Abstract: Many studies have focused on the nonlinear analysis
of electroencephalography (EEG) mainly for the characterization of
epileptic brain states. It is assumed that at least two states of the
epileptic brain are possible: the interictal state characterized by a
normal apparently random, steady-state EEG ongoing activity; and
the ictal state that is characterized by paroxysmal occurrence of
synchronous oscillations and is generally called in neurology, a
seizure.
The spatial and temporal dynamics of the epileptogenic process is
still not clear completely especially the most challenging aspects of
epileptology which is the anticipation of the seizure. Despite all the
efforts we still don-t know how and when and why the seizure
occurs. However actual studies bring strong evidence that the
interictal-ictal state transition is not an abrupt phenomena. Findings
also indicate that it is possible to detect a preseizure phase.
Our approach is to use the neural network tool to detect interictal
states and to predict from those states the upcoming seizure ( ictal
state). Analysis of the EEG signal based on neural networks is used
for the classification of EEG as either seizure or non-seizure. By
applying prediction methods it will be possible to predict the
upcoming seizure from non-seizure EEG.
We will study the patients admitted to the epilepsy monitoring
unit for the purpose of recording their seizures. Preictal, ictal, and
post ictal EEG recordings are available on such patients for analysis
The system will be induced by taking a body of samples then
validate it using another. Distinct from the two first ones a third body
of samples is taken to test the network for the achievement of
optimum prediction. Several methods will be tried 'Backpropagation
ANN' and 'RBF'.
Abstract: Breastfeeding has been receiving much attention of late. Prolonged sitting for breastfeeding often results in back pain of the mothers. This paper reports the findings of a study on the effect of some factors, especially lumbar support, on back pain of breastfeeding mothers. The results showed that the use of lumbar support can reduce back pain of breastfeeding mothers significantly. Back pain was found to increase with breastfeeding time and the rate of increase was lower when lumbar supports were used. When lumbar support thickness was increased gradually from zero (no support) to 11 cm., the degree of low back pain decreased; rapidly at first, then slowly, and leveled off when the thickness reached 9 cm. Younger mothers were less prone to back pain than older mothers. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Abstract: Till date, English as a Second Language (ESL) educators involved in teaching language and communication to engineering students face an uphill task in developing graduate communicative competency. This challenge is accentuated by the apparent lack of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) materials for engineering students in the engineering curriculum. As such, most ESL educators are forced to play multiple roles. They don tasks such as curriculum designers, material writers and teachers with limited knowledge of the disciplinary content. Previous research indicates that prospective professional engineers should possess some sub-sets of competency: technical, linguistic oral immediacy, meta-cognitive and rhetorical explanatory competence. Another study revealed that engineering students need to be equipped with technical and linguistic oral immediacy competence. However, little is known whether these competency needs are in line with the educators- perceptions of communicative competence. This paper examines the best mix of communicative competence subsets that create the magic for engineering students in technical oral presentations. For the purpose of this study, two groups of educators were interviewed. These educators were language and communication lecturers involved in teaching a speaking course and content experts who assess students- technical oral presentations at tertiary level. The findings indicate that these two groups differ in their perceptions
Abstract: Petrol Fuel Station (PFS) has potential hazards to the
people, asset, environment and reputation of an operating company.
Fire hazards, static electricity air pollution evoked by aliphatic and
aromatic organic compounds are major causes of accident/incident
occurrence at fuel station. Activities such as carelessness,
maintenance, housekeeping, slips trips and falls, transportation
hazard, major and minor injuries, robbery and snake bites has a
potential to create unsafe conditions. The level of risk of these
hazards varies according to location and country. The emphasis on
safety considerations by the government is variable all around the
world. Developed countries safety records are much better as
compared to developing countries safety statistics. There is no
significant approach available to highlight the unsafe acts and unsafe
conditions during operation and maintenance of fuel station. Fuel
station is the most commonly available facilities that contain
flammable and hazardous materials. Due to continuous operation of
fuel station they pose various hazards to people, environment and
assets of an organization. To control these hazards, there is a need for
specific approach. PFS operation is unique as compared to other
businesses. For smooth operations it demands an involvement of
operating company, contractor and operator group. This study will
focus to address hazard contributing factors that have a potential to
make PFS operation risky. One year data collected, 902 activities
analyzed, comparisons were made to highlight significant
contributing factors. The study will provide help and assistance to
PFS outlet marketing companies to make their fuel station operation
safer. It will help health safety and environment (HSE) professionals
to arrest the gap available related to safety matters at PFS.
Abstract: In this work a new offline signature recognition system
based on Radon Transform, Fractal Dimension (FD) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) is presented. In the first step, projections of
original signatures along four specified directions have been performed using radon transform. Then, FDs of four obtained
vectors are calculated to construct a feature vector for each
signature. These vectors are then fed into SVM classifier for recognition of signatures. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of
the system several experiments are carried out. Offline signature
database from signature verification competition (SVC) 2004 is used
during all of the tests. Experimental result indicates that the proposed method achieved high accuracy rate in signature recognition.
Abstract: Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) plants are cultivated for lawn constitution and as forage plants. Considerable number of perennial ryegrass genotypes are present in the flora of our country and they present substantial was performed based on a Project supported bu TUBITAK (Project numver : 106O159) and perannial ryegrass genotypes from 8 provinces were collected during 2006. Seeds of perennial ryegrass were collected from 48 different locations. Populations of turfgrass seeds in flowerpots to be 20 and 1 cm deep greenhouse were sown in three replications at 07.07.2007.Then the growth of turfgrass seedlings in the greenhouse in pots showed sufficiently separated from the plants were planted in each population. Plants planted in the garden of the observation scale of 1-9 was evaluated by the quality, 1 = the weakest / worst, 6 = acceptable and 9 = superior or considered as an ideal. Essentially only recognized in assessing the quality of the color of grass, but the color, density, uniformity, texture (texture), illness or environmental stresses are evaluated as a combination reaction. Turfgrass quality 15.11.2007, 19.03.2008, 27.05.2008, 27.11.2008, 07.03.2009 and 02.06.2009 have been 6 times to be in order. Observations made regarding the quality of grass; 3 years according to seasonal environments turf quality genotypes belonging to 14 different populations were found to be 7.5 and above are reserved for future use in breeding works.The number of genotypes belonging to 41 populations in terms of turfgrass quality was determined as 7.9 of 3 year average seasonal. Argıthan between Doğanhisar (Konya) is located 38.09 latitude and 31.40 longitude, altitude 1158 m in the set that population numbered 41.
Abstract: The goal of this study was to disclose the core of the advertising research based on the psychological aspects by acquainting with the nature of advertising research and revealing the importance of psychological aspects of advertising during the advertising research. The growing interest in consumer response to advertisement served as an encouragement to make the analysis of psychological aspects of the advertising research, because the information obtained during the advertising research helps to answer the question how advertising really works. In the research analysis focuses on the nature of advertising research. The place of advertising research in advertisement planning process and the advertising research process are unfolded. Moreover, the importance of psychological aspects in the advertising research is being examined. The certain psychological aspects like the particularities of advertising communication process, psychological process that are active at advertising acceptance and awareness process as well as the advertising effects are analysed in more detail.
Abstract: Oxidative stress makes up common incidents in
eukaryotic metabolism. The presence of diverse components
disturbing the equilibrium during oxygen metabolism increases
oxidative damage unspecifically in living cells. Body´s own
ubiquinone (Q10) seems to be a promising drug in defending the
heightened appearance of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Though, its
lipophilic properties require a new strategy in drug formulation to
overcome their low bioavailability. Consequently, the manufacture of
heterogeneous nanodispersions is in focus for medical applications.
The composition of conventional nanodispersions is made up of a
drug-consisting core and a surfactive agent, also named as surfactant.
Long-termed encapsulation of the surfactive components into tissues
might be the consequence of the use during medical therapeutics. The
potential of provoking side-effects is given by their nonbiodegradable
properties. Further improvements during fabrication
process use the incorporation of biodegradable components such as
modified γ-polyglutamic acid which decreases the potential of
prospective side-effects.
Abstract: The numerous qualities of squirrel cage induction
machines enhance their use in industry. However, various faults can
occur, such as stator short-circuits and rotor failures.
In this paper, we use a technique based on the spectral analysis of
stator current in order to detect the fault in the machine: broken rotor
bars. Thus, the number effect of the breaks has been highlighted. The
effect is highlighted by considering the machine controlled by the
Direct Torque Control (DTC). The key to fault detection is the
development of a simplified dynamic model of a squirrel cage
induction motor taking account the broken bars fault and the stator
current spectrum analysis (FFT).
Abstract: This paper examines the influence of communication
form on employee uncertainty during mergers and acquisitions
(M&As). Specifically, the author uses narrative theory to analyze
how narrative organizational communication affects the three
components of uncertainty – decreased predictive, explanatory, and
descriptive ability. It is hypothesized that employees whose
organizations use narrative M&A communication will have greater
predictive, explanatory, and descriptive abilities than employees of
organizations using non-narrative M&A communication. This paper
contributes to the stream of research examining uncertainty during
mergers and acquisitions and argues that narratives are an effective
means of managing uncertainty in the mergers and acquisitions
context.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of the authors in designing, experimenting, assessing and transferring an innovative approach to energy education in secondary schools, aimed to enhance the quality of learning in terms of didactic curricula and pedagogic methods. The training is online delivered to youngsters via e-Books and portals specially designed for this purpose or by learning by doing via interactive games. An online educational methodology is available teachers.
Abstract: This document describes an electronic speed control designed to drive two DC motors from a 6 V battery pack to be controlled by a commercial universal infrared remote control hand set. Conceived for a tank-like vehicle, one motor drives the left side wheels or tracks and the other motor drives the right side. As it is shown here, there is a left-right steering input and a forward– backward throttles input, like would be used on a model car. It is designed using a microcontroller PIC16F873A.
Abstract: Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the integration
between manufacturer, transporter and customer in order to form one
seamless chain that allows smooth flow of raw materials, information
and products throughout the entire network that help in minimizing
all related efforts and costs. The main objective of this paper is to
develop a model that can accept a specified number of spare-parts
within the supply chain, simulating its inventory operations
throughout all stages in order to minimize the inventory holding
costs, base-stock, safety-stock, and to find the optimum quantity of
inventory levels, thereby suggesting a way forward to adapt some
factors of Just-In-Time to minimizing the inventory costs throughout
the entire supply chain. The model has been developed using Micro-
Soft Excel & Visual Basic in order to study inventory allocations in
any network of the supply chain. The application and reproducibility
of this model were tested by comparing the actual system that was
implemented in the case study with the results of the developed
model. The findings showed that the total inventory costs of the
developed model are about 50% less than the actual costs of the
inventory items within the case study.
Abstract: Plants are commonly known for its positive
correlation in reducing temperature. Since it can benefit buildings by
modifying the microclimate, it-s also believed capable of reducing
the internal temperature. Various experiments have been done in
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang to investigate the comparison in
thermal benefits between two rooms, one being a typical control
room (exposed wall) and the other a biofacade room (plant shaded
wall). The investigations were conducted during non-rainy season for
approximately a month. Climbing plant Psophocarpus
tetrogonobulus from legume species was selected as insulation for
the biofacade wall. Conclusions were made on whether the biofacade
can be used to tackle the energy efficiency, based on the parameters
taken into consideration.
Abstract: Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles which can convert near-infrared lights to visible lights have attracted growing interest because of their great potentials in fluorescence imaging. Upconversion fluorescence imaging technique with excitation in the near-infrared (NIR) region has been used for imaging of biological cells and tissues. However, improving the detection sensitivity and decreasing the absorption and scattering in biological tissues are as yet unresolved problems. In this present study, a novel NIR-reflected multispectral imaging system was developed for upconversion fluorescent imaging in small animals. Based on this system, we have obtained the high contrast images without the autofluorescence when biocompatible UCPs were injected near the body surface or deeply into the tissue. Furthermore, we have extracted respective spectra of the upconversion fluorescence and relatively quantify the fluorescence intensity with the multispectral analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first time to analyze and quantify the upconversion fluorescence in the small animal imaging.
Abstract: This paper compares Hilditch, Rosenfeld, Zhang-
Suen, dan Nagendraprasad Wang Gupta (NWG) thinning algorithms
for Javanese character image recognition. Thinning is an effective
process when the focus in not on the size of the pattern, but rather on
the relative position of the strokes in the pattern. The research
analyzes the thinning of 60 Javanese characters.
Time-wise, Zhang-Suen algorithm gives the best results with the
average process time being 0.00455188 seconds. But if we look at
the percentage of pixels that meet one-pixel thickness, Rosenfelt
algorithm gives the best results, with a 99.98% success rate. From the
number of pixels that are erased, NWG algorithm gives the best
results with the average number of pixels erased being 84.12%. It can
be concluded that the Hilditch algorithm performs least successfully
compared to the other three algorithms.
Abstract: Nowadays the control of stator voltage at a constant frequency is one of the traditional and low expense methods in order to control the speed of induction motors near its nominal speed. The torque of induction motor is a nonlinear function of the firing angle, phase angle and speed. In this paper the speed control of induction motor regarding various load torque and under different conditions will be investigated based on a fuzzy controller with inverse training.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach based on the
adoption of a distributed cognition framework and a non parametric
multicriteria evaluation methodology (DEA) designed specifically to
compare e-commerce websites from the consumer/user viewpoint. In
particular, the framework considers a website relative efficiency as a
measure of its quality and usability. A website is modelled as a black
box capable to provide the consumer/user with a set of
functionalities. When the consumer/user interacts with the website to
perform a task, he/she is involved in a cognitive activity, sustaining a
cognitive cost to search, interpret and process information, and
experiencing a sense of satisfaction. The degree of ambiguity and
uncertainty he/she perceives and the needed search time determine
the effort size – and, henceforth, the cognitive cost amount – he/she
has to sustain to perform his/her task. On the contrary, task
performing and result achievement induce a sense of gratification,
satisfaction and usefulness. In total, 9 variables are measured,
classified in a set of 3 website macro-dimensions (user experience,
site navigability and structure). The framework is implemented to
compare 40 websites of businesses performing electronic commerce
in the information technology market. A questionnaire to collect
subjective judgements for the websites in the sample was purposely
designed and administered to 85 university students enrolled in
computer science and information systems engineering
undergraduate courses.
Abstract: Lactic acid alone and its combined application with
nisin were evaluated for reducing population of naturally occurring
microorganisms on chilled shrimp. Fresh shrimps were dipped in 0,
1.0% and 2.0% (v/v) lactic acid alone and their combined application
with 0.04 (g/L/kg) nisin solution for 10 min. Total plate counts of
aerobic bacteria (TPCs), Psychrotrophic counts, population of
Pseudomonas spp., H2S producing bacteria and Lactic acid bacteria
(LAB) on shrimps were determined during storage at 4 °C. The
results indicated that total plate counts were 2.91 and 2.63 log CFU/g
higher on untreated shrimps after 7 and 14 days of storage,
respectively, than on shrimps treated with 2.0% lactic acid combined
with 0.04 (g/L/kg) nisin. Both concentrations of lactic acid indicated
significant reduction on Pseudomonas counts during storage, while
2.0% lactic acid combined with nisin indicated the highest reduction.
In addition, H2S producing bacteria were more sensitive to high
concentration of lactic acid combined with nisin during storage.
Abstract: As mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have different
characteristics from wired networks and even from standard wireless
networks, there are new challenges related to security issues that
need to be addressed. Due to its unique features such as open nature,
lack of infrastructure and central management, node mobility and
change of dynamic topology, prevention methods from attacks on
them are not enough. Therefore intrusion detection is one of the
possible ways in recognizing a possible attack before the system
could be penetrated. All in all, techniques for intrusion detection in
old wireless networks are not suitable for MANET. In this paper, we
classify the architecture for Intrusion detection systems that have so
far been introduced for MANETs, and then existing intrusion
detection techniques in MANET presented and compared. We then
indicate important future research directions.