Abstract: A facile vapour deposition method of synthesis of vertically aligned ZnO nanowires on carbon seed layer was developed. The received samples were investigated on electronic microscope JSM-6490 LA JEOL and x-ray diffractometer X, pert MPD PRO. The photoluminescence spectra (PL) of obtained ZnO samples at a room temperature were studied using He-Cd laser (325 nm line) as excitation source.
Abstract: Sensitive and predictive DILI (Drug Induced Liver
Injury) biomarkers are needed in drug R&D to improve early
detection of hepatotoxicity. The discovery of DILI biomarkers that
demonstrate the predictive power to identify individuals at risk to
DILI would represent a major advance in the development of
personalized healthcare approaches. In this healthy volunteer
acetaminophen study (4g/day for 7 days, with 3 monitored nontreatment
days before and 4 after), 450 serum samples from 32
subjects were analyzed using protein profiling by antibody
suspension bead arrays. Multiparallel protein profiles were generated
using a DILI target protein array with 300 antibodies, where the
antibodies were selected based on previous literature findings of
putative DILI biomarkers and a screening process using pre dose
samples from the same cohort. Of the 32 subjects, 16 were found to
develop an elevated ALT value (2Xbaseline, responders). Using the
plasma profiling approach together with multivariate statistical
analysis some novel findings linked to lipid metabolism were found
and more important, endogenous protein profiles in baseline samples
(prior to treatment) with predictive power for ALT elevations were
identified.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop models that would enable predicting student success. These models could improve allocation of students among colleges and optimize the newly introduced model of government subsidies for higher education. For the purpose of collecting data, an anonymous survey was carried out in the last year of undergraduate degree student population using random sampling method. Decision trees were created of which two have been chosen that were most successful in predicting student success based on two criteria: Grade Point Average (GPA) and time that a student needs to finish the undergraduate program (time-to-degree). Decision trees have been shown as a good method of classification student success and they could be even more improved by increasing survey sample and developing specialized decision trees for each type of college. These types of methods have a big potential for use in decision support systems.
Abstract: A new approach for protection of power transformer is
presented using a time-frequency transform known as Wavelet transform.
Different operating conditions such as inrush, Normal, load,
External fault and internal fault current are sampled and processed
to obtain wavelet coefficients. Different Operating conditions provide
variation in wavelet coefficients. Features like energy and Standard
deviation are calculated using Parsevals theorem. These features
are used as inputs to PNN (Probabilistic neural network) for fault
classification. The proposed algorithm provides more accurate results
even in the presence of noise inputs and accurately identifies inrush
and fault currents. Overall classification accuracy of the proposed
method is found to be 96.45%. Simulation of the fault (with and
without noise) was done using MATLAB AND SIMULINK software
taking 2 cycles of data window (40 m sec) containing 800 samples.
The algorithm was evaluated by using 10 % Gaussian white noise.
Abstract: The most planted cover crops in the Czech Republic
are mustard (Sinapis alba) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia
Benth.). A field trial was executed to evaluate root system size (RSS)
in eight varieties of mustard and five varieties of phacelia on two
locations, in three BBCH phases and in two years. The relationship
between RSS and aboveground biomass was inquired. The root
system was assessed by measuring its electric capacity. Aboveground
mass and root samples to be evaluated by means of a digital image
analysis were recovered in the BBCH phase 70. The yield of
aboveground biomass of mustard was always statistically
significantly higher than that of phacelia. Mustard showed a
statistically significant negative correlation between root length
density (RLD) within 10 cm and aboveground biomass weight (r = -
0.46*). Phacelia featured a statistically significant correlation
between aboveground biomass production and nitrate nitrogen
content in soil (r=0.782**).
Abstract: Thirty six samples from each (aerobic and anoxic)
activated sludge were collected from two wastewater treatment plants
with MBRs in Berlin, Germany. The samples were prepared for count
and definition of fungal isolates; these isolates were purified by
conventional techniques and identified by microscopic examination.
Sixty tow species belonging to 28 genera were isolated from
activated sludge samples under aerobic conditions (28 genera and 58
species) and anoxic conditions (26 genera and 52 species). The
obtained data show that, Aspergillus was found at 94.4% followed by
Penicillium 61.1 %, Fusarium (61.1 %), Trichoderma (44.4 %) and
Geotrichum candidum (41.6 %) species were the most prevalent in all
activated sludge samples. The study confirmed that fungi can thrive
in activated sludge and sporulation, but isolated in different numbers
depending on the effect of aeration system. Some fungal species in
our study are saprophytic, and other a pathogenic to plants and
animals.
Abstract: Well-being has been given special emphasis in quality
of life. It involves living a meaningful, life satisfaction, stability and
happiness in life. Well-being also concerns the satisfaction of
physical, psychological, social needs and demands of an individual.
The purpose of this study was to validate three-factor measurement
model of well-being using structural equation modeling (SEM). The
conceptions of well-being measured such dimensions as physical,
psychological and social well-being. This study was done based on a
total sample of 650 adolescents from east-coast of peninsular
Malaysia. The Well-Being Scales which was adapted from [1] was
used in this study. The items were hypothesized a priori to have nonzero
loadings on all dimensions in the model. The findings of the
SEM demonstrated that it is a good fitting model which the proposed
model fits the driving theory; (x2df = 1.268; GFI = .994; CFI = .998;
TLI= .996; p = .255; RMSEA = .021). Composite reliability (CR)
was .93 and average variance extracted (AVE) was 58%. The model
in this study fits with the sample of data and well-being is important
to bring sustainable development to the mainstream.
Abstract: –In this paper the damage in clamped-free, clampedclamped and free-free beam are analyzed considering samples
without and with structural modifications. The damage location is
investigated by the use of the bispectrum and wavelet analysis. The
mathematical models are obtained using 2D elasticity theory and the
Finite Element Method (FEM). The numerical and experimental data
are approximated using the Particle Swarm Optimizer (PSO) method
and this way is possible to adjust the localization and the severity of
the damage. The experimental data are obtained through
accelerometers placed along the sample. The system is excited using
impact hammer.
Abstract: Air quality in Setapak district of Kuala Lumpur was
studied by analysing the rainwater chemical composition using ion
chromatography method. Twelve sampling sites were selected and
120 rainwater samples were collected in the period of 10 weeks. The
results of this study were compared to the earlier published data and
the evaluation showed that the NO3
- ion concentration increased from
0.41 to 3.32 ppm, while SO4
2- ion concentration increased from 0.39
to 3.26 ppm over the past two decades that is mostly due to rapid
urban development of the city. However, it was found that the
chemical composition for both residential and industrial areas does
not have significant difference. Most of the rainwater samples
showed alkaline pH (pH > 5.6). The possible factors for such alkaline
pH in rainwater samples are assumed to be the marine sources,
biomass burning and alkaline character of soil particles.
Abstract: A number of automated shot-change detection
methods for indexing a video sequence to facilitate browsing and
retrieval have been proposed in recent years. This paper emphasizes
on the simulation of video shot boundary detection using one of the
methods of the color histogram wherein scaling of the histogram
metrics is an added feature. The difference between the histograms of
two consecutive frames is evaluated resulting in the metrics. Further
scaling of the metrics is performed to avoid ambiguity and to enable
the choice of apt threshold for any type of videos which involves
minor error due to flashlight, camera motion, etc. Two sample videos
are used here with resolution of 352 X 240 pixels using color
histogram approach in the uncompressed media. An attempt is made
for the retrieval of color video. The simulation is performed for the
abrupt change in video which yields 90% recall and precision value.
Abstract: The aim of this qualitative case study is to examine how school principals perform their new roles and responsibilities defined in accordance with the new curriculum. Of ten primary schools that the new curriculum was piloted in Istanbul in school year of 2004-2005, one school was randomly selected as the sample of the study. The participants of the study were comprised of randomly-selected 26 teachers working in the case school. To collect data, an interview schedule was developed based on the new role definitions for school principals by the National Ministry of Education. Participants were interviewed on one-to-one basis in February and March 2007. Overall results showed that the school principal was perceived to be successful in terms of the application of the new curriculum in school. According to the majority of teachers, the principal has done his best to establish the infrastructure that is necessary for successful application of the new program. In addition to these, the principal was reported to adopt a collegial and participatory leadership style by creating a positive school atmosphere that enables the school community (teachers, parents and students) to involve school more than before. Keywordscase study, curriculum implementation, school principals and curriculum
Abstract: Age at first marriage is a basic temporal term that is
culturally constructed for marriage relationship between an adult
male and an adult female intended to have sex, to reproduce and to
adapt to environment from one generation to another around the
world. Cross-cultural evidences suggest that age at first marriage for
both male and female not only varies across the cultures, but also
varies among the subcultures of the same society. The purpose of the
study was to compare age at first marriage for husband and wife
including age differences between them between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. For this we hypothesized that (1)
there were significant differences in age at first marriage and age
interval between husband and wife between Muslim and Santal
communities in rural Bangladesh. In so doing, 288 couples (145 pairs
of couples for Muslim and 143 pairs of couples for Santal) were
selected by cluster random sampling from the Kalna village situated
in the Tanore Upazila of Rajshahi district, Bangladesh, whose
current mean age range was 36.59 years for husband and 28.85 years
for wife for the Muslim and 31.74 years for husband and 25.21 years
for wife for the Santal respectively. The results of Independent
Sample t test showed that mean age at first marriage for the Muslim
samples was 23.05 years for husbands and 15.11 years for wives,
while mean age at first marriage for the Santal samples was 20.71
years for husbands and 14.34 years for wives respectively that were
significantly different at p0.05) among the selected husbands
and wives between the two communities. This study recommends
that further cross-cultural researches should be done on the causeeffect
relationships between socio-cultural factors and age at
marriage between the two communities in Bangladesh.
Abstract: Pipeline ADCs are becoming popular at high speeds
and with high resolution. This paper discusses the options of number
of bits/stage conversion techniques in pipelined ADCs and their
effect on Area, Speed, Power Dissipation and Linearity. The basic
building blocks like op-amp, Sample and Hold Circuit, sub converter,
DAC, Residue Amplifier used in every stage is assumed to be
identical. The sub converters use flash architectures. The design is
implemented using 0.18
Abstract: This research is designed for helping a WAPbased mobile phone-s user in order to analyze of logistics in the traffic area by applying and designing the accessible processes from mobile user to server databases. The research-s design comprises Mysql 4.1.8-nt database system for being the server which there are three sub-databases, traffic light – times of intersections in periods of the day, distances on the road of area-blocks where are divided from the main sample-area and speeds of sample vehicles (motorcycle, personal car and truck) in periods of the day. For interconnections between the server and user, PHP is used to calculate distances and travelling times from the beginning point to destination, meanwhile XHTML applied for receiving, sending and displaying data from PHP to user-s mobile. In this research, the main sample-area is focused at the Huakwang-Ratchada-s area, Bangkok, Thailand where usually the congested point and 6.25 km2 surrounding area which are split into 25 blocks, 0.25 km2 for each. For simulating the results, the designed server-database and all communicating models of this research have been uploaded to www.utccengineering.com/m4tg and used the mobile phone which supports WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser for observing values and displayed pictures. According to simulated results, user can check the route-s pictures from the requiring point to destination along with analyzed consuming times when sample vehicles travel in various periods of the day.
Abstract: Sixteen female Holstein calves allocated in three
treatments including: 1: control, 2: fed raw fiber concentrate (RFC)
for 45 days and 3: fed RFC for 90 days. RFC supplement (Vitacel®
200) was added to milk immediately before feeding (10 g/L milk).
Withers height and body weights of calves were measured monthly.
Individual dry matter intake was recorded daily. Blood samples were
taken monthly. The result showed that calves consumed RFC had
significantly greater weaning and final body weight. Treatment effect
on dry matter intake was not significant (p>0.05). Calves fed RFC
had better feed efficiency. Withers height of calves fed RFC were
taller than the control group (p
Abstract: This article provides partial evaluation index and its
standard of sports aerobics, including the following 12 indexes: health
vitality, coordination, flexibility, accuracy, pace, endurance, elasticity,
self-confidence, form, control, uniformity and musicality. The
three-layer BP artificial neural network model including input layer,
hidden layer and output layer is established. The result shows that the
model can well reflect the non-linear relationship between the
performance of 12 indexes and the overall performance. The predicted
value of each sample is very close to the true value, with a relative
error fluctuating around of 5%, and the network training is successful.
It shows that BP network has high prediction accuracy and good
generalization capacity if being applied in sports aerobics performance
evaluation after effective training.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of
EBV infection in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma (NHL) occurring in Jordanian patients. A total of 55
patients with lymphoma were examined in this study. Of 55 patients,
30 and 25 were diagnosed as HL and NHL, respectively. The four
HL subtypes were observed with the majority of the cases exhibited
the mixed cellularity (MC) subtype followed by the nodular sclerosis
(NS). The high grade was found to be the commonest subtype of
NHL in our sample, followed by the low grade. The presence of EBV
virus was detected by immunostating for expression of latent
membrane protein-1 (LMP-1). The frequency of LMP-1 expression
occurred more frequent in patients with HL (60.0%) than in patients
with NHL (32.0%). The frequency of LMP-1 expression was also
higher in patients with MC subtype (61.11%) than those patients with
NS (28.57%). No age or gender difference in occurrence of EBV
infection was observed among patient with HL. By contrast, the
prevalence of EBV infection in NHL patients aged below 50 was
lower (16.66%) than in NHL patients aged 50 or above (46.15%). In
addition, EBV infection was more frequent in females with NHL
(38.46%) than in male with NHL (25%). In NHL cases, the
frequency of EBV infection in intermediate grade (60.0%) was high
when compared with frequency of low (25%) or high grades (25%).
In conclusion, analysis of LMP-1 expression indicates an important
role for this viral oncogene in the pathogenesis of EBV-associated
malignant lymphomas. These data also support the previous findings
that people with EBV may develop lymphoma and that efforts to
maintain low lymphoma should be considered for people with EBV
infection.
Abstract: In power systems, protective relays must filter their
inputs to remove undesirable quantities and retain signal quantities of
interest. This job must be performed accurate and fast. A new
method for filtering the undesirable components such as DC and
harmonic components associated with the fundamental system
signals. The method is s based on a dynamic filtering algorithm. The
filtering algorithm has many advantages over some other classical
methods. It can be used as dynamic on-line filter without the need of
parameters readjusting as in the case of classic filters. The proposed
filter is tested using different signals. Effects of number of samples
and sampling window size are discussed. Results obtained are
presented and discussed to show the algorithm capabilities.
Abstract: An evaluation of the PCBs residues in the surface soils from Bacninh, Vietnam was carried out. Sixty representative soil samples were collected from the centre of Bacninh and three surrounding districts. The analyzed results indicated the wide extent of contamination of total PCBs in Bacninh. In industrial and urban zones, total PCBs concentrations ranged from ranged from
Abstract: Synthetic juice clarification was done through spiral
wound ultrafiltration (UF) membrane module. Synthetic juice was
clarified at two different operating conditions, such as, with and
without permeates recycle at turbulent flow regime. The performance
of spiral wound ultrafiltration membrane was analyzed during
clarification of synthetic juice. Synthetic juice was the mixture of
deionized water, sucrose and pectin molecule. The operating
conditions are: feed flowrate of 10 lpm, pressure drop of 413.7 kPa
and Reynolds no of 5000. Permeate sample was analyzed in terms of
volume reduction factor (VRF), viscosity (Pa.s), ⁰Brix, TDS (mg/l),
electrical conductivity (μS) and turbidity (NTU). It was observe that
the permeate flux declined with operating time for both conditions of
with and without permeate recycle due to increase of concentration
polarization and increase of gel layer on membrane surface. For
without permeate recycle, the membrane fouling rate was faster
compared to with permeate recycle. For without permeate recycle,
the VRF rose up to 5 and for with recycle permeate the VRF is 1.9.
The VRF is higher due to adsorption of solute (pectin) molecule on
membrane surface and resulting permeateflux declined with VRF.
With permeate recycle, quality was within acceptable limit. Fouled
membrane was cleaned by applying different processes (e.g.,
deionized water, SDS and EDTA solution). Membrane cleaning was
analyzed in terms of permeability recovery.