Abstract: This research proposed a new design of helmet-shaped
array transcranial magnetic stimulation coil system. It was constructed
using several sagittal directional wires and several coronal directional
wires. By varying the current direction and strength on each wire, this
array coil system could be constructed into the circular coil and
figure-eight coil of different size. Also, this proposed coil system can
flexibly not only change the stimulation location, range, type and
strength, but also change the shape and the channel number of coil
dynamically.
Abstract: This paper presents an exact pruning algorithm with
adaptive pruning interval for general dynamic neural networks
(GDNN). GDNNs are artificial neural networks with internal dynamics.
All layers have feedback connections with time delays to the
same and to all other layers. The structure of the plant is unknown, so
the identification process is started with a larger network architecture
than necessary. During parameter optimization with the Levenberg-
Marquardt (LM) algorithm irrelevant weights of the dynamic neural
network are deleted in order to find a model for the plant as
simple as possible. The weights to be pruned are found by direct
evaluation of the training data within a sliding time window. The
influence of pruning on the identification system depends on the
network architecture at pruning time and the selected weight to be
deleted. As the architecture of the model is changed drastically during
the identification and pruning process, it is suggested to adapt the
pruning interval online. Two system identification examples show
the architecture selection ability of the proposed pruning approach.
Abstract: The gustatory system allows animals to distinguish
varieties of food and affects greatly the consumption of food, hence
the health and growth of animals. In the current study, we
investigated the histogenesis of vallate papillae (VLP) in the rabbit
tongue using light and scanning electron microscopy. Samples were
obtained from rabbit embryos at the embryonic days 16-30 (E16-30),
and from newborns until maturity; 6 months. At E16, the first
primordia of vallate papillae were observed as small pits on the
surface epithelium of the tongue-s root. At E18, the caudal part was
prominent with loose mesenchymal tissue core; meanwhile the rostral
part of the papilla was remained as a thick mass of epithelial cells. At
E20-24, the side epithelium formed the primitive annular groove. At
E26, the primitive taste buds appeared only at the papillary surface
and reached their maturity by E28. The annular groove started to
appear at E26 became more defined at E28. The definitive vallate
papillae with substantial number of apparently mature taste buds
were observed by the end of the second week. We conclude that the
vallate papillae develop early and mature during the early postnatal
life.
Abstract: The main goal of this seminal paper is to introduce the
application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in long distance
infrastructure monitoring (in particular in pipeline infrastructure
monitoring) – one of the on-going research projects by the Wireless
Communication Research Group at the department of Electronic and
Computer Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The
current sensor network architectures for monitoring long distance
pipeline infrastructures are previewed. These are wired sensor
networks, RF wireless sensor networks, integrated wired and wireless
sensor networks. The reliability of these architectures is discussed.
Three reliability factors are used to compare the architectures in
terms of network connectivity, continuity of power supply for the
network, and the maintainability of the network. The constraints and
challenges of wireless sensor networks for monitoring and protecting
long distance pipeline infrastructure are discussed.
Abstract: A strip domain decomposition parallel algorithm for fast direct Poisson solver is presented on a 3D Cartesian staggered grid. The parallel algorithm follows the principles of sequential algorithm for fast direct Poisson solver. Both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are addressed. Several test cases are likewise addressed in order to shed light on accuracy and efficiency in the strip domain parallelization algorithm. Actually the current implementation shows a very high efficiency when dealing with a large grid mesh up to 3.6 * 109 under massive parallel approach, which explicitly demonstrates that the proposed algorithm is ready for massive parallel computing.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new procedure for analyzing means-end chain data in marketing research. Most commonly the collected data is summarized in the Hierarchical Value Map (HVM) illustrating the main attribute-consequence-value linkages. This paper argues that traditionally constructed HVM may give an erroneous impression of the results of a means-end study. To justify the arguments, an alternative procedure to (1) determine the dominant attribute-consequence-value linkages and (2) construct HVM in a precise manner is presented. The current approach makes a contribution to means-end analysis, allowing marketers to address a set of marketing problems, such as advertising strategy.
Abstract: Land shortage for burials is one of many issues that emerge out of accelerated urban growth in most developing Asian cities, including Kuala Lumpur. Despite actions taken by the federal government and local authorities in addressing this issue, there is no strategic solution being formulated. Apart from making provisions for land to be developed as new cemeteries, the future plan is merely to allocate reserve land to accommodate the increasing demands of burial grounds around the city. This paper examines problems that arise from the traditional practices of Malay funerary as well as an insight to current urban practices in managing Muslim burial spaces around Kuala Lumpur metropolitan region. This paper will also provide some solutions through design approach that can be applied to counter the existing issues.
Abstract: In this paper we present the first Arabic sentence
dataset for on-line handwriting recognition written on tablet pc. The
dataset is natural, simple and clear. Texts are sampled from daily
newspapers. To collect naturally written handwriting, forms are
dictated to writers. The current version of our dataset includes 154
paragraphs written by 48 writers. It contains more than 3800 words
and more than 19,400 characters. Handwritten texts are mainly
written by researchers from different research centers. In order to use
this dataset in a recognition system word extraction is needed. In this
paper a new word extraction technique based on the Arabic
handwriting cursive nature is also presented. The technique is applied
to this dataset and good results are obtained. The results can be
considered as a bench mark for future research to be compared with.
Abstract: In the last decade, carbohydrates have attracted great
attention as renewable resources for the chemical industry.
Carbohydrates are abundantly found in nature in the form of
monomers, oligomers and polymers, or as components of
biopolymers and other naturally occurring substances. As natural
products, they play important roles in conferring certain physical,
chemical, and biological properties to their carrier molecules.The
synthesis of this particular carbohydrate glycomonomer is part of our
work to obtain biodegradable polymers. Our current paper describes
the synthesis and characterization of a novel carbohydrate
glycomonomer starting from D-glucose, in several synthesis steps,
that involve the protection/deprotection of the D-glucose ring via
acetylation, tritylation, then selective deprotection of the aromaticaliphatic
protective group, in order to obtain 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl-
6-O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose. The glycomonomer was then obtained
by the allylation in drastic conditions of 1,2,3,4-tetra-O-acetyl-6-Oallyl-
β-D-glucopyranose with allylic alcohol in the presence of
stannic chloride, in methylene chloride, at room temperature. The
proposed structure of the glycomonomer, 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1,6-di-
O-allyl-β-D-glucopyranose, was confirmed by FTIR, NMR and
HPLC-MS spectrometry. This glycomonomer will be further
submitted to copolymerization with certain acrylic or methacrylic
monomers in order to obtain competitive plastic materials for
applications in the biomedical field.
Abstract: Mobile Learning (M-Learning) is a new technology
which is to enhance current learning practices and activities for all
people especially students and academic practitioners UTP is
currently, implemented two types of learning styles which are
conventional and electronic learning. In order to improve current
learning approaches, it is necessary for UTP to implement m-learning
in UTP. This paper presents a study on the students- perceptions on
mobile utilization in the learning practices in UTP. Besides, this
paper also presents a survey that was conducted among 82 students
from System Analysis and Design (SAD) course in UTP. The survey
includes basic information of mobile devices that have been used by
the students, opinions on current learning practices and also the
opinions regarding the m-learning implementation in the current
learning practices especially in SAD course. Based on the results of
the survey, majority of the students are using the mobile devices that
can support m-learning environment. Other than that, students also
agreed that current learning practices are ineffective and they believe
that m-learning utilization can improve the effectiveness of current
learning practices.
Abstract: Nowadays in applications of renewable energy sources
it is important to develop powerful and energy-saving photovoltaic
converters and to keep the prescriptions of the standards. In grid
connected PV converters the obvious solution to increase the
efficiency is to reduce the switching losses. Our new developed
control method reduces the switching losses and keeps the limitations
of the harmonic distortion standards. The base idea of the method is
the utilization of 3-state control causing discontinuous current mode
at low input power. In the following sections the control theory, the
realizations and the simulation results are presented.
Abstract: This paper describes a new algorithm of arrangement
in parallel, based on Odd-Even Mergesort, called division and
concurrent mixes. The main idea of the algorithm is to achieve that
each processor uses a sequential algorithm for ordering a part of the
vector, and after that, for making the processors work in pairs in
order to mix two of these sections ordered in a greater one, also
ordered; after several iterations, the vector will be completely
ordered. The paper describes the implementation of the new
algorithm on a Message Passing environment (such as MPI). Besides,
it compares the obtained experimental results with the quicksort
sequential algorithm and with the parallel implementations (also on
MPI) of the algorithms quicksort and bitonic sort. The comparison
has been realized in an 8 processors cluster under GNU/Linux which
is running on a unique PC processor.
Abstract: Paper deals with environmental metrics and assessment systems devoted to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Authors are presenting proposed assessment model which has an ability to discover current environmental strengths and weaknesses of Small and Middle Sized Enterprise. Suggested model has also an ambition to become a Sustainability Decision Tool. Model is able to identify "best environmental devision" in the company, and to quantify how this decision contributed into overall environmental improvement. Authors understand environmental improvements as environmental innovations (product, process and organizational). Suggested model is based on its own concept; however, authors are also utilizing already existing environmental assessment tools.
Abstract: This study1 holds for the formation of international financial crisis and political factors for economic crisis in Turkey, are evaluated in chronological order. The international arena and relevant studies conducted in Turkey work in the literature are assessed. The main purpose of the study is to hold the linkage between the crises and political stability in Turkey in details, and to examine the position of Turkey in this regard. The introduction part follows the literature survey on the models explaining causes and results of the crises, the second part of the study. In the third part, the formations of the world financial crises are studied. The fourth part, financial crisis in Turkey in 1994, 2000, 2001 and 2008 are reviewed and their political reasons are analyzed. In the last part of the study the results and recommendations are held. Political administrations have laid the grounds for an economic crisis in Turkey. In this study, the emergence of an economic crisis in Turkey and the developments after the crisis are chronologically examined and an explanation is offered as to the cause and effect relationship between the political administration and economic equilibrium in the country. Economic crises can be characterized as follows: high prices of consumables, high interest rates, current account deficits, budget deficits, structural defects in government finance, rising inflation and fixed currency applications, rising government debt, declining savings rates and increased dependency on foreign capital stock. Entering into the conditions of crisis during a time when the exchange value of the country-s national currency was rising, speculative finance movements and shrinking of foreign currency reserves happened due to expectations for devaluation and because of foreign investors- resistance to financing national debt, and a financial risk occurs. During the February 2001 crisis and immediately following, devaluation and reduction of value occurred in Turkey-s stock market. While changing over to the system of floating exchange rates in the midst of this crisis, the effects of the crisis on the real economy are discussed in this study. Administered politics include financial reforms, such as the rearrangement of banking systems. These reforms followed with the provision of foreign financial support. There have been winners and losers in the imbalance of income distribution, which has recently become more evident in Turkey-s fragile economy.
Abstract: The environmental impacts caused by the current production and consumption models, together with the impact that the current economic crisis, bring necessary changes in the European industry toward new business models based on sustainability issues that could allow them to innovate and improve their competitiveness. This paper analyzes the key environmental issues and the current and future market trends in one of the most important industrial sectors in Spain, the furniture sector. It also proposes new decision support tools -diagnostic kit, roadmap and guidelines- to guide companies to implement sustainability criteria into their organizations, including eco-design strategies and other economical and social strategies in accordance with the sustainability definition, and other available tools such as eco-labels, environmental management systems, etc., and to use and combine them to obtain the results the company expects to help improve its competitiveness.
Abstract: Topological changes in mobile ad hoc networks
frequently render routing paths unusable. Such recurrent path failures
have detrimental effects on quality of service. A suitable technique
for eliminating this problem is to use multiple backup paths between
the source and the destination in the network. This paper proposes an
effective and efficient protocol for backup and disjoint path set in ad
hoc wireless network. This protocol converges to a highly reliable
path set very fast with no message exchange overhead. The paths
selection according to this algorithm is beneficial for mobile ad hoc
networks, since it produce a set of backup paths with more high
reliability. Simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the
performance of our algorithm in terms of route numbers in the path
set and its reliability. In order to acquire link reliability estimates, we
use link expiration time (LET) between two nodes.
Abstract: This paper summarizes the results of some experiments for finding the effective features for disambiguation of Turkish verbs. Word sense disambiguation is a current area of investigation in which verbs have the dominant role. Generally verbs have more senses than the other types of words in the average and detecting these features for verbs may lead to some improvements for other word types. In this paper we have considered only the syntactical features that can be obtained from the corpus and tested by using some famous machine learning algorithms.
Abstract: This paper proposes a new optimal feedback controller
for voltage source converters VSC's, for current regulated voltage
source converters, which allows compensate the harmonics of current
produced by nonlinear loads and load reactive power. The aim of the
present paper is to describe a novel switching signal generation
technique called optimal controller which guarantees that the injected
currents follow the reference currents determined by the
compensation strategy, with the smallest possible tracking error and
fixed switching frequency. It is compared with well-known
hysteresis current controller HCC. The validity of presented method
and its comparison with HCC is studied through simulation results.
Abstract: For many industrial applications plate heat
exchangers are demonstrating a large superiority over the
other types of heat exchangers. The efficiency of such a
device depends on numerous factors the effect of which needs
to be analysed and accurately evaluated.
In this paper we present a theoretical analysis of a cocurrent
plate heat exchanger and the results of its numerical
simulation.
Knowing the hot and the cold fluid streams inlet temperatures,
the respective heat capacities mCp
and the value of the
overall heat transfer coefficient, a 1-D mathematical model
based on the steady flow energy balance for a differential
length of the device is developed resulting in a set of N first
order differential equations with boundary conditions where N
is the number of channels.For specific heat exchanger
geometry and operational parameters, the problem is
numerically solved using the shooting method.
The simulation allows the prediction of the temperature
map in the heat exchanger and hence, the evaluation of its
performances. A parametric analysis is performed to evaluate
the influence of the R-parameter on the e-NTU values. For
practical purposes effectiveness-NTU graphs are elaborated
for specific heat exchanger geometry and different operating
conditions.
Abstract: In this paper, the robust exponential stability problem of uncertain discrete-time recurrent neural networks with timevarying delay is investigated. By constructing a new augmented Lyapunov-Krasovskii function, some new improved stability criteria are obtained in forms of linear matrix inequality (LMI). Compared with some recent results in literature, the conservatism of the new criteria is reduced notably. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the less conservatism and effectiveness of the proposed results.