Abstract: A suspension bridge is the most suitable type of structure for a long-span bridge due to rational use of structural materials. Increased deformability, which is conditioned by appearance of the elastic and kinematic displacements, is the major disadvantage of suspension bridges. The problem of increased kinematic displacements under the action of non-symmetrical load can be solved by prestressing. The prestressed suspension bridge with the span of 200 m was considered as an object of investigations. The cable truss with the cross web was considered as the main load carrying structure of the prestressed suspension bridge. The considered cable truss was optimized by 47 variable factors using Genetic algorithm and FEM program ANSYS. It was stated, that the maximum total displacements are reduced up to 29.9% by using of the cable truss with the rational characteristics instead of the single cable in the case of the worst situated load.
Abstract: The aim of research project is to evaluate quantity and
quality for conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water in lower
in the Lower Nam Kam area, Thailand, even though there have been
hints of saline soil and water. The mathematical model named
WUSMO and MIKE Basin were applied for the calculation of crop
water utilization. Results of the study showed that, in irrigation
command area, water consumption rely on various sources; rain water
21.56%, irrigation water 78.29%, groundwater and some small surface
storage 0.15%. Meanwhile, for non-irrigation command area, water
consumption depends on the Nam Kam and Nambang stream 42%,
rain water 36.75% and groundwater and some small surface storage
19.18%. Samples of surface water and groundwater were collected for
2 seasons. The criterion was determined for the assessment of suitable
water for irrigation. It was found that this area has very limited sources
of suitable water for irrigation.
Abstract: Engineered nanoparticles’ usage rapidly increased in
various applications in the last decade due to their unusual properties.
However, there is an ever increasing concern to understand their
toxicological effect in human health. Particularly, metal and metal
oxide nanoparticles have been used in various sectors including
biomedical, food and agriculture. But their impact on human health is
yet to be fully understood. In this present investigation, we assessed
the toxic effect of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) including Ag,
MgO and Co3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) on human mesenchymal stem
cells (hMSC) adopting cell viability and cellular morphological
changes as tools The results suggested that silver NPs are more toxic
than MgO and Co3O4NPs. The ENPs induced cytotoxicity and
nuclear morphological changes in hMSC depending on dose. The cell
viability decreases with increase in concentration of ENPs. The
cellular morphology studies revealed that ENPs damaged the cells.
These preliminary findings have implications for the use of these
nanoparticles in food industry with systematic regulations.
Abstract: The Boundary Representation of a 3D manifold contains
FACES (connected subsets of a parametric surface S : R2 -!
R3). In many science and engineering applications it is cumbersome
and algebraically difficult to deal with the polynomial set and
constraints (LOOPs) representing the FACE. Because of this reason, a
Piecewise Linear (PL) approximation of the FACE is needed, which is
usually represented in terms of triangles (i.e. 2-simplices). Solving the
problem of FACE triangulation requires producing quality triangles
which are: (i) independent of the arguments of S, (ii) sensitive to the
local curvatures, and (iii) compliant with the boundaries of the FACE
and (iv) topologically compatible with the triangles of the neighboring
FACEs. In the existing literature there are no guarantees for the point
(iii). This article contributes to the topic of triangulations conforming
to the boundaries of the FACE by applying the concept of parameterindependent
Gabriel complex, which improves the correctness of the
triangulation regarding aspects (iii) and (iv). In addition, the article
applies the geometric concept of tangent ball to a surface at a point to
address points (i) and (ii). Additional research is needed in algorithms
that (i) take advantage of the concepts presented in the heuristic
algorithm proposed and (ii) can be proved correct.
Abstract: Most, if not all, public hospitals in Thailand have encountered a common problem regarding the increasing demand for medical services. The increasing number of patients causes so much strain on the hospital-s services, over-crowded, overloaded working hours, staff fatigue, medical error and long waiting time. This research studied the characteristics of operational processes of the medical care services at the medicine department in a large public university hospital. The research focuses on details regarding methods, procedures, processes, resources, and time management in overall processes. The simulation model is used as a tool to analyze the impact of various improvement strategies.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new algebraic scheme to design a PID controller for higher order linear time invariant continuous systems. Modified PSO (MPSO) based model order formulation techniques have applied to obtain the effective formulated second order system. A controller is tuned to meet the desired performance specification by using pole-zero cancellation method. Proposed PID controller is attached with both higher order system and formulated second order system. The closed loop response is observed for stabilization process and compared with general PSO based formulated second order system. The proposed method is illustrated through numerical example from literature.
Abstract: Because of architectural condition and structure application, sometimes mass source and stiffness source are not coincidence, and the structure is irregular. The structure is also might be asymmetric as an asymmetric bracing in plan which leads to unbalance distribution of stiffness or because of unbalance distribution of the mass. Both condition lead to eccentricity and torsion in the structure. The deficiency of ordinary code to evaluate the performance of steel structures against earthquake has been caused designing based on performance level or capacity spectrum be used. By using the mentioned methods it is possible to design a structure that its behavior against different earthquakes be predictive. In this article 5- story buildings with different percentage of asymmetric which is because of stiffness changes have been designed. The static and dynamic nonlinear analysis under three acceleration recording has been done. Finally performance level of the structure has been evaluated.
Abstract: In April 2009, a new variant of Influenza A virus
subtype H1N1 emerged in Mexico and spread all over the world. The
influenza has three subtypes in human (H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2)
Types B and C influenza tend to be associated with local or regional
epidemics. Preliminary genetic characterization of the influenza
viruses has identified them as swine influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
Nucleotide sequence analysis of the Haemagglutinin (HA) and
Neuraminidase (NA) are similar to each other and the majority of
their genes of swine influenza viruses, two genes coding for the
neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M) proteins are similar to
corresponding genes of swine influenza. Sequence similarity between
the 2009 A (H1N1) virus and its nearest relatives indicates that its
gene segments have been circulating undetected for an extended
period. Nucleic acid sequence Maximum Likelihood (MCL) and
DNA Empirical base frequencies, Phylogenetic relationship amongst
the HA genes of H1N1 virus isolated in Genbank having high
nucleotide sequence homology.
In this paper we used 16 HA nucleotide sequences from NCBI for
computing sequence relationships similarity of swine influenza A
virus using the following method MCL the result is 28%, 36.64% for
Optimal tree with the sum of branch length, 35.62% for Interior
branch phylogeny Neighber – Join Tree, 1.85% for the overall
transition/transversion, and 8.28% for Overall mean distance.
Abstract: In this paper, we consider the design of pulse shaping
filter using orthogonal Hermite-Rodriguez basis functions. The pulse
shaping filter design problem has been formulated and solved as a
quadratic programming problem with linear inequality constraints.
Compared with the existing approaches reported in the literature, the
use of Hermite-Rodriguez functions offers an effective alternative to
solve the constrained filter synthesis problem. This is demonstrated
through a numerical example which is concerned with the design of
an equalization filter for a digital transmission channel.
Abstract: In this paper our aim is to explore the construction of schoolgirl femininities, drawing on the results of an ethnographic study conducted in a high school in Ankara, Turkey. In this case study which tries to explore the complexities of gender discourses, we were initially motivated by the questions that have been put forward by critical and feminist literature on education which emphasize the necessarily conflicting and partial nature of both reproduction and resistance and the importance of gendered power relations in the school context. Drawing on this paradigm our research tries to address to a more specific question: how are multiple schoolgirl femininities constructed within the context of gendered school culture, and especially in relation to hegemonic masculinity? Our study reveals that the general framework of multiple femininities is engendered by a tension between two inter-related positions. The first one is different strategies of accommodation and resistance to the gender-related problems of education. The second one is the school experience of girls which is conditioned by their differential position vis-à-vis the masculine resistance culture that is dominant in the school.
Abstract: Impinging jets are used in various industrial areas as a cooling and drying technique. The current research is concerned with the means of improving the heat transfer for configurations with a minimum distance of the nozzle to the impingement surface. The impingement heat transfer is described using numerical methods over a wide range of parameters for an array of planar jets. These parameters include varying jet flow speed, width of nozzle, distance of nozzle, angle of the jet flow, velocity and geometry of the impingement surface. Normal pressure and shear stress are computed as additional parameters. Using dimensionless characteristic numbers the parameters and the results are correlated to gain generalized equations. The results demonstrate the effect of the investigated parameters on the flow.
Abstract: Automatic reading of handwritten cheque is a computationally
complex process and it plays an important role in financial
risk management. Machine vision and learning provide a viable
solution to this problem. Research effort has mostly been focused
on recognizing diverse pitches of cheques and demand drafts with an
identical outline. However most of these methods employ templatematching
to localize the pitches and such schemes could potentially
fail when applied to different types of outline maintained by the
bank. In this paper, the so-called outline problem is resolved by
a cheque information tree (CIT), which generalizes the localizing
method to extract active-region-of-entities. In addition, the weight
based density plot (WBDP) is performed to isolate text entities and
read complete pitches. Recognition is based on texture features using
neural classifiers. Legal amount is subsequently recognized by both
texture and perceptual features. A post-processing phase is invoked
to detect the incorrect readings by Type-2 grammar using the Turing
machine. The performance of the proposed system was evaluated
using cheque and demand drafts of 22 different banks. The test data
consists of a collection of 1540 leafs obtained from 10 different
account holders from each bank. Results show that this approach
can easily be deployed without significant design amendments.
Abstract: Analytical seismic response of multi-story building
supported on base isolation system is investigated under real
earthquake motion. The superstructure is idealized as a shear type
flexible building with lateral degree-of-freedom at each floor. The
force-deformation behaviour of the isolation system is modelled by
the bi-linear behaviour which can be effectively used to model all
isolation systems in practice. The governing equations of motion of
the isolated structural system are derived. The response of the system
is obtained numerically by step-by-method under three real recorded
earthquake motions and pulse motions associated in the near-fault
earthquake motion. The variation of the top floor acceleration, interstory
drift, base shear and bearing displacement of the isolated
building is studied under different initial stiffness of the bi-linear
isolation system. It was observed that the high initial stiffness of the
isolation system excites higher modes in base-isolated structure and
generate floor accelerations and story drift. Such behaviour of the
base-isolated building especially supported on sliding type of
isolation systems can be detrimental to sensitive equipment installed
in the building. On the other hand, the bearing displacement and base
shear found to reduce marginally with the increase of the initial
stiffness of the initial stiffness of the isolation system. Further, the
above behaviour of the base-isolated building was observed for
different parameters of the bearing (i.e. post-yield stiffness and
characteristic strength) and earthquake motions (i.e. real time history
as well as pulse type motion).
Abstract: The present energy situation and the concerns
about global warming has stimulated active research interest
in non-petroleum, carbon free compounds and non-polluting
fuels, particularly for transportation, power generation, and
agricultural sectors. Environmental concerns and limited
amount of petroleum fuels have caused interests in the
development of alternative fuels for internal combustion (IC)
engines. The petroleum crude reserves however, are declining
and consumption of transport fuels particularly in the
developing countries is increasing at high rates. Severe
shortage of liquid fuels derived from petroleum may be faced
in the second half of this century. Recently more and more
stringent environmental regulations being enacted in the USA
and Europe have led to the research and development
activities on clean alternative fuels. Among the gaseous fuels
hydrogen is considered to be one of the clean alternative fuel.
Hydrogen is an interesting candidate for future internal
combustion engine based power trains. In this experimental
investigation, the performance and combustion analysis were
carried out on a direct injection (DI) diesel engine using
hydrogen with diesel following the TMI(Time Manifold
Injection) technique at different injection timings of 10
degree,45 degree and 80 degree ATDC using an electronic
control unit (ECU) and injection durations were controlled.
Further, the tests have been carried out at a constant speed of
1500rpm at different load conditions and it can be observed
that brake thermal efficiency increases with increase in load
conditions with a maximum gain of 15% at full load
conditions during all injection strategies of hydrogen. It was
also observed that with the increase in hydrogen energy share
BSEC started reducing and it reduced to a maximum of 9% as
compared to baseline diesel at 10deg ATDC injection during
maximum injection proving the exceptional combustion
properties of hydrogen.
Abstract: The new status generated by technological advancements and changes in the global economy raises important issues on how communities and organisations need to innovate upon their traditional processes in order to adapt to the challenges of the Knowledge Society. The DialogoS+ European project aims to study the role of and promote social dialogue in the banking sector, strengthen the link between old and new members and make social dialogue at the European level a force for innovation and change, also given the context of the international crisis emerging in 2008- 2009. Under the scope of DialogoS+, this paper describes how the community of Europe-s banking sector trade unions attempted to adapt to the challenges of the Knowledge Society by exploiting the benefits of new channels of communication, learning, knowledge generation and diffusion focusing on the concept of roadmapping. Important dimensions of social dialogue such as collective bargaining and working conditions are addressed.
Abstract: Graduate attributes have received increasing attention
over recent years as universities incorporate these attributes into the
curriculum. Graduates who have adequate technical knowledge only
are not sufficiently equipped to compete effectively in the work
place; they also need non disciplinary skills ie, graduate attributes.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of an eportfolio
in a technical communication course to enhance engineering
students- graduate attributes: namely, learning of communication,
critical thinking and problem solving and teamwork skills. Two
questionnaires were used to elicit information from the students: one
on their preferred and the other on the actual learning process. In
addition, student perceptions of the use of eportfolio as a learning
tool were investigated. Preliminary findings showed that most of the
students- expectations have been met with their actual learning. This
indicated that eportfolio has the potential as a tool to enhance
students- graduate attributes.
Abstract: The distressing flood scenarios that occur in
recent years at the surrounding areas of Sarawak River have
left damages of properties and indirectly caused disruptions of
productive activities. This study is meant to reconstruct a 100-year
flood event that took place in this river basin. Sarawak River Subbasin
was chosen and modeled using the one-dimensional
hydrodynamic modeling approach using InfoWorks River Simulation
(RS), in combination with Geographical Information System (GIS).
This produces the hydraulic response of the river and its floodplains
in extreme flooding conditions. With different parameters introduced
to the model, correlations of observed and simulated data are
between 79% – 87%. Using the best calibrated model, flood
mitigation structures are imposed along the sub-basin. Analysis is
done based on the model simulation results. Result shows that the
proposed retention ponds constructed along the sub-basin provide the
most efficient reduction of flood by 34.18%.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to establish the experimental conditions for removal of Cibacron Brilliant Yellow 3G-P dye (CBY) from aqueous solutions by sorption onto coffee husks as a low-cost sorbent. The effects of various experimental parameters (e.g. initial CBY dye concentration, sorbent mass, pH, temperature) were examined and the optimal experimental conditions were determined. The results indicated that the removal of the dye was pH dependent and at initial pH of 2, the dye was removed effectively. The CBY dye sorption data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich equilibrium models. The maximum sorption capacity of CBY dye ions onto coffee husks increased from 24.04 to 35.04 mg g-1 when the temperature was increased from 293 to 313 K. The calculated sorption thermodynamic parameters including ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS° indicated that the CBY dye sorption onto coffee husks is a spontaneous, endothermic and mainly physical in nature.
Abstract: The necessity of solving multi dimensional
complicated scientific problems beside the necessity of several
objective functions optimization are the most motive reason of born
of artificial intelligence and heuristic methods.
In this paper, we introduce a new method for multiobjective
optimization based on learning automata. In the proposed method,
search space divides into separate hyper-cubes and each cube is
considered as an action. After gathering of all objective functions
with separate weights, the cumulative function is considered as the
fitness function. By the application of all the cubes to the cumulative
function, we calculate the amount of amplification of each action and
the algorithm continues its way to find the best solutions. In this
Method, a lateral memory is used to gather the significant points of
each iteration of the algorithm. Finally, by considering the
domination factor, pareto front is estimated. Results of several
experiments show the effectiveness of this method in comparison
with genetic algorithm based method.
Abstract: In this paper, we argue the security protocols of
ZigBee wireless sensor network in MAC layer. AES 128-bit
encryption algorithm in CCM* mode is secure transferred data;
however, AES-s secret key will be break within nearest future.
Efficient public key algorithm, ECC has been mixed with AES to
rescue the ZigBee wireless sensor from cipher text and replay attack.
Also, the proposed protocol can parallelize the integrity function to
increase system performance.