Abstract: Background noise is particularly damaging to speech
intelligibility for people with hearing loss especially for sensorineural
loss patients. Several investigations on speech intelligibility have
demonstrated sensorineural loss patients need 5-15 dB higher SNR
than the normal hearing subjects. This paper describes Discrete
Cosine Transform Power Normalized Least Mean Square algorithm
to improve the SNR and to reduce the convergence rate of the LMS
for Sensory neural loss patients. Since it requires only real arithmetic,
it establishes the faster convergence rate as compare to time domain
LMS and also this transformation improves the eigenvalue
distribution of the input autocorrelation matrix of the LMS filter.
The DCT has good ortho-normal, separable, and energy compaction
property. Although the DCT does not separate frequencies, it is a
powerful signal decorrelator. It is a real valued function and thus
can be effectively used in real-time operation. The advantages of
DCT-LMS as compared to standard LMS algorithm are shown via
SNR and eigenvalue ratio computations. . Exploiting the symmetry
of the basis functions, the DCT transform matrix [AN] can be
factored into a series of ±1 butterflies and rotation angles. This
factorization results in one of the fastest DCT implementation. There
are different ways to obtain factorizations. This work uses the fast
factored DCT algorithm developed by Chen and company. The
computer simulations results show superior convergence
characteristics of the proposed algorithm by improving the SNR at
least 10 dB for input SNR less than and equal to 0 dB, faster
convergence speed and better time and frequency characteristics.
Abstract: Different methods containing biometric algorithms are
presented for the representation of eigenfaces detection including
face recognition, are identification and verification. Our theme of this
research is to manage the critical processing stages (accuracy, speed,
security and monitoring) of face activities with the flexibility of
searching and edit the secure authorized database. In this paper we
implement different techniques such as eigenfaces vector reduction
by using texture and shape vector phenomenon for complexity
removal, while density matching score with Face Boundary Fixation
(FBF) extracted the most likelihood characteristics in this media
processing contents. We examine the development and performance
efficiency of the database by applying our creative algorithms in both
recognition and detection phenomenon. Our results show the
performance accuracy and security gain with better achievement than
a number of previous approaches in all the above processes in an
encouraging mode.
Abstract: This study has applied the L16 orthogonal array of the
Taguchi method to determine the optimized polymeric
Nanocomposite asphalt binder. Three control factors are defined as
polypropylene plastomer (PP), styrene-butadiene-styrene elastomer
(SBS) and Nanoclay. Four level of concentration contents are
introduced for prepared asphalt binder samples. all samples were
prepared with 4.5% of bitumen 60/70 content. Compressive strength
tests were carried out for defining the optimized sample via
QUALITEK-4 software. SBS with 3%, PP with 5 % and Nanoclay
with 1.5% of concentrations are defined as the optimized
Nanocomposite asphalt binders. The confirmation compressive
strength and also softening point tests showed that modification of
asphalt binders with this method, improved the compressive strength
and softening points of asphalt binders up to 55%.
Abstract: An organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) was fabricated using a blended film containing Copper (II) tetrakis(4-acumylphenoxy) phthalocyanine (Tc-CuPc) along with [6,6]-Phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM). Weight ratio between Tc-CuPc and PCBM was 1:1. The electrical properties of Tc-CuPc: PCBM BHJ were examined. Rectifying nature of the BHJ was displayed by current-voltage (I-V) curves, recorded in dark and at various temperatures. At low voltages, conduction was ohmic succeeded by space-charge limiting current (SCLC) conduction at higher voltages in which exponential trap distribution was dominant. Series resistance, shunt resistance, ideality factor, effective barrier height and mobility at room temperature were found to be 526 4, 482 k4, 3.7, 0.17 eV and 2×10-7 cm2V-1s-1 respectively. Temperature effect towards different BHJ parameters was observed under dark condition.
Abstract: Air bubbles have been detected in human circulation
of end-stage renal disease patients who are treated by hemodialysis.
The consequence of air embolism, air bubbles, is under recognized
and usually overlooked in daily practice. This paper shows results of
a capacitor based detection method that capable of detecting the
presence of air bubbles in the blood stream in different frequencies.
The method is based on a parallel plates capacitor made of platinum
with an area of 1.5 cm2 and a distance between the two plates is 1cm.
The dielectric material used in this capacitor is Dextran70 solution
which mimics blood rheology. Simulations were carried out using
RC circuit at two frequencies 30Hz and 3 kHz and results compared
with experiments and theory. It is observed that by injecting air
bubbles of different diameters into the device, there were significant
changes in the capacitance of the capacitor. Furthermore, it is
observed that the output voltage from the circuit increased with
increasing air bubble diameter. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of this approach in improving air bubble detection in
Hemodialysis.
Abstract: A research project dealing with the phytoremediation
of a soil polluted by some heavy metals is currently running. The
case study is represented by a mining area in Hamedan province in
the central west part of Iran. The potential of phytoextraction and
phytostabilization of plants was evaluated considering the
concentration of heavy metals in the plant tissues and also the
bioconcentration factor (BCF) and the translocation factor (TF). Also
the several established criteria were applied to define
hyperaccumulator plants in the studied area. Results showed that
none of the collected plant species were suitable for phytoextraction
of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn, but among the plants, Euphorbia macroclada
was the most efficient in phytostabilization of Cu and Fe, while,
Ziziphora clinopodioides, Cousinia sp. and Chenopodium botrys
were the most suitable for phytostabilization of Zn and Chondrila
juncea and Stipa barbata had the potential for phytostabilization of
Mn. Using the most common criterion, Euphorbia macroclada and
Verbascum speciosum were Fe hyperaccumulator plants. Present
study showed that native plant species growing on contaminated sites
may have the potential for phytoremediation.
Abstract: In the present paper, a set of parametric FE stress
analyses is carried out for two-planar welded tubular DKT-joints
under two different axial load cases. Analysis results are used to
present general remarks on the effect of geometrical parameters on
the stress concentration factors (SCFs) at the inner saddle, outer
saddle, toe, and heel positions on the main (outer) brace. Then a new
set of SCF parametric equations is developed through nonlinear
regression analysis for the fatigue design of two-planar DKT-joints.
An assessment study of these equations is conducted against the
experimental data; and the satisfaction of the criteria regarding the
acceptance of parametric equations is checked. Significant effort has
been devoted by researchers to the study of SCFs in various uniplanar
tubular connections. Nevertheless, for multi-planar joints
covering the majority of practical applications, very few
investigations have been reported due to the complexity and high
cost involved.
Abstract: This paper describes the historical development of
interethnic concord in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and emphasizes
the role of tolerance mentality of the Kazakh people in ethno-political
policy of the country. Moreover, pointing out interethnic concord as a
powerful stabilizing factor, it analyses the specifics of interethnic
policy in multinational Kazakh society. It summarizes that the culture
of interethnic concord can be a model of ethno- political policy of
Kazakhstan.
Abstract: The effect of the number of quantum dot (QD) layers
on the saturated gain of doped QD semiconductor optical amplifiers
(SOAs) has been studied using multi-population coupled rate
equations. The developed model takes into account the effect of
carrier coupling between adjacent layers. It has been found that
increasing the number of QD layers (K) increases the unsaturated
optical gain for K
Abstract: This study examines the relevance of disclosure
practices in improving the accountability and transparency of
religious nonprofit organizations (RNPOs). The assessment of
disclosure is based on the annual returns of RNPOs for the financial
year 2010. In order to quantify the information disclosed in the
annual returns, partial disclosure indexes of basic information (BI)
disclosure index, financial information (FI) disclosure index and
governance information (GI) disclosure index have been built which
takes into account the content of information items in the annual
returns. The empirical evidence obtained revealed low disclosure
practices among RNPOs in the sample. The multiple regression
results showed that the organizational attribute of the board size
appeared to be the most significant predictor for both partial index on
the extent of BI disclosure index, and FI disclosure index. On the
other hand, the extent of financial information disclosure is related to
the amount of donation received by RNPOs. On GI disclosure index,
the existence of an external audit appeared to be significant variable.
This study has contributed to the academic literature in providing
empirical evidence of the disclosure practices among RNPOs.
Abstract: Soil organic carbon (SOC) plays a key role in soil
fertility, hydrology, contaminants control and acts as a sink or source
of terrestrial carbon content that can affect the concentration of
atmospheric CO2. SOC supports the sustainability and quality of
ecosystems, especially in semi-arid region. This study was
conducted to determine relative importance of 13 different
exploratory climatic, soil and geometric factors on the SOC contents
in one of the semiarid watershed zones in Iran. Two methods
canonical discriminate analysis (CDA) and feed-forward back
propagation neural networks were used to predict SOC. Stepwise
regression and sensitivity analysis were performed to identify
relative importance of exploratory variables. Results from sensitivity
analysis showed that 7-2-1 neural networks and 5 inputs in CDA
models output have highest predictive ability that explains %70 and
%65 of SOC variability. Since neural network models outperformed
CDA model, it should be preferred for estimating SOC.
Abstract: Search for a tertiary substructure that geometrically
matches the 3D pattern of the binding site of a well-studied protein provides a solution to predict protein functions. In our previous work,
a web server has been built to predict protein-ligand binding sites
based on automatically extracted templates. However, a drawback of such templates is that the web server was prone to resulting in many
false positive matches. In this study, we present a sequence-order constraint to reduce the false positive matches of using automatically
extracted templates to predict protein-ligand binding sites. The binding site predictor comprises i) an automatically constructed template library and ii) a local structure alignment algorithm for
querying the library. The sequence-order constraint is employed to
identify the inconsistency between the local regions of the query protein and the templates. Experimental results reveal that the sequence-order constraint can largely reduce the false positive matches and is effective for template-based binding site prediction.
Abstract: This study investigated students- perception of self
efficacy and anxiety in acquiring English language, and consequently
examined the relationship existing among the independent variables,
confounding variables and students- performances in the English
language. The researcher tested the research hypotheses using a
sample group of 318 respondents out of the population size of 400
students. The results obtained revealed that there was a significant
moderate negative relationship between English language anxiety
and performance in English language, but no significant relationship
between self-efficacy and English language performance, among the
middle-school students. There was a significant moderate negative
relationship between English language anxiety and self-efficacy. It
was discovered that general self-efficacy and English language
anxiety represented a significantly more powerful set of predictors
than the set of confounding variables. Thus, the study concluded that
English language anxiety and general self-efficacy were significant
predictors of English language performance among middle-school
students in Satri Si Suriyothai School.
Abstract: In this paper, we evaluate the performance of some wavelet based coding algorithms such as 3D QT-L, 3D SPIHT and JPEG2K. In the first step we achieve an objective comparison between three coders, namely 3D SPIHT, 3D QT-L and JPEG2K. For this purpose, eight MRI head scan test sets of 256 x 256x124 voxels have been used. Results show superior performance of 3D SPIHT algorithm, whereas 3D QT-L outperforms JPEG2K. The second step consists of evaluating the robustness of 3D SPIHT and JPEG2K coding algorithm over wireless transmission. Compressed dataset images are then transmitted over AWGN wireless channel or over Rayleigh wireless channel. Results show the superiority of JPEG2K over these two models. In fact, it has been deduced that JPEG2K is more robust regarding coding errors. Thus we may conclude the necessity of using corrector codes in order to protect the transmitted medical information.
Abstract: In the visual servoing systems, the data obtained by
Visionary is used for controlling robots. In this project, at first the
simulator which was proposed for simulating the performance of a
6R robot before, was examined in terms of software and test, and in
the proposed simulator, existing defects were obviated. In the first
version of simulation, the robot was directed toward the target object only in a Position-based method using two cameras in the
environment. In the new version of the software, three cameras were used simultaneously. The camera which is installed as eye-inhand on the end-effector of the robot is used for visual servoing in a
Feature-based method. The target object is recognized according to
its characteristics and the robot is directed toward the object in compliance with an algorithm similar to the function of human-s
eyes. Then, the function and accuracy of the operation of the robot are examined through Position-based visual servoing method using
two cameras installed as eye-to-hand in the environment. Finally, the obtained results are tested under ANSI-RIA R15.05-2 standard.
Abstract: This paper investigates the control of a bouncing
ball using Model Predictive Control. Bouncing ball is a benchmark
problem for various rhythmic tasks such as juggling, walking,
hopping and running. Humans develop intentions which may be
perceived as our reference trajectory and tries to track it. The
human brain optimizes the control effort needed to track its
reference; this forms the central theme for control of bouncing ball
in our investigations.
Abstract: This study analyses store layout among the many
factors that underlie supermarket store design, this; in terms of what to
display in a shop and where to place the items. This report examines
newly-opened stores and evaluates their interior shop floor layouts,
which we then attempt to categorize by various styles. We then
consider the interaction between shop floor layout and customer
behavior from the perspective of the supermarket as the seller. At this
point, we focus on the “store magnets"–the main sections within the
shop likely to attract customers into the store.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to reduce the amount of incomplete coating of stainless steel washers in the electrodeposition painting process by using an experimental design technique. The surface preparation was found to be a major cause of painted surface quality. The influence of pretreating and painting process parameters, which are cleaning time, chemical concentration and shape of hanger were studied. A 23 factorial design with two replications was performed. The analysis of variance for the designed experiment showed the great influence of cleaning time and shape of hanger. From this study, optimized cleaning time was determined and a newly designed electrical conductive hanger was proved to be superior to the original one. The experimental verification results showed that the amount of incomplete coating defects decreased from 4% to 1.02% and operation cost decreased by 10.5%.
Abstract: The benefits of physical activity for children are promoted widely and well understood; however factors which impact on children-s beliefs and attitudes towards physical education need to be explored in more detail. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how primary school children value and perceive their involvement in physical education (PE) classes through the use of drawings. While this type of data collection has been used previously to determine a child-s response to specific health education classes, such as drug education, to the best of our knowledge it has not been used in the context of PE. Results from this study showed that kindergarten children found PE classes fun and engaging. Children in Year 4 and Year 6 were less satisfied with PE classes because of the activities offered, the lack of opportunity to play sport, and perception that teachers did not appear to value this area of the curriculum.
Abstract: Rotating stages in semiconductor, display industry and many other fields require challenging accuracy to perform their functions properly. Especially, Axis of rotation error on rotary system is significant; such as the spindle error motion of the aligner, wire bonder and inspector machine which result in the poor state of manufactured goods. To evaluate and improve the performance of such precision rotary stage, unessential movements on the other 5 degrees of freedom of the rotary stage must be measured and analyzed. In this paper, we have measured the three translations and two tilt motions of a rotating stage with high precision capacitive sensors. To obtain the radial error motion from T.I.R (Total Indicated Reading) of radial direction, we have used Donaldson's reversal technique. And the axial components of the spindle tilt error motion can be obtained accurately from the axial direction outputs of sensors by Estler face motion reversal technique. Further more we have defined and measured the sensitivity of positioning error to the five error motions.