Abstract: Salinity is a measure of the amount of salts in the
water. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) as salinity parameter are often
determined using laborious and time consuming laboratory tests, but
it may be more appropriate and economical to develop a method
which uses a more simple soil salinity index. Because dissolved ions
increase salinity as well as conductivity, the two measures are
related. The aim of this research was determine of constant
coefficients for predicting of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) based on
Electrical Conductivity (EC) with Statistics of Correlation
coefficient, Root mean square error, Maximum error, Mean Bias
error, Mean absolute error, Relative error and Coefficient of residual
mass. For this purpose, two experimental areas (S1, S2) of Khuzestan
province-IRAN were selected and four treatments with three
replications by series of double rings were applied. The treatments
were included 25cm, 50cm, 75cm and 100cm water application. The
results showed the values 16.3 & 12.4 were the best constant
coefficients for predicting of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) based on
EC in Pilot S1 and S2 with correlation coefficient 0.977 & 0.997 and
191.1 & 106.1 Root mean square errors (RMSE) respectively.
Abstract: We report the results of an lattice Boltzmann
simulation of magnetohydrodynamic damping of sidewall convection
in a rectangular enclosure filled with a porous medium. In particular
we investigate the suppression of convection when a steady magnetic
field is applied in the vertical direction. The left and right vertical
walls of the cavity are kept at constant but different temperatures
while both the top and bottom horizontal walls are insulated. The
effects of the controlling parameters involved in the heat transfer and
hydrodynamic characteristics are studied in detail. The heat and mass
transfer mechanisms and the flow characteristics inside the enclosure
depended strongly on the strength of the magnetic field and Darcy
number. The average Nusselt number decreases with rising values of
the Hartmann number while this increases with increasing values of
the Darcy number.
Abstract: Nanotechnology is the science of creating, using and
manipulating objects which have at least one dimension in range of
0.1 to 100 nanometers. In other words, nanotechnology is
reconstructing a substance using its individual atoms and arranging
them in a way that is desirable for our purpose.
The main reason that nanotechnology has been attracting
attentions is the unique properties that objects show when they are
formed at nano-scale. These differing characteristics that nano-scale
materials show compared to their nature-existing form is both useful
in creating high quality products and dangerous when being in
contact with body or spread in environment.
In order to control and lower the risk of such nano-scale particles,
the main following three topics should be considered:
1) First of all, these materials would cause long term diseases that
may show their effects on body years after being penetrated in human
organs and since this science has become recently developed in
industrial scale not enough information is available about their
hazards on body.
2) The second is that these particles can easily spread out in
environment and remain in air, soil or water for very long time,
besides their high ability to penetrate body skin and causing new
kinds of diseases.
3) The third one is that to protect body and environment against
the danger of these particles, the protective barriers must be finer than
these small objects and such defenses are hard to accomplish.
This paper will review, discuss and assess the risks that human and
environment face as this new science develops at a high rate.
Abstract: This paper studies the duration or survival time of commercial banks active in the Moscovian three month Rouble deposits market, during the 1994-1997 period. The privatization process of the Russian commercial banking industry, after the 1988 banking reform, caused a massive entry of new banks followed by a period of high rates of exit. As a consequence, many firms went bankrupt without refunding their deposits. Therefore, both for the banks and for the banks- depositors, it is of interest to analyze which are the significant characteristics that motivate the exit or the closing of the bank. We propose a different methodology based on penalized weighted least squares which represents a very general, flexible and innovative approach for this type of analysis. The more relevant results are that smaller banks exit sooner, banks that enter the market in the last part of the study have shorter durations. As expected, the more experienced banks have a longer duration in the market. In addition, the mean survival time is lower for banks which offer extreme interest rates.
Abstract: Trust is essential for further and wider acceptance of
contemporary e-services. It was first addressed almost thirty years
ago in Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria standard by
the US DoD. But this and other proposed approaches of that
period were actually solving security. Roughly some ten years ago,
methodologies followed that addressed trust phenomenon at its core,
and they were based on Bayesian statistics and its derivatives, while
some approaches were based on game theory. However, trust is a
manifestation of judgment and reasoning processes. It has to be dealt
with in accordance with this fact and adequately supported in cyber
environment. On the basis of the results in the field of psychology
and our own findings, a methodology called qualitative algebra has
been developed, which deals with so far overlooked elements of trust
phenomenon. It complements existing methodologies and provides a
basis for a practical technical solution that supports management of
trust in contemporary computing environments. Such solution is also
presented at the end of this paper.
Abstract: Several methods have been proposed for color image
compression but the reconstructed image had very low signal to noise
ratio which made it inefficient. This paper describes a lossy
compression technique for color images which overcomes the
drawbacks. The technique works on spatial domain where the pixel
values of RGB planes of the input color image is mapped onto two
dimensional planes. The proposed technique produced better results
than JPEG2000, 2DPCA and a comparative study is reported based
on the image quality measures such as PSNR and MSE.Experiments
on real time images are shown that compare this methodology with
previous ones and demonstrate its advantages.
Abstract: This paper presents the outcomes of a qualitative
study which aims to investigate the pedagogical potentials of serious
games in the preparation of future teachers. The authors discuss the
existing problems and barriers associated with the organization of
teaching practices in Bulgaria as part of the pre-service teacher
training, as well as the attitudes and perceptions of the interviewed
academics, teachers and trainees concerning the integration of serious
games in the teaching practicum. The study outcomes strongly
confirm the positive attitudes of the respondents to the introduction
of virtual learning environments for the development of professional
skills of future teachers as a supplement to the traditional forms of
education. Through the inclusion of serious games it is expected to
improve the quality of practical training of pre-service teachers as
they overcome many of the problems identified in the existing
teaching practices. The outcomes of the study will inform the design
of the educational simulation software which is part of the project
SimAula Tomorrow's Teachers Training.
Abstract: The dynamics of Min proteins plays a center role in
accurate cell division. Although the nucleoids may presumably play
an important role in prokaryotic cell division, there is a lack of
models to account for its participation. In this work, we apply the
lattice Boltzmann method to investigate protein oscillation based on a
mesoscopic model that takes into account the nucleoid-s role. We
found that our numerical results are in reasonably good agreement
with the previous experimental results On comparing with the other
computational models without the presence of nucleoids, the
highlight of our finding is that the local densities of MinD and MinE
on the cytoplasmic membrane increases, especially along the cell
width, when the size of the obstacle increases, leading to a more
distinct cap-like structure at the poles. This feature indicated the
realistic pattern and reflected the combination of Min protein
dynamics and nucleoid-s role.
Abstract: Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements are
reported for binary mixture of 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran and Cumene
at 97.3 kPa. The data were obtained using a vapor recirculating type
(modified Othmer's) equilibrium still. The mixture shows slight
negative deviation from ideality. The system does not form an
azeotrope. The experimental data obtained in this study are
thermodynamically consistent according to the Herington test. The
activity coefficients have been satisfactorily correlated by means of
the Margules, and NRTL equations. Excess Gibbs free energy has
been calculated from the experimental data. The values of activity
coefficients have also been obtained by the UNIFAC group
contribution method.
Abstract: Water is the main component of biological processes.
Water management is important to obtain higher productivity. In this
study, some of the yield components were investigated together with
different drought levels. Four chickpea genotypes (CDC Frontier,
CDC Luna, Sawyer and Sierra) were grown in pots with 3 different
irrigation levels (a dose of 17.5 ml, 35 ml and 70 ml for each pot per
day) after three weeks from sowing. In the research, flowering, pod
set, pod per plant, fertile pod, double seed/pod, stem diameter, plant
weight, seed per plant, 1000 seed weight, seed diameter, vegetation
length and weekly plant height were measured. Consequently,
significant differences were observed on all the investigated
characteristics owing to genotypes (except double seed/pod and stem
diameter), water levels (except first pod, seed weight and height on
3rd week) and genotype x water level interaction (except first pod,
double seed/pod, seed weight and height).
Abstract: This paper presents the possibilities of using Weibull statistical distribution in modeling the distribution of defects in ERP systems. There follows a case study, which examines helpdesk records of defects that were reported as the result of one ERP subsystem upgrade. The result of the applied modeling is in modeling the reliability of the ERP system from a user perspective with estimated parameters like expected maximum number of defects in one day or predicted minimum of defects between two upgrades. Applied measurement-based analysis framework is proved to be suitable in predicting future states of the reliability of the observed ERP subsystems.
Abstract: In this paper a novel method for multiple one dimensional real valued sinusoidal signal frequency estimation in the presence of additive Gaussian noise is postulated. A computationally simple frequency estimation method with efficient statistical performance is attractive in many array signal processing applications. The prime focus of this paper is to combine the subspace-based technique and a simple peak search approach. This paper presents a variant of the Propagator Method (PM), where a collaborative approach of SUMWE and Propagator method is applied in order to estimate the multiple real valued sine wave frequencies. A new data model is proposed, which gives the dimension of the signal subspace is equal to the number of frequencies present in the observation. But, the signal subspace dimension is twice the number of frequencies in the conventional MUSIC method for estimating frequencies of real-valued sinusoidal signal. The statistical analysis of the proposed method is studied, and the explicit expression of asymptotic (large-sample) mean-squared-error (MSE) or variance of the estimation error is derived. The performance of the method is demonstrated, and the theoretical analysis is substantiated through numerical examples. The proposed method can achieve sustainable high estimation accuracy and frequency resolution at a lower SNR, which is verified by simulation by comparing with conventional MUSIC, ESPRIT and Propagator Method.
Abstract: Properties of cement pastes with fine-ground ceramics
used as an alternative binder replacing Portland cement up to 20% of
its mass are investigated. At first, the particle size distribution of
cement and fine-ground ceramics is measured using laser analyser.
Then, the material properties are studied in the early hardening
period up to 28 days. The hydration process of studied materials is
monitored by electrical conductivity measurement using TDR
sensors. The changes of materials- structures within the hardening are
observed using pore size distribution measurement. The compressive
strength measurements are done as well. Experimental results show
that the replacement of Portland cement by fine-ground ceramics in
the amount of up to 20% by mass is acceptable solution from the
mechanical point of view. One can also assume similar physical
properties of designed materials to the reference material with only
Portland cement as binder.
Abstract: A water surface slope limiting scheme is tested and
compared with the water depth slope limiter for the solution of one
dimensional shallow water equations with bottom slope source term.
Numerical schemes based on the total variation diminishing Runge-
Kutta discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with slope
limiter schemes based on water surface slope and water depth are
used to solve one-dimensional shallow water equations. For each
slope limiter, three different Riemann solvers based on HLL, LF, and
Roe flux functions are used. The proposed water surface based slope
limiter scheme is easy to implement and shows better conservation
property compared to the slope limiter based on water depth. Of the
three flux functions, the Roe approximation provides the best results
while the LF function proves to be least suitable when used with
either slope limiter scheme.
Abstract: Renewable water resources are crucial production
variables in arid and semi-arid regions where intensive agriculture is
practiced to meet ever-increasing demand for food and fiber. This is
crucial for the Dez and Moghan command areas where water delivery
problems and adverse environmental issues are widespread. This
paper aims to identify major problems areas using on-farm surveys of
200 farmers, agricultural extensionists and water suppliers which was
complemented by secondary data and field observations during 2010-
2011 cultivating season. The SPSS package was used to analyze and
synthesis data. Results indicated inappropriate canal operations in
both schemes, though there was no unanimity about the underlying
causes. Inequitable and inflexible distribution was found to be rooted
in deficient hydraulic structures particularly in the main and
secondary canals. The inadequacy and inflexibility of water
scheduling regime was the underlying causes of recurring pest and
disease spread which often led to the decline of crop yield and
quality, although these were not disputed, the water suppliers were
not prepared to link with the deficiencies in the operation of the main
and secondary canals. They rather attributed these to the prevailing
salinity; alkalinity, water table fluctuations and leaching of the
valuable agro-chemical inputs from the plants- route zone with farreaching
consequences. Examples of these include the pollution of
ground and surface resources due to over-irrigation at the farm level
which falls under the growers- own responsibility. Poor irrigation
efficiency and adverse environmental problems were attributed to
deficient and outdated farming practices that were in turn rooted in
poor extension programs and irrational water charges.
Abstract: A CFD study on heat flux reduction in hypersonic flow with opposing jet has been conducted. Flowfield parameters, reattachment point position, surface pressure distributions and heat flux distributions are obtained and validated with experiments. The physical mechanism of heat reduction has been analyzed. When the opposing jet blows, the freestream is blocked off, flows to the edges and not interacts with the surface to form aerodynamic heating. At the same time, the jet flows back to form cool recirculation region, which reduces the difference in temperature between the surface and the nearby gas, and then reduces the heat flux. As the pressure ratio increases, the interface between jet and freestream is gradually pushed away from the surface. Larger the total pressure ratio is, lower the heat flux is. To study the effect of the intensity of opposing jet more reasonably, a new parameter RPA has been introduced by combining the flux and the total pressure ratio. The study shows that the same shock wave position and total heat load can be obtained with the same RPA with different fluxes and the total pressures, which means the new parameter could stand for the intensity of opposing jet and could be used to analyze the influence of opposing jet on flow field and aerodynamic heating.
Abstract: Since DVB-RCS has been successively implemented, the mobile communication on the multi-beam satellite communication is attractive attention. And the DVB-RCS standard sets up to support mobility of a RCST. In the case of the spot-beam satellite system, the received signal strength does not differ largely between the center and the boundary of the beam. Thus, the RSS based handoff detection algorithm is not benefit to the satellite system as a terrestrial system. Therefore we propose an Adaptive handoff detection algorithm based on RCST mobility information. Our handoff detection algorithm not only can be used as centralized handoff detection algorithm but also removes uncertainties of handoff due to the variation of RSS. Performances were compared with RSS based handoff algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed handoff detection algorithm not only achieved better handoff and link degradation rate, but also achieved better forward link spectral efficiency.
Abstract: Today many countries have the ambitious purposes of long-term and continuous development: constant growth of competitiveness, maintenance of a high standard of living of the population, leadership in the world market. One of the best possible ways of achievement of these purposes is a transition of the countries to innovative economy. The paper presents the analyses of problems of forming of innovative receptivity to innovations and creation of «innovative society». Creation of an innovative culture in a society and increase of the level of prestige of innovative activity are the best ways of developing of innovative processes. The base of the analysis is a comparing of Russia and different developed countries according to the level of some indictors of innovative activity.1
Abstract: Development, calibration and validation of a threedimensional
model of the Legform impactor for pedestrian crash with
bumper are presented. Lower limb injury is becoming an increasingly
important concern in vehicle safety for both occupants and
pedestrians. In order to prevent lower extremity injuries to a
pedestrian when struck by a car, it is important to elucidate the
loadings from car front structures on the lower extremities and the
injury mechanism caused by these loadings. An impact test
procedure with a legform addressing lower limb injuries in car
pedestrian accidents has been proposed by EEVC/WG17. In this
study a modified legform impactor is introduced and validated
against EEVC/WG17 criteria. The finite element model of this
legform is developed using LS-DYNA software. Total mass of
legform impactor is 13.4 kg.Technical specifications including the
mass and location of the center of gravity and moment of inertia
about a horizontal axis through the respective centre of gravity in
femur and tibia are determined. The obtained results of legform
impactor static and dynamic tests are as specified in the
EEVC/WG17.
Abstract: The main objective of this research was to investigate
the biosorption capacity for biofilms of sulphate reducing bacteria
(SRB) to remove heavy metals, such as Zn, Pb and Cd from
rainwater using laboratory-scale reactors containing mixed support
media. Evidence showed that biosorption had contributed to removal
of heavy metals including Zn, Pb and Cd in presence of SRB and
SRB were also found in the aqueous samples from reactors.
However, the SRB and specific families (Desulfobacteriaceae and
Desulfovibrionaceae) were found mainly in the biomass samples
taken from all reactors at the end of the experiment. EDX-analysis
of reactor solids at end of experiment showed that heavy metals Zn,
Pb and Cd had also accumulated in these precipitates.