Abstract: Empirical force fields and density functional theory
(DFT) was used to study the binding energies and structures of
methylamine on the surface of activated carbons (ACs). This is a first
step in studying the adsorption of alkyl amines on the surface of
functionalized ACs. The force fields used were Dreiding (DFF),
Universal (UFF) and Compass (CFF) models. The generalized
gradient approximation with Perdew Wang 91 (PW91) functional
was used for DFT calculations. In addition to obtaining the aminecarboxylic
acid adsorption energies, the results were used to establish
reliability of the empirical models for these systems. CFF predicted a
binding energy of -9.227 (kcal/mol) which agreed with PW91 at -
13.17 (kcal/mol), compared to DFF 0 (kcal/mol) and UFF -0.72
(kcal/mol). However, the CFF binding energies for the amine to ester
and ketone disagreed with PW91 results. The structures obtained
from all models agreed with PW91 results.
Abstract: The security of computer networks plays a strategic
role in modern computer systems. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
act as the 'second line of defense' placed inside a protected
network, looking for known or potential threats in network traffic
and/or audit data recorded by hosts. We developed an Intrusion
Detection System using LAMSTAR neural network to learn patterns
of normal and intrusive activities, to classify observed system
activities and compared the performance of LAMSTAR IDS with
other classification techniques using 5 classes of KDDCup99 data.
LAMSAR IDS gives better performance at the cost of high
Computational complexity, Training time and Testing time, when
compared to other classification techniques (Binary Tree classifier,
RBF classifier, Gaussian Mixture classifier). we further reduced the
Computational Complexity of LAMSTAR IDS by reducing the
dimension of the data using principal component analysis which in
turn reduces the training and testing time with almost the same
performance.
Abstract: This paper presents a forgetting factor scheme for variable step-size affine projection algorithms (APA). The proposed scheme uses a forgetting processed input matrix as the projection matrix of pseudo-inverse to estimate system deviation. This method introduces temporal weights into the projection matrix, which is typically a better model of the real error's behavior than homogeneous temporal weights. The regularization overcomes the ill-conditioning introduced by both the forgetting process and the increasing size of the input matrix. This algorithm is tested by independent trials with coloured input signals and various parameter combinations. Results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in terms of convergence rate and misadjustment compared to existing algorithms. As a special case, a variable step size NLMS with forgetting factor is also presented in this paper.
Abstract: Many recent electrophysiological studies have
revealed the importance of investigating meditation state in order to
achieve an increased understanding of autonomous control of
cardiovascular functions. In this paper, we characterize heart rate
variability (HRV) time series acquired during meditation using
nonlinear dynamical parameters. We have computed minimum
embedding dimension (MED), correlation dimension (CD), largest
Lyapunov exponent (LLE), and nonlinearity scores (NLS) from HRV
time series of eight Chi and four Kundalini meditation practitioners.
The pre-meditation state has been used as a baseline (control) state to
compare the estimated parameters. The chaotic nature of HRV during
both pre-meditation and meditation is confirmed by MED. The
meditation state showed a significant decrease in the value of CD and
increase in the value of LLE of HRV, in comparison with premeditation
state, indicating a less complex and less predictable nature
of HRV. In addition, it was shown that the HRV of meditation state
is having highest NLS than pre-meditation state. The study indicated
highly nonlinear dynamic nature of cardiac states as revealed by
HRV during meditation state, rather considering it as a quiescent
state.
Abstract: The theoretical investigation is carried out to describe
the effect of increase of pressure waves amplitude in clean and bubbly liquid. The goal of the work is to capture the regime of multiple magnification of acoustic and shock waves in the liquid,
which enables to get appropriate conditions to enlarge collapses of
micro-bubbles. The influence of boundary conditions and frequency
of the governing acoustic field is studied for the case of the
cylindrical acoustic resonator. It has been observed the formation of
standing waves with large amplitude at resonant frequencies. The
interaction of the compression wave with gas and vapor bubbles is
investigated for the convergent channel. It is shown theoretically that
the chemical reactions, which occur inside gas bubbles, provide additional impulse to the wave, that affect strongly on the collapses
of the vapor bubbles
Abstract: This paper in essence presents comparative
experimental data on the mechanical performance of steel and
synthetic fibre-reinforced concrete under compression, tensile split
and flexure. URW1050 steel fibre and HPP45 synthetic fibre, both
with the same concrete design mix, have been used to make cube
specimens for a compression test, cylinders for a tensile split test and
beam specimens for a flexural test. The experimental data
demonstrated steel fibre reinforced concrete to be stronger in flexure
at early stages, whilst both fibre reinforced concrete types displayed
comparatively the same performance in compression, tensile splitting
and 28-day flexural strength. In terms of post-crack controlHPP45
was preferable.
Abstract: Tolerance is a tool for achieving a social cohesion, particularly, among individuals and groups with different values. The aim is to study the characteristics of the ethnic tolerance, the inhabitants of Latvia. The ethnic tolerance is taught as a set of conscious and unconscious orientations of the individual in social interaction and inter-ethnic communication. It uses the tools of empirical studies of the ethnic tolerance which allows to identify the explicitly and implicitly levels of the emotional component of Latvia's residents. Explicit measurements were made using the techniques of self-report which revealed the index of the ethnic tolerance and the ethnic identity of the participants. The implicit component was studied using methods based on the effect of the emotional priming. During the processing of the results, there were calculated indicators of the positive and negative implicit attitudes towards members of their own and other ethnicity as well as the explicit parameters of the ethnic tolerance and the ethnic identity of Latvia-s residents. The implicit measurements of the ratio of neighboring ethnic groups against each other showed a mutual negative attitude whereas the explicit measurements indicate a neutral attitude. The data obtained contribute to a further study of the ethnic tolerance of Latvia's residents.
Abstract: Arrack is one of the forms of alcoholic beverage or
liquor which is produced from palm or date juice and commonly
consumed by the lower social class of all religious/ethnic
communities in the north-western villages of Bangladesh. The
purpose of the study was to compare arrack drinking patterns
associated with socio-demographic status among the Muslim, Hindu,
Santal, and Oraon communities in the Rasulpur union of Bangladesh.
A total of 391 respondents (Muslim n-109, Hindu n-103, Santal n-89,
Oraon n-90) selected by cluster random sampling were interviewed
by ADP (Arrack Drinking Pattern) questionnaire. The results of
Pearson Chi-Squire test revealed that arrack drinking patterns were
significantly differed among the Muslim, Hindu, Santal, and Oraon
communities- drinkers. In addition, the results of Spearman-s
bivariate correlation coefficients also revealed that sociodemographic
characteristics of the communities- drinkers were the
significantly positive and negative associations with the arrack
drinking patterns in the Rasulpur union, Bangladesh. The study
suggests that further cross-cultural researches should be conducted
on the consequences of arrack drinking patterns on the communities-
drinkers.
Abstract: The recognition of handwritten numeral is an
important area of research for its applications in post office, banks
and other organizations. This paper presents automatic recognition of
handwritten Kannada numerals based on structural features. Five
different types of features, namely, profile based 10-segment string,
water reservoir; vertical and horizontal strokes, end points and
average boundary length from the minimal bounding box are used in
the recognition of numeral. The effect of each feature and their
combination in the numeral classification is analyzed using nearest
neighbor classifiers. It is common to combine multiple categories of
features into a single feature vector for the classification. Instead,
separate classifiers can be used to classify based on each visual
feature individually and the final classification can be obtained based
on the combination of separate base classification results. One
popular approach is to combine the classifier results into a feature
vector and leaving the decision to next level classifier. This method
is extended to extract a better information, possibility distribution,
from the base classifiers in resolving the conflicts among the
classification results. Here, we use fuzzy k Nearest Neighbor (fuzzy
k-NN) as base classifier for individual feature sets, the results of
which together forms the feature vector for the final k Nearest
Neighbor (k-NN) classifier. Testing is done, using different features,
individually and in combination, on a database containing 1600
samples of different numerals and the results are compared with the
results of different existing methods.
Abstract: The deterministic quantum transfer-matrix (QTM)
technique and its mathematical background are presented. This
important tool in computational physics can be applied to a class of
the real physical low-dimensional magnetic systems described by the
Heisenberg hamiltonian which includes the macroscopic molecularbased
spin chains, small size magnetic clusters embedded in some
supramolecules and other interesting compounds. Using QTM, the
spin degrees of freedom are accurately taken into account, yielding
the thermodynamical functions at finite temperatures.
In order to test the application for the susceptibility calculations to
run in the parallel environment, the speed-up and efficiency of
parallelization are analyzed on our platform SGI Origin 3800 with
p = 128 processor units. Using Message Parallel Interface (MPI)
system libraries we find the efficiency of the code of 94% for
p = 128 that makes our application highly scalable.
Abstract: The recycling process of Tungsten alloy (Swarf) by
oxidation reduction technique have been investigated. The reduced
powder was pressed under a pressure 20Kg/cm2 and sintered at
1150°C in dry hydrogen atmosphere. The particle size of the recycled
alloy powder was 1-3 μm and the shape was regular at a reduction
temperature 800°C. The chemical composition of the recycled alloy
is the same as the primary Swarf.
Abstract: VRML( The virtual reality modeling language) is a standard language used to build up 3D virtualized models. The quick development of internet technology and computer manipulation has promoted the commercialization of reality virtualization. VRML, thereof, is expected to be the most effective framework of building up virtual reality. This article has studied plans to build virtualized scenes based on the technology of virtual reality and Java programe, and introduced how to execute real-time data transactions of VRML file and Java programe by applying Script Node, in doing so we have the VRML interactivity being strengthened.
Abstract: High strength concrete (HSC) provides high strength
but lower ductility than normal strength concrete. This low ductility
limits the benefit of using HSC in building safe structures. On the
other hand, when designing reinforced concrete beams, designers
have to limit the amount of tensile reinforcement to prevent the
brittle failure of concrete. Therefore the full potential of the use of
steel reinforcement can not be achieved. This paper presents the idea
of confining concrete in the compression zone so that the HSC will
be in a state of triaxial compression, which leads to improvements in
strength and ductility. Five beams made of HSC were cast and tested.
The cross section of the beams was 200×300 mm, with a length of 4
m and a clear span of 3.6 m subjected to four-point loading, with
emphasis placed on the midspan deflection. The first beam served as
a reference beam. The remaining beams had different tensile
reinforcement and the confinement shapes were changed to gauge
their effectiveness in improving the strength and ductility of the
beams. The compressive strength of the concrete was 85 MPa and the
tensile strength of the steel was 500 MPa and for the stirrups and
helixes was 250 MPa. Results of testing the five beams proved that
placing helixes with different diameters as a variable parameter in the
compression zone of reinforced concrete beams improve their
strength and ductility.
Abstract: Digital watermarking is a way to provide the facility of secure multimedia data communication besides its copyright protection approach. The Spread Spectrum modulation principle is widely used in digital watermarking to satisfy the robustness of multimedia signals against various signal-processing operations. Several SS watermarking algorithms have been proposed for multimedia signals but very few works have discussed on the issues responsible for secure data communication and its robustness improvement. The current paper has critically analyzed few such factors namely properties of spreading codes, proper signal decomposition suitable for data embedding, security provided by the key, successive bit cancellation method applied at decoder which have greater impact on the detection reliability, secure communication of significant signal under camouflage of insignificant signals etc. Based on the analysis, robust SS watermarking scheme for secure data communication is proposed in wavelet domain and improvement in secure communication and robustness performance is reported through experimental results. The reported result also shows improvement in visual and statistical invisibility of the hidden data.
Abstract: Climate change is a phenomenon has been based on
the available evidence from a very long time ago and now its
existence is very probable. The speed and nature of climate
parameters changes at the middle of twentieth century has been
different and its quickness more than the before and its trend changed
to some extent comparing to the past. Climate change issue now
regarded as not only one of the most common scientific topic but also
a social political one, is not a new issue. Climate change is a
complicated atmospheric oceanic phenomenon on a global scale and
long-term. Precipitation pattern change, fast decrease of snowcovered
resources and its rapid melting, increased evaporation, the
occurrence of destroying floods, water shortage crisis, severe
reduction at the rate of harvesting agricultural products and, so on are
all the significant of climate change. To cope with this phenomenon,
its consequences and events in which public instruction is the most
important but it may be climate that no significant cant and effective
action has been done so far. The present article is included a part of
one surrey about climate change in Fars. The study area having
annually mean temperature 14 and precipitation 320 mm .23 stations
inside the basin with a common 37 year statistical period have been
applied to the meteorology data (1974-2010). Man-kendal and
change factor methods are two statistical methods, applying them, the
trend of changes and the annual mean average temperature and the
annual minimum mean temperature were studied by using them.
Based on time series for each parameter, the annual mean average
temperature and the mean of annual maximum temperature have a
rising trend so that this trend is clearer to the mean of annual
maximum temperature.
Abstract: The performance of mortar subjected to high
temperature and cooled in normal ambient temperature was examined
in the laboratory to comply with the situation of burning & cooling of
a structure. Four series of cubical (5 X 5 X 5 cm) mortar specimens
were made from OPC, and partial replacement (10, 15, 20, 25 &
30%) of OPC by Rice Husk Ash (RHA) produced in the uncontrolled
environment. These specimens were heated in electric furnace to 200,
300, 400, 500 and 7000C. The specimens were kept in normal room
temperature for cooling. They were then tested for mechanical
properties and the results shows that particular 20% RHA mixed
mortar shows better fire performance.
Abstract: Different variants for buoyancy-affected terms in k-ε turbulence model have been utilized to predict the flow parameters more accurately, and investigate applicability of alternative k-ε turbulence buoyant closures in numerical simulation of a horizontal gravity current. The additional non-isotropic turbulent stress due to buoyancy has been considered in production term, based on Algebraic Stress Model (ASM). In order to account for turbulent scalar fluxes, general gradient diffusion hypothesis has been used along with Boussinesq gradient diffusion hypothesis with a variable turbulent Schmidt number and additional empirical constant c3ε.To simulate buoyant flow domain a 2D vertical numerical model (WISE, Width Integrated Stratified Environments), based on Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, has been deployed and the model has been further developed for different k-ε turbulence closures. Results are compared against measured laboratory values of a saline gravity current to explore the efficient turbulence model.
Abstract: This paper proposes a Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control (FSMC) as a control strategy for Buck-Boost DC-DC converter. The proposed fuzzy controller specifies changes in the control signal based on the knowledge of the surface and the surface change to satisfy the sliding mode stability and attraction conditions. The performances of the proposed fuzzy sliding controller are compared to those obtained by a classical sliding mode controller. The satisfactory simulation results show the efficiency of the proposed control law which reduces the chattering phenomenon. Moreover, the obtained results prove the robustness of the proposed control law against variation of the load resistance and the input voltage of the studied converter.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to review representative
cases of green space development in order to compare the Garden City
concept and Green Belt concept as applied and to examine its direction
in major Asian and Oceanic cities. The results of previous studies and
this study show that there are two major directions in such
green-oriented city planning. One direction is toward Multi-Regional
Development, and the other focuses on an Environmentally Symbiotic
City based on the Garden City concept. In large cities and the suburbs
where extremely strong pressure to urbanize makes it impossible to
keep Green Belts, it is essential to strictly control land use and adopt
the Garden City concept to conserve the urban environment.
Abstract: Knowledge is indispensable but voluminous knowledge becomes a bottleneck for efficient processing. A great challenge for data mining activity is the generation of large number of potential rules as a result of mining process. In fact sometimes result size is comparable to the original data. Traditional data mining pruning activities such as support do not sufficiently reduce the huge rule space. Moreover, many practical applications are characterized by continual change of data and knowledge, thereby making knowledge voluminous with each change. The most predominant representation of the discovered knowledge is the standard Production Rules (PRs) in the form If P Then D. Michalski & Winston proposed Censored Production Rules (CPRs), as an extension of production rules, that exhibit variable precision and supports an efficient mechanism for handling exceptions. A CPR is an augmented production rule of the form: If P Then D Unless C, where C (Censor) is an exception to the rule. Such rules are employed in situations in which the conditional statement 'If P Then D' holds frequently and the assertion C holds rarely. By using a rule of this type we are free to ignore the exception conditions, when the resources needed to establish its presence, are tight or there is simply no information available as to whether it holds or not. Thus the 'If P Then D' part of the CPR expresses important information while the Unless C part acts only as a switch changes the polarity of D to ~D. In this paper a scheme based on Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST) interpretation of a CPR is suggested for discovering CPRs from the discovered flat PRs. The discovery of CPRs from flat rules would result in considerable reduction of the already discovered rules. The proposed scheme incrementally incorporates new knowledge and also reduces the size of knowledge base considerably with each episode. Examples are given to demonstrate the behaviour of the proposed scheme. The suggested cumulative learning scheme would be useful in mining data streams.