Abstract: In this research, an aerobic composting method is
studied to reuse organic waste from rubber factory waste as soil fertilizer and to study the effect of cellulolytic microbial activator
(CMA) as the activator in the rubber factory waste composting. The
performance of the composting process was monitored as a function
of carbon and organic matter decomposition rate, temperature and
moisture content. The results indicate that the rubber factory waste is best composted with water hyacinth and sludge than composted
alone. In addition, the CMA is more affective when mixed with the rubber factory waste, water hyacinth and sludge since a good fertilizer is achieved. When adding CMA into the rubber factory
waste composted alone, the finished product does not achieve a
standard of fertilizer, especially the C/N ratio.
Finally, the finished products of composting rubber factory waste and water hyacinth and sludge (both CMA and without CMA), can be an environmental friendly alternative to solve the disposal problems of rubber factory waste. Since the C/N ratio, pH, moisture
content, temperature, and nutrients of the finished products are acceptable for agriculture use.
Abstract: The two-stage compensator designs of linear system are
investigated in the framework of the factorization approach. First, we
give “full feedback" two-stage compensator design. Based on this
result, various types of the two-stage compensator designs with partial
feedbacks are derived.
Abstract: This paper introduces new algorithms (Fuzzy relative
of the CLARANS algorithm FCLARANS and Fuzzy c Medoids
based on randomized search FCMRANS) for fuzzy clustering of
relational data. Unlike existing fuzzy c-medoids algorithm (FCMdd)
in which the within cluster dissimilarity of each cluster is minimized
in each iteration by recomputing new medoids given current
memberships, FCLARANS minimizes the same objective function
minimized by FCMdd by changing current medoids in such away
that that the sum of the within cluster dissimilarities is minimized.
Computing new medoids may be effected by noise because outliers
may join the computation of medoids while the choice of medoids in
FCLARANS is dictated by the location of a predominant fraction of
points inside a cluster and, therefore, it is less sensitive to the
presence of outliers. In FCMRANS the step of computing new
medoids in FCMdd is modified to be based on randomized search.
Furthermore, a new initialization procedure is developed that add
randomness to the initialization procedure used with FCMdd. Both
FCLARANS and FCMRANS are compared with the robust and
linearized version of fuzzy c-medoids (RFCMdd). Experimental
results with different samples of the Reuter-21578, Newsgroups
(20NG) and generated datasets with noise show that FCLARANS is
more robust than both RFCMdd and FCMRANS. Finally, both
FCMRANS and FCLARANS are more efficient and their outputs
are almost the same as that of RFCMdd in terms of classification
rate.
Abstract: This paper studies questions of continuous data dependence and uniqueness for solutions of initial boundary value problems in linear micropolar thermoelastic mixtures. Logarithmic convexity arguments are used to establish results with no definiteness assumptions upon the internal energy.
Abstract: Dengue fever is an important human arboviral disease. Outbreaks are now reported quite often from many parts of the world. The number of cases involving pregnant women and infant cases are increasing every year. The illness is often severe and complications may occur. Deaths often occur because of the difficulties in early diagnosis and in the improper management of the diseases. Dengue antibodies from pregnant women are passed on to infants and this protects the infants from dengue infections. Antibodies from the mother are transferred to the fetus when it is still in the womb. In this study, we formulate a mathematical model to describe the transmission of this disease in pregnant women. The model is formulated by dividing the human population into pregnant women and non-pregnant human (men and non-pregnant women). Each class is subdivided into susceptible (S), infectious (I) and recovered (R) subclasses. We apply standard dynamical analysis to our model. Conditions for the local stability of the equilibrium points are given. The numerical simulations are shown. The bifurcation diagrams of our model are discussed. The control of this disease in pregnant women is discussed in terms of the threshold conditions.
Abstract: Recently, a quality of motors is inspected by human
ears. In this paper, I propose two systems using a method of speech
recognition for automation of the inspection. The first system is based
on a method of linear processing which uses K-means and Nearest
Neighbor method, and the second is based on a method of non-linear
processing which uses neural networks. I used motor sounds in these
systems, and I successfully recognize 86.67% of motor sounds in the
linear processing system and 97.78% in the non-linear processing
system.
Abstract: Versatile dual-mode class-AB CMOS four-quadrant
analog multiplier circuit is presented. The dual translinear loops and
current mirrors are the basic building blocks in realization scheme.
This technique provides; wide dynamic range, wide-bandwidth response
and low power consumption. The major advantages of this
approach are; its has single ended inputs; since its input is dual translinear
loop operate in class-AB mode which make this multiplier
configuration interesting for low-power applications; current multiplying,
voltage multiplying, or current and voltage multiplying can
be obtainable with balanced input. The simulation results of versatile
analog multiplier demonstrate a linearity error of 1.2 %, a -3dB bandwidth
of about 19MHz, a maximum power consumption of 0.46mW,
and temperature compensated. Operation of versatile analog multiplier
was also confirmed through an experiment using CMOS transistor
array.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and
compare new indices based on the discrete wavelet transform
with another spectral parameters proposed in the literature as
mean average voltage, median frequency and ratios between
spectral moments applied to estimate acute exercise-induced
changes in power output, i.e., to assess peripheral muscle
fatigue during a dynamic fatiguing protocol. 15 trained
subjects performed 5 sets consisting of 10 leg press, with 2
minutes rest between sets. Surface electromyography was
recorded from vastus medialis (VM) muscle. Several surface
electromyographic parameters were compared to detect
peripheral muscle fatigue. These were: mean average voltage
(MAV), median spectral frequency (Fmed), Dimitrov spectral
index of muscle fatigue (FInsm5), as well as other five
parameters obtained from the discrete wavelet transform
(DWT) as ratios between different scales. The new wavelet
indices achieved the best results in Pearson correlation
coefficients with power output changes during acute dynamic
contractions. Their regressions were significantly different
from MAV and Fmed. On the other hand, they showed the
highest robustness in presence of additive white gaussian
noise for different signal to noise ratios (SNRs). Therefore,
peripheral impairments assessed by sEMG wavelet indices
may be a relevant factor involved in the loss of power output
after dynamic high-loading fatiguing task.
Abstract: The coalescer process is one of the methods for oily water treatment by increasing the oil droplet size in order to enhance the separating velocity and thus effective separation. However, the presence of surfactants in an oily emulsion can limit the obtained mechanisms due to the small oil size related with stabilized emulsion. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to improve the efficiency of the coalescer process for treating the stabilized emulsion. The effects of bed types, bed height, liquid flow rate and stage coalescer (step-bed) on the treatment efficiencies in term of COD values were studied. Note that the treatment efficiency obtained experimentally was estimated by using the COD values and oil droplet size distribution. The study has shown that the plastic media has more effective to attach with oil particles than the stainless one due to their hydrophobic properties. Furthermore, the suitable bed height (3.5 cm) and step bed (3.5 cm with 2 steps) were necessary in order to well obtain the coalescer performance. The application of step bed coalescer process in reactor has provided the higher treatment efficiencies in term of COD removal than those obtained with classical process. The proposed model for predicting the area under curve and thus treatment efficiency, based on the single collector efficiency (ηT) and the attachment efficiency (α), provides relatively a good coincidence between the experimental and predicted values of treatment efficiencies in this study.
Abstract: The objectives of this research were 1) to study the
opinions of newspaper journalists about their trustworthiness in the
National Press Council of Thailand (NPCT) and the NPCT-s success
in regulating the professional ethics; and 2) to study the differences
among mean vectors of the variables of trustworthiness in the NPCT
and opinions on the NPCT-s success in regulating professional ethics
among samples working at different work positions and from
different affiliation of newspaper organizations. The results showed
that 1) Interaction effects between the variables of work positions and
affiliation were not statistically significant at the confidence level of
0.05. 2) There was a statistically significant difference (p
Abstract: Fuzzy logic control (FLC) systems have been tested in
many technical and industrial applications as a useful modeling tool
that can handle the uncertainties and nonlinearities of modern control
systems. The main drawback of the FLC methodologies in the
industrial environment is challenging for selecting the number of
optimum tuning parameters.
In this paper, a method has been proposed for finding the optimum
membership functions of a fuzzy system using particle swarm
optimization (PSO) algorithm. A synthetic algorithm combined from
fuzzy logic control and PSO algorithm is used to design a controller
for a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with the aim of
achieving the accurate and acceptable desired results. To exhibit the
effectiveness of proposed algorithm, it is used to optimize the
Gaussian membership functions of the fuzzy model of a nonlinear
CSTR system as a case study. It is clearly proved that the optimized
membership functions (MFs) provided better performance than a
fuzzy model for the same system, when the MFs were heuristically
defined.
Abstract: In this research, the diabetes conditions of people (healthy, prediabete and diabete) were tried to be identified with noninvasive palm perspiration measurements. Data clusters gathered from 200 subjects were used (1.Individual Attributes Cluster and 2. Palm Perspiration Attributes Cluster). To decrase the dimensions of these data clusters, Principal Component Analysis Method was used. Data clusters, prepared in that way, were classified with Support Vector Machines. Classifications with highest success were 82% for Glucose parameters and 84% for HbA1c parametres.
Abstract: This study investigated the number of Aedes larvae,
the key breeding sites of Aedes sp., and the relationship between
climatic factors and the incidence of DHF in Samui Islands. We
conducted our questionnaire and larval surveys from randomly
selected 105 households in Samui Islands in July-September 2006.
Pearson-s correlation coefficient was used to explore the primary
association between the DHF incidence and all climatic factors.
Multiple stepwise regression technique was then used to fit the
statistical model. The results showed that the positive indoor
containers were small jars, cement tanks, and plastic tanks. The
positive outdoor containers were small jars, cement tanks, plastic
tanks, used cans, tires, plastic bottles, discarded objects, pot saucers,
plant pots, and areca husks. All Ae. albopictus larval indices (i.e., CI,
HI, and BI) were higher than Ae. aegypti larval indices in this area.
These larval indices were higher than WHO standard. This indicated
a high risk of DHF transmission at Samui Islands. The multiple
stepwise regression model was y = –288.80 + 11.024xmean temp. The
mean temperature was positively associated with the DHF incidence
in this area.
Abstract: This paper examines the effect of corporate diversification on the profitability of the Financial services sector in Nigeria. The study relied on historic accounting data generated from financial (annual) reports and accounts of sampled banks between the period 1998 and 2007 (a ten-year period). A regression equation was formulated, in line with previous studies to shed light on the effect of corporate diversification on the profitability of the Financial services sector in Nigeria. The results of the regression analysis revealed that diversification impacts strongly on banks profitability. Conclusively the paper produces strong evidence to assert that diversification impacts positively and significantly on banks profitability because among other things such diversified banks can pool their internally generated funds and allocate them properly.
Abstract: Web usage mining has become a popular research
area, as a huge amount of data is available online. These data can be
used for several purposes, such as web personalization, web structure
enhancement, web navigation prediction etc. However, the raw log
files are not directly usable; they have to be preprocessed in order to
transform them into a suitable format for different data mining tasks.
One of the key issues in the preprocessing phase is to identify web
users. Identifying users based on web log files is not a
straightforward problem, thus various methods have been developed.
There are several difficulties that have to be overcome, such as client
side caching, changing and shared IP addresses and so on. This paper
presents three different methods for identifying web users. Two of
them are the most commonly used methods in web log mining
systems, whereas the third on is our novel approach that uses a
complex cookie-based method to identify web users. Furthermore we
also take steps towards identifying the individuals behind the
impersonal web users. To demonstrate the efficiency of the new
method we developed an implementation called Web Activity
Tracking (WAT) system that aims at a more precise distinction of
web users based on log data. We present some statistical analysis
created by the WAT on real data about the behavior of the Hungarian
web users and a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the three
methods
Abstract: Innovation, technology and knowledge are the trilogy
of impact to support the challenges arising from uncertainty.
Evidence showed an opportunity to ask how to manage in this
environment under constant innovation. In an attempt to get a
response from the field of Management Sciences, based in the
Contingency Theory, a research was conducted, with
phenomenological and descriptive approaches, using the Case Study
Method and the usual procedures for this task involving a focus
group composed of managers and employees working in the
pharmaceutical field. The problem situation was raised; the state of
the art was interpreted and dissected the facts. In this tasks were
involved four establishments. The result indicates that these focused
ventures have been managed by its founder empirically and is
experimenting agility described in this work. The expectation of this
study is to improve concepts for stakeholders on creativity in
business.
Abstract: The flow of a third grade fluid in an orthogonal rheometer is studied. We employ the admissible velocity field proposed in [5]. We solve the problem and obtain the velocity field as well as the components for the Cauchy tensor. We compare the results with those from [9]. Some diagrams concerning the velocity and Cauchy stress components profiles are presented for different values of material constants and compared with the corresponding values for a linear viscous fluid.
Abstract: Energy efficient protocol design is the aim of current
researches in the area of sensor networks where limited power
resources impose energy conservation considerations. In this paper
we care for Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols and after an
extensive literature review, two adaptive schemes are discussed. Of
them, adaptive-rate MACs which were introduced for throughput
enhancement show the potency to save energy, even more than
adaptive-power schemes. Then we propose an allocation algorithm
for getting accurate and reliable results. Through a simulation study
we validated our claim and showed the power saving of adaptive-rate
protocols.
Abstract: This paper discusses the issues and challenge that
academia faced in knowledge sharing at a research university in
Malaysia. The partial results of interview are presented from the
actual study. The main issues in knowledge sharing practices are
university structure and designation and title. The academia
awareness in sharing knowledge is also influenced by culture. Our
investigation highlight that the concept of reciprocal relationship of
sharing knowledge may hinder knowledge sharing awareness among
academia. Hence, we concluded that further investigation could be
carried out on the social interaction and trust culture among academia
in sharing knowledge within research/ranking university
environment.
Abstract: Researchers of drug-drug interaction alert systems
have often suggested that there were high overridden rate for alerts and
also too false alerts. However, research about decreasing false alerts is
scant. Therefore, the aim of this article attempts to proactive
identification of false alert for drug-drug interaction and provide
solution to decrease false alerts. This research involved retrospective
analysis prescribing database and calculated false alert rate by using
MYSQL and JAVA. Results of this study showed 17% of false alerts
and the false alert rate in the hospitals (37%) was more than in the
clinics. To conclude, this study described the importance that
drug-drug interaction alert system should not only detect drug name
but also detect frequency or route, as well as in providing solution to
decrease false alerts.