Abstract: This study was aimed to determine seasonal variations
of leaf nutrient concentrations to define nutrient needs related to
growing period and to compare irrigation programs in terms of
nutrient uptake. In this study,'Starkrimson Delicious' variety grafted
onto seedling rootstock was used during 2009-2010 growing seasons.
The study was conducted at E─ƒirdir Fruit Growing Research Station.
Leaf samples were taken in five different sample seasons (May, June,
July, August and September). Four different pan coefficients (0.50,
0.75, 1.0, 1.25) were applied during drip irrigation treatments in 7
days irrigation interval. Leaf K, Mg, Ca, P, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu
concentrations were determined.
The results showed that among the seasonal changes, the highest
concentrations of K, Mg, P and Mn in leaves were recorded in May,
followed by a decrease in the other months, while in contrast Ca and
Fe showed the lowest concentration in May.
Results of the study demonstrate that among irrigation programs K
and Cu concentration in plants was significantly influenced. Cu
concentrations decreased with seasonal variations and different
irrigation programs. Thus, nutrient needs of 'Starkrimson Delicious'apple trees at different growth stages should be taken into
consideration before making effective fertilization program.
Abstract: Monitoring and control of cane sugar crystallization
processes depend on the stability of the supersaturation (σ ) state.
The most widely used information to represent σ is the electrical
conductivity κ of the solutions. Nevertheless, previous studies point
out the shortcomings of this approach: κ may be regarded as
inappropriate to guarantee an accurate estimation of σ in impure
solutions. To improve the process control efficiency, additional
information is necessary. The mass of crystals in the solution ( c m )
and the solubility (mass ratio of sugar to water / s w m m ) are relevant
to complete information. Indeed, c m inherently contains information
about the mass balance and / s w m m contains information about the
supersaturation state of the solution. The main problem is that c m
and / s w m m are not available on-line. In this paper, a model based
soft-sensor is presented for a final crystallization stage (C sugar).
Simulation results obtained on industrial data show the reliability of
this approach, c m and the crystal content ( cc ) being estimated with
a sufficient accuracy for achieving on-line monitoring in industry
Abstract: Evaluation of crop plants resistance to environmental
stresses specially in germination stage is a critical factor in their
selection in different conditions of cultivation. Therefore use of a
procedure in controllable situation can help to evaluate plants
reaction to stress quickly and precisely. In order to study germination
characteristics of flax in water and salinity stress conditions were
conducted two laboratories experimental. The two experimental were
conducted in 4-replicant completing random design for salinity and
water stress. The treatment, for salinity and water stress was three
potential (zero, 40, 80 mM) of NaCl and three potential (zero, -2, -4
bar) of PEG respectively. Germination percentage and rate, in
addition to Radical and plumule length and dry-weight and
plumule/Radical ration were measured. All of characteristics reduce
under water stress conditions. salinity stress significant reduce
germination rate and Radical and plumule length of flax seeds.
Hydropriming and osmopriming significant increased germination
rate, plumule length and plumule/Radical ration ration of flax seeds.
But germination percentage and Radical and plumule dry weight
significant increased only in hydropriming treat. Hydropriming and
osmopriming could not be used to improved germination under saline
and drought stress. But has more tolerance in salinity and drought
stress in flax by less reduce in Radical and plumule length under
saline and drought stress.
Abstract: The purpose of this research was to study the
motivation factors to influence the decision to choose Thai Fabric. A
multiple-stage sample was utilized to collect 400 samples from
working women who had diverse occupations all over Thailand. This
research was a quantitative analysis and questionnaire was used a tool
to collect data. Descriptive statistics used in this research included
percentage, average, and standard deviation and inferential statistics
included hypothesis testing of one way ANOVA.
The research findings revealed that demographic factors and social
factors had an influence to the positive idea of wearing Thai fabric (F
= 5.377, P value < 0.05). The respondents who had the age over 41
years old had a better positive idea of wearing Thai fabric than other
groups. Moreover, the findings revealed that age had influenced the
positive idea of wearing Thai fabric (F = 3.918, P value < 0.05). The
respondents who had the age over 41 years old also had stronger
believe that wearing Thai fabric to work and social gatherings are
socially acceptable than other groups.
Abstract: This work presents the hydrogen production from
steam gasification of palm kernel shell (PKS) at 700 oC in the
presence of 5% Ni/BEA and 5% Fe/BEA as catalysts. The steam
gasification was performed in two-staged reactors to evaluate the
effect of calcinations temperature and the steam to biomass ratio on
the product gas composition. The catalytic activity of Ni/BEA
catalyst decreases with increasing calcinations temperatures from 500
to 700 oC. The highest H2 concentration is produced by Fe/BEA
(600) with more than 71 vol%. The catalytic activity of the catalysts
tested is found to correspond to its physicochemical properties. The
optimum range for steam to biomass ratio if found to be between 2 to
4. Excess steam content results in temperature drop in the gasifier
which is undesirable for the gasification reactions.
Abstract: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of
gibberellic acid and 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid on flower
number, fruit growth and fruit quality of wax apple. GA3 and 2,4-D
were applied at small bud and petal fall stage. Number of flower,
fruit set, fruit drop, fruit crack, fruit growth and fruit quality were
recorded. Results indicated that spraying with 10 ppm GA3 had the
best results in number of flower. GA3 spray at 30 ppm gave the
faster rate of fruit growth than the other treatments. Fruit set, fruit
size as well as fruit weight markedly improved by spraying 30 ppm
GA3, followed by 10 ppm GA3 compared to untreated control.
Moreover, spray GA3 at 30 ppm was the most effective and
increased total soluble solids, reduced titratable acidity and fruit
drop. On the other hand, it was noticed that with 10 ppm 2,4-D
application also enhanced the fruit growth rate, improved
physiological and biochemical characters of fruit compared to
untreated control. It was concluded that both GA3 and 2,4-D spray
have positive effects on fruit development, reduced fruit drop, fruit
crack and improved fruit quality of wax apple under field conditions.
Abstract: The increments of aromatic structures are widely used to monitor the degree of humification. Compost derived from mix manures mixed with agricultural wastes was studied. The compost collected at day 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49, 77, 91, 105, and 119 was divided into 3 stages, initial stage at day 0, thermophilic stage during day 1-48, and mature stage during day 49-119. The change of highest absorptions at wavelength range between 210-235 nm during day 0- 49 implied that small molecules such as nitrates and carboxylic occurred faster than the aromatic molecules that were found at wavelength around 280 nm. The ratio of electron-transfer band at wavelength 253 nm by the benzonoid band at wavelength 230 nm (E253/E230) also gradually increased during the fermenting period indicating the presence of O-containing functional groups. This was in agreement with the shift change from aliphatic to aromatic structures as shown by the relationship with C/N and H/C ratios (r = - 0.631 and -0.717, p< 0.05) since both were decreasing. Although the amounts of humic acid (HA) were not different much during the humification process, the UV spectral deconvolution showed better qualitative characteristics to help in determining the compost quality. From this study, the compost should be used at day 49 and should not be kept longer than 3 months otherwise the quality of HA would decline regardless of the amounts of HA that might be rising. This implied that other processes, such as mineralization had an influence on the humification process changing HA-s structure and its qualities.
Abstract: In this paper we consider a nonlinear control design for
nonlinear systems by using two-stage formal linearization and twotype
LQ controls. The ordinary LQ control is designed on almost
linear region around the steady state point. On the other region,
another control is derived as follows. This derivation is based on
coordinate transformation twice with respect to linearization functions
which are defined by polynomials. The linearized systems can be
made up by using Taylor expansion considered up to the higher order.
To the resulting formal linear system, the LQ control theory is applied
to obtain another LQ control. Finally these two-type LQ controls
are smoothly united to form a single nonlinear control. Numerical
experiments indicate that this control show remarkable performances
for a nonlinear system.
Abstract: Searching similar documents and document
management subjects have important place in text mining. One of the
most important parts of similar document research studies is the
process of classifying or clustering the documents. In this study, a
similar document search approach that includes discussion of out the
case of belonging to multiple categories (multiple categories
problem) has been carried. The proposed method that based on Fuzzy
Similarity Classification (FSC) has been compared with Rocchio
algorithm and naive Bayes method which are widely used in text
mining. Empirical results show that the proposed method is quite
successful and can be applied effectively. For the second stage,
multiple categories vector method based on information of categories
regarding to frequency of being seen together has been used.
Empirical results show that achievement is increased almost two
times, when proposed method is compared with classical approach.
Abstract: Learning programming is difficult for many learners. Some researches have found that the main difficulty relates to cognitive load. Cognitive overload happens in programming due to the nature of the subject which is intrinisicly over-bearing on the working memory. It happens due to the complexity of the subject itself. The problem is made worse by the poor instructional design methodology used in the teaching and learning process. Various efforts have been proposed to reduce the cognitive load, e.g. visualization softwares, part-program method etc. Use of many computer based systems have also been tried to tackle the problem. However, little success has been made to alleviate the problem. More has to be done to overcome this hurdle. This research attempts at understanding how cognitive load can be managed so as to reduce the problem of overloading. We propose a mechanism to measure the cognitive load during pre instruction, post instruction and in instructional stages of learning. This mechanism is used to help the instruction. As the load changes the instruction is made to adapt itself to ensure cognitive viability. This mechanism could be incorporated as a sub domain in the student model of various computer based instructional systems to facilitate the learning of programming.
Abstract: Medical applications are among the most impactful
areas of microrobotics. The ultimate goal of medical microrobots is
to reach currently inaccessible areas of the human body and carry out
a host of complex operations such as minimally invasive surgery
(MIS), highly localized drug delivery, and screening for diseases at
their very early stages. Miniature, safe and efficient propulsion
systems hold the key to maturing this technology but they pose
significant challenges. A new type of propulsion developed recently,
uses multi-flagella architecture inspired by the motility mechanism of
prokaryotic microorganisms. There is a lack of efficient methods for
designing this type of propulsion system. The goal of this paper is to
overcome the lack and this way, a numerical strategy is proposed to
design multi-flagella propulsion systems. The strategy is based on the
implementation of the regularized stokeslet and rotlet theory, RFT
theory and new approach of “local corrected velocity". The effects of
shape parameters and angular velocities of each flagellum on overall
flow field and on the robot net forces and moments are considered.
Then a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network is designed
and employed to adjust the angular velocities of the motors for
propulsion control. The proposed method applied successfully on a
sample configuration and useful demonstrative results is obtained.
Abstract: This study, focusing on the importance of encouraging
outdoor activities for children, aims to propose and implement a
Web-GIS based outdoor education program for elementary schools,
which will then be evaluated by users. Specifically, for the purpose of
improved outdoor activities in the elementary school education, the
outdoor education program, with chiefly using the Web-GIS that
provides a good information provision and sharing tool, is proposed
and implemented before being evaluated by users. Conclusions of the
study boil down to:
(1) An eight-staged outdoor education program based on the Web-GIS
was proposed for a “second school" of an elementary school that
was then implemented before being evaluated by users (teachers,
instructors, students, and their parents).
(2) The program generally received a good evaluation, while a lot of
students and their parents evaluated negatively for the degree of
discovery and for the degree of interest, respectively, in the
questionnaire survey of students and their parents conducted after
the “second school". The surveys clearly show that an issue to be
solved, from the viewpoint of teachers in particular, is the
establishment of the GIS that will easily represent teaching materials
developed by teachers and of Web-GIS, and improved significance
of the use of GIS and Web-GIS for their widespread.
Abstract: Image registration plays an important role in the
diagnosis of dental pathologies such as dental caries, alveolar bone
loss and periapical lesions etc. This paper presents a new wavelet
based algorithm for registering noisy and poor contrast dental x-rays.
Proposed algorithm has two stages. First stage is a preprocessing
stage, removes the noise from the x-ray images. Gaussian filter has
been used. Second stage is a geometric transformation stage.
Proposed work uses two levels of affine transformation. Wavelet
coefficients are correlated instead of gray values. Algorithm has been
applied on number of pre and post RCT (Root canal treatment)
periapical radiographs. Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and
Correlation coefficients (CC) are used for quantitative evaluation.
Proposed technique outperforms conventional Multiresolution
strategy based image registration technique and manual registration
technique.
Abstract: The quality improvements of the environmental
elements could increase the recreational opportunities in a certain
area (destination). The technique of the need for recreation focuses
on choosing certain destinations for recreational purposes. The basic
exchange taken into consideration is the one between the satisfaction
gained after staying in that area and the value expressed in money
and time allocated. The number of tourists in the respective area, the
duration of staying and the money spent including transportation
provide information on how individuals rank the place or certain
aspects of the area (such as the quality of the environmental
elements).
For the statistical analysis of the environmental benefits offered by
an area through the need of recreation technique, the following stages
are suggested:
- characterization of the reference area based on the
statistical variables considered;
- estimation of the environmental benefit through
comparing the reference area with other similar areas
(having the same environmental characteristics), from
the perspective of the statistical variables considered.
The model compared in recreation technique faced with a series of
difficulties which refers to the reference area and correct
transformation of time in money.
Abstract: A bird strike can cause damage to stationary and
rotating aircraft engine parts, especially the engine fan. This paper
presents a bird strike simulated by blocking four stator blade
passages. It includes the numerical results of the unsteady lowfrequency
aerodynamic forces and the aeroelastic behaviour caused
by a non-symmetric upstream flow affecting the first two rotor blade
stages in the axial-compressor of a jet engine. The obtained results
show that disturbances in the engine inlet strongly influence the level
of unsteady forces acting on the rotor blades. With a partially
blocked inlet the whole spectrum of low-frequency harmonics is
observed. Such harmonics can lead to rotor blade damage. The lowfrequency
amplitudes are higher in the first stage rotor blades than in
the second stage. In both rotor blades stages flutter appeared as a
result of bird strike.
Abstract: In this paper, a strategy for long-span bridge disaster response was developed, divided into risk analysis, business impact analysis, and emergency response plan. At the risk analysis stage, the critical risk was estimated. The critical risk was “car accident."The critical process by critical-risk classification was assessed at the business impact analysis stage. The critical process was the task related to the road conditions and traffic safety. Based on the results of the precedent analysis, an emergency response plan was established. By making the order of the standard operating procedures clear, an effective plan for dealing with disaster was formulated. Finally, a prototype software was developed based on the research findings. This study laid the foundation of an information-technology-based disaster response guideline and is significant in that it computerized the disaster response plan to improve the plan-s accessibility.
Abstract: We consider here the subsonic impinging jet
representing the flow field of a vertical take-off aircraft or the initial
stage of rocket launching. Implicit Large-Eddy Simulation (ILES) is
used to calculate the time-dependent flow field and the radiate sound
pressure associated with jet impinging. With proper boundary
treatments and high-order numerical scheme, the near field sound
pressure is successfully obtained. Results are presented for both a
rectangular as well a circular jet.
Abstract: Software development is moving towards agility with use cases and scenarios being used for requirements stories. Estimates of software costs are becoming even more important than before as effects of delays is much larger in successive short releases context of agile development. Thus, this paper reports on the development of new linear use case based software cost estimation model applicable in the very early stages of software development being based on simple metric. Evaluation showed that accuracy of estimates varies between 43% and 55% of actual effort of historical test projects. These results outperformed those of wellknown models when applied in the same context. Further work is being carried out to improve the performance of the proposed model when considering the effect of non-functional requirements.
Abstract: The microbial production of ethanol from biodiesel¬derived crude glycerol by Enterobacter aerogenes TISTR1468, under micro-aerobic and anaerobic conditions, was investigated. The experimental results showed that micro-aerobic conditions were more favorable for cellular growth (4.0 g/L DCW), ethanol production (20.7 g/L) as well as the ethanol yield (0.47 g/g glycerol) than anaerobic conditions (1.2 g/L DCW, 6.3 g/L ethanol and 0.72 g/g glycerol, respectively). Crude glycerol (100 g/L) was consumed completely with the rate of 1.80 g/L/h. Two-stage fermentation (combination of micro-aerobic and anaerobic condition) exhibited higher ethanol production (24.5 g/L) than using one-stage fermentation (either micro-aerobic or anaerobic condition. The two- stage configuration, exhibited slightly higher crude glycerol consumption rate (1.81 g/L/h), as well as ethanol yield (0.56 g/g) than the one-stage configuration. Therefore, two-stage process was selected for ethanol production from E. aerogenes TISTR1468 in scale-up studies.
Abstract: Innovations, especially technological, are considered
key-drivers for sustainable economic growth and competitiveness in
the globalised world. As such they should also play an important role
in the process of economical convergence inside the EU.
Unfortunately, the problem of insufficient innovation performance
concerns around half of the EU countries. Poland shows that a lack of
a consistent high-tech financing system constitutes a serious obstacle
for the development of innovative firms. In this article we will
evaluate these questions referring to the example of Ammono S.A., a
Polish company established to develop and commercialise an original
technology for the production of bulk GaN crystals. We will focus on
its efforts to accumulate the financial resources necessary at different
stages of its development. The purpose of this article is to suggest
possible ways to improve the national innovative system, which
would make it more competent in generating high-tech leaders.