Abstract: When the crisscross baffles and logarithmic spiral
baffles are placed on the bottom of the stirred tank with elliptic
bottom, using CFD software FLUENT simulates the velocity field of
the stirred tank with elliptic bottom and bottom baffles. Compare the
velocity field of stirred tank with bottom crisscross baffle to the
velocity field of stirred tank without bottom baffle and analysis the
flow pattern on the same axis-section and different cross-sections. The
sizes of the axial and radial velocity are compared respectively when
the stirred tank with bottom crisscross baffles, bottom logarithmic
spiral baffles and without bottom baffle. At the same time, the
numerical calculations of mixing power are compared when the stirred
tank with bottom crisscross baffles and bottom logarithmic spiral
baffles. Research shows that bottom crisscross baffles and logarithmic
spiral baffles have a great impact on flow pattern within the reactor
and improve the mixing effect better than without baffle. It also has
shown that bottom logarithmic spiral baffles has lower power
consumption than bottom crisscross baffles.
Abstract: Carbon fibers have specific characteristics in
comparison with industrial and structural materials used in different
applications. Special properties of carbon fibers make them attractive
for reinforcing and fabrication of composites. These fibers have been
utilized for composites of metals, ceramics and plastics. However,
it-s mainly used in different forms to reinforce lightweight polymer
materials such as epoxy resin, polyesters or polyamides. The
composites of carbon fiber are stronger than steel, stiffer than
titanium, and lighter than aluminum and nowadays they are used in a
variety of applications. This study explains applications of carbon
fibers in different fields such as space, aviation, transportation,
medical, construction, energy, sporting goods, electronics, and the
other commercial/industrial applications. The last findings of
composites with polymer, metal and ceramic matrices containing
carbon fibers and their applications in the world investigated.
Researches show that carbon fibers-reinforced composites due to
unique properties (including high specific strength and specific
modulus, low thermal expansion coefficient, high fatigue strength,
and high thermal stability) can be replaced with common industrial
and structural materials.
Abstract: The aim of this studywas toinvestigate the effect
ofrunning classification (sprint, middle, and long distance)and two
distances on blood lactate (BLa), heart rate (HR), and rating of
perceived exertion (RPE) Borg scale ratings in collegiate athletes. On
different days, runners (n = 15) ran 400m and 1600m at a five min
mile pace, followed by a two min 6mph jog, and a two min 3mph
walk as part of the cool down. BLa, HR, and RPE were taken at
baseline, post-run, plus 2 and 4 min recovery times. The middle and
long distance runners exhibited lower BLa concentrations than sprint
runners after two min of recovery post 400 m runs, immediately after,
and two and four min recovery periods post 1600 m runs. When
compared to sprint runners, distance runners may have exhibited the
ability to clear BLa more quickly, particularly after running 1600 m.
Abstract: Classification is an interesting problem in functional
data analysis (FDA), because many science and application problems
end up with classification problems, such as recognition, prediction,
control, decision making, management, etc. As the high dimension
and high correlation in functional data (FD), it is a key problem to
extract features from FD whereas keeping its global characters, which
relates to the classification efficiency and precision to heavens. In this
paper, a novel automatic method which combined Genetic Algorithm
(GA) and classification algorithm to extract classification features is
proposed. In this method, the optimal features and classification model
are approached via evolutional study step by step. It is proved by
theory analysis and experiment test that this method has advantages in
improving classification efficiency, precision and robustness whereas
using less features and the dimension of extracted classification
features can be controlled.
Abstract: Frequency domain independent component analysis has
a scaling indeterminacy and a permutation problem. The scaling
indeterminacy can be solved by use of a decomposed spectrum. For
the permutation problem, we have proposed the rules in terms of gain
ratio and phase difference derived from the decomposed spectra and
the source-s coarse directions.
The present paper experimentally clarifies that the gain ratio and
the phase difference work effectively in a real environment but their
performance depends on frequency bands, a microphone-space and
a source-microphone distance. From these facts it is seen that it is
difficult to attain a perfect solution for the permutation problem in a
real environment only by either the gain ratio or the phase difference.
For the perfect solution, this paper gives a solution to the problems
in a real environment. The proposed method is simple, the amount of
calculation is small. And the method has high correction performance
without depending on the frequency bands and distances from source
signals to microphones. Furthermore, it can be applied under the real
environment. From several experiments in a real room, it clarifies
that the proposed method has been verified.
Abstract: In this article, biomechanical aspects of hen-s eggshell as a natural ceramic structure are studied. The images, taken by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), are used to investigate the microscopic aspects of the egg. It is observed that eggshell has a three-layered microstructure with different morphological and structural characteristics. Studies on the eggshell membrane (ESM) as a prosperous tissue suggest that it is placed to prevent the penetration of microorganisms into the egg. Finally, numerical models of the egg are presented to study the stress distribution and its deformation under different loading conditions. The effects of two different types of loading (hydrostatic and point loadings) on two different shell models (with constant and variable thicknesses) are investigated in detail.
Abstract: The heart tissue is an excitable media. A Cellular
Automata is a type of model that can be used to model cardiac action
potential propagation. One of the advantages of this approach against
the methods based on differential equations is its high speed in large
scale simulations. Recent cellular automata models are not able to
avoid flat edges in the result patterns or have large neighborhoods. In
this paper, we present a new model to eliminate flat edges by
minimum number of neighbors.
Abstract: Different pseudo-random or pseudo-noise (PN) as well as orthogonal sequences that can be used as spreading codes for code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular networks or can be used for encrypting speech signals to reduce the residual intelligence are investigated. We briefly review the theoretical background for direct sequence CDMA systems and describe the main characteristics of the maximal length, Gold, Barker, and Kasami sequences. We also discuss about variable- and fixed-length orthogonal codes like Walsh- Hadamard codes. The equivalence of PN and orthogonal codes are also derived. Finally, a new PN sequence is proposed which is shown to have certain better properties than the existing codes.
Abstract: In this paper, the dam-reservoir interaction is
analyzed using a finite element approach. The fluid is assumed to be
incompressible, irrotational and inviscid. The assumed boundary
conditions are that the interface of the dam and reservoir is vertical
and the bottom of reservoir is rigid and horizontal. The governing
equation for these boundary conditions is implemented in the
developed finite element code considering the horizontal and vertical
earthquake components. The weighted residual standard Galerkin
finite element technique with 8-node elements is used to discretize
the equation that produces a symmetric matrix equation for the damreservoir
system. A new boundary condition is proposed for
truncating surface of unbounded fluid domain to show the energy
dissipation in the reservoir, through radiation in the infinite upstream
direction. The Sommerfeld-s and perfect damping boundary
conditions are also implemented for a truncated boundary to compare
with the proposed far end boundary. The results are compared with
an analytical solution to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed
formulation and other truncated boundary conditions in modeling the
hydrodynamic response of an infinite reservoir.
Abstract: Background, measuring an individual-s Health
Literacy is gaining attention, yet no appropriate instrument is available
in Taiwan. Measurement tools that were developed and used in
western countries may not be appropriate for use in Taiwan due to a
different language system. Purpose of this research was to develop a
Health Literacy measurement instrument specific for Taiwan adults.
Methods, several experts of clinic physicians; healthcare
administrators and scholars identified 125 common used health related
Chinese phrases from major medical knowledge sources that easy
accessible to the public. A five-point Likert scale is used to measure
the understanding level of the target population. Such measurement is
then used to compare with the correctness of their answers to a health
knowledge test for validation. Samples, samples under study were
purposefully taken from four groups of people in the northern
Pingtung, OPD patients, university students, community residents,
and casual visitors to the central park. A set of health knowledge index
with 10 questions is used to screen those false responses. A sample
size of 686 valid cases out of 776 was then included to construct this
scale. An independent t-test was used to examine each individual
phrase. The phrases with the highest significance are then identified
and retained to compose this scale. Result, a Taiwan Health Literacy
Scale (THLS) was finalized with 66 health-related phrases under nine
divisions. Cronbach-s alpha of each division is at a satisfactory level
of 89% and above. Conclusions, factors significantly differentiate the
levels of health literacy are education, female gender, age, family
members of stroke victims, experience with patient care, and
healthcare professionals in the initial application in this study..
Abstract: The paper aims to specify and build a system, a learning support in radiology-senology (breast radiology) dedicated to help assist junior radiologists-senologists in their radiologysenology- related activity based on experience of expert radiologistssenologists. This system is named SAFRS (i.e. system supporting the training of radiologists-senologists). It is based on the exploitation of radiologic-senologic images (primarily mammograms but also echographic images or MRI) and their related clinical files. The aim of such a system is to help breast cancer screening in education. In order to acquire this expert radiologist-senologist knowledge, we have used the CBR (case-based reasoning) approach. The SAFRS system will promote the evolution of teaching in radiology-senology by offering the “junior radiologist" trainees an advanced pedagogical product. It will permit a strengthening of knowledge together with a very elaborate presentation of results. At last, the know-how will derive from all these factors.
Abstract: We investigated a modified thermal evaporation
method in the growth process of ZnO nanowires. ZnO nanowires
were fabricated on p-type silicon substrates without using a metal
catalyst. A simple horizontal double-tube system along with
chemical vapor diffusion of the precursor was used to grow the ZnO
nanowires. The substrates were placed in different temperature
zones, and ZnO nanowires with different diameters were obtained for
the different substrate temperatures. In addition to the nanowires,
ZnO microdiscs with different diameters were obtained on another
substrate, which was placed at a lower temperature than the other
substrates. The optical properties and crystalline quality of the ZnO
nanowires and microdiscs were characterized by room temperature
photoluminescence (PL) and Raman spectrometers. The PL and
Raman studies demonstrated that the ZnO nanowires and microdiscs
grown using such set-up had good crystallinity with excellent optical
properties. Rectifying behavior of ZnO/Si heterostructures was
characterized by a simple DC circuit.
Abstract: The worldwide prevalence of H3N2 influenza virus
and its increasing resistance to the existing drugs necessitates for the
development of an improved/better targeting anti-influenza drug.
H3N2 influenza neuraminidase is one of the two membrane-bound
proteins belonging to group-2 neuraminidases. It acts as key player
involved in viral pathogenicity and hence, is an important target of
anti-influenza drugs. Oseltamivir is one of the potent drugs targeting
this neuraminidase. In the present work, we have taken subtype N2
neuraminidase as the receptor and probable analogs of oseltamivir as
drug molecules to study the protein-drug interaction in anticipation of
finding efficient modified candidate compound. Oseltamivir analogs
were made by modifying the functional groups using Marvin Sketch
software and were docked using Schrodinger-s Glide. Oseltamivir
analog 10 was detected to have significant energy value (16% less
compared to Oseltamivir) and could be the probable lead molecule. It
infers that some of the modified compounds can interact in a novel
manner with increased hydrogen bonding at the active site of
neuraminidase and it might be better than the original drug. Further
work can be carried out such as enzymatic inhibition studies;
synthesis and crystallizing the drug-target complex to analyze the
interactions biologically.
Abstract: Scarcity of resources for biodiversity conservation gives rise to the need of strategic investment with priorities given to the cost of conservation. While the literature provides abundant methodological options for biodiversity conservation; estimating true cost of conservation remains abstract and simplistic, without recognising dynamic nature of the cost. Some recent works demonstrate the prominence of economic theory to inform biodiversity decisions, particularly on the costs and benefits of biodiversity however, the integration of the concept of true cost into biodiversity actions and planning are very slow to come by, and specially on a farm level. Conservation planning studies often use area as a proxy for costs neglecting different land values as well as protected areas. These literature consider only heterogeneous benefits while land costs are considered homogenous. Analysis with the assumption of cost homogeneity results in biased estimation; since not only it doesn’t address the true total cost of biodiversity actions and plans, but also it fails to screen out lands that are more (or less) expensive and/or difficult (or more suitable) for biodiversity conservation purposes, hindering validity and comparability of the results. Economies of scope” is one of the other most neglected aspects in conservation literature. The concept of economies of scope introduces the existence of cost complementarities within a multiple output production system and it suggests a lower cost during the concurrent production of multiple outputs by a given farm. If there are, indeed, economies of scope then simplistic representation of costs will tend to overestimate the true cost of conservation leading to suboptimal outcomes. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to provide first road review of the various theoretical ways in which economies of scope are likely to occur of how they might occur in conservation. Consequently, the paper addresses gaps that have to be filled in future analysis.
Abstract: In this study, structural, mechanical, thermal and
electrical properties of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanocomposites with
low-loaded (0-1.5 wt%) untreated, heat and nitric acid treated multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were studied. Among the
composites, untreated 0.5 wt % MWCNTs and acid-treated 1.0 wt%
MWCNTs reinforced PLA show the tensile strength and modulus
values higher than the others. These two samples along with pure
PLA exhibit the stable orthorhombic α-form, whilst other samples
reveal the less stable orthorhombic β-form, as demonstrated by X-ray
diffraction study. Differential scanning calorimetry reveals the
evolution of the mentioned different phases by controlled cooling and
discloses an enhancement of PLA crystallization by nanotubes
incorporation. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that the MWCNTs
loaded sample degraded faster than PLA. Surface resistivity of the
nanocomposites is found to be dropped drastically by a factor of 1013
with a low loading of MWCNTs (1.5 wt%).
Abstract: In this paper we focus on event extraction from Tamil
news article. This system utilizes a scoring scheme for extracting and
grouping event-specific sentences. Using this scoring scheme eventspecific
clustering is performed for multiple documents. Events are
extracted from each document using a scoring scheme based on
feature score and condition score. Similarly event specific sentences
are clustered from multiple documents using this scoring scheme.
The proposed system builds the Event Template based on user
specified query. The templates are filled with event specific details
like person, location and timeline extracted from the formed clusters.
The proposed system applies these methodologies for Tamil news
articles that have been enconverted into UNL graphs using a Tamil to
UNL-enconverter. The main intention of this work is to generate an
event based template.
Abstract: This study attempts to clarify major perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Greek market related to companies that have sufficient CSR. An empirical analysis was undertaken, based on literature review and previous observations and surveys, in order to provide a general analysis of the CSR concept in Greece. The results of Accountability Rating institution were used in order to identify companies that adopt an integrated social responsibility approach. Companies that responded to the survey are both regional and international and belong to different industrial fields. Some of the main survey results reveal: multiple aspects for the CSR concept, weak consensus as regards the importance of stakeholders and benefits from the CSR implementation, the important role of CSR in the decision procedure and CSR practices concerning social issues that affect mostly company-s competitiveness. Sharing companies- experience could address common social issues through CSR best practices and develop new knowledge.
Abstract: The Malaysia Highway Authority (MHA) was
established by the Government in 1980 for the purpose of designing,
constructing and maintaining toll highways in Malaysia that include
the North-South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, which were
procured using the publicly-funded traditional procurement. However
following a recession in the mid 80-s, the operations of these tolledhighways
had been privatized to ensure that their operational services
continue through private financing as a result of long-term
concession agreement concurred between the Malaysian Government
and private operators. The change in the contract strategy for
highway projects in Malaysia would have a great tendency to dictate
a significant risk exposure towards the key parties involved,
particularly the Malaysian Government as project principal, unless
operational risks are clearly identified and managed via appropriate
mitigation measures prior to a contract signing.
This research identifies potential operational risks that have a
possibility to occur in highway projects in Malaysia from the
perspective of public sector clients. Since this research focuses on the
operational risks for highway projects in Malaysia, the initial results
acquired from literature review on the operational risks of highway
projects in some Asian countries are then justified by a number of
key individuals from the MHA through interviews. As a result,
among key operational risks that have possibility to occur in the
highway projects in Malaysia include initial toll-tariff decided by the
Government, traffic congestion, change of road network and overloaded
freight transportation, which could cause damage to the road
surface and hence affecting the operation of a particular highway.
Abstract: This paper shows the advantages of the material failure process simulation by improve finite elements with embedded discontinuities, using a new definition of traction vector, dependent on the discontinuity length and the angle. Particularly, two families of this kind of elements are compared: kinematically optimal symmetric and statically and kinematically optimal non-symmetric. The constitutive model to describe the behavior of the material in the symmetric formulation is a traction-displacement jump relationship equipped with softening after reaching the failure surface.
To show the validity of this symmetric formulation, representative numerical examples illustrating the performance of the proposed formulation are presented. It is shown that the non-symmetric family may over or underestimate the energy required to create a discontinuity, as this effect is related with the total length of the discontinuity, fact that is not noticed when the discontinuity path is a straight line.
Abstract: In this paper, we proposed the robust mobile object
detection method for light effect in the night street image block based
updating reference background model using block state analysis.
Experiment image is acquired sequence color video from steady
camera. When suddenly appeared artificial illumination, reference
background model update this information such as street light, sign
light. Generally natural illumination is change by temporal, but
artificial illumination is suddenly appearance. So in this paper for
exactly detect artificial illumination have 2 state process. First process
is compare difference between current image and reference
background by block based, it can know changed blocks. Second
process is difference between current image-s edge map and reference
background image-s edge map, it possible to estimate illumination at
any block. This information is possible to exactly detect object,
artificial illumination and it was generating reference background
more clearly. Block is classified by block-state analysis. Block-state
has a 4 state (i.e. transient, stationary, background, artificial
illumination). Fig. 1 is show characteristic of block-state respectively
[1]. Experimental results show that the presented approach works well
in the presence of illumination variance.