Abstract: In the present work an investigation of the effects of
the air frontal velocity, relative humidity and dry air temperature on
the heat transfer characteristics of plain finned tube evaporator has
been conducted. Using an appropriate correlation for the air side heat
transfer coefficient the temperature distribution along the fin surface
was calculated using a dimensionless temperature distribution. For a
constant relative humidity and bulb temperature, it is found that the
temperature distribution decreases with increasing air frontal
velocity. Apparently, it is attributed to the condensate water film
flowing over the fin surface. When dry air temperature and face
velocity are being kept constant, the temperature distribution
decreases with the increase of inlet relative humidity. An increase in
the inlet relative humidity is accompanied by a higher amount of
moisture on the fin surface. This results in a higher amount of latent
heat transfer which involves higher fin surface temperature. For the
influence of dry air temperature, the results here show an increase in
the dimensionless temperature parameter with a decrease in bulb
temperature. Increasing bulb temperature leads to higher amount of
sensible and latent heat transfer when other conditions remain
constant.
Abstract: Latvia is the fourth in the world by means of broadband internet speed. The total number of internet users in Latvia exceeds 70% of its population. The number of active mailboxes of the local internet e-mail service Inbox.lv accounts for 68% of the population and 97.6% of the total number of internet users. The Latvian portal Draugiem.lv is a phenomenon of social media, because 58.4 % of the population and 83.5% of internet users use it. A majority of Latvian company profiles are available on social networks, the most popular being Twitter.com. These and other parameters prove the fact consumers and companies are actively using the Internet.
However, after the authors in a number of studies analyzed how enterprises are employing the e-environment, namely, e-environment tools, they arrived to the conclusions that are not as flattering as the aforementioned statistics. There is an obvious contradiction between the statistical data and the actual studies. As a result, the authors have posed a question: Why are entrepreneurs resistant to e-tools? In order to answer this question, the authors have addressed the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The authors analyzed each phase and determined several factors affecting the use of e-environment, reaching the main conclusion that entrepreneurs do not have a sufficient level of e-literacy (digital literacy).
The authors employ well-established quantitative and qualitative methods of research: grouping, analysis, statistic method, factor analysis in SPSS 20 environment etc.
The theoretical and methodological background of the research is formed by, scientific researches and publications, that from the mass media and professional literature, statistical information from legal institutions as well as information collected by the author during the survey.
Abstract: The need for multilingual communication in Japan has
increased due to an increase in the number of foreigners in the
country. When people communicate in their nonnative language,
the differences in language prevent mutual understanding among
the communicating individuals. In the medical field, communication
between the hospital staff and patients is a serious problem. Currently,
medical translators accompany patients to medical care facilities, and
the demand for medical translators is increasing. However, medical
translators cannot necessarily provide support, especially in cases in
which round-the-clock support is required or in case of emergencies.
The medical field has high expectations from information technology.
Hence, a system that supports accurate multilingual communication is
required. Despite recent advances in machine translation technology,
it is very difficult to obtain highly accurate translations. We have
developed a support system called M3 for multilingual medical
reception. M3 provides support functions that aid foreign patients in
the following respects: conversation, questionnaires, reception procedures,
and hospital navigation; it also has a Q&A function. Users
can operate M3 using a touch screen and receive text-based support.
In addition, M3 uses accurate translation tools called parallel texts
to facilitate reliable communication through conversations between
the hospital staff and the patients. However, if there is no parallel
text that expresses what users want to communicate, the users cannot
communicate. In this study, we have developed a circulating support
environment for multilingual medical communication using parallel
texts. The proposed environment can circulate necessary parallel texts
through the following procedure: (1) a user provides feedback about
the necessary parallel texts, following which (2) these parallel texts
are created and evaluated.
Abstract: Data Mining aims at discovering knowledge out of
data and presenting it in a form that is easily comprehensible to
humans. One of the useful applications in Egypt is the Cancer
management, especially the management of Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukemia or ALL, which is the most common type of cancer in
children.
This paper discusses the process of designing a prototype that can
help in the management of childhood ALL, which has a great
significance in the health care field. Besides, it has a social impact
on decreasing the rate of infection in children in Egypt. It also
provides valubale information about the distribution and
segmentation of ALL in Egypt, which may be linked to the possible
risk factors.
Undirected Knowledge Discovery is used since, in the case of this
research project, there is no target field as the data provided is
mainly subjective. This is done in order to quantify the subjective
variables. Therefore, the computer will be asked to identify
significant patterns in the provided medical data about ALL. This
may be achieved through collecting the data necessary for the
system, determimng the data mining technique to be used for the
system, and choosing the most suitable implementation tool for the
domain.
The research makes use of a data mining tool, Clementine, so as to
apply Decision Trees technique. We feed it with data extracted from
real-life cases taken from specialized Cancer Institutes. Relevant
medical cases details such as patient medical history and diagnosis
are analyzed, classified, and clustered in order to improve the disease
management.
Abstract: Medical Surgical Nursing is one of the major subjects
in nursing. This study examined the validity and reliability of the
achievement examination utilizing the Classical Test Theory and
Item Response Theory. The study answered the following objectives
specifically : ( a) To establish the validity and reliability of the
achievement examination utilizing Classical Test Theory and Item
Response Theory ; ( b ) To determine the dimensionality measure of
items and ( c ) to compare the item difficulty and item discrimination
of the Medical Surgical Nursing Achievement examination using
Classical Test Theory ( CTT ) and Item Response Theory ( IRT ).
The developed instrument was administered to fourth year nursing
students (N= 136) of a private university in Manila. The findings
yielded the following results: The achievement examination is
reliable both using CTT and IRT. The findings indicate person and
item statistics from two frameworks are quite alike. The achievement
examination formed a unidimensional construct.
Abstract: Natural frequencies and dynamic response of a spur
gear sector are investigated using a two dimensional finite element
model that offers significant advantages for dynamic gear analyses.
The gear teeth are analyzed for different operating speeds. A primary
feature of this modeling is determination of mesh forces using a
detailed contact analysis for each time step as the gears roll through
the mesh. ANSYS software has been used on the proposed model to
find the natural frequencies by Block Lanczos technique and
displacements and dynamic stresses by transient mode super position
method. The effect of rotational speed of the gear on the dynamic
response of gear tooth has been studied and design limits have been
discussed.
Abstract: With the advent of digital cinema and digital
broadcasting, copyright protection of video data has been one of the
most important issues.
We present a novel method of watermarking for video image data
based on the hardware and digital wavelet transform techniques and
name it as “traceable watermarking" because the watermarked data is
constructed before the transmission process and traced after it has been
received by an authorized user.
In our method, we embed the watermark to the lowest part of each
image frame in decoded video by using a hardware LSI.
Digital Cinema is an important application for traceable
watermarking since digital cinema system makes use of watermarking
technology during content encoding, encryption, transmission,
decoding and all the intermediate process to be done in digital cinema
systems. The watermark is embedded into the randomly selected
movie frames using hash functions.
Embedded watermark information can be extracted from the
decoded video data. For that, there is no need to access original movie
data. Our experimental results show that proposed traceable
watermarking method for digital cinema system is much better than the
convenient watermarking techniques in terms of robustness, image
quality, speed, simplicity and robust structure.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to study the technical
and economic performance of wind/diesel/battery (W/D/B) system
supplying a remote small gathering of six families using HOMER
software package. The electrical energy is to cater for the basic needs
for which the daily load pattern is estimated. Net Present Cost (NPC)
and Cost of Energy (COE) are used as economic criteria, while the measure of performance is % of power shortage. Technical and
economic parameters are defined to estimate the feasibility of the
system under study. Optimum system configurations are estimated for two sites. Using HOMER software, the simulation results showed that W/D/B systems are economical for the assumed community sites
as the price of generated electricity is about 0.308 $/kWh, without
taking external benefits into considerations. W/D/B systems are more
economical than W/B or diesel alone systems, as the COE is 0.86 $/kWh for W/B and 0.357 $/kWh for diesel alone.
Abstract: Shoots, with three leaves, of Paphiopedilum 'Delrosi'
were used as explants for multiple shoot induction. Modified
Hyponex medium was supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ), N6-
benzyladenine (BA) or kinetin (Kn) alone and in combinations with
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). All explants were cultured
for 15 weeks. It was found that TDZ alone at the concentration of
0.45μM or in combination with 4.52μM 2,4-D and 8.88μM BA in
combination with 13.56μM 2,4-D promoted multiple shoots. The
highest shoot sprouting efficiencies (80.0, 90.0 and 80.0%) and new
shoot numbers (1.5, 1.3 and 1.1) were obtained, respectively. Fresh
weight, height, numbers of leaf and root of new shoots and initial
explants were discussed.
Abstract: A novel nanofinishing process using improved ball
end magnetorheological (MR) finishing tool was developed for finishing of flat as well as 3D surfaces of ferromagnetic and non ferromagnetic workpieces. In this process a magnetically controlled
ball end of smart MR polishing fluid is generated at the tip surface of
the tool which is used as a finishing medium and it is guided to
follow the surface to be finished through computer controlled 3-axes
motion controller. The experiments were performed on ferromagnetic
workpiece surface in the developed MR finishing setup to study the effect of finishing time on final surface roughness. The performance
of present finishing process on final finished surface roughness was studied. The surface morphology was observed under scanning
electron microscopy and atomic force microscope. The final surface finish was obtained as low as 19.7 nm from the initial surface
roughness of 142.9 nm. The outcome of newly developed finishing process can be found useful in its applications in aerospace,
automotive, dies and molds manufacturing industries, semiconductor and optics machining etc.
Abstract: Semantic Web Technologies enable machines to
interpret data published in a machine-interpretable form on the web.
At the present time, only human beings are able to understand the
product information published online. The emerging semantic Web
technologies have the potential to deeply influence the further
development of the Internet Economy. In this paper we propose a
scenario based research approach to predict the effects of these new
technologies on electronic markets and business models of traders
and intermediaries and customers. Over 300 million searches are
conducted everyday on the Internet by people trying to find what
they need. A majority of these searches are in the domain of
consumer ecommerce, where a web user is looking for something to
buy. This represents a huge cost in terms of people hours and an
enormous drain of resources. Agent enabled semantic search will
have a dramatic impact on the precision of these searches. It will
reduce and possibly eliminate information asymmetry where a better
informed buyer gets the best value. By impacting this key
determinant of market prices semantic web will foster the evolution
of different business and economic models. We submit that there is a
need for developing these futuristic models based on our current
understanding of e-commerce models and nascent semantic web
technologies. We believe these business models will encourage
mainstream web developers and businesses to join the “semantic web
revolution."
Abstract: In this paper, subtractive clustering based fuzzy inference system approach is used for early detection of faults in the function oriented software systems. This approach has been tested with real time defect datasets of NASA software projects named as PC1 and CM1. Both the code based model and joined model (combination of the requirement and code based metrics) of the datasets are used for training and testing of the proposed approach. The performance of the models is recorded in terms of Accuracy, MAE and RMSE values. The performance of the proposed approach is better in case of Joined Model. As evidenced from the results obtained it can be concluded that Clustering and fuzzy logic together provide a simple yet powerful means to model the earlier detection of faults in the function oriented software systems.
Abstract: An experimental study of anaerobic treatment was performed by hybrid upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (HUASB) reactor to treat produced water (PW) of an onshore crude oil terminal (COD: 1597 mg/L, NH3-N: 14.7 mg/L, phenol: 13.8 mg/L, BOD5: 862 mg/L, sodium: 6240 mg/L and chloride 9530 mg/L). The produced water with high salinity and other toxic substances will inhibit the methanogens performance if there is no adaptation on biomass before anaerobic digestion. COD removal from produced water was investigated at five different dilutions of produced water and tap water (TW) without any nutrient addition and pre-treatment. The dilution ratios were 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW. The reactor was evaluated at mesophilic operating condition (35 ± 2 °C) at 5 days of HRT for 250 days continuous feed. The average COD removals for 1PW:4TW, 2PW:3TW, 3PW:2TW, 4PW:1TW and 5PW:0TW were found to be approximately 76.1%, 73.8%, 70.3%, 46.3% and 61.82% respectively, with final average effluent COD of 123.7 mg/L, 240 mg/L, 294 mg/L, 589 mg/L and 738 mg/L, respectively.
Abstract: The amounts of radioactivity in the igneous rocks
have been investigated; samples were collected from the total of eight
basalt rock types in the northeastern of Kurdistan region/Iraq. The
activity concentration of 226Ra (238U) series, 228Ac (232Th) series, 40K
and 137Cs were measured using Planar HPGe and NaI(Tl) detectors.
Along the study area the radium equivalent activities Raeq in Bq/Kg
of samples under investigation were found in the range of 22.16 to
77.31 Bq/Kg with an average value of 44.8 Bq/Kg, this value is much
below the internationally accepted value of 370 Bq/Kg. To estimate
the health effects of this natural radioactive composition, the average
values of absorbed gamma dose rate D (55 nGyh-1), Indoor and
outdoor annual effective dose rates Eied (0.11 mSvy-1) . and Eoed
(0.03 mSvy-1), External hazard index Hex (0.138) and internal hazard
index Hin(0.154), and representative level index Iγr (0.386) have been
calculated and found to be lower than the worldwide average values.
Abstract: Socioeconomic stability and development of a
country, can be describe by housing affordability. It is aimed to
ensure the housing provided as one of the key factors that is
affordable by every income earner group whether low-income,
middle income and high income group. This research carried out is to
find out affordability of home ownership level for first medium cost
landed-house by the middle-income group in Selangor, Malaysia. It is
also hope that it could be seen as able to contribute to the knowledge
and understanding on housing affordability level for the middleincome
group and variables that influenced the medium income
group-s ability to own first medium-cost houses.
Abstract: According to FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States), vinegar is definedas a sour liquid containing at least 4 grams acetic acid in 100 cubic centimeter (4% solution of acetic acid) of solution that is produced from sugary materials by alcoholic fermentation. In the base of microbial starters, vinegars could be contained of more than 50 types of volatile and aromatic substances that responsible for their sweet taste and smelling. Recently the vinegar industry has a great proportion in agriculture, food and microbial biotechnology. The acetic acid bacteria are from the family Acetobacteraceae. Regarding to the latest version of Bergy-s Mannual of Systematic Bacteriology that has categorized bacteria in the base of their 16s RNA differences, the most important acetic acid genera are included Acetobacter (genus I), Gluconacetobacter (genus VIII) and Gluconobacter (genus IX). The genus Acetobacter that is primarily used in vinegar manufacturing plants is a gram negative, obligate aerobe coccus or rod shaped bacterium with the size 0.6 - 0.8 X 1.0 - 4.0 μm, nonmotile or motile with peritrichous flagella and catalase positive – oxidase negative biochemically. Some strains are overoxidizer that could convert acetic acid to carbon dioxide and water.In this research one Acetobacter native strain with high acetic acid productivity was isolated from Iranian white – red cherry. We used two specific culture media include Carr medium [yeast extract, 3%; ethanol, 2% (v/v); bromocresol green, 0.002%; agar, 2% and distilled water, 1000 ml], Frateur medium [yeast extract, 10 g/l; CaCO3, 20 g/l; ethanol, 20 g/l; agar, 20 g/l and distilled water, 1000 ml] and an industrial culture medium. In addition to high acetic acid production and high growth rate, this strain had a good tolerance against ethanol concentration that was examined using modified Carr media with 5%, 7% and 9% ethanol concentrations. While the industrial strains of acetic acid bacteria grow in the thermal range of 28 – 30 °C, this strain was adapted for growth in 34 – 36 °C after 96 hours incubation period. These dramatic characteristics suggest a potential biotechnological strain in production of cherry vinegar with a sweet smell and different nutritional properties in comparison to recent vinegar types. The lack of growth after 24, 48 and 72 hours incubation at 34 – 36 °C and the growth after 96 hours indicates a good and fast thermal flexibility of this strain as a significant characteristic of biotechnological and industrial strains.
Abstract: Fluid flow and heat transfer of vertical full cone
embedded in porous media is studied in this paper. Nonlinear
differential equation arising from similarity solution of inverted cone
(subjected to wall temperature boundary conditions) embedded in
porous medium is solved using a hybrid neural network- particle
swarm optimization method.
To aim this purpose, a trial solution of the differential equation is
defined as sum of two parts. The first part satisfies the initial/
boundary conditions and does contain an adjustable parameter and
the second part which is constructed so as not to affect the
initial/boundary conditions and involves adjustable parameters (the
weights and biases) for a multi-layer perceptron neural network.
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied to find adjustable
parameters of trial solution (in first and second part). The obtained
solution in comparison with the numerical ones represents a
remarkable accuracy.
Abstract: Chest pain is one of the most prevalent complaints
among adults that cause the people to attend to medical centers. The
aim was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of chest pain
among over 30 years old people in Tehran. In this cross-sectional
study, 787 adults took part from Apr 2005 until Apr 2006. The
sampling method was random cluster sampling and there were 25
clusters. In each cluster, interviews were performed with 32 over 30
years old, people lived in those houses. In cases with chest pain, extra
questions asked. The prevalence of CP was 9% (71 cases). Of them
21 cases (6.5%) were in 41-60 year age ranges and the remainders
were over 61 year old. 19 cases (26.8%) mentioned CP in resting
state and all of the cases had exertion onset CP. The CP duration was
10 minutes or less in all of the cases and in most of them (84.5%), the
location of pain mentioned left anterior part of chest, left anterior part
of sternum and or left arm. There was positive history of myocardial
infarction in 12 cases (17%). There was significant relation between
CP and age, sex and between history of myocardial infarction and
marital state of study people. Our results are similar to other studies-
results in most parts, however it is necessary to perform
supplementary tests and follow up studies to differentiate between
cardiac and non-cardiac CP exactly.
Abstract: The Mongol expansion in the West and the political
and commercial interests arising from antagonisms between the
Golden Horde and the Persian Ilkhanate determined the
transformation of the Black Sea into an international trade turntable
beginning with the last third of the XIIIth century. As the Volga
Khanate attracted the maritime power of Genoa in the
transcontinental project of deviating the Silk Road to its own benefit,
the latter took full advantage of the new historical conjuncture, to the
detriment of its rival, Venice. As a consequence, Genoa settled
important urban centers on the Pontic shores, having mainly a
commercial role. In the Romanian outer-Carpathian area, Vicina,
Cetatea Albâ, and Chilia are notable, representing distinct, important
types of cities within the broader context of the Romanian medieval
urban genesis typology.
Abstract: To fight against the economic crisis, French
Government, like many others in Europe, has decided to give a boost
to high-speed line projects. This paper explores the implementation
and decision-making process in TGV projects, their evolutions,
especially since the Mediterranean TGV-line. This project was
probably the most controversial, but paradoxically represents today a
huge success for all the actors involved.
What kind of lessons we can learn from this experience? How to
evaluate the impact of this project on TGV-line planning? How can
we characterize this implementation and decision-making process
regards to the sustainability challenges?
The construction of Mediterranean TGV-line was the occasion to
make several innovations: to introduce more dialog into the decisionmaking
process, to take into account the environment, to introduce a
new project management and technological innovations. That-s why
this project appears today as an example in terms of integration of
sustainable development.
In this paper we examine the different kinds of innovations
developed in this project, by using concepts from sociology of
innovation to understand how these solutions emerged in a
controversial situation. Then we analyze the lessons which were
drawn from this decision-making process (in the immediacy and a
posteriori) and the way in which procedures evolved: creation of new
tools and devices (public consultation, project management...).
Finally we try to highlight the impact of this evolution on TGV
projects governance. In particular, new methods of implementation
and financing involve a reconfiguration of the system of actors. The
aim of this paper is to define the impact of this reconfiguration on
negotiations between stakeholders.