Abstract: The dynamics of the Autonomous Underwater
Vehicles (AUVs) are highly nonlinear and time varying and the hydrodynamic coefficients of vehicles are difficult to estimate
accurately because of the variations of these coefficients with
different navigation conditions and external disturbances. This study presents the on-line system identification of AUV dynamics to obtain
the coupled nonlinear dynamic model of AUV as a black box. This black box has an input-output relationship based upon on-line
adaptive fuzzy model and adaptive neural fuzzy network (ANFN)
model techniques to overcome the uncertain external disturbance and
the difficulties of modelling the hydrodynamic forces of the AUVs instead of using the mathematical model with hydrodynamic parameters estimation. The models- parameters are adapted according
to the back propagation algorithm based upon the error between the
identified model and the actual output of the plant. The proposed
ANFN model adopts a functional link neural network (FLNN) as the
consequent part of the fuzzy rules. Thus, the consequent part of the
ANFN model is a nonlinear combination of input variables. Fuzzy
control system is applied to guide and control the AUV using both
adaptive models and mathematical model. Simulation results show
the superiority of the proposed adaptive neural fuzzy network
(ANFN) model in tracking of the behavior of the AUV accurately
even in the presence of noise and disturbance.
Abstract: An application framework provides a reusable design
and implementation for a family of software systems. Application
developers extend the framework to build their particular
applications using hooks. Hooks are the places identified to show
how to use and customize the framework. Hooks define Framework
Interface Classes (FICs) and their possible specifications, which
helps in building reusable test cases for the implementations of these
classes. In applications developed using gray-box frameworks, FICs
inherit framework classes or use them without inheritance. In this
paper, a test-case generation technique is extended to build test cases
for FICs built for gray-box frameworks. A tool is developed to
automate the introduced technique.
Abstract: This paper presented a collaborative education model,
which consists four parts: collaborative teaching, collaborative
working, collaborative training and interaction. Supported by an
e-learning platform, collaborative education was practiced in a data
structure e-learning course. Data collected shows that most of students
accept collaborative education. This paper goes one step attempting to
determine which aspects appear to be most important or helpful in
collaborative education.
Abstract: People usually have a telephone voice, which means
they adjust their speech to fit particular situations and to blend in with
other interlocutors. The question is: Do we speak differently to
different people? This possibility has been suggested by social
psychologists within Accommodation Theory [1]. Converging toward
the speech of another person can be regarded as a polite speech
strategy while choosing a language not used by the other interlocutor
can be considered as the clearest example of speech divergence [2].
The present study sets out to investigate such processes in the course
of everyday telephone conversations. Using Joos-s [3] model of
formality in spoken English, the researchers try to explore
convergence to or divergence from the addressee. The results
propound the actuality that lexical choice, and subsequently, patterns
of style vary intriguingly in concordance with the person being
addressed.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of a minute incremental exercise testing protocol in young asthma children. Twenty-two children with clinically diagnosed mild to moderate asthma volunteered to participate. The maximum incremental exercise test was performed using a cycle ergometer with an electromagnetic braking. A warm-up unloaded for 2 minutes then the workload was started at 40 watts for 2 minutes, and then stepwise increments of 8 watts per 2 minutes were applied. The pedaling frequency was set at 50 rpm. Ventilation and gas exchange were measured with a breath-by-breath automatic metabolic measurement system. Results showed that this test was well tolerated by all asthmatic children. Most of the children reached the VO2 plateau and satisfied the criteria for maximal respiratory exchange ratio of ≥ 1. This Study demonstrated that this testing protocol was suitable for young asthmatic children.
Abstract: This study presents a systematic analysis of wetted region due to cooling of aluminum plate by water spray impingement with respect to different water flow rates, spray nozzle heights, and subcooling. Unlike jet impingement, the wetting is not commenced upon spray impingement and there is a delay in wetness of hot test surface. After initiation, the wetting (black zone) progresses gradually to cover all test plate and provides efficient cooling in nucleate boiling regime. Generally, spray cooling is found function of spray flow rate, spray-to-surface distance and water subcooling. Wetting delay is decreasing by increasing of spray flow rate until spray impact area is not become bigger that test surface. Otherwise, higher spray flow rate is not practically accelerated start of wetting. Very fast wetting due to spray cooling can be obtained by dense spray (high floe rate) discharged from adjacent nozzle to the test surface. Highly subcooling water spray also triggers earlier wetting of hot aluminum plate.
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of asymptotic tracking
control of a linear parabolic partial differential equation with indomain
point actuation. As the considered model is a non-standard
partial differential equation, we firstly developed a map that allows
transforming this problem into a standard boundary control problem
to which existing infinite-dimensional system control methods can
be applied. Then, a combination of energy multiplier and differential
flatness methods is used to design an asymptotic tracking controller.
This control scheme consists of stabilizing state-feedback derived
from the energy multiplier method and feed-forward control based
on the flatness property of the system. This approach represents
a systematic procedure to design tracking control laws for a class
of partial differential equations with in-domain point actuation. The
applicability and system performance are assessed by simulation
studies.
Abstract: In industrial scale of Gas to Liquid (GTL) process in
Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis, a part of reactor outlet gases such as
CO2 and CH4 as side reaction products, is usually recycled. In this
study, the influence of CO2 and CH4 on the performance and
selectivity of Co-Ru/Al2O3 catalyst is investigated by injection of
these gases (0-20 vol. % of feed) to the feed stream. The effect of
temperature and feed flow rate, are also inspected. The results show
that low amounts of CO2 in the feed stream, doesn`t change the
catalyst activity significantly but increasing the amount of CO2 (more
than 10 vol. %) cause the CO conversion to decrease and the
selectivity of heavy components to increase. Methane acts as an inert
gas and doesn`t affect the catalyst performance. Increasing feed flow
rate has negative effect on both CO conversion and heavy component
selectivity. By raising the temperature, CO conversion will increase
but there are more volatile components in the product. The effect of
CO2 on the catalyst deactivation is also investigated carefully and a
mechanism is suggested to explain the negative influence of CO2 on
catalyst deactivation.
Abstract: This work aims to explore the factors that have an incidence in reading comprehension process, with different type of texts. In a recent study with 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade children, it was observed that reading comprehension of narrative texts was better than comprehension of expository texts. Nevertheless it seems that not only the type of text but also other textual factors would account for comprehension depending on the cognitive processing demands posed by the text. In order to explore this assumption, three narrative and three expository texts were elaborated with different degree of complexity. A group of 40 fourth grade Spanish-speaking children took part in the study. Children were asked to read the texts and answer orally three literal and three inferential questions for each text. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of children responses showed that children had difficulties in both, narrative and expository texts. The problem was to answer those questions that involved establishing complex relationships among information units that were present in the text or that should be activated from children’s previous knowledge to make an inference. Considering the data analysis, it could be concluded that there is some interaction between the type of text and the cognitive processing load of a specific text.
Abstract: In sport, human resources management gives special
attention to method of applying volunteers, their maintenance, and
participation of volunteers with each other and management
approaches for better operation of events celebrants. The recognition
of volunteers- characteristics and motives is important to notice,
because it makes the basis of their participation and commitment at
sport environment. The motivation and commitment of 281
volunteers were assessed using the organizational commitment scale,
motivation scale and personal characteristics questionnaire.The
descriptive results showed that; 64% of volunteers were women with
age average 21/24 years old. They were physical education student,
single (71/9%), without occupation (53%) and with average of 5
years sport experience. Their most important motivation was career
factor and the most important commitment factor was normative
factor. The results of examining the hypothesized showed that; age,
sport experience and education are effective in the amount of
volunteers- commitment. And the motive factors such as career,
material, purposive and protective factors also have the power to
predict the amount of sports volunteers- commitment value.
Therefore it is recommended to provide possible opportunities for
volunteers and carrying out appropriate instructional courses by
events executive managers.
Abstract: Aquatic and semi aquatic birds as a group are suited to
feed and breed in environments in which water forms a fundamental
part. These birds are biological indicator in aquatic environment,
because these birds belong to the top level of food chain in aquatic
ecosystems. There are 61 species in 14 families of aquatic and semi
aquatic birds in Iran. The birds of the Sattarkhan Lake belong to 16
species in 8 families which include 26.2 percent of total Aquatic and
semi aquatic bird species and 57% of Aquatic and semi aquatic bird's
family of Iran. Study was carried out monthly at Sattarkhan Lake
show the existence of Phalacrocorax carbo, Ardea cinerea, Egretta
alba, Egretta garzetta, Bubulcus ibis, Botaurus stellaris, Sterna
hirundo, Chlidonias leucopterus, Larus minutus, Larus argentatus,
Larus ridibunbus, Alcedo atthis, Ciconia ciconia, Plegadis
falcinellus, Circus aeruginosus, Corvus frugilegus
Abstract: The hybridization of artificial immune system with
cellular automata (CA-AIS) is a novel method. In this hybrid model,
the cellular automaton within each cell deploys the artificial immune
system algorithm under optimization context in order to increase its
fitness by using its neighbor-s efforts. The hybrid model CA-AIS is
introduced to fix the standard artificial immune system-s weaknesses.
The credibility of the proposed approach is evaluated by simulations
and it shows that the proposed approach achieves better results
compared to standard artificial immune system.
Abstract: A total of twenty tensile biopsies were collected from
children undergoing tonsillectomy from teaching hospital ENT
department and Kurdistan private hospital in sulaimani city. All
biopsies were homogenized and cultured; the obtained bacterial
isolates were purified and identified by biochemical tests and VITEK
2 compact system. Among the twenty studied samples, only one
Pseudomonas putida with probability of 99% was isolated.
Antimicrobial susceptibility was carried out by disk diffusion
method, Pseudomonas putida showed resistance to all antibiotics
used except vancomycin. The isolate further subjected to PCR and
DNA sequence analysis of blaVIM gene using different set of primers
for different regions of VIM gene. The results were found to be PCR
positive for the blaVIM gene. To determine the sequence of blaVIM
gene, DNA sequencing performed. Sequence alignment of blaVIM
gene with previously recorded blaVIM gene in NCBI- database showed
that P. putida isolate have different blaVIM gene.
Abstract: In this paper, a method to detect multiple ellipses is presented. The technique is efficient and robust against incomplete ellipses due to partial occlusion, noise or missing edges and outliers. It is an iterative technique that finds and removes the best ellipse until no reasonable ellipse is found. At each run, the best ellipse is extracted from randomly selected edge patches, its fitness calculated and compared to a fitness threshold. RANSAC algorithm is applied as a sampling process together with the Direct Least Square fitting of ellipses (DLS) as the fitting algorithm. In our experiment, the method performs very well and is robust against noise and spurious edges on both synthetic and real-world image data.
Abstract: The growing outsourcing of logistics services
resulting from the ongoing current in firms of costs
reduction/increased efficiency means that it is becoming more and
more important for the companies doing the outsourcing to carry out
a proper evaluation.
The multiple definitions and measures of logistics service
performance found in research on the topic create a certain degree of
confusion and do not clear the way towards the proper measurement
of their performance. Do a model and a specific set of indicators exist
that can be considered appropriate for measuring the performance of
logistics services outsourcing in industrial environments? Are said
indicators in keeping with the objectives pursued by outsourcing? We
aim to answer these and other research questions in the study we have
initiated in the field within the framework of the international High
Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project of which this paper
forms part.
As the first stage of this research, this paper reviews articles
dealing with the topic published in the last 15 years with the aim of
detecting the models most used to make this measurement and
determining which performance indicators are proposed as part of
said models and which are most used. The first steps are also taken in
determining whether these indicators, financial and operational, cover
the aims that are being pursued when outsourcing logistics services.
The findings show there is a wide variety of both models and
indicators used. This would seem to testify to the need to continue
with our research in order to try to propose a model and a set of
indicators for measuring the performance of logistics services
outsourcing in industrial environments.
Abstract: This paper describes a 3D modeling system in
Augmented Reality environment, named 3DARModeler. It can be
considered a simple version of 3D Studio Max with necessary
functions for a modeling system such as creating objects, applying
texture, adding animation, estimating real light sources and casting
shadows. The 3DARModeler introduces convenient, and effective
human-computer interaction to build 3D models by combining both
the traditional input method (mouse/keyboard) and the tangible input
method (markers). It has the ability to align a new virtual object with
the existing parts of a model. The 3DARModeler targets nontechnical
users. As such, they do not need much knowledge of
computer graphics and modeling techniques. All they have to do is
select basic objects, customize their attributes, and put them together
to build a 3D model in a simple and intuitive way as if they were
doing in the real world. Using the hierarchical modeling technique,
the users are able to group several basic objects to manage them as a
unified, complex object. The system can also connect with other 3D
systems by importing and exporting VRML/3Ds Max files. A
module of speech recognition is included in the system to provide
flexible user interfaces.
Abstract: Encryption protects communication partners from
disclosure of their secret messages but cannot prevent traffic analysis
and the leakage of information about “who communicates with
whom". In the presence of collaborating adversaries, this linkability
of actions can danger anonymity. However, reliably providing
anonymity is crucial in many applications. Especially in contextaware
mobile business, where mobile users equipped with PDAs
request and receive services from service providers, providing
anonymous communication is mission-critical and challenging at the
same time. Firstly, the limited performance of mobile devices does
not allow for heavy use of expensive public-key operations which are
commonly used in anonymity protocols. Moreover, the demands for
security depend on the application (e.g., mobile dating vs. pizza
delivery service), but different users (e.g., a celebrity vs. a normal
person) may even require different security levels for the same
application. Considering both hardware limitations of mobile devices
and different sensitivity of users, we propose an anonymity
framework that is dynamically configurable according to user and
application preferences. Our framework is based on Chaum-s mixnet.
We explain the proposed framework, its configuration
parameters for the dynamic behavior and the algorithm to enforce
dynamic anonymity.
Abstract: Within the last years, several technologies have been developed to help building e-learning portals. Most of them follow approaches that deliver a vast amount of functionalities, suitable for class-like learning. The SuGI project, as part of the D-Grid (funded by the BMBF), targets on delivering a highly scalable and sustainable learning solution to provide materials (e.g. learning modules, training systems, webcasts, tutorials, etc.) containing knowledge about Grid computing to the D-Grid community. In this article, the process of the development of an e-learning portal focused on the requirements of this special user group is described. Furthermore, it deals with the conceptual and technical design of an e-learning portal, addressing the special needs of heterogeneous target groups. The main focus lies on the quality management of the software development process, Web templates for uploading new contents, the rich search and filter functionalities which will be described from a conceptual as well as a technical point of view. Specifically, it points out best practices as well as concepts to provide a sustainable solution to a relatively unknown and highly heterogeneous community.
Abstract: This paper presents a simple approach for load
flow analysis of a radial distribution network. The proposed
approach utilizes forward and backward sweep algorithm
based on Kirchoff-s current law (KCL) and Kirchoff-s voltage
law (KVL) for evaluating the node voltages iteratively. In this
approach, computation of branch current depends only on the
current injected at the neighbouring node and the current in
the adjacent branch. This approach starts from the end nodes
of sub lateral line, lateral line and main line and moves
towards the root node during branch current computation. The
node voltage evaluation begins from the root node and moves
towards the nodes located at the far end of the main, lateral
and sub lateral lines. The proposed approach has been tested
using four radial distribution systems of different size and
configuration and found to be computationally efficient.
Abstract: It has been shown that in most accidents the driver is responsible due to being distracted or misjudging the situation. In order to solve such problems research has been dedicated to developing driver assistance systems that are able to monitor the traffic situation around the vehicle. This paper presents methods for recognizing several circumstances on a road. The methods use both the in-vehicle warning systems and the roadside infrastructure. Preliminary evaluation results for fog and ice-on-road detection are presented. The ice detection results are based on data recorded in a test track dedicated to tyre friction testing. The achieved results anticipate that ice detection could work at a performance of 70% detection with the right setup, which is a good foundation for implementation. However, the full benefit of the presented cooperative system is achieved by fusing the outputs of multiple data sources, which is the key point of discussion behind this publication.