Abstract: Future flood can be predicted using the probable
maximum flood (PMF). PMF is calculated using the historical
discharge or rainfall data considering the other climatic parameters
remaining stationary. However climate is changing globally and the
key climatic variables are temperature, evaporation, rainfall and sea
level rise are likely to change. To develop scenarios to a basin or
catchment scale these important climatic variables should be
considered. Nowadays scenario based on climatic variables is more
suitable than PMF. Six scenarios were developed for a large Fitzroy
basin and presented in this paper.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the possible
link between employee and customer satisfaction. The service
provided by employees, help to build a good relationship with
customers and can help at increasing their loyalty. Published data for
job satisfaction and indicators of customer services of banks were
gathered from relevant published works which included data from
five different countries. The scores of customers and employees
satisfaction of the different published works were transformed and
normalized to the scale of 1 to 100. The data were analyzed and a
regression analysis of the two parameters was used to describe the
link between employee’s satisfaction and customer’s satisfaction.
Assuming that employee satisfaction has a significant influence on
customer’s service and the resulting customer satisfaction, the
reviewed data indicate that employee’s satisfaction contributes
significantly on the level of customer satisfaction in the Banking
sector. There was a significant correlation between the two
parameters (Pearson correlation R2=0.52 P
Abstract: In this study, the performance analyses of the twenty
five Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs) used for electricity generation
are carried out through various Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
models. Three efficiency indices are defined and pursued. During the
calculation of the operational performance, energy and non-energy
variables are used as input, and net electricity produced is used as
desired output (Model-1). CO2 emitted to the environment is used as
the undesired output (Model-2) in the computation of the pure
environmental performance while in Model-3 CO2 emissions is
considered as detrimental input in the calculation of operational and
environmental performance. Empirical results show that most of the
plants are operating in increasing returns to scale region and Mettur
plant is efficient one with regards to energy use and environment.
The result also indicates that the undesirable output effect is
insignificant in the research sample. The present study will provide
clues to plant operators towards raising the operational and
environmental performance of CFPPs.
Abstract: Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using
various materials were compared to determine if material choice
drove sustainability, or if other factors such as machine type, machine
size, or machine utilization dominate. Cradle-to-grave life-cycle
assessments were performed, comparing a commercial-scale FDM
machine printing in ABS plastic, a desktop FDM machine printing in
ABS, a desktop FDM machine printing in PET and PLA plastics, a
polyjet machine printing in its proprietary polymer, an SLA machine
printing in its polymer, and an inkjet machine hacked to print in salt
and dextrose. All scenarios were scored using ReCiPe Endpoint H
methodology to combine multiple impact categories, comparing
environmental impacts per part made for several scenarios per
machine. Results showed that most printers’ ecological impacts were
dominated by electricity use, not materials, and the changes in
electricity use due to different plastics was not significant compared
to variation from one machine to another. Variation in machine idle
time determined impacts per part most strongly. However, material
impacts were quite important for the inkjet printer hacked to print in
salt: In its optimal scenario, it had up to 1/38th the impacts coreper
part as the worst-performing machine in the same scenario. If salt
parts were infused with epoxy to make them more physically robust,
then much of this advantage disappeared, and material impacts
actually dominated or equaled electricity use. Future studies should
also measure DMLS and SLS processes / materials.
Abstract: The Simulation based VLSI Implementation of
FELICS (Fast Efficient Lossless Image Compression System)
Algorithm is proposed to provide the lossless image compression and
is implemented in simulation oriented VLSI (Very Large Scale
Integrated). To analysis the performance of Lossless image
compression and to reduce the image without losing image quality
and then implemented in VLSI based FELICS algorithm. In FELICS
algorithm, which consists of simplified adjusted binary code for
Image compression and these compression image is converted in
pixel and then implemented in VLSI domain. This parameter is used
to achieve high processing speed and minimize the area and power.
The simplified adjusted binary code reduces the number of arithmetic
operation and achieved high processing speed. The color difference
preprocessing is also proposed to improve coding efficiency with
simple arithmetic operation. Although VLSI based FELICS
Algorithm provides effective solution for hardware architecture
design for regular pipelining data flow parallelism with four stages.
With two level parallelisms, consecutive pixels can be classified into
even and odd samples and the individual hardware engine is
dedicated for each one. This method can be further enhanced by
multilevel parallelisms.
Abstract: Since large part of electricity is generated by using
fossil based resources, energy is an important agenda for countries. In
this context, renewable energy sources are alternative to conventional
sources due to the depletion of fossil resources, increasing awareness
of climate change and global warming concerns. Solar, wind and
hydropower energy are the main renewable energy sources. Among
of them, since installed capacity of wind power has increased
approximately eight times between 2008 - November of 2014, wind
energy is a promising source for Turkey. Furthermore, signing of
Kyoto Protocol can be accepted as a milestone for Turkey's energy
policy. Turkish Government has announced Vision 2023 (energy
targets by 2023) in 2010-2014 Strategic Plan prepared by Ministry of
Energy and Natural Resources (MENR). Energy targets in this plan
can be summarized as follows: Share of renewable energy sources in
electricity generation is 30% of total electricity generation by 2023.
Installed capacity of wind energy will be 20 GW by 2023. Other
renewable energy sources such as solar, hydropower and geothermal
are encouraged with new incentive mechanisms. Dependence on
foreign energy is reduced for sustainability and energy security. On
the other hand, since Turkey is surrounded by three coastal areas,
wind energy potential is convenient for wind power application. As
of November of 2014, total installed capacity of wind power plants is
3.51 GW and a lot of wind power plants are under construction with
capacity 1.16 GW. Turkish government also encourages the locally
manufactured equipments. In this context, one of the projects funded
by private sector, universities and TUBİTAK names as MILRES is
an important project aimed to promote the use wind energy in
electricity generation. Within this project, wind turbine with 500 kW
power has been produced and will be installed at the beginning of the
2015. After that, by using the experience obtained from the first
phase of the project, a wind turbine with 2.5 MW power will be
manufactured in an industrial scale.
Abstract: Water spray cooling is a technique typically used in
heat treatment and other metallurgical processes where controlled
temperature regimes are required. Water spray cooling is used in
static (without movement) or dynamic (with movement of the steel
plate) regimes. The static regime is notable for the fixed position of
the hot steel plate and fixed spray nozzle. This regime is typical for
quenching systems focused on heat treatment of the steel plate. The
second application of spray cooling is the dynamic regime. The
dynamic regime is notable for its static section cooling system and
moving steel plate. This regime is used in rolling and finishing mills.
The fixed position of cooling sections with nozzles and the
movement of the steel plate produce nonhomogeneous water
distribution on the steel plate. The length of cooling sections and
placement of water nozzles in combination with the nonhomogeneity
of water distribution lead to discontinued or interrupted cooling
conditions. The impact of static and dynamic regimes on cooling
intensity and the heat transfer coefficient during the cooling process
of steel plates is an important issue.
Heat treatment of steel is accompanied by oxide scale growth. The
oxide scale layers can significantly modify the cooling properties and
intensity during the cooling. The combination of static and dynamic
(section) regimes with the variable thickness of the oxide scale layer
on the steel surface impact the final cooling intensity. The study of
the influence of the oxide scale layers with different cooling regimes
was carried out using experimental measurements and numerical
analysis. The experimental measurements compared both types of
cooling regimes and the cooling of scale-free surfaces and oxidized
surfaces. A numerical analysis was prepared to simulate the cooling
process with different conditions of the section and samples with
different oxide scale layers.
Abstract: Liposome plays an important role in medical and
pharmaceutical science as e.g. nano scale drug carriers. Liposomes
are vesicles of varying size consisting of a spherical lipid bilayer and
an aqueous inner compartment. Magnet-driven liposome used for the
targeted delivery of drugs to organs and tissues. These liposome
preparations contain encapsulated drug components and finely
dispersed magnetic particles.
Liposomes are vesicles of varying size consisting of a spherical
lipid bilayer and an aqueous inner compartment that are generated in
vitro. These are useful in terms of biocompatibility, biodegradability,
and low toxicity, and can control biodistribution by changing the size,
lipid composition, and physical characteristics. Furthermore,
liposomes can entrap both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs and are
able to continuously release the entrapped substrate, thus being useful
drug carriers. Magnetic liposomes (MLs) are phospholipid vesicles
that encapsulate magneticor paramagnetic nanoparticles. They are
applied as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The biological synthesis of nanoparticles using plant extracts plays
an important role in the field of nanotechnology. Green-synthesized
magnetite nanoparticles-protein hybrid has been produced by treating
Iron (III) / Iron (II) chloride with the leaf extract of Datura inoxia.
The phytochemicals present in the leaf extracts act as a reducing as
well stabilizing agents preventing agglomeration, which include
flavonoids, phenolic compounds, cardiac glycosides, proteins and
sugars.
The magnetite nanoparticles-protein hybrid has been trapped
inside the aqueous core of the liposome prepared by reversed phase
evaporation (REV) method using oleic and linoleic acid which has
been shown to be driven under magnetic field confirming the
formation magnetic liposome (ML). Chemical characterization of
stealth magnetic liposome has been performed by breaking the
liposome and release of magnetic nanoparticles. The presence iron
has been confirmed by colour complex formation with KSCN and
UV-Vis study using spectrophotometer Cary 60, Agilent.
This magnet driven liposome using nanoparticles-protein hybrid
can be a smart vesicles for the targeted drug delivery.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a robust algorithm to recognize extracted text from grocery product images captured by mobile phone cameras. Recognition of such text is challenging since text in grocery product images varies in its size, orientation,
style, illumination, and can suffer from perspective distortion.
Pre-processing is performed to make the characters scale and
rotation invariant. Since text degradations can not be appropriately
defined using well-known geometric transformations such
as translation, rotation, affine transformation and shearing, we
use the whole character black pixels as our feature vector.
Classification is performed with minimum distance classifier
using the maximum likelihood criterion, which delivers very
promising Character Recognition Rate (CRR) of 89%. We
achieve considerably higher Word Recognition Rate (WRR) of
99% when using lower level linguistic knowledge about product
words during the recognition process.
Abstract: In this research, waterglass based aerogel powder was
prepared by sol–gel process and ambient pressure drying. Inspired by
limited dust releasing, aerogel powder was introduced to the PET
electrospinning solution in an attempt to create required bulk and
surface structure for the nanofibers to improve their hydrophobic and
insulation properties. The samples evaluation was carried out by
measuring density, porosity, contact angle, heat transfer, FTIR, BET,
and SEM. According to the results, porous silica aerogel powder was
fabricated with mean pore diameter of 24 nm and contact angle of
145.9º. The results indicated the usefulness of the aerogel powder
confined into nanofibers to control surface roughness for
manipulating superhydrophobic nanowebs with water contact angle
of 147º. It can be due to a multi-scale surface roughness which was
created by nanowebs structure itself and nanofibers surface
irregularity in presence of the aerogels while a layer of fluorocarbon
created low surface energy. The wettability of a solid substrate is an
important property that is controlled by both the chemical
composition and geometry of the surface. Also, a decreasing trend in
the heat transfer was observed from 22% for the nanofibers without
any aerogel powder to 8% for the nanofibers with 4% aerogel
powder. The development of thermal insulating materials has become
increasingly more important than ever in view of the fossil energy
depletion and global warming that call for more demanding energysaving
practices.
Abstract: The paper involves a chain of activities from
synthesis, establishment of the methodology for characterization and
testing of novel protective materials through the pilot production and
application on model supports.
It summarizes the results regarding the development of the pilot
production protocol for newly developed self-cleaning materials. The
optimization of the production parameters was completed in order to
improve the most important functional properties (mineralogy
characteristics, particle size, self-cleaning properties and
photocatalytic activity) of the newly designed nanocomposite
material.
Abstract: In this paper a comprehensive review on various
factory layouts has been carried out for designing a lucrative process
layout for medium scale industries. Industry data base reveals that the
end product rejection rate is on the order of 10% amounting large
profit loss. In order to avoid these rejection rates and to increase the
quality product production an intermediate non-destructive testing
facility (INDTF) has been recommended for increasing the overall
profit. We observed through detailed case studies that while
introducing INDTF to medium scale industries the expensive
production process can be avoided to the defective products well
before its final shape. Additionally, the defective products identified
during the intermediate stage can be effectively utilized for other
applications or recycling; thereby the overall wastage of the raw
materials can be reduced and profit can be increased. We concluded
that the prudent design of a factory layout through critical path
method facilitating with INDTF will warrant profitable outcome.
Abstract: In EFL programs, rating scales used in writing
assessment are often constructed by intuition. Intuition-based scales
tend to provide inaccurate and divisive ratings of learners’ writing
performance. Hence, following an empirical approach, this study
attempted to develop a rating scale for elementary-level writing at an
EFL program in Saudi Arabia. Towards this goal, 98 students’ essays
were scored and then coded using comprehensive taxonomy of
writing constructs and their measures. An automatic linear modeling
was run to find out which measures would best predict essay scores.
A nonparametric ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was then used to
determine which measures could best differentiate among scoring
levels. Findings indicated that there were certain measures that could
serve as either good predictors of essay scores or differentiators
among scoring levels, or both. The main conclusion was that a rating
scale can be empirically developed using predictive and
discriminative statistical tests.
Abstract: E-business technologies, whereby business
transactions are conducted remotely using the Internet, present
unique opportunities and challenges for business. E-business
technologies are applicable to a wide range of organizations and
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are no exception. There
is an established body of literature about e-business, looking at
definitions, concepts, benefits and challenges. In general, however,
the research focus has been on larger organizations, not SMEs. In an
attempt to redress the balance of research, this paper looks at ebusiness
technologies specifically from a small business perspective.
It seeks to identify the possible barriers that SMEs might face when
considering adoption of the e-business concept and practice as part of
their business process change initiatives and implementation. To
facilitate analysis of these barriers a conceptual framework has been
developed which outlines the key conceptual and practical challenges
of e-business implementation in SMEs. This is developed following a
literature survey comprised of three categories: characteristics of
SMEs, issues of IS/IT use in SMEs and general e-business adoption
and implementation issues. The framework is then empirically
assessed against 7 SMEs who have yet to implement e-business or
whose e-business efforts have been unsatisfactory. Conclusions from
the case studies can be used to verify the framework, and set
parameters for further larger scale empirical investigation.
Abstract: The present study was conducted to evaluate the
potential applicability of biological trickling filter system for the
treatment of simulated textile wastewater containing reactive azo
dyes with bacterial consortium under non-sterile conditions. The
percentage decolorization for the treatment of wastewater containing
structurally different dyes was found to be higher than 95% in all
trials. The stable bacterial count of the biofilm on stone media of the
trickling filter during the treatment confirmed the presence,
proliferation, dominance and involvement of the added microbial
consortium in the treatment of textile wastewater. Results of
physicochemical parameters revealed the reduction in chemical
oxygen demand (58.5-75.1%), sulphates (18.9-36.5%), and
phosphates (63.6-73.0%). UV-Visible and FTIR spectroscopy
confirmed decolorization of dye containing wastewater was ultimate
consequence of biodegradation. Toxicological studies revealed the
nontoxic nature of degradative metabolites.
Abstract: E-service quality plays a significant role to achieve
success or failure in any organization, offering services online. It will
increase the competition among the organizations, to attract the
customers on the basis of the quality of service provided by the
organization. Better e-service quality will enhance the relationship
with customers and their satisfaction. So the measurement of eservice
quality is very important but it is a complex process due to
the complex nature of services. Literature predicts that there is a lack
of universal definition of e-service quality. The e-service quality
measures in banking have great importance in achieving high
customer base. This paper proposes a conceptual model for
measuring e-service quality in Indian Banking Industry. Nine
dimensions reliability, ease of use, personalization, security and trust,
website aesthetic, responsiveness, contact and fulfillment had been
identified. The results of this paper may help to develop a proper
scale to measure the e-service quality in Indian Banking Industry,
which may assist to maintain and improve the performance and
effectiveness of e-service quality to retain customers.
Abstract: Precast residential houses are normally constructed in Malaysia using precast shear-key wall panel and this panel is designed using BS8110 where there is no provision for earthquake. However, the safety of this house under moderate and strong earthquake is still questionable. Consequently, the full-scale of residential house are designed, constructed, tested and analyzed under in-plane lateral quasi-static cyclic loading. Hysteresis loops are plotted based on the experimental work and compared with modeling of hysteresis loops using HYSTERES in RUAUMOKO 2D program. Modified Takeda hysteresis model is chosen to behave a similar pattern with experimental work. This program will display the earthquake excitations, spectral displacements, pseudo spectral acceleration, mode shape and deformation of the structure. It can be concluded that this building is suffering severe cracks and damage under moderate and severe earthquake.
Abstract: Mammography has been one of the most reliable
methods for early detection of breast cancer. There are different
lesions which are breast cancer characteristic such as
microcalcifications, masses, architectural distortions and bilateral
asymmetry. One of the major challenges of analysing digital
mammogram is how to extract efficient features from it for accurate
cancer classification. In this paper we proposed a hybrid feature
extraction method to detect and classify all four signs of breast
cancer. The proposed method is based on multiscale surrounding
region dependence method, Gabor filters, multi fractal analysis,
directional and morphological analysis. The extracted features are
input to self adaptive resource allocation network (SRAN) classifier
for classification. The validity of our approach is extensively
demonstrated using the two benchmark data sets Mammographic
Image Analysis Society (MIAS) and Digital Database for Screening
Mammograph (DDSM) and the results have been proved to be
progressive.
Abstract: A modeling approach for CMOS gates is presented
based on the use of the equivalent inverter. A new model for the
inverter has been developed using a simplified transistor current
model which incorporates the nanoscale effects for the planar
technology. Parametric expressions for the output voltage are
provided as well as the values of the output and supply current to be
compatible with the CCS technology. The model is parametric
according the input signal slew, output load, transistor widths, supply
voltage, temperature and process. The transistor widths of the
equivalent inverter are determined by HSPICE simulations and
parametric expressions are developed for that using a fitting
procedure. Results for the NAND gate shows that the proposed
approach offers sufficient accuracy with an average error in
propagation delay about 5%.
Abstract: Two tragic tsunamis that devastated the west coast of
Sumatra Island, Indonesia in 2004 and North East Japan in 2011 had
damaged bridges to various extents. Tsunamis have resulted in the
catastrophic deterioration of infrastructures i.e. coastal structures,
utilities and transportation facilities. A bridge structure performs vital
roles to enable people to perform activities related to their daily needs
and for development. A damaged bridge needs to be repaired
expeditiously. In order to understand the effects of tsunami forces on
bridges, experimental tests are carried out to measure the
characteristics of hydrodynamic force at various wave heights.
Coastal bridge models designed at a 1:40 scale are used in a 24.0 m
long hydraulic flume with a cross section of 1.5 m by 2.0 m. The
horizontal forces and uplift forces in all cases show that forces
increase nonlinearly with increasing wave amplitude.