Abstract: The purpose of this work was to study the effect of the
irrigation using waste water with various electric conductivities (T(0,92ds/m), EC3 (3ds/m) and EC6 (6ds/m) on three varieties of
quinoa cultivated in a field south of Morocco. The follow up of the evolution of the chemical and agronomic parameters throughout the
culture made it possible to determine the responses to the saline stress in arid conditions. Results showed that the salinity caused the
depression of plant-s height, and reduced the fresh and dry weight in
the different parts of the three varieties plants. The increase of the irrigation water EC didn-t affect the yield for the varieties. Thus,
quinoa resisted to salinity and proved a behavior of a facultative halophyte crop. In fact, the cultivation of this using treated wastewater is feasible especially in arid areas for a sustainable use of
water resources.
Abstract: This paper starts with a critical view of beautiful female images in the mass media being frequently generated by a stereotypical Korean concept of beauty. Several female beauty myths have evolved in Korea during the present decade. Nearly all of them have formed due to a deeply-ingrained androcentric ideology which objectifies women. Mass media causes the public to hold a distorted concept about female beauty. There is a huge gap between women in reality and representative women in the mass media. It is essential to have an unbiased perception of female images presented in the mass media. Due to cosmetic advertisements projecting contemporary images of female beauty to promote products, cosmetics images will be examined in regard to female beauty myths portrayed by the mass media. This paper will analyze features of female beauty myths in Korea and their intrinsic characteristics.
Abstract: Protein residue contact map is a compact
representation of secondary structure of protein. Due to the
information hold in the contact map, attentions from researchers in
related field were drawn and plenty of works have been done
throughout the past decade. Artificial intelligence approaches have
been widely adapted in related works such as neural networks,
genetic programming, and Hidden Markov model as well as support
vector machine. However, the performance of the prediction was not
generalized which probably depends on the data used to train and
generate the prediction model. This situation shown the importance
of the features or information used in affecting the prediction
performance. In this research, support vector machine was used to
predict protein residue contact map on different combination of
features in order to show and analyze the effectiveness of the
features.
Abstract: This paper features the proposed modeling and design
of a Robust Decentralized Periodic Output Feedback (RDPOF)
control technique for the active vibration control of smart flexible
multimodel Euler-Bernoulli cantilever beams for a multivariable
(MIMO) case by retaining the first 6 vibratory modes. The beam
structure is modeled in state space form using the concept of
piezoelectric theory, the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the Finite
Element Method (FEM) technique by dividing the beam into 4 finite
elements and placing the piezoelectric sensor / actuator at two finite
element locations (positions 2 and 4) as collocated pairs, i.e., as
surface mounted sensor / actuator, thus giving rise to a multivariable
model of the smart structure plant with two inputs and two outputs.
Five such multivariable models are obtained by varying the
dimensions (aspect ratios) of the aluminum beam, thus giving rise to
a multimodel of the smart structure system. Using model order
reduction technique, the reduced order model of the higher order
system is obtained based on dominant eigen value retention and the
method of Davison. RDPOF controllers are designed for the above 5
multivariable-multimodel plant. The closed loop responses with the
RDPOF feedback gain and the magnitudes of the control input are
observed and the performance of the proposed multimodel smart
structure system with the controller is evaluated for vibration control.
Abstract: Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is one of machine
learning algorithms for problem solving and learning that caught a lot
of attention over the last few years. In general, CBR is composed of
four main phases: retrieve the most similar case or cases, reuse the
case to solve the problem, revise or adapt the proposed solution, and
retain the learned cases before returning them to the case base for
learning purpose. Unfortunately, in many cases, this retain process
causes the uncontrolled case base growth. The problem affects
competence and performance of CBR systems. This paper proposes
competence-based maintenance method based on deletion policy
strategy for CBR. There are three main steps in this method. Step 1,
formulate problems. Step 2, determine coverage and reachability set
based on coverage value. Step 3, reduce case base size. The results
obtained show that this proposed method performs better than the
existing methods currently discussed in literature.
Abstract: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe
cardiovascular disorder characterized by progressive systolic
dysfunction due to cardiac chamber dilatation and inefficient
myocardial contractility often leading to chronic heart failure.
Recently, a genome-wide association studies (GWASs) on DCM
indicate that the ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 single nucleotide
polymorphism is associated with DCM. The aim of the study was to
identify the distribution of ZBTB17 gene rs10927875 polymorphism
in 50 Slovak patients with DCM and 80 healthy control subjects
using the Custom Taqman®SNP Genotyping assays. Risk factors
detected at baseline in each group included age, sex, body mass
index, smoking status, diabetes and blood pressure. The mean age of
patients with DCM was 52.9±6.3 years; the mean age of individuals
in control group was 50.3±8.9 years. The distribution of investigated
genotypes of rs10927875 polymorphism within ZBTB17 gene in the
cohort of Slovak patients with DCM was as follows: CC (38.8%), CT
(55.1%), TT (6.1%), in controls: CC (43.8%), CT (51.2%), TT
(5.0%). The risk allele T was more common among the patients with
dilated cardiomyopathy than in normal controls (33.7% versus
30.6%). The differences in genotype or allele frequencies of ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism were not statistically significant
(p=0.6908; p=0.6098). The results of this study suggest that ZBTB17
gene rs10927875 polymorphism may be a risk factor for
susceptibility to DCM in Slovak patients with DCM. Studies of
numerous files and additional functional investigations are needed to
fully understand the roles of genetic associations.
Abstract: In this paper a new concept of partial complement of a graph G is introduced and using the same a new graph parameter, called completion number of a graph G, denoted by c(G) is defined. Some basic properties of graph parameter, completion number, are studied and upperbounds for completion number of classes of graphs are obtained , the paper includes the characterization also.
Abstract: This paper analyzes different techniques of the fine grained security of relational databases for the two variables-data accessibility and inference. Data accessibility measures the amount of data available to the users after applying a security technique on a table. Inference is the proportion of information leakage after suppressing a cell containing secret data. A row containing a secret cell which is suppressed can become a security threat if an intruder generates useful information from the related visible information of the same row. This paper measures data accessibility and inference associated with row, cell, and column level security techniques. Cell level security offers greatest data accessibility as it suppresses secret data only. But on the other hand, there is a high probability of inference in cell level security. Row and column level security techniques have least data accessibility and inference. This paper introduces cell plus innocent security technique that utilizes the cell level security method but suppresses some innocent data to dodge an intruder that a suppressed cell may not necessarily contain secret data. Four variations of the technique namely cell plus innocent 1/4, cell plus innocent 2/4, cell plus innocent 3/4, and cell plus innocent 4/4 respectively have been introduced to suppress innocent data equal to 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 percent of the true secret data inside the database. Results show that the new technique offers better control over data accessibility and inference as compared to the state-of-theart security techniques. This paper further discusses the combination of techniques together to be used. The paper shows that cell plus innocent 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4 techniques can be used as a replacement for the cell level security.
Abstract: In a handwriting recognition problem, characters can
be represented using chain codes. The main problem in representing
characters using chain code is optimizing the length of the chain
code. This paper proposes to use randomized algorithm to minimize
the length of Freeman Chain Codes (FCC) generated from isolated
handwritten characters. Feedforward neural network is used in the
classification stage to recognize the image characters. Our test results
show that by applying the proposed model, we reached a relatively
high accuracy for the problem of isolated handwritten when tested on
NIST database.
Abstract: Due to some reasons, observed images are degraded which are mainly caused by noise. Recently image denoising using the wavelet transform has been attracting much attention. Waveletbased approach provides a particularly useful method for image denoising when the preservation of edges in the scene is of importance because the local adaptivity is based explicitly on the values of the wavelet detail coefficients. In this paper, we propose several methods of noise removal from degraded images with Gaussian noise by using adaptive wavelet threshold (Bayes Shrink, Modified Bayes Shrink and Normal Shrink). The proposed thresholds are simple and adaptive to each subband because the parameters required for estimating the threshold depend on subband data. Experimental results show that the proposed thresholds remove noise significantly and preserve the edges in the scene.
Abstract: Many water supply systems in Australia are currently
undergoing significant reconfiguration due to reductions in long term
average rainfall and resulting low inflows to water supply reservoirs
since the second half of the 20th century. When water supply systems
undergo change, it is necessary to develop new operating rules,
which should consider climate, because the climate change is likely
to further reduce inflows. In addition, water resource systems are
increasingly intended to be operated to meet complex and multiple
objectives representing social, economic, environmental and
sustainability criteria. This is further complicated by conflicting
preferences on these objectives from diverse stakeholders. This paper
describes a methodology to develop optimum operating rules for
complex multi-reservoir systems undergoing significant change,
considering all of the above issues. The methodology is demonstrated
using the Grampians water supply system in northwest Victoria,
Australia. Initial work conducted on the project is also presented in
this paper.
Abstract: Quantitative methods of economic decision-making as
the methodological base of the so called operational research
represent an important set of tools for managing complex economic
systems,both at the microeconomic level and on the macroeconomic
scale. Mathematical models of controlled and controlling processes
allow, by means of artificial experiments, obtaining information
foroptimalor optimum approaching managerial decision-making.The
quantitative methods of economic decision-making usually include a
methodology known as structural analysis -an analysisof
interdisciplinary production-consumption relations.
Abstract: Rainfall records of rainfall station including the
rainfall potential per hour and rainfall mass of five heavy storms are
explored, respectively from 2001 to 2010. The rationalization formula
is to investigate the capability of flood peak duration of flood
detention pond in different rainfall conditions. The stable flood
detention model is also proposed by using system dynamic control
theory to get the message of flood detention pond in this research.
When rainfall frequency of one hour rainfall duration is more than
100-year frequency which exceeds the flood detention standard of
20-year frequency for the flood detention pond, the flood peak
duration of flood detention pond is 1.7 hours at most even though the
flood detention pond with maximum drainage potential about 15.0
m3/s of pumping system is constructed. If the rainfall peak current is
more than maximum drainage potential, the flood peak duration of
flood detention pond is about 1.9 hours at most. The flood detention
pond is the key factor of stable drainage control and flood prevention.
The critical factors of flood disaster is not only rainfall mass, but also
rainfall frequency of heavy storm in different rainfall duration and
flood detention frequency of flood detention system.
Abstract: This paper provides a flexible way of controlling
Variable-Bit-Rate (VBR) of compressed digital video, applicable to
the new H264 video compression standard. The entire video
sequence is assessed in advance and the quantisation level is then set
such that bit rate (and thus the frame rate) remains within
predetermined limits compatible with the bandwidth of the
transmission system and the capabilities of the remote end, while at
the same time providing constant quality similar to VBR encoding.
A process for avoiding buffer starvation by selectively eliminating
frames from the encoded output at times when the frame rate is slow
(large number of bits per frame) will be also described. Finally, the
problem of buffer overflow will be solved by selectively eliminating
frames from the received input to the decoder. The decoder detects
the omission of the frames and resynchronizes the transmission by
monitoring time stamps and repeating frames if necessary.
Abstract: The aim of this work was to detect genetic variability among the set of 40 castor genotypes using 8 RAPD markers. Amplification of genomic DNA of 40 genotypes, using RAPD analysis, yielded in 66 fragments, with an average of 8.25 polymorphic fragments per primer. Number of amplified fragments ranged from 3 to 13, with the size of amplicons ranging from 100 to 1200 bp. Values of the polymorphic information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.556 to 0.895 with an average of 0.784 and diversity index (DI) value ranged from 0.621 to 0.896 with an average of 0.798. The dendrogram based on hierarchical cluster analysis using UPGMA algorithm was prepared and analyzed genotypes were grouped into two main clusters and only two genotypes could not be distinguished. Knowledge on the genetic diversity of castor can be used for future breeding programs for increased oil production for industrial uses.
Abstract: Heart sound is an acoustic signal and many techniques
used nowadays for human recognition tasks borrow speech recognition
techniques. One popular choice for feature extraction of accoustic
signals is the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) which
maps the signal onto a non-linear Mel-Scale that mimics the human
hearing. However the Mel-Scale is almost linear in the frequency
region of heart sounds and thus should produce similar results with
the standard cepstral coefficients (CC). In this paper, MFCC is
investigated to see if it produces superior results for PCG based
human identification system compared to CC. Results show that the
MFCC system is still superior to CC despite linear filter-banks in
the lower frequency range, giving up to 95% correct recognition rate
for MFCC and 90% for CC. Further experiments show that the high
recognition rate is due to the implementation of filter-banks and not
from Mel-Scaling.
Abstract: At present time, competition, unpredictable fluctuations have made communication engineering education in the global sphere really difficult. Confront with new situation in the engineering education sector. Communication engineering education has to be reformed and ready to use more advanced technologies. We realized that one of the general problems of student`s education is that after graduating from their universities, they are not prepared to face the real life challenges and full skilled to work in industry. They are prepared only to think like engineers and professionals but they also need to possess some others non-technical skills. In today-s environment, technical competence alone is not sufficient for career success. Employers want employees (graduate engineers) who have good oral and written communication (soft) skills. It does require for team work, business awareness, organization, management skills, responsibility, initiative, problem solving and IT competency. This proposed curriculum brings interactive, creative, interesting, effective learning methods, which includes online education, virtual labs, practical work, problem-based learning (PBL), and lectures given by industry experts. Giving short assignments, presentations, reports, research papers and projects students can significantly improve their non-technical skills. Also, we noticed the importance of using ICT technologies in engineering education which used by students and teachers, and included that into proposed teaching and learning methods. We added collaborative learning between students through team work which builds theirs skills besides course materials. The prospective on this research that we intent to update communication engineering curriculum in order to get fully constructed engineer students to ready for real industry work.
Abstract: Renewable energy resources are inexhaustible, clean as compared with conventional resources. Also, it is used to supply regions with no grid, no telephone lines, and often with difficult accessibility by common transport. Satellite earth stations which located in remote areas are the most important application of renewable energy. Neural control is a branch of the general field of intelligent control, which is based on the concept of artificial intelligence. This paper presents the mathematical modeling of satellite earth station power system which is required for simulating the system.Aswan is selected to be the site under consideration because it is a rich region with solar energy. The complete power system is simulated using MATLAB–SIMULINK.An artificial neural network (ANN) based model has been developed for the optimum operation of earth station power system. An ANN is trained using a back propagation with Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. The best validation performance is obtained for minimum mean square error. The regression between the network output and the corresponding target is equal to 96% which means a high accuracy. Neural network controller architecture gives satisfactory results with small number of neurons, hence better in terms of memory and time are required for NNC implementation. The results indicate that the proposed control unit using ANN can be successfully used for controlling the satellite earth station power system.
Abstract: This paper reports a new and accurate method for load-flow solution of radial distribution networks with minimum data preparation. The node and branch numbering need not to be sequential like other available methods. The proposed method does not need sending-node, receiving-node and branch numbers if these are sequential. The proposed method uses the simple equation to compute the voltage magnitude and has the capability to handle composite load modelling. The proposed method uses the set of nodes of feeder, lateral(s) and sub lateral(s). The effectiveness of the proposed method is compared with other methods using two examples. The detailed load-flow results for different kind of load-modellings are also presented.
Abstract: Alternative energy is any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel. These alternatives are intended to address concerns about such fossil fuels. Today, because of the variety of energy choices and differing goals of their advocates, defining some energy types as "alternative" is highly controversial. Most of the recent and existing alternative sources of energy are discussed below