooled EGR. In
this paper, the effect of injection timing on low temperature
combustion process and emissions were investigated via three
dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) procedures in a DI
diesel engine using high EGR rates. The results show when
increasing EGR from low levels to levels corresponding to reduced
temperature combustion, soot emission after first increasing, is
decreased beyond 40% EGR and get the lowest value at 58% EGR
rate. Soot and NOx emissions are simultaneously decreased at
advanced injection timing before 20.5 ºCA BTDC in conjunction
with 58% cooled EGR rate in compared to baseline case.
Abstract: This paper challenges the relevance of knowledgebased
management research by arguing that the majority of the
literature emphasizes information and knowledge provision instead of
their business usage. For this reason the related processes are
considered valuable and eligible as such, which has led to
overlapping nature of knowledge-based management disciplines. As
a solution, this paper turns the focus on the information usage. Value
of knowledge and respective management tasks are then defined by
the business need and the knowledge-user becomes the main actor.
The paper analyses the prevailing literature streams and recognizes
the need for a more focused and robust understanding of knowledgebased
value creation. The paper contributes by synthetizing the
existing literature and pinpointing the essence of knowledge-based
management disciplines.
Abstract: the elastic scattering of protons, deuterons and 3He on 6Li at different incident energies have been analyzed in the framework of the optical model using ECIS88 as well as SPI GENOA codes. The potential parameters were extracted in the phenomenological treatment of measured by us angular distributions and literature data. A good agreement between theoretical and experimental differential cross sections was obtained in whole angular range. Parameters for real part of potential have been also calculated microscopically with singleand double-folding model for the p and d, 3He scattering, respectively, using DFPOT code. For best agreement with experiment the normalization factor N for the potential depth is obtained in the range of 0.7-0.9.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel multi-format stream grid
architecture for real-time image monitoring system. The system, based
on a three-tier architecture, includes stream receiving unit, stream
processor unit, and presentation unit. It is a distributed computing and
a loose coupling architecture. The benefit is the amount of required
servers can be adjusted depending on the loading of the image
monitoring system. The stream receive unit supports multi capture
source devices and multi-format stream compress encoder. Stream
processor unit includes three modules; they are stream clipping
module, image processing module and image management module.
Presentation unit can display image data on several different platforms.
We verified the proposed grid architecture with an actual test of image
monitoring. We used a fast image matching method with the
adjustable parameters for different monitoring situations. Background
subtraction method is also implemented in the system. Experimental
results showed that the proposed architecture is robust, adaptive, and
powerful in the image monitoring system.
Abstract: Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustors have
remained a topic of investigation for over a few decades due to the
challenges it posses to the operation of low emission gas turbines.
For combustors burning liquid fuel, understanding the cause-andeffect
relationship between spray combustion dynamics and
thermoacoustic oscillations is imperative for the successful
development of any control methodology for its mitigation. The
paper presents some very unique operating characteristics of a
kerosene-fueled diffusion type combustor undergoing limit-cycle
oscillations. Combustor stability limits were mapped using three
different-sized injectors. The results show that combustor instability
depends on the characteristics of the fuel spray. A simple analytic
analysis is also reported in support of a plausible explanation for the
unique combustor behavior. The study indicates that high amplitude
acoustic pressure in the combustor may cause secondary breakdown
of fuel droplets resulting in premixed pre-vaporized type burning of
the diffusion type combustor.
Abstract: Within dental-guided surgery, there has been a lack
of analytical methods for optimizing the treatment of the
rehabilitation concepts regarding geometrical variation. The purpose
of this study is to find the source of the greatest geometrical variation
contributor and sensitivity contributor with the help of virtual
variation simulation of a dental drill- and implant-guided surgery
process using a methodical approach. It is believed that lower
geometrical variation will lead to better patient security and higher
quality of dental drill- and implant-guided surgeries. It was found
that the origin of the greatest contributor to the most variation, and
hence where the foci should be set, in order to minimize geometrical
variation was in the assembly category (surgery). This was also the
category that was the most sensitive for geometrical variation.