Abstract: The objective of the research was to study of foot
anthropometry of children aged 7-12 years in the South of Thailand Thirty-three dimensions were measured on 305 male and 295 female
subjects with 3 age ranges (7-12 years old). The instrumentation consists of four types of anthropometer, digital vernier caliper, digital
height gauge and measuring tape. The mean values and standard
deviations of average age, height, and weight of the male subjects were 9.52(±1.70) years, 137.80(±11.55) cm, and 37.57(±11.65) kg.
Female average age, height, and weight subjects were 9.53(±1.70) years, 137.88(±11.55) cm, and 34.90(±11.57) kg respectively. The
comparison of the 33 comparison measured anthropometric. Between
male and female subjects were sexual differences in size on women in almost all areas of significance (p
Abstract: Three dimensional simulations are carried out to estimate the effect of wind direction, wind speed and geometry on the flow and dispersion of vehicular pollutant in a street canyon. The pollutant sources are motor vehicles passing between the two buildings. Suitable emission factors for petrol and diesel vehicles at varying vehicle speed are used for the estimation of the rate of emission from the streets. The dispersion of automobile pollutant released from the street is simulated by introducing vehicular emission source term as a fixed-flux boundary condition at the ground level over the road. The emission source term is suitably calculated by adopting emission factors from literature for varying conditions of street traffic. It is observed that increase in wind angle disturbs the symmetric pattern of pollution distribution along the street length. The concentration increases in the far end of the street as compared to the near end.
Abstract: This report aims to utilize existing and future Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Wireless Local Area Network (MIMO-OFDM WLAN) systems characteristics–such as multiple subcarriers, multiple antennas, and channel estimation characteristics–for indoor location estimation systems based on the Direction of Arrival (DOA) and Radio Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) methods. Hybrid of DOA-RSSI methods also evaluated. In the experimental data result, we show that location estimation accuracy performances can be increased by minimizing the multipath fading effect. This is done using multiple subcarrier frequencies over wideband frequencies to estimate one location. The proposed methods are analyzed in both a wide indoor environment and a typical room-sized office. In the experiments, WLAN terminal locations are estimated by measuring multiple subcarriers from arrays of three dipole antennas of access points (AP). This research demonstrates highly accurate, robust and hardware-free add-on software for indoor location estimations based on a MIMO-OFDM WLAN system.
Abstract: This research aimed to find out the determining
factors for ISO 14001 EMS implementation among SMEs in
Malaysia from the Resource based view. A cross-sectional approach
using survey was conducted. A research model been proposed which
comprises of ISO 14001 EMS implementation as the criterion
variable while physical capital resources (i.e. environmental
performance tracking and organizational infrastructures), human
capital resources (i.e. top management commitment and support,
training and education, employee empowerment and teamwork) and
organizational capital resources (i.e. recognition and reward,
organizational culture and organizational communication) as the
explanatory variables. The research findings show that only
environmental performance tracking, top management commitment
and support and organizational culture are found to be positively and
significantly associated with ISO 14001 EMS implementation. It is
expected that this research will shed new knowledge and provide a
base for future studies about the role played by firm-s internal
resources.
Abstract: This paper deals principally with the socio-economic impact on the local Iban community in Mukah Division, Sarawak; with the commencement of the open-cut coal mining industry since 2003. To-date there are no actual studies being carried out by either the public or private sector to truly analyze how the Iban community is coping with the advent of a large influx of cash into their society. The Iban community has traditionally been practicing shifting cultivation and farming of domesticated animals; with a portion of the younger generation working as laborers and professional. This paper represents the views and observations of the author supported by some statistical facts extracted from published articles and non-published reports. The paper deals primarily in the following areas: • Background of the coal mining industry in Mukah Division, Sarawak; • Benefits of the coal mining industry towards the Iban community; • Issues / Problems arise in the Iban community because of the presence of the coal mining industry; and • Possible actions that need to be taken to overcome these issues/ problems.
Abstract: Ad hoc networks are characterized by multihop wireless connectivity, frequently changing network topology and the need for efficient dynamic routing protocols. We compare the performance of three routing protocols for mobile ad hoc networks: Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) , Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV), location-aided routing(LAR1).The performance differentials are analyzed using varying network load, mobility, and network size. We simulate protocols with GLOMOSIM simulator. Based on the observations, we make recommendations about when the performance of either protocol can be best.
Abstract: The increasing interest in plant sterol enriched foods
is due to the fact that they reduce blood cholesterol concentrations
without adverse side effects. In this context, enriched foods with
phytosterols may be helpful in protecting population against
atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of the present
work was to evaluate in a population of Viseu, Portugal, the
consumption habits low-fat, plant sterol-enriched yoghurt. For this
study, 577 inquiries were made and the sample was randomly
selected for people shopping in various supermarkets. The
preliminary results showed that the biggest consumers of these
products were women aged 45 to 65 years old. Most of the people
who claimed to buy these products consumed them once a day. Also,
most of the consumers under antidyslipidemic therapeutics noticed
positive effects on hypercholesterolemia.
Abstract: The nanosized polymeric micelles release the drug
due to acoustic cavitation, which is enhanced in dual frequency
ultrasonic fields. In this study, adult female Balb/C mice were
transplanted with spontaneous breast adenocarcinoma tumors and
were injected with a dose of 1.3 mg/kg doxorubicin in one of three
forms: free doxorubicin, micellar doxorubicin without sonication and
micellar doxorubicin with sonication. To increase cavitation yield,
the tumor region was sonicated with low level dual frequency of 3
MHz and 28 kHz. The animals were sacrificed 24 h after injection,
and their tumor, heart, spleen, liver, kidneys and plasma were
separated and homogenized. The drug content in their tumor, heart,
spleen, liver, kidneys and plasma was determined using tissue
fluorimetry. The results show that in the group that received micellar
doxorubicin with sonication, the drug concentration in the tumor
tissue was nine and three times higher than in the free doxorubicin
group and the micellar doxorubicin without sonication group,
respectively. In the micellar doxorubicin with sonication group, the
drug concentration in other tissues was lower than other groups
(p
Abstract: Co-integration models the long-term, equilibrium relationship of two or more related financial variables. Even if cointegration is found, in the short run, there may be deviations from the long run equilibrium relationship. The aim of this work is to forecast these deviations using neural networks and create a trading strategy based on them. A case study is used: co-integration residuals from Australian Bank Bill futures are forecast and traded using various exogenous input variables combined with neural networks. The choice of the optimal exogenous input variables chosen for each neural network, undertaken in previous work [1], is validated by comparing the forecasts and corresponding profitability of each, using a trading strategy.
Abstract: For fire safety purposes, the fire resistance and the
structural behavior of reinforced concrete members are assessed to
satisfy specific fire performance criteria. The available prescribed
provisions are based on standard fire load. Under various fire
scenarios, engineers are in need of both heat transfer analysis and
structural analysis. For heat transfer analysis, the study proposed a
modified finite difference method to evaluate the temperature profile
within a cross section. The research conducted is limited to concrete
sections exposed to a fire on their one side. The method is based on
the energy conservation principle and a pre-determined power
function of the temperature profile. The power value of 2.7 is found
to be a suitable value for concrete sections. The temperature profiles
of the proposed method are only slightly deviate from those of the
experiment, the FEM and the FDM for various fire loads such as
ASTM E 119, ASTM 1529, BS EN 1991-1-2 and 550 oC. The
proposed method is useful to avoid incontinence of the large matrix
system of the typical finite difference method to solve the
temperature profile. Furthermore, design engineers can simply apply
the proposed method in regular spreadsheet software.
Abstract: The manufacture of large-scale precision aerospace
components using CNC requires a highly effective maintenance
strategy to ensure that the required accuracy can be achieved over
many hours of production. This paper reviews a strategy for a
maintenance management system based on Failure Mode Avoidance,
which uses advanced techniques and technologies to underpin a
predictive maintenance strategy. It is shown how condition
monitoring (CM) is important to predict potential failures in high
precision machining facilities and achieve intelligent and integrated
maintenance management. There are two distinct ways in which CM
can be applied. One is to monitor key process parameters and
observe trends which may indicate a gradual deterioration of
accuracy in the product. The other is the use of CM techniques to
monitor high status machine parameters enables trends to be
observed which can be corrected before machine failure and
downtime occurs.
It is concluded that the key to developing a flexible and intelligent
maintenance framework in any precision manufacturing operation is
the ability to evaluate reliably and routinely machine tool condition
using condition monitoring techniques within a framework of Failure
Mode Avoidance.
Abstract: Some quality control tools use non metric subjective information coming from experts, who qualify the intensity of relations existing inside processes, but without quantifying them. In this paper we have developed a quality control analytic tool, measuring the impact or strength of the relationship between process operations and product characteristics. The tool includes two models: a qualitative model, allowing relationships description and analysis; and a formal quantitative model, by means of which relationship quantification is achieved. In the first one, concepts from the Graphs Theory were applied to identify those process elements which can be sources of variation, that is, those quality characteristics or operations that have some sort of prelacy over the others and that should become control items. Also the most dependent elements can be identified, that is those elements receiving the effects of elements identified as variation sources. If controls are focused in those dependent elements, efficiency of control is compromised by the fact that we are controlling effects, not causes. The second model applied adapts the multivariate statistical technique of Covariance Structural Analysis. This approach allowed us to quantify the relationships. The computer package LISREL was used to obtain statistics and to validate the model.
Abstract: In the past decade, artificial neural networks (ANNs)
have been regarded as an instrument for problem-solving and
decision-making; indeed, they have already done with a substantial
efficiency and effectiveness improvement in industries and businesses.
In this paper, the Back-Propagation neural Networks (BPNs) will be
modulated to demonstrate the performance of the collaborative
forecasting (CF) function of a Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and
Replenishment (CPFR®) system. CPFR functions the balance between
the sufficient product supply and the necessary customer demand in a
Supply and Demand Chain (SDC). Several classical standard BPN will
be grouped, collaborated and exploited for the easy implementation of
the proposed modular ANN framework based on the topology of a
SDC. Each individual BPN is applied as a modular tool to perform the
task of forecasting SKUs (Stock-Keeping Units) levels that are
managed and supervised at a POS (point of sale), a wholesaler, and a
manufacturer in an SDC. The proposed modular BPN-based CF
system will be exemplified and experimentally verified using lots of
datasets of the simulated SDC. The experimental results showed that a
complex CF problem can be divided into a group of simpler
sub-problems based on the single independent trading partners
distributed over SDC, and its SKU forecasting accuracy was satisfied
when the system forecasted values compared to the original simulated
SDC data. The primary task of implementing an autonomous CF
involves the study of supervised ANN learning methodology which
aims at making “knowledgeable" decision for the best SKU sales plan
and stocks management.
Abstract: Optical 3D measurement of objects is meaningful in
numerous industrial applications. In various cases shape acquisition
of weak textured objects is essential. Examples are repetition parts
made of plastic or ceramic such as housing parts or ceramic bottles as
well as agricultural products like tubers. These parts are often
conveyed in a wobbling way during the automated optical inspection.
Thus, conventional 3D shape acquisition methods like laser scanning
might fail. In this paper, a novel approach for acquiring 3D shape of
weak textured and moving objects is presented. To facilitate such
measurements an active stereo vision system with structured light is
proposed. The system consists of multiple camera pairs and auxiliary
laser pattern generators. It performs the shape acquisition within one
shot and is beneficial for rapid inspection tasks. An experimental
setup including hardware and software has been developed and
implemented.
Abstract: The Ad Hoc on demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol is designed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). AODV offers quick adaptation to dynamic link conditions; it is characterized by low memory overhead and low network utilization. The security issues related to the protocol remain challenging for the wireless network designers. Numerous schemes have been proposed for establishing secure communication between end users, these schemes identify that the secure operation of AODV is a bi tier task (routing and secure exchange of information at separate levels). Our endeavor in this paper would focus on achieving the routing and secure data exchange in a single step. This will facilitate the user nodes to perform routing, mutual authentications, generation and secure exchange of session key in one step thus ensuring confidentiality, integrity and authentication of data exchange in a more suitable way.
Abstract: Wireless location is to determine the mobile station (MS) location in a wireless cellular communications system. When fewer base stations (BSs) may be available for location purposes or the measurements with large errors in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments, it is necessary to integrate all available heterogeneous measurements to achieve high location accuracy. This paper illustrates a hybrid proposed schemes that combine time of arrival (TOA) at three BSs and angle of arrival (AOA) information at the serving BS to give a location estimate of the MS. The proposed schemes mitigate the NLOS effect simply by the weighted sum of the intersections between three TOA circles and the AOA line without requiring a priori information about the NLOS error. Simulation results show that the proposed methods can achieve better accuracy when compare with Taylor series algorithm (TSA) and the hybrid lines of position algorithm (HLOP).
Abstract: Nagaland, the 16th state of India in order of
statehood, is situated between 25° 6' and 27° 4' latitude north and
between 93º 20' E and 95º 15' E longitude of equator in the North
Eastern part of the India. Endowed with varied topography, soil and
agro climatic conditions it is known for its potentiality to grow all
most all kinds of horticultural crops. Pineapple being grown since
long organically by default is one of the most promising crops of the
state with emphasis being laid for commercialization by the
government of Nagaland. In light of commercialization, globalization
and scope of setting small-scale industries, a research study was
undertaken to examine the socio-economic and personal
characteristics, entrepreneurial characteristics and attitude of the
pineapple growers towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The study was conducted in Medziphema
block of Dimapur district of the Nagaland state of India following ex
post facto research design. Ninety pineapple growers were selected
from four different villages of Medziphema block based on
proportionate random selection procedure. Findings of the study
revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of
entrepreneurial characteristics in terms of knowledge level, risk
orientation, self confidence, management orientation, farm decision
making ability and leadership ability and most of them had
favourable attitude towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The variables age, education, farm size, risk
orientation, management orientation and sources of information
utilized were found important to influence the attitude of the
respondents. The study revealed that favourable attitude and
entrepreneurial characteristics of the pineapple cultivators might be
harnessed for increased production of pineapple in the state thereby
bringing socio economic upliftment of the marginal and small-scale
farmers.
Abstract: This paper proposes the hypothesis that multilateralism and regionalism are complementary, and that regional income convergence is likely with a like minded and committed regionalism that often has links geographically and culturally. The association between international trade, income per capita, and regional income convergence in founder members of ASEAN and SAARC, is explored by applying the Lumsdaine, and Papell approach. The causal relationships between the above variables are also studied in respective trade blocs by using Granger causality tests. The conclusion is that global reforms have had a greater impact on increasing trade for both trade blocs and induced convergence only in ASEAN-5 countries. The experience of ASEAN countries shows a two-way causal relationship between the flow from trade to regional income convergence, and vice versa. There is no evidence in SAARC countries for income convergence and causality.
Abstract: A novel direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation technique, which uses a conventional multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm with periodic signals, is applied to a single RF-port parasitic array antenna for direction finding. Simulation results show that the proposed method gives high resolution (1 degree) DOA estimation in an uncorrelated signal environment. The novelty lies in that the MUSIC algorithm is applied to a simplified antenna configuration. Only one RF port and one analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) are used in this antenna, which features low DC power consumption, low cost, and ease of fabrication. Modifications to the conventional MUSIC algorithm do not bring much additional complexity. The proposed technique is also free from the negative influence by the mutual coupling between elements. Therefore, the technique has great potential to be implemented into the existing wireless mobile communications systems, especially at the power consumption limited mobile terminals, to provide additional position location (PL) services.
Abstract: In this paper we propose an NLP-based method for
Ontology Population from texts and apply it to semi automatic
instantiate a Generic Knowledge Base (Generic Domain Ontology) in
the risk management domain. The approach is semi-automatic and
uses a domain expert intervention for validation. The proposed
approach relies on a set of Instances Recognition Rules based on
syntactic structures, and on the predicative power of verbs in the
instantiation process. It is not domain dependent since it heavily
relies on linguistic knowledge.
A description of an experiment performed on a part of the
ontology of the PRIMA1 project (supported by the European
community) is given. A first validation of the method is done by
populating this ontology with Chemical Fact Sheets from
Environmental Protection Agency2. The results of this experiment
complete the paper and support the hypothesis that relying on the
predicative power of verbs in the instantiation process improves the
performance.