Abstract: Base on extenics theory, the statistical physical and mechanical properties from laboratory experiments are used to evaluate the bearing capacity of lateritic soil foundation. The properties include water content, bulk density, liquid limit, cohesion, and so on. The matter-element and the dependent function are defined. Then the synthesis dependent degree and the final grade index are calculated. The results show that predicted outcomes can be matched with the in-situ test data, and a evaluate grade associate with bearing capacity can be deduced. The results provide guidance to assess and determine the bearing capacity grade of lateritic soil foundation.
Abstract: The study analyzed the risk and returns of commercial-property in Southwestern Nigeria and selected stocksmarket investment between 2000 and 2009; compared the inflation hedging characteristics and diversification potentials of investing in commercial-property and selected stock- market investment. Primary data were collected on characteristics, rental and capital values of commercial- properties from their property managers through the use of questionnaire. Secondary data on stock prices and dividends on banking, insurance and conglomerates sectors were sourced from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (2000-2009). The result showed that average return on all the selected stock- investments was higher than that of commercial-property. As regards risk, commercial-property indicated lower risk, compared to stocks. Also the stock-investment had better inflation hedging capacity than commercial-properties; combination of both had diversification potentials. The study concluded that stock-market investment offered attractive higher return than commercial-property although with higher risk and there could be diversification benefits in combining commercial-property with stock- investment.
Abstract: The paper presents an investigation into the role of virtual reality and web technologies in the field of distance education. Within this frame, special emphasis is given on the building of web-based virtual learning environments so as to successfully fulfill their educational objectives. In particular, basic pedagogical methods are studied, focusing mainly on the efficient preparation, approach and presentation of learning content, and specific designing rules are presented considering the hypermedia, virtual and educational nature of this kind of applications. The paper also aims to highlight the educational benefits arising from the use of virtual reality technology in medicine and study the emerging area of web-based medical simulations. Finally, an innovative virtual reality environment for distance education in medicine is demonstrated. The proposed environment reproduces conditions of the real learning process and enhances learning through a real-time interactive simulator.
Abstract: The concentrations of As, Hg, Co, Cr and Cd were
tested for each soil sample, and their spatial patterns were analyzed
by the semivariogram approach of geostatistics and geographical
information system technology. Multivariate statistic approaches
(principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were used to
identify heavy metal sources and their spatial pattern. Principal
component analysis coupled with correlation between heavy metals
showed that primary inputs of As, Hg and Cd were due to
anthropogenic while, Co, and Cr were associated with pedogenic
factors. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patters of
heavy metals. The high pollution sources evaluated was related with
usage of urban and industrial wastewater. The results of this study
helpful for risk assessment of environmental pollution for decision
making for industrial adjustment and remedy soil pollution.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to derive parameters
estimating for the Lyman–Kutcher–Burman (LKB) normal tissue
complication probability (NTCP) model using analysis of scintigraphy
assessments and quality of life (QoL) measurement questionnaires for
the parotid gland (xerostomia). In total, 31 patients with
head-and-neck (HN) cancer were enrolled. Salivary excretion factor
(SEF) and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires datasets are used for
the NTCP modeling to describe the incidence of grade 4 xerostomia.
Assuming that n= 1, NTCP fitted parameters are given as TD50= 43.6
Gy, m= 0.18 in SEF analysis, and as TD50= 44.1 Gy, m= 0.11 in QoL
measurements, respectively. SEF and QoL datasets can validate the
Quantitative Analyses of Normal Tissue Effects in the Clinic
(QUANTEC) guidelines well, resulting in NPV-s of 100% for the both
datasets and suggests that the QUANTEC 25/20Gy gland-spared
guidelines are suitable for clinical used for the HN cohort to
effectively avoid xerostomia.
Abstract: Data of wave height and wind speed were collected
from three existing oil fields in South China Sea – offshore
Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah regions. Extreme values
and other significant data were employed for analysis. The data were
recorded from 1999 until 2008. The results show that offshore
structures are susceptible to unacceptable motions initiated by wind
and waves with worst structural impacts caused by extreme wave
heights. To protect offshore structures from damage, there is a need
to quantify descriptive statistics and determine spectra envelope of
wind speed and wave height, and to ascertain the frequency content
of each spectrum for offshore structures in the South China Sea
shallow waters using measured time series. The results indicate that
the process is nonstationary; it is converted to stationary process by
first differencing the time series. For descriptive statistical analysis,
both wind speed and wave height have significant influence on the
offshore structure during the northeast monsoon with high mean wind
speed of 13.5195 knots ( = 6.3566 knots) and the high mean wave
height of 2.3597 m ( = 0.8690 m). Through observation of the
spectra, there is no clear dominant peak and the peaks fluctuate
randomly. Each wind speed spectrum and wave height spectrum has
its individual identifiable pattern. The wind speed spectrum tends to
grow gradually at the lower frequency range and increasing till it
doubles at the higher frequency range with the mean peak frequency
range of 0.4104 Hz to 0.4721 Hz, while the wave height tends to
grow drastically at the low frequency range, which then fluctuates
and decreases slightly at the high frequency range with the mean
peak frequency range of 0.2911 Hz to 0.3425 Hz.
Abstract: SQL injection on web applications is a very popular
kind of attack. There are mechanisms such as intrusion detection
systems in order to detect this attack. These strategies often rely on
techniques implemented at high layers of the application but do not
consider the low level of system calls. The problem of only
considering the high level perspective is that an attacker can
circumvent the detection tools using certain techniques such as URL
encoding. One technique currently used for detecting low-level
attacks on privileged processes is the tracing of system calls. System
calls act as a single gate to the Operating System (OS) kernel; they
allow catching the critical data at an appropriate level of detail. Our
basic assumption is that any type of application, be it a system
service, utility program or Web application, “speaks” the language of
system calls when having a conversation with the OS kernel. At this
level we can see the actual attack while it is happening. We conduct
an experiment in order to demonstrate the suitability of system call
analysis for detecting SQL injection. We are able to detect the attack.
Therefore we conclude that system calls are not only powerful in
detecting low-level attacks but that they also enable us to detect highlevel
attacks such as SQL injection.
Abstract: Intermittent aeration process can be easily applied on
the existing activated sludge system and is highly reliable against the loading changes. It can be operated in a relatively simple way as well.
Since the moving-bed biofilm reactor method processes pollutants by attaching and securing the microorganisms on the media, the process
efficiency can be higher compared to the suspended growth biological
treatment process, and can reduce the return of sludge. In this study,
the existing intermittent aeration process with alternating flow being
applied on the oxidation ditch is applied on the continuous flow stirred tank reactor with advantages from both processes, and we would like
to develop the process to significantly reduce the return of sludge in the clarifier and to secure the reliable quality of treated water by
adding the moving media. Corresponding process has the appropriate
form as an infrastructure based on u- environment in future u- City and
is expected to accelerate the implementation of u-Eco city in conjunction with city based services. The system being conducted in a
laboratory scale has been operated in HRT 8hours except for the final
clarifier and showed the removal efficiency of 97.7 %, 73.1 % and 9.4
% in organic matters, TN and TP, respectively with operating range of
4hour cycle on system SRT 10days. After adding the media, the removal efficiency of phosphorus showed a similar level compared to
that before the addition, but the removal efficiency of nitrogen was
improved by 7~10 %. In addition, the solids which were maintained in
MLSS 1200~1400 at 25 % of media packing were attached all onto the
media, which produced no sludge entering the clarifier. Therefore, the
return of sludge is not needed any longer.
Abstract: This paper examines the depiction of Muslim militants in Thai newspapers in 2004. Stuart Hall-s “representation" and “public idioms" are used as theoretical frameworks. Critical Discourse Analysis is employed as a methodology to examine 240 news articles from two leading Thai language newspapers. The results show that the militants are usually labeled as “southern bandits." This suggests that they are just a culprit of the violence in the deep south of Thailand. They are usually described as people who cause turbulence. Consequently, the military have to get rid of them. However, other aspects of the groups such as their political agenda or the failures of the Thai state in dealing with the Malay Muslims were not mention in the news stories. In the time of violence, the researcher argues that this kind of newspaper coverage may help perpetuate the discourse of Malay Muslim, instead of providing fuller picture of the ongoing conflicts.
Abstract: This paper proposes a robot able to climb Columns.
This robot is not dependent on the diameter and material of the
columns. Some climbing robots have been designed up to now but
Koala robot was designed and fabricated for climbing columns
exclusively. Simple kinematics of climbing in the nature inspired us
to design this robot. We used two linear mechanisms to grip the
column. The gripper consists of a DC motor and a power screw
mechanism with a linear bushing as a guide. This mechanism
provides enough force to grip the column. In addition we needed an
actuator for climbing the column; hence, two pneumatic jacks were
used. All the mechanical parts were designed according to the
exerted forces and operational condition. The prototype can be
simply installed and controlled on the column by an inexperienced
operator. This robot is intended for inspection and surveillance of
pipes in oil industries and power poles in electric industries.
Abstract: This paper deals with rheological behavior of tomato
paste from the view point of time independent properties inclusive of
processing variables such as sample temperature which influence on
rheological properties as well as breaking temperature and
concentration which beside the rheological properties, influence on
the quality of final product. With this aim 10 tomato paste samples at
various concentrations (17-25%) and breaking temperatures (65-
85 C o ) have been produced. The experimental results showed tomato
paste behaves as a non-Newtonian semi-fluid which follows power
law model that consistency coefficient (K) is supposed function of
breaking temperature, concentration and sample temperature with
consideration to superimpose function.
Abstract: This study investigates the roles of knowledge
acquisition, absorptive capacity, and innovation capability in finance
and manufacturing industries. With 362 valid questionnaires from
manufactures and financial industries in Taiwan, we examine the
relationships between absorptive capacity, knowledge acquisition and
innovation capability using a structural equation model. The results
indicate that absorptive capacity is the mediator between knowledge
acquisition and innovation capability, and that knowledge acquisition
has a positive effect on absorptive capacity.
Abstract: In order to implement flexibility as well as survivable
capacities over passive optical network (PON), a new automatic
random fault-recovery mechanism with array-waveguide-grating
based (AWG-based) optical switch (OSW) is presented. Firstly,
wavelength-division-multiplexing and optical code-division
multiple-access (WDM/OCDMA) scheme are configured to meet the
various geographical locations requirement between optical network
unit (ONU) and optical line terminal (OLT). The AWG-base optical
switch is designed and viewed as central star-mesh topology to
prohibit/decrease the duplicated redundant elements such as fiber and
transceiver as well. Hence, by simple monitoring and routing switch
algorithm, random fault-recovery capacity is achieved over
bi-directional (up/downstream) WDM/OCDMA scheme. When error
of distribution fiber (DF) takes place or bit-error-rate (BER) is higher
than 10-9 requirement, the primary/slave AWG-based OSW are
adjusted and controlled dynamically to restore the affected ONU
groups via the other working DFs immediately.
Abstract: A method to determine experimentally the melting
rate, rm, and the heat transfer coefficients, αv (W/(m3K)), at
convective melting in a fixed bed of particles under adiabatic regime
is established in this paper. The method lies in the determining of the
melting rate by measuring the fixed bed height in time. Experimental
values of rm, α and α v were determined using cylindrical particles of
ice (d = 6.8 mm, h = 5.5 mm) and, as a melting agent, aqueous NaCl
solution with a temperature of 283 K at different values of the liquid
flow rate (11.63·10-6, 28.83·10-6, 38.83·10-6 m3/s).
Our experimental results were compared with those existing in
literature being noticed a good agreement for Re values higher than
50.
Abstract: Participation in global trade means that Chinas vegetables and fruits industry faces international food safety standards and increased scrutiny worldwide. The objectives of this paper were to investigate how existing food safety standards and regulations in the importing countries impact the export of vegetables and fruits from China. This paper discussed the current and historical situations of Chinas vegetables and fruits export from 1996 to 2010, analyzed the Maximum Residual Limit (MRL) standards of pesticides imposed by importing countries, quantitatively estimated the impacts of food safety standards on Chinas vegetables and fruits export based on a gravity model. The results showed that although transportation distance between trade partners and tariff rates on vegetables and fruits were still the importantly resistant factors for China export, vegetables and fruits export was sensitive to the number of regulated pesticides, the strictness, and the level of food safety standards imposed by importing countries, which showed a significant trade flow effect, stricter food safety standards, increased number of regulated pesticides significantly inhibit China export of vegetables and fruits. Moreover, Chinas food safety standards also showed a significantly effect on vegetables and fruits export, which inhibited export to some extent. KeywordsFood safety standards, MRL, Vegetables, Fruits, Export.
Abstract: According to the theory of capital structure, this paper uses principal component analysis and linear regression analysis to study the relationship between the debt characteristics of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province and their business performance. The results show that the average debt ratio of the 29 private listed companies selected from the sample is lower. And it is found that for the sample whose debt ratio is lower than 80%, its debt ratio is negatively related to corporate performance, while for the sample whose debt ratio is beyond 80%, the relationship of debt financing and enterprise performance shows the different trends. The conclusions reflect the drawbacks may exist that the debt ratio is relatively low and having not take full advantage of debt governance effect of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province.
Abstract: An effort estimation model is needed for softwareintensive
projects that consist of hardware, embedded software or
some combination of the two, as well as high level software
solutions. This paper first focuses on functional decomposition
techniques to measure functional complexity of a computer system
and investigates its impact on system development effort. Later, it
examines effects of technical difficulty and design team capability
factors in order to construct the best effort estimation model. With
using traditional regression analysis technique, the study develops a
system development effort estimation model which takes functional
complexity, technical difficulty and design team capability factors as
input parameters. Finally, the assumptions of the model are tested.
Abstract: Research into the problem of classification of sonar signals has been taken up as a challenging task for the neural networks. This paper investigates the design of an optimal classifier using a Multi layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP NN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Results obtained using sonar data sets suggest that SVM classifier perform well in comparison with well-known MLP NN classifier. An average classification accuracy of 91.974% is achieved with SVM classifier and 90.3609% with MLP NN classifier, on the test instances. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve for the proposed SVM classifier on test data set is found as 0.981183, which is very close to unity and this clearly confirms the excellent quality of the proposed classifier. The SVM classifier employed in this paper is implemented using kernel Adatron algorithm is seen to be robust and relatively insensitive to the parameter initialization in comparison to MLP NN.
Abstract: Using steelmaking slag as a raw material, aragonite superstructure product had been synthesized via an indirect CO2 mineral sequestration rout. It mainly involved two separate steps, in which the element of calcium is first selectively leached from steelmaking slag by a novel leaching media consisting of organic solvent Tributyl phosphate (TBP), acetic acid, and ultra-purity water, followed by enhanced carbonation in a separate step for aragonite superstructure production as well as efficiency recovery of leaching media. Based on the different leaching medium employed in the steelmaking slag leaching process, two typical products were collected from the enhanced carbonation step. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. It reveals that the needle-like aragonite crystals self-organized into aragonite superstructure particles including aragonite microspheres as well as dumbbell-like spherical particles, can be obtained from the steelmaking slag with the purity over 99%.
Abstract: This paper gives a novel method for improving
classification performance for cancer classification with very few
microarray Gene expression data. The method employs classification
with individual gene ranking and gene subset ranking. For selection
and classification, the proposed method uses the same classifier. The
method is applied to three publicly available cancer gene expression
datasets from Lymphoma, Liver and Leukaemia datasets. Three
different classifiers namely Support vector machines-one against all
(SVM-OAA), K nearest neighbour (KNN) and Linear Discriminant
analysis (LDA) were tested and the results indicate the improvement
in performance of SVM-OAA classifier with satisfactory results on
all the three datasets when compared with the other two classifiers.