Abstract: This paper proposes a new methodology for the
optimal allocation and sizing of Embedded Generation (EG)
employing Real Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA) to minimize the
total power losses and to improve voltage profiles in the radial
distribution networks. RCGA is a method that uses continuous
floating numbers as representation which is different from
conventional binary numbers. The RCGA is used as solution tool,
which can determine the optimal location and size of EG in radial
system simultaneously. This method is developed in MATLAB. The
effect of EG units- installation and their sizing to the distribution
networks are demonstrated using 24 bus system.
Abstract: Human activities are increasingly based on the use of remote resources and services, and on the interaction between
remotely located parties that may know little about each other. Mobile agents must be prepared to execute on different hosts with
various environmental security conditions. The aim of this paper is to
propose a trust based mechanism to improve the security of mobile
agents and allow their execution in various environments. Thus, an
adaptive trust mechanism is proposed. It is based on the dynamic interaction between the agent and the environment. Information
collected during the interaction enables generation of an environment
key. This key informs on the host-s trust degree and permits the mobile agent to adapt its execution. Trust estimation is based on
concrete parameters values. Thus, in case of distrust, the source of problem can be located and a mobile agent appropriate behavior can
be selected.
Abstract: It has formed an essential issue that Climate Change, composed of highly knowledge complexity, reveals its significant impact on human existence. Therefore, specific national policies, some of which present the educational aspects, have been published for overcoming the imperative problem. Accordingly, the study aims to analyze as well as integrate the relationship between Climate Change and environmental education and apply the perspective of concept map to represent the knowledge contents and structures of Climate Change; by doing so, knowledge contents of Climate Change could be represented in an even more comprehensive way and manipulated as the tool for environmental education. The method adapted for this study is knowledge conversion model compounded of the platform for experts and teachers, who were the participants for this study, to cooperate and combine each participant-s standpoints into a complete knowledge framework that is the foundation for structuring the concept map. The result of this research contains the important concepts, the precise propositions and the entire concept map for representing the robust concepts of Climate Change.
Abstract: A state of the art Speaker Identification (SI) system
requires a robust feature extraction unit followed by a speaker
modeling scheme for generalized representation of these features.
Over the years, Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC)
modeled on the human auditory system has been used as a standard
acoustic feature set for speech related applications. On a recent
contribution by authors, it has been shown that the Inverted Mel-
Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (IMFCC) is useful feature set for
SI, which contains complementary information present in high
frequency region. This paper introduces the Gaussian shaped filter
(GF) while calculating MFCC and IMFCC in place of typical
triangular shaped bins. The objective is to introduce a higher
amount of correlation between subband outputs. The performances
of both MFCC & IMFCC improve with GF over conventional
triangular filter (TF) based implementation, individually as well as
in combination. With GMM as speaker modeling paradigm, the
performances of proposed GF based MFCC and IMFCC in
individual and fused mode have been verified in two standard
databases YOHO, (Microphone Speech) and POLYCOST
(Telephone Speech) each of which has more than 130 speakers.
Abstract: This study presents the improvement of thermal
performance of heat pipe using copper nanofluid with aqueous
solution of n-Butanol. The nanofluids kept in the suspension of
conventional fluids have the potential of superior heat transfer
capability than the conventional fluids due to their improved thermal
conductivity. In this work, the copper nanofluid which has a 40 nm
size with a concentration of 100 mg/lit is kept in the suspension of
the de-ionized (DI) water and an aqueous solution of n-Butanol and
these fluids are used as a working medium in the heat pipe. The study
discusses about the effect of heat pipe inclination, type of working
fluid and heat input on the thermal efficiency and thermal resistance.
The experimental results are evaluated in terms of its performance
metrics and are compared with that of DI water.
Abstract: This study was designed to formulate,
pharmaceutically evaluate a topical skin-care cream (w/o emulsion)
of Aloe Vera versus its vehicle (Base) as control and determine their
effects on Stratum Corneum (SC) water content and Transepidermal
water loss (TEWL). Base containing no extract and a Formulation
containing 3% concentrated extract of Aloe Vera was developed by
entrapping in the inner aqueous phase of w/o emulsion (cream).
Lemon oil was incorporated to improve the odor. Both the Base and
Formulation were stored at 8°C ±0.1°C (in refrigerator), 25°C±0.1°C,
40°C±0.1°C and 40°C± 0.1°C with 75% RH (in incubator) for a
period of 4 weeks to predict their stability. The evaluation parameters
consisted of color, smell, type of emulsion, phase separation,
electrical conductivity, centrifugation, liquefaction and pH. Both the
Base and Formulation were applied to the cheeks of 21 healthy
human volunteers for a period of 8 weeks Stratum corneum (SC)
water content and Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) were
monitored every week to measure any effect produced by these
topical creams. The expected organoleptic stability of creams was
achieved from 4 weeks in-vitro study period. Odor was disappeared
with the passage of time due to volatilization of lemon oil. Both the
Base and Formulation produced significant (p≤0.05) changes in
TEWL with respect to time. SC water content was significantly
(p≤0.05) increased by the Formulation while the Base has
insignificant (p 0.05) effects on SC water content. The newly
formulated cream of Aloe Vera, applied is suitable for improvement
and quantitative monitoring of skin hydration level (SC water
content/ moisturizing effects) and reducing TEWL in people with dry
skin.
Abstract: Six parameters, the effective diffusivity (De),
activation energy of De, pre-exponential factor of De, amount
(ASOW) of self-organized water species, and amplitude (α) of the
forced oscillation of the molecular mobility (1/tC) derived from the
forced cyclic temperature change operation, were characterized by
using six typical foods, squid, sardines, scallops, salmon, beef, and
pork, as a function of the correlation time (tC) of the water molecule-s
proton retained in the foods. Each of the six parameters was clearly
divided into the water species A1 and A2 at a specified value of tC
=10-8s (=CtC), indicating an anomalous change in the physicochemical
nature of the water species at the CtC. The forced oscillation of 1/tC
clearly demonstrated a characteristic mode depending on the food
shown as a three dimensional map associated with 1/tC, the amount of
self-organized water, and tC.
Abstract: Size based filtration is one of the common methods
employed to isolate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from whole
blood. It is well known that this method suffers from isolation
efficiency to purity tradeoff. However, this tradeoff is poorly
understood. In this paper, we present the design and manufacturing
of a special rectangular slit filter. The filter was designed to retain
maximal amounts of nucleated cells, while minimizing the pressure
on cells, thereby preserving their morphology. The key parameter,
namely, input pressure, was optimized to retain the maximal number
of tumor cells, whilst maximizing the depletion of normal blood cells
(red and white blood cells and platelets). Our results indicate that for
a slit geometry of 5 × 40 μm on a 13 mm circular membrane with a
fill factor of 21%, a pressure of 6.9 mBar yields the optimum for
maximizing isolation of MCF-7 and depletion of normal blood cells.
Abstract: The 20th century has brought much development to the practice of Architecture worldwide, and technology has bridged inhabitation limits in many regions of the world with high levels of comfort and conveniences, most times at high costs to the environment. Throughout the globe, the tropical countries are being urbanized at an unprecedented rate and housing has become a major issue worldwide, in light of increased demand and lack of appropriate infra-structure and planning. Buildings and urban spaces designed in tropical cities have mainly adopted external concepts that in most cases do not fit the needs of the inhabitants living in such harsh climatic environment, and when they do, do so at high financial, environmental and cultural costs. Traditional architectural practices can provide valuable understanding on how self-reliance and autonomy of construction can be reinforced in rural-urban tropical environments. From traditional housing knowledge, it is possible to derive lessons for the development of new construction materials that are affordable, environmentally friendly, culturally acceptable and accesible to all.Specifically to the urban context, such solutions are of outmost importance, given the needs to a more democratic society, where access to housing is considered high in the agenda for development. Traditional or rural constructions are also ongoing through extensive changes eventhough they have mostly adopted climate-responsive building practices relying on local resources (with minimum embodied energy) and energy (for comfort and quality of life). It is important to note that many of these buildings can actually be called zero-energy, and hold potential answers to enable transition from high energy, high cost, low comfort urban habitations to zero/low energy habitations with high quality urban livelihood. Increasing access to modern urban lifestyels have also an effect on the aspirations from people in terms of performance, comfort and convenience in terms of their housing and the way it is produced and used. These aspirations are resulting in transitions from localresource dependent habitations- to non-local resource based highenergy urban style habitations. And such transitions are resulting in the habitations becoming increasingly unsuited to the local climatic conditions with increasing discomfort, ill-health, and increased CO2 emissions and local environmental disruption. This research studies one specific transition group in the context of 'water communities' in tropical-equatorial regions: Ribeirinhos housing typology (Amazonas, Brazil). The paper presents the results of a qualitative sustainability assessment of the housing typologies under transition, found at the Ribeirinhos communities.
Abstract: The concept of privacy, seen in connection to the consumer's private space and personalization, has recently gained a higher importance as a consequence of the increasing marketing efforts of the organizations based on the capturing, processing and usage of consumer-s personal data.Paper intends to provide a definition of the consumer-s private space based on the types of personal data the consumer is willing to disclose, to assess the attitude toward personalization and to identify the means preferred by consumers to control their personal data and defend their private space. Several implications generated through the definition of the consumer-s private space are identified and weighted from both the consumers- and organizations- perspectives.
Abstract: There has been a growing interest in utilizing surfactants in remediation processes to separate the hydrophobic volatile organic compounds (HVOCs) from aqueous solution. One attractive process is cloud point extraction (CPE), which utilizes nonionic surfactants as a separating agent. Since the surfactant cost is a key determination of the economic viability of the process, it is important that the surfactants are recycled and reused. This work aims to study the performance of the co-current vacuum stripping using a packed column for HVOCs removal from contaminated surfactant solution. Six types HVOCs are selected as contaminants. The studied surfactant is the branched secondary alcohol ethoxylates (AEs), Tergitol TMN-6 (C14H30O2). The volatility and the solubility of HVOCs in surfactant system are determined in terms of an apparent Henry’s law constant and a solubilization constant, respectively. Moreover, the HVOCs removal efficiency of vacuum stripping column is assessed in terms of percentage of HVOCs removal and the overall liquid phase volumetric mass transfer coefficient. The apparent Henry’s law constant of benzenz , toluene, and ethyl benzene were 7.00×10-5, 5.38×10-5, 3.35× 10-5 respectively. The solubilization constant of benzene, toluene, and ethyl benzene were 1.71, 2.68, 7.54 respectively. The HVOCs removal for all solute were around 90 percent.
Abstract: Molar excess Volumes, VE ijk and speeds of sound , uijk of 2-pyrrolidinone (i) + benzene or toluene (j) + ethanol (k) ternary mixture have been measured as a function of composition at 308.15 K. The observed speeds of sound data have been utilized to determine excess isentropic compressiblities, ( E S κ )ijk of ternary (i + j + k) mixtures. Molar excess volumes, VE ijk and excess isentropic compressibilities, ( E S κ )ijk data have fitted to the Redlich-Kister equation to calculate ternary adjustable parameters and standard deviations. The Moelywn-Huggins concept (Huggins in Polymer 12: 389-399, 1971) of connectivity between the surfaces of the constituents of binary mixtures has been extended to ternary mixtures (using the concept of a connectivity parameter of third degree of molecules, 3ξ , which inturn depends on its topology) to obtain an expression that describes well the measured VE ijk and ( E S κ )ijk data.
Abstract: In this paper, the criteria of Ψ-eventual stability have been established for generalized impulsive differential systems of multiple dependent variables. The sufficient conditions have been obtained using piecewise continuous Lyapunov function. An example is given to support our theoretical result.
Abstract: In this study concept of experimental design is
successfully applied for the determination of optimum condition to
produce PP/SWCNT (Polypropylene/Single wall carbon nanotube)
nanocomposite. Central composite design as one of experimental
design techniques is employed for the optimization and statistical
determination of the significant factors influencing on the tensile
modulus and yield stress as mechanical properties of this
nanocomposite. The significant factors are SWCNT weight fraction
and acid treatment time for functionalizing the nanoparticles.
Optimum conditions are in 0.7 % of SWCNT weight fraction and 210
min as acid treatment time for 1112.75 ± 28 MPa as maximum tensile
modulus and in 216 min and 0.65 % as acid treatment time and
SWCNT weight fraction respectively for 40.26 ± 0.3 MPa as
maximum yield stress. Also after setting new experiments for test
these optimum conditions, found excelent agreement with predicted
values.
Abstract: Virtual environment induces simulator sickness effect
for some users. The purpose of this research is to compare the
simulation sickness relative with parallax affect in one-screen and
three-screen HoloStageTM system, measured by Simulation Sickness
Questionnaire (SSQ). The results show the subjects tested in
three-screen has less sickness than one-screen and effect from the
Oculomotor (O) more than from the Disorientation (D) and more than
from the Nausea (N) or represented in O>D>N.
Abstract: This paper reports on a receding horizon filtering for
mobile robot systems with cross-correlated sensor noises and
uncertainties. Also, the effect of uncertain parameters in the state of
the tracking error model performance is considered. A distributed
fusion receding horizon filter is proposed. The distributed fusion
filtering algorithm represents the optimal linear combination of the
local filters under the minimum mean square error criterion. The
derivation of the error cross-covariances between the local receding
horizon filters is the key of this paper. Simulation results of the
tracking mobile robot-s motion demonstrate high accuracy and
computational efficiency of the distributed fusion receding horizon
filter.
Abstract: To evaluate genetic variation of wheat (Triticum aestivum) affected by heat and drought stress on eight Australian wheat genotypes that are parents of Doubled Haploid (HD) mapping populations at the vegetative stage, the water stress experiment was conducted at 65% field capacity in growth room. Heat stress experiment was conducted in the research field under irrigation over summer. Result show that water stress decreased dry shoot weight and RWC but increased osmolarity and means of Fv/Fm values in all varieties except for Krichauff. Krichauff and Kukri had the maximum RWC under drought stress. Trident variety was shown maximum WUE, osmolarity (610 mM/Kg), dry mater, quantum yield and Fv/Fm 0.815 under water stress condition. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent between 4 to 7 days after stress in all varieties. Nevertheless, increase in water stress after that lead to strong decrease in quantum yield. There was a genetic variation for leaf pigments content among varieties under heat stress. Heat stress decreased significantly the total chlorophyll content that measured by SPAD. Krichauff had maximum value of Anthocyanin content (2.978 A/g FW), chlorophyll a+b (2.001 mg/g FW) and chlorophyll a (1.502 mg/g FW). Maximum value of chlorophyll b (0.515 mg/g FW) and Carotenoids (0.234 mg/g FW) content belonged to Kukri. The quantum yield of all varieties decreased significantly, when the weather temperature increased from 28 ÔùªC to 36 ÔùªC during the 6 days. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent after 8th day in all varieties. The maximum decrease and recovery in quantum yield was observed in Krichauff. Drought and heat tolerant and moderately tolerant wheat genotypes were included Trident, Krichauff, Kukri and RAC875. Molineux, Berkut and Excalibur were clustered into most sensitive and moderately sensitive genotypes. Finally, the results show that there was a significantly genetic variation among the eight varieties that were studied under heat and water stress.
Abstract: Stresses for the elastic-plastic transition and fully
plastic state have been derived for a thin rotating disc with inclusion
and results have been discussed numerically and depicted graphically.
It has been observed that the rotating disc with inclusion and made of
compressible material requires lesser angular speed to yield at the
internal surface whereas it requires higher percentage increase in
angular speed to become fully plastic as compare to disc made of
incompressible material.
Abstract: Many Thai movies have been very popular
domestically and internationally. Some movies were box office hits
and receiving awards. However, there has not yet been research
about how Thai movies can sell in international markets
The objectives of the research were 1) To analyze the
characteristics of Thai movies that can sell to world audiences; 2) To
investigate the factors making Thai movies into foreign markets. Thai
film professionals were interviewed. Their ideas were analyzed to
find out what factors contributing to Thai movies widely seen in
worldwide markets. Nine foreign audiences were also interviewed to
reveal what characteristics of Thai movies would be well accepted by
the markets.
The results showed that major characteristics of Thai movies
proving successful worldwide were cultural and exotic Thai movies,
outstanding genres, well-known actors, music and songs. Factors
contributing to global market were marketing, qualities of Thai
movies, and financial support from the government.
Abstract: The fault detection and diagnosis of complicated
production processes is one of essential tasks needed to run the process
safely with good final product quality. Unexpected events occurred in
the process may have a serious impact on the process. In this work,
triangular representation of process measurement data obtained in an
on-line basis is evaluated using simulation process. The effect of using
linear and nonlinear reduced spaces is also tested. Their diagnosis
performance was demonstrated using multivariate fault data. It has
shown that the nonlinear technique based diagnosis method produced
more reliable results and outperforms linear method. The use of
appropriate reduced space yielded better diagnosis performance. The
presented diagnosis framework is different from existing ones in that it
attempts to extract the fault pattern in the reduced space, not in the
original process variable space. The use of reduced model space helps
to mitigate the sensitivity of the fault pattern to noise.