Abstract: Jacobs, A.B. (1993) stated that "When I think of a city,
the first thing that comes to mind is the street. If the street is
interesting, the rest of the city is interesting. If the street is mundane,
the city is also mundane." In this statement, he expresses the
importance of the streetscape and the street environment. The
objective of this paper is to analyze the spatial relationships of the
streetscape that affect the general public's preference of the cityscape.
Furthermore, this research focuses on the important role that
streetscape plays in public perception of the city by the pedestrians
who experience it daily. The subject of this paper is eight of the
"Design Seoul Street."The analysis and survey results show the
preference criteria that affect the streetscape and ultimately the
cityscape. This research endeavor shows that differences in physical
form, shape, size, color, locations, and context are important.
Abstract: Solidification cracking and hydrogen cracking are some defects generated in the fusion welding of ultrahigh carbon steels. However, friction stir welding (FSW) of such steels, being a solid-state technique, has been demonstrated to alleviate such problems encountered in traditional welding. FSW include different process parameters that must be carefully defined prior processing. These parameters included but not restricted to: tool feed, tool RPM, tool geometry, tool tilt angle. These parameters form a key factor behind avoiding warm holes and voids behind the tool and in achieving a defect-free weld. More importantly, these parameters directly affect the microstructure of the weld and hence the final mechanical properties of weld. For that, 3D finite element (FE) thermo-mechanical model was developed using DEFORM 3D to simulate FSW of carbon steel. At points of interest in the joint, tracking is done for history of critical state variables such as temperature, stresses, and strain rates. Typical results found include the ability to simulate different weld zones. Simulations predictions were successfully compared to experimental FSW tests. It is believed that such a numerical model can be used to optimize FSW processing parameters to favor desirable defect free weld with better mechanical properties.
Abstract: MBMS is a unidirectional point-to-multipoint bearer
service in which data are transmitted from a single source entity to
multiple recipients. For a mobile to support the MBMS, MBMS client
functions as well as MBMS radio protocols should be designed and
implemented. In this paper, we analyze the MBMS client functions
and describe the implementation of them in our mobile test-bed. User
operations and signaling flows between protocol entities to control the
MBMS functions are designed in detail. Service announcement
utilizing the file download MBMS service and four MBMS user
services are demonstrated in the test-bed to verify the MBMS client
functions.
Abstract: The impact of the information revolution is double
edged. While it is applauded for its versatility and performance
robustness and acclaimed for making life smooth and easy, on the
other hand people are concerned about its dark side especially to
younger generations. The education system should extend its
educating role beyond the school to home. Parents should be included
in forming the policies of Internet use as well as in the curriculum
delivery. This paper discusses how curriculum can be instrumental in
addressing social and ethical issues resulted from the Internet.
Abstract: In a recent major industry-supported research and development study, a novel framework was developed and applied for assessment of reliability and quality performance levels in reallife power systems with practical large-scale sizes. The new assessment methodology is based on three metaphors (dimensions) representing the relationship between available generation capacities and required demand levels. The paper shares the results of the successfully completed stud and describes the implementation of the new methodology on practical zones in the Saudi electricity system.
Abstract: Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology
(UTAUT) model has demonstrated the influencing factors for generic
information systems use such as tablet personal computer (TPC) and
mobile communication. However, in the context of digital library
system, there has been very little effort to determine factors affecting
the intention to use digital library based on the UTAUT model. This
paper investigates factors that are expected to influence the intention
of postgraduate students to use digital library based on modified
UTAUT model. The modified model comprises of constructs
represented by several latent variables, namely performance
expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), information quality (IQ)
and service quality (SQ) and moderated by age, gender and
experience in using digital library. Results show that performance
expectancy, effort expectancy and information quality are positively
related to the intention to use digital library, while service quality is
negatively related to the intention to use digital library. Age and
gender have shown no evidence of any significant interactions, while
experience in using digital library significantly interacts with effort
expectancy and intention to use digital library. This has provided the
evidence of a moderating effect of experience in the intention to use
digital library. It is expected that this research will shed new lights
into research of acceptance and intention to use the library in a digital
environment.
Abstract: Over the past few years, companies in developing
countries have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems. Regardless of the various benefits of the ERP system, its
adoption and implementation have not been without problems. Many
companies have assigned considerable organizational resources to
their ERP projects, but have encountered unexpected challenges.
Neglecting a number of important factors in ERP projects might lead
to failure instead of success. User satisfaction is among those factors
that has a major influence on ERP implementation success. So, this
paper intends to investigate the key factors that create ERP users-
satisfaction and to discover whether ERP users- satisfaction varies
among different users- profiles. The study was conducted using a
survey questionnaire which was distributed to ERP users in Iranian
organizations. A total of 384 responses were collected and analyzed.
The findings indicated that younger ERP users tend to be more
satisfied with ERP systems. Furthermore, ERP users with more
experiences in IT and also more educated users have more
satisfaction with ERP softwares. However, the study found no
satisfaction differences between men and women users.
Abstract: Service-oriented systems have become popular and
presented many advantages in develop and maintain process. The
coupling is the most important attribute of services when they are
integrated into a system. In this paper, we propose a suite of metrics
to evaluate service-s quality according to its ability of coupling. We
use the coupling metrics to measure the maintainability, reliability,
testability, and reusability of services. Our proposed metrics are
operated in run-time which bring more exact results.
Abstract: The affect of the attendance percentage, the overall
GPA and the number of credit hours the student is enrolled in at
specific semester on the grade attained in specific course has been
studied. This study has been performed on three courses offered in
industrial engineering department at the Hashemite University in
Jordan. Study has revealed that the grade attained by a student is
strongly affected by the attendance percentage and his overall GPA
with a value of R2 of 52.5%. Another model that has been
investigated is the relation between the semester GPA and the
attendance percentage, the number of credit hours enrolled in at
specific semester, and the overall GPA. This model gave us a strong
relationship between the semester GPA and attendance percentage
and the overall GPA with a value of R2 of 76.2%.
Abstract: The Platform Screen Doors improve Indoor Air Quality
(IAQ) in the subway station; however, and the air quality is degraded
in the subway tunnel. CO2 concentration and indoor particulate matter
value are high in the tunnel. The IAQ level in subway tunnel degrades
by increasing the train movements. Air-curtain installation reduces
dusts, particles and moving toxic smokes and permits traffic by
generating virtual wall. The ventilation systems of the subway tunnel
need improvements to have better air-quality. Numerical analyses
might be effective tools analyze the flowfield inside the air-curtain
installed subway tunnel. The ANSYS CFX software is used for steady
computations of the airflow inside the tunnel. The single-track subway
tunnel has the natural shaft, the mechanical shaft, and the PSDs
installed stations. The height and width of the tunnel are 6.0 m and 4.0
m respectively. The tunnel is 400 m long and the air-curtain is installed
at the top of the tunnel. The thickness and the width of the air-curtain
are 0.08 m and 4 m respectively. The velocity of the air-curtain
changes between 20 - 30 m/s. Three cases are analyzed depending on
the installing location of the air-curtain. The discharged-air through
the natural shafts increases as the velocity of the air-curtain increases
when the air-curtain is installed between the mechanical and the
natural shafts. The pollutant-air is exhausted by the mechanical and the
natural shafts and remained air is pushed toward tunnel end. The
discharged-air through the natural shaft is low when the air-curtain
installed before the natural shaft. The mass flow rate decreases in the
tunnel after the mechanical shaft as the air-curtain velocity increases.
The computational results of the air-curtain installed tunnel become
basis for the optimum design study. The air-curtain installing location
is chosen between the mechanical and the natural shafts. The velocity
of the air-curtain is fixed as 25 m/s. The thickness and the blowing
angles of the air-curtain are the design variables for the optimum
design study. The object function of the design optimization is
maximizing the discharged air through the natural shaft.
Abstract: This study was conducted in order to determine the physical properties and stability of mayonnaise-like emulsions as affected by modified yam starches. Native yam starch was modified via pre-gelatinization and cross-linking phosphorylation procedures. The emulsions (50% oil dispersed phase) were prepared with 0.3% native potato, native yam, pre-gelatinized yam and cross-linking phosphorylation yam starches. The droplet size of surface weighted mean diameter was found to be significantly (p < 0.05) lower in the sample with cross-linking phosphorylation yam starch as compared to other samples. Moreover, the viscosity of the sample with pregelatinized yam starch was observed to be higher than that of other samples. The phase separation stability was low in the freshly prepared and stored (45 days, 5°C) emulsions containing native yam starch. This study thus generally suggested that modified yam starches were more suitable (i.e. better physical properties and stability) to be used as stabilizers in a similar system i.e. light mayonnaises, rather than a native yam starch.
Abstract: The paper presents a novel idea to control computer
mouse cursor movement with human eyes. In this paper, a working
of the product has been described as to how it helps the special
people share their knowledge with the world. Number of traditional
techniques such as Head and Eye Movement Tracking Systems etc.
exist for cursor control by making use of image processing in which
light is the primary source. Electro-oculography (EOG) is a new
technology to sense eye signals with which the mouse cursor can be
controlled. The signals captured using sensors, are first amplified,
then noise is removed and then digitized, before being transferred to
PC for software interfacing.
Abstract: In modern era, the biggest challenge facing the
software industry is the upcoming of new technologies. So, the
software engineers are gearing up themselves to meet and manage
change in large software system. Also they find it difficult to deal
with software cognitive complexities. In the last few years many
metrics were proposed to measure the cognitive complexity of
software. This paper aims at a comprehensive survey of the metric of
software cognitive complexity. Some classic and efficient software
cognitive complexity metrics, such as Class Complexity (CC),
Weighted Class Complexity (WCC), Extended Weighted Class
Complexity (EWCC), Class Complexity due to Inheritance (CCI) and
Average Complexity of a program due to Inheritance (ACI), are
discussed and analyzed. The comparison and the relationship of these
metrics of software complexity are also presented.
Abstract: Spent Sulfidic Caustic was biologically treated and
regenerated for reusing by Thiobacillus denitrificans bacteria, sulfide
content oxidized and RSNa reduced dramatically.PH in this test was
11.8 and no neutralization has been done on spent caustic, so spent
caustic as the most difficult of industrial wastes to dispose could be
regenerate and reuse instead of disposing to sea or deep wells
Abstract: As wireless sensor networks are energy constraint networks
so energy efficiency of sensor nodes is the main design issue.
Clustering of nodes is an energy efficient approach. It prolongs the
lifetime of wireless sensor networks by avoiding long distance communication.
Clustering algorithms operate in rounds. Performance of
clustering algorithm depends upon the round time. A large round
time consumes more energy of cluster heads while a small round
time causes frequent re-clustering. So existing clustering algorithms
apply a trade off to round time and calculate it from the initial
parameters of networks. But it is not appropriate to use initial
parameters based round time value throughout the network lifetime
because wireless sensor networks are dynamic in nature (nodes can be
added to the network or some nodes go out of energy). In this paper
a variable round time approach is proposed that calculates round
time depending upon the number of active nodes remaining in the
field. The proposed approach makes the clustering algorithm adaptive
to network dynamics. For simulation the approach is implemented
with LEACH in NS-2 and the results show that there is 6% increase
in network lifetime, 7% increase in 50% node death time and 5%
improvement over the data units gathered at the base station.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to study principal
component analysis for classification of 67 soil samples collected from
different agricultural areas in the western part of Thailand. Six soil
properties were measured on the soil samples and are used as original
variables. Principal component analysis is applied to reduce the
number of original variables. A model based on the first two
principal components accounts for 72.24% of total variance. Score
plots of first two principal components were used to map with
agricultural areas divided into horticulture, field crops and wetland.
The results showed some relationships between soil properties and
agricultural areas. PCA was shown to be a useful tool for agricultural
areas classification based on soil properties.
Abstract: Compensating physiological motion in the context
of minimally invasive cardiac surgery has become an attractive
issue since it outperforms traditional cardiac procedures offering
remarkable benefits. Owing to space restrictions, computer vision
techniques have proven to be the most practical and suitable solution.
However, the lack of robustness and efficiency of existing methods
make physiological motion compensation an open and challenging
problem. This work focusses on increasing robustness and efficiency
via exploration of the classes of 1−and 2−regularized optimization,
emphasizing the use of explicit regularization. Both approaches are
based on natural features of the heart using intensity information.
Results pointed out the 1−regularized optimization class as the best
since it offered the shortest computational cost, the smallest average
error and it proved to work even under complex deformations.
Abstract: The objective of this study is to evaluate the
occurrence of fungi in aerobic and anoxic activated sludge from
membrane bioreactors (MBRs). Thirty-six samples of both aerobic
and anoxic activated sludge were taken from 2 MBR treating
domestic wastewater. Over a period of eight months 2 samples from
each plant were taken per month. The samples were prepared for
count and definition of fungi. The obtained data show that, sixty
species belonging to 27 genera were collected from activated sludge
samples under aerobic and anoxic conditions. Regarding to the fungi
definition, under aerobic condition the Geotrichum was found at
(8.8%) followed by Penicillium (75.0%), Yeasts (65.7%) and
Trichoderma (55.5%), while Yeasts (77.1%) Geotrichum
candidumand Penicillium (61.1%) species were the most prevalent in
anoxic activated sludge. The results indicate that activated sludge is
habitat for growth and sporulation of different groups of fungi, both
saprophytic and pathogenic.
Abstract: Gasoline Octane Number is the standard measure of
the anti-knock properties of a motor in platforming processes, that is
one of the important unit operations for oil refineries and can be
determined with online measurement or use CFR (Cooperative Fuel
Research) engines. Online measurements of the Octane number can
be done using direct octane number analyzers, that it is too
expensive, so we have to find feasible analyzer, like ANFIS
estimators.
ANFIS is the systems that neural network incorporated in fuzzy
systems, using data automatically by learning algorithms of NNs.
ANFIS constructs an input-output mapping based both on human
knowledge and on generated input-output data pairs.
In this research, 31 industrial data sets are used (21 data for training
and the rest of the data used for generalization). Results show that,
according to this simulation, hybrid method training algorithm in
ANFIS has good agreements between industrial data and simulated
results.
Abstract: The continued interest in the use of distributed generation in recent years is leading to the growth in number of distributed generators connected to distribution networks. Steady state voltage rise resulting from the connection of these generators can be a major obstacle to their connection at lower voltage levels. The present electric distribution network is designed to keep the customer voltage within tolerance limit. This may require a reduction in connectable generation capacity, under utilization of appropriate generation sites. Thus distribution network operators need a proper voltage regulation method to allow the significant integration of distributed generation systems to existing network. In this work a voltage rise problem in a typical distribution system has been studied. A method for voltage regulation of distribution system with multiple DG system by coordinated operation distributed generator, capacitor and OLTC has been developed. A sensitivity based analysis has been carried out to determine the priority for individual generators in multiple DG environment. The effectiveness of the developed method has been evaluated under various cases through simulation results.