Abstract: An automated wood recognition system is designed to
classify tropical wood species.The wood features are extracted based
on two feature extractors: Basic Grey Level Aura Matrix (BGLAM)
technique and statistical properties of pores distribution (SPPD)
technique. Due to the nonlinearity of the tropical wood species
separation boundaries, a pre classification stage is proposed which
consists ofKmeans clusteringand kernel discriminant analysis (KDA).
Finally, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) classifier and KNearest
Neighbour (KNN) are implemented for comparison purposes.
The study involves comparison of the system with and without pre
classification using KNN classifier and LDA classifier.The results
show that the inclusion of the pre classification stage has improved
the accuracy of both the LDA and KNN classifiers by more than
12%.
Abstract: A shaft-type activated sludge reactor has been
developed in order to study the feasibility of high-rate wastewater
treatment. The reactor having volume of about 14.5 L was operated
with the acclimated mixed activated sludge under batch and
continuous mode using a synthetic wastewater as feed. The batch
study was performed with varying chemical oxygen demand (COD)
concentrations of 1000–3500 mg·L-1 for a batch period up to 9 h. The
kinetic coefficients: Ks, k, Y and kd were obtained as 2040.2 mg·L-1
and 0.105 h-1, 0.878 and 0.0025 h-1 respectively from Monod-s
approach. The continuous study showed a stable and steady state
operation for a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h and influent
COD of about 1000 mg·L-1. A maximum COD removal efficiency of
about 80% was attained at a COD loading rate and food-tomicroorganism
(F/M) ratio (COD basis) of 3.42 kg·m-3d-1 and 1.0
kg·kg-1d-1 respectively under a HRT of 8 h. The reactor was also
found to handle COD loading rate and F/M ratio of 10.8 kg·m-3d-1
and 2.20 kg·kg-1d-1 respectively showing a COD removal efficiency
of about 46%.
Abstract: This work addresses the problem of optimizing
completely batch water-using network with multiple contaminants
where the flow change caused by mass transfer is taken into
consideration for the first time. A mathematical technique for
optimizing water-using network is proposed based on
source-tank-sink superstructure. The task is to obtain the freshwater
usage, recycle assignments among water-using units, wastewater
discharge and a steady water-using network configuration by
following steps. Firstly, operating sequences of water-using units are
determined by time constraints. Next, superstructure is simplified by
eliminating the reuse and recycle from water-using units with
maximum concentration of key contaminants. Then, the non-linear
programming model is solved by GAMS (General Algebra Model
System) for minimum freshwater usage, maximum water recycle and
minimum wastewater discharge. Finally, numbers of operating periods
are calculated to acquire the steady network configuration. A case
study is solved to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach.
Abstract: Thermally insulating ceramic coatings also known as
thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been essential technologies to
improve the performance and efficiency of advanced gas turbines in
service at extremely high temperatures. The damage mechanisms of
air-plasma sprayed YSZ thermal barrier coatings (TBC) with various
microstructures were studied by microscopic techniques after thermal
cycling. The typical degradation of plasma TBCs that occurs during
cyclic furnace testing of an YSZ and alumina coating on a Titanium
alloy are analyzed. During the present investigation the effects of
topcoat thickness, bond coat oxidation, thermal cycle lengths and test
temperature are investigated using thermal cycling. These results
were correlated with stresses measured by a spectroscopic technique
in order to understand specific damage mechanism. The failure
mechanism of former bond coats was found to involve fracture
initiation at the thermally grown oxide (TGO) interface and at the
TGO bond coat interface. The failure mechanism of the YZ was
found to involve combination of fracture along the interface between
TGO and bond coat.
Abstract: The gas safety management system using an
intelligent gas meter we proposed is to monitor flow and
pressure of gas, earthquake, temperature, smoke and leak of
methane. Then our system takes safety measures to protect a
serious risk by the result of an event, to communicate with a
wall-pad including a gateway by zigbee network in buildings
and to report the event to user by the safety management
program in a server. Also, the inner cutoff valve of an
intelligent gas meter is operated if any event occurred or
abnormal at each sensor.
Abstract: Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common
nosocomial infection in surgical patients resulting in significant
increases in postoperative morbidity and mortality. The commonly
causative bacteria developed resistance to virtually all antibiotics
available. The aim of this study was to isolation and identification the
most common bacteria that cause SSIs in Medical Research Institute,
and to compare their sensitivity to selected group of antibiotics and
natural products (garlic, oregano, olive, and Nigella sativa oils). The
isolated pathogens collected from infected surgical wounds were
identified, and their sensitivities to the antibiotics commonly
available for clinical use, and also to the different concentrations of
the used natural products were investigated. The results indicate to
the potential therapeutic effect of the tested natural products in
treatment of surgical wound infections.
Abstract: The main objective of this study was to determine the effects
of vermicompost and amino acids on the qualitative and quantitative yield of
chamomile. The experiment was conducted during the growing season of
2010 at the Alborz Medical Research Center. The Treatment groups consisted
of vermicompost (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 tons/ha) and the sprays of amino acids
(budding stag, flowering stage, and budding + flowering stage). The
experimental design was a factorial experiment based on Randomized
Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The present results
have shown that the highest plant height, flower head diameter, fresh and dry
flower yield and significant essential oil content were obtained by using 20-
ton vermicompost per hectare. Effects of amino acids were similar to those
seen in vermicompost treatment and all measured traits were seen to be
significant after the spray of amino acids at the budding + flowering stage).
Abstract: In this paper a three dimensional thermal model of a
power toroidal transformer is proposed for both steady-state or
transient conditions. The influence of electric current and ambient
temperature on the temperature distribution, has been investigated.
To validate the three dimensional thermal model, some experimental
tests have been done. There is a good correlation between
experimental and simulation results.
Abstract: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and
conventional microbiological methods were used to detect bacterial
contamination of egg shells and egg content in different commercial
housing systems, open house system and evaporative cooling system.
A PCR assay was developed for direct detection using a set of
primers specific for the invasion by A gene (invA) of Salmonella spp.
PCR detected the presence of Salmonella in 2 samples of shell egg
from the evaporative cooling system, while conventional cultural
methods detected no Salmonella from the same samples.
Abstract: In this project cadmium ions were adsorbed from
aqueous solutions onto either date pits; a cheap agricultural and nontoxic
material, or chemically activated carbon prepared from date pits
using phosphoric acid. A series of experiments were conducted in a
batch adsorption technique to assess the feasibility of using the
prepared adsorbents. The effects of the process variables such as
initial cadmium ions concentration, contact time, solution pH and
adsorbent dose on the adsorption capacity of both adsorbents were
studied. The experimental data were tested using different isotherm
models such as Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin and Dubinin-
Radushkevich. The results showed that although the equilibrium data
could be described by all models used, Langmuir model gave slightly
better results when using activated carbon while Freundlich model,
gave better results with date pits.
Abstract: The aim of the study was to determine how different
ripening processes (traditional vs. industrial) influenced the
proteolysis in traditional Serbian dry-fermented sausage Petrovská
klobása. The obtained results indicated more intensive pH decline
(0.7 units after 9 days) in industrially ripened products (I), what had a
positive impact on drying process and proteolytic changes in these
samples. Thus, moisture content in I sausages was lower at each
sampling time, amounting 24.7% at the end of production period
(90 days). Likewise, the process of proteolysis was more pronounced
in I samples, resulting in higher contents of non-protein nitrogen
(NPN) and free amino acids nitrogen (FAAN), as well as in faster
and more intensive degradation of myosin (≈220 kDa), actin (≈45
kDa) and other polypeptides during processing. Consequently, the
appearance and accumulation of several protein fragments were
registered.
Abstract: Most of the drugs used for pharmaceutical purposes
are poorly water-soluble drugs. About 40% of all newly discovered
drugs are lipophilic and the numbers of lipophilic drugs seem to
increase more and more. Drug delivery systems such as
nanoparticles, micelles or liposomes are applied to improve their
solubility and thus their bioavailability. Besides various techniques of
solubilization, oil-in-water emulsions are often used to incorporate
lipophilic drugs into the oil phase. To stabilize emulsions surface
active substances (surfactants) are generally used. An alternative
method to avoid the application of surfactants was of great interest.
One possibility is to develop O/W-emulsion without any addition of
surface active agents or the so called “surfactant-free emulsion or
SFE”. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize SFE as a
drug carrier by varying the production conditions. Lidocaine base
was used as a model drug. The injection method was developed.
Effects of ultrasound as well as of temperature on the properties of
the emulsion were studied. Particle sizes and release were
determined. The long-term stability up to 30 days was performed.
The results showed that the surfactant-free O/W emulsions with
pharmaceutical oil as drug carrier can be produced.
Abstract: EPC Class-1 Generation-2 UHF tags, one of Radio
frequency identification or RFID tag types, is expected that most
companies are planning to use it in the supply chain in the short term
and in consumer packaging in the long term due to its inexpensive
cost. Because of the very cost, however, its resources are extremely
scarce and it is hard to have any valuable security algorithms in it. It
causes security vulnerabilities, in particular cloning the tags for
counterfeits. In this paper, we propose a product authentication
solution for anti-counterfeiting at application level in the supply chain
and mobile RFID environment. It aims to become aware of
distribution of spurious products with fake RFID tags and to provide a
product authentication service to general consumers with mobile
RFID devices like mobile phone or PDA which has a mobile RFID
reader. We will discuss anti-counterfeiting mechanisms which are
required to our proposed solution and address requirements that the
mechanisms should have.
Abstract: Dynamic bandwidth allocation in EPONs can be
generally separated into inter-ONU scheduling and intra-ONU scheduling. In our previous work, the active intra-ONU scheduling
(AS) utilizes multiple queue reports (QRs) in each report message to cooperate with the inter-ONU scheduling and makes the granted
bandwidth fully utilized without leaving unused slot remainder (USR).
This scheme successfully solves the USR problem originating from the
inseparability of Ethernet frame. However, without proper setting of
threshold value in AS, the number of QRs constrained by the IEEE
802.3ah standard is not enough, especially in the unbalanced traffic
environment. This limitation may be solved by enlarging the threshold
value. The large threshold implies the large gap between the adjacent QRs, thus resulting in the large difference between the best granted bandwidth and the real granted bandwidth. In this paper, we integrate
AS with a cooperative prediction mechanism and distribute multiple
QRs to reduce the penalty brought by the prediction error.
Furthermore, to improve the QoS and save the usage of queue reports,
the highest priority (EF) traffic which comes during the waiting time is
granted automatically by OLT and is not considered in the requested
bandwidth of ONU. The simulation results show that the proposed
scheme has better performance metrics in terms of bandwidth
utilization and average delay for different classes of packets.
Abstract: In order to study of The Effect of seed inoculation
with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus on yield and yield
components of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, an experiment
was carried out as factorial based on Randomized Complete Block
Design (RCBD) in Agricultural Research Station of Shahrood
University of Technology. Results showed that inoculation with
Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus promoted seed germination.
Also, inoculation with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus
significantly affected grain yield, Number of spikes per m2,
Number of grain per spike and 1000-seed weight and There was not
statistically significant difference between Chamran and Pishtaz
cultivars . Finally, the dosages of chemical fertilizers currently
applied in commercial wheat field in Iran (Shahrood region) could be
reduced through proper combination of Pseudomonas
putida+Bacillus lentus inoculation plus fertilization.
Abstract: This paper presents software tools that convert the C/Cµ floating point source code for a DSP algorithm into a fixedpoint simulation model that can be used to evaluate the numericalperformance of the algorithm on several different fixed pointplatforms including microprocessors, DSPs and FPGAs. The tools use a novel system for maintaining binary point informationso that the conversion from floating point to fixed point isautomated and the resulting fixed point algorithm achieves maximum possible precision. A configurable architecture is used during the simulation phase so that the algorithm can produce a bit-exact output for several different target devices.
Abstract: The decision to recruit manpower in an organization
requires clear identification of the criteria (attributes) that distinguish
successful from unsuccessful performance. The choice of appropriate
attributes or criteria in different levels of hierarchy in an organization
is a multi-criteria decision problem and therefore multi-criteria
decision making (MCDM) techniques can be used for prioritization
of such attributes. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one such
technique that is widely used for deciding among the complex criteria
structure in different levels. In real applications, conventional AHP
still cannot reflect the human thinking style as precise data
concerning human attributes are quite hard to be extracted. Fuzzy
logic offers a systematic base in dealing with situations, which are
ambiguous or not well defined. This study aims at defining a
methodology to improve the quality of prioritization of an
employee-s performance measurement attributes under fuzziness. To
do so, a methodology based on the Extent Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy
Process is proposed. Within the model, four main attributes such as
Subject knowledge and achievements, Research aptitude, Personal
qualities and strengths and Management skills with their subattributes
are defined. The two approaches conventional AHP
approach and the Extent Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process approach
have been compared on the same hierarchy structure and criteria set.
Abstract: By using the method of coincidence degree and constructing suitable Lyapunov functional, some sufficient conditions are established for the existence and global exponential stability of antiperiodic solutions for a kind of impulsive Cohen-Grossberg shunting inhibitory cellular neural networks (CGSICNNs) on time scales. An example is given to illustrate our results.
Abstract: Contractor selection in Saudi Arabia is very important due to the large construction boom and the contractor role to get over construction risks. The need for investigating contractor selection is due to the following reasons; large number of defaulted or failed projects (18%), large number of disputes attributed to contractor during the project execution stage (almost twofold), the extension of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into construction industry, and finally the few number of researches. The selection strategy is not perfect and considered as the reason behind irresponsible contractors. As a response, this research was conducted to review the contractor selection strategies as an integral part of a long advanced research to develop a good selection model. Many techniques can be used to form a selection strategy; multi criteria for optimizing decision, prequalification to discover contractor-s responsibility, bidding process for competition, third party guarantee to enhance the selection, and fuzzy techniques for ambiguities and incomplete information.
Abstract: Three service providers in competition, try to optimize
their quality of service / content level and their service access
price. But, they have to deal with uncertainty on the consumers-
preferences. To reduce their uncertainty, they have the opportunity
to buy information and to build alliances. We determine the Shapley
value which is a fair way to allocate the grand coalition-s revenue
between the service providers. Then, we identify the values of β
(consumers- sensitivity coefficient to the quality of service / contents)
for which allocating the grand coalition-s revenue using the Shapley
value guarantees the system stability. For other values of β, we prove
that it is possible for the regulator to impose a per-period interest rate
maximizing the market coverage under equal allocation rules.