Abstract: This study developed a high efficient and combined
biological and chemical filter treatment process. This process used
PAC (Powder Activated Carbon), Alum and attached growth
treatment process. The system removals of total nitrogen and total
phosphorus ratio of two were as high as 70% and 73%, moreover, the
effluent water was suitable to urban and agricultural water. Also the
advantages of this process are not only occupies small place but is
simple, economic and easy operating. Besides, our developed process
can keep stable process efficiency even in relative low load level.
Therefore, this study judges that use of the high efficient and
combined biological and chemical filter treatment process, it is
expected that the effluent water in this system can be reused as urban
and agricultural water.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to compare the original
intra-oral digital dental radiograph images with images that are
enhanced using a combination of image processing algorithms. Intraoral
digital dental radiograph images are often noisy, blur edges and
low in contrast. A combination of sharpening and enhancement
method are used to overcome these problems. Three types of
proposed compound algorithms used are Sharp Adaptive Histogram
Equalization (SAHE), Sharp Median Adaptive Histogram
Equalization (SMAHE) and Sharp Contrast adaptive histogram
equalization (SCLAHE). This paper presents an initial study of the
perception of six dentists on the details of abnormal pathologies and
improvement of image quality in ten intra-oral radiographs. The
research focus on the detection of only three types of pathology
which is periapical radiolucency, widen periodontal ligament space
and loss of lamina dura. The overall result shows that SCLAHE-s
slightly improve the appearance of dental abnormalities- over the
original image and also outperform the other two proposed
compound algorithms.
Abstract: This paper proposes a three-dimensional motion capture and feedback system of flying disc throwing action learners with use of Kinect device. Rather than conventional 3-D motion capture system, Kinect has advantages of cost merit, easy system development and operation. A novice learner of flying disc is trained to keep arm movement in steady height, to twist the waist, and to stretch the elbow according to the waist angle. The proposing system captures learners- body movement, checks their skeleton positions in pre-motion / motion / post-motion in several ways, and displays feedback messages to refine their actions.
Abstract: At present, increased concerns about global
environmental problems have magnified the importance of
sustainability management. To move towards sustainability,
companies need to look at everything from a holistic perspective in
order to understand the interconnections between economic growth
and environmental and social sustainability. This paper aims to gain
an understanding of key determinants that drive sustainability
management and barriers that hinder its development. It employs
semi-structured interviews with key informants, site observation and
documentation. The informants are production, marketing and
environmental managers of the leading wine producer, which aims to
become an Asia-s leader in wine & wine based products. It is found
that corporate image and top management leadership are the primary
factors influencing the adoption of sustainability management. Lack
of environmental knowledge and inefficient communication are
identified as barriers.
Abstract: This paper presents the experimental results on effect of applied voltage stress frequency to the occurrence of electrical treeing in 22 kV cross linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cable.Hallow disk of XLPE insulating material with thickness 5 mm taken from unused high voltage cable was used as the specimen in this study. Stainless steel needle was inserted gradually into the specimen to give a tip to earth plane electrode separation of 2.50.2 mm at elevated temperature 105-110°C. The specimen was then annealed for 5 minute to minimize any mechanical stress build up around the needle-plane region before it was cooled down to room temperature. Each specimen were subjected to the same applied voltage stress level at 8 kV AC rms, with various frequency, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz. Initiation time, propagation speed and pattern of electrical treeing were examined in order to study the effect of applied voltage stress frequency. By the experimental results, initial time of visible treeing decreases with increasing in applied voltage frequency. Also, obviously, propagation speed of electrical treeing increases with increasing in applied voltage frequency.Furthermore, two types of electrical treeing, bush-like and branch-like treeing were observed.The experimental results confirmed the effect of voltage stress frequency as well.
Abstract: Image watermarking has proven to be quite an
efficient tool for the purpose of copyright protection and
authentication over the last few years. In this paper, a novel image
watermarking technique in the wavelet domain is suggested and
tested. To achieve more security and robustness, the proposed
techniques relies on using two nested watermarks that are embedded
into the image to be watermarked. A primary watermark in form of a
PN sequence is first embedded into an image (the secondary
watermark) before being embedded into the host image. The
technique is implemented using Daubechies mother wavelets where
an arbitrary embedding factor α is introduced to improve the
invisibility and robustness. The proposed technique has been applied
on several gray scale images where a PSNR of about 60 dB was
achieved.
Abstract: In this paper, one-dimensional analysis of flow in a
single-stage gas gun is conducted. The compressible inviscid flow
equations are numerically solved by the second-order Roe TVD
method, by using moving boundaries. For investigation of real gas
effect the Noble-Able equation is applied. The numerical results are
compared with the experimental data to validate the numerical
scheme. The results show that with using the Noble-Able equation,
the muzzle velocity decreases.
Abstract: Oral health is particular important to the hospitalized
patients with chronic schizophrenia for an extreme high potential of the respiratory infections. Due to the degeneration of physical capability, patients of this kind typically fall dependent in the activity of daily living (ADL). A very high percentage of patients had dental
problems of which mostly could be easily avoid by easy regular tooth brushing. Purpose of the project is to develop a mechanism in helping the schizophrenia patients in rebuilding a tooth-cleaning habit. The
project observed and evaluated the tooth-cleaning behavior of 100
male patients in a psychiatric hospital, and found the majority of them
ignored such an activity in a three-month period of time. In the meantime, the primary care-givers were not aware or not convinced
the importance of such a need of dental hygiene, and thus few if any
tooth cleaning training or knowledge on dental hygiene were given to
the patients. The project then developed a program based on the numerous observations and discussions. The improvement program
included patients- group education, care-givers- training, and a
tool-kit for tooth-brush holding was erected. The project launched
with some incentive package. The outcomes were encouraging with
87% of the patients had rebuilt their tooth-brushing habits against
previous 22%, and the tooth cleaning kits were 100% kept against 22%
in the past. This project had significantly improved the oral health of
the patients. The project, included the procedure and the tool-kit
holder specific for this purpose, was a good examples for psychiatric
hospitals.
Abstract: Zeolite A and MCM-41 have extensive applications in basic science, petrochemical science, energy conservation/storage, medicine, chemical sensor, air purification, environmentally benign composite structure and waste remediation. However, the use of zeolite A and MCM-41 in these areas, especially environmental remediation, are restricted due to prohibitive production cost. Efficient recycling of and resource recovery from coal fly ash has been a major topic of current international research interest, aimed at achieving sustainable development of human society from the viewpoints of energy, economy, and environmental strategy. This project reported an original, novel, green and fast methods to produce nano-porous zeolite A and MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. For zeolite A, this novel production method allows a reduction by half of the total production time while maintaining a high degree of crystallinity of zeolite A which exists in a narrower particle size distribution. For MCM-41, this remarkably green approach, being an environmentally friendly process and reducing generation of toxic waste, can produce pure and long-range ordered MCM-41 materials from coal fly ash. This approach took 24 h at 25 oC to produce 9 g of MCM-41 materials from 30 g of the coal fly ash, which is the shortest time and lowest reaction temperature required to produce pure and ordered MCM-41 materials (having the largest internal surface area) compared to the values reported in the literature. Performance evaluation of the produced zeolite A and MCM-41 materials in wastewater treatment and air pollution control were reported. The residual fly ash was also converted to zeolite Na-P1 which showed good performance in removal of multi-metal ions in wastewater. In wastewater treatment, compared to commercial-grade zeolite A, adsorbents produced from coal fly ash were effective in removing multi heavy metal ions in water and could be an alternative material for treatment of wastewater. In methane emission abatement, the zeolite A (produced from coal fly ash) achieved similar methane removal efficiency compared to the zeolite A prepared from pure chemicals. This report provides the guidance for production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash by a cost-effective approach which opens potential applications of these materials in environmental industry. Finally, environmental and economic aspects of production of zeolite A and MCM-41 from coal fly ash were discussed.
Abstract: This paper presents features that characterize power
quality disturbances from recorded voltage waveforms using wavelet
transform. The discrete wavelet transform has been used to detect
and analyze power quality disturbances. The disturbances of interest
include sag, swell, outage and transient. A power system network has
been simulated by Electromagnetic Transients Program. Voltage
waveforms at strategic points have been obtained for analysis, which
includes different power quality disturbances. Then wavelet has been
chosen to perform feature extraction. The outputs of the feature
extraction are the wavelet coefficients representing the power quality
disturbance signal. Wavelet coefficients at different levels reveal the
time localizing information about the variation of the signal.
Abstract: In this paper, a heuristic method for simultaneous
rescue robot path-planning and mission scheduling is introduced
based on project management techniques, multi criteria decision
making and artificial potential fields path-planning. Groups of
injured people are trapped in a disastrous situation. These people are
categorized into several groups based on the severity of their
situation. A rescue robot, whose ultimate objective is reaching
injured groups and providing preliminary aid for them through a path
with minimum risk, has to perform certain tasks on its way towards
targets before the arrival of rescue team. A decision value is assigned
to each target based on the whole degree of satisfaction of the criteria
and duties of the robot toward the target and the importance of
rescuing each target based on their category and the number of
injured people. The resulted decision value defines the strength of the
attractive potential field of each target. Dangerous environmental
parameters are defined as obstacles whose risk determines the
strength of the repulsive potential field of each obstacle. Moreover,
negative and positive energies are assigned to the targets and
obstacles, which are variable with respects to the factors involved.
The simulation results show that the generated path for two cases
studies with certain differences in environmental conditions and
other risk factors differ considerably.
Abstract: Educational institutions increasingly adopt the
students-as-customers concept to satisfy their students.
Understanding students- perspectives on the use of this business
concept in educational institutions is necessary for the institutions to
effectively align these perspectives with their management practice.
The study investigates whether students in technology and business
disciplines have significantly different attitudes toward using the
students-as-customers concept in educational institutions and
explores the impact of treating students as customers in technology
disciplines under students- perspectives. The results from
quantitative and qualitative data analyses show that technology
students, in contrast to business students, fairly disagree with
educational institutions to treat students as customers. Treating
students as customers in technology disciplines will have a negative
influence on teaching performance, instructor-student relationships
and educational institutions- aim, but a positive influence on service
quality in educational institutions. The paper discusses the findings
and concludes with implications and limitations of the study.
Abstract: The main objectives of this study are to inspect and
identify any damage of jaimusi highway prestressed concrete bridge
after repair and strengthening of damaged structural members and to
evaluate the performance of the bridge structural members by
adopting static load test. Inspection program after repair and
strengthening includes identifying and evaluating the structural
members of bridge such as T-shape cantilever structure, hanging
beams, corbels, external tendons, anchor beams, sticking steel plate,
and piers. The results of inspection show that the overall state of the
bridge structural member after repair and strengthening is good. The
results of rebound test of concrete strength show that the average
strength of concrete is 46.31Mpa. Whereas, the average value of
concrete strength of anchor beam is 49.82Mpa. According to the
results of static load test, the experimental values are less than
theoretical values of internal forces, deflection, and strain, indicating
that the stiffness of the experimental structure, overall deformation
and integrity satisfy the designed standard and the working
performance is good, and the undertaking capacity has a certain
surplus. There is not visible change in the length and width of cracks
and there are not new cracks under experimental load.
Abstract: This paper presents the experiment results of investigating the effects of adding various types and proportions of fibre on mechanical strength and permeability characteristics of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), which was produced with treated coarse recycled concrete aggregate (RCA). Two types of synthetic fibres (i.e., barchip and polypropylene fibre) with various volume fractions were added to the RAC, which was calculated by the weight of the cement. The hardened RAC properties such as compressive strength, flexural strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity, water absorption and total porosity at the curing ages of 7 and 28 days were evaluated and compared with the properties of the control specimens. Results indicate that the treated coarse RCA enhances the mechanical strength and permeability properties of RAC and adding barchip fibre further optimises the results. Adding 1.2% barchip fibre has the best effect on the mechanical strength performance of the RAC.
Abstract: Environment today is featured with aging population,
increasing prevalence of chronic disease and complex of medical
treatment. Safe use of pharmaceutics relied very much on the efforts
made by both the health- related organizations and as well as the
government agencies. As far as the specialization concern in providing
health services to the patients, the government actively issued and
implemented the divisions of medical treatment and pharmaceutical to
improve the quality of care and to reduce medication errors and ensure
public health. Pharmaceutical sub-sector policy has been implemented
for 13 years. This study attempts to explore the factors that affect the
patients- behavior intention of refilling a prescription from a NHIB
pharmacy. Samples were those patients refilling their prescriptions
with the case NHIB pharmacies. A self-administered questionnaire
was used to collect respondents- information while the patients or
family members visit the pharmacy for the refilling. 1,200
questionnaires were dispatched in 37 pharmacies that randomly
selected from Pingtung City, Dongkang, Chaozhou, Hengchun areas.
732 responses were gained with 604 valid samples for further analyses.
Results of data analyses indicated that respondents- attitude,
subjective norm, perceived behavior control and behavior intentions
toward refilling behavior varied from some demographic variables to
another. This research also suggested adding actual behavior, either by
a self-report or observed, into the research.
Abstract: Privacy issues commonly discussed among
researchers, practitioners, and end-users in pervasive healthcare.
Pervasive healthcare systems are applications that can support
patient-s need anytime and anywhere. However, pervasive healthcare
raises privacy concerns since it can lead to situations where patients
may not be aware that their private information is being shared and
becomes vulnerable to threat. We have systematically analyzed the
privacy issues and present a summary in tabular form to show the
relationship among the issues. The six issues identified are medical
information misuse, prescription leakage, medical information
eavesdropping, social implications for the patient, patient difficulties
in managing privacy settings, and lack of support in designing
privacy-sensitive applications. We narrow down the issues and chose
to focus on the issue of 'lack of support in designing privacysensitive
applications' by proposing a privacy-sensitive architecture
specifically designed for pervasive healthcare monitoring systems.
Abstract: The role of knowledge is a determinative factor in the
life of economy and society. To determine knowledge is not an easy
task yet the real task is to determine the right knowledge. From this
view knowledge is a sum of experience, ideas and cognitions which
can help companies to remain in markets and to realize a maximum
profit. At the same time changes of circumstances project in advance
that contents and demands of the right knowledge are changing. In
this paper we will analyse a special segment on the basis of an
empirical survey. We investigated the behaviour and strategies of
small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the area of
knowledge-handling. This survey was realized by questionnaires and
wide range statistical methods were used during processing. As a
result we will show how these companies are prepared to operate in a
knowledge-based economy and in which areas they have prominent
deficiencies.
Abstract: Yam starch obtained from the water yam (munlued)
by the wet milling process was studied for some physicochemical
properties. Yam starch film was prepared by casting using glycerol as
a plasticizer. The effect of different glycerol (1.30, 1.65 and
2.00g/100g of filmogenic solution) and starch concentrations (3.30,
3.65 and 4.00g /100g of filmogenic solution) were evaluated on some
characteristics of the film. The temperature for obtaining the
gelatinized starch solution was 70-80°C and then dried at 45°C for 4
hours. The resulting starch from munlued granular morphology was
triangular and the average size of the granule was 26.68 μm. The
amylose content by colorimetric method was 26 % and the gelatinize
temperature was 70-80°C. The appearance of the film was smooth,
transparent, and glossy with average moisture content of 25.96% and
thickness of 0.01mm. Puncture deformation and flexibility increased
with glycerol content. The starch and glycerol concentration were a
significant factor of the yam starch film characteristics. Yam starch
film can be described as a biofilm providing many applications and
developments with the advantage of biodegradability.
Abstract: This paper is the tomographic images reconstruction
simulation for defects detection in specimen. The specimen is the
thin cylindrical steel contained with low density materials. The
defects in material are simulated in three shapes.The specimen image
function will be transformed to projection data. Radon transform and
its inverse provide the mathematical for reconstructing tomographic
images from projection data. The result of the simulation show that
the reconstruction images is complete for defect detection.
Abstract: Lutein is a dietary oxycarotenoid which is found
to reduce the risks of Age-related Macular Degeneration
(AMD). Supercritical fluid extraction of lutein esters from
marigold petals was carried out and was found to be much
effective than conventional solvent extraction. The
saponification of pre-concentrated lutein esters to produce free
lutein was studied which showed a composition of about 88%
total carotenoids (UV-VIS spectrophotometry) and 90.7%
lutein (HPLC). The lipase catalyzed hydrolysis of lutein esters
in conventional medium was investigated. The optimal
temperature, pH, enzyme concentration and water activity
were found to be 50°C, 7, 15% and 0.33 respectively and the
activity loss of lipase was about 25% after 8 times re-use in at
50°C for 12 days. However, the lipase catalyzed hydrolysis of
lutein esters in conventional media resulted in poor
conversions (16.4%).