Abstract: Acute toxicity of nano SiO2, ZnO, MCM-41 (Meso
pore silica), Cu, Multi Wall Carbon Nano Tube (MWCNT), Single
Wall Carbon Nano Tube (SWCNT) , Fe (Coated) to bacteria Vibrio
fischeri using a homemade luminometer , was evaluated. The values
of the nominal effective concentrations (EC), causing 20% and 50%
inhibition of biouminescence, using two mathematical models at two
times of 5 and 30 minutes were calculated. Luminometer was
designed with Photomultiplier (PMT) detector. Luminol
chemiluminescence reaction was carried out for the calibration graph.
In the linear calibration range, the correlation coefficients and
coefficient of Variation (CV) were 0.988 and 3.21% respectively
which demonstrate the accuracy and reproducibility of the instrument
that are suitable. The important part of this research depends on how
to optimize the best condition for maximum bioluminescence. The
culture of Vibrio fischeri with optimal conditions in liquid media,
were stirring at 120 rpm at a temperature of 150C to 180C and were
incubated for 24 to 72 hours while solid medium was held at 180C
and for 48 hours. Suspension of nanoparticles ZnO, after 30 min
contact time to bacteria Vibrio fischeri, showed the highest toxicity
while SiO2 nanoparticles showed the lowest toxicity. After 5 min
exposure time, the toxicity of ZnO was the strongest and MCM-41
was the weakest toxicant component.
Abstract: Innovations and innovative activity get the increasing
value for successful financial and economic activity of the countries
and regions. The level of innovative sphere development determines
place of a country or a region in world economy and forms a basis of
steady economic growth. This article is devoted to different aspects
of organization of the national economic safety in the conditions of
innovative development, its problems, risks and threats. Economy
can be considered as aspiring for transition to innovative way only
with finding of economic safety: financial independence, power
stability and technological progress. There are statistical indicators,
defining the level of economic security and factors, threatening
economic safety of the state. The research is based on the analysis of
factors and indicators in conditions of innovative development. The
paper is illustrated by the examples of possible estimated system of
the economic safety level.
Abstract: This paper contributes to our knowledge about buyerseller
relations by identifying barriers and conflict situations
associated with maintaining and developing durable business
relationships by small companies. The contribution of prior studies
with regard to negative aspects of marketing relationships is
presented in the first section. The international research results are
discussed with regard to the existing conceptualizations and main
research implications identified at the end.
Abstract: This paper presents the hardware design of a unified
architecture to compute the 4x4, 8x8 and 16x16 efficient twodimensional
(2-D) transform for the HEVC standard. This
architecture is based on fast integer transform algorithms. It is
designed only with adders and shifts in order to reduce the hardware
cost significantly. The goal is to ensure the maximum circuit reuse
during the computing while saving 40% for the number of operations.
The architecture is developed using FIFOs to compute the second
dimension. The proposed hardware was implemented in VHDL. The
VHDL RTL code works at 240 MHZ in an Altera Stratix III FPGA.
The number of cycles in this architecture varies from 33 in 4-point-
2D-DCT to 172 when the 16-point-2D-DCT is computed. Results
show frequency improvements reaching 96% when compared to an
architecture described as the direct transcription of the algorithm.
Abstract: Currently, a large number of license activities (Early
Site Permits, Combined Operating License, reactor certifications,
etc.), are pending for review before the United States Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (US NRC). Much of the senior staff at the
NRC is now committed to these review and licensing actions. To
address this additional workload, the NRC has recruited a large
number of new Regulatory Staff for dealing with these and other
regulatory actions such as the US Fleet of Research and Test Reactors
(RTRs). These reactors pose unusual demands on Regulatory Staff
since the US Fleet of RTRs, although few (32 Licensed RTRs as of
2010), they represent a broad range of reactor types, operations, and
research and training aspects that nuclear reactor power plants (such
as the 104 LWRs) do not pose. The NRC must inspect and regulate
all these facilities. This paper addresses selected training topics and
regulatory activities providedNRC Inspectors for RTRs.
Abstract: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic
relapsing-remitting condition that afflicts millions of people
throughout the world and impairs their daily functions and quality of
life. Treatment of IBD depends largely on 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-
ASA) and corticosteroids. The present study aimed to clarify the
effects of 5-aminosalicylic acid, budesonide and currcumin on 90
male albino rats against trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNB) induced
colitis. TNB was injected intrarectally to 50 rats. The other 40 rats
served as control groups. Both 5-ASA (in a dose of 120 mg/kg) and
budesonide (in a dose of 0.1 mg/kg) were administered daily for one
week whereas currcumin was injected intraperitonially (in a dose of
30 mg/kg daily) for 14 days after injection of either TNB in the
colitis rats (group B) or saline in control groups (group A). The study
included estimation of macroscopic score index, histological
examination of H&E stained sections of the colonic tissue,
biochemical estimation of myeloperoxidase (MPO), nitric oxide
(NO), and caspase-3 levels, in addition to studying the effect of tested
drugs on colonic motility. It was found that budesonide and curcumin
improved mucosal healing, reduced both NO production and caspase-
3 level. They had the best impact on the disturbed colonic motility in
TNBS-model of colitis.
Abstract: The decision of information technology (IT) outsourcing requires close attention to the evaluation of supplier selection process because the selection decision involves conflicting multiple criteria and is replete with complex decision making problems. Selecting the most appropriate suppliers is considered an important strategic decision that may impact the performance of outsourcing engagements. The objective of this paper is to aid decision makers to evaluate and assess possible IT outsourcing suppliers. An axiomatic design based fuzzy group decision making is adopted to evaluate supplier alternatives. Finally, a case study is given to demonstrate the potential of the methodology. KeywordsIT outsourcing, Supplier selection, Multi-criteria decision making, Axiomatic design, Fuzzy logic.
Abstract: Homogeneous composites of alumina and zirconia
with a small amount of MgO (99%) were obtained for ZTA ceramic containing 0.05 wt% MgO in
1500 °C.
Abstract: Use of microemulsion in enhanced oil recovery has become more attractive in recent years because of its high level of extraction efficiency. Experimental investigations have been made on characterization of microemulsions of oil-brinesurfactant/ cosurfactant system for its use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Sodium dodecyl sulfate, propan-1-ol and heptane were selected as surfactant, cosurfactant and oil respectively for preparation of microemulsion. The effects of salinity on the relative phase volumes and solubilization parameters have also been studied. As salinity changes from low to high value, phase transition takes place from Winsor I to Winsor II via Winsor III. Suitable microemulsion composition has been selected based on its stability and ability to reduce interfacial tension. A series of flooding experiments have been performed using the selected microemulsion. The flooding experiments were performed in a core flooding apparatus using uniform sand pack. The core holder was tightly packed with uniform sands (60-100 mesh) and saturated with brines of different salinities. It was flooded with the brine at 25 psig and the absolute permeability was calculated from the flow rate of the through sand pack. The sand pack was then flooded with the crude oil at 800 psig to irreducible water saturation. The initial water saturation was determined on the basis of mass balance. Waterflooding was conducted by placing the coreholder horizontally at a constant injection pressure at 200 pisg. After water flooding, when water-cut reached above 95%, around 0.5 pore volume (PV) of the above microemulsion slug was injected followed by chasing water. The experiments were repeated using different composition of microemulsion slug. The additional recoveries were calculated by material balance. Encouraging results with additional recovery more than 20% of original oil in place above the conventional water flooding have been observed.
Abstract: Biodiversity crisis is one of the many crises that
started at the turn of the millennia. Concrete form of expression is
still disputed, but there is a relatively high consensus regarding the
high rate of degradation and the urgent need for action. The strategy
of action outlines a strong economic component, together with the
recognition of market mechanisms as the most effective policies to
protect biodiversity. In this context, biodiversity and ecosystem
services are natural assets that play a key role in economic strategies
and technological development to promote development and
prosperity. Developing and strengthening policies for transition to an
economy based on efficient use of resources is the way forward.
To emphasize the co-viability specific to the connection economyecosystem
services, scientific approach aimed on one hand how to
implement policies for nature conservation and on the other hand, the
concepts underlying the economic expression of ecosystem services-
value, in the context of current technology. Following the analysis of
business opportunities associated with changes in ecosystem services
was concluded that development of market mechanisms for nature
conservation is a trend that is increasingly stronger individualized
within recent years. Although there are still many controversial issues
that have already given rise to an obvious bias, international
organizations and national governments have initiated and
implemented in cooperation or independently such mechanisms.
Consequently, they created the conditions for convergence between
private interests and social interests of nature conservation, so there
are opportunities for ongoing business development which leads,
among other things, the positive effects on biodiversity. Finally,
points out that markets fail to quantify the value of most ecosystem
services. Existing price signals reflect at best, only a proportion of the
total amount corresponding provision of food, water or fuel.
Abstract: In this paper we describes the authentication for DHCP
(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) message which provides the
efficient key management and reduces the danger replay attack without
an additional packet for a replay attack. And the authentication for
DHCP message supports mutual authentication and provides both
entity authentication and message authentication. We applied the
authentication for DHCP message to the home network environments
and tested through a home gateway.
Abstract: Quantum cryptography offers a way of key agreement,
which is unbreakable by any external adversary. Authentication is
of crucial importance, as perfect secrecy is worthless if the identity
of the addressee cannot be ensured before sending important information.
Message authentication has been studied thoroughly, but no
approach seems to be able to explicitly counter meet-in-the-middle
impersonation attacks. The goal of this paper is the development of
an authentication scheme being resistant against active adversaries
controlling the communication channel. The scheme is built on top
of a key-establishment protocol and is unconditionally secure if built
upon quantum cryptographic key exchange. In general, the security
is the same as for the key-agreement protocol lying underneath.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to investigate a number of characteristics of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) indicators that should be adopted by CSR assessment methodologies. For the purpose of this paper, a survey among the Greek companies that belong to FTSE 20 in Athens Exchange (FTSE/Athex-20) has been conducted, as these companies are expected to pioneer in the field of CSR. The results show consensus as regards the characteristics of indicators such as the need for the adoption of general and specific sector indicators, financial and non-financial indicators, the origin and the weight rate. However, the results are contradictory concerning the appropriate number of indicators for the assessment of CSR and the unit of measurement. Finally, the company-s sector is a more important dimension of CSR than the size and the country where the company operates. The purpose of this paper is to standardize the main characteristics of CSR indicators.
Abstract: Simulations are developed in this paper with usual DSGE model equations. The model is based on simplified version of Smets-Wouters equations in use at European Central Bank which implies 10 macro-economic variables: consumption, investment, wages, inflation, capital stock, interest rates, production, capital accumulation, labour and credit rate, and allows take into consideration the banking system. Throughout the simulations, this model will be used to evaluate the impact of rate shocks recounting the actions of the European Central Bank during 2008.
Abstract: An adaptive fuzzy PID controller with gain scheduling is proposed in this paper. The structure of the proposed gain scheduled fuzzy PID (GS_FPID) controller consists of both fuzzy PI-like controller and fuzzy PD-like controller. Both of fuzzy PI-like and PD-like controllers are weighted through adaptive gain scheduling, which are also determined by fuzzy logic inference. A modified genetic algorithm called accumulated genetic algorithm is designed to learn the parameters of fuzzy inference system. In order to learn the number of fuzzy rules required for the TSK model, the fuzzy rules are learned in an accumulated way. In other words, the parameters learned in the previous rules are accumulated and updated along with the parameters in the current rule. It will be shown that the proposed GS_FPID controllers learned by the accumulated GA perform well for not only the regular linear systems but also the higher order and time-delayed systems.
Abstract: Currently, most of distance learning courses can only
deliver standard material to students. Students receive course content
passively which leads to the neglect of the goal of education – “to suit
the teaching to the ability of students". Providing appropriate course
content according to students- ability is the main goal of this paper.
Except offering a series of conventional learning services, abundant
information available, and instant message delivery, a complete online
learning environment should be able to distinguish between students-
ability and provide learning courses that best suit their ability.
However, if a distance learning site contains well-designed course
content and design but fails to provide adaptive courses, students will
gradually loss their interests and confidence in learning and result in
ineffective learning or discontinued learning. In this paper, an
intelligent tutoring system is proposed and it consists of several
modules working cooperatively in order to build an adaptive learning
environment for distance education. The operation of the system is
based on the result of Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to divide students
into different groups according to their learning ability and learning
interests and then provide them with suitable course content.
Accordingly, the problem of information overload and internet traffic
problem can be solved because the amount of traffic accessing the
same content is reduced.
Abstract: Motion detection is a basic operation in the selection of significant segments of the video signals. For an effective Human Computer Intelligent Interaction, the computer needs to recognize the motion and track the moving object. Here an efficient neural network system is proposed for motion detection from the static background. This method mainly consists of four parts like Frame Separation, Rough Motion Detection, Network Formation and Training, Object Tracking. This paper can be used to verify real time detections in such a way that it can be used in defense applications, bio-medical applications and robotics. This can also be used for obtaining detection information related to the size, location and direction of motion of moving objects for assessment purposes. The time taken for video tracking by this Neural Network is only few seconds.
Abstract: The paper describes ergonomics problems trend of
student at B5101 classroom building 2, Suranaree University of
Technology. The objective to survey ergonomics problems and effect
from use chairs for sitting in class room. The result from survey
method 100 student they use lecture chair for sitting in classroom
more than 2 hours/ day by RULA[1]. and Body discomfort survey[2].
The result from Body discomfort survey contribute fatigue problems
at neck, lower back, upper back and right shoulder 2.93, 2.91, 2.33,
1.75 respectively and result from RULA contribute fatigue problems
at neck, body and right upper arm 4.00, 3.75 and 3.00 respectively
are consistent. After that the researcher provide improvement plan
for design new chair support student fatigue reduction by prepare
data of sample anthropometry and design ergonomics chair prototype
3 unit. Then sample 100 student trial to use new chair and evaluate
again by RULA, Body discomfort and satisfaction. The result from
trial new chair after improvement by RULA present fatigue reduction
average of head and neck from 4.00 to 2.25 , body and trunk from
3.75 to 2.00 and arm force from 1.00 to 0.25 respectively. The result
from trial new chair after improvement by Body discomfort present
fatigue reduction average of lower back from 2.91 to 0.87, neck from
2.93 to 1.24, upper back 2.33 to 0.84 and right upper arm from 1.75
to 0.74. That statistical of RULA and Body discomfort survey
present fatigue reduction after improvement significance with a
confidence level of 95% (p-value 0.05). When analyzing the
relationship of fatigue as part of the body by Chi – square test during
RULA and Body discomfort that before and after improvements were
consistent with the significant level of confidence 95% (p-value 0.05)
. Moreover the students satisfaction result from trial with a new chair
for 30 minutes [3]. 72 percent very satisfied of the folding of the
secondary writing simple 66% the width of the writing plate, 64% the
suitability of the writing plate, 62% of soft seat cushion and 61%
easy to seat the chair.
Abstract: This study focuses on emission of black carbon (BC)
from field open burning of corn residues. Real-time BC
concentration was measured by Micro Aethalometer from field
burning and simulated open burning in a chamber (SOC)
experiments. The average concentration of BC was 1.18±0.47 mg/m3
in the field and 0.89±0.63 mg/m3 in the SOC. The deduced emission
factor from field experiments was 0.50±0.20 gBC/kgdm, and 0.56±0.33
gBC/kgdm from SOC experiment, which are in good agreement with
other studies. In 2007, the total burned area of corn crop was 8,000
ha, resulting in an emission load of BC 20 ton corresponding to 44.5
million kg CO2 equivalent. Therefore, the control of open burning in
corn field represents a significant global warming reduction option.
Abstract: In the present paper, Fatigue life assessment of an
anti-roll bar component of a passenger vehicle, is investigated by
ANSYS 11 software. A stress analysis is also carried out by the
finite element technique for the determination of highly stressed
regions on the bar. Anti-roll bar is a suspension element used at the
front, rear, or at both ends of a car that reduces body roll by resisting
any unequal vertical motion between the pair of wheels to which it is
connected. As a first stage, fatigue damage models proposed by some
well-known references and the corresponding assumptions are
discussed and some enhancements are proposed. Then, fracture
analysis of an anti-roll bar of an automobile is carried out. The
analysed type of the anti-roll bar is especially important as many
cases are reported about the fracture after a 100,000 km of travel
fatigue and fracture conditions. This paper demonstrates fatigue life
of an anti-roll bar and then evaluated by experimental analytically
results from other researcher.