Abstract: Knowledge management is a process taking any steps
that needed to get the most out of available knowledge resources.
KM involved several steps; capturing the knowledge discovering
new knowledge, sharing the knowledge and applied the knowledge in
the decision making process. In applying the knowledge, it is not
necessary for the individual that use the knowledge to comprehend it
as long as the available knowledge is used in guiding the decision
making and actions. When an expert is called and he provides stepby-
step procedure on how to solve the problems to the caller, the
expert is transferring the knowledge or giving direction to the caller.
And the caller is 'applying' the knowledge by following the
instructions given by the expert. An appropriate mechanism is
needed to ensure effective knowledge transfer which in this case is
by telephone or email. The problem with email and telephone is that
the knowledge is not fully circulated and disseminated to all users. In
this paper, with related experience of local university Help Desk, it is
proposed the usage of Information Technology (IT)to effectively
support the knowledge transfer in the organization. The issues
covered include the existing knowledge, the related works, the
methodology used in defining the knowledge management
requirements as well the overview of the prototype.
Abstract: Over 90% of the world trade is carried by the
international shipping industry. As most of the countries are
developing, seaborne trade continues to expand to bring benefits for
consumers across the world. Studies show that world trade will
increase 70-80% through shipping in the next 15-20 years. Present
global fleet of 70000 commercial ships consumes approximately 200
million tonnes of diesel fuel a year and it is expected that it will be
around 350 million tonnes a year by 2020. It will increase the
demand for fuel and also increase the concentration of CO2 in the
atmosphere. So, it-s essential to control this massive fuel
consumption and CO2 emission. The idea is to utilize a diesel-wind
hybrid system for ship propulsion. Use of wind energy by installing
modern wing-sails in ships can drastically reduce the consumption of
diesel fuel. A huge amount of wind energy is available in oceans.
Whenever wind is available the wing-sails would be deployed and
the diesel engine would be throttled down and still the same forward
speed would be maintained. Wind direction in a particular shipping
route is not same throughout; it changes depending upon the global
wind pattern which depends on the latitude. So, the wing-sail
orientation should be such that it optimizes the use of wind energy.
We have made a computer programme in which by feeding the data
regarding wind velocity, wind direction, ship-motion direction; we
can find out the best wing-sail position and fuel saving for
commercial ships. We have calculated net fuel saving in certain
international shipping routes, for instance, from Mumbai in India to
Durban in South Africa. Our estimates show that about 8.3% diesel
fuel can be saved by utilizing the wind. We are also developing an
experimental model of the ship employing airfoils (small scale wingsail)
and going to test it in National Wind Tunnel Facility in IIT
Kanpur in order to develop a control mechanism for a system of
airfoils.
Abstract: Software projects are very dynamic and require
recurring adjustments of their project plans. These settings can be
understood as reconfigurations in the schedule, in the resources
allocation and other design elements. Yet, during the planning and
execution of a software project, the integration of specific activities
in the projects with the activities that take part in the organization-s
common activity flow should be considered. This article presents the
results from a systematic review of aspects related to software
projects- dynamic reconfiguration emphasizing the integration of
project management with the organizational flows. A series of studies
was analyzed from the year 2000 to the present. The results of this
work show that there is a diversity of techniques and strategies for
dynamic reconfiguration of software projects-. However, few
approaches consider the integration of software project activities with
the activities that take part in the organization-s common workflow.
Abstract: This paper critiques several exiting strategic
international human resource management (SIHRM) frameworks and
discusses their limitations to apply directly to emerging multinational
enterprises (EMNEs), especially those generated from China and
other BRICS nations. To complement the existing SIHRM
frameworks, key variables relevant to emerging economies are
identified and the extended model with particular reference to
EMNEs is developed with several research propositions. It is
believed that the extended model would better capture the recent
development of MNEs in transition, and alert emerging international
managers to address several human resource management challenges
in the global context
Abstract: The article deals with technical support of intracranial single unit activity measurement. The parameters of the whole measuring set were tested in order to assure the optimal conditions of extracellular single-unit recording. Metal microelectrodes for measuring the single-unit were tested during animal experiments. From signals recorded during these experiments, requirements for the measuring set parameters were defined. The impedance parameters of the metal microelectrodes were measured. The frequency-gain and autonomous noise properties of preamplifier and amplifier were verified. The measurement and the description of the extracellular single unit activity could help in prognoses of brain tissue damage recovery.
Abstract: Liposomal magnetofection is the most powerful nonviral method for the nucleic acid delivery into the cultured cancer cells and widely used for in vitro applications. Use of the static magnetic field condition may result in non-uniform distribution of aggregate complexes on the surface of cultured cells. To prevent this, we developed the new device which allows to concentrate aggregate complexes under dynamic magnetic field, assisting more contact of these complexes with cellular membrane and, possibly, stimulating endocytosis. Newly developed device for magnetofection under dynamic gradient magnetic field, “DynaFECTOR", was used to compare transfection efficiency of human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 with that obtained by lipofection and magnetofection. The effect of two parameters on transfection efficiency, incubation time under dynamic magnetic field and rotation frequency of magnet, was estimated. Liposomal magnetofection under dynamic gradient magnetic field showed the highest transfection efficiency for HepG2 cells.
Abstract: One of the essential requirements in order to have a
realistic surgical simulator is real-time interaction by means of a
haptic interface is. In fact, reproducing haptic sensations increases
the realism of the simulation. However, the interaction need to be
performed in real-time, since a delay between the user action and the
system reaction reduces the user immersion. In this paper, we present
a prototype of the coronary stent implant simulator developed in the
HERMES Project; this system allows real-time interactions with a
artery by means of a specific haptic device; thus the user can
interactively navigate in a reconstructed artery and force feedback is
produced when contact occurs between the artery walls and the
medical instruments
Abstract: Fourty one strains of ESBL producing P.aeruginosa
which were previously isolated from burn patients in Kerman
University general hospital, Iran were subjected to PCR, RFLP and
sequencing in order to determine the type of extended spectrum β-
lactamases (ESBL), the restriction digestion pattern and possibility of
mutation among detected genes. DNA extraction was carried out by
phenol chloroform method. PCR for detection of bla genes was
performed using specific primer for each gene. Restriction Fragment
Length Polymorphism (RFLP) for ESBL genes was carried out using
EcoRI, NheI, PVUII, EcoRV, DdeI, and PstI restriction enzymes. The
PCR products were subjected to direct sequencing of both the strands
for identification of the ESBL genes.The blaCTX-M, blaVEB-1, blaPER-1,
blaGES-1, blaOXA-1, blaOXA-4 and blaOXA-10 genes were detected in the
(n=1) 2.43%, (n=41)100%, (n=28) 68.3%, (n=10) 24.4%, (n=29)
70.7%, (n=7)17.1% and (n=38) 92.7% of the ESBL producing isolates
respectively. The RFLP analysis showed that each ESBL gene has
identical pattern of digestion among the isolated strains. Sequencing
of the ESBL genes confirmed the genuinety of PCR products and
revealed no mutation in the restriction sites of the above genes. From
results of the present investigation it can be concluded that blaVEB-1
and blaCTX-M were the most and the least frequently isolated ESBL
genes among the P.aeruginosa strains isolated from burn patients. The
RFLP and sequencing analysis revealed that same clone of the bla
genes were indeed existed among the antibiotic resistant strains.
Abstract: Asiatic Houbara ( Chlamydotis macqueenii ) is a
flagship and vulnerable species. In-situ conservation of this
threatened species demands for knowledge of its habitat selection.
The aim of this study was to determine habitat variables influencing
birds wintering and breeding selection in semi- arid central Iran.
Habitat features of the detected nest and pellet sites were compared
with paired and random plots by quantifying a number of habitat
variables. In wintering habitat use at micro scale houbara selected
sites where vegetation cover was significantly lower compard to
control sites( p< 0.001). Areas with low number of larger plant
species (p=0.03) that were not too close to a vegetation
patch(p
Abstract: Urban road network traffic has become one of the
most studied research topics in the last decades. This is mainly due to
the enlargement of the cities and the growing number of motor
vehicles traveling in this road network. One of the most sensitive
problems is to verify if the network is congestion-free. Another
related problem is the automatic reconfiguration of the network
without building new roads to alleviate congestions. These problems
require an accurate model of the traffic to determine the steady state
of the system. An alternative is to simulate the traffic to see if there
are congestions and when and where they occur. One key issue is to
find an adequate model for road intersections. Once the model
established, either a large scale model is built or the intersection is
represented by its performance measures and simulation for analysis.
In both cases, it is important to seek the queueing model to represent
the road intersection. In this paper, we propose to model the road
intersection as a BCMP queueing network and we compare this
analytical model against a simulation model for validation.
Abstract: Routing places an important role in determining the
quality of service in wireless networks. The routing methods adopted
in wireless networks have many drawbacks. This paper aims to
review the current routing methods used in wireless networks. This
paper proposes an innovative solution to overcome the problems in
routing. This solution is aimed at improving the Quality of Service.
This solution is different from others as it involves the resuage of the
part of the virtual circuits. This improvement in quality of service is
important especially in propagation of multimedia applications like
video, animations etc. So it is the dire need to propose a new solution
to improve the quality of service in ATM wireless networks for
multimedia applications especially during this era of multimedia
based applications.
Abstract: Prostate cancer is one of the most frequent cancers in men and is a major cause of mortality in the most of countries. In many diagnostic and treatment procedures for prostate disease accurate detection of prostate boundaries in transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images is required. This is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a novel method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images is presented. This method involves preprocessing (edge preserving noise reduction and smoothing) and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing. A feed forward neural network and local binary pattern together have been use to find a point inside prostate object. Finally the boundary of prostate is extracted by the inside point and an active contour algorithm. A numbers of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results showed that this new algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with MSE less than 4.6% relative to boundary provided manually by physicians.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel control strategy of a threephase
four-wire Unified Power Quality (UPQC) for an improvement
in power quality. The UPQC is realized by integration of series and
shunt active power filters (APFs) sharing a common dc bus capacitor.
The shunt APF is realized using a thee-phase, four leg voltage source
inverter (VSI) and the series APF is realized using a three-phase,
three leg VSI. A control technique based on unit vector template
technique (UTT) is used to get the reference signals for series APF,
while instantaneous sequence component theory (ISCT) is used for
the control of Shunt APF. The performance of the implemented
control algorithm is evaluated in terms of power-factor correction,
load balancing, neutral source current mitigation and mitigation of
voltage and current harmonics, voltage sag and swell in a three-phase
four-wire distribution system for different combination of linear and
non-linear loads. In this proposed control scheme of UPQC, the
current/voltage control is applied over the fundamental supply
currents/voltages instead of fast changing APFs currents/voltages,
there by reducing the computational delay and the required sensors.
MATLAB/Simulink based simulations are obtained, which support
the functionality of the UPQC. MATLAB/Simulink based
simulations are obtained, which support the functionality of the
UPQC.
Abstract: In modern distributed software systems, the issue of communication among composing parts represents a critical point, but the idea of extending conventional programming languages with general purpose communication constructs seems difficult to realize. As a consequence, there is a (growing) gap between the abstraction level required by distributed applications and the concepts provided by platforms that enable communication. This work intends to discuss how the Model Driven Software Development approach can be considered as a mature technology to generate in automatic way the schematic part of applications related to communication, by providing at the same time high level specialized languages useful in all the phases of software production. To achieve the goal, a stack of languages (meta-meta¬models) has been introduced in order to describe – at different levels of abstraction – the collaborative behavior of generic entities in terms of communication actions related to a taxonomy of messages. Finally, the generation of platforms for communication is viewed as a form of specification of language semantics, that provides executable models of applications together with model-checking supports and effective runtime environments.
Abstract: In the present work flow past circular cylinder and
cylinder with rectangular and triangular wake splitter is studied to
improve aerodynamic parameters. The Comparison of drag
coefficient is tabulated for bare cylinder, cylinder with rectangular
and triangular wake splitters. Flow past circular cylinder and cylinder
with triangular and rectangular wake splitter is performed at
Reynoldsnumber 5, 20, 40, 50,80, 100.An incompressible PISO finite
volume code employing a non-staggered grid arrangement is used, a
second order upwind scheme is used for convective terms. The time
discretization is implicit and a Second order Crank-Nicholson scheme
is employed. Length of wake splitter in both configurations is taken
to be equal to diameter of cylinder. Wake length is found to be less
with rectangular wake splitter when compared to bare cylinder and
cylinder with triangular wake splitter. Coefficient of drag is found to
be less for triangular wake splitter when compared to bare cylinder &
cylinder with rectangular wake splitter.
Abstract: Electrocardiogram (ECG) is considered to be the
backbone of cardiology. ECG is composed of P, QRS & T waves and
information related to cardiac diseases can be extracted from the
intervals and amplitudes of these waves. The first step in extracting
ECG features starts from the accurate detection of R peaks in the
QRS complex. We have developed a robust R wave detector using
wavelets. The wavelets used for detection are Daubechies and
Symmetric. The method does not require any preprocessing therefore,
only needs the ECG correct recordings while implementing the
detection. The database has been collected from MIT-BIH arrhythmia
database and the signals from Lead-II have been analyzed. MatLab
7.0 has been used to develop the algorithm. The ECG signal under
test has been decomposed to the required level using the selected
wavelet and the selection of detail coefficient d4 has been done based
on energy, frequency and cross-correlation analysis of decomposition
structure of ECG signal. The robustness of the method is apparent
from the obtained results.
Abstract: This paper explores the opportunity of using tri-axial
wireless accelerometers for supervised monitoring of sports
movements. A motion analysis system for the upper extremities of
lawn bowlers in particular is developed. Accelerometers are placed
on parts of human body such as the chest to represent the shoulder
movements, the back to capture the trunk motion, back of the hand,
the wrist and one above the elbow, to capture arm movements. These
sensors placement are carefully designed in order to avoid restricting
bowler-s movements. Data is acquired from these sensors in soft-real
time using virtual instrumentation; the acquired data is then
conditioned and converted into required parameters for motion
regeneration. A user interface was also created to facilitate in the
acquisition of data, and broadcasting of commands to the wireless
accelerometers. All motion regeneration in this paper deals with the
motion of the human body segment in the X and Y direction, looking
into the motion of the anterior/ posterior and lateral directions
respectively.
Abstract: The world demand for potable water is
increasing every day with growing population. Desalination
using solar energy is suitable for potable water production
from brackish and seawater. In this paper, we present a
theoretical study of solar distillation in a single basin under
the open environmental conditions of Chabahar-Iran. The still
has a base area of 2000mm×500mm with a glass cover
inclined at 25° in order to obtain extra solar energy. We model
the still and conduct its energy balance equations under minor
assumptions. We computed the temperatures of glass cover,
seawater interface, moist air and bottom using numerical
method. The investigation addressed the following: The still
productivity, distilled water salinity and still performance in
terms of the still efficiency. Calculated still productivity in
July was higher than December. So in this paper, we show
that still productivity is directly functioning of solar radiation.
Abstract: A high-frequency low-power sinusoidal quadrature
oscillator is presented through the use of two 2nd-order low-pass
current-mirror (CM)-based filters, a 1st-order CM low-pass filter and
a CM bilinear transfer function. The technique is relatively simple
based on (i) inherent time constants of current mirrors, i.e. the
internal capacitances and the transconductance of a diode-connected
NMOS, (ii) a simple negative resistance RN formed by a resistor load
RL of a current mirror. Neither external capacitances nor inductances
are required. As a particular example, a 1.9-GHz, 0.45-mW, 2-V
CMOS low-pass-filter-based all-current-mirror sinusoidal quadrature
oscillator is demonstrated. The oscillation frequency (f0) is 1.9 GHz
and is current-tunable over a range of 370 MHz or 21.6 %. The
power consumption is at approximately 0.45 mW. The amplitude
matching and the quadrature phase matching are better than 0.05 dB
and 0.15°, respectively. Total harmonic distortions (THD) are less
than 0.3 %. At 2 MHz offset from the 1.9 GHz, the carrier to noise
ratio (CNR) is 90.01 dBc/Hz whilst the figure of merit called a
normalized carrier-to-noise ratio (CNRnorm) is 153.03 dBc/Hz. The
ratio of the oscillation frequency (f0) to the unity-gain frequency (fT)
of a transistor is 0.25. Comparisons to other approaches are also
included.
Abstract: The financial crisis has decreased the opportunities of
small businesses to acquire financing through conventional financial
actors, such as commercial banks. This credit constraint is partly the
reason for the emergence of new alternatives of financing, in addition
to the spreading opportunities for communication and secure
financial transfer through Internet. One of the most interesting venues
for finance is termed “crowdfunding". As the term suggests
crowdfunding is an appeal to prospective customers and investors to
form a crowd that will finance projects that otherwise would find it
hard to generate support through the most common financial actors.
Crowdfunding is in this paper divided into different models; the
threshold model, the microfinance model, the micro loan model and
the equity model. All these models add to the financial possibilities of
emerging entrepreneurs.