Abstract: Hazard rate estimation is one of the important topics
in forecasting earthquake occurrence. Forecasting earthquake
occurrence is a part of the statistical seismology where the main
subject is the point process. Generally, earthquake hazard rate is
estimated based on the point process likelihood equation called the
Hazard Rate Likelihood of Point Process (HRLPP). In this research,
we have developed estimation method, that is hazard rate single
decrement HRSD. This method was adapted from estimation method
in actuarial studies. Here, one individual associated with an
earthquake with inter event time is exponentially distributed. The
information of epicenter and time of earthquake occurrence are used
to estimate hazard rate. At the end, a case study of earthquake hazard
rate will be given. Furthermore, we compare the hazard rate between
HRLPP and HRSD method.
Abstract: Many studies have applied the Theory of Planned
Behavior (TPB) in predicting health behaviors among unique
populations. However, a new paradigm is emerging where focus is
now directed to modification and expansion of the TPB model rather
than utilization of the traditional theory. This review proposes new
models modified from the Theory of Planned Behavior and suggest
an appropriate study design that can be used to test the models within
physical activity and dietary practice domains among Type 2
diabetics in Kenya. The review was conducted by means of literature
search in the field of nutrition behavior, health psychology and
mixed methods using predetermined key words. The results identify
pre-intention and post intention gaps within the TPB model that need
to be filled. Additional psychosocial factors are proposed to be
included in the TPB model to generate new models and the efficacy
of these models tested using mixed methods design.
Abstract: This paper covers various aspects of film piracy over the Internet. In order to successfully deal with this matter, it is needed to recognize motivational factors related to film piracy. Thus, this study discusses group factors that could motivate individuals to engage in pirate activities. Furthermore, the paper discusses the theoretical effect on box office revenues and explains it on a proposed scheme of solutions for decreasing revenues. The article also maps the scheme of incentive motivational anti-piracy campaigns. Moreover, the paper proposes the preliminary scheme for system dynamic modeling of the Internet film piracy. Scheme is developed as a model of behaviors, influences and relations among the elements pertaining to the Internet film piracy.
Abstract: Heavy metals have bad effects on environment and
soils and it can uptake by natural HAP .natural Hap is an inexpensive
material that uptake large amounts of various heavy metals like Zn
(II) .Natural HAP (N-HAP), extracted from bovine cortical bone ash,
is a good choice for substitution of commercial HAP. Several
experiments were done to investigate the sorption capacity of Zn (II)
to N-HAP in various particles sizes, temperatures, initial
concentrations, pH and reaction times. In this study, the sorption of
Zinc ions from a Zn solution onto HAP particles with sizes of 1537.6
nm and 47.6 nm at three initial pH values of 4.50, 6.00 and 7.50 was
studied. The results showed that better performance was obtained
through a 47.6 nm particle size and higher pH values. The
experimental data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and
Arrhenius equations for equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic
studies. The analysis showed a maximum adsorption capacity of NHAP
as being 1.562 mmol/g at a pH of 7.5 and small particle size.
Kinetically, the prepared N-HAP is a feasible sorbent that retains Zn
(II) ions through a favorable and spontaneous sorption process.
Abstract: Gaharu that produced by Aquilaria spp. is classified as
one of the most valuable forest products traded internationally as it is
very resinous, fragrant and highly valuable heartwood. Gaharu has
been widely used in aromatheraphy, medicine, perfume and religious
practices. This work aimed to determine the factors affecting solid
liquid extraction of gaharu oil using hexane as solvent under
experimental condition. The kinetics of extraction was assumed and
verified based on a second-order mechanism. The effect of three
main factors, which were temperature, reaction time and solvent to
solid ratio were investigated to achieve maximum oil yield. The
optimum condition were found at temperature 65°C, 9 hours reaction
time and solvent to solid ratio of 12:1 with 14.5% oil yield. The
kinetics experimental data agrees and well fitted with the second
order extraction model. The initial extraction rate (h) was 0.0115
gmL-1min-1; the extraction capacity (Cs) was 1.282gmL-1; the second
order extraction constant (k) was 0.007 mLg-1min-1 and coefficient of
determination, R2 was 0.945.
Abstract: Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fibre-reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced Composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. Sisal fibre has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18 and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fibre reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibres were manufactured using a cast hand lay up technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively.
Abstract: After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in
U.S., the container security issue got high attention, especially by U.S.
government, which deployed a lot of measures to promote or improve
security systems. U.S. government not only enhances its national
security system, but allies with other countries against the potential
terrorist attacks in the future. For example CSI (Container Security
Initiative), it encourages foreign ports outside U.S. to become CSI
ports as a part of U.S. anti-terrorism network. Although promotion of
the security could partly reach the goal of anti-terrorism, that will
influence the efficiency of container supply chain, which is the main
concern when implementing the inspection measurements. This paper
proposes a quick estimation methodology for an inspection service
rate by a berth allocation heuristic such that the inspection activities
will not affect the original container supply chain. Theoretical and
simulation results show this approach is effective.
Abstract: A multimedia presentation system refers to the integration of a multimedia database with a presentation manager which has the functionality of content selection, organization and playout of multimedia presentations. It requires high performance of involved system components. Starting from multimedia information capture until the presentation delivery, high performance tools are required for accessing, manipulating, storing and retrieving these segments, for transferring and delivering them in a presentation terminal according to a playout order. The organization of presentations is a complex task in that the display order of presentation contents (in time and space) must be specified. A multimedia presentation contains audio, video, images and text media types. The critical decisions for presentation construction include what the contents are, how the contents are organized, and once the decision is made on the organization of the contents of the presentation, it must be conveyed to the end user in the correct organizational order and in a timely fashion. This paper introduces a framework for specification of multimedia presentations and describes the design of sample presentations using this framework from a multimedia database.
Abstract: This study aims to specify to what extent students
understand topology during the lesson and to determine possible
misconceptions. 14 teacher trainees registered at Secondary School
Mathematics education department were observed in the topology
lessons throughout a semester and data collected at the first topology
lesson is presented here. Students- knowledge was evaluated using a
written test right before and after the topology lesson. Thus, what the
students learnt in terms of the definition and examples of topologic
space were specified as well as possible misconceptions. The
findings indicated that students did not fully comprehend the topic
and misunderstandings were due to insufficient pre-requisite
knowledge of abstract mathematical topics and mathematical
notation.
Abstract: High power laser – total emissivity method (HPL-TE method) for determination of coatings relative total emissivity dependent on the temperature is introduced. Method principle, experimental and evaluation parts of the method are described. Computer model of HPL-TE method is employed to perform the sensitivity analysis of the effect of method parameters on the sample surface temperature in the positions where the surface temperature and radiation heat flux are measured.
Abstract: This paper presents the robust stability criteria for uncertain genetic regulatory networks with time-varying delays. One key point of the criterion is that the decomposition of the matrix ˜D into ˜D = ˜D1 + ˜D2. This decomposition corresponds to a decomposition of the delayed terms into two groups: the stabilizing ones and the destabilizing ones. This technique enables one to take the stabilizing effect of part of the delayed terms into account. Meanwhile, by choosing an appropriate new Lyapunov functional, a new delay-dependent stability criteria is obtained and formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.
Abstract: This paper examines long-range dependence or longmemory
of financial time series on the exchange rate data by the
fractional Brownian motion (fBm). The principle of spectral density
function in Section 2 is used to find the range of Hurst parameter (H)
of the fBm. If 0< H
Abstract: The concerns about clean environment and high oil
prices driving forces for the research on alternative fuels. The
research efforts directed towards improving the performance of C.I
engines using vegetable oil as fuel. The paper deals results of
performance of a four stroke, single cylinder C.I. engine by preheated
neat Karanja oil is done from 30
o
C to 100
o
C. The performance of the
engine was studied for a speed range between 1500 to 4000 rpm, with
the engine operated under full load conditions. The performance
parameters considered for comparing are brake specific fuel
consumption, thermal efficiency, brake power, Nox emission of the
engine. The engine offers lower thermal efficiency when it is
powered by preheated neat Karanja oil at higher speed. The power
developed and Nox emission increase with the increase in the fuel
inlet temperature and the specific fuel consumption is higher than
diesel fuel operation at all elevated fuel inlet temperature.
Abstract: For a quick and accurate calculation of spatial neutron
distribution in nuclear power reactors 3D nodal codes are usually
used aiming at solving the neutron diffusion equation for a given
reactor core geometry and material composition. These codes use a
second order polynomial to represent the transverse leakage term. In
this work, a nodal method based on the well known nodal expansion
method (NEM), developed at COPPE, making use of this polynomial
expansion was modified to treat the transverse leakage term for the
external surfaces of peripheral reflector nodes.
The proposed method was implemented into a computational
system which, besides solving the diffusion equation, also solves the
burnup equations governing the gradual changes in material
compositions of the core due to fuel depletion. Results confirm the
effectiveness of this modified treatment of peripheral nodes for
practical purposes in PWR reactors.
Abstract: The use of sewage sludge and effluents from
wastewater treatment plants for irrigation of agricultural lands is on
the rise particularly in peri-urban areas of developing countries.
The reuse of nutrients and organic matter in treated wastewater
and sewage sludge via land application is a desirable goal. However,
trace or heavy metals present in sludge pose the risk of human or
phytotoxicity from land application. Long-term use of sewage
sludge, heavy metals can accumulate to phytotoxic levels and results
in reduced plants growth and/or enhanced metal concentrations in
plants, which consumed by animals then enter the food chain. In this
research, the amount of heavy metals was measured in plants
irrigated with wastewater and sludge application. For this purpose,
three pilots were made in a Shush treatment plant in south of Tehran.
Three plants species, spinach, lettuce and radish were selected and
planted in the pilots.First pilot was irrigated just with wastewater of
treatment plant and second pilot was irrigated with wastewater and
sludge application .Third pilot was irrigated with simulated heavy
metals solution equal 50 years of irrigation. The results indicate that
the average of amount of heavy metals Pb, Cd in three plant species
in first pilot were lower than permissible limits .In second pilot,
Cadmium accumulations are high in three species plants and more
than the standard limits. Concentration of Cd , Pb have exceed their
permitted limits in plants in third pilot . It was concluded that the use
of wastewater and sludge application in agricultural lands enriched
soils with heavy metals to concentrations that may pose potential
environmental and health risks in the long-term.
Abstract: Linear convolutive filters are fast in calculation and in application, and thus, often used for real-time processing of continuous data streams. In the case of transient signals, a filter has not only to detect the presence of a specific waveform, but to estimate its arrival time as well. In this study, a measure is presented which indicates the performance of detectors in achieving both of these tasks simultaneously. Furthermore, a new sub-class of linear filters within the class of filters which minimize the quadratic response is proposed. The proposed filters are more flexible than the existing ones, like the adaptive matched filter or the minimum power distortionless response beamformer, and prove to be superior with respect to that measure in certain settings. Simulations of a real-time scenario confirm the advantage of these filters as well as the usefulness of the performance measure.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of preexercise glycerol hyperhydration on endurance performance in a heat chamber designed to simulate the World Championship Distance (WCD) duathlon (10km run, 40km ride, 5 km run). Duathlons are often performed in hot and humid conditions and as a result hydration is a major issue. Glycerol enhances the body’s capacity for fluid retention by inducing hyperhydration, which is theorized to improve thermoregulatory and cardiovascular responses, and thereby improve performance. Six well-trained athletes completed the testing protocol in a heat chamber at the La Trobe University Exercise Physiology Laboratory. Each testing session was approximately 4.5 hours in duration (2 hours of pre-exercise glycerol hyper-hydration followed by approximately 2.5 hours of exercise). The results showed an increased water retention pre-exercise and an improved overall performance of 2.04% was achieved by subjects ingesting the glycerol solution.
Abstract: This paper examines the problem of designing a robust H∞ filter for a class of uncertain fuzzy descriptor systems described by a Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model. Based on a linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach, LMI-based sufficient conditions for the uncertain nonlinear descriptor systems to have an H∞ performance are derived. To alleviate the ill-conditioning resulting from the interaction of slow and fast dynamic modes, solutions to the problem are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities which are independent of the singular perturbation ε, when ε is sufficiently small. The proposed approach does not involve the separation of states into slow and fast ones and it can be applied not only to standard, but also to nonstandard uncertain nonlinear descriptor systems. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the design developed in this paper.
Abstract: recurrent neural network (RNN) is an efficient tool for
modeling production control process as well as modeling services. In
this paper one RNN was combined with regression model and were
employed in order to be checked whether the obtained data by the
model in comparison with actual data, are valid for variable process
control chart. Therefore, one maintenance process in workshop of
Esfahan Oil Refining Co. (EORC) was taken for illustration of
models. First, the regression was made for predicting the response
time of process based upon determined factors, and then the error
between actual and predicted response time as output and also the
same factors as input were used in RNN. Finally, according to
predicted data from combined model, it is scrutinized for test values
in statistical process control whether forecasting efficiency is
acceptable. Meanwhile, in training process of RNN, design of
experiments was set so as to optimize the RNN.
Abstract: This paper analyses the performance of a genetic algorithm using a new concept, namely a fractional-order dynamic fitness function, for the synthesis of combinational logic circuits. The experiments reveal superior results in terms of speed and convergence to achieve a solution.