Abstract: This paper presents the results of an experimental
investigation carried out to evaluate the shrinkage of High Strength
Concrete. High Strength Concrete is made by partially replacement of
cement by flyash and silica fume. The shrinkage of High Strength
Concrete has been studied using the different types of coarse and fine
aggregates i.e. Sandstone and Granite of 12.5 mm size and Yamuna
and Badarpur Sand. The Mix proportion of concrete is 1:0.8:2.2 with
water cement ratio as 0.30. Superplasticizer dose @ of 2% by weight
of cement is added to achieve the required degree of workability in
terms of compaction factor.
From the test results of the above investigation it can be concluded
that the shrinkage strain of High Strength Concrete increases with
age. The shrinkage strain of concrete with replacement of cement by
10% of Flyash and Silica fume respectively at various ages are more
(6 to 10%) than the shrinkage strain of concrete without Flyash and
Silica fume. The shrinkage strain of concrete with Badarpur sand as
Fine aggregate at 90 days is slightly less (10%) than that of concrete
with Yamuna Sand. Further, the shrinkage strain of concrete with
Granite as Coarse aggregate at 90 days is slightly less (6 to 7%) than
that of concrete with Sand stone as aggregate of same size. The
shrinkage strain of High Strength Concrete is also compared with that
of normal strength concrete. Test results show that the shrinkage
strain of high strength concrete is less than that of normal strength
concrete.
Abstract: Fuzzy logic can be used when knowledge is
incomplete or when ambiguity of data exists. The purpose of
this paper is to propose a proactive fuzzy set- based model for
reacting to the risk inherent in investment activities relative to
a complete view of portfolio management. Fuzzy rules are
given where, depending on the antecedents, the portfolio size
may be slightly or significantly decreased or increased. The
decision maker considers acceptable bounds on the proportion
of acceptable risk and return. The Fuzzy Controller model
allows learning to be achieved as 1) the firing strength of each
rule is measured, 2) fuzzy output allows rules to be updated,
and 3) new actions are recommended as the system continues
to loop. An extension is given to the fuzzy controller that
evaluates potential financial loss before adjusting the
portfolio. An application is presented that illustrates the
algorithm and extension developed in the paper.
Abstract: For the electrical metrics that describe photovoltaic
cell performance are inherently multivariate in nature, use of a
univariate, or one variable, statistical process control chart can have
important limitations. Development of a comprehensive process
control strategy is known to be significantly beneficial to reducing
process variability that ultimately drives up the manufacturing cost
photovoltaic cells. The multivariate moving average or MMA chart,
is applied to the electrical metrics of photovoltaic cells to illustrate
the improved sensitivity on process variability this method of control
charting offers. The result show the ability of the MMA chart to
expand to as any variables as needed, suggests an application
with multiple photovoltaic electrical metrics being used in
concert to determine the processes state of control.
Abstract: We describe a novel method for removing noise (in wavelet domain) of unknown variance from microarrays. The method is based on a smoothing of the coefficients of the highest subbands. Specifically, we decompose the noisy microarray into wavelet subbands, apply smoothing within each highest subband, and reconstruct a microarray from the modified wavelet coefficients. This process is applied a single time, and exclusively to the first level of decomposition, i.e., in most of the cases, it is not necessary a multirresoltuion analysis. Denoising results compare favorably to the most of methods in use at the moment.
Abstract: We consider a typical problem in the assembly of
printed circuit boards (PCBs) in a two-machine flow shop system to
simultaneously minimize the weighted sum of weighted tardiness and
weighted flow time. The investigated problem is a group scheduling
problem in which PCBs are assembled in groups and the interest is to
find the best sequence of groups as well as the boards within each
group to minimize the objective function value. The type of setup
operation between any two board groups is characterized as carryover
sequence-dependent setup time, which exactly matches with the real
application of this problem. As a technical constraint, all of the
boards must be kitted before the assembly operation starts (kitting
operation) and by kitting staff. The main idea developed in this paper
is to completely eliminate the role of kitting staff by assigning the
task of kitting to the machine operator during the time he is idle
which is referred to as integration of internal (machine) and external
(kitting) setup times. Performing the kitting operation, which is a
preparation process of the next set of boards while the other boards
are currently being assembled, results in the boards to continuously
enter the system or have dynamic arrival times. Consequently, a
dynamic PCB assembly system is introduced for the first time in the
assembly of PCBs, which also has characteristics similar to that of
just-in-time manufacturing. The problem investigated is
computationally very complex, meaning that finding the optimal
solutions especially when the problem size gets larger is impossible.
Thus, a heuristic based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed. An
example problem on the application of the GA developed is
demonstrated and also numerical results of applying the GA on
solving several instances are provided.
Abstract: Many corporations are seriously concerned about
security of networks and therefore, their network supervisors are still
reluctant to install WLANs. In this regards, the IEEE802.11i standard
was developed to address the security problems, even though the
mistrust of the wireless LAN technology is still existing. The thought
was that the best security solutions could be found in open standards
based technologies that can be delivered by Virtual Private
Networking (VPN) being used for long time without addressing any
security holes for the past few years. This work, addresses this issue
and presents a simulated wireless LAN of IEEE802.11g protocol, and
analyzes impact of integrating Virtual Private Network technology to
secure the flow of traffic between the client and the server within the
LAN, using OPNET WLAN utility. Two Wireless LAN scenarios
have been introduced and simulated. These are based on normal
extension to a wired network and VPN over extension to a wired
network. The results of the two scenarios are compared and indicate
the impact of improving performance, measured by response time
and load, of Virtual Private Network over wireless LAN.
Abstract: Software maintenance and mainly software
comprehension pose the largest costs in the software lifecycle. In
order to assess the cost of software comprehension, various
complexity measures have been proposed in the literature. This paper
proposes new cognitive-spatial complexity measures, which combine
the impact of spatial as well as architectural aspect of the software to
compute the software complexity. The spatial aspect of the software
complexity is taken into account using the lexical distances (in
number of lines of code) between different program elements and the
architectural aspect of the software complexity is taken into
consideration using the cognitive weights of control structures
present in control flow of the program. The proposed measures are
evaluated using standard axiomatic frameworks and then, the
proposed measures are compared with the corresponding existing
cognitive complexity measures as well as the spatial complexity
measures for object-oriented software. This study establishes that the
proposed measures are better indicators of the cognitive effort
required for software comprehension than the other existing
complexity measures for object-oriented software.
Abstract: These days wireless local area networks has become
very popular, when the initial IEEE802.11 is the standard for
providing wireless connectivity to automatic machinery, equipment
and stations that require rapid deployment, which may be portable,
handheld or which may be mounted on moving vehicles within a
local area. IEEE802.11 Wireless local area network is a sharedmedium
communication network that transmits information over
wireless links for all IEEE802.11 stations in its transmission range to
receive. When a user is moving from one location to another, how
the other user knows about the required station inside WLAN. For
that we designed and implemented a system to locate a mobile user
inside the wireless local area network based on RSSI with the help of
four specially designed architectures. These architectures are based
on statistical or we can say manual configuration of mapping and
radio map of indoor and outdoor location with the help of available
Sniffer based and cluster based techniques. We found a better
location of a mobile user in WLAN. We tested this work in indoor
and outdoor environments with different locations with the help of
Pamvotis, a simulator for WLAN.
Abstract: This paper aims to select the optimal location and
setting parameters of TCSC (Thyristor Controlled Series
Compensator) controller using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
and Genetic Algorithm (GA) to mitigate small signal oscillations in a
multimachine power system. Though Power System Stabilizers
(PSSs) are prime choice in this issue, installation of FACTS device
has been suggested here in order to achieve appreciable damping of
system oscillations. However, performance of any FACTS devices
highly depends upon its parameters and suitable location in the
power network. In this paper PSO as well as GA based techniques are
used separately and compared their performances to investigate this
problem. The results of small signal stability analysis have been
represented employing eigenvalue as well as time domain response in
face of two common power system disturbances e.g., varying load
and transmission line outage. It has been revealed that the PSO based
TCSC controller is more effective than GA based controller even
during critical loading condition.
Abstract: At the previous study of new metal gasket, contact
width and contact stress were important design parameter for
optimizing metal gasket performance. However, the range of contact
stress had not been investigated thoroughly. In this study, we
conducted a gasket design optimization based on an elastic and plastic
contact stress analysis considering forming effect using FEM. The
gasket model was simulated by using two simulation stages which is
forming and tightening simulation. The optimum design based on an
elastic and plastic contact stress was founded. Final evaluation was
determined by helium leak quantity to check leakage performance of
both type of gaskets. The helium leak test shows that a gasket based
on the plastic contact stress design better than based on elastic stress
design.
Abstract: In this research, an anaerobic co-digestion using decanter cake from palm oil mill industry to improve the biogas production from frozen seafood wastewater is studied using Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) process. The experiments were conducted in laboratory-scale. The suitable Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) was observed in CSTR experiments with 24 hours of mixing time using the mechanical mixer. The HRT of CSTR process impacts on the efficiency of biogas production. The best performance for biogas production using CSTR process was the anaerobic codigestion for 20 days of HRT with the maximum methane production rate of 1.86 l/d and the average maximum methane production of 64.6%. The result can be concluded that the decanter cake can improve biogas productivity of frozen seafood wastewater.
Abstract: Employing a recently introduced unified adaptive filter
theory, we show how the performance of a large number of important
adaptive filter algorithms can be predicted within a general framework
in nonstationary environment. This approach is based on energy conservation
arguments and does not need to assume a Gaussian or white
distribution for the regressors. This general performance analysis can
be used to evaluate the mean square performance of the Least Mean
Square (LMS) algorithm, its normalized version (NLMS), the family
of Affine Projection Algorithms (APA), the Recursive Least Squares
(RLS), the Data-Reusing LMS (DR-LMS), its normalized version
(NDR-LMS), the Block Least Mean Squares (BLMS), the Block
Normalized LMS (BNLMS), the Transform Domain Adaptive Filters
(TDAF) and the Subband Adaptive Filters (SAF) in nonstationary
environment. Also, we establish the general expressions for the
steady-state excess mean square in this environment for all these
adaptive algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate through simulations that
these results are useful in predicting the adaptive filter performance.
Abstract: This article provides partial evaluation index and its
standard of sports aerobics, including the following 12 indexes: health
vitality, coordination, flexibility, accuracy, pace, endurance, elasticity,
self-confidence, form, control, uniformity and musicality. The
three-layer BP artificial neural network model including input layer,
hidden layer and output layer is established. The result shows that the
model can well reflect the non-linear relationship between the
performance of 12 indexes and the overall performance. The predicted
value of each sample is very close to the true value, with a relative
error fluctuating around of 5%, and the network training is successful.
It shows that BP network has high prediction accuracy and good
generalization capacity if being applied in sports aerobics performance
evaluation after effective training.
Abstract: Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is widely used today in the areas of geodesy and topography as well as in aeronautics mainly for military purposes. Due to the military usage of GPS, full access and use of this technology is being denied to the civilian user who must then work with a less accurate version. In this paper we focus on the estimation of the receiver coordinates ( X, Y, Z ) and its clock bias ( δtr ) of a fixed point based on pseudorange measurements of a single GPS receiver. Utilizing the instantaneous coordinates of just 4 satellites and their clock offsets, by taking into account the atmospheric delays, we are able to derive a set of pseudorange equations. The estimation of the four unknowns ( X, Y, Z , δtr ) is achieved by introducing an extended Kalman filter that processes, off-line, all the data collected from the receiver. Higher performance of position accuracy is attained by appropriate tuning of the filter noise parameters and by including other forms of biases.
Abstract: Hearing impairment is the number one chronic
disability affecting many people in the world. Background noise is
particularly damaging to speech intelligibility for people with
hearing loss especially for sensorineural loss patients. Several
investigations on speech intelligibility have demonstrated
sensorineural loss patients need 5-15 dB higher SNR than the normal
hearing subjects. This paper describes Discrete Hartley Transform
Power Normalized Least Mean Square algorithm (DHT-LMS) to
improve the SNR and to reduce the convergence rate of the Least
Means Square (LMS) for sensorineural loss patients. The DHT
transforms n real numbers to n real numbers, and has the convenient
property of being its own inverse. It can be effectively used for noise
cancellation with less convergence time. The simulated result shows
the superior characteristics by improving the SNR at least 9 dB for
input SNR with zero dB and faster convergence rate (eigenvalue ratio
12) compare to time domain method and DFT-LMS.
Abstract: Dexamethasone (Dex) is a synthetic glucocorticoid
that is used in therapy. However prolonged treatments with high
doses are often required. This causes side effects that interfere with
the activity of several endocrine systems, including the gonadotropic
axis.
The aim of our study is to determine the effect of Dex on testicular
function in prepubertal Wistar rats.
Newborn Wistar rats are submitted to intraperitoneal injection of
Dex (1μg of Dex dissolved in NaCl 0.9% / 5g bw) for 20 days and
then sacrificed at the age of 40days. A control group received NaCl
0.9%. The rat is weighed daily. The plasmatic levels of testosterone,
LH and FSH were measured by radioimmunoassay. A histomorphometric
study was performed on sections of testis.
Treated groups showed a significant decrease in body weight (p
Abstract: Understanding the number of people and the flow of
the persons is useful for efficient promotion of the institution
managements and company-s sales improvements. This paper
introduces an automated method for counting passerby using virtualvertical
measurement lines. The process of recognizing a passerby is
carried out using an image sequence obtained from the USB camera.
Space-time image is representing the human regions which are
treated using the segmentation process. To handle the problem of
mismatching, different color space are used to perform the template
matching which chose automatically the best matching to determine
passerby direction and speed. A relation between passerby speed and
the human-pixel area is used to distinguish one or two passersby. In
the experiment, the camera is fixed at the entrance door of the hall in
a side viewing position. Finally, experimental results verify the
effectiveness of the presented method by correctly detecting and
successfully counting them in order to direction with accuracy of
97%.
Abstract: Hand gesture is one of the typical methods used in
sign language for non-verbal communication. It is most commonly
used by people who have hearing or speech problems to
communicate among themselves or with normal people. Various sign
language systems have been developed by manufacturers around the
globe but they are neither flexible nor cost-effective for the end
users. This paper presents a system prototype that is able to
automatically recognize sign language to help normal people to
communicate more effectively with the hearing or speech impaired
people. The Sign to Voice system prototype, S2V, was developed
using Feed Forward Neural Network for two-sequence signs
detection. Different sets of universal hand gestures were captured
from video camera and utilized to train the neural network for
classification purpose. The experimental results have shown that
neural network has achieved satisfactory result for sign-to-voice
translation.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of
EBV infection in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma (NHL) occurring in Jordanian patients. A total of 55
patients with lymphoma were examined in this study. Of 55 patients,
30 and 25 were diagnosed as HL and NHL, respectively. The four
HL subtypes were observed with the majority of the cases exhibited
the mixed cellularity (MC) subtype followed by the nodular sclerosis
(NS). The high grade was found to be the commonest subtype of
NHL in our sample, followed by the low grade. The presence of EBV
virus was detected by immunostating for expression of latent
membrane protein-1 (LMP-1). The frequency of LMP-1 expression
occurred more frequent in patients with HL (60.0%) than in patients
with NHL (32.0%). The frequency of LMP-1 expression was also
higher in patients with MC subtype (61.11%) than those patients with
NS (28.57%). No age or gender difference in occurrence of EBV
infection was observed among patient with HL. By contrast, the
prevalence of EBV infection in NHL patients aged below 50 was
lower (16.66%) than in NHL patients aged 50 or above (46.15%). In
addition, EBV infection was more frequent in females with NHL
(38.46%) than in male with NHL (25%). In NHL cases, the
frequency of EBV infection in intermediate grade (60.0%) was high
when compared with frequency of low (25%) or high grades (25%).
In conclusion, analysis of LMP-1 expression indicates an important
role for this viral oncogene in the pathogenesis of EBV-associated
malignant lymphomas. These data also support the previous findings
that people with EBV may develop lymphoma and that efforts to
maintain low lymphoma should be considered for people with EBV
infection.
Abstract: Organizations are supposed to be systems and
consequently require defining the notion of equilibrium within.
However, organizations comprise people and unavoidably entail their
irrational aspects. Then, the question is what is the organizational
equilibrium and equilibrating mechanisms considering these aspects.
Hence, some arguments are provided here to conceptualize human
unconsciousness, irrationalities and consequent uncertainties within
organizations in the form of a system of psychic dynamism. The
assumption is this dynamism maintains the psychic balance of the
organization through a psychodynamic point of view. The resultant
conceptualization expected to promote the understanding of such
aspects in different organizational settings by hypothesizing
organizational equilibration from this perspective. As a result, the
main expectation is, if it is known that how the organization
equilibrates in this sense, we can explain and deal with such
irrationalities and unconsciousness by rational and, of course
conscious, planning and accomplishing.