Abstract: With the global financial crisis turning into what more
and more appears to be a prolonged “Great Recession", we are
witnessing marked reductions in remittance transfers to developing
countries with the likely possibility that overall flows will decline
even further in the near future. With countless families reliant on
remittance inflows as a source of income maintaining their economic
livelihood, a reduction would put many at risk of falling below or
deeper into poverty. Recognizing the importance of remittance
inflows as a lifeline to the poor, policy should aim to (1) reduce the
barriers to remit in both sending and receiving nations thus easing the
decline in transfers; (2) leverage the development impacts of
remittances; and (3) buffer vulnerable groups dependent on
remittance transfers as a source of livelihood through sound countercyclical
macroeconomic policies.
Abstract: Gilaburu (Viburnum opulus L.) grown naturally in
Anatolia. In this study, some physico-chemical (sugar, acid, protein,
crude fat, crude fiber, ash etc.) characteristics and mineral
composition of Gilaburu fruit have been investigated. The length,
width, thickness, weight, total soluble solid, protein, crude ash, crude
fiber and crude oil of fruit were found to be 1.12 cm, 1.58 cm, 1.87
cm, 0.87 g, 14.73 %, 0.2 %, 0.11 %, 6.56 % and 0.4 %, respectively.
The seed of fruit mean weight, length, width and thickness were
determinated as 0.08 g, 7.76 cm, 7.67 cm and 1.66, respectively. In
addition 27 mineral elements (Al, Mg, Na, Ba, Ca, Ni, Cd, P, Cr, Pb,
S, Cu, Se, Fe, K, Sr, Li, Z, V, Ag, Bi, Co, Mn, B, Ga, In, Ti) were
analyzed. Gilaburu (Viburnum opulus L.) fruit was richest in
potassium (10764.764 ppm), Mg (1289.088 ppm) and P (1304.169
ppm).
Abstract: During the last few years, several sheet hydroforming
processes have been introduced. Despite the advantages of these
methods, they have some limitations. Of the processes, the two main
ones are the standard hydroforming and hydromechanical deep
drawing. A new sheet hydroforming die set was proposed that has the
advantages of both processes and eliminates their limitations. In this
method, a polyurethane plate was used as a part of the die-set to
control the blank holder force. This paper outlines the Taguchi
optimization methodology, which is applied to optimize the effective
parameters in forming cylindrical cups by the new die set of sheet
hydroforming process. The process parameters evaluated in this
research are polyurethane hardness, polyurethane thickness, forming
pressure path and polyurethane hole diameter. The design of
experiments based upon L9 orthogonal arrays by Taguchi was used
and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to analyze the
effect of these parameters on the forming pressure. The analysis of
the results showed that the optimal combination for low forming
pressure is harder polyurethane, bigger diameter of polyurethane hole
and thinner polyurethane. Finally, the confirmation test was derived
based on the optimal combination of parameters and it was shown
that the Taguchi method is suitable to examine the optimization
process.
Abstract: Based on the field investigation and long term remote
sensing data, the dynamics of the alpine wetland in the river basin and
their response to climate change were studied. Results showed the
alpine wetlands accounted for 3.73% of total basin in 2010. Lake and
river appeared an increasing trend in the past 30 years, with an
increase of 34.36 % and 24.57%. However, swamp exhibited a
tendency of decreasing with 233.74 km2. Annual average temperature,
maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation in the
river basin all exhibited an increasing trend, whereas relative humidity
exhibited a decreasing trend. Ice and snow melting are main reasons of
lake and river area enhancement and swamp area descend. There
existed 91.78%-97.86% of reduced swamp converted into lakes on the
basis of remote sensing image interpretation. China-s government
policy of implementing development in the river basin is the major
driving force of artificial wetland growth.
Abstract: In this article, an adaptive least-squares mixed finite element method is studied for pseudo-parabolic integro-differential equations. The solutions of least-squares mixed weak formulation and mixed finite element are proved. A posteriori error estimator is constructed based on the least-squares functional and the posteriori errors are obtained.
Abstract: The ability to detect and classify the type of fault
plays a great role in the protection of power system. This procedure
is required to be precise with no time consumption. In this paper
detection of fault type has been implemented using wavelet analysis
together with wavelet entropy principle. The simulation of power
system is carried out using PSCAD/EMTDC. Different types of
faults were studied obtaining various current waveforms. These
current waveforms were decomposed using wavelet analysis into
different approximation and details. The wavelet entropy of such
decompositions is analyzed reaching a successful methodology for
fault classification. The suggested approach is tested using different
fault types and proven successful identification for the type of fault.
Abstract: In this paper, we study the knapsack sharing problem, a variant of the well-known NP-Hard single knapsack problem. We investigate the use of a tree search for optimally solving the problem. The used method combines two complementary phases: a reduction interval search phase and a branch and bound procedure one. First, the reduction phase applies a polynomial reduction strategy; that is used for decomposing the problem into a series of knapsack problems. Second, the tree search procedure is applied in order to attain a set of optimal capacities characterizing the knapsack problems. Finally, the performance of the proposed optimal algorithm is evaluated on a set of instances of the literature and its runtime is compared to the best exact algorithm of the literature.
Abstract: Neem is a highly heterozygous and commercially
important perennial plant. Conventionally, it is propagated by seeds
which loose viability within two weeks. Strictly cross pollinating
nature of the plant causes serious barrier to the genetic improvement
by conventional methods. Alternative methods of tree improvement
such as somatic hybridization, mutagenesis and genetic
transformation require an efficient in vitro plant regeneration system.
In this regard, somatic embryogenesis particularly secondary somatic
embryogenesis may offer an effective system for large scale plant
propagation without affecting the clonal fidelity of the regenerants. It
can be used for synthetic seed production, which further bolsters
conservation of this tree species which is otherwise very difficult
The present report describes the culture conditions necessary to
induce and maintain repetitive somatic embryogenesis, for the first
time, in neem. Out of various treatments tested, the somatic embryos
were induced directly from immature zygotic embryos of neem on
MS + TDZ (0.1 μM) + ABA (4 μM), in more than 76 % cultures.
Direct secondary somatic embryogenesis occurred from primary
somatic embryos on MS + IAA (5 μM) + GA3 (5 μM) in 12.5 %
cultures. Embryogenic competence of the explant as well as of the
primary embryos was maintained for a long period by repeated
subcultures at frequent intervals. A maximum of 10 % of these
somatic embryos were converted into plantlets.
Abstract: Animated graph gives some good impressions in
presenting information. However, not many people are able to produce it because the process of generating an animated graph requires some technical skills. This work presents Content
Management System with Animated Graph (CMS-AG). It is a webbased system enabling users to produce an effective and interactive
graphical report in a short time period. It allows for three levels of user authentication, provides update profile, account management, template management, graph management, and track changes. The system development applies incremental development approach, object-oriented concepts and Web programming technologies. The design architecture promotes new technology of reporting. It also helps user cut off unnecessary expenses, save time and learn new things on different levels of users. In this paper, the developed system is described.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a side-peak cancellation
scheme for code acquisition of composite binary offset carrier
(CBOC) signals. We first model the family of CBOC signals in a
generic form, and then, propose a side-peak cancellation scheme
by combining correlation functions between the divided sub-carrier
and received signals. From numerical results, it is shown that the
proposed scheme removes the side-peak completely, and moreover,
the resulting correlation function demonstrates the better power ratio
performance than the CBOC autocorrelation.
Abstract: Development of levels of service in municipal context
is a flexible vehicle to assist in performing quality-cost trade-off
analysis for municipal services. This trade-off depends on the
willingness of a community to pay as well as on the condition of the
assets. Community perspective of the performance of an asset from
service point of view may be quite different from the municipality
perspective of the performance of the same asset from condition
point of view. This paper presents a three phased level of service
based methodology for water mains that consists of :1)development
of an Analytical Hierarchy model of level of service 2) development
of Fuzzy Weighted Sum model of water main condition index and 3)
deriving a Fuzzy logic based function that maps level of service to
asset condition index. This mapping will assist asset managers in
quantifying condition improvement requirement to meet service
goals and to make more informed decisions on interventions and
relayed priorities.
Abstract: A Cable-Driven Locomotion Interface provides a low
inertia haptic interface and is used as a way of enabling the user
to walk and interact with virtual surfaces. These surfaces generate
Cartesian wrenches which must be optimized for each motorized
reel in order to reproduce a haptic sensation in both feet. However,
the use of wrench control requires a measure of the cable tensions
applied to the moving platform. The latter measure may be inaccurate
if it is based on sensors located near the reel. Moreover, friction
hysteresis from the reel moving parts needs to be compensated
for with an evaluation of low angular velocity of the motor shaft.
Also, the pose of the platform is not known precisely due to cable
sagging and mechanical deformation. This paper presents a non-ideal
motorized reel design with its corresponding control strategy that
aims at overcoming the aforementioned issues. A transfert function
of the reel based on frequency responses in function of cable tension
and cable length is presented with an optimal adaptative PIDF
controller. Finally, an hybrid position/tension control is discussed with
an analysis of the stability for achieving a complete functionnality of
the haptic platform.
Abstract: The paper investigates parallel channel instabilities of
natural circulation boiling water reactor. A thermal-hydraulic model
is developed to simulate two-phase flow behavior in the natural circulation boiling water reactor (NCBWR) with the incorporation of
ex-core components and recirculation loop such as steam separator, down-comer, lower-horizontal section and upper-horizontal section
and then, numerical analysis is carried out for parallel channel
instabilities of the reactor undergoing both in-phase and out-of-phase
modes of oscillations. To analyze the relative effect on stability of the reactor due to inclusion of various ex-core components and
recirculation loop, marginal stable point is obtained at a particular inlet enthalpy of the reactor core without the inclusion of ex-core
components and recirculation loop and then with the inclusion of the
same. Numerical simulations are also conducted to determine the
relative dominance between two modes of oscillations i.e. in-phase and out-of-phase. Simulations are also carried out when the channels
are subjected to asymmetric power distribution keeping the inlet enthalpy same.
Abstract: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a very toxic gas that is produced in very large quantities in the oil and gas industry. It cannot be flared to the atmosphere and Claus process based gas plants are used to recover the sulfur and convert the hydrogen to water. In this paper, we present optical characterization of an atmospheric pressure microwave plasma torch for H2S dissociation into hydrogen and sulfur. The torch is operated at 2.45 GHz with power up to 2 kW. Three different gases can simultaneously be injected in the plasma torch. Visual imaging and optical emission spectroscopy are used to characterize the plasma for varying gas flow rates and microwave power. The plasma length, emission spectra and temperature are presented. The obtained experimental results validate our earlier published simulation results of plasma torch.
Abstract: Thermal-driven refrigeration systems have attracted increasing research and development interest in recent years. These systems do not cause ozone depletion and can reduce demand on electricity. The main objective of this work is to perform theoretical analyses of a thermal-driven refrigeration system using a new sorbent-sorptive pair as the working pair. The active component of sorbent is sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN). Ammonia (NH3) is chosen as sorptive. Based on the thermodynamic properties of the working solution, a mathematical model is introduced to analyze the system characteristics and performance. The results are used to compare with other thermal-driven refrigeration systems. It is shown that the advantages provided by this system over other absorption units include lower generator and evaporator temperatures, a higher coefficient of performance (COP). The COP is about 10 percent higher than the ones for the NH3-H2O system working at the same conditions.
Abstract: Attempt was made to improve certain characteristics of bio-oil derived from palm kernel pyrolysis by blending it with diesel fuel and alcohols. Two types of alcohol, ethanol or butanol, was used as cosolvent to stabilize the phase of ternary systems. Phase behaviors and basic fuel properties of palm kernel bio-oildiesel- alcohol systems were investigated in this study. Alcohol types showed a significant influence on the phase characteristics with palm kernel bio-oil-diesel-butanol system giving larger soluble area than that of palm kernel bio-oil-diesel-ethanol system. For fuel properties, blended fuels showed superior properties including lower values of density (~860 kg/m3 at 25°C), viscosity (~4.12 mm2/s at 40°C), carbon residue (1.02-2.53 wt%), ash (0.018-0.034 wt%) and pour point (
Abstract: This paper proposes different methods for estimation
of the harmonic currents of the single-phase diode bridge rectifier. Both simple and advanced methods are compared and the models are
put into a context of practical use for calculating the harmonic distortion in a typical application. Finally, the different models are
compared to measurements of a real application and convincing results are achieved.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a robust adaptive fuzzy
controller for a class of nonlinear system with unknown dynamic.
The method is based on type-2 fuzzy logic system to approximate
unknown non-linear function. The design of the on-line adaptive
scheme of the proposed controller is based on Lyapunov technique.
Simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the
proposed approach.
Abstract: Clustering unstructured text documents is an
important issue in data mining community and has a number of
applications such as document archive filtering, document
organization and topic detection and subject tracing. In the real
world, some of the already clustered documents may not be of
importance while new documents of more significance may evolve.
Most of the work done so far in clustering unstructured text
documents overlooks this aspect of clustering. This paper, addresses
this issue by using the Fading Function. The unstructured text
documents are clustered. And for each cluster a statistics structure
called Cluster Profile (CP) is implemented. The cluster profile
incorporates the Fading Function. This Fading Function keeps an
account of the time-dependent importance of the cluster. The work
proposes a novel algorithm Clustering n-ary Merge Algorithm
(CnMA) for unstructured text documents, that uses Cluster Profile
and Fading Function. Experimental results illustrating the
effectiveness of the proposed technique are also included.
Abstract: The double difference sequence space I2 (M, of fuzzy numbers for both 1 < p < oo and 0 < p < 1, is introduced. Some general properties of this sequence space are studied. Some inclusion relations involving this sequence space are obtained.