Abstract: This research project aims to investigate difference in
relative rates concerning phosphoryl transfer relevant to biological
catalysis of DNA and RNA in the pH-independent reactions.
Activated Models of DNA and RNA for alkyl-aryl phosphate diesters
(with 4-nitrophenyl as a good leaving group) have successfully been
prepared to gather kinetic parameters. Eyring plots for the pH–
independent hydrolysis of 1 and 2 were established at different
temperatures in the range 100–160 °C. These measurements have
been used to provide a better estimate for the difference in relative
rates between the reactivity of DNA and RNA cleavage. Eyring plot
gave an extrapolated rate of kH2O = 1 × 10-10 s -1 for 1 (RNA model)
and 2 (DNA model) at 25°C. Comparing the reactivity of RNA
model and DNA model shows that the difference in relative rates in
the pH-independent reactions is surprisingly very similar at 25°. This
allows us to obtain chemical insights into how biological catalysts
such as enzymes may have evolved to perform their current
functions.
Abstract: In order to achieve competitive advantage and better
performance of firm, supply chain management (SCM) strategy
should support and drive forward business strategy. It means that
supply chain should be aligned with business strategy, at the same
time supply chain (SC) managers need to use appropriate information
system (IS) solution to support their strategy, which would lead to
stay competitive. There are different kinds of IS strategies which
enable managers to meet the SC requirement by selecting the best IS
strategy. Therefore, it is important to align IS strategies and practices
with SC strategies and practices, which could help us to plan for an
IS application that supports and enhances a SCMS. In this study,
aligning IS with SC in strategy level is considered. The main aim of
this paper is to align the various IS strategies with SCM strategies
and demonstrate their impact on SC and firm performance.
Abstract: The purpose of this research aims to discover the
knowledge for analysis student motivation behavior on e-Learning
based on Data Mining Techniques, in case of the Information
Technology for Communication and Learning Course at Suan
Sunandha Rajabhat University. The data mining techniques was
applied in this research including association rules, classification
techniques. The results showed that using data mining technique can
indicate the important variables that influence the student motivation
behavior on e-Learning.
Abstract: The growing interest on national heritage
preservation has led to intensive efforts on digital documentation of
cultural heritage knowledge. Encapsulated within this effort is the
focus on ontology development that will help facilitate the
organization and retrieval of the knowledge. Ontologies surrounding
cultural heritage domain are related to archives, museum and library
information such as archaeology, artifacts, paintings, etc. The growth
in number and size of ontologies indicates the well acceptance of its
semantic enrichment in many emerging applications. Nowadays,
there are many heritage information systems available for access.
Among others is community-based e-museum designed to support the
digital cultural heritage preservation. This work extends previous
effort of developing the Traditional Malay Textile (TMT) Knowledge
Model where the model is designed with the intention of auxiliary
mapping with CIDOC CRM. Due to its internal constraints, the
model needs to be transformed in advance. This paper addresses the
issue by reviewing the previous harmonization works with CIDOC
CRM as exemplars in refining the facets in the model particularly
involving TMT-Artifact class. The result is an extensible model
which could lead to a common view for automated mapping with
CIDOC CRM. Hence, it promotes integration and exchange of
textile information especially batik-related between communities in
e-museum applications.
Abstract: This paper presents a new method for estimating the nonstationary
noise power spectral density given a noisy signal. The
method is based on averaging the noisy speech power spectrum using
time and frequency dependent smoothing factors. These factors are
adjusted based on signal-presence probability in individual frequency
bins. Signal presence is determined by computing the ratio of the
noisy speech power spectrum to its local minimum, which is updated
continuously by averaging past values of the noisy speech power
spectra with a look-ahead factor. This method adapts very quickly to
highly non-stationary noise environments. The proposed method
achieves significant improvements over a system that uses voice
activity detector (VAD) in noise estimation.
Abstract: The study aims to investigate the impact on board and
audit committee characteristics and firm performance before and
after the revision of MCCG (2007) on GLCs over the period 2005-2010. We used Return on Assets (ROA) as a proxy for firm performance. The data consists of two groups; data collected before
and after the amendments of MCCG (2007). Findings show that
boards of directors with accounting / finance qualifications (BEXP)
are statistically significant with performance for period before the amendments. As for audit committee members with accounting or
finance qualifications (ACEXP), correlation results indicate a
negative association and non-significant results for the years before
amendments. However, the years after the amendments show
positive relationship with highly significant correlations (1%) to ROA. This indicates that the amendments of MCCG 2007 on the
audit committee members- literacy in accounting have impacted the governance structures and performance of GLCs.
Abstract: In aircraft applications, according to the nature of
electrical equipment its location may be in unpressurized area or very
close to the engine; thus, the environmental conditions may change
from atmospheric pressure to less than 100 mbar, and the temperature
may be higher than the ambient one as in most real working
conditions of electrical equipment. Then, the classical Paschen curve
has to be replotted since these parameters may affect the discharge
ignition voltage. In this paper, we firstly investigate the domain of
validity of two corrective expressions on the Paschen-s law found in
the literature, in case of changing the air environment and known as
Peek and Dunbar corrections. Results show that these corrections are
no longer valid for combined variation of temperature and pressure.
After that, a new empirical expression for breakdown voltage is
proposed and is validated in the case of combined variations of
temperature and pressure.
Abstract: This paper presents performance analysis of the
Evolutionary Programming-Artificial Neural Network (EPANN)
based technique to optimize the architecture and training parameters
of a one-hidden layer feedforward ANN model for the prediction of
energy output from a grid connected photovoltaic system. The ANN
utilizes solar radiation and ambient temperature as its inputs while the
output is the total watt-hour energy produced from the grid-connected
PV system. EP is used to optimize the regression performance of the
ANN model by determining the optimum values for the number of
nodes in the hidden layer as well as the optimal momentum rate and
learning rate for the training. The EPANN model is tested using two
types of transfer function for the hidden layer, namely the tangent
sigmoid and logarithmic sigmoid. The best transfer function, neural
topology and learning parameters were selected based on the highest
regression performance obtained during the ANN training and testing
process. It is observed that the best transfer function configuration for
the prediction model is [logarithmic sigmoid, purely linear].
Abstract: This paper has two main ideas. Firstly, it describes Evans and Wurster-s concepts “the trade-off between reach and richness", and relates them to the impact of technology on the virtual markets. Authors Evans and Wurster see the transfer of information as a 'trade'off between richness and reach-. Reach refers to the number of people who share particular information, with Richness ['Rich'] being a more complex concept combining: bandwidth, customization, interactivity, reliability, security and currency. Traditional shopping limits the number of shops the shopper is able to visit due to time and other cost constraints; the time spent traveling consequently leaves the shopper with less time to evaluate the product. The paper concludes that although the Web provides Reach, offering Richness and the sense of community required for creating and sustaining relationships with potential clients could be difficult.
Abstract: Data gathering is an essential operation in wireless
sensor network applications. So it requires energy efficiency
techniques to increase the lifetime of the network. Similarly,
clustering is also an effective technique to improve the energy
efficiency and network lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In this
paper, an energy efficient cluster formation protocol is proposed with
the objective of achieving low energy dissipation and latency without
sacrificing application specific quality. The objective is achieved by
applying randomized, adaptive, self-configuring cluster formation
and localized control for data transfers. It involves application -
specific data processing, such as data aggregation or compression.
The cluster formation algorithm allows each node to make
independent decisions, so as to generate good clusters as the end.
Simulation results show that the proposed protocol utilizes minimum
energy and latency for cluster formation, there by reducing the
overhead of the protocol.
Abstract: Drought is one of the most damaging climate-related
hazards, it is generally considered as a prolonged absence of
precipitation. This normal and recurring climate phenomenon had
plagued civilization throughout history because of the negative
impacts on economical, environmental and social sectors. Drought
characteristics are thus recognized as important factors in water
resources planning and management. The purpose of this study is to
detect the changes in drought frequency, persistence and severity
in the Ruhr river basin. The frequency of drought events was
calculated using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). Used
data are daily precipitation records from seven meteorological
stations covering the period 1961-2007. The main benefit of the
application of this index is its versatility, only rainfall data is required
to deliver five major dimensions of a drought : duration, intensity,
severity, magnitude, and frequency. Furthermore, drought can be
calculated in different time steps. In this study SPI was calculated for
1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 months. Several drought events were detected
in the covered period, these events contain mild, moderate and severe
droughts. Also positive and negative trends in the SPI values were
observed.
Abstract: In order to characterize the soy protein hydrolysate obtained in this study, gel chromatography on Sephadex G-25 was used to perform the separation of the peptide mixture and electrophoresis in SDS-polyacrylamide gel has been employed. Protein hydrolysate gave high antioxidant activities, but didn't give any antimicrobial activities. The antioxidant activities of protein hydrolysate was in the same trend of peptide content which gave high antioxidant activities and high peptide content between fractions 15 to 50. With increasing peptide concentrations, the scavenging effect on DPPH radical increased until about 70%, thereafter reaching a plateau. In compare to different concentrations of BHA, which exhibited higher activity (90%), soybean protein hydrolysate exhibited high antioxidant activities (70%) at a concentration of 1.45 mg/ml at fraction 25. Electrophoresis analysis indicated that, low- MW hydrolysate fractions (F1) appeared, on average, to have higher DPPH scavenging activities than high-MW fractions. These results revealed that soybean peptides probably contain substances that were proton donors and could react with free radicals to convert them to stable diamagnetic molecules.
Abstract: The potential of entomopathogenic nematodes in suppressing T. squalida population on cauliflower from transplanting to harvest was evaluated. Significant reductions in plant infestation percentage and population density (/m2) were recorded throughout the plantation seasons, 2011 and 2012 before and after spraying the plants. The percent reduction in numbers/m2 was the highest in March for the treatments with Heterorhabditis indica Behera and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora Giza during the plantation season 2011, while at the plantation season 2012, the reduction in population density was the highest in January for Heterorhabditis Indica Behera and in February for H . bacteriophora Giza treatments. In a comparison test with conventional insecticides Hostathion and Lannate, there were no significant differences in control measures resulting from treatments with H. indica Behera, H. bacteriophora Giza and Lannate. At the plantation season is 2012. Also, the treatments reduced the economic threshold of T. squalida on cauliflower in this experiment as compared with before and after spraying with both the two entomopathogenic nematodes at both seasons 2011 and 2012. This means an increase in the marketability of heads harvested as a consequence of monthly treatments.
Abstract: Over the past several years, there has been a
considerable amount of research within the field of Quality of
Service (QoS) support for distributed multimedia systems. One of the
key issues in providing end-to-end QoS guarantees in packet
networks is determining a feasible path that satisfies a number of
QoS constraints. The problem of finding a feasible path is NPComplete
if number of constraints is more than two and cannot be
exactly solved in polynomial time. We proposed Feasible Path
Selection Algorithm (FPSA) that addresses issues with pertain to
finding a feasible path subject to delay and cost constraints and it
offers higher success rate in finding feasible paths.
Abstract: This paper presents an on-going research work on the
implementation of feature-based machining via macro programming.
Repetitive machining features such as holes, slots, pockets etc can
readily be encapsulated in macros. Each macro consists of methods
on how to machine the shape as defined by the feature. The macro
programming technique comprises of a main program and
subprograms. The main program allows user to select several
subprograms that contain features and define their important
parameters. With macros, complex machining routines can be
implemented easily and no post processor is required. A case study
on machining of a part that comprised of planar face, hole and pocket
features using the macro programming technique was carried out. It
is envisaged that the macro programming technique can be extended
to other feature-based machining fields such as the newly developed
STEP-NC domain.
Abstract: Data clustering is an important data exploration
technique with many applications in data mining. The k-means
algorithm is well known for its efficiency in clustering large data
sets. However, this algorithm is suitable for spherical shaped clusters
of similar sizes and densities. The quality of the resulting clusters
decreases when the data set contains spherical shaped with large
variance in sizes. In this paper, we introduce a competent procedure
to overcome this problem. The proposed method is based on shifting
the center of the large cluster toward the small cluster, and recomputing
the membership of small cluster points, the experimental
results reveal that the proposed algorithm produces satisfactory
results.
Abstract: Generation of electricity from coal has increased over
the years in the United States and around the world. Burning of coal
results in annual production of upwards of 100 millions tons (United
States only) of coal combustion products (CCPs). Only about a third
of these products are being used to create new products while the
remainder goes to landfills. Application of CCPs mixed with
composted organic materials onto soil can improve the soil-s
physico-chemical conditions and provide essential plant nutritients.
Our objective was to create plant growth media utilizing CCPs and
compost in way which maximizes the use of these products and, at
the same time, maintain good plant growth. Media were formulated
by adding composted organic matter (COM) to CCPs at ratios
ranging from 2:8 to 8:2 (v/v). The quality of these media was
evaluated by measuring their physical and chemical properties and
their effect on plant growth. We tested the media by 1) measuring
their physical and chemical properties and 2) the growth of three
plant species in the experimental media: wheat (Triticum sativum),
tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) and marigold (Tagetes patula).
We achieved significantly (p < 0.001) higher growth (7-130%) in the
experimental media containing CCPs compared to a commercial mix.
The experimental media supplied adequate plant nutrition as no
fertilization was provided during the experiment. Based on the
results, we recommend the use of CCPs and composts for the
creation of plant growth media.
Abstract: We develop a new interface for Bus-Net which is
optimized for a smartphone. We are continuing to develop the shortest
path planning system of public transportation called "Bus-Net" in
Tottori prefecture as web application to improve the usability of
public transportation. Recent trend of computing platform, however
has shifted to an advanced mobile device called a smartphone such as
iPhone and Android in Japan. A smartphone has different characters
with existing feature phone in terms of OS, large touche panel, and
several other features. We derive a guideline to design the new interface
for a smartphone to full use of the functionality. The guideline is
about simplicity of user-s operation, location awareness and usability.
We developed the new interface for “Bus-Net" on iPhone referring
to the guideline. Due to the evaluation, the application interface we
developed is better than the existing web-based interface in terms of
the usability.
Abstract: Horizontal platform system (HPS) is popularly applied
in offshore and earthquake technology, but it is difficult and
time-consuming for regulation. In order to understand the nonlinear
dynamic behavior of HPS and reduce the cost when using it, this paper
employs differential transformation method to study the bifurcation
behavior of HPS. The numerical results reveal a complex dynamic
behavior comprising periodic, sub-harmonic, and chaotic responses.
Furthermore, the results reveal the changes which take place in the
dynamic behavior of the HPS as the external torque is increased.
Therefore, the proposed method provides an effective means of
gaining insights into the nonlinear dynamics of horizontal platform
system.
Abstract: This paper presents the analysis of similarity between local decisions, in the process of alphanumeric hand-prints classification. From the analysis of local characteristics of handprinted numerals and characters, extracted by a zoning method, the set of classification decisions is obtained and the similarity among them is investigated. For this purpose the Similarity Index is used, which is an estimator of similarity between classifiers, based on the analysis of agreements between their decisions. The experimental tests, carried out using numerals and characters from the CEDAR and ETL database, respectively, show to what extent different parts of the patterns provide similar classification decisions.