Abstract: In order to increase in chickpea quality and
agroecosystem sustainability, field experiments were carried out in
2007 and 2008 growing seasons. In this research the effects of
different organic, chemical and biological fertilizers were
investigated on grain yield and quality of chickpea. Experimental
units were arranged in split-split plots based on randomized complete
blocks with three replications. The highest amounts of yield and yield
components were obtained in G1×N5 interaction. Significant
increasing of N, P, K, Fe and Mg content in leaves and grains
emphasized on superiority of mentioned treatment because each one
of these nutrients has an approved role in chlorophyll synthesis and
photosynthesis ability of the crop. The combined application of
compost, farmyard manure and chemical phosphorus (N5) had the
best grain quality due to high protein, starch and total sugar contents,
low crude fiber and reduced cooking time.
Abstract: The feature of HIV genome is in a wide range because
of it is highly heterogeneous. Hence, the infection ability of the virus changes related with different chemokine receptors. From this point,
R5 and X4 HIV viruses use CCR5 and CXCR5 coreceptors respectively while R5X4 viruses can utilize both coreceptors. Recently, in Bioinformatics, R5X4 viruses have been studied to
classify by using the coreceptors of HIV genome.
The aim of this study is to develop the optimal Multilayer
Perceptron (MLP) for high classification accuracy of HIV sub-type viruses. To accomplish this purpose, the unit number in hidden layer
was incremented one by one, from one to a particular number. The statistical data of R5X4, R5 and X4 viruses was preprocessed by the
signal processing methods. Accessible residues of these virus sequences were extracted and modeled by Auto-Regressive Model
(AR) due to the dimension of residues is large and different from each other. Finally the pre-processed dataset was used to evolve MLP with various number of hidden units to determine R5X4
viruses. Furthermore, ROC analysis was used to figure out the optimal MLP structure.
Abstract: The objectives were to identify cyanide-degrading
bacteria and study cyanide removal efficiency. Agrobacterium
tumefaciens SUTS 1 was isolated. This is a new strain of
microorganisms for cyanide degradation. The maximum growth rate
of SUTS 1 obtained 4.7 × 108 CFU/ml within 4 days. The cyanide
removal efficiency was studied at 25, 50, and 150 mg/L cyanide. The
residual cyanide, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, pH, and cell counts were
analyzed. At 25 and 50 mg/L cyanide, SUTS 1 obtained similar
removal efficiency approximately 87.50%. At 150 mg/L cyanide,
SUTS 1 enhanced the cyanide removal efficiency up to 97.90%. Cell
counts of SUTS 1 increased when the cyanide concentration was set
at lower. The ammonia increased when the removal efficiency
increased. The nitrate increased when the ammonia decreased but the
nitrite did not detect in all experiments. pH values also increased
when the cyanide concentrations were set at higher.
Abstract: The main goal of the article is to present new model of
application architecture of banking IT solution providing the Internet
Banking services that is particularly outsourced. At first, we propose
business rationale and a SWOT analysis to explain the reasons for the
model in the article. The most important factor for our model is
nowadays- big boom around smart phones and tablet devices. As
next, we focus on IT architecture viewpoint where we design
application, integration and security model. Finally, we propose a
generic governance model that serves as a basis for the specialized
governance model. The specialized instance of governance model is
designed to ensure that the development and the maintenance of
different parts of the IT solution are well governed in time.
Abstract: Laser beam forming is a novel technique developed for the joining of metallic components. In this study, an overview of the laser beam forming process, areas of application, the basic mechanisms of the laser beam forming process, some recent research
studies and the need to focus more research effort on improving the
laser-material interaction of laser beam forming of titanium and its
alloys are presented.
Abstract: In this article, we introduce a mechanism by which the same concept of differentiated services used in network transmission can be applied to provide quality of service levels to pervasive systems applications. The classical DiffServ model, including marking and classification, assured forwarding, and expedited forwarding, are all utilized to create quality of service guarantees for various pervasive applications requiring different levels of quality of service. Through a collection of various sensors, personal devices, and data sources, the transmission of contextsensitive data can automatically occur within a pervasive system with a given quality of service level. Triggers, initiators, sources, and receivers are four entities labeled in our mechanism. An explanation of the role of each is provided, and how quality of service is guaranteed.
Abstract: Chemical and physical functionalization of multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has been commonly practiced to
achieve better dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in polymer
matrix. This work describes various functionalization methods (acidtreatment,
non-ionic surfactant treatment with TritonX-100),
fabrication of MWCNT/PP nanocomposites via melt blending and
characterization of mechanical properties. Microscopy analysis
(FESEM, TEM, XPS) showed effective purification of MWCNTs
under acid treatment, and better dispersion under both chemical and
physical functionalization techniques combined, in their respective
order. Tensile tests showed increase in tensile strength for the
nanocomposites that contain MWCNTs up to 2 wt%. A decrease in
tensile strength was seen in samples that contain 4 wt% of MWCNTs
for both raw and Triton X-100 functionalized, signifying MWCNT
degradation/rebundling at composition with higher content of
MWCNTs. For the acid-treated MWCNTs, however, the tensile
results showed slight improvement even at 4wt%, indicating effective
dispersion of MWCNTs.
Abstract: In this paper we address the issue of classifying the fluorescent intensity of a sample in Indirect Immuno-Fluorescence (IIF). Since IIF is a subjective, semi-quantitative test in its very nature, we discuss a strategy to reliably label the image data set by using the diagnoses performed by different physicians. Then, we discuss image pre-processing, feature extraction and selection. Finally, we propose two ANN-based classifiers that can separate intrinsically dubious samples and whose error tolerance can be flexibly set. Measured performance shows error rates less than 1%, which candidates the method to be used in daily medical practice either to perform pre-selection of cases to be examined, or to act as a second reader.
Abstract: Three dimensional simulations are carried out to estimate the effect of wind direction, wind speed and geometry on the flow and dispersion of vehicular pollutant in a street canyon. The pollutant sources are motor vehicles passing between the two buildings. Suitable emission factors for petrol and diesel vehicles at varying vehicle speed are used for the estimation of the rate of emission from the streets. The dispersion of automobile pollutant released from the street is simulated by introducing vehicular emission source term as a fixed-flux boundary condition at the ground level over the road. The emission source term is suitably calculated by adopting emission factors from literature for varying conditions of street traffic. It is observed that increase in wind angle disturbs the symmetric pattern of pollution distribution along the street length. The concentration increases in the far end of the street as compared to the near end.
Abstract: Sharing consistent and correct master data among
disparate applications in a reverse-logistics chain has long been
recognized as an intricate problem. Although a master data
management (MDM) system can surely assume that responsibility,
applications that need to co-operate with it must comply with
proprietary query interfaces provided by the specific MDM system. In
this paper, we present a RFID-ready MDM system which makes
master data readily available for any participating applications in a
reverse-logistics chain. We propose a RFID-wrapper as a part of our
MDM. It acts as a gateway between any data retrieval request and
query interfaces that process it. With the RFID-wrapper, any
participating applications in a reverse-logistics chain can easily
retrieve master data in a way that is analogous to retrieval of any other
RFID-based logistics transactional data.
Abstract: Wind energy has been shown to be one of the most
viable sources of renewable energy. With current technology, the low
cost of wind energy is competitive with more conventional sources of
energy such as coal. Most blades available for commercial grade
wind turbines incorporate a straight span-wise profile and airfoil
shaped cross sections. These blades are found to be very efficient at
lower wind speeds in comparison to the potential energy that can be
extracted. However as the oncoming wind speed increases the
efficiency of the blades decreases as they approach a stall point. This
paper explores the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the
blades at higher wind speeds while maintaining efficiency at the
lower wind speeds. The design intends to maintain efficiency at
lower wind speeds by selecting the appropriate orientation and size
of the airfoil cross sections based on a low oncoming wind speed and
given constant rotation rate. The blades will be made more efficient
at higher wind speeds by implementing a swept blade profile.
Performance was investigated using the computational fluid
dynamics (CFD).
Abstract: Product Lead Time (PLT) is the period of time from
receiving a customer's order to delivering the final product. PLT is an
indicator of the manufacturing controllability, efficiency and
performance. Due to the explosion in the rate of technological
innovations and the rapid changes in the nature of manufacturing
processes, manufacturing firms can bring the new products to market
quicker only if they can reduce their PLT and speed up the rate at
which they can design, plan, control, and manufacture. Although
there is a substantial body of research on manufacturing relating to
cost and quality issues, there is no much specific research conducted
in relation to the formulation of PLT, despite its significance and
importance. This paper analyzes and formulates PLT which can be
used as a guideline for achieving the shorter PLT. Further more this
paper identifies the causes of delay and factors that contributes to the
increased product lead-time.
Abstract: Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is probably the most
widely used estimation algorithm for nonlinear systems. However,
not only it has difficulties arising from linearization but also many
times it becomes numerically unstable because of computer round off
errors that occur in the process of its implementation. To overcome
linearization limitations, the unscented transformation (UT) was
developed as a method to propagate mean and covariance
information through nonlinear transformations. Kalman filter that
uses UT for calculation of the first two statistical moments is called
Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). Square-root form of UKF (SRUKF)
developed by Rudolph van der Merwe and Eric Wan to
achieve numerical stability and guarantee positive semi-definiteness
of the Kalman filter covariances. This paper develops another
implementation of SR-UKF for sequential update measurement
equation, and also derives a new UD covariance factorization filter
for the implementation of UKF. This filter is equivalent to UKF but
is computationally more efficient.
Abstract: In this study, Li4SiO4 powder was successfully
synthesized via sol gel method followed by drying at 150oC. Lithium
oxide, Li2O and silicon oxide, SiO2 were used as the starting
materials with citric acid as the chelating agent. The obtained powder
was then sintered at various temperatures. Crystallographic phase
analysis, morphology and ionic conductivity were investigated
systematically employing X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform
Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscopy and AC impedance
spectroscopy. XRD result showed the formation of pure monoclinic
Li4SiO4 crystal structure with lattice parameters a = 5.140 Å, b =
6.094 Å, c = 5.293 Å, β = 90o in the sample sintered at 750oC. This
observation was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The bulk conductivity
of this sample at room temperature was 3.35 × 10-6 S cm-1 and the
highest bulk conductivity of 1.16 × 10-4 S cm-1 was obtained at
100°C. The results indicated that, the Li4SiO4 compound has
potential to be used as host for LISICON structured solid electrolyte
for low temperature application.
Abstract: Professions are concerned about the public image they
have, and this public image is represented by stereotypes. Research is
needed to understand how accountants are perceived by different
actors in the society in different contexts, which would allow
universities, professional bodies and employers to adjust their
strategies to attract the right people to the profession and their
organizations. We aim to develop in this paper a framework to be
used in empirical testing in different environments to determine and
analyze the accountant-s stereotype. This framework will be useful in
analyzing the nuances associated to the accountant-s image and in
understanding the factors that may lead to uniformity in the
profession and of those leading to diversity from one context
(country, type of countries, region) to another.
Abstract: We have developed a distributed asynchronous Web
based training system. In order to improve the scalability and robustness
of this system, all contents and functions are realized on mobile
agents. These agents are distributed to computers, and they can use
a Peer to Peer network that modified Content-Addressable Network.
In the proposed system, only text data can be included in a exercise.
To make our proposed system more useful, the mechanism that it not
only adapts to multimedia data but also it doesn-t influence the user-s
learning even if the size of exercise becomes large is necessary.
Abstract: This study examined the effects of neuromuscular
training (NT) on limits of stability (LOS) in female individuals.
Twenty female basketball amateurs were assigned into NT
experimental group or control group by volunteer. All the players were
underwent regular basketball practice, 90 minutes, 3 times per week
for 6 weeks, but the NT experimental group underwent extra NT with
plyometric and core training, 50 minutes, 3 times per week for 6 weeks
during this period. Limits of stability (LOS) were evaluated by the
Biodex Balance System. One factor ANCOVA was used to examine
the differences between groups after training. The significant level for
statistic was set at p
Abstract: This paper deals principally with the socio-economic impact on the local Iban community in Mukah Division, Sarawak; with the commencement of the open-cut coal mining industry since 2003. To-date there are no actual studies being carried out by either the public or private sector to truly analyze how the Iban community is coping with the advent of a large influx of cash into their society. The Iban community has traditionally been practicing shifting cultivation and farming of domesticated animals; with a portion of the younger generation working as laborers and professional. This paper represents the views and observations of the author supported by some statistical facts extracted from published articles and non-published reports. The paper deals primarily in the following areas: • Background of the coal mining industry in Mukah Division, Sarawak; • Benefits of the coal mining industry towards the Iban community; • Issues / Problems arise in the Iban community because of the presence of the coal mining industry; and • Possible actions that need to be taken to overcome these issues/ problems.
Abstract: Sound pathways in the enclosures of small earphones
are very narrow. In such narrow pathways, the speed of sound
propagation and the phase of sound waves change because of the air
viscosity. We have developed a new finite element method that
includes the effects of damping due to air viscosity for modeling the
sound pathway. This method is developed as an extension of the
existing finite element method for porous sound-absorbing materials.
The numerical calculation results using the proposed finite element
method are validated against the existing calculation methods.
Abstract: In this paper developed and realized absolutely new
algorithm for solving three-dimensional Poisson equation. This
equation used in research of turbulent mixing, computational fluid
dynamics, atmospheric front, and ocean flows and so on. Moreover in
the view of rising productivity of difficult calculation there was
applied the most up-to-date and the most effective parallel
programming technology - MPI in combination with OpenMP
direction, that allows to realize problems with very large data
content. Resulted products can be used in solving of important
applications and fundamental problems in mathematics and physics.