Abstract: The modeling of water transfer in the unsaturated zone
uses techniques and methods of the soil physics to solve the
Richards-s equation. However, there is a disaccord between the size
of the measurements provided by the soil physics and the size of the
fields of hydrological modeling problem, to which is added the
strong spatial variability of soil hydraulic properties. The objective of
this work was to develop a methodology to estimate the
hydrodynamic parameters for modeling water transfers at different
hydrological scales in the soil-plant atmosphere systems.
Abstract: The problem of controlling a two link robotic manipulator, consisting of a rotating and a prismatic links, is addressed. The actuations of both links are assumed to have unknown dead zone nonlinearities and friction torques modeled by LuGre friction model. Because of the existence of the unknown dead zone and friction torque at the actuations, unknown parameters and unmeasured states would appear to be part of the overall system dynamics that need for estimation. Unmeasured states observer, unknown parameters estimators, and robust adaptive control laws have been derived such that closed loop global stability is achieved. Simulation results have been performed to show the efficacy of the suggested approach.
Abstract: Cerium oxide is to be recovered from monazite,
which contains about 27.35% CeO2. The principal objective
of this study is to be able to extract cerium oxide from
monazite of Moemeik Myitsone Area. The treatment of
monazite in this study involves three main steps; extraction
of cerium hydroxide from monazite, solvent extraction of
cerium hydroxide, and precipitation with oxalic acid and
calcination of cerium oxalate.
Abstract: Supplier selection, in real situation, is affected by
several qualitative and quantitative factors and is one of the most
important activities of purchasing department. Since at the time of
evaluating suppliers against the criteria or factors, decision makers
(DMS) do not have precise, exact and complete information, supplier
selection becomes more difficult. In this case, Grey theory helps us
to deal with this problem of uncertainty. Here, we apply Technique
for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)
method to evaluate and select the best supplier by using interval
fuzzy numbers. Through this article, we compare TOPSIS with some
other approaches and afterward demonstrate that the concept of
TOPSIS is very important for ranking and selecting right supplier.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the case of the
U.S. Pivot and to suggest an appropriate model including entry
strategies and success factors for QPS of Cable TV. The
telecommunication companies have been operating QPS including
IPTV service, which enables them to cross over broadcasting areas.
Due to this circumstance, the Cable TV operators are now concerned
and are planning to add QPS with the mobile service. Based on the
Porter's five forces model, an analytical framework has been proposed
to MVNO in Cable TV industry in the United States. As a result of this
study, MVNO in Cable TV industry has to have a clear killer
application with their sufficient contents. Subsequently, the direction
of the future Cable TV industry is proposed.
Abstract: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) hold much promise as a basis for disease-gene association. However, research is limited by the cost of genotyping the tremendous number of SNPs. Therefore, it is important to identify a small subset of informative SNPs, the so-called tag SNPs. This subset consists of selected SNPs of the genotypes, and accurately represents the rest of the SNPs. Furthermore, an effective evaluation method is needed to evaluate prediction accuracy of a set of tag SNPs. In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to tag SNP problems, and the K-nearest neighbor (K-NN) serves as a prediction method of tag SNP selection. The experimental data used was taken from the HapMap project; it consists of genotype data rather than haplotype data. The proposed method consistently identified tag SNPs with considerably better prediction accuracy than methods from the literature. At the same time, the number of tag SNPs identified was smaller than the number of tag SNPs in the other methods. The run time of the proposed method was much shorter than the run time of the SVM/STSA method when the same accuracy was reached.
Abstract: Not many studies have been undertaken on shareholder activism in emerging economies, including Malaysia. Shareholder activism in emerging economies is on the rise. This paper seeks to comprehend the elements of this activism that are unique to Malaysia, specifically with respect to how the agency problem is controlled through shareholder activism in improving corporate governance practices within target companies. Through shareholder activism, shareholders make contact with a target company to voice their dissatisfaction, suggestions, or recommendations. This paper utilises agency theory to explain institutional shareholder activism. This theory has been extensively used within literature on corporate governance with regards to shareholder activism. The effectiveness of shareholder activism in improving corporate governance will be examined as well. This research provides a further understanding of shareholder activism in emerging economies, such as Malaysia; this research also has the potential to enhance shareholder activism and corporate governance practices in general.
Abstract: This paper presents an intelligent speed control
system based on fuzzy logic for a voltage source PWM inverter-fed
indirect vector controlled induction motor drive. Traditional indirect
vector control system of induction motor introduces conventional PI
regulator in outer speed loop; it is proved that the low precision of the
speed regulator debases the performance of the whole system. To
overcome this problem, replacement of PI controller by an intelligent
controller based on fuzzy set theory is proposed. The performance of
the intelligent controller has been investigated through digital
simulation using MATLAB-SIMULINK package for different
operating conditions such as sudden change in reference speed and
load torque. The simulation results demonstrate that the performance
of the proposed controller is better than that of the conventional PI
controller.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to discuss the relationship between tourist awareness of environmental issues and their own recreational behaviors in the Taipei Guandu Wetland. A total of 392 questionnaires were gathered for data analysis using descriptive statistics, t-testing, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc comparisons. The results showed that most of the visitors there enjoying the beautiful scenery are 21 to 30 years old with a college education. The means and standard deviations indicate that tourists express a positive degree of cognition of environmental issues and recreational behaviors. They suggest that polluting the environment is harmful to the natural ecosystem and that the natural resources of ecotourism are fragile, as well as expressing a high degree of recognition of the need to protect wetlands. Most of respondents are cognizant of the regulations proposed by the Guandu Wetland administration which asks that users exercise self-control and follow recommended guidelines when traveling the wetland. There were significant differences in the degree of cognition related to the variables of age, number of visits and reasons for visiting. We found that most respondents with relatively high levels of education would like to learn more about the wetland and are supportive of its conservation.
Abstract: In this article, using finite element analysis (FEA)
and an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), cold-sprayed titanium particles
on a steel substrate is investigated in term of cooling time and the
development of residual strains. Three cooling-down models of
sprayed particles after deposition stage are simulated and discussed:
the first model (m1) considers conduction effect to the substrate only,
the second model (m2) considers both conduction as well as
convection effect to the environment, and the third model (m3) which
is the same as the second model but with the substrate heated to a
near particle temperature before spraying. Thereafter, residual strains
developed in the third model is compared with the experimental
measurement of residual strains, which involved a Bruker D8
Advance Diffractometer using CuKa radiation (40kV, 40mA)
monochromatised with a graphite sample monochromator. For
deposition conditions of this study, a good correlation was found to
exist between the FEA results and XRD measurements of residual
strains.
Abstract: Since polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been
invented, it has emerged as a powerful tool in genetic analysis. The
PCR products are closely linked with thermal cycles. Therefore, to
reduce the reaction time and make temperature distribution uniform in
the reaction chamber, a novel oscillatory thermal cycler is designed.
The sample is placed in a fixed chamber, and three constant isothermal
zones are established and lined in the system. The sample is oscillated
and contacted with three different isothermal zones to complete
thermal cycles. This study presents the design of the geometric
characteristics of the chamber. The commercial software
CFD-ACE+TM is utilized to investigate the influences of various
materials, heating times, chamber volumes, and moving speed of the
chamber on the temperature distributions inside the chamber. The
chamber moves at a specific velocity and the boundary conditions
with time variations are related to the moving speed. Whereas the
chamber moves, the boundary is specified at the conditions of the
convection or the uniform temperature. The user subroutines compiled
by the FORTRAN language are used to make the numerical results
realistically. Results show that the reaction chamber with a rectangular
prism is heated on six faces; the effects of various moving speeds of
the chamber on the temperature distributions are examined. Regarding
to the temperature profiles and the standard deviation of the
temperature at the Y-cut cross section, the non-uniform temperature
inside chamber is found as the moving speed is larger than 0.01 m/s.
By reducing the heating faces to four, the standard deviation of the
temperature of the reaction chamber is under 1.4×10-3K with the range
of velocities between 0.0001 m/s and 1 m/s. The nature convective
boundary conditions are set at all boundaries while the chamber moves
between two heaters, the effects of various moving velocities of the
chamber on the temperature distributions are negligible at the assigned
time duration.
Abstract: We address the problem of joint beamforming and multipath channel parameters estimation in Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) communication systems that employ Multiple-Access Interference (MAI) suppression techniques in the uplink (from mobile to base station). Most of the existing schemes rely on time multiplex a training sequence with the user data. In WCDMA, the channel parameters can also be estimated from a code multiplexed common pilot channel (CPICH) that could be corrupted by strong interference resulting in a bad estimate. In this paper, we present new methods to combine interference suppression together with channel estimation when using multiple receiving antennas by using adaptive signal processing techniques. Computer simulation is used to compare between the proposed methods and the existing conventional estimation techniques.
Abstract: The autonomic nervous system has a regulatory
structure that helps people adapt to changes in their environment by
adjusting or modifying some functions in response to stress, and regulating involuntary function of human organs. The purpose of this
study was to investigate the effect of combined stimulation, both
far-infrared heating and chiropractic, on the autonomic nervous system
activities using thermal image and heart rate variability. Six healthy subjects participated in this test. We compared the before and after
autonomic nervous system activities through obtaining thermal image
and photoplethysmogram signal. The thermal images showed that the
combined stimulation changed subject-s body temperature more
highly and widely than before. The result of heart rate variability
indicated that LF/HF ratio decreased. We concluded that combined
stimulation activates autonomic nervous system, and expected other
possibilities of this combined stimulation.
Abstract: Supplementation of palm vitamin E has been reported
to prevent loss of bone density in ovariectomised female rats. The
mechanism by which palm vitamin E exerts these effects is still
unknown. We hypothesized that palm vitamin E may act by
preventing the protein expression changes. Two dimensional poly
acyrilamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) and PD Quest software
genomic solutions Investigator (proteomics) was used to analyze the
differential protein expression profile in femoral and humeri bones
harvested from three groups of rats; sham-operated rats (SO),
ovariectomised rats (Ovx) and ovariectomised rats supplemented for
2 months with palm vitamin E. The results showed that there were
over 300 valued spot on each of the groups PVE and OVX as
compared to about 200 in SO. Comparison between the differential
protein expression between OVX and PVE groups showed that ten
spots were down –regulated in OVX but up-regulated in PVE. The
ten differential spots were separately named P1-P10. The
identification and understanding of the pathway of the differential
protein expression among the groups is ongoing and may account for
the molecular mechanism through which palm vitamin E exert its
anti-osteoporotic effect.
Abstract: Traffic enforcement units (the Police) are partly
responsible for the severity and frequency of the traffic accidents via
the effectiveness of their safety measures. The Police claims that the
reductions in accidents and their severities occur largely by their
timely interventions at the black spots, through traffic management
or temporary changes in the road design (guiding, reducing speeds
and eliminating sight obstructions, etc.). Yet, some other external
factors than the Police measures may intervene into which such
claims require a statistical confirmation. In order to test the net
impact of the Police contribution in the reduction of the number of
crashes, Chi square test was applied for 25 spots (streets and
intersections) and an average evaluation was achieved for general
conclusion in the case study of Izmir city. Separately, the net impact
of economic crisis in the reduction of crashes is assessed by the
trend analysis for the case of the economic crisis with the probable
reduction effects on the trip generation or modal choice. Finally, it
was proven that the Police measures were effective to some degree as
they claimed, though the economic crisis might have only negligible
contribution to the reductions in the same period observed.
Abstract: The notion of communicative competence has been deemed fuzzy in communication studies. This fuzziness has led to tensions among engineers across tenures in interpreting what constitutes communicative competence. The study seeks to investigate novice and professional engineers- understanding of the said notion in terms of two main elements of communicative competence: linguistic and rhetorical competence. Novice engineers are final year engineering students, whilst professional engineers represent engineers who have at least 5 years working experience. Novice and professional engineers were interviewed to gauge their perceptions on linguistic and rhetorical features deemed necessary to enhance communicative competence for the profession. Both groups indicated awareness and differences on the importance of the sub-sets of communicative competence, namely, rhetorical explanatory competence, linguistic oral immediacy competence, technical competence and meta-cognitive competence. Such differences, a possible attribute of the learning theory, inadvertently indicate sublime differences in the way novice and professional engineers perceive communicative competence.
Abstract: This paper presents a solution for ceramic cutting tools availability in interrupted machining. Experiments were performed on a special fixture – the interrupted cut simulator. This fixture was constructed at our Department of Machining and Assembly within the scope of a project by the Czech Science Foundation. The goals of the tests were to contribute to the wider usage of these cutting materials in machining, especially in interrupted machining. Through the centuries, producers of ceramic cutting tools have taken big steps forward. Namely, increasing durability in maintaining high levels of strength and hardness lends an advantage. Some producers of these materials advise cutting inserts for interrupted machining at the present time [1, 2].
Abstract: Serial Analysis of Gene Expression is a powerful
quantification technique for generating cell or tissue gene expression
data. The profile of the gene expression of cell or tissue in several
different states is difficult for biologists to analyze because of the large
number of genes typically involved. However, feature selection in
machine learning can successfully reduce this problem. The method
allows reducing the features (genes) in specific SAGE data, and
determines only relevant genes. In this study, we used a genetic
algorithm to implement feature selection, and evaluate the
classification accuracy of the selected features with the K-nearest
neighbor method. In order to validate the proposed method, we used
two SAGE data sets for testing. The results of this study conclusively
prove that the number of features of the original SAGE data set can be
significantly reduced and higher classification accuracy can be
achieved.
Abstract: Twenty seven tektites from the Wenchang area, Hainan
province (south China) and five tektites from the Khon Kaen area
(northeast Thailand) were analyzed for major and trace element
contents and Rb-Sr isotopic compositions. All the samples studied are
splash-form tektites. Tektites of this study are characterized by high
SiO2 contents ranging from 71.95 to 74.07 wt% which is consistent
with previously published analyses of Australasian tektites. The trace
element ratios Ba/Rb (avg. 3.89), Th/Sm (avg. 2.40), Sm/Sc (avg.
0.45), Th/Sc (avg. 0.99) and the rare earth elements (REE) contents of
tektites of this study are similar to the average upper continental crust.
Based on the chemical composition, it is suggested that tektites in this
study are derived from similar parental material and are similar to the
post-Archean upper crustal rocks. The major and trace element
abundances of tektites analyzed indicate that the parental material of
tektites may be a terrestrial sedimentary deposit. The tektites from the
Wenchang area, Hainan Island have high positive εSr(0)
values-ranging from 184.5~196.5 which indicate that the parental
material for these tektites have similar Sr isotopic compositions to old
terrestrial sedimentary rocks and they were not dominantly derived
from recent young sediments (such as soil or loess). Based on Rb-Sr
isotopic data, it has been suggested by Blum (1992) [1]that the
depositional age of sedimentary target materials is close to 170Ma
(Jurassic). According to the model suggested by Ho and Chen
(1996)[2], mixing calculations for various amounts and combinations
of target rocks have been carried out. We consider that the best fit for
tektites from the Wenchang area is a mixture of 47% shale, 23%
sandstone, 25% greywacke and 5% quartzite, and the other tektites
from Khon Kaen area is a mixture of 46% shale, 2% sandstone, 20%
greywacke and 32% quartzite.
Abstract: The wisest economic decision of United States in the
20th century was establishing the favorable international monetary
system, and capturing the leadership position in it. This decision gave
economic hegemony to the US for the next more than 7 decades. The
continuation of this hegemony till the next decade seems difficult as
the US economy is under continuous streams of recessions since
2007. On the other hand, Chinese economy is progressing with a
very fast speed and is estimated to pass the US economy till 2025, in
various aspects. Will the US be able to continue its leadership in the
IMS? Will China replace US in the international monetary system?
The answers to these questions have been explored by comparing the
economic competitiveness of US and China, with respect to each
other. The paper concludes that the change in global economic
environment will compel US to share the leadership of international
monetary system with China. This sharing will solve most problems
of the current IMS, but will also birth some new problems.