Abstract: Characterization and evaluation of the activity of Vespa basalis DPP-IV, which expressed in Spodoptera frugiperda 21 cells. The expression of rDPP-IV was confirmed by SDS–PAGE, Western blot analyses, LC-MS/MS and measurement of its peptidase specificity. One-step purification by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography and the total amount of rDPP-IV recovered was approximately 6.4mg per liter from infected culture medium; an equivalent amount would be produced by 1x109 infected Sf21 insect cells. Through the affinity purification led to highly stable rDPP-IV enzyme was recovered and with significant peptidase activity. The rDPP-IV exhibited classical Michaelis–Menten kinetics, with kcat/Km in the range of 10-500 mM-1×S-1 for the five synthetic substrates and optimum substrate is Ala-Pro-pNA. As expected in inhibition assay, the enzymatic activity of rDPP-IV was significantly reduced by 80 or 60% in the presence of sitagliptin (a DPP-IV inhibitor) or PMSF (a serine protease inhibitor), but was not apparently affected by iodoacetamide (a cysteine protease inhibitor).
Abstract: In this paper a fast motion estimation method for
H.264/AVC named Triplet Search Motion Estimation (TS-ME) is
proposed. Similar to some of the traditional fast motion estimation
methods and their improved proposals which restrict the search points
only to some selected candidates to decrease the computation
complexity, proposed algorithm separate the motion search process to
several steps but with some new features. First, proposed algorithm try
to search the real motion area using proposed triplet patterns instead of
some selected search points to avoid dropping into the local minimum.
Then, in the localized motion area a novel 3-step motion search
algorithm is performed. Proposed search patterns are categorized into
three rings on the basis of the distance from the search center. These
three rings are adaptively selected by referencing the surrounding
motion vectors to early terminate the motion search process. On the
other hand, computation reduction for sub pixel motion search is also
discussed considering the appearance probability of the sub pixel
motion vector. From the simulation results, motion estimation speed
improved by a factor of up to 38 when using proposed algorithm than
that of the reference software of H.264/AVC with ignorable picture
quality loss.
Abstract: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess unique structural,
mechanical, thermal and electronic properties, and have been
proposed to be used for applications in many fields. However, to
reach the full potential of the CNTs, many problems still need to be
solved, including the development of an easy and effective
purification procedure, since synthesized CNTs contain impurities,
such as amorphous carbon, carbon nanoparticles and metal particles.
Different purification methods yield different CNT characteristics
and may be suitable for the production of different types of CNTs. In
this study, the effect of different purification chemicals on carbon
nanotube quality was investigated. CNTs were firstly synthesized by
chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetylene (C2H2) on a
magnesium oxide (MgO) powder impregnated with an iron nitrate
(Fe(NO3)3·9H2O) solution. The synthesis parameters were selected
as: the synthesis temperature of 800°C, the iron content in the
precursor of 5% and the synthesis time of 30 min. The liquid phase
oxidation method was applied for the purification of the synthesized
CNT materials. Three different acid chemicals (HNO3, H2SO4, and
HCl) were used in the removal of the metal catalysts from the
synthesized CNT material to investigate the possible effects of each
acid solution to the purification step. Purification experiments were
carried out at two different temperatures (75 and 120 °C), two
different acid concentrations (3 and 6 M) and for three different time
intervals (6, 8 and 15 h). A 30% H2O2 : 3M HCl (1:1 v%) solution
was also used in the purification step to remove both the metal
catalysts and the amorphous carbon. The purifications using this
solution were performed at the temperature of 75°C for 8 hours.
Purification efficiencies at different conditions were evaluated by
thermogravimetric analysis. Thermal and electrical properties of
CNTs were also determined. It was found that the obtained electrical
conductivity values for the carbon nanotubes were typical for organic
semiconductor materials and thermal stabilities were changed
depending on the purification chemicals.
Abstract: As a learning theory tries to borrow from science a framework to found its method, it shows paradoxes and paralysing contraddictions. This results, on one hand, from adopting a learning/teaching model as it were a mere “transfer of data" (mechanical learning approach), and on the other hand from borrowing the complexity theory (an indeterministic and non-linear model), that risks to vanish every educational effort. This work is aimed at describing existing criticism, unveiling the antinomic nature of such paradoxes, focussing on a view where neither the mechanical learning perspective nor the chaotic and nonlinear model can threaten and jeopardize the educational work. Author intends to go back over the steps that led to these paradoxes and to unveil their antinomic nature. Actually this could serve the purpose to explain some current misunderstandings about the real usefulness of Ict within the youth-s learning process and growth.
Abstract: The numerical simulation of the slip effect via
vicoelastic fluid for 4:1 contraction problem is investigated with
regard to kinematic behaviors of streamlines and stress tensor by
models of the Navier-Stokes and Oldroyd-B equations. Twodimensional
spatial reference system of incompressible creeping flow
with and without slip velocity is determined and the finite element
method of a semi-implicit Taylor-Galerkin pressure-correction is
applied to compute the problem of this Cartesian coordinate system
including the schemes of velocity gradient recovery method and the
streamline-Upwind / Petrov-Galerkin procedure. The slip effect at
channel wall is added to calculate after each time step in order to
intend the alteration of flow path. The result of stress values and the
vortices are reduced by the optimum slip coefficient of 0.1 with near
the outcome of analytical solution.
Abstract: This paper present a circular patch microstrip array antenna operate in KU-band (10.9GHz – 17.25GHz). The proposed circular patch array antenna will be in light weight, flexible, slim and compact unit compare with current antenna used in KU-band. The paper also presents the detail steps of designing the circular patch microstrip array antenna. An Advance Design System (ADS) software is used to compute the gain, power, radiation pattern, and S11 of the antenna. The proposed Circular patch microstrip array antenna basically is a phased array consisting of 'n' elements (circular patch antennas) arranged in a rectangular grid. The size of each element is determined by the operating frequency. The incident wave from satellite arrives at the plane of the antenna with equal phase across the surface of the array. Each 'n' element receives a small amount of power in phase with the others. There are feed network connects each element to the microstrip lines with an equal length, thus the signals reaching the circular patches are all combined in phase and the voltages add up. The significant difference of the circular patch array antenna is not come in the phase across the surface but in the magnitude distribution.
Abstract: Character segmentation is an important preprocessing
step for text recognition. In degraded documents, existence of
touching characters decreases recognition rate drastically, for any
optical character recognition (OCR) system. In this paper we have
proposed a complete solution for segmenting touching characters in
all the three zones of printed Gurmukhi script. A study of touching
Gurmukhi characters is carried out and these characters have been
divided into various categories after a careful analysis. Structural
properties of the Gurmukhi characters are used for defining the
categories. New algorithms have been proposed to segment the
touching characters in middle zone, upper zone and lower zone.
These algorithms have shown a reasonable improvement in
segmenting the touching characters in degraded printed Gurmukhi
script. The algorithms proposed in this paper are applicable only to
machine printed text. We have also discussed a new and useful
technique to segment the horizontally overlapping lines.
Abstract: Text categorization is the problem of classifying text
documents into a set of predefined classes. After a preprocessing
step, the documents are typically represented as large sparse vectors.
When training classifiers on large collections of documents, both the
time and memory restrictions can be quite prohibitive. This justifies
the application of feature selection methods to reduce the
dimensionality of the document-representation vector. In this paper,
three feature selection methods are evaluated: Random Selection,
Information Gain (IG) and Support Vector Machine feature selection
(called SVM_FS). We show that the best results were obtained with
SVM_FS method for a relatively small dimension of the feature
vector. Also we present a novel method to better correlate SVM
kernel-s parameters (Polynomial or Gaussian kernel).
Abstract: Copolymerization of ethylene with 1-hexene was
carried out using two ansa-fluorenyl titanium derivative complexes.
The substituent effect on the catalytic activity, monomer reactivity
ratio and polymer property was investigated. It was found that the
presence of t-Bu groups on fluorenyl ring exhibited remarkable
catalytic activity and produced polymer with high molecular weight.
However, these catalysts produce polymer with narrow molecular
weight distribution, indicating the characteristic of single-site
metallocene catalyst. Based on 13C NMR, we can observe that
monomer reactivity ratio was affected by catalyst structure. The rH
values of complex 2 were lower than that of complex 1 which might
be result from the higher steric hindrance leading to a reduction of 1-
hexene insertion step.
Abstract: In this longitudinal study, we examined the moderating role of personality in the relationship between communication behaviors and long-term dyadic adjustment. A sample of 82 couples completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. These couples were also videotaped during a 15-minute problem-solving discussion. Approximately 2.5 years later, these couples completed again the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Results show that personality of both men and women moderates the relationship between communication behaviors of the partner and long-term dyadic adjustment of the individual. Women-s openness and men-s extraversion moderate the relationship between some communication behaviors and long-term dyadic adjustment
Abstract: A new distance-adjusted approach is proposed in
which static square contours are defined around an estimated
symbol in a QAM constellation, which create regions that
correspond to fixed step sizes and weighting factors. As a
result, the equalizer tap adjustment consists of a linearly
weighted sum of adaptation criteria that is scaled by a variable
step size. This approach is the basis of two new algorithms: the
Variable step size Square Contour Algorithm (VSCA) and the
Variable step size Square Contour Decision-Directed
Algorithm (VSDA). The proposed schemes are compared with
existing blind equalization algorithms in the SCA family in
terms of convergence speed, constellation eye opening and
residual ISI suppression. Simulation results for 64-QAM
signaling over empirically derived microwave radio channels
confirm the efficacy of the proposed algorithms. An RTL
implementation of the blind adaptive equalizer based on the
proposed schemes is presented and the system is configured to
operate in VSCA error signal mode, for square QAM signals
up to 64-QAM.
Abstract: The medical studies often require different methods
for parameters selection, as a second step of processing, after the
database-s designing and filling with information. One common
task is the selection of fields that act as risk factors using wellknown
methods, in order to find the most relevant risk factors and
to establish a possible hierarchy between them. Different methods
are available in this purpose, one of the most known being the
binary logistic regression. We will present the mathematical
principles of this method and a practical example of using it in the
analysis of the influence of 10 different psychiatric diagnostics
over 4 different types of offences (in a database made from 289
psychiatric patients involved in different types of offences).
Finally, we will make some observations about the relation
between the risk factors hierarchy established through binary
logistic regression and the individual risks, as well as the results of
Chi-squared test. We will show that the hierarchy built using the
binary logistic regression doesn-t agree with the direct order of risk
factors, even if it was naturally to assume this hypothesis as being
always true.
Abstract: The Chiu-s method which generates a Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) is a method of fuzzy rules extraction. The rules output is a linear function of inputs. In addition, these rules are not explicit for the expert. In this paper, we develop a method which generates Mamdani FIS, where the rules output is fuzzy. The method proceeds in two steps: first, it uses the subtractive clustering principle to estimate both the number of clusters and the initial locations of a cluster centers. Each obtained cluster corresponds to a Mamdani fuzzy rule. Then, it optimizes the fuzzy model parameters by applying a genetic algorithm. This method is illustrated on a traffic network management application. We suggest also a Mamdani fuzzy rules generation method, where the expert wants to classify the output variables in some fuzzy predefined classes.
Abstract: We present an operator for a propositional linear temporal logic over infinite schedules of iterated transactions, which, when applied to a formula, asserts that any schedule satisfying the formula is serializable. The resulting logic is suitable for specifying and verifying consistency properties of concurrent transaction management systems, that can be defined in terms of serializability, as well as other general safety and liveness properties. A strict form of serializability is used requiring that, whenever the read and write steps of a transaction occurrence precede the read and write steps of another transaction occurrence in a schedule, the first transaction must precede the second transaction in an equivalent serial schedule. This work improves on previous work in providing a propositional temporal logic with a serializability operator that is of the same PSPACE complete computational complexity as standard propositional linear temporal logic without a serializability operator.
Abstract: Void formation in underfill is considered as failure
in flip chip manufacturing process. Void formation possibly caused
by several factors such as poor soldering and flux residue during
die attach process, void entrapment due moisture contamination,
dispense pattern process and setting up the curing process. This
paper presents the comparison of single step and two steps curing
profile towards the void and black dots formation in underfill for
Hi-CTE Flip Chip Ceramic Ball Grid Array Package (FC-CBGA).
Statistic analysis was conducted to analyze how different factors
such as wafer lot, sawing technique, underfill fillet height and
curing profile recipe were affected the formation of voids and
black dots. A C-Mode Scanning Aqoustic Microscopy (C-SAM)
was used to scan the total count of voids and black dots. It was
shown that the 2 steps curing profile provided solution for void
elimination and black dots in underfill after curing process.
Abstract: Existing work in temporal logic on representing the
execution of infinitely many transactions, uses linear-time temporal
logic (LTL) and only models two-step transactions. In this paper,
we use the comparatively efficient branching-time computational tree
logic CTL and extend the transaction model to a class of multistep
transactions, by introducing distinguished propositional variables
to represent the read and write steps of n multi-step transactions
accessing m data items infinitely many times. We prove that the
well known correspondence between acyclicity of conflict graphs
and serializability for finite schedules, extends to infinite schedules.
Furthermore, in the case of transactions accessing the same set of
data items in (possibly) different orders, serializability corresponds
to the absence of cycles of length two. This result is used to give an
efficient encoding of the serializability condition into CTL.
Abstract: Purpose: Planning and dosimetry of different VMAT algorithms (SmartArc, Ergo++, Autobeam) is compared with IMRT for Head and Neck Cancer patients. Modelling was performed to rule out the causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered dose. Methods: Five HNC patients previously treated with IMRT were re-planned with SmartArc (SA), Ergo++ and Autobeam. Plans were compared with each other and against IMRT and evaluated using DVHs for PTVs and OARs, delivery time, monitor units (MU) and dosimetric accuracy. Modelling of control point (CP) spacing, Leaf-end Separation and MLC/Aperture shape was performed to rule out causes of discrepancies between planned and delivered doses. Additionally estimated arc delivery times, overall plan generation times and effect of CP spacing and number of arcs on plan generation times were recorded. Results: Single arc SmartArc plans (SA4d) were generally better than IMRT and double arc plans (SA2Arcs) in terms of homogeneity and target coverage. Double arc plans seemed to have a positive role in achieving improved Conformity Index (CI) and better sparing of some Organs at Risk (OARs) compared to Step and Shoot IMRT (ss-IMRT) and SA4d. Overall Ergo++ plans achieved best CI for both PTVs. Dosimetric validation of all VMAT plans without modelling was found to be lower than ss-IMRT. Total MUs required for delivery were on average 19%, 30%, 10.6% and 6.5% lower than ss-IMRT for SA4d, SA2d (Single arc with 20 Gantry Spacing), SA2Arcs and Autobeam plans respectively. Autobeam was most efficient in terms of actual treatment delivery times whereas Ergo++ plans took longest to deliver. Conclusion: Overall SA single arc plans on average achieved best target coverage and homogeneity for both PTVs. SA2Arc plans showed improved CI and some OARs sparing. Very good dosimetric results were achieved with modelling. Ergo++ plans achieved best CI. Autobeam resulted in fastest treatment delivery times.
Abstract: In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be
achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable
usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even
though there were plenty of studies and research has been already
carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken
and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the
metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is
designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis
has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the
critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing,
tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied
and results are tabulated for better understanding.
Abstract: White scar oyster (Crassostrea belcheri) is often eaten
raw and being the leading vehicle for foodborne disease, especially
Salmonella Weltevreden which exposed the prominent and most
resistant to radiation. Gamma irradiation at a low dose of 1 kGy was
enough to eliminate S. Weltevreden contaminated in oyster meat at a
level up to 5 log CFU/g while it still retain the raw characteristics and
equivalent sensory quality as the non-irradiated one. Process
development of ready-to-eat chilled oyster meat was conducted by
shucking the meat, individually packed in plastic bags, subjected to 1
kGy gamma radiation at chilled condition and then stored in 4oC
refrigerated temperature. Microbiological determination showed the
absence of S. Weltevreden (5 log CFU/g initial inoculated) along the
whole storage time of 30 days. Sensory evaluation indicated the
decreasing in sensory scores along storage time which determining
the product shelf life to be 18 days compared to 15 days of nonirradiated
one. The most advantage of developed process was to
provide the safe raw oyster to consumers and in addition sensory
quality retained and 3-day extension shelf life also exist.
Abstract: The subcellular organelles called oil bodies (OBs) are lipid-filled quasi-spherical droplets produced from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and then released into the cytoplasm during seed development. It is believed that an OB grows by coalescence with other OBs and that its stability depends on the composition of oleosins, major proteins inserted in the hemi membrane that covers OBs. In this study, we measured the OB-volume distribution from different genotypes of A. thaliana after 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 days of seed development. In order to test the hypothesis of OBs dynamics, we developed a simple mathematical model using non-linear differential equations inspired from the theory of coagulation. The model describes the evolution of OB-volume distribution during the first steps of seed development by taking into consideration the production of OBs, the increase of triacylglycerol volume to be stored, and the growth by coalescence of OBs. Fitted parameters values show an increase in the OB production and coalescence rates in A. thaliana oleosin mutants compared to wild type.