Abstract: The problem of exponential stability and periodicity for a class of cellular neural networks (DCNNs) with time-varying delays is investigated. By dividing the network state variables into subgroups according to the characters of the neural networks, some sufficient conditions for exponential stability and periodicity are derived via the methods of variation parameters and inequality techniques. These conditions are represented by some blocks of the interconnection matrices. Compared with some previous methods, the method used in this paper does not resort to any Lyapunov function, and the results derived in this paper improve and generalize some earlier criteria established in the literature cited therein. Two examples are discussed to illustrate the main results.
Abstract: This research investigates the effects of the opening
shape and location on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete
deep beam with openings, while keeping the opening size unchanged.
The software ANSYS 12.1 is used to handle the nonlinear finite
element analysis. The ultimate strength of reinforced concrete deep
beam with opening obtained by ANSYS 12.1 shows fair agreement
with the experimental results, with a difference of no more than 20%. The present work concludes that the opening location has much more effect on the structural strength than the opening shape. It was
concluded that placing the openings near the upper corners of the
deep beam may double the strength, and the use of a rectangular
narrow opening, with the long sides in the horizontal direction, can save up to 40% of structural strength of the deep beam.
Abstract: An attempt has been made to determine the strength
and impact properties of Cr-Mo steel weld and base materials by
varying the current during manual metal arc welding. Toughness over
a temperature range from -32 to 100°C of base, heat affected zone
(HAZ) and weld zones at three current settings are made. It is
observed that the deterioration in notch toughness at any zone with
the temperature decreases. The values of notch toughness for all
zones at -32°C are almost same for any current settings. The values
of notch toughness at HAZ area are higher than that of weld area due
to the coarsening of ferrite grain of HAZ occurs with higher heat
input. From microhardness and microstructure result, it can be
concluded that large inclusion content in weld deposit is the cause of
lower notch toughness value.
Abstract: Air quality studies were carried out in the towns of
Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya and Nilai in the Malaysian Peninsular. In this
study, the variations of Ozone (O3) concentrations over a four year
period (2008-2011) were investigated using data obtained from the
Malaysian Department of the Environment (DOE). This study aims to
identify and describe the daily and monthly variations of O3
concentrations at the monitoring sites mentioned. The SPPS program
(Statistical Package for the Social Science) was used to analyze this
data in order to obtain the variations of O3 and also to clarify the
relationship between the stations. The findings of the study revealed
that the highest concentration of O3 occurred during the midday and
afternoon (between 13:00-15:00 hrs). The comparison between
stations also showed that highest O3 concentrations were recorded in
Putrajaya. The comparisons of average and maximum concentrations
of O3 for the three stations showed that the strongest significant
correlation was recorded in the Petaling Jaya station with the value
R2= 0.667. Results from this study indicate that in the urban areas of
Peninsular Malaysia, the concentration of O3 depends on the
concentration of NOx. Furthermore, HYSPLIT back trajectories
(-72h) indicated that air-mass transport patterns can also influence the
O3 concentration in the areas studied.
Abstract: In order to investigate water deficit stress on 24 of
soybean (Glycine Max. L) cultivars and lines in temperate climate, an
experiment was conducted in Iran Seed and Plant Improvement
Institute. Stress levels were irrigation after evaporation of 50, 100,
150 mm water from pan, class A. Randomized Completely Block
Design was arranged for each stress levels. Some traits such as, node
number, plant height, pod number per area, grain number per pod,
grain number per area, 1000 grains weight, grain yield and harvest
index were measured. Results showed that water deficit stress had
significant effect on node number, plant height, pod number per area,
grain number per pod, grain number per area, 1000 grains weight and
harvest index. Also all of agronomic traits except harvest index
influenced significantly by cultivars and lines. The least and most
grain yield was belonged to Ronak X Williams and M41 x Clark
respectively.
Abstract: A wireless sensor network with a large number of tiny sensor nodes can be used as an effective tool for gathering data in various situations. One of the major issues in wireless sensor networks is developing an energy-efficient routing protocol which has a significant impact on the overall lifetime of the sensor network. In this paper, we propose a novel hierarchical with static clustering routing protocol called Energy-Efficient Protocol with Static Clustering (EEPSC). EEPSC, partitions the network into static clusters, eliminates the overhead of dynamic clustering and utilizes temporary-cluster-heads to distribute the energy load among high-power sensor nodes; thus extends network lifetime. We have conducted simulation-based evaluations to compare the performance of EEPSC against Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH). Our experiment results show that EEPSC outperforms LEACH in terms of network lifetime and power consumption minimization.
Abstract: This paper deals with the comparison between two proposed control strategies for a DC-DC boost converter. The first control is a classical Sliding Mode Control (SMC) and the second one is a distance based Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (FSMC). The SMC is an analytical control approach based on the boost mathematical model. However, the FSMC is a non-conventional control approach which does not need the controlled system mathematical model. It needs only the measures of the output voltage to perform the control signal. The obtained simulation results show that the two proposed control methods are robust for the case of load resistance and the input voltage variations. However, the proposed FSMC gives a better step voltage response than the one obtained by the SMC.
Abstract: Using a methodology grounded in business process
change theory, we investigate the critical success factors that affect
ERP implementation success in United States and India.
Specifically, we examine the ERP implementation at two case study
companies, one in each country. Our findings suggest that certain
factors that affect the success of ERP implementations are not
culturally bound, whereas some critical success factors depend on the
national culture of the country in which the system is being
implemented. We believe that the understanding of these critical
success factors will deepen the understanding of ERP
implementations and will help avoid implementation mistakes,
thereby increasing the rate of success in culturally different contexts.
Implications of the findings and future research directions for both
academicians and practitioners are also discussed.
Abstract: Design and land use are closely linked to the
energy efficiency levels for an urban area. The current city
planning practice does not involve an effective land useenergy
evaluation in its 'blueprint' urban plans. The study
proposed an appraisal method that can be embedded in GIS
programs using five planning criteria as how far a planner can
give away from the planning principles (criteria) for the most
energy output s/he can obtain. The case of Balcova, a district
in the Izmir Metropolitan area, is used conformingly for
evaluating the proposed master plan and the geothermal
energy (heating only) use for the concern district.
If the land use design were proposed accordingly at-most
energy efficiency (a 30% obtained), mainly increasing the
density around the geothermal wells and also proposing more
mixed use zones, we could have 17% distortion (infidelity to
the main planning principles) from the original plan. The
proposed method can be an effective tool for planners as
simulation media, of which calculations can be made by GIS
ready tools, to evaluate efficiency levels for different plan
proposals, letting to know how much energy saving causes
how much deviation from the other planning ideals. Lower
energy uses can be possible for different land use proposals
for various policy trials.
Abstract: In this research, a part of Aghche basin in Isfahan
province with an area about 2000 hectars, was chosen to be obtain
curve number coefficient runoff and W indicator in second Cook
method By using aerial photos 1968 and 1995, the satellite data of
the IRS in 2008. Then the process of land use changes in the period
of study and its effect on the changes of curve number (CN), W
indicator and surface runoff coefficient (C) of the basin was
investigated. These results showed that on the track of these land use
changes the weight averages curve number (CN), surface runoff
coefficient (C) and W indicator of the basin were increased to 0.92,
0.02 and 0.78 unit in the first period of study and 1.18, 0.03, 0.99
Unit in the second period of study respectively.
Abstract: Tungsten trioxide has been prepared by using P-PTA
as a precursor on alumina substrates by spin coating method.
Palladium introduced on WO3 film via electrolysis deposition by
using palladium chloride as catalytic precursor. The catalytic
precursor was introduced on the series of films with different
morphologies. X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) and XPS were applied to analyze structure and
morphology of the fabricated thin films. Then we measured variation
of samples- electrical conductivity of pure and Pd added films in air
and diluted hydrogen. Addition of Pd resulted in a remarkable
improvement of the hydrogen sensing properties of WO3 by detection
of Hydrogen below 1% at room temperature. Also variation of the
electrical conductivity in the presence of diluted hydrogen revealed
that response of samples depends rather strongly on the palladium
configuration on the surface.
Abstract: Semiconductor materials with coatings have a wide range of applications in MEMS and NEMS. This work uses transfermatrix method for calculating the radiative properties. Dopped silicon is used and the coherent formulation is applied. The Drude model for the optical constants of doped silicon is employed. Results showed that for the visible wavelengths, more emittance occurs in greater concentrations and the reflectance decreases as the concentration increases. In these wavelengths, transmittance is negligible. Donars and acceptors act similar in visible wavelengths. The effect of wave interference can be understood by plotting the spectral properties such as reflectance or transmittance of a thin dielectric film versus the film thickness and analyzing the oscillations of properties due to constructive and destructive interferences. But this effect has not been shown at visible wavelengths. At room temperature, the scattering process is dominated by lattice scattering for lightly doped silicon, and the impurity scattering becomes important for heavily doped silicon when the dopant concentration exceeds1018cm-3 .
Abstract: Environmental aspects plays a central role in environmental management system (EMS) because it is the basis for the identification of an organization-s environmental targets. The
existing methods for the assessment of environmental aspects are grouped into three categories: risk assessment-based (RA-based),
LCA-based and criterion-based methods. To combine the benefits of
these three categories of research, this study proposes an integrated framework, combining RA-, LCA- and criterion-based methods. The
integrated framework incorporates LCA techniques for the identification of the causal linkage for aspect, pathway, receptor and
impact, uses fuzzy logic to assess aspects, considers fuzzy conditions,
in likelihood assessment, and employs a new multi-criteria decision analysis method - multi-criteria and multi-connection comprehensive
assessment (MMCA) - to estimate significant aspects in EMS. The proposed model is verified, using a real case study and the results show
that this method successfully prioritizes the environmental aspects.
Abstract: The increasing competitiveness in manufacturing
industry is forcing manufacturers to seek effective processing
schedules. The paper presents an optimization manufacture
scheduling approach for dependent details processing with given
processing sequences and times on multiple machines. By defining
decision variables as start and end moments of details processing it is
possible to use straightforward variables restrictions to satisfy
different technological requirements and to formulate easy to
understand and solve optimization tasks for multiple numbers of
details and machines. A case study example is solved for seven base
moldings for CNC metalworking machines processed on five
different machines with given processing order among details and
machines and known processing time-s duration. As a result of linear
optimization task solution the optimal manufacturing schedule
minimizing the overall processing time is obtained. The
manufacturing schedule defines the moments of moldings delivery
thus minimizing storage costs and provides mounting due-time
satisfaction. The proposed optimization approach is based on real
manufacturing plant problem. Different processing schedules variants
for different technological restrictions were defined and implemented
in the practice of Bulgarian company RAIS Ltd. The proposed
approach could be generalized for other job shop scheduling
problems for different applications.
Abstract: In this paper, an artificial intelligent technique for
robust digital image watermarking in multiwavelet domain is
proposed. The embedding technique is based on the quantization
index modulation technique and the watermark extraction process
does not require the original image. We have developed an
optimization technique using the genetic algorithms to search for
optimal quantization steps to improve the quality of watermarked
image and robustness of the watermark. In addition, we construct a
prediction model based on image moments and back propagation
neural network to correct an attacked image geometrically before the
watermark extraction process begins. The experimental results show
that the proposed watermarking algorithm yields watermarked image
with good imperceptibility and very robust watermark against various
image processing attacks.
Abstract: In recent years, many researches to mine the exploding Web world, especially User Generated Content (UGC) such as
weblogs, for knowledge about various phenomena and events in the physical world have been done actively, and also Web services
with the Web-mined knowledge have begun to be developed for
the public. However, there are few detailed investigations on how accurately Web-mined data reflect physical-world data. It must be
problematic to idolatrously utilize the Web-mined data in public Web services without ensuring their accuracy sufficiently. Therefore,
this paper introduces the simplest Web Sensor and spatiotemporallynormalized
Web Sensor to extract spatiotemporal data about a target
phenomenon from weblogs searched by keyword(s) representing the
target phenomenon, and tries to validate the potential and reliability of the Web-sensed spatiotemporal data by four kinds of granularity
analyses of coefficient correlation with temperature, rainfall, snowfall,
and earthquake statistics per day by region of Japan Meteorological
Agency as physical-world data: spatial granularity (region-s population
density), temporal granularity (time period, e.g., per day vs. per week), representation granularity (e.g., “rain" vs. “heavy rain"), and
media granularity (weblogs vs. microblogs such as Tweets).
Abstract: Automobile Industry has great importance in the
Spanish economy (8,7 % of the active Spanish population is
employed in this sector).The above mentioned sector has been one of
the principal sectors affected by the current economic crisis,
consistently, the budgets in advertising have been severely limited
(46,9 % less in the period of reference), these needs of reduction
have originated a substantial change in the advertising strategy (from
2007 the increase of the advertising investment in Internet is 251,6
%), and increase profitability. The growing use of social media by
consumers therefore makes online consumer conversations an
attractive additional format for Automobile firms to promote
products at a lower cost. This research analyzes the relation between
the activity in Social Media and the design in the car industry,
looking for relations between strategies of design based on Social
Media and sales and a channel of information for companies to know
what the consumer preferences. For this ongoing research we used a
longitudinal withdrawal of information has been used using
information of panel. Managerial and research implications of the
finding are discussed.
Abstract: Most electrical distribution systems are incurring large
losses as the loads are wide spread, inadequate reactive power
compensation facilities and their improper control. A typical static
VAR compensator consists of capacitor bank in binary sequential
steps operated in conjunction with a thyristor controlled reactor of the
smallest step size. This SVC facilitates stepless control of reactive
power closely matching with load requirements so as to maintain
power factor nearer to unity. This type of SVC-s requiring a
appropriately controlled TCR. This paper deals with an air cored
reactor suitable for distribution transformer of 3phase, 50Hz, Dy11,
11KV/433V, 125 KVA capacity. Air cored reactors are designed,
built, tested and operated in conjunction with capacitor bank in five
binary sequential steps. It is established how the delta connected TCR
minimizes the harmonic components and the operating range for
various electrical quantities as a function of firing angle is
investigated. In particular firing angle v/s line & phase currents, D.C.
components, THD-s, active and reactive powers, odd and even triplen
harmonics, dominant characteristic harmonics are all investigated and
range of firing angle is fixed for satisfactory operation. The harmonic
spectra for phase and line quantities at specified firing angles are
given. In case the TCR is operated within the bound specified in this
paper established through simulation studies are yielding the best
possible operating condition particularly free from all dominant
harmonics.
Abstract: This paper reviews designs of the built environment
from a sustainability perspective, emphasizing their importance in
achieving ecological and sustainable economic objectives. The built
environment has traditionally resulted in loss of biodiversity,
extinction of some species, climate change, excessive water use, land
degradation, space depletion, waste accumulation, energy
consumption and environmental pollution. Materials used like
plastics, metals, bricks, concrete, cement, natural aggregates, glass
and plaster have wreaked havoc on the earth´s resources, since they
have high levels of embodied energy hence not sustainable.
Additional resources are consumed during use and disposal phases.
Proposed designs for sustainability solutions include: ecological
sanitation and eco-efficiency systems that ensure social, economic,
environmental and technical sustainability. Renewable materials and
energy systems, passive cooling and heating systems and material
and energy reduction, reuse and recycling can improve the sector.
These ideas are intended to inform the field of ecological design of
the built environment.
Abstract: Accident in spent fuel pool (SFP) of Fukushima
Daiichi Unit 4 showed the importance of continuous monitoring of the
key environmental parameters such as water temperature, water level,
and radiation level in the SFP at accident conditions. Because the SFP
water temperature is one of the key parameters indicating SFP
conditions, its behavior at accident conditions shall be understood to
prepare appropriate measures. This study estimated temporal change
in the SFP water temperature at Kori Unit 1 with 587 MWe for 1 hour
after initiation of a loss-of-pool-cooling accident. For the estimation,
ANSYS CFX 13.0 code was used. The estimation showed that the
increasing rate of the water temperature was 3.90C per hour and the
SFP water temperature could reach 1000C in 25.6 hours after the
initiation of loss-of-pool-cooling accident.