Abstract: Advances in technology (e.g. the internet,
telecommunication) and political changes (fewer trade barriers and an
enlarged European Union, ASEAN, NAFTA and other organizations)
have led to develop international competition and expand into new
markets. Companies in Thailand, Asia and around the globe are
increasingly being pressured on price and for faster time to enter the
market. At the same time, new markets are appearing and many
companies are looking for changes and shifts in their domestic
markets. These factors have enabled the rapid growth for companies
and globalizing many different business activities during the product
development process from research and development (R&D) to
production.
This research will show and clarify methods how to develop
global product. Also, it will show how important is a global product
impact into Thai Economy development.
Abstract: The Chichiawan stream in the Wulin catchment in
Taiwan is the natural habitat of Formosan landlocked salmon. Human
and agriculture activities gradually worsen water quality and impact
the fish habitat negatively. To protect and manage Formosan
landlocked salmon habitat, it is important to understand a variety
land-uses affect on the watershed responses to storms. This study
discusses watershed responses to the dry-day before a storm event and
a variety of land-uses in the Wulin catchment. Under the land-use
planning in the Wulin catchment, the peak flows during typhoon
events do not have noticeable difference. However, the nutrient
exports can be highly reduced under the strategies of restraining
agriculture activities. Due to the higher affinity of P for soil than that
of N, the exports of TN from overall Wuling catchment were much
greater than Ortho-P. Agriculture mainly centralized in subbasin A,
which is the important source of nutrients in nonpoint source discharge.
The subbasin A supplied about 26% of the TN and 32% of the Ortho-P
discharge in 2004, despite the fact it only covers 19% area of the
Wuling catchment. The subbasin analysis displayed that the
agricultural subbasin A exports higher nutrients per unit area than
other forest subbasins. Additionally, the agricultural subbasin A
contributed a higher percentage to total Ortho-P exports compares to
TN. The results of subbasin analysis might imply the transport of
Ortho-P was similar to the particulate matter which was mainly
influenced by the runoff and affected by the desorption from soil
particles while the TN (dominated as nitrate-N) was mainly influenced
by base-flow.
Abstract: The heavy metal contamination of the technogenous
sediments and soils at the investigated dump-field show irregular
planar distribution. Also the heavy metal content in the surface water,
drainage water and in the groundwater was studied both in the dry as
well as during the rainy periods. The cementation process causes
substitution of iron by copper. Natural installation and development
of plant species was observed at the old mine waste dumps, specific
to the local chemical conditions such as low content of essential
nutrients and high content of heavy metals. The individual parts of
the plant tissues (roots, branches/stems, leaves/needles, flowers/
fruits) are contaminated by heavy metals and tissues are damaged
differently, respectively.
Abstract: In developing countries located in monsoon areas like
Thailand where rainwater is currently of no value for urban dwellers
due to easily access to piped water supply at each household, studies
in rainwater harvesting for domestic use are of low interest. However
it is needed to undertake research to find out appropriate rainwater
harvesting systems particularly for small urban communities that are
recently developed from a full rural structure to urban context. As a
matter of fact, in such transitional period, relying on only common
water resources is risky. With some specific economic settings, land
use patterns, and historical and cultural context that dominate
perceptions of water users in the study area, the level of service in
this study may certainly be different from megacities or cities located
in industrial zone. The overviews of some available technologies and
background of rainwater harvesting including alternate resource are
included in this paper. Among other sources of water supply, ground
water use as the water resource of Thailand and also in the study area.
Abstract: When the Malaysian government announced the implementation of the Build-Then-Sell (BTS) system in 2007, the proponents of the BTS have argued that the implementation of this new system may provide houses with low defects. However, there has been no empirical data to support their argument. Therefore, this study is conducted to measure the level of housing defects in the BTS housing delivery system. A survey was conducted to the occupiers in six BTS residential areas. The BTS residential areas have been identified through the media and because of the small number of population, all households in the BTS residential areas were required to participate in the study to enable the researcher to collect the data concerning defects. Questionnaire had been employed as the data collection instrument and was distributed to the respondents of this study. The result has shown that the level of defects in the BTS houses is low, as the rate of defects for all elements are slight. Such low level of defects has apparently only affected the aesthetic value of the houses.
Abstract: An alternative iterative computational procedure is
proposed for internal normal ball loads calculation in statically
loaded single-row, angular-contact ball bearings, subjected to a
known thrust load, which is applied in the inner ring at the geometric
bearing center line. An accurate method for curvature radii at
contacts with inner and outer raceways in the direction of the motion
is used. Numerical aspects of the iterative procedure are discussed.
Numerical examples results for a 218 angular-contact ball bearing
have been compared with those from the literature. Twenty figures
are presented showing the geometrical features, the behavior of the
convergence variables and the following parameters as functions of
the thrust load: normal ball loads, contact angle, distance between
curvature centers, and normal ball and axial deflections.
Abstract: The use of renewable energy sources incl. biogas has become topical in accordance with the increasing demand for energy, decrease of fossil energy resources and the efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as to increase energy independence from the territories where fossil energy resources are available.
As the technologies of biogas production from agricultural biomass develop, risk assessment and risk management become necessary for farms producing such a renewable energy. The need for risk assessments has become particularly topical when discussions on changing the biogas policy in the EU take place, which may influence the development of the sector in the future, as well as the operation of existing biogas facilities and their income level.
The current article describes results of the risk assessment for farms producing biomass from agriculture biomass in Latvia, the risk assessment system included 24 risks, that affect the whole biogas production process and the obtained results showed the high significance of political and production risks.
Abstract: Synthetic juice clarification was done through spiral
wound ultrafiltration (UF) membrane module. Synthetic juice was
clarified at two different operating conditions, such as, with and
without permeates recycle at turbulent flow regime. The performance
of spiral wound ultrafiltration membrane was analyzed during
clarification of synthetic juice. Synthetic juice was the mixture of
deionized water, sucrose and pectin molecule. The operating
conditions are: feed flowrate of 10 lpm, pressure drop of 413.7 kPa
and Reynolds no of 5000. Permeate sample was analyzed in terms of
volume reduction factor (VRF), viscosity (Pa.s), ⁰Brix, TDS (mg/l),
electrical conductivity (μS) and turbidity (NTU). It was observe that
the permeate flux declined with operating time for both conditions of
with and without permeate recycle due to increase of concentration
polarization and increase of gel layer on membrane surface. For
without permeate recycle, the membrane fouling rate was faster
compared to with permeate recycle. For without permeate recycle,
the VRF rose up to 5 and for with recycle permeate the VRF is 1.9.
The VRF is higher due to adsorption of solute (pectin) molecule on
membrane surface and resulting permeateflux declined with VRF.
With permeate recycle, quality was within acceptable limit. Fouled
membrane was cleaned by applying different processes (e.g.,
deionized water, SDS and EDTA solution). Membrane cleaning was
analyzed in terms of permeability recovery.
Abstract: This paper focuses on a critical component of the situational awareness (SA), the neural control of depth flight of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Constant depth flight is a challenging but important task for AUVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, we proposed a multirate neural control of an AUV trajectory for a nontrivial mid-small size AUV “r2D4" stochastic model. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of diving maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the chosen AUV model is stable in the presence of noises, and also can be concluded that the proposed research technique will be useful for fast SA of similar AUV systems in real-time search-and-rescue operations.
Abstract: The Euler-s equation of motion is extended to include
the viscosity stress tensor leading to the formulation of Navier–
Stokes type equation. The latter is linearized and applied to
investigate the rotational motion or vorticity in a viscous fluid.
Relations for the velocity of viscous waves and attenuation parameter
are obtained in terms of viscosity (μ) and the density (¤ü) of the fluid.
μ and ¤ü are measured experimentally as a function of temperature for
two different samples of light and heavy crude oil. These data
facilitated to determine the activation energy, velocity of viscous
wave and the attenuation parameter. Shear wave velocity in heavy oil
is found to be much larger than the light oil, whereas the attenuation
parameter in heavy oil is quite low in comparison to light one. The
activation energy of heavy oil is three times larger than light oil.
Abstract: The analytical solutions for geodesic acoustic
eigenmodes in tokamak plasmas with circular concentric magnetic
surfaces are found. In the frame of ideal magnetohydrodynamics the
dispersion relation taking into account the toroidal coupling between
electrostatic perturbations and electromagnetic perturbations with
poloidal mode number |m| = 2 is derived. In the absence of such
a coupling the dispersion relation gives the standard continuous
spectrum of geodesic acoustic modes. The analysis of the existence
of global eigenmodes for plasma equilibria with both off-axis
and on-axis maximum of the local geodesic acoustic frequency is
performed.
Abstract: In this paper, we present parallel alternating two-stage
methods for solving linear system Ax=b, where A is a symmetric
positive definite matrix. And we give some convergence results of
these methods for nonsingular linear system.
Abstract: Smart Grids employ wireless sensor networks for
their control and monitoring. Sensors are characterized by limitations
in the processing power, energy supply and memory spaces, which
require a particular attention on the design of routing and data
management algorithms.
Since most routing algorithms for sensor networks, focus on
finding energy efficient paths to prolong the lifetime of sensor
networks, the power of sensors on efficient paths depletes quickly,
and consequently sensor networks become incapable of monitoring
events from some parts of their target areas. In consequence, the
design of routing protocols should consider not only energy
efficiency paths, but also energy efficient algorithms in general.
In this paper we propose an energy efficient routing protocol for
wireless sensor networks without the support of any location
information system. The reliability and the efficiency of this protocol
have been demonstrated by simulation studies where we compare
them to the legacy protocols. Our simulation results show that these
algorithms scale well with network size and density.
Abstract: In order to derive important parameters concerning
mobile subscriber MS with ongoing calls in Low Earth Orbit Mobile
Satellite Systems LEO MSSs, a positioning system had to be
integrated into MSS in order to localize mobile subscribers MSs and
track them during the connection. Such integration is regarded as a
complex implementation.
We propose in this paper a novel method based on advantages of
mobility model of Low Earth Orbit Mobile Satellite System LEO
MSS called Evaluation Parameters Method EPM which allows for
such systems the evaluation of different information concerning a
MS with a call in progress even if its location is unknown.
Abstract: Understanding the cell's large-scale organization is an interesting task in computational biology. Thus, protein-protein interactions can reveal important organization and function of the cell. Here, we investigated the correspondence between protein interactions and function for the yeast. We obtained the correlations among the set of proteins. Then these correlations are clustered using both the hierarchical and biclustering methods. The detailed analyses of proteins in each cluster were carried out by making use of their functional annotations. As a result, we found that some functional classes appear together in almost all biclusters. On the other hand, in hierarchical clustering, the dominancy of one functional class is observed. In the light of the clustering data, we have verified some interactions which were not identified as core interactions in DIP and also, we have characterized some functionally unknown proteins according to the interaction data and functional correlation. In brief, from interaction data to function, some correlated results are noticed about the relationship between interaction and function which might give clues about the organization of the proteins, also to predict new interactions and to characterize functions of unknown proteins.
Abstract: Knowledge of an organization does not merely reside
in structured form of information and data; it is also embedded in
unstructured form. The discovery of such knowledge is particularly
difficult as the characteristic is dynamic, scattered, massive and
multiplying at high speed. Conventional methods of managing
unstructured information are considered too resource demanding and
time consuming to cope with the rapid information growth.
In this paper, a Multi-faceted and Automatic Knowledge
Elicitation System (MAKES) is introduced for the purpose of
discovery and capture of organizational knowledge. A trial
implementation has been conducted in a public organization to
achieve the objective of decision capture and navigation from a
number of meeting minutes which are autonomously organized,
classified and presented in a multi-faceted taxonomy map in both
document and content level. Key concepts such as critical decision
made, key knowledge workers, knowledge flow and the relationship
among them are elicited and displayed in predefined knowledge
model and maps. Hence, the structured knowledge can be retained,
shared and reused.
Conducting Knowledge Management with MAKES reduces work
in searching and retrieving the target decision, saves a great deal of
time and manpower, and also enables an organization to keep pace
with the knowledge life cycle. This is particularly important when
the amount of unstructured information and data grows extremely
quickly. This system approach of knowledge management can
accelerate value extraction and creation cycles of organizations.
Abstract: Symbolic Circuit Analysis (SCA) is a technique used
to generate the symbolic expression of a network. It has become a
well-established technique in circuit analysis and design. The
symbolic expression of networks offers excellent way to perform
frequency response analysis, sensitivity computation, stability
measurements, performance optimization, and fault diagnosis. Many
approaches have been proposed in the area of SCA offering different
features and capabilities. Numerical Interpolation methods are very
common in this context, especially by using the Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT). The aim of this paper is to present a method for
SCA that depends on the use of Wavelet Transform (WT) as a
mathematical tool to generate the symbolic expression for large
circuits with minimizing the analysis time by reducing the number of
computations.
Abstract: Measurement and the following evaluation of
performance represent important part of management. The paper
focuses on indicators as the basic elements of performance
measurement system. It emphasizes a necessity of searching
requirements for quality indicators so that they can become part of
the useful system. It introduces standpoints for a systematic dividing
of indicators so that they have as high as possible informative value
of background sources for searching, analysis, designing and using of
indicators. It draws attention to requirements for indicators' quality
and at the same it deals with some dangers decreasing indicator's
informative value. It submits a draft of questions that should be
answered at the construction of indicator. It is obvious that particular
indicators need to be defined exactly to stimulate the desired
behavior in order to attain expected results. In the enclosure a
concrete example of the defined indicator in the concrete conditions
of a small firm is given. The authors of the paper pay attention to the
fact that a quality indicator makes it possible to get to the basic
causes of the problem and include the established facts into the
company information system. At the same time they emphasize that
developing of a quality indicator is a prerequisite for the utilization
of the system of measurement in management.
Abstract: Radio wave propagation on the road surface is a major
problem on wireless sensor network for traffic monitoring. In this
paper, we compare receiving signal strength on two scenarios 1) an
empty road and 2) a road with a vehicle. We investigate the effect of
antenna polarization and antenna height to the receiving signal
strength. The transmitting antenna is installed on the road surface.
The receiving signal is measured 360 degrees around the transmitting
antenna with the radius of 2.5 meters. Measurement results show the
receiving signal fluctuation around the transmitting antenna in both
scenarios. Receiving signal with vertical polarization antenna results
in higher signal strength than horizontal polarization antenna. The
optimum antenna elevation is 1 meter for both horizon and vertical
polarizations with the vehicle on the road. In the empty road, the
receiving signal level is unvarying with the elevation when the
elevation is greater than 1.5 meters.
Abstract: Solar shading designs are important for reduction of building energy consumption and improvement of indoor thermal environment. This paper carried out a number of building simulations for evaluation of the energy performance of different shading devices based on incremental costs. The results show that movable shading devices lower incremental costs by up to 50% compared with fixed ones for the same building energy efficiency for residential buildings, and wing panel shadings are much more suitable in commercial buildings than baring screen ones and overhangs for commercial buildings.