Abstract: This paper presents a novel method for inferring the
odor based on neural activities observed from rats- main olfactory
bulbs. Multi-channel extra-cellular single unit recordings were done
by micro-wire electrodes (tungsten, 50μm, 32 channels) implanted in
the mitral/tufted cell layers of the main olfactory bulb of anesthetized
rats to obtain neural responses to various odors. Neural response
as a key feature was measured by substraction of neural firing rate
before stimulus from after. For odor inference, we have developed a
decoding method based on the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation.
The results have shown that the average decoding accuracy is about
100.0%, 96.0%, 84.0%, and 100.0% with four rats, respectively. This
work has profound implications for a novel brain-machine interface
system for odor inference.
Abstract: The paper presents a space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) inverter feeding a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The SVPWM inverter enables to feed the motor with a higher voltage with low harmonic distortions than the conventional sinusoidal PWM inverter. The control strategy of the inverter is the voltage / frequency control method, which is based on the space-vector modulation technique. The proposed PMSM drive system involving the field-oriented control scheme not only decouples the torque and flux which provides faster response but also makes the control task easy. The performance of the proposed drive is simulated. The advantages of the proposed drive are confirmed by the simulation results.
Abstract: In this work, a special case of the image superresolution
problem where the only type of motion is global
translational motion and the blurs are shift-invariant is investigated.
The necessary conditions for exact reconstruction of the original
image by using finite impulse-response reconstruction filters are
developed. Given that the conditions are satisfied, a method for exact
super-resolution is presented and some simulation results are shown.
Abstract: Artificial Intelligence based gaming is an interesting topic in the state-of-art technology. This paper presents an automation of a tradition Omani game, called Al-Hawalees. Its related issues are resolved and implemented using artificial intelligence approach. An AI approach called mini-max procedure is incorporated to make a diverse budges of the on-line gaming. If number of moves increase, time complexity will be increased in terms of propositionally. In order to tackle the time and space complexities, we have employed a back propagation neural network (BPNN) to train in off-line to make a decision for resources required to fulfill the automation of the game. We have utilized Leverberg- Marquardt training in order to get the rapid response during the gaming. A set of optimal moves is determined by the on-line back propagation training fashioned with alpha-beta pruning. The results and analyses reveal that the proposed scheme will be easily incorporated in the on-line scenario with one player against the system.
Abstract: Discretization of spatial derivatives is an important
issue in meshfree methods especially when the derivative terms
contain non-linear coefficients. In this paper, various methods used
for discretization of second-order spatial derivatives are investigated
in the context of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. Three popular
forms (i.e. "double summation", "second-order kernel derivation",
and "difference scheme") are studied using one-dimensional unsteady
heat conduction equation. To assess these schemes, transient response
to a step function initial condition is considered. Due to parabolic
nature of the heat equation, one can expect smooth and monotone
solutions. It is shown, however in this paper, that regardless of
the type of kernel function used and the size of smoothing radius,
the double summation discretization form leads to non-physical
oscillations which persist in the solution. Also, results show that when
a second-order kernel derivative is used, a high-order kernel function
shall be employed in such a way that the distance of inflection
point from origin in the kernel function be less than the nearest
particle distance. Otherwise, solutions may exhibit oscillations near
discontinuities unlike the "difference scheme" which unconditionally
produces monotone results.
Abstract: An attempt has been made to investigate the
machinability of zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) inserts while
turning AISI 4340 steel. The insert was prepared by powder
metallurgy process route and the machining experiments were
performed based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) design
called Central Composite Design (CCD). The mathematical model of
flank wear, cutting force and surface roughness have been developed
using second order regression analysis. The adequacy of model has
been carried out based on Analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques.
It can be concluded that cutting speed and feed rate are the two most
influential factor for flank wear and cutting force prediction. For
surface roughness determination, the cutting speed & depth of cut
both have significant contribution. Key parameters effect on each
response has also been presented in graphical contours for choosing
the operating parameter preciously. 83% desirability level has been
achieved using this optimized condition.
Abstract: In this paper a comprehensive model of a fossil fueled
power plant (FFPP) is developed in order to evaluate the
performance of a newly designed turbine follower controller.
Considering the drawbacks of previous works, an overall model is
developed to minimize the error between each subsystem model
output and the experimental data obtained at the actual power plant.
The developed model is organized in two main subsystems namely;
Boiler and Turbine. Considering each FFPP subsystem
characteristics, different modeling approaches are developed. For
economizer, evaporator, superheater and reheater, first order models
are determined based on principles of mass and energy conservation.
Simulations verify the accuracy of the developed models. Due to the
nonlinear characteristics of attemperator, a new model, based on a
genetic-fuzzy systems utilizing Pittsburgh approach is developed
showing a promising performance vis-à-vis those derived with other
methods like ANFIS. The optimization constraints are handled
utilizing penalty functions. The effect of increasing the number of
rules and membership functions on the performance of the proposed
model is also studied and evaluated. The turbine model is developed
based on the equation of adiabatic expansion. Parameters of all
evaluated models are tuned by means of evolutionary algorithms.
Based on the developed model a fuzzy PI controller is developed. It
is then successfully implemented in the turbine follower control
strategy of the plant. In this control strategy instead of keeping
control parameters constant, they are adjusted on-line with regard to
the error and the error rate. It is shown that the response of the
system improves significantly. It is also shown that fuel consumption
decreases considerably.
Abstract: Photo-BJMOSFET (Bipolar Junction Metal-Oxide-
Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) fabricated on SOI film was proposed. ITO film is adopted in the device as gate electrode to reduce
light absorption. Depletion region but not inversion region is formed
in film by applying gate voltage (but low reverse voltage) to achieve
high photo-to-dark-current ratio. Comparisons of photoelectriccharacteristics
executed among VGK=0V, 0.3V, 0.6V, 0.9V and 1.0V
(reverse voltage VAK is equal to 1.0V for total area of 10×10μm2). The
results indicate that the greatest improvement in photo-to-dark-current
ratio is achieved up to 2.38 at VGK=0.6V. In addition,
photo-BJMOSFET is compatible with CMOS integration due to big
input resistance
Abstract: The OTOP Entrepreneurship that used to create
substantial source of income for local Thai communities are now in a
stage of exigent matters that required assistances from public sectors
due to over Entrepreneurship of duplicative ideas, unable to adjust
costs and prices, lack of innovation, and inadequate of quality
control. Moreover, there is a repetitive problem of middlemen who
constantly corner the OTOP market. Local OTOP producers become
easy preys since they do not know how to add more values, how to
create and maintain their own brand name, and how to create proper
packaging and labeling. The suggested solutions to local OTOP
producers are to adopt modern management techniques, to find
knowhow to add more values to products and to unravel other
marketing problems. The objectives of this research are to study the
prevalent OTOP products management and to discover direction to
manage OTOP products to enhance the effectiveness of OTOP
Entrepreneurship in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand. There were 113
participants in this study. The research tools can be divided into two
parts: First part is done by questionnaire to find responses of the
prevalent OTOP Entrepreneurship management. Second part is the
use of focus group which is conducted to encapsulate ideas and local
wisdom. Data analysis is performed by using frequency, percentage,
mean, and standard deviation as well as the synthesis of several small
group discussions. The findings reveal that 1) Business Resources:
the quality of product is most important and the marketing of product
is least important. 2) Business Management: Leadership is most
important and raw material planning is least important. 3) Business
Readiness: Communication is most important and packaging is least
important. 4) Support from public sector: Certified from the
government is most important and source of raw material is the least
important.
Abstract: The aim of the current work is to present a comparison among three popular optimization methods in the inverse elastostatics problem (IESP) of flaw detection within a solid. In more details, the performance of a simulated annealing, a Hooke & Jeeves and a sequential quadratic programming algorithm was studied in the test case of one circular flaw in a plate solved by both the boundary element (BEM) and the finite element method (FEM). The proposed optimization methods use a cost function that utilizes the displacements of the static response. The methods were ranked according to the required number of iterations to converge and to their ability to locate the global optimum. Hence, a clear impression regarding the performance of the aforementioned algorithms in flaw identification problems was obtained. Furthermore, the coupling of BEM or FEM with these optimization methods was investigated in order to track differences in their performance.
Abstract: The hard clam (meretrix lusoria) cultivated industry
has been developed vigorously for recent years in Taiwan, and
seawater quality determines the cultivated environment. The pH
concentration variation affects survival rate of meretrix lusoria
immediately. In order to monitor seawater quality, solid-state sensing
electrode of ruthenium-doped titanium dioxide (TiO2:Ru) is developed
to measure hydrogen ion concentration in different cultivated
solutions. Because the TiO2:Ru sensing electrode has high chemical
stability and superior sensing characteristics, thus it is applied as a pH
sensor. Response voltages of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are readout by
instrument amplifier in different sample solutions. Mean sensitivity
and linearity of TiO2:Ru sensing electrode are 55.20 mV/pH and 0.999
from pH1 to pH13, respectively. We expect that the TiO2:Ru sensing
electrode can be applied to real environment measurement, therefore
we collect two sample solutions by different meretrix lusoria
cultivated ponds in the Yunlin, Taiwan. The two sample solutions are
both measured for 200 seconds after calibration of standard pH buffer
solutions (pH7, pH8 and pH 9). Mean response voltages of sample 1
and sample 2 are -178.758 mV (Standard deviation=0.427 mV) and
-180.206 mV (Standard deviation =0.399 mV), respectively. Response
voltages of the two sample solutions are between pH 8 and pH 9 which
conform to weak alkali range and suitable meretrix lusoria growth. For
long-term monitoring, drift of cultivated solutions (sample 1 and
sample 2) are 1.16 mV/hour and 1.03 mV/hour, respectively.
Abstract: The experimental design was 4 x 5 factorial with three
replications in fully controlled research greenhouse in Department of
Soil Sciences and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, University
of Selcuk in the year of 2009. Determination of tolerant chickpea
genotypes to drought was made in the research. Additionally,
sophisticated effects of drought on plant growth and development,
biochemical and physical properties or physical defense mechanisms
were presented. According to the results, the primary genotypes were
Ilgın YP (0.0063 g/gh) for leaf water capacity, 22235 70.44(%) for
relative water content, 22159 (82.47%) for real water content,
22159 (5.03 mg/l) for chlorophyll a+b, Ilgın YP (125.89 nmol
H2O2.dak-1/ mg protein-1) for peroxidase, Yunak YP (769.67
unit/ mg protein-1) for superoxide dismutase, Seydişehir YP
(16.74 μg.TA-1) for proline, Gökçe (80.01 nmol H2O2.dak-1/ mg
protein-1) for catalase. Consequently, all the genotypes
increased their enzyme activity depending on the increasing of
drought stress consider with the effects of drought stress on leaf
enzyme activity. Chickpea genotypes are increasing enzyme
activity against to drought stress.
Abstract: A low-complexity, high-accurate frequency offset
estimation for multi-band orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) based ultra-wide band systems is presented regarding different carrier frequency offsets, different channel frequency
responses, different preamble patterns in different bands. Utilizing a
half-cycle Constant Amplitude Zero Auto Correlation (CAZAC) sequence as the preamble sequence, the estimator with a semi-cross
contrast scheme between two successive OFDM symbols is proposed. The CRLB and complexity of the proposed algorithm are derived.
Compared to the reference estimators, the proposed method achieves
significantly less complexity (about 50%) for all preamble patterns of the MB-OFDM systems. The CRLBs turn out to be of well performance.
Abstract: Statistical analysis of electrophysiological recordings
obtained under, e.g. tactile, stimulation frequently suggests participation
in the network dynamics of experimentally unobserved “hidden"
neurons. Such interneurons making synapses to experimentally
recorded neurons may strongly alter their dynamical responses to
the stimuli. We propose a mathematical method that formalizes this
possibility and provides an algorithm for inferring on the presence
and dynamics of hidden neurons based on fitting of the experimental
data to spike trains generated by the network model. The model
makes use of Integrate and Fire neurons “chemically" coupled
through exponentially decaying synaptic currents. We test the method
on simulated data and also provide an example of its application to
the experimental recording from the Dorsal Column Nuclei neurons
of the rat under tactile stimulation of a hind limb.
Abstract: The authors present an algorithm for order reduction of linear time invariant dynamic systems using the combined advantages of the eigen spectrum analysis and the error minimization by particle swarm optimization technique. Pole centroid and system stiffness of both original and reduced order systems remain same in this method to determine the poles, whereas zeros are synthesized by minimizing the integral square error in between the transient responses of original and reduced order models using particle swarm optimization technique, pertaining to a unit step input. It is shown that the algorithm has several advantages, e.g. the reduced order models retain the steady-state value and stability of the original system. The algorithm is illustrated with the help of two numerical examples and the results are compared with the other existing techniques.
Abstract: In recent years, response surface methodology (RSM) has
brought many attentions of many quality engineers in different
industries. Most of the published literature on robust design
methodology is basically concerned with optimization of a single
response or quality characteristic which is often most critical to
consumers. For most products, however, quality is multidimensional,
so it is common to observe multiple responses in an experimental
situation. Through this paper interested person will be familiarize
with this methodology via surveying of the most cited technical
papers.
It is believed that the proposed procedure in this study can resolve
a complex parameter design problem with more than two responses.
It can be applied to those areas where there are large data sets and a
number of responses are to be optimized simultaneously. In addition,
the proposed procedure is relatively simple and can be implemented
easily by using ready-made standard statistical packages.
Abstract: Atherosclerosis is the condition in which an artery
wall thickens as the result of a build-up of fatty materials such as
cholesterol. It is a syndrome affecting arterial blood vessels, a
chronic inflammatory response in the walls of arteries, in large part
due to the accumulation of macrophage white blood cells and
promoted by low density (especially small particle) lipoproteins
(plasma proteins that carry cholesterol and triglycerides) without
adequate removal of fats and cholesterol from the macrophages by
functional high density lipoproteins (HDL). It is commonly referred
to as a hardening or furring of the arteries. It is caused by the
formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.
Abstract: In This paper, the behavior of eccentric braced frame
(EBF) is studied with replacing friction damper (FD) in confluence of these braces, in 5 and 10-storey steel frames. For FD system, the main step is to determine the slip load. For this reason, the performance indexes include roof displacement, base shear, dissipated energy and relative performance should be investigated. In
nonlinear dynamic analysis, the response of structure to three
earthquake records has been obtained and the values of roof
displacement, base shear and column axial force for FD and EBF
frames have been compared. The results demonstrate that use of the FD in frames, in comparison with the EBF, substantially reduces the roof displacement, column axial force and base shear. The obtained results show suitable performance of FD in higher storey structure in
comparison with the EBF.
Abstract: Combined therapy using Interferon and Ribavirin is the standard treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C. However, the number of responders to this treatment is low, whereas its cost and side effects are high. Therefore, there is a clear need to predict patient’s response to the treatment based on clinical information to protect the patients from the bad drawbacks, Intolerable side effects and waste of money. Different machine learning techniques have been developed to fulfill this purpose. From these techniques are Associative Classification (AC) and Decision Tree (DT). The aim of this research is to compare the performance of these two techniques in the prediction of virological response to the standard treatment of HCV from clinical information. 200 patients treated with Interferon and Ribavirin; were analyzed using AC and DT. 150 cases had been used to train the classifiers and 50 cases had been used to test the classifiers. The experiment results showed that the two techniques had given acceptable results however the best accuracy for the AC reached 92% whereas for DT reached 80%.
Abstract: In a 10-week (May – August, 2008) Phase I trial, 840, 1+ rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, received a commercial oral immunomodulator, Fin Immune™, at four different dosages (0, 10, 20 and 30 mg g-1) to evaluate immune response and growth. The overall objective of was to determine an optimal dosage of this product for rainbow trout that provides enhanced immunity with maximal growth and health. Biweekly blood samples were taken from 10 randomly selected fish in each tank (30 samples per treatment) to evaluate the duration of enhanced immunity conferred by Fin-Immune™. The immunological assessment included serum white blood cell (lymphocyte, neutrophil) densities and blood hematocrit (packed cell volume %). Of these three variables, only lymphocyte density increased significantly among trout fed Fin- Immune™ at 20 and 30 mg g-1 which peaked at week 6. At week 7, all trout were switched to regular feed (lacking Fin-Immune™) and by week 10, lymphocyte levels decreased among all levels but were still greater than at week 0. There was growth impairment at the highest dose of Fin-Immune™ tested (30 mg g-1) which can be associated with a physiological compensatory mechanism due to a dose-specific threshold level. Thus, our main objective of this Phase I study was achieved, the 20 mg g-1 dose of Fin-Immune™ should be the most efficacious (of those we tested) to use for a Phase II disease challenge trial.