Abstract: Because of its global reach, reduction of time
restraints, and ability to reduce costs and increase sales, use of the
Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW), and related technologies
can be a competitive tool in the arsenal of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs). Countries the world over are interested in the
successful adoption of the Internet by SMEs. Because a vast
majority of jobs come from that sector, greater financial success of
SMEs translates into greater job growth and, subsequently, higher
tax revenue to the government. This research investigated the level
of Internet usage for business solutions by small and medium
enterprises in Jordan. Through the survey of a random sample of
100 firms with less than 500 employees and from data obtained
from this survey that formed the basis for our study, we found that
a majority of respondents use the Internet in business activities ,
the adoption of the Internet as a business tool is limited to a
brochure where Web site which primarily provides one way. As
such, there wasn't interactive information about the company and
its products and services.
Abstract: Concatenative speech synthesis is a method that can
make speech sound which has naturalness and high-individuality of a
speaker by introducing a large speech corpus. Based on this method, in
this paper, we propose a voice conversion method whose conversion
speech has high-individuality and naturalness. The authors also have
two subjective evaluation experiments for evaluating individuality and
sound quality of conversion speech. From the results, following three
facts have be confirmed: (a) the proposal method can convert the
individuality of speakers well, (b) employing the framework of unit
selection (especially join cost) of concatenative speech synthesis into
conventional voice conversion improves the sound quality of
conversion speech, and (c) the proposal method is robust against the
difference of genders between a source speaker and a target speaker.
Abstract: In a competitive energy market, system reliability
should be maintained at all times. Power system operation being of
online in nature, the energy balance requirements must be satisfied to
ensure reliable operation the system. To achieve this, information
regarding the expected status of the system, the scheduled
transactions and the relevant inputs necessary to make either a
transaction contract or a transmission contract operational, have to be
made available in real time. The real time procedure proposed,
facilitates this. This paper proposes a quadratic curve learning
procedure, which enables a generator-s contribution to the retailer
demand, power loss of transaction in a line at the retail end and its
associated losses for an oncoming operating scenario to be predicted.
Matlab program was used to test in on a 24-bus IEE Reliability Test
System, and the results are found to be acceptable.
Abstract: A design flow of multi-standard down-conversion
CMOS mixers for three modern standards: Global System Mobile,
Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone and Universal Mobile
Telecommunication Systems is presented. Three active mixer-s
structures are studied. The first is based on the Gilbert cell which
gives a tolerable noise figure and linearity with a low conversion
gain. The second and third structures use the current bleeding and
charge injection techniques in order to increase the conversion gain.
An improvement of about 2 dB of the conversion gain is achieved
without a considerable degradation of the other characteristics. The
models used for noise figure, conversion gain and IIP3 used are
studied. This study describes the nature of trade-offs inherent in such
structures and gives insights that help in identifying which structure
is better for given conditions.
Abstract: High Power Lasers produce an intense burst of
Bremmstrahlung radiation which has potential applications in broadband
x-ray radiography. Since the radiation produced is through the
interaction of accelerated electrons with the remaining laser target,
these bursts are extremely short – in the region of a few ps. As a
result, the laser-produced x-rays are capable of imaging complex
dynamic objects with zero motion blur.
Abstract: Raw wood vinegar was purified by both standing and
filtering methods. Toxicity tests were conducted under laboratory
conditions by the topical application method (contact poison) and
feeding method (stomach poison). Larvicidal activities of wood
vinegar at four different concentrations (10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 %)
were studied against second instar larvae of housefly (Musca
domestica L.). Four replicates were maintained for all treatments and
controls. Larval mortality was recorded up to 96 hours and compared
with the larval survivability by two methods of larvicidal bioassay.
Percent pupation and percent adult emergence were observed in
treated M. domestica. The study revealed that the feeding method
gave higher efficiency compared with the topical application method.
Larval mortality increased with increasing concentration of wood
vinegar and the duration of exposure. No mortality was found in
treated M. domestica larvae at minimum 10% concentration of wood
vinegar through the experiments. The treated larvae were maintained
up to pupa and adult emergence. At 30% maximum concentration
larval duration was extended to 11 days in M. domestica for topical
application method and 9 days for feeding method. Similarly the
pupal durations were also increased with increased concentrations
(16 and 24 days for topical application method and feeding method
respectively at 30% concentration) of the treatments.
Abstract: We assert here that there might be some factors that
influence professional identity construction at the university/higher
education stage. In accord, we propose a conceptual framework of
intervening factors in professional identity construction at university
from a literature review and preliminary data from a qualitative pilot
study using focus groups. This model identifies several factors that
might influence university students- professional identity
construction and group them into categories. In turn, we describe
how these factors might contribute in strengthening or weakening
their professional identity. Finally, we discuss the implications of
strengthening students- PI for the university, individuals and
organizations and we provide a roadmap for future empirical work in
this area.
Abstract: Thrombosis can be life threatening, necessitating therefore its instant treatment. Hydergine, a nootropic agent is used as a cognition enhancer in stroke patients but relatively little is known about its anti-thrombolytic effect. To investigate this aspect, in vivo and ex vivo experiments were designed and conducted. Three groups of rats were injected 1.5mg, 3.0mg and 4.5mg hydergine intraperitonealy with and without prior exposure to fresh plasma. Positive and negative controls were run in parallel. Animals were sacrificed after 1.5hrs and BT, CT, PT, INR, APTT, plasma calcium levels were estimated. For ex vivo analyses, each 1ml blood aspirated was exposed to 0.1mg, 0.2mg, 0.3mg dose of hydergine with parallel controls. Parameters analyzed were as above. Statistical analysis was through one-way ANOVA. Dunken-s and Tukey-s tests provided intra-group variance. BT, CT, PT, INR and APTT increased while calcium levels dropped significantly (P
Abstract: This work presents a numerical model developed to
simulate the dynamics and vibrations of a multistage tractor gearbox.
The effect of time varying mesh stiffness, time varying frictional
torque on the gear teeth, lateral and torsional flexibility of the shafts
and flexibility of the bearings were included in the model. The model
was developed by using the Lagrangian method, and it was applied to
study the effect of three design variables on the vibration and stress
levels on the gears. The first design variable, module, had little effect
on the vibration levels but a higher module resulted to higher bending
stress levels. The second design variable, pressure angle, had little
effect on the vibration levels, but had a strong effect on the stress
levels on the pinion of a high reduction ratio gear pair. A pressure
angle of 25o resulted to lower stress levels for a pinion with 14 teeth
than a pressure angle of 20o. The third design variable, contact ratio,
had a very strong effect on both the vibration levels and bending
stress levels. Increasing the contact ratio to 2.0 reduced both the
vibration levels and bending stress levels significantly. For the gear
train design used in this study, a module of 2.5 and contact ratio of
2.0 for the various meshes was found to yield the best combination
of low vibration levels and low bending stresses. The model can
therefore be used as a tool for obtaining the optimum gear design
parameters for a given multistage spur gear train.
Abstract: In this paper, genetic algorithm (GA) opmization technique is applied to design Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS)-based damping controllers. Two types of controller structures, namely a proportional-integral (PI) and a lead-lag (LL) are considered. The design problem of the proposed controllers is formulated as an optimization problem and GA is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The proposed controllers are tested on a weakly connected power system subjected to different disturbances. The non-linear simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. It is also observed that the proposed SSSC-based controllers improve greatly the voltage profile of the system under severe disturbances. Further, the dynamic performances of both the PI and LL structured FACTS-controller are analyzed at different loading conditions and under various disturbance condition as well as under unbalanced fault conditions..
Abstract: This paper presents the impact study of apparent
reactance injected by series Flexible AC Transmission System
(FACTS) i.e. Thyristor Controlled Series Reactor (TCSR) on the
measured impedance of a 400 kV single electrical transmission line
in the presence of phase to earth fault with fault resistance. The study
deals with an electrical transmission line of Eastern Algerian
transmission networks at Group Sonelgaz (Algerian Company of
Electrical and Gas) compensated by TCSR connected at midpoint of
the line. This compensator used to inject active and reactive powers
is controlled by three TCSR-s. The simulations results investigate the
impacts of the TCSR on the parameters of short circuit calculation
and parameters of measured impedance by distance relay in the
presence of earth fault for three cases study.
Abstract: In this paper, Fabless Prototyping Methodology is
introduced for the design and analysis of MEMS devices.
Conventionally Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is performed before
system level simulation. In our proposed methodology, system level
simulation is performed earlier than FEA as it is computationally less
extensive and low cost. System level simulations are based on
equivalent behavioral models of MEMS device. Electrostatic
actuation based MEMS Microgripper is chosen as case study to
implement this methodology. This paper addresses the behavioral
model development and simulation of actuator part of an
electrostatically actuated Microgripper. Simulation results show that
the actuator part of Microgripper works efficiently for a voltage range
of 0-45V with the corresponding jaw displacement of 0-4.5425μm.
With some minor changes in design, this range can be enhanced to
15μm at 85V.
Abstract: Active research is underway on virtual touch screens
that complement the physical limitations of conventional touch
screens. This paper discusses a virtual touch screen that uses a
multi-layer perceptron to recognize and control three-dimensional
(3D) depth information from a time of flight (TOF) camera. This
system extracts an object-s area from the image input and compares it
with the trajectory of the object, which is learned in advance, to
recognize gestures. The system enables the maneuvering of content in
virtual space by utilizing human actions.
Abstract: This study proposes novel hybrid social network analysis and collaborative filtering approach to enhance the performance of recommender systems. The proposed model selects subgroups of users in Internet community through social network analysis (SNA), and then performs clustering analysis using the information about subgroups. Finally, it makes recommendations using cluster-indexing CF based on the clustering results. This study tries to use the cores in subgroups as an initial seed for a conventional clustering algorithm. This model chooses five cores which have the highest value of degree centrality from SNA, and then performs clustering analysis by using the cores as initial centroids (cluster centers). Then, the model amplifies the impact of friends in social network in the process of cluster-indexing CF.
Abstract: Incremental forming is a complex forming process with
continuously local cumulative deformation taking place during its
process, and springback that forming quality affected by would occur.
The springback evaluation method based on forming error
compensation also was proposed, which it can be defined as the
difference between theory and the actual amount of compensation
along the measured direction. According to forming error
compensation evaluation method, experiments was designed and
implemented. And from the results that obtained it can be show, the
magnitude of springback average (δE) of formed parts was very small,
and the forming precision could be significantly improved by adopting
compensation method. Based on double tensile stress state in the main
deformation area, a hypothesis that there is little springback be arisen
by bending behavior on the formed parts that was proposed.
Abstract: This study aimed to develop and initially validate an instrument that measures social competency among tertiary level faculty members. A review of extant literature on social competence was done. The review of extant literature led to the writing of the items in the initial instrument which was evaluated by 11 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). The SMEs were either educators or psychologists. The results of the evaluations done by the SMEs served as bases for the creation of the pre-try-out instrument used in the first trial-run. Insights from the first trial-run participants led to the development of the main try-out instrument used in the final test administration. One Hundred Forty-one participants from five private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and five private HEIs in Central Luzon in the Philippines participated in the final test administration. The reliability of the instrument was evaluated using Cronbach-s Coefficient Alpha formula and had a Cronbach-s Alpha of 0.92. On the other hand, Factor Analysis was used to evaluate the validity of the instrument and six factors were identified. The development of the final instrument was based on the results of the evaluation of the instrument-s reliability and validity. For purposes of recognition, the instrument was named “Social Competency Inventory for Tertiary Level Faculty Members (SCI-TLFM)."
Abstract: Considering the theory of attribute grammars, we use
logical formulas instead of traditional functional semantic rules.
Following the decoration of a derivation tree, a suitable algorithm
should maintain the consistency of the formulas together with the
evaluation of the attributes. This may be a Prolog-like resolution, but
this paper examines a somewhat different strategy, based on
production specialization, local consistency and propagation: given a
derivation tree, it is interactively decorated, i.e. incrementally
checked and evaluated. The non-directed dependencies are
dynamically directed during attribute evaluation.
Abstract: Polymeric microreactors have emerged as a new
generation of carriers that hold tremendous promise in the areas of
cancer therapy, controlled delivery of drugs, for removal of
pollutants etc. Present work reports a simple and convenient
methodology for synthesis of polystyrene and poly caprolactone
microreactors. An aqueous suspension of carboxylated (1μm)
polystyrene latex particles was mixed with toluene solution followed
by freezing with liquid nitrogen. Freezed particles were incubated at
-20°C and characterized for formation of voids on the surface of
polymer microspheres by Field Emission Scanning Electron
Microscope. The hollow particles were then overnight incubated at
40ºC with unfunctionalized quantum dots (QDs) in 5:1 ratio. QDs
Encapsulated polystyrene microcapsules were characterized by
fluorescence microscopy.
Likewise Poly ε-caprolactone microreactors were prepared by
micro-volcanic rupture of freeze dried microspheres synthesized
using emulsification of polymer with aqueous Poly vinyl alcohol and
freezed with liquid nitrogen. Microreactors were examined with Field
Emission Scanning Electron Microscope for size and morphology.
Current study is an attempt to create hollow polymer particles which
can be employed for microencapsulation of nanoparticles and drug
molecules.
Abstract: To achieve reliable solutions, today-s numerical and
experimental activities need developing more accurate methods and
utilizing expensive facilities, respectfully in microchannels. The analytical
study can be considered as an alternative approach to alleviate
the preceding difficulties. Among the analytical solutions, those with
high robustness and low complexities are certainly more attractive.
The perturbation theory has been used by many researchers to analyze
microflows. In present work, a compressible microflow with constant
heat flux boundary condition is analyzed. The flow is assumed to be
fully developed and steady. The Mach and Reynolds numbers are also
assumed to be very small. For this case, the creeping phenomenon
may have some effect on the velocity profile. To achieve robustness
solution it is assumed that the flow is quasi-isothermal. In this study,
the creeping term which appears in the slip boundary condition
is formulated by different mathematical formulas. The difference
between this work and the previous ones is that the creeping term
is taken into account and presented in non-dimensionalized form.
The results obtained from perturbation theory are presented based
on four non-dimensionalized parameters including the Reynolds,
Mach, Prandtl and Brinkman numbers. The axial velocity, normal
velocity and pressure profiles are obtained. Solutions for velocities
and pressure for two cases with different Br numbers are compared
with each other and the results show that the effect of creeping
phenomenon on the velocity profile becomes more important when
Br number is less than O(ε).
Abstract: New theory for functionally graded (FG) shell based on expansion of the equations of elasticity for functionally graded materials (GFMs) into Legendre polynomials series has been developed. Stress and strain tensors, vectors of displacements, traction and body forces have been expanded into Legendre polynomials series in a thickness coordinate. In the same way functions that describe functionally graded relations has been also expanded. Thereby all equations of elasticity including Hook-s law have been transformed to corresponding equations for Fourier coefficients. Then system of differential equations in term of displacements and boundary conditions for Fourier coefficients has been obtained. Cases of the first and second approximations have been considered in more details. For obtained boundary-value problems solution finite element (FE) has been used of Numerical calculations have been done with Comsol Multiphysics and Matlab.