Abstract: The increasing usage of antibiotics in the animal
farming industry is an emerging worldwide problem contributing to
the development of antibiotic resistance. The purpose of this work was
to investigate the prevalence and antibiotic resistance profile of
bacterial isolates collected from aquatic environments and meats in a
peri-urban community in Daejeon, Korea. In an antibacterial
susceptibility test, the bacterial isolates showed a high incidence of
resistance (~ 26.04 %) to cefazolin, tetracycline, gentamycin,
norfloxacin, erythromycin and vancomycin. The results from a test for
multiple antibiotic resistance indicated that the isolates were
displaying an approximately 5-fold increase in the incidence of
multiple antibiotic resistance to combinations of two different
antibiotics compared to combinations of three or more antibiotics.
Most of the isolates showed multi-antibiotic resistance, and the
resistance patterns were similar among the sampling groups.
Sequencing data analysis of 16S rRNA showed that most of the
resistant isolates appeared to be dominated by the classes
Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria in the phylum
Proteobacteria.
Abstract: The major goal in defining and examining game
scenarios is to find good strategies as solutions to the game. A
plausible solution is a recommendation to the players on how to play
the game, which is represented as strategies guided by the various
choices available to the players. These choices invariably compel the
players (decision makers) to execute an action following some
conscious tactics. In this paper, we proposed a refinement-based
heuristic as a machine learning technique for human-like decision
making in playing Ayo game. The result showed that our machine
learning technique is more adaptable and more responsive in making
decision than human intelligence. The technique has the advantage
that a search is astutely conducted in a shallow horizon game tree.
Our simulation was tested against Awale shareware and an appealing
result was obtained.
Abstract: The Swine flu outbreak in humans is due to a new
strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that derives in part from
human influenza, avian influenza, and two separated strains of swine
influenza. It can be transmitted from human to human. A
mathematical model for the transmission of Swine flu is developed in
which the human populations are divided into two classes, the risk
and non-risk human classes. Each class is separated into susceptible,
exposed, infectious, quarantine and recovered sub-classes. In this
paper, we formulate the dynamical model of Swine flu transmission
and the repetitive contacts between the people are also considered.
We analyze the behavior for the transmission of this disease. The
Threshold condition of this disease is found and numerical results are
shown to confirm our theoretical predictions.
Abstract: Studies regarding the determination of population
trend of Lipaphis erysimi (kalt.) and its associated natural enemies in
different Brassica lines along with the effect of gamma radiation on
their population were conducted at Agricultural Research Farm,
Malakandher, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Agricultural University
Peshawar during spring 2006. Three different Brassica lines F6B3,
F6B6 and F6B7 were used, which were replicated four times in
Randomized Complete Block Design. The data revealed that aphid
infestation invariably stated in all three varieties during last week of
February 2006 (1st observation). The peak population of 4.39 aphids
leaf-1 was s recorded during 2nd week of March and lowest population
of 1.02 aphids leaf-1 was recorded during 5th week of March. The
species of lady bird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) and Syrphid
fly (Syrphus balteatus) first appeared on 24th February with a mean
number of 0.40 lady bird beetle leaf-1 and 0.87 Syrphid fly leaf-1,
respectively. At the time when aphid population started to increase
the peak population of C. septempunctata (0.70 lady bird beetle leaf-
1) and S. balteatus (1.04 syrphid fly leaf-1) was recorded on the 2nd
week of March. Chrysoperla carnea appeared in the 1st week of
March and their peak population was recorded during the 3rd week of
March with mean population of 1.46 C. carnea leaf-1. Among all the
Brassica lines, F6B7 showed comparatively more resistance as
compared to F6B3 F6B6. F6B3 showed least resistance against L.
erysimi, which was found to be the most susceptible cultivar. F6B7
was also found superior in terms of natural enemies. Maximum
number of all natural enemies was recorded on this variety followed
by F6B6. Lowest number of natural enemies was recorded in F6B3.
No significant effect was recorded for the effect of gamma radiation
on the population of aphids, natural enemies and on the varieties.
Abstract: Bicycle configuration is not as large as those of motorcycles or automobiles, while it indeed composes a complicated dynamic system. People-s requirements on comfortability, controllability and safety grow higher as the research and development technologies improve. The shock absorber affects the vehicle suspension performances enormously. The absorber takes the vibration energy and releases it at a suitable time, keeping the wheel under a proper contact condition with road surface, maintaining the vehicle chassis stability. Suspension design for mountain bicycles is more difficult than that of city bikes since it encounters dynamic variations on road and loading conditions. Riders need a stiff damper as they exert to tread on the pedals when climbing, while a soft damper when they descend downhill. Various switchable shock absorbers are proposed in markets, however riders have to manually switch them among soft, hard and lock positions. This study proposes a novel design of the bicycle shock absorber, which provides automatic smooth tuning of the damping coefficient, from a predetermined lower bound to theoretically unlimited. An automatic quick releasing valve is involved in this design so that it can release the peak pressure when the suspension fork runs into a square-wave type obstacle and prevent the chassis from damage, avoiding the rider skeleton from injury. This design achieves the automatic tuning process by innovative plunger valve and fluidic passage arrangements without any electronic devices. Theoretical modelling of the damper and spring are established in this study. Design parameters of the valves and fluidic passages are determined. Relations between design parameters and shock absorber performances are discussed in this paper. The analytical results give directions to the shock absorber manufacture.
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: 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: This paper proposes a declarative language for
knowledge representation (Ibn Rochd), and its environment of
exploitation (DeGSE). This DeGSE system was designed and
developed to facilitate Ibn Rochd writing applications. The system
was tested on several knowledge bases by ascending complexity,
culminating in a system for recognition of a plant or a tree, and
advisors to purchase a car, for pedagogical and academic guidance,
or for bank savings and credit. Finally, the limits of the language and
research perspectives are stated.
Abstract: The service sector continues to grow and the percentage
of GDP accounted for by service industries keeps increasing. The
growth and importance of service to an economy is not just a
phenomenon of advanced economies, service is now a majority of the
world gross domestic products. However, the performance evaluation
process of new service development problems generally involves
uncertain and imprecise data. This paper presents a 2-tuple fuzzy
linguistic computing approach to dealing with heterogeneous
information and information loss problems while the processes of
subjective evaluation integration. The proposed method based on group
decision-making scenario to assist business managers in measuring
performance of new service development manipulates the
heterogeneity integration processes and avoids the information loss
effectively.
Abstract: The original idea for a feature film may come from a
writer, director or a producer. Director is the person responsible for
the creative aspects, both interpretive and technical, of a motion
picture production in a film. Director may be shot discussing his
project with his or her cowriters, members of production staff, and
producer, and director may be shown selecting locales or
constructing sets. All these activities provide, of course, ways of
externalizing director-s ideas about the film. A director sometimes
pushes both the film image and techniques of narration to new artistic
limits, but main responsibility of director is take the spectator to an
original opinion in his philosophical approach. Director tries to find
an artistic angle in every scene and change screenplay into an
effective story and sets his film on a spiritual and philosophical base.
Abstract: The optimal control problem for the viscoelastic melt
spinning process has not been reported yet in the literature. In this
study, an optimal control problem for a mathematical model of a
viscoelastic melt spinning process is considered. Maxwell-Oldroyd
model is used to describe the rheology of the polymeric material, the
fiber is made of. The extrusion velocity of the polymer at the spinneret
as well as the velocity and the temperature of the quench air and the
fiber length serve as control variables. A constrained optimization
problem is derived and the first–order optimality system is set up
to obtain the adjoint equations. Numerical solutions are carried out
using a steepest descent algorithm. A computer program in MATLAB
is developed for simulations.
Abstract: This research contribution is drafted to present the
orbit design, orbit propagator and geomagnetic field estimator for the
nanosatellites specifically for the upcoming CUBESAT, ICUBE-1 of
the Institute of Space Technology (IST), Islamabad, Pakistan. The
ICUBE mission is designed for the low earth orbit at the approximate
height of 700KM. The presented research endeavor designs the
Keplarian elements for ICUBE-1 orbit while incorporating the
mission requirements and propagates the orbit using J2 perturbations,
The attitude determination system of the ICUBE-1 consists of
attitude determination sensors like magnetometer and sun sensor. The
Geomagnetic field estimator is developed according to the model of
International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) for comparing the
magnetic field measurements by the magnetometer for attitude
determination. The output of the propagator namely the Keplarians
position and velocity vectors and the magnetic field vectors are
compared and verified with the same scenario generated in the
Satellite Tool Kit (STK).
Abstract: Proper management of residues originated from
industrial activities is considered as one of the serious challenges
faced by industrial societies due to their potential hazards to the
environment. Common disposal methods for industrial solid wastes
(ISWs) encompass various combinations of solely management
options, i.e. recycling, incineration, composting, and sanitary
landfilling. Indeed, the procedure used to evaluate and nominate the
best practical methods should be based on environmental, technical,
economical, and social assessments. In this paper an environmentaltechnical
assessment model is developed using analytical network
process (ANP) to facilitate the decision making practice for ISWs
generated at Gilan province, Iran. Using the results of performed
surveys on industrial units located at Gilan, the various groups of
solid wastes in the research area were characterized, and four
different ISW management scenarios were studied. The evaluation
process was conducted using the above-mentioned model in the
Super Decisions software (version 2.0.8) environment. The results
indicates that the best ISW management scenario for Gilan province
is consist of recycling the metal industries residues, composting the
putrescible portion of ISWs, combustion of paper, wood, fabric and
polymeric wastes as well as energy extraction in the incineration
plant, and finally landfilling the rest of the waste stream in addition
with rejected materials from recycling and compost production plants
and ashes from the incineration unit.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to present a non invasive
method for the marginal adaptation evaluation in class V composite
restorations. Standardized class V cavities, prepared in human
extracted teeth, were filled with Premise (Kerr) composite. The
specimens were thermo cycled. The interfaces were examined by
Optical Coherence Tomography method (OCT) combined with the
confocal microscopy and fluorescence. The optical configuration
uses two single mode directional couplers with a superluminiscent
diode as the source at 1300 nm. The scanning procedure is similar to
that used in any confocal microscope, where the fast scanning is enface
(line rate) and the depth scanning is much slower (at the frame
rate). Gaps at the interfaces as well as inside the composite resin
materials were identified. OCT has numerous advantages which
justify its use in vivo as well as in vitro in comparison with
conventional techniques.
Abstract: In this paper, a new approach based on the extent of
friendship between the nodes is proposed which makes the nodes to
co-operate in an ad hoc environment. The extended DSR protocol is
tested under different scenarios by varying the number of malicious
nodes and node moving speed. It is also tested varying the number of
nodes in simulation used. The result indicates the achieved
throughput by extended DSR is greater than the standard DSR and
indicates the percentage of malicious drops over total drops are less
in the case of extended DSR than the standard DSR.
Abstract: The challenge for software development house in
Bangladesh is to find a path of using minimum process rather than CMMI or ISO type gigantic practice and process area. The small and medium size organization in Bangladesh wants to ensure minimum
basic Software Process Improvement (SPI) in day to day operational
activities. Perhaps, the basic practices will ensure to realize their company's improvement goals. This paper focuses on the key issues in basic software practices for small and medium size software
organizations, who are unable to effort the CMMI, ISO, ITIL etc. compliance certifications. This research also suggests a basic software process practices model for Bangladesh and it will show the mapping of our suggestions with international best practice. In this IT
competitive world for software process improvement, Small and medium size software companies that require collaboration and
strengthening to transform their current perspective into inseparable global IT scenario. This research performed some investigations and analysis on some projects- life cycle, current good practice, effective approach, reality and pain area of practitioners, etc. We did some
reasoning, root cause analysis, comparative analysis of various
approach, method, practice and justifications of CMMI and real life. We did avoid reinventing the wheel, where our focus is for minimal
practice, which will ensure a dignified satisfaction between
organizations and software customer.
Abstract: In the recent years multimedia traffic and in particular
VoIP services are growing dramatically. We present a new algorithm
to control the resource utilization and to optimize the voice codec
selection during SIP call setup on behalf of the traffic condition
estimated on the network path.
The most suitable methodologies and the tools that perform realtime
evaluation of the available bandwidth on a network path have
been integrated with our proposed algorithm: this selects the best
codec for a VoIP call in function of the instantaneous available
bandwidth on the path. The algorithm does not require any explicit
feedback from the network, and this makes it easily deployable over
the Internet. We have also performed intensive tests on real network
scenarios with a software prototype, verifying the algorithm
efficiency with different network topologies and traffic patterns
between two SIP PBXs.
The promising results obtained during the experimental validation
of the algorithm are now the basis for the extension towards a larger
set of multimedia services and the integration of our methodology
with existing PBX appliances.
Abstract: this paper presents a multi-context recurrent network for time series analysis. While simple recurrent network (SRN) are very popular among recurrent neural networks, they still have some shortcomings in terms of learning speed and accuracy that need to be addressed. To solve these problems, we proposed a multi-context recurrent network (MCRN) with three different learning algorithms. The performance of this network is evaluated on some real-world application such as handwriting recognition and energy load forecasting. We study the performance of this network and we compared it to a very well established SRN. The experimental results showed that MCRN is very efficient and very well suited to time series analysis and its applications.
Abstract: Physical urban form is recognized to be the media for
human transactions. It directly influences the travel demand of people
in a specific urban area and the amount of energy used for
transportation. Distorted, sprawling form often creates sustainability
problems in urban areas. It is declared in EU strategic planning
documents that compact urban form and mixed land use pattern must
be given the main focus to achieve better sustainability in urban
areas, but the methods to measure and compare these characteristics
are still not clear.
This paper presents the simple methods to measure the spatial
characteristics of urban form by analyzing the location and
distribution of objects in an urban environment. The extended CA
(cellular automata) model is used to simulate urban development
scenarios.
Abstract: Fluorescent and WOLED are widely used because it consumes less energy. However, both lamps cause a harmonics because it has semiconductors components. Harmonic is a distorted sinusoidal electric wave and cause excess heat. This study compares the amount of harmonics generated by both lamps. The test shows that both lamps have THDv(Total Harmonics Distortion of Voltage) almost the same with average 2.5% while the average of WOLED's THDi(Total Harmonics Distortion of Current) is lower than fluorescent has. The average WOLED's THDi is 29.10 % and fluorescent's 'THDi is 87. 23 %.